Seminar Abstract

25 April 2007:
Speaker: Geoff Cox
Venue:     Dawy Building, Lecture Theatre 220
Time:       12:00

Means-End of Software

It has become common to replace a critical engagement of the computer interface with what lies behind it: source code. The paper aims to investigate the performative dimension of code and the potential for software to break what Hannah Arendt calls the 'means-end chain'. A performance is characterised by its lack of an end product, or at least a product that is indistinguishable from the performance itself. In parallel, a computer program undermines the distinction between its function as a score and its performance in a similar way. It is this performative aspect that lies hidden behind the surface of the software in terms of its potentiality for action. I will refer to a number of examples of software art to outline the possibility of a critical practice in this area.