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Themesicon: navigation pathGenerative Toolsicon: navigation pathSoftware Art
 
 
 
 
 

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that has been incorrectly and illegibly formatted or decoded by a software program. Those who are semi-literate in the domain of programming languages and source code, however, will soon realise that this is computer code and programming language that are being used and appropriated. The status of these languages, or parts of language, however, remains ambivalent: It oscillates in the perception of the recipient between assumed executability (functionality) and non-executability (dysfunctionality) of the code; in short, between significant information and asignificant noise. Depending on the context, useless character strings suddenly become interpretable and executable commands, or vice versa—performative programming code becomes redundant data.

mez

mez’s self-created art writing style , 'M[ez]ang.elle' is modelled on computer languages […] but without being written in strict command syntax. [61] It contains a mixture of ASCII art and pseudo-program code. Like the portmanteau words of Lewis Carroll and James Joyce," writes Florian Cramer, "the words of mezangelle

 

interweave in double and multiple ways. The square brackets originate from programming language and are borrowed from common notation of Boolean algebra in that they reference several characters simultaneously, thus describing polysemy." [62] mez lets individual words physically become crossover points of different meanings–here, we are dealing with material ambiguity or polysemy implemented into linear text or, to echo Lacan, with the realised "vertical" of a point, [63] that is the simultaneous presence of different potentialities within the same word: «mez introduces the hypertext principle of multiplicity into the word itself. Rather than produce alternative trajectories through the text on the hypertext principle of 'choice', here they co-exist within the same textual space.» [64] mez’s texts enter into an endless shifting of meaning that generally cannot be specifically defined. This polysemy is, as noted by Florian Cramer, also a polysemy of the sexes, as is found in many of mez's texts: "'fe[male]tus' can be simultaneously read as 'foetus,' 'female,' and 'male.' Other words take on the syntax of file names and directory trees as well as the quoting conventions of e-mail and chats." [65]

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