Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Draw a Straight Line...

Instruction Set is an embryonic open software project with a simple process, gathering different code implementations of a given "instruction." The format reminds me of two Whitney Artport projects - CODeDOC (2002), and Casey Reas' {Software} Structures (2004). It's good to see this approach being updated and opened out for a wider community.


The initial instruction was La Monte Young's wonderful Composition 1960 #10: "Draw a straight line and follow it." Implementations range from the abstract and conceptual to the more performative, in languages from Python and Javascript to Supercollider and Processing; web2.0 nerds like me will appreciate markluffel's Twitter version. Anyhow, I've just posted a belated implementation of "Draw a straight line..." (screengrab above). Nothing amazing, more just filling in a gap and solving a pragmatic problem - how to wring some generative juice out of the instructions - by manipulating the space, rather than the line.

That follow up post on transmateriality and hardware practice is coming soon, really. Off-task productivity is an amazing thing.

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