Research

Wayne Clements

Image of a web page, the page contains a block of legible text that has been generated by a computer program.

Field of Study: Fine Art

Title: Always Follow the Instructions. Rules and Rule Following in Visual Art

Director of Studies: Neil Cummings

Additional Supervisor(s): Professor Roger Wilson, Dr. Tom Corby

An artwork may be composed of instructions for purely textual manipulations. Such an artwork is designated a Text Machine. A Text Machine is an example of the wider category of instruction-art. A Text Machine may be made into a physical machine or it may remain abstractly defined. The computer, however, as a universal Turing machine (a machine that simulates other machines), may be made to simulate any Text Machine that may be described.

The rules or instructions form the stable structure of the Text Machine. It is possible to state these rules in a natural (human) language. Thereafter, the work may be disassembled, transmitted and remade, transposed to computer code and cloned. I argue that such an artwork is not computer dependent. Once it is computerised however, in contrast with earlier instruction-art and because of the multi-functionality of the computer, it will be entirely read, executed and documented from the screen/keyboard. The computer, as a universal machine, allows for the combined creation, performance and documentation of the workings of the Text Machine.

My central research question is therefore:

What impact does the computer have on instruction-art?

My thesis will focus upon text: artworks may be written, performed and recorded as text. Furthermore, computers are symbol-manipulating devices. Text, being in a discrete notation form, may readily pass between human and machine. Finally, historically text is the preferred medium for instructions in art.

My argument is it is possible to define instruction-art independently of the specific language in which that instruction is expressed. For this to be so, it is only necessary however that instruction-art be expressed in language of some kind. If it is in language, then it may be encoded, transmitted and translated back into human readable language. An example of this is my programming of Margaret Masterman's (1968) Computerized Haiku. Her written account forms the basis of my program. This program, in turn, is now accessible to a human user (see http://www.in-vacua.com/).

I identify relevant practice, past and present, paying particular attention to the often-raised question of conceptual art's relation to computer art. Such a comparison may be valid, but must be made carefully if confusion is to be avoided.

Further information: http://www.in-vacua.com/