ISEA2016 Hong Kong CULTURAL R>EVOLUTION

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art

Editor: Dr. Olli Tapio Leino
Co-Editors: Dr. Damien Charrieras, Dr. Kimburley Choi, Dr. Daniel
Howe, Dr. David Jhave Johnston, Dr. Hanna Wirman
Cover Design: Trilingua
Copyright 2016 c All rights reserved by the Individual Authors,
School of Creative Media City University of Hong Kong, and ISEA
International.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior
written permission of the Individual Authors and ISEA International.
Individual Authors of papers and presentations are solely responsible
for all materials submitted for the publication. The publisher and the
editors do not warrant or assume any legal responsibilities for the
publications content. All opinions expressed in the book are of the
authors and do not reflect those of the publisher and the editors.
Published by: School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
81 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Printed in Hong Kong
ISBN: 978-962-442-397-6

Artistic Director
Prof. Jeffrey Shaw
School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong
Co-Director
Prof. Cees de Bont
School of Design
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Symposium Director & Conference Chair
Dr. Olli Tapio Leino
School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong
Satellite Events Director
Ms Ellen Pau
Microwave

Conference Co-Chair, Chair of Workshops

Dr. Hanna Wirman

School of Design
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Chair of Juried Exhibition

Dr. Daniel Howe

School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

Curator of Juried Exhibition

Dr. Harald Kraemer

School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

Co-Curator of Juried Exhibition

Mr. Kyle Chung

School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

Chair of Artist Talks / Work-in-Progress Presentations

Dr. Damien Charrieras

School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

Chair of Performances

Dr. David Jhave Johnston

School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

Chair of Events in Public Space

Mr. Tobias Klein

School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

Chair of Special Events

Prof. Maurice Benayoun

School of Creative Media
City University of Hong Kong

Chair of Satellite Events

Ms Joel Kwong
Microwave

Co-Chair of Satellite Events

Dr. Isaac Leung

Videotage

Chair of Artist Residency Programme

Ms Yidi Tsao
Videotage

Chair of Social Programme

Dr. Charlotte Frost

School of Creative Media

Co-organized by:

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ix

Topics and Track Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

xi

I Full Papers (peer-reviewed)

Aesthetics of Adaptive Behaviors in Agent-based Art. Sofian Audry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Paradoxical Bodies: Animal Human and Machine Hybrids. Ingrid Bachmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10

The Condition. Towards Hybrid Agency. Laura Beloff and Jonas Jrgensen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14

The Virtual Thematic Route Emil Ben i From Experience to Infinity. Lavoslava Ben i . . . . . . . . .

20

Evaluating Art Hacking Events Through Practice. Victoria Bradbury and Suzy OHara . . . . . . . . . . .

27

Ideational Drawing as a Foresight Method in Designing Future States of Objects. Slavica Ceperkovic . . . .

36

Digital Musicianship Training for Classically Trained Music Students in a Laptop Orchestra. Lee Cheng . . .

40

The Impoverished Image: Online Video Art Exposure. Maria Fedorova, Thecla Schiphorst, and Kate Hennessy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44

Plasticity and Feedback: Schemas of Indetermination in Cybernetics and Art. Ksenia Fedorova . . . . . . .

51

10 The Algorithmic as Agonistic Agency: Approaches on Experimental Design, the Politics of Codes, and PostAnthropocentric Paradoxes in (Media) Cultures. Diego Gomez Venegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59

11 The Familiar: Technology-being-with-us. Indae Hwang, and Mark Guglielmetti, and Vince Dziekan . .

65

12 Expressive Experiments : Art and Particle Physics. Chris Henschke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

72

13 Transcoding Nang Talung: An Animated Adaptation of Thai Shadow Play. Chanya Hetayothin . . . . . . .

77

14 How the Traditional Chinese Idea of Time and Space Can Be Applied through Digital Moving Images. Keung
Hung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

83

15 Alien Aesthetics: Xenofeminism and Nonhuman Animals. Bogna Konior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

