"Language is corrupt! Subject rules alienated object!
Language ist the code to power!" Johannes Auer doesn't hide
his thoughts when he introduces his new work, the concrete
machine, which is a vital part of the cooperative project
with the title "The Famous Sound of Absolute Wreaders".
Ideas always seem far more brillant when they are fresh
thoughts flickerinhg through the brain than when they are
written down and narrowed mediated into a frame of common
media and understanding.
If ideas can be brought to light on paper through language
why can this language not be conversed into real images of
similar understanding? "The 'concrete_maschine' frees the
language of the ruling code into a pictorial concrete." Thus
Johannes Auer's work is a practical exercise in advanced
intermediality. An algorithm translates texts in
Mondrian-like pictures. The "concrete_maschine" is available
for free use and will translate anyone's texts into
images.
*
But
this is grabbing the horse by its tail: the well known
(net)artist Johannes Auer alias Frieder Rusman initiated the
collaborative project "The Famous 
Sound of Absolute Wreaders" for the Austrian radio program
"Kunstradio" in 2002 and leaves a firm imprint with his new
project the "concrete machine". The program was curated by
the Viennese journalist Christine Böhler (editor of the
literary magazine "Lichtzeile") and finally emitted on
September 7th 2003 on the Austrian radio channel ORF1.
Two weeks before – from August 26 – 30, 2003 –
the whole project was exhibited at the Hypertext 03
conference in Nottingham among six works. Auers "concrete
machine" is by no means the only mentionable part of this
collaborative work by six writers. As a final result there
are six new works of digital literature to be found at
http://kunstradio.cyberfiction.ch.
But the project as a whole with its collaborative,
autopoietical and intermedial aspects is at least as
interesting as each new net-project. But now we better start
where we are supposed to:
*
Große
Sentenz No. 1:
„spannen Sie eine text_brücke über den gesamten text
und entziehen Sie damit einer fangfrage den boden“.
Die ersten 3 Dateien aus dem upload-Bereich werden
gelöscht.
(Blatt zerknüllen)
*
In the
beginning there were six known works of digital literature –
known that is in the German speaking part of europe. some go
as far back as 1996 (and may build up on older texts),
others were established just a few months before the
collaboration started:
*
Noch
Große Sentenz No. 1:
was ist ein "absoluter wreader"?
bei idensen stosse ich über niels werber auf norbert
bolz, der wiederum auf idensen stösst ... verweise im
kreise ... so geht das im netz. zitate zitieren sich selbst
am besten. es wird ständig weitergeschrieben. dabei
schreibt manchmal der text selbst mit am text. der autor
wird zum staunenden leser, während der leser zum autor,
mitautor oder wenigstens mitarbeiter am text
wird.
*
The six
writers and net-activists had the task to read the five
works of the other participating writers and eventually
assemble or write a new text on those works. The only
condition for this text: it should be printable and
performable. Thus the six writers took very different
approaches in expressing their experience with the works of
the others:
Johannes Auer has a few things to say about Lev Manovich's
theory of multitasking as a collage. He tried to read all
the projects at the same time on his computer screen and in
consequence did ask himself if multitasking can be
established as an avantgarde and who might be the processor?
He doesn't find much of a collage or avantgarde however but
sees that computer and human being use the same way of
processing information "one after the other".
Reinhard Döhl's focus is on the conspiciously
inconspicious of the five other projects. He manages to
condense the mains by means of his poetical language.
Döhl reads thoroughly, collects the morsels of
importance and takes them further down the road.
Sylvia Egger is motivating her texteditor to let the readers
in on the secrets of constructing textscapes
(text_landschaften). Consecutively the texteditor puts
together a comprehensive tutorial on constructing a
"text_landschaft" in consideration of text_islands
(text_inseln) and concrete examples of using them by means
of the projects of the Absolute Wreaders.
Oliver Gassner does short diarylike journeys into the
textscapes and scans forms and shapes with his senses. As he
goes along with his reading there are more and more
multitasking intrusions. "When I get around to respond to
Anaximander", he says, "she is offline again."
Martina Kieninger sees something we don't see and asks
herself: Who is really the one who is reading and who is the
one who is writing; and who reads what who is writing: Human
being or machine, bechine or humachine? "Nothing is new.
File not found."
Beat Suter wonders what a wreader might be and meets the
quotes which manage to quote themselves the best; and meets
the texts which manage to write themselves. Hereby he
becomes a reader who marvels at his reading writing itself
along at a fast pace into an intertetxtual textscape.
