Hello 2015

[Greg]

Friday, March 01, 2002, 8:05:35 PM, mikejw@cruzio.com wrote:
> 1) Can good code be art? Am I a software artist? How to display this art?

I got involved with a group of wide-eyed and unapologetic idealists a
few years back, and as a result of our doings I underwent a fairly
significant paradigm shift.  Specifically, the Neon Renaissance, as
we took to calling ourselves, was a loose collective of people from
varying backgrounds and fields of experience -- painters, musicians,
programmers, actors, mathematicians, writers, etc.  What brought us
together (and what eventually repolarized my neural lenses) was a
working definition of art:

"Any truly creative act shall be considered an artistic act; the
results of any such act shall be considered art."

We took as axiomatic that all persons are capable of creative acts;
thus every individual is potentially an artist.  The fate of the
N.'.R.'. notwithstanding, I still tend to adhere to this line of
thought.  (It also coincides nicely with some Discordian philosophy
I've been known to spout, but nevermind.)

So can good code be art?  I submit that any code can be art, if it is
the result of a creative act.  But your question "How to display this
art?" puzzles me.  Does art need to be displayed?  I'm reminded of
something Stephen Hawking said.  To paraphrase:  "If the universe is
nothing but a completely defined set of rules and equations, why does
it go to all the trouble of existing?  Is a complete unified field
theory so compelling that it demands its own existence?"  Is art so
compelling that its existence demands an audience?  Or can it simply
exist?

-G