A NOTE OF INTRODUCTION

On the essential difference between thought and computation:

"Supposing that there were a machine whose structure produced thought, sensation, and perception, we could conceive of it as increased in size with the same proportions until one was able to enter into its interior, as he would into a mill. Now, on going into it he would find only pieces working upon one another, but never would he find anything to explain perception."
(Gottfried Leibnitz, "Monadology", 1714. qtd. on http://epistolar.livejournal.com/ on Oct. 31st, 2005 04:04 pm)

But note that the exploration can only take place if the machine is enlarged enough to be walked through. We understand things by moving through and around them, by seeing them from all sides. But what happens when the very thing we are trying to understand is constructing the space around us? What if the process that creates what we see deliberately obscures the components of its function?

MICROSOFT EXCEL 97 FLIGHT SIMULATOR

Directions for finding the simulator

Artist: The Microsoft Excel '97 programming team
Medium: Easter egg in Microsoft Excel
Year: 1997

Microsoft Excel presents the user with a more obviously computational grid than Conway's Game of Life does, but in theory the two are equally powerful. In itself, Excel reconceptualizes and reorganizes computation, shifting the paradigmatic center of the act from computer architecture to mental architecture: it was an early example of the shift toward intuitive computing. But hiding within one particularly popular incarnation of the program is, of all things, a flight simulator. It presents the user with a black sky, blue ground, and glowing horizon. You navigate with your mouse, shifting speed and direction as you skim across the weird, poorly rendered terrain. 

In fact, the space is meant to hold the software's credits. Hiding the credits for a piece of software or some other interesting tidbit behind an obscure key combination is a fairly common practice. Embedding a flight simulator, though, is much less common. The choice makes sense in this case, though. In a program that offers the user a spatial concept of computation but obscures the actual process of that computation, enclosing for the user a navigable hidden space is an acknowledgment of the hidden processes that drive Excel. The programmers seem to be saying, "This is the mysterious world where information is processed for your benefit. Your suspicions of a hidden room, a vast secret space that contains the magic or technology behind your experience, are correct. Here it is!"

THE GAME OF LIFE

Conway's Game of Life at wikipedia
Conway's Game of Life applet

Artist: John Conway
Medium: Cellular automaton with 4 distinct rules

Year: 1970

John Conway's Game of Life is a cellular automaton, or a description an infinite grid of tiles. Each tile on this grid is a very simple computer that (i) can be either dead or alive and (ii) changes between these states based on the states of its eight neighbors. If a tile is alive, one of three things can happen: it will die of loneliness if it has only one living neighbor, it will keep living happily with two or three living neighbors, or it will die of overcrowding with more than four living neighbors. A dead tile will come to life if it has exactly three living neighbors. 

Each tile constantly carries out these simple computations on its own. But when infinite tiles are arranged in a grid, their individual computational powers converge. The tiles form a society of machines, visible to us as a grid of pixels and organized throughout an infinite space, capable of computing the answer to literally any computable problem. By arranging the tiles on a plane, the source of computational power - namely the interactions between tiles - becomes visible. Conway created a computationally powerful space and made its operation perceptible and beautiful. He revealed the spark of computation by moving the heart of the computational machine into visible space.

RECHNENDER RAUM

Rechnender Raum

Artist: Ralf Baecker
Medium: Installation made of sticks, strings, and plumbs. A cylinder about 10 ft tall, 12 across.
Year: 2007
Originally exhibited at MOLTKEREI WERKSTATT KÖLN/COLOGNE and RINITATIS KIRCHE KÖLN/COLOGNE

Artist Statement
More information

This piece explores the mechanical and spatial nature of computation by placing the computation in a physical space, carried out by mechanical processes. A user can move through the gallery space, examining the process from any angle, but will likely gain only intuitive insight into the computational process.

WIFIKU

WiFiKu

Artist: Julian Bleeker
Medium: Concept, dérive, and haiku
Year: 2004, during psy.geo.conflux, May 13th and May 14th

SOCIALFICTION.ORG

Socialfiction.org

Artist: Wilfried Hou Je Bek
Medium: Website (Blog)
Year: 2006 -
Artist Statement

Themes include algorithmic behaviors and strictly-patterened actions. Hou Je Bek has created a hypertextual-spatial representation of a set of ideas and concepts.