Week 3

From Expressive Computing

Contents

Reading Discussion

On Sketchpad:

  • What surprises me is that so much in this interface seems contemporary, yet it's from 1963 (nearly 50 years ago!). What is the same with this interface, and what is different? (same: representation of on-screen display as objects; different: separation of interface and content)
  • What are the affordances of this interface? (what does it make easy?)
  • What's the relationship between the data structures and algorithms related in the paper and contemporary programming practices--especially object-oriented programming?

On Engelbart:

  • This system seems both comfortingly familiar (mouse, text, networked documents) and strangely unfamiliar (enforced document structures, video cameras used as a display device). What features and practices from Engelbart's experiment have been retained, and which fell by the wayside?
  • Specifically address the mouse. What does it do? How is the way Engelbart used it different from the way we use it now? How is it different from Sketchpad's light pen?
  • What's the keyboard used for? Why don't we all have chording sidecar keyboards, as Engelbart envisioned? (More information on the chorded keyboard)

On Burroughs:

  • Spontaneity and unexpected juxtaposition... what is the value of chance? What is the value of rearranging existing material? To whom does the resulting work belong?
  • Do you agree that "all writing is in fact cut-ups"?
  • What should the unit of the cut-up be? By what method should the cut-up units be arranged?

Progress reports

Each group will talk about their progress on Project 1.

Other artists using cut-up methods and chance

Processing examples

Assigned reading

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