system variations

System Variations

>> What?

A connected series of fifty short pieces of electronic poetry-art, comprising visual or animated poetry, web art and/or games, each making use of random algorithms (meaning that exactly the same piece will never be seen twice).

>> Why?

"System variations" are a series of generative literary meditations on our (im)possible futures. They posit a variety of alternative paths that might be open to us: epistemological, practical, aesthetic and/or satirical.

Each variation makes extensive use of random algorithms in its construction, so (just as in life) the same path will never be exactly the same despite superficially identical starting conditions. The opening selection menu is also randomised. These two chance interventions also mirror the apparent cycles of confusion and chaos that seem to feed every (financial, environmental, personal or interpersonal) crisis, and our individual or collective ability to find or craft a suitable response to this.

However in this age of electronically created and transmitted (im)possible futures it may be crucial that the artist (or academic, or media) is open to inspection, dissection, discussion and iteration. Therefore this series of e-poems are released under a Creative Commons license for anyone else to use or abuse as they see fit.

>> How?

1. The series of fifty pieces are intended to be viewed on anything between 1 and 50 screens simultaneously. There are two versions: 'autoplay off' where user interaction is required, and 'autoplay on' where the piece will choose pieces continuously at random.

2. The full work (including Flash .fla source codes) can be downloaded and freely used. In this way the source code 'variations' are themselves are presented as part of the continually evolving piece, with other code/art remixers becoming the new random algorithmic variables at work upon each variation.

>> Index of pieces