blackout

"blackout" is an experimental executable created by Alan Sondheim using Microsoft Visual Basic (VBA). Like most of his experiments with VBA, this piece revolves around the use of glitch as commentary upon a central image. The program eventually becomes unresponsive by design. 

"The programs are operating in the space between analog and digital, although totally grounded in the digital. How much can mathesis transform semantics? All of them except for bee.exe are determined and therefore the metaphorical application of the machinic to the world. 

The code is simply vb-wise and somewhat complex in terms of nesting and recursion. I tend to work well with trignometric functions, which near the limits, say, of tangent and cotangent, can resonate with the limits of the computation itself. 

Furthermore these images are interpreted in terms of the underlying photographs - a lichen-like growth upon them, empathetic and cohering. In turn, they modify, deconstruct. 

What are they deconstructing? Language, meaning, symbols, the symbolic. Through erasure and the growth of form."

"one of the largest clocks in the world just stopped
and held its breath right outside my window

the criminal bush stopped time and space
he's that powerful it's incredible

it's just that 
nothing more" 
-- Alan Sondheim