88

16 Touch as Techne: Pulse Reading as Interface. Michelle Lewis-King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

17 Simondons Concept of the Image: At the Junction of the Technological and the Animal. Andreia Machado
Oliveira and Felix Rebolledo Palazuelos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
18 Occult Computing for Artists: An introduction. Nancy Mauro-Flude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
19 Using Expressive Musical Robots: Working with an Ensemble of New Mechatronic Instruments. Jim Murphy,
Dale A. Carnegie, and Ajay Kapur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
20 Starcraft II and Chinese Scroll Painting: Narrative Ideas for RTS Computer Games. Peter Nelson and E. H.
Macmillan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
21 Arcade Videogame Interface Aesthetics. Kieran Nolan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
22 Connecting Indigenous Cultures to Design Pedagogy. Nan OSullivan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
23 Intimate Technologies: The Ethics of Simulated Relationships. Stacey Pitsillides and Janis Jefferies . . . . 144
24 This is a techno-necklace from my great grandmother: Animism-Inspired Design Guidelines for Digitally
Ensouled Jewellery. Doros Polydorou, Kening Zhu, Alexis Karkotis, Antje Illner, and Nicola De Main . . 152
25 On-line Film Circulation in China: The Case of Youku Tudou as a Creative Corporate Soft Power Champion.
Patrice Poujol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
26 FileLife: Kurenniemi and the Question of Living Archives. Eivind Rssaak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
27 Ulysses Pact: Metagenomic Entanglements. Clarissa Ribeiro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
28 Building like Animals: Using Autonomous Robots to Search, Evaluate and Build. Stanislav Roudavski . . . 185
29 A Double Dtournement in the Classroom: HK Protest Online Game as Conceptual Art. James Shea . . . . 190
30 Reading Digital Art in the Age of Double-Coding. Roberto Simanowski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
31 Between Decay and Preservation: A Personal Approach to Media Art Archiving. Christa Sommerer and
Laurent Mignonneau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

xv

Contents
32 Microtemporality: At the Time when Loading-in-progress. Winnie Soon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
33 Techno Sex in Art: Mating Man and Machine In the Solve et Coagula Experiment. Stahl Stenslie . . . . . . 216
34 CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME: Reading the Recuperation of Hip-Hop through Rancires
Political Aesthetics and Attalis Distinguishing of Signal and Noise. Minka Stoyanova and Ariel Huang . . 223
35 Media-Aesthetic Expressions of Worldly Sympathy. The Illuminations of Le Tricolore. Tanya Sndergaard
Toft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

II Short Papers (peer-reviewed)

241

36 Performing Identity Through Wearable Sensing. Camille Baker and Kate Sicchio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
37 Semiotics of Glitch Artistic Practice. Griffin Byron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
38 Re-enacting And Open Sourcing As Metxhods For Experiencing Programmed Art Utopia. Serena Cangiano,
Davide Fornari, and Azalea Seratoni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
39 Chasing After the Mixer. Damien Charrieras and Olaf Hochherz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
40 The Role of Eye Contact and Spectatorship in Interactive Installations. Ka Wa Cheung . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
41 Framing a Critique of Reality Based Games. Hugh Davies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
42 Noise &/as Nervousness: Gertrude Stein in the Interface. Jane Frances Dunlop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
43 The Uncanny Signal. Alan Dunning and Paul Woodrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
44 Symmetry: Breaking Through the Looking Glass. Douglas Easterly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
45 Posthumanism, New Materialism and Feminist Media Art. Mara Fernndez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
46 Foundations of a Design Framework for DIY Nomadic Public Screens. Claude Fortin . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
47 The Anomaly: Noise, Ghosts and the Multiverse. Jane Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
48 An Origin of Interactive Art: Nam June Paiks Progressive Musical Instruments. Byeongwon Ha . . . . . . . 286
49 The Unstable Characters: Reading of Chinese Text-based Digital Works. Yue-Jin Ho . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
50 Posthuman Vision. Ingrid Hoelzl and Rmi Marie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
51 Flip the Book Flip the Memories: a Case Study of Multimodal Interaction for the library located in Macao
World Heritage site. Mei-Kei Lai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
52 Cyber Terrorism in name of Cyber Activism: Discomfort in looking at some derivative works in recent Hong
Kong. Wing Ki Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
53 Somplexity An Experiment of Posthumanist Platonic Sex. Kok Yoong Lim, Wonseok Choi, Sojung
Bahng, and Joonsung Yoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
54 Music in Print, How Publishing Has Been Able to Flirt with Music. Alessandro Ludovico . . . . . . . . . . 309
55 De-schooling Product Design Education, an Experimental Physical Approach. Tommaso Maggio . . . . . . 313
56 A Webcam Interface for Somatic-Technological Dance Experiences. Joana Martins, Todd Cochrane, Isabel
Valverde, and Ana Moura Santos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
57 Convergence and Divergence: A Conceptual Model for Digital Serendipitous Systems. Ricardo Melo and
Miguel Carvalhais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
58 Going beyond the Glitch Art. Critical Glitch Studies as a New Research Paradigm for Analyzing Post-digital
Technologies. Lukasz Mirocha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
59 Vernacular Sound: System for Soundscaping of Everyday Objects. Joo Young Oh, Ju Young Lee, You Jin
Lee and Kwang Yun Wohn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
60 Noise Responsive Systems: How Do Those Change the Infrastructure of the Institution? Laura Plana Gracia 334
61 Hearing Blind as a New Interface for Exploring the Urban Soundscape. Eric Powell and Matthew Griffin . 338
62 AURALROOTS: Cross-modal Interaction and Learning. Jillian Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
63 Artistic Technology: Coded Cultures, Making and Artistic Research. Matthias Tarasiewicz . . . . . . . . 344
64 A Daydreamer of Someone Elses Dreams, A Theoretical Framework for the Future Web. Francisco Gerardo
and Toledo Ramirez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
65 Exploring the Medium. The Indexical Function of Artistic Photomicrography Made by the Scanning Electron
Microscope. Anastasia Tyurina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
66 Joke Lanz is Spinning the Records Analysis and Graphical Representation of an Improvised Concert of
Experimental Turntablism. Karin Weissenbrunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
xvi

