62 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
62 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
# the rite of computing: Dancing a Universal Turing Machine
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Abstract sent for the Movement and Computing (MOCO) Conference (1)2019, in order to present {la consagración de la computadora} as a performance.
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The proposal was accepted but I couldn't attend the conference.
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Text adapted from its original version in LaTeX.
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# Abstract
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=> ./img/foto_ensayo_mub_1.jpg Photo of a rehearsal of the rite of computing in process: People dance with the shapes and objects according to the current choreographic configuration.
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=> ./img/foto_ensayo_mub_2.jpg Photo of a rehearsal of the rite of computing in process: Detail of a shifting of active shapes taking place in the worm.
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=> ./img/foto_shapes_mub.jpg Photo of the six different shapes that are used in the rite of computing.
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the rite of computing is a dance in which its participants collaborate and become a new kind of computer, machine, organism. It originates from two questions: What else can computation look like (besides a logic of efficiency and productivity, based on material, natural, and social exploitation)? What if computation was a ceremony, a party, a dance?
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The work is an exploration of computing in terms of slowing down, powering off, and "the pleasure in the confusion of boundaries" [4]. It is also an exploration of movement in terms of group awareness, mutual agreement, and joy.
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the rite of computing is a rule-based improvisation influenced by repetition. In it, human and non-human elements embody a reinterpretation of the Universal Turing Machine described by Minsky [6] and also discussed by Feynman [3]. For this implementation, the computer emulates what Turing called circle-free computing machines [7]; these are "[algorithms that] remain in a state of becoming, endlessly modifying the result" [5]. The dance performs a computation that may never reach an end.
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The machine consists of 23 states and 6 symbols: 23 choreographic configurations and 6 different shapes built with blocks.
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Our stage space contains a mix of the following elements: single blocks, engraved plaques, shapes built with blocks, humans, and the worm: a row of shapes.
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The plaques contain formulas that describe the operations to perform during a given configuration. These operations consist in shifting the current point of action in the row of shapes, transforming} a current active shape into another, and transitioning to another configuration.
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Once set in motion, the interactions between these heterogeneous parts cause emergent properties that perform computation; in that sense this machine is in dialog with the concept of assemblage as described by DeLanda [2].
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Each choreographic configuration is represented by a specific symbol in a plaque that invokes a predefined atmosphere to improvise with.
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The dancers follow the formulas of one of these plaques held in the air, while performing discrete operations on the shapes of the worm. Sometimes these shapes will trigger a formula that require a transition: the plaque is exchanged for another, and the choreography changes into the new configuration.
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A difference between this work and other Turing machine dances that could be found [1] is the absence of electronics in its workings and creation. By removing electricity as much as possible, the idea is to help blurring boundaries (organic - inorganic, human - machine) and to prompt questions about the nature} of computers.
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Wechsler differentiated between "art that is concerned with computers, or art that is merely created using computers" [8] when discussing dance, computers, and art; the aim of the rite of computing is to be dance concerned with computers, and to be a computer that is [merely] created using dance.
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=> ./img/ilustracion_symbols_mub.png Symbols corresponding to the 23 choreographic configurations in the rite of computing. They contain the formulas that describe the operations to perform during each of them.
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=> https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmVFYxZv2vjhz3pCkCfEvgGktL2dNbV55KfRPFRqyUJJVX/ilustracion_simbolos_mub.png full image of the symbols (png, ~1.5MB)
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# Keywords
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Performance; Choreography; Turing Machines; Unconventional Computing
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# CCS Concepts
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Applied computing~Performing arts
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Theory of computation~Abstract machines
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# References
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[1] Jennifer Burg and Karola Luttringhaus. 2006. Entertaining with Science, Educating with Dance. Comput. Entertain. 4, 2, Article 7 (April 2006). https://doi.org/10.1145/1129006.1129018
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[2] Manuel De Landa. 2016. Assemblage theory. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
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[3] Richard Phillips Feynman. 1996. Feynman lectures on computation. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.
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[4] Donna Jeanne Haraway. 2017. Manifestly Haraway. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
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[5] David Link. 2016. Archaeology of Algorithmic Artefacts. Univocal Publishing, Minneapolis.
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[6] Marvin Minsky. 1967. Computation: finite and infinite machines. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall.
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[7] Alan M. Turing. 1936. On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 2, 42 (1936), 230–265.
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[8] R. Wechsler. 1997. Computers and art: a dancer’s perspective. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 16, 3 (Fall 1997), 7–14. https://doi.org/10.1109/44.605946
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