*
Noch
immer Große Sentenz No. 1:
herkömmliche texteditoren wie „word_gedöns“
oder „open-source-office_teilhaber“ haben den
nachteil, dass sie texte als einweckgläser verstehen:
wo noch kein text ist, kommt text rein, dann deckel zu
(salopp_vulgarisierung). diese instant_folisierung des
herstellen von texten führt daher im weiteren
lese_vorgang (karma_spannung +/- abpausen von
buchstabenreihen = zur augen_spannerei!).
*
"The
Famous Sound of Absolute Wreaders" is about writing in the
internet. Who is writing? Who is not writing? Have we lost
the author? Do we miss him? Is every reader becoming an
author? is a reader becoming a wreader? Or a feeder? Or a
bleeder? You might respond: this is a rhetorical question
since it is only reputable writers who were chosen to take
part in the project. And right you are. The writer is still
on top and doesn't share his might. The reader can take part
in the project, but whatever he uploads in the designated
area, it will eventually be deleted while the program is
aired.
But there are a few more twists here. For example: the
deletion of an upload is a performance of which the reader
is the very important originator and contributor. the texts
of the six "absolute wreaders" on the other hand don't get
performed as integral unities. They get sliced, cut and
pasted by a human editor, a machine, a combination of man
and machine and they further get as collaged phrases
digested, distorted, spit out and commented on by
actors/speakers in a reading/dialogue setting and finally in
a mind-affected setting. – And they serve as sort of a
source code for six new net-projects.
*
Große
Sentenz No. 2:
„Verweise überall hin, Verweise in die weite wilde Welt
hinaus, Verweise im Kreise ... so geht das.“
Die nächsten 3 Dateien aus dem upload-Bereich werden
gelöscht.
(Blatt zerknüllen)
Noch Große Sentenz No. 2:
Bolz hat angedeutet, die Differenz von Autor und Leser
spiele im Internet keine Rolle mehr und das abgeschlossene
Kunstwerk werde seiner Grenzen entledigt. Für die
Literatur bedeutet das: "Die Poesie soll von allen gemacht
werden“.
*
What is left
of the author? Do we know? How do we find out? Who is in
control of the text? Or is the text in control of author and
reader? Or does the machine control it all? The radio
program has a lenght of 40 minutes. It is performed by two
professional actors/speakers: Christiane Maschajechi and
Peter Gorges from Stuttgart.
- Part 1 is a collage by
Johannes Auer made from all of the texts by the
authors/wreaders (4 pages out of 55 DinA4 pages). This
audio-text is human controlled.
- Part 2 is a random
generation of text-modules by the computer. The human
control has been abandoned.
- In Part 3 the two
speakers comment on the randomly generated text by the
computer. This way we gain back some human control (but
the author gets further undermined).
- In Part 4 the
speakers/actors/wreaders get to feel a further loss of
control through consumption of alcohol while doing their
act.
*
Noch immer Große Sentenz No.
2:
„Mein Texteditor“ macht schluss mit den langen
wartezeiten auf handlungsabläufe oder
spannungs_bögen (architektur_vulgarisierung). Lassen
Sie endlich auf wortnägeln köpfe rollen, solange
und soviel sie wollen! platzieren Sie ihren cursor_boten. wo
immer Sie einen text vermuten. fügen Sie text_marken
ein, wo Sie sich unsicher fühlen. spannen Sie eine
text_brücke über den gesamten text und entziehen
Sie damit einer fangfrage den boden.
*
A text of an
author/wreader was then randomly allocated to another
author/wreader. A text therefore becomes a source text or
source code for a new project. Auer gets Gassner, Gassner
gets Kieninger, Kieninger gets Auer, Döhl gets Egger,
Egger gets Suter, Suter gets Döhl.
*
Große
Sentenz No. 3:
„Maschine (beleidigt): Ich kann kein Spanisch“.
Die nächsten 3 Dateien aus dem upload-Bereich werden
gelöscht.
(Blatt zerknüllen):
*
And thus are the six new
works:
Johannes Auer (on Oliver Gassner's text):
concrete_maschine
http://kunstradio.cyberfiction.ch/concrete/text_original.php
"Language is corrupt! Subject rules alienated object!
Language ist the code to power!" Therefore "smash the
surface" and cement it with the new
concrete_maschine". The "concrete_maschine" frees the
language of the ruling code into a pictorial concrete.
Auer's work is a practical exercise in advanced
intermediality. An algorithm translates texts in
Mondrian-like pictures. The "concrete_maschine" is available
for free use and will translate anyone's texts into
images.