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

Contents
67 Cultivating More-than-Human Lifeworlds: Laudatio on Indigenous Fermentation, Smell and Metabolic Power
Grids. Markus Wernli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
68 An Interactive Mnemonic Space For Jodi.org: The Process of Re-exhibiting. Karin de Wild . . . . . . . . . 365
69 Augmented Reality as Experimental Art Practice: from Information Overlay to Software Assemblage. Rewa
Wright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
70 Digital Confucianism: a Confucian Take on Computation and Algorithm. Mi You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

III Panels (peer-reviewed)

379

71 Gigantic: Mediation Beyond Surface. Rachel Armstrong, Sarah Kenderdine, Maurice Benayoun, Mike
Phillips, Scott Hessels, and Sven Travis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
72 Data Natures: The Politics and Aesthetics of Prediction through Variability. Susan Ballard, Jo Law, Teodor
Mitew, and Jo Stirling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
73 (Re)volting data. Tarsh Bates, Jaden J. A. Hasting, Helen Pritchard, Jane Prophet, and Gillian Wylde . 391
74 Games and Gaming in China. Peichi Chung, Ling-Yi Huang, and Bjarke Liboriussen . . . . . . . . . . . 395
75 Computer Programming Education and Creative Arts. Bryan Chung Waiching, Pong Lam, and Winnie Soon399
76 Rapid Response Art History: Tools and Techniques for a Fast-Changing Art World. Sarah Cook, Charlotte
Frost, Edwin Coomasaru, Louise Shannon, and Morgan McKeehan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
77 Emerging Platforms for Artist Interaction. Andrew Demirjian, Ellen Pearlman, Xtine Burrough, Cassini
Nazir, Heidi Boisvert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
78 Software Literacy and the Creative Industries. Greg Giannis, Hugh Davies, Victoria Moulder, and Murray
Mckeich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
79 Divergent Generative Art Practices. Dejan Grba, Vladimir Todorovi, Tatjana Todorovi, Andreas Schlegel,
and Melentie Pandilovski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
80 The Peoples Smart Sculpture - PS2. Martin Koplin, Igor Nedelkovski, and Kari Salo . . . . . . . . . . . 414
81 Can Non-anthropocentric Relationships Lead to True Intimacy with Technology? Anastasios Maragiannis,
Janis Jefferies, Stacey Pitsillides, and Ghislaine Boddington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
82 E-discourse in Online Networked Communities: Structure, Timing, Tone, and Affect. Timothy Murray, Renate Ferro, Maurice Benayoun, and Randall Packer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
83 The Affect of Quantum Phenomena on Media Art. Mike Phillips, Chris Henschke, Frederik De Wilde, and
Paul Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
84 Livestreaming in Theory and Practice: Four Provocations on Labour, Liveness and Participatory Culture in
Games Livestreaming. Emma Witkowski, Daniel Recktenwald, James Manning, and Zhang Dino Ge . 429

IV Posters

433

85 Collaborative Expression Program by Creating Digital Storybooks.Taeko Ariga, Koichi Mori, and Takehisa
Mashimo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
86 In Search for DomoNovus: Speculations on the New Home. Stavros Didakis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
87 Stories of Solidarity. Glenda Drew, Jesse Drew, and Jack Leng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
88 MVP: An Automatic Music Video Producer. Jianyu Fan, William Li, and Philippe Pasquier . . . . . . . . 437
89 Natural Material in Interactive Art. Byeongwon Ha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
90 Nagakute Yuimaaru Website. Haruo Ishii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
91 AS IF You Are Suffering in Silence: An Interactive Installation as Empathy Tool for Chronic Pain. Weina
Jin, Servet Ula , Xin Tong, Diane Gromala, and Chris Shaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
92 Q- quanta of sound. Paola Lopreiato and Alfonso Belfiore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
93 Faux Pas Lee Nutbean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
94 Touchology: Exploration of Empathetic Touch Interaction with Plants for Well-being. Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo,
Annie Sungkajun, Tiffany Sanchez, and Jinkyo Suh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
95 Structural Montage for Immersive Cinema an Experiment in Transposing Fulldome to VR. Clea T. Waite

