Saturday 23 November
Benthuizerstraat 96-B
Rotterdam
Netherlands
Gather at 17.00
or;
Saturday 7 December 2002
Soho Square
London
UK
Gather at 14.00
or;
http://www.socialfiction.org
http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography
readme.walk
Generative psychogeography(*), walking on algorithms
as a means to explore the city, translates ideas from
computer science to the real world. The next logical
challenge was to take the whole concept a step further
& to start regarding:
(1) The city as a database
(2) The city as a switchboard
(1) The City as a Database.
Quoting urban theorist Lewis Mumford: "[T]he great
city is the best organ of memory man has yet created".
The city is a memory bank or in modern terms a
database. The database is perhaps the most post-modern
product of the digital revolution: no longer are data
units separated entities: by feeding the database
queries every data can be correlated to uncover
unexpected patterns. If the city is a database then
.walk software improves the power of the generative
psychogeographical search method by adding formulised
shifts in the formula, connecting the pandemonium of
individual action into an interconnected meta-software
to share information & experiences.
(2) The City as a switchboard
The most radical application of algorithmic walks is
to use them in a scheme much more complex: the
construction of a UGPC (Universal Generative
Psychogeographical Computer). In this urban computer
the city is the hardware that functions as a
switchboard or an abacus. The software running on top
of this hardware are the pedestrian agents walking
according to rules that generate the route (= data
processing), exchanging information as they interact
on their 'random' encounters.
In theory the UGPC should be able to solve any
mathematical problem.
The .walk(*2) software development is only the first
feeble attempt to program the urban logic gate staring
at us.
The UGPC is meant to be platform independent, so a
.walk applet that computes Pi in one city should work
in any other city as well.
*) for instance:
2nd street left
1st street right
2nd street left
repeat
*2) for instance
// Interactive Generative Psychogeography
// Filename: interact1.walk
// This open source software is produced by
// www.socialfiction.org
//
// T = Time (in minutes)
// E = Exportcode
// C = Counter
E = 3
C = 0
Repeat
{
E = X
1 st street left
2 nd street right
X street left
When 2 programs meet
{
Exchange E
C + 1
}
Count T 0 to 60
If time = 60
{
abort to Root
print C to socialfiction.org
}
=====
http://www.socialfiction.org | http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography
"Socialfiction.org is the J. Lo of psychogeography" - Puff Daddy
"Socialfiction.org big up them themselves" - Ali G
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psychogeography || .walk.readme
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Type: discussion