"There were several art-movements in the last century which
were suspicious about language. Cubists and dadaists turned
fragments of texts into pictures by means of collage. Dada
dissolved words into sounds. The lettrists reduced language
which they thought was aesthetically exhausted to letters.
concrete poets were assembling pictures by letters. and
utopists in the 70ies tried to exchange the poles of the
ruling code."
The "concrete_maschine" follows this path radically to its
end. She challenges anyone to compute the text. "hand it
over to the "concrete_maschine" and transform it into a free
picture."
*
Noch
Große Sentenz No. 3:
Ich frage: wieviel Fenster können auf dem Screen
gleichzeitig geöffnet und betrachtet werden bevor die
Komposition zu bloßem visuellem Rauschen wird?
Lev Manovitch sagt: 6 erscheint mir eine gute Zahl.
*
Sylvia
Egger (on Beat Suter's text): voyage automatique –
webcam's revenge
http://kunstradio.cyberfiction.ch/serner/index.html
It may be difficult to take part in the "voyage
automatique", but then each dialogue between the system and
the user is a voyage of its own. And part of the game: the
right answer gets you to the main area, anything else throws
you in a loop. the "voyage" itself works with
webcam-pictures and an exchange of mail-clips and creates
meaningful to ironic and nonsensical dialogues between the
wreaders, a voyeur and the user: "Could it be that you too
are searching for the absolute text, you slack pilgrim you,
... why don't you comb yourself first."
"the content of the project "voyage automatique –
webcam's revenge" may TIFFer according whether you are
approaching from an institution, company or TAZ zone. but
the basic information headache should remain the same. the
voyage creates a HEREarchy among too many tasks: who, what,
where etc.. the goal is to keep the number of pages as fast
as possible. (discuss this message or consider inviting your
colleague to our presentation!) we paid enough attention to
the layout (basis). abused our companies letterhead and
worked with artists in toasters (toaster == webcam –
no abuse is recommended!). instead of putting all
information in a long story elevator. we grouped each story
floor into subtopics. it's just. that we talk about. how to
round a dollar or tense! the revenge is totally in progress
(each reader is a neat blowfly in chandlers bureau!). but we
try to keep the deadline and stay within the pager limit. we
encourage you to take part in our live TALKIN CURE. please
take a few seconds and repeat the phrases: gagarin, titov,
nikolayev, popovic, tereshkova, komarov, yegorov, leonov,
shatalov, kubasow. we blow at your attention: MEET US IN
ELIZA HEAVEN!"
*
Große Sentenz No. 4:
„Stein kommt selten allein“.
Die nächsten 3 Dateien aus dem upload-Bereich werden
gelöscht.
(Blatt zerknüllen)
Große
Sentenz No. 4:
„Stein kommt selten allein“.
Die nächsten 3 Dateien aus dem upload-Bereich werden
gelöscht.
(Blatt zerknüllen)
*
Reinhard Döhl (on
Sylvia Egger's text): Aus dem Logbuch eines
Traumkapitän
http://kunstradio.netzliteratur.net/doehl/start.php
Welcome aboard. All messages are sent to the user. With
Döhl we choose a slower method of transport: a hot air
balloon. And we realize that text has always been a
transport medium: literary and postal. Assume a text and
store some traces. The middle part gets lost at the edges.
The text is perceived as a disk. the balloon logbook
antagonizes this perception. By request each entry gets sent
out and lands in a "worldly" inbox.
"today we think that a text is arising from texts and while
reading it the text is formed in the mind of the reader.
this applies above all to texts in the internet and to
reading them.
In what ways and with which broad variety this is possible,
is being demonstrated in this project by interchanging
readings of predetermined texts by johannes auer, reinhard
doehl, sylvia egger, oliver gassner, martina kieninger and
beat suter.
In a second step my reading of the reading by sylvia egger's
"my texteditor" and particularly the reference:
"balloon_vulgarisation; used first by jean_paul in his
'airship_prose': he who sees europe from a balloon, only
realizes how puffed up the clouds are" required an
additional reading of jean paul's "aeronaut gianozzo's book
of the seas" (des luftschiffers gianozzo seebuch).
this text which was given to me as an additional link by
sylvia egger was the determining factor of my reading since
i have been experimenting with a version of the "book of the
seas" for the internet for years. as a result the "book of
the seas" occupied more and more space in my selective
reading of sylvia egger's texteditor. step by step the
"logbook of the captain of dreams" started developping of
which the logs can be sent to the reader in the internet by
ways of "balloon-mail". and a balloon-message can only be
read after being retrieved from the mailbox.