444

V International Programme Committee

447

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

xvii

Part I

Full Papers (peer-reviewed)

The Algorithmic as Agonistic Agency:

Approaches on Experimental Design, the Politics of Codes, and PostAnthropocentric Paradoxes in (Media) Cultures.
Diego Gomez Venegas
Department of Design, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Chile
diegogomez@uchilefaul.cl

Abstract
This paper presents a theoretical discussion, as well as an
experimental design approach to the modes in which
algorithmic media influences, in a confrontational manner, the
configuration of contemporary cultures. Thus, the first section
seeks to introduce key media archeological questions, by
displaying some aspects of Wolfgang Ernsts and Friedrich
Kittlers work. Then, the second section, is devoted to
articulate possible connections between the first section and
Bruno Latours perspective on science and technology studies
and their relation to art and design. The third section shows
how experimental design approaches can constitute the creative
argumentation for all the previously discussed issues, by
presenting two case studies that have emerged specifically
around the questions that sustain this article. Finally, the text
closes with a brief discussion about the possibilities the papers
subject matter has to offer as an area for research-creation.

Technical Media and the Agonistic

Condition of Culture
The role of technical media within culture please
allow me to speak in general and abstract terms for now
has always been connected, in one way or another, to
the structure and nature of culture itself. Nonetheless,
nowadays it seems difficult to find a clear dividing line
between the spheres of technical media on the one hand,
and culture on the other, and thus really noticing what
would be such structure and nature. In that sense, it has
been the realm of media studies; and more particularly
its branch connected to the method known as media
archeology; the one in charge of inquiring about the
evolution and development of the assemblies between
media and culture along history, showing to us how the
latter cultures, which originally were built around
languages for telling, are now confronted to the
emergence of logical machines, which at the end, have
brought a predominance of languages for counting [1].
Thus, by witnessing such collision, we also witness the
fundamental aspect of media cultures: their agonistic
condition.
Undoubtedly, the symbolic nature of written languages
has governed the growth and development of the many

cultures that populate this vast planet of ours. In our

particular position from the last southern tip of the
Americas, the perpetual influence of European
colonization gave us, for example, the epistolar exchange
between the Monarchy and local administrations, the
Roman legal system, epic poems as The Araucaniad,
encyclical letters, annals, enciclopedias, and of course
more connected to the local authenticity the twentieth
century South American poetry and novel. Nonetheless,
all of these media, so to speak, are heavily structured by
the symbolic code of language, and thus it is how the
agency of telling has been the sovereign along the
maturation of these modern cultures. In that sense, it
wouldnt be nonsense to point out that since culture has
been mobilized and developed through media, culture
itself would be a media code. But lets reserve this last
thought for later.
While the languages of telling are unquestionably a
central object of modern cultures, it is also true that at
the same time, we cannot avoid the fact that in many
occasions telling also involves counting. The german
media theorist, Wolfgang Ernst, reminds to us about the
role of annals in medieval European cultures, which
combined the task of narrating stories with the act of
counting time, by telling and listing the events that took
place in a specific period of time; commonly, a year.
Hence, annals were indeed media for telling and
counting things, and to a some extent, for counting time
as well [2]. As Ernst puts it, many European languages
reflected this hybrid possibility: The conjunction
between telling stories and counting time is more than
just a word game: verbs like conter, contar, reccontare,
erzhlen, and to tell, are testimonies to a way of
perceiving realities that oscillates between narrative and
statistics [3]. This is particularly compelling for us since
in Spanish, contar is used nowadays indistinctly for
verbal qualitative expression, as well as for verbal
quantitative enumeration. Contrary to cultures where this
conceptual hybridity actually corresponds to an archaic
use of the words in question, it is to be expected that in
South America, where annals are still around [4], the
double meaning of the verb contar remains in common
use.

