IAMD – Glitch




IAMD – Force

Force was hard. It was hard to do. It was hard to program. It was hard to instal. I was having a lot of feelings that week, and it was, quite frankly, hard to contain.

For force I used something I had built at the start of the year. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. Going back to past things, and digging through to see if there’s something I can update, or re-use. In some ways it feels like cheating, but in other ways, its like giving something a new life.

Anyways. I had this heart beat. This terrible, gutteral heartbeat. Originally it was a basic squeeze button, that the heart beat would get louder and faster the longer you held on. But for force, I turned it the heart beat into the room.

I trashed a room, installed a skull in it, and made it respond to distance. Originally I was going to make a shrine in the crit room, but that got taken over by everyone. So I made a makeshift temple out of chairs and did it in an empty class room.

Neat things to note: It was wireless, and it was pretty creepy!

IAMD – Chance

Chance was my favourite project. Mainly because I decided to make a markov-tumblr-bot based off of Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams. I really like making bots. I find there’s something fun, and reflective about making a chatter box internet thing.

In this case. I decided to make a bot that not only remixed a text, but also paired up remixes with images it found based on search criteria it pulled from its remixed text. The results range from utterly random, to just down right meta. You can see the whole thing chugging along here: https://computerfreud.tumblr.com/. And the code repo is here: https://github.com/sharkwheels/markov_tumblr

Here are a few favourites:






Its neat to see what this bot comes up with every hour. The program itself isn’t that complicated, but it doesn’t have to be complicated to be interesting.

Also there is some weird shit on Bing.

Position Generator

This assignment was to figure out our position. I interpreted that more as making a kind of a set of statements, or specific rules you have about making things in general. Because I have a design and development background, those things sometimes fall into more efficiency or naming conventions.

For example there is an ENTIRE set of style rules for coding in Python . But you could also follow your own conventions, as long as they remain consistent. Programmers usually do a lot of refractoring as well, a sort of distilling code over iterations to try and make it more efficient or readable.

But anyways. I took it as rules. Personal rules. Underlying rules. I have a few rules of thumb I follow in life like: “Work is an iterative process” and “Execution Counts”. But I wanted to see what other things I could think of. So first I started w/ words and tape, and chopping up those words to make new words.

Then I moved to lists of words or possible statements that I felt held some importance to me:

Then I reduced those statements into basic-ish structures:

Finally I decided to automate my process via a python script to mix those words around into various proto sentences. Because maybe a randomized algorithm could do things I could not.


Though it was somewhat silly, it did manage to churn out some things that I resonated with quite a bit.

  1. Ridiculous futures should be the way forward
  2. Destructive composition through amusing subversion
  3. Ridiculous automation through absurd iteration
  4. Delicate remixes through robust exposition
  5. Subvert your devices
  6. Remix the glitches
  7. Expose the agenda
  8. Compose the future into futile devices

My position is one of futile devices and ridiculous futures. We should play with the systems we exist in, break them, and expose their futility. Not only will this enable us to learn more about what supports or control us, but also how we can subvert that into new modes. There is a beauty in the world’s collection of smart, glitchy devices. Make them your own. Be your process.