ANXIOUS ARTEFACTS(AND MUTUALLY PROGRAMMING HARMONY)
BY JOSH GIBBINS
‘ANXIOUS ARTEFACTS’ ADDRESSES RICHARD BRAUTIGAN’S POEM: “ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE’ BY DESIGNING A SET OF SYSTEMS THAT QUANTIFY HOW AN ARTEFACT CAN CAUSE ANXIETY IN A PERSON. ARTEFACTS HAVE POTENTIAL “ANXIOUS PROPERTIES”, THE SET OF SYSTEMS USES QUANTITATIVE METHODOLOGIES TO EXAMINE THOSE PROPERTIES AND ALLOWS US TO WORK OUT HOW CLOSE WE ARE TO ACHIEVING ‘MUTUALLY PROGRAMMING HARMONY. BRAUTIGAN IS A TECHNOLOGICAL UTOPIAN AND THIS PROJECT BRINGS AWARENESS THE POTENTIAL BARRIERS THAT COULD STOP US FROM REACHING HIS DREAM, A DREAM HE WANTED EVERYONE TO SHARE, ONE WHERE WE CAN ALL BE WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE.THE PROJECT HAS STEMMED FROM RESEARCH INTO AREAS OF SCIENCE FICTION SUCH AS THE SUBGENRE OF CYBERPUNK. NOVELS SUCH AS MARY SHELLEY’S ‘FRANKENSTEIN’, PHILIP K. DICK’S ‘DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?’, WILLIAM GIBSON’S ‘NEUROMANCER’ AND MOST RECENTLY CD PROJEKT RED’S VIDEO GAME ‘CYBERPUNK 2077’, ALL OF WHICH MIRROR CONTEMPORARY ANXIETIES AROUND THE ADVANCEMENTS OF TECHNOLOGY IF IT WERE TO GO UNCHECKED.
TECHNOLOGY IS ARTEFACTUAL, MEANING THAT IT HAS BEEN CREATED ONLY THROUGH HUMAN ‘SKILL/CRAFT’, I WANT TO FOUND OUT WHAT EXACTLY IS THE REASON WHY ANXIETIES ARE BEING CAUSED BY DRAWING FROM DATA COLLECTED TO DETERMINE ACCURATE RESULTS.
THROUGH EDITORIAL AND GRAPHIC DESIGN, I HAVE CREATED A SET OF PUBLICATIONS THAT ARE MEDIUMS OF COMMUNICATION, A BRIDGE OF DESIGN THAT RESPONDS TO A WIDE RANGE OF AUDIENCES. THE WIDER THE AUDIENCE, THE MORE THE ARTEFACTS DIFFERENTIATE, OFFERING AN INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO WHERE WE ARE ON THE SCALE OF ACHIEVING ‘MUTUALLY PROGRAMMING HARMONY’, BRAUTIGAN’S UTOPIAN DREAM.
RICHARD BRAUTIGAN
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.