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

59

Part I. Full Papers (peer-reviewed)

However, in spite of this hybrid meaning, the reader

may agree with me on the following: in modern cultures
and I am referring the Latourian approach to modern
here [5], every meaning was still processed by the
symbolic code of languages of telling, that is to say;
letters, words, sentences, punctation, grammar, etc.
Therefore, a collision, either important or negligible,
between the logics of telling and counting still remained.
A confrontation between the agencies of telling and
counting, or zhlen versus erzhlen [6] as Ernst has put
it. But, just as we all are aware of, that processing
balance started to change when electronic machines first,
and algorithmic machines later, became part of the code
for processing the meaning of peoples ideas and actions.
Then, cities and their infrastructure were one of the first
evidences of this shift, where human expression and the
narration of stories moved to a new code materialized by
telegraph networks, radio waves and antennas, telephone
lines, relays, and receivers, and of course, television
broadcasting and the sound-image reproductor. Thus, by
abandoning the book, so to speak, human knowledge and
culture put an end to the monopoly of writing, while at
the same time they gave the city a (new) media quality.
In the same way, Friedrich Kittler tells us (ironically) in
his essay titled The City is a Medium [7], how cities can
be understood as media, explaining how technological
infrastructure and networks grant cities the power to
store, transmit, and process diverse kinds of information:
What to passers-by seems like growth run amok or
entropy is technology that is to say, information.
Ever since it has become impossible to survey cities
from a cathedral tower or a castle, and ever since
walls and fortifications have ceased to contain them,
cities have been traversed and connected by a
network of innumerable networks, also (and
specially) at their margins, points of tangency, and
frayed edges. [8]
What is also interesting at this point, is that a soft
processing system as the language of telling that is to
say, writing led to a hard technical complex to mediate
information, and through that, knowledge. Accordingly,
it is possible to argue now that culture passed from being
a soft system, to be mainly a material one. That is why, I
believe, scholars as Kittler have affirmed that there is no
software anymore, by considering that at the bottom,
contemporary cultures rest over hardware [9]. And at the
end, this is also part of the agonistic or rather
confrontational condition I mentioned at the beginning of
this essay, because the textual intelligences that gave
birth to the old modern cultures, are now constantly
confronted by the mathematical processing that is to
say, the language of counting of hardware societies. In
other words, [h]uman beings, having created logical
machines, have created a discontinuity with their own
cultural regime [10].

An Object-Oriented Culture
In his book Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to
Actor-Network-Theory [11], the French anthropologist

60

and philosopher, Bruno Latour, affirms that what has

been called the social does not exist in the terms through
which it has been described so far, but alternatively, that
what does exist, are networks of constant associations
between actors and the collectives they configure. More
precisely, Latour says that those networks and collectives
are formed by a very diverse nature of actors, which in
no case are only human, but rather, human and nonhuman. This has been particularly interesting for us
because invites to reconsider what society is, by
understanding that it is not anymore an anthropocentric
complex, or more accurately, that it never was; just as
Latour argued in an earlier book titled We Have Never
Been Modern [12], where he sets up the cornerstone of
his critique on the epistemic asymmetries that has
governed modern cultures. In sum, Latours thought
points out that the networks of associations shaping
society and culture are formed besides humans by
the natural and artificial spheres, and that inside the
latter, objects too must be consider as bearers of agency
and because of that, also mediators in the ways we
humans know the world.
Consequently, it is possible to sustain a media
archeological analysis supported by this Latourian view
on science and technology studies too, where objects
gain a new quality, becoming a key actor of
contemporary cultures. Actually, it is based on Latours
concept of object-oriented democracies, that I have
allowed myself to propose the idea of an object-oriented
culture, as a way to initiate a dialogue with the aspects
discussed in the previous section, where Ernsts and
Kittlers thoughts have been determinant. Thus, when I
say hardware societies, I am of course referring to this
attention to objects as the bearers of agencies like the
language of counting. However, the word bearer should
not constitute here a way to confuse the role of objects
with that of intermediaries, because under our gaze, and
as it was said before, objects must be seen only through
the symmetrical lens of post-anthropocentric cultures, for
thus being able to recognize their condition as actors
which mediate in a direct way on the public affairs [13].
This is so, because when objects become active and
permanent actors of societies and cultures, they of course
participate too of the political issues that concern to us
all.
In an essay titled From Real Politik to Dingpolitik - An
Introduction to Making Things Public [14], Latour
argues in favor of reconsidering political and social
structures by including objects and things in the center of
any contemporary debate. According to his perspective,
we must overcome the modern view which considered
that every epistemic event was based on matters of fact,
structuring thus human knowledge through an
asymmetrical and anthropocentric judgement of
phenomena. On the contrary, says Latour, contemporary
times show that the events that are relevant to us all, are
configure by a symmetrical participation of actors where
the non-human kind plays an irrefutable role in the way
our presence in this planet develops. In that sense, the
French scholar points out that Things are the central
element around which societies and cultures assemble,
arguing upon the etymological root of the concept,
related to the German word Ding whose meaning refers