I would also like to refer to a further linear reading
outside of the project of the "famous sound of absolute
wreaders" in which the "aeronaut gianozzo's book of the
seas" eats up sylvia egger's "texteditor" like a worm until
it has completely disappeared – only to be nibbled at
again by sylvia egger's text and further on da capo al fine.
(http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/ndl1/jpaul_logbuch.htm)"
*
Noch Große Sentenz No.
4:
rosengarten, bunte steine, grabstein. deutsch und englisch.
a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose ... auch wenn die
abstände zwischen den buchstaben sich verändern is
a rose a rose. und die rose ist rot und sie wird zu einem k,
sie erhält einen is-stil, sie schliesst sich und
öffnet sich, sie verdoppelt sich, spiegelt sich,
schliesst sich. und der rosengarten wird grösser form
und die rosen verbinden sich zu rosensträussen und
verändern ihre form, rund und wieder.
Noch immer Große Sentenz No. 4:
erstellen Sie eine neue text_landschaft
legen Sie die größe ihrer text_landschaft
fest
fügen Sie text_inseln ein
editieren Sie ihre text_landschaft
speichern Sie ihre text_landschaft
*
Oliver Gassner (on Martina
Kieninger's text): as time goes on: absolute wreaders
http://kunstradio.cyberfiction.ch/gassner/
How fast does time go by while reading online texts? As fast
as the texts pass by? Is ist possible to read the moving
texts parallel and what happens 
to
transient texts if they get presented in a different design?
Gassner shows a simple undesigned "WebTV-Version" of
Kieninger's text and adds instructions: "Try not to let the
texts come to a halt, but read all texts." [...]
"Watch it for a while, close your eyes and think of texts
which could be scrolling down in front of you. Mail those
texts to wreader@carpe.com."
Gassner says he likes the concepts of johannes auer, since
he always achieves opening new perspectives on 'net things'
you thought you knew: games, logfiles, web-shops and more.
and he asked himself: "what is the language a net-writer
uses to write about net-writing in a literary tone?"
"i answered the question by creating a style and
'environment' which seemed to me to be most appropriate to
both the work at hand (without copying it but still taking
an aspect of it as a motivation for the style) and to the
situation of sitting on a computer, writing about something
happening on the same screen. so i experimented with taking
on the role of a philologist when writing about reinhard
doehl or with the role of a chatter/blogger/note-taker when
surfing through martina kieninger's "wardrobe". as i think
that the brain of the reader should be the place, where a
text finds its final form i tried to make the materials
given to me to "redesign" into a net-installation that
encouraged (a nice word for: forced) the reader to do so.
instead of 'ordering' a browser to "reformat" ASCII-text
into something colorful i gave this instruction to the human
reader."
*
Große
Sentenz No. 5:
„Multitasking ist für das menschliche Gehirn nicht ohne
weiteres möglich“.
Die nächsten 3 Dateien aus dem upload-Bereich werden
gelöscht.
(Blatt zerknüllen)
*
Martina
Kieninger (on Johannes Auer's text): Fenster 1 2 3 4 5
6
http://kunstradio.cyberfiction.ch/kieninger/martinaauer.html
Multitasking as avantgarde or who is the processor? Martina
Kieninger gets to the bottom of the discourse on
multitasking. She recreates Lev Manovich's six windows and
tells us: "Lev is not right. If the sum of all avantgarde is
montage, the figure of all montage surely is blue. Therefore
the solution to all avantgarde is blue. But 6 might not be
blue. If it was, it would have a shade of the flash-blue
piano."
*
Noch
Große Sentenz No. 5:
Manovitch sagt: Sich überlappende Fenster bilden das
Schlüsselelement aller Schnittstellen zwischen Mensch
und Computer. Die avantgardistische Strategie der Collage
und Montage gehört heute zu den grundlegendsten
Operationen im Umgang mit Computerdaten.
*
Beat
Suter and René Bauer (on Reinhard Döhl's
text): *kunstrad1o : 1o : 1o : v1suelles rad1o: scrabble mit
döhl*
http://kunstradio.cyberfiction.ch/suter/
Visual radio as multi-layer-scrabble with the author of the
source text? The two wreaders use internet, search and code
for visualizing Reinhard Döhl's texts. 
Words and sentences become the plaything of interpretation
while as the original source-projects still shine through.
How would you visualize the tango of colours which were
translated into rhythmical words by a concrete poet? How
would you visualize a log which secretely reads all visitors
identifications?
