Response to Yuill, Cradall, Dunne by Alexina, Emanuel, Alex

In the first text, the author dissects the word program. The term actually means to instruct how a process will be performed. While the outcome may be predetermined, it is dependent on the language used to create it. Programs are common to many practices, most of which are completely unrelated to computing. As McLuhan explained in his text "The Medium is the Message", the influence of a programming structure (the medium) always affects the created product referred to as "artifact". We can do a distinction about two kinds of people: those who create the program, and those who use the program. The relation between programmer and user is quite important. The latter is dependent on the artifacts and therefore, dependent on the creator. In this case, the creator has the ability to control social behaviour. With the introduction of GPL (General Public License), this boundary is destroyed. This new model gives the users the possibility to modify the ''artifact'' program without the intervention of the creator (programmer). Later, the author explains that khatt is a term without which we wouldn't have algebra to facilitate the creation of more complicated designs, where "reverse engineering" uses programming first to be able to visualise those designs. In the Fairisle example, we find that a small community is distributing their programmatic creativity to people who in turn will use those "templates", deskilling themselves. Programs have become a feedback loop where the artifact is used to create more applications. The programmer does not predict how the user will use his product. However, the user is empowered to intuitively create new processes of production. The next text starts off with an introduction of programming as a military means: to command, control and communicate intelligence (C3I). To the author, war brings on evolution. The "operational construct" is a building of efficiency. This is a method to create a point of convergence for information where time and space can be modulated. These machines obtain this ability by allowing their human controllers to transmit any information instantly through space to remain in perfect synchronicity. It is important to note that while we use these devices, our eyes are skewed though the viewfinder of this apparatus. The final text begins with articulating that design holds an important place other than in commercial applications. These are therefore able to force a reflection on behalf of the viewer as the works are conceptual in essence. The museum is to become a site where users can try items, like a store. We would then no longer encounter exhibits where a distance is created between the piece and the viewer. The pieces must activate the audience while remaining provocative. Instant satisfaction is key. This is the case for a design object as a prop. Function is irrelevant.

This is similar to Benjamin's theory on the audience watching a movie. We are also looking through an apparatus, especially when communicating, which makes our point of view biased. The e-Art exhibit had elements of the "freak show", where they were unrelated one from the other. This made the experience strange and uncomfortable on a whole. Sometimes the pieces even looked fragmented, unfinished. The author says that the film is better than an unfinished object because it satisfies the short attention span of the audience. We think that it's better not to encourage the short attention span, to have them question and take position with or against the subject of the film. It should be a commercial work instead of a private one. One of the questions we asked ourselves was whether our civilisations would be what they are today if it hadn't been for wars. Socially and technologically, we think that we wouldn't be the same if it hadn't been for the C3I way of thinking. Military technology like the Intranet became public and thus has encouraged people to use it on a wider basis. Because of this progress, the public now has access to those military means, and thus, we think that the rivalry and war between programmers and people will now push them to create better technologies. Softwares are now open-source, and the contributions and resources provided by several programmers make us use time more efficiently, which brings us to the concepts of propagation and operational construct that round up the three texts that we had to read.

Is considering the museum a test environment similar to a business which appeals to instant satisfaction of the public beneficial to the fine art?