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

The Algorithmic as Agonistic Agency: Approaches on Experimental Design, the Politics of Codes, and
Post-Anthropocentric Paradoxes in (Media) Cultures. Diego Gomez Venegas
to the matters of concern that shape our interests and the
modes in which we gather around what is at issue. This
discussion is important, because this matters of concern
that is to say, things are configured in material
presence as objects; or in more Kittlerian words, as
hardware; sustaining what matters and thus gathering
people publicly around them. Hence, the polis of this
hardware society regains its status as the center of the
political and ontological debates, specially if one
considers that now the artificial sphere these objects
has its own agenda, so to speak; that agency based on the
techno-mathematical intelligence I have called so far the
language for counting but from now on, I shall call the
algorithmic.
Following the aforementioned reasoning, another
crucial component of this discussion emerges in front of
us; while Latour assures that humans and their interests
gather around matters of concern, he also says that these
reunions do not happen thanks to common and shared
interests, but all the contrary, because of the concerns
that confront and divide us. This is of course a sociopolitical argument but also an epistemic one, since it
relates to the modes we know things, whose
materialization, as I have mentioned already, are objets;
and these objects this hardware are at the same time
the media through which we humans know the culture
that shapes our world. Thus, I wonder what if this
societies of hardware have installed a dual agonistic
condition in culture; first, the one suggested by Latour
where things and objects gather us around them because
of the divergent interests we have for them, while they
still behave governed by agencies that are naturally
human that is to say, ruled by languages for telling, as
it would be the case of a Republics Constitution; and
secondly, the one belonging to post-anthropocentric
times and somehow suggested by Wolfgang Ernst when
he says that logical machines oppose humans own
cultural regime [15]. In other words, the one where
things and objects behave governed by their own agency
that is to say, by the algorithmic and human
differences are not processed naturally anymore, but by
the new conglomerate of non-human actors that now
process what is at issue under their own terms. Hence,
two urban and contemporary events can help illustrating
this last scenario. On the one hand, Kittler describing
traffic light conditioned junctions, saying that through
the endless changes between green, yellow, and red
or 1, 3-state, and 0 all streams of urban traffic (from
pedestrian to public transportation) arrive in a digital
format that, moreover, a computer somewhere in the
citys CPU clocks [16]. And on the other hand, my own
reference to the many traffic lights around the world that
in the middle of some demonstration, have ended
furiously damaged by human actors.
Paradoxically, just as we all are aware of, most of
these objects this hardware, as well as the
algorithms that make them to act, have been designed by
humans. This has constituted enough evidence for many
to insist on arguing in favor of the humanistic and
anthropocentric gaze regarding these issues, but at the
same time, and following an Ernstian thought about the
discontinuities of humans cultural regime [17], it has
been also our motivation to pursue a critical approach to

the modes these things are designed. Consequently, I

think design must be re-situated now as a highly
technical cultural practice with strong epistemic impact,
whose value resides in its quality as mediator within the
issues I have discussed so far in this essay. In that sense,
Bruno Latours article, A Cautious Prometheus: A few
steps toward a philosophy of design (with special
attention to Peter Sloterdijk) [18] offers a very
interesting perspective on how every kind of designer
should now reconsider her or his activity, as a constant
and critical re-design of the matters of concern that affect
to us all. In a similar path, the German historian of
science and media technologies, Wolfgang Schffner, has
also argued that designs scope should be reevaluated in
attention to the contemporary scientific revolution whose
main catalyzer either on the technical or mediaepistemic aspects is design [19]. All this is crucial;
particularly after taking into account everything that has
been discussed in these pages; because it pushes us, in
the end, to understand now design as mode to reconfigure science and then culture or in other words,
as a cautious and Promethean form of cultural critique.

Approaches from an Experimental Design

Perspective
Although the discussion about designs creativeepistemic possibilities has been around for at least eleven
years now, there are not many initiatives explicitly
dedicated to develop a systematic research around this
matter. A few cases I am aware of, are the Royal College
of Artss Design Interactions program, which founded by
Anthony Dunne, has taken since 2005 a creative and
artistic exploration approach to the modes matters of
concern are shaping contemporary cultures [20][21].
Similarly but more recently, the Institute of Experimental
Design and Media Cultures at the Academy of Art and
Design in Viena, led by Claudia Mareis, describes itself
as a practice-led research group inquiring on the
intersections of design, media arts, and the humanities,
aiming to develop an informed creative analysis on the
things that configure media cultures [22]. Lastly, in a
more epistemic approach, the Image, Knowledge,
Gestaltung - Interdisciplinary Laboratory at Humboldt
University in Berlin where Wolfgang Schffner serves
as principal investigator and spokesman, develops an
academic research on the design processes of scientific
knowledge [23]. However, and despite the apparent lack
of formal and widespread attention to this issue, I think
that the media arts communities around the world must
be seen here as the critical assembly which for decades
has developed research-creation on the ways matters of
concern and its hardware, define what culture is in these
post-anthropocentric times. Accordingly, media
archeology scholars have explicitly looked to this field to
find their creative research counterparts [24], while
science and technology academics as Bruno Latour did
s i m i l a r l y b y f o u n d i n g t h e P ro g r a m m e o f
Experimentation in Arts and Politics [25], and
collaborating with Peter Weibel and ZKM.
Then, it was reasonable for us to follow the same path,
by setting up in early 2013 a research-creation group