Five scripts scrabble with Döhl's texts taking on the
uniqueness of the intertext of Döhl's text and each
work that served as a source code. text and metatext get
translated, transformed, visualized. A stage is a wardrobe,
is a bed and breakfast on a farm in an undefined countryside
with a slow exchange of text and image which leaves cracks
everywhere. the chequered colour-tango gets transferred back
into text which in itself turns into concrete pictorial
text-units taking up the rhythm of the tango in, over and
out of the screen. the piep-show has to be discovered click
by click. an anarchic layout gets assembled and reveals its
finer points. where is the show, what is shown? read text
doesn't disappear out of our mind but gets blurred, picks up
pace and distance in its up and down movement the further
back it has been read. the log which is a record of a travel
as a text goes on an other travel through the net and comes
back as a refined sequence of pictures. and the hovering
textual cyberclouds of Döhl's linguistic evalution and
compilation can be dragged into the visualization machine
which kindly looks for appropriate pictorial translations in
the net and transforms them into pictorial cyberclouds.
*
Große
Sentenz No. 6:
„Anonymität im Netz ist eine Illusion“.
Die nächsten 3 Dateien aus dem upload-Bereich werden
gelöscht.
(Blatt zerknüllen)
Noch Große Sentenz No. 6:
Maschine: Kannst Du lesen?
Mensch: Willst Du was in die Fresse? Freilich hab ichs
gelesen gehabt.
Maschine: Das erschwert die Sachlage
Mensch: Ich bin unschuldig
Maschine: Gar nix bist.
Mensch: Wenn Sie mich bei auch nur einer Lyge erwischen,
dann tun Sie
mich halt verurteiln.
Maschine: Aber das Kleingedruckte.
Mensch: Einspruch! Verfahrensfehler!
Maschine: Abgelehnt. Lesen Sie weiter.
Mensch: Ich ersuche hoeflichst darum, aus dem Logbuch
zitieren zu
dyrfen.
*
Texts by
absolute wreaders on works of the other absolute
wreaders:
*
Noch
immer Große Sentenz No. 6:
beispiel logbuch von johannes auer.
falls sie das „log.buch“ gewählt haben. ist
mit einem text_insel_inhalt von 10 kb zu rechnen (+/-
verbindungs_mann, lauf_maschen, reise_fieber und
piraten_ips) und eine spann_weite von 50 x 50 cm ist
realisier- und lesbar. bedenken Sie jedoch. dass das „log.buch“
einer reise_karte gleicht. und somit die grösse dieser
text_landschaft entsprechend aufbläst
(ballon_vulgarisierung; erstmals von jean_paul verwendet in
seiner luftschiff_prosa: „wer europa von einem ballon
aus sieht, merkt erst. wie aufgeblasen die wolken sind.“).
*
Basic text
for the kunstradio-show consisting of 9 great (who said
"great"?) phrases (collage):
Performed texts as heard in
the kunstradio program (4 mp3-files):
*
Große
Sentenz No. 8:
Der Text bildet Schleifen und wird rekursiv. Ganz ungelinkt
noch. Noch hab ich nicht geklickt. Das gefällt mir.
Schleifen und Rekursion erzeugt man nicht durch Links,
sondern durch Text.
schrank
schrank
schranken für alle
schrankwand den beschränkten
schrank schrankt summe aller schränke
das unbeschränkte keine schranke schrankt schränke
schranken schränke schrank schränke
*
And we now
leave you to the digital textscape (text_landschaft) with a
final word and advice from serner, one of the absolute
wreaders:
"the famous sound of absolute wreaders" seems to prosecute
text or reeders or riders. and if text or reeders or riders
get famous. they loose their absolute framers (a kind of
cute prosperity after duchamp and warhol; experienced mostly
in ready-mades 2nd order). and if text or reeders or riders
do not get famous. they even can attend a local flash mob.
and what is to learn at all?
first: we have to learn: numbers are different. 6 might be a
good number indeed. (it's your task now. to sum up 6
avantgardistic practices. hole the line! keep chunky! –
call your local bookstore for a list of possible arms –
cuttlefisher are welcome!)
second: we have to learn: looking through windows
(multitasking as proscecution): look – if text.
reeders or riders get in front of windows. they tend to put
the loosy cubes into order (rubrics magic: a corner, an
edge, a centre and a disk – you know best. how to get
so far!). it's your task now. to play at high volume –
turn on your windows! claim the main: _blank, _top, _parent,
_self.
third: we have to learn: it's YOUR working day! your search
on avantgardistic practices: 72,100 window seats!.