[x] At X Fri Jan 11, 7pm: Artur Matuck (Brazil)

[Jim Andrews]

We will have two special guests on Fri Jan 11: Artur Matuck from Brazil will 
be presenting (see below) and Joe Keppler from Seattle is coming north 
specially for Artur's presentation.

All the best to those in X, and happy new year!

ja

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ARTUR MATUCK, FRI JAN 11
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Artur Matuck from Brazil will be talking to the group of x on Friday January
11, 7pm, on two topics: "Ars Combinatoria and the computational processes of
textual creation" and "De-scripting as e-writing theory and practice". Artur
Matuck is a professor, researcher and advisor at the School of
Communications and Arts in the Interfaculty Graduate Program in Aesthetics
and Art History at the University of Sao Paulo.

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ARTUR MATUCK TALK DESCRIPTIONS
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ARS COMBINATORIA AND THE COMPUTATIONAL PROCESSES OF TEXTUAL CREATION

Ars Combinatoria, as a research theme, constitutes a theoretical,
linguistic, cognitive and philosophical reflection on the combinatory basis
of verbal, written and visual discourses. The I-Ching is considered the
pioneer text to absorb its principles. The Kaballists would follow proposing
letter recombinations. Ramon Lull devised, in the 13th century, a series of
concentric movable wheels seen as the first textual machines. Lull was read
by Giordano Bruno who developed further the moving systems. They were both
read by Leibniz, inspiring his "Dissertatio of Ars Combinatoria". Some
literary procedures can be directly correlated with 'ars combinatoria'. The
poetry of Mallarmé, the work of Raymond Roussel, the procedures of
surrealists and dadaists, the movement of Brazilian concrete poetry, the
potential literature of the French group Oulipo, the inventions of Jorge
Luis Borges, the cut-ups of William Burroughs, the textual wordplays of
Marcel Duchamp, the diagram-based semiologies of Charles Sanders Pierce and
Algirdas Julien Greimas, they all demonstrate the richness of the
combinatory tool for thought and language experimentation. All those
historical processes can be reconceived as elements of an evolutionary
process since the emergence of the computer as a semiotic machine able to
recombine signs through mathematical algorithms.

DE-SCRIPTING AS E-WRITING THEORY AND PRACTICE

The de-scripting process has resulted from a challenge to create alternative
forms of electronic writing. It utilizes the computer as co-author in the
process of recreating words and phrases. A software configured as a virtual
"broken typewriter" produces alternatives to letter or word sequences. This
mathematically oriented process de-scribes written languages, through
computerized semi-random substitutions causing intentional misspellings and
misphrasings. The machine response generates a new electronic writing form.
The objective is to create new terms or formulations for poetical, literary,
aesthetic, political, linguistic, theoretical or scientific purposes and to
conceive computer processes able to renew language codes. The process
undermines the idea that languages must be protected by institutions from
possible changes. Language is seen, otherwise, as a living entity,
reflecting social forces and technologies.

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ARTUR MATUCK BIO
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Artur Matuck has been teaching Visual Arts, Communications and Literature at
the University of São Paulo since 1984. In São Paulo, Brazil, Europe, United
States, Canada and Asia, he has worked as teacher, researcher, writer,
visual artist, video producer, performer, designer of teleart events and
interactive sites and more recently as a media philosopher. Since 1977, Mr.
Matuck has been delivering conferences and workshops on New Media Arts,
Interactive Television, Telecommunication Arts, Performance Art,
Computer-Generated Writing, Intellectual Property and related issues. Since
the late 80s he has been planning videocommunication and web-based exchanges
between artists and individuals from different countries and cultures. He is
the creator of Semion - an international symbol for released information, a
theoretical and conceptual contribution to the on-going debates on
intellectual property rights and information dissemination.

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LOCATION
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This event is at my place: #1502, 811 Helmcken street. I'm in The Imperial
Tower (!) at the corner of Howe and Helmcken. Buzz 247 to get in. If you are
coming by car, there is underground parking. If you are coming from
Granville street along Helmcken, you turn right into the alley between Howe
and Hornby. And go right at the first opportunity down into the basement.
Buzz 247 to get in. And then buzz 247 again when you are by the elevator to
get up to the 15th floor.

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UPCOMING EVENTS
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Artur Matuck, Fri Jan 11, 7pm, #1502, 811 Helmcken St
Jesse Scott, Fri Feb 22, 7pm, location to be determined