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

61

Part I. Full Papers (peer-reviewed)

named Design and Agonism, which; paying special

attention to media studies, STS, and political sciences;
allowed us to pursue a critical inquiry on the modes
algorithmic media relates to designed things, and then,
on how they together link to agonistic agencies. Thereby,
we founded a group whose main project led us to ask
first, if the algorithmic could influence matters of
concern and their hardware beyond its own electromathematical materialization; and secondly, if that was
the case, asking to which extent it would be possible to
argue that the algorithmic is an agency in the epistemic
sense. For doing so, we developed a long bibliographical
discussion which to some extent I have presented in the
two previous sections; and at the same time, we carried
out a creative speculation which at this point has two
case studies which have seen the light of prototyping. In
the following paragraphs I will briefly present some
considerations about them.
The first prototype is called tentatively Radiomnemonic Capsule, and was installed for an entire day
on a pedestrian public walk in Santiago, Chile. As its
name suggests, it consists of a 2.5 meters high cylindric
capsule which can hold one person inside, who can use a
periscopic device to watch the urban landscape in 360,
while he or she talks through a radio transmitter to
broadcast his or her words to the near surrounding.
Outside, six audio pedestals over rails receive and play
the radio signal, while passers-by have the chance of
hearing the narration and moving the pedestal closer to
the capsule (Figures 1, 2 and 3). A relevant aspect here is
that the whole situation is loaded with confrontational
agencies in advance, since the pedestrian walk points
directly to the presidential palace and it was a privileged
witness, so to speak, of the coup dtat in 1973. Also, our
plan considered to invite people who actually lived those
events, to enter into the capsule. Thus, the purpose of
this prototype is to see if the language of narration is
somehow affected by the electro-algorithmic mediation
(zhlen vs erzhlen), and if that technical mediation
plays any kind of role in the agonistic environment that
would be at issue.

Fig 1. Radio-mnemonic Capsule in Santiago, Chile, January

2016. Wood, fabric, mirror, radios and electronics. Image from
the authorss personal archive.

62

Fig 2. Woman listening to audio pedestal. Radio-mnemonic

Capsule in Santiago, Chile, January 2016. Wood, fabric, mirror,
radios and electronics. Image from the authorss personal
archive.

Fig 3. Woman uses optical mechanism at the interior of the

capsule. Radio-mnemonic Capsule in Santiago, Chile, January
2016. Wood, fabric, mirror, radios and electronics. Image from
the authorss personal archive.

The second prototype, named Nature ex-novo, consists

of a so called book-bound apparatus that relates, on an
agonistic manner, to the atlases from the Scientific
Naturalism period, which had huge influence in the
definition of the natural and political margins of South
Americas early republics. So, the prototype is a bound
hard-case, that holds a set of paper field notes in the
middle, as well as two compartments for storing and
classifying seeds (Figure 4, 5 and 6). Both sections,
while in part recall the cartesian nature of their original
references, also seek to subvert that intelligence by
adding elements that bring a more symmetrical relation
between the natural and artificial spheres. Hence, for
example, the field record cards have been redesigned to
include more qualitative information, while the
compartments incorporate a Voronoi diagram shaped
division to hold the seeds just as they are. In sum, this
prototypes goal is to ask to which extent the
materialization of matters of concern that is to say,
objects, plays an actual political and epistemic role in
the configuration of culture.

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

The Algorithmic as Agonistic Agency: Approaches on Experimental Design, the Politics of Codes, and
Post-Anthropocentric Paradoxes in (Media) Cultures. Diego Gomez Venegas

Fig 4. Nature ex-novo prototype in use at the country side near

Santiago, Chile. General view, January 2015. Acrylic, 3D
printed PLA and paper. Image from Adolfo Alvarez Dumonts
personal archive.

Fig 5. Nature ex-novo prototype in use at the country side near

Santiago, Chile. Detail of seed container, January 2015.
Acrylic, 3D printed PLA and paper. Image from Adolfo
Alvarez Dumonts personal archive.

media and designed things participate in the

configuration of post-anthropocentric cultures. In that
sense, we are certain that research-creation understood as
a method of cultural critique, can help designers,
architects, artists, as well as other creative actors, to
actively participate of some of the debates that I have
wanted to present through these pages. Similarly, this
method offers also the opportunity of interacting with the
questions that the media archeological field, as well as
the science and technology studies have brought into
discussion during the last couple of decades. Moreover, I
truly believe that research-creation processes as the one
made by us, show that experimental design procedures
have all the potential to become the material
reconfiguration of the theories and principles set up by
the aforementioned areas.
Furthermore, this paper does not end with conclusive
evidence to prove that the algorithmic is in fact an
agonistic agency, and of course, this has not been its
purpose either. In the end, all the conceptual and
theoretical discussion presented in the first part of this
essay, allow at this point, only asking if the underlying
questions are consistent enough and worth the effort
being studied. Thus, in my opinion, the experimental
design approach is then a way to physically confront the
many modes of existence those questions can take,
which of course, relate in a direct way to the impact they
may have in the societies and cultures we are embedded
to. Taking that into account, and just as it was mentioned
above, the algorithmic as agonistic agency must be
considered not only as valid, but also as an urgent
research and creative subject matter.

References

Fig 6. Nature ex-novo prototype in use at the country side near

Santiago, Chile. Detail of field record cards, January 2015.
Acrylic, 3D printed PLA and paper. Image from Adolfo
Alvarez Dumonts personal archive.

Possibilities
Both of these prototypes have stayed so far in a
speculative realm, and any sort of conclusion should wait
for further analyses and complementary conceptual and
theoretical discussions; which, I hope, will be part of the
creative and/or academic work carried out by members
of the Design and Agonism group in the near future.
However, at this point we have wanted to begin this
dialogue, where research and creation simultaneously,
have helped us to start a critical inquiry on the modes

1. Wolfgang Ernst, Digital Memory and the Archive

(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013), 147-157.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid, 148.
4. Universidad de Chile, Anales de la Universidad de Chile,
accessed January 4, 2016, http://www.anales.uchile.cl/.
5. Bruno Latour, Nunca Fuimos Modernos: Ensayos de
Antropologa Simtrica (Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno
Editores, 2007), 27-30.
6. Wolfgang Ernst, Digital Memory and the Archive, 147.
7. Friedrich Kittler, The Truth of the Technological World:
Essays on the Genealogy of Presence (Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 2013), 138-151.
8. Ibid, 139.
9. Ibid, 219-229.
10. Wolfgang Ernst, Digital Memory and the Archive, 70.
11. Bruno Latour, Reensamblar lo Social: Una Introduccin a
la Teora del Actor-Red (Buenos Aires: Manantial, 2008),
13-35.
12. Bruno Latour, Nunca Fuimos Modernos: Ensayos de
Antropologa Simtrica.
13. Bruno Latour, Reensamblar lo Social: Una Introduccin a
la Teora del Actor-Red, 60-65.
14. Bruno Latour, From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik An
Introduction to Making Things Public in Making Things
Public-Atmospheres of Democracy catalogue of the show at
ZKM ed. Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel (Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 2005), 1-33.
15. Wolfgang Ernst, Digital Memory and the Archive, 70.

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.

63

Part I. Full Papers (peer-reviewed)

16. Friedrich Kittler, The Truth of the Technological World:

Essays on the Genealogy of Presence, 147.
17. Wolfgang Ernst, Digital Memory and the Archive, 70.
18. Bruno Latour, A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps
Toward a Philosophy of Design (With Special Attention to
Peter Sloterdijk) in Proceedings of the 2008 Annual
International Conference of the Design History Society ed.
Fiona Hackne, Jonathn Glynne and Viv Minto (Boca Raton,
FL: Universal Publishers, 2009), 2-10.
19. Wolfgang Schffner, The Design Turn: Una revolucin
cientfica en el espritu del diseo, Revista KEPES 7, no. 6
(2010): 61-75.
20. Royal College of Arts, Design Interactions, accessed
January 4, 2016, http://design-interactions.rca.ac.uk/.
21. Dunne and Raby, About Us, accessed January 4, 2016,
http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/biography.
22. Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures,
Institute, accessed January 4, 2016, http://www.ixdm.ch/
institute/.
23. Image, Knowledge, Gestaltung, Home, accessed January
4, 2016, https://www.interdisciplinary-laboratory.hu-berlin.de/
en.
24. Jussi Parikka, What is Media Archeology? (Cambridge,
UK: Polity Press, 2012), 1-18.
25. SciencesPo, Programme, accessed January 4, 2016,
http://blogs.sciences-po.fr/speap-eng/the-program/.

64

Proceedings of the 22nd International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA2016 Hong Kong.