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Bar Code
'Konrad Becker
Konrad Becker
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'Wolfgang Zinggl
Wolfgang Zinggl
THE WORLD – SYNTHESIZEABLE FROM BAR CODES AND IMAGINATION "The industry feeds of the human biomass, like a whale straining krill from the sea"
from "Snow Crash" by N. Stephenson
"Bar Codes are a Girl's best friend"
From "T.R.I.A.D (Trivial Research industries Arch. Dept.)
"The Bar as a place where social codes, social games, and bar rituals are performed, it is the city's communications battle field.
It is obvious that the decisive influence of new technologies and fields of science are to be found, in an experimental sense, at the intersections of social interaction, amongst other things, utopic models can be directly introduced at the gastronomy taps."
The Bar as a reagent glass of human biomass is the laboratory of a humanistic information virology. The silent post of the quasi species man as a case example for the Tower Building of Babel.
CODE WAR THE MATHEMATICAL MODELS CONCERNING THE COURTSHIP OF GLOW WORMS, MAY ALSO POSSIBLY REVEAL SOCIAL BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS AND FROM THE REACTION CYCLES OF CHEMICAL CLOCKS; CONNECTIONS MAY BE ESTABLISHED TO THE LAWS ACCORDING TO WHICH FATHER CHRISTMASES DRESSED IN RED AND WITH WHITE BEARDS APPEAR.
IF COAT MARKINGS AND STRIPE PATTERNS IN THE ANIMAL WORLDS CAN BE SIMULATED WITH THE STANDING WAVES OF CHEMICAL REACTION-DIFFUSION MODELS, THEN WHAT FUNDAMENTAL PATTERN FORMATION MECHANISMS APPLY TO FASHIONABLE ACCESSORIES OR THE AFFIRMATIVE SMALL TALK? THE "SHAMELESS SOCIETY, WITH MODERN LIFE AS A HOTHOUSE OF BASE INSTINCTS", ACCORDING TO THE TITLE STORY IN "SPIEGEL" ON 11.1.93, PROBABLY PROVIDES OPTIMAL CONDITIONS FOR THE DISCOVERY OF NEW PARASITIC INFORMATION MOLECULES.
THE VIRUS AS A GENETIC PIRATE IS A FRONTIER COMMUTER BETWEEN INANIMATE MATTER AND LIVING ORGANISMS, A MODEL FOR SELF-ORGANIZATION AT AN EARLY DEVELOPMENT STAGE IN LIFE. THE EXAMINATION OF VIRUSES SHOWS HOW INFORMATION CAN BE OPTIMIZED AND FURTHER PROCESSED AT A MOLECULAR LEVEL. THESE SELF-REPRODUCING INFORMATION SYSTEMS TRANSCEND THE BARRIERS BETWEEN MAN AND MACHINE, ANIMATE AND INANIMATE NATURE.
WHEN THE TEXT "I HAVE BECOME ALIVE, I AM ALIVE!" SUDDENLY APPEARS ON A COMPUTER MONITOR, THEN THE COMPUTER IS VERY PROBABLY INFECTED WITH A VIRUS.
LANGUAGE ITSELF CAN BE UNDERSTOOD AS BEING A VIRUS, ACCORDING TO W. BOUROUGHS, EVEN AS A VIRUS FROM ANOTHER STAR.
EVERY RELIGIOUS-IDEOLOGICAL MISSIONIZING SHOWS THE QUALITY OF SELF-ACCOMPLISHING REPRODUCTION AND THE COMMON EARWIG CAN BE UNDERSTOOD AS BEING A VIRAL INFECTION.
IN CONTRAST TO THE SOMEWHAT AWKWARD SELF-REPRODUCING IDEOLOGIES OF THE PAST CONSISTING OF RELIGION AND POLITICS, WE HAVE BECOME ACQUAINTED WITH, NOT LEAST, NEW AND MORE AGGRESSIVE SPECIES OF IDEOLOGY BYTES AND TIME CODES THROUGH THE FAST BREEDER OF THE MEDIA.
IDEOLOGY IS SUPERSEDED BY EFFICIENT IDEOGRAMMES WHOSE REDUCED MOLECULAR MORPHOLOGY BECOMES CLEAR IN THE COMPARISON BETWEEN A BAROQUE SAINT AND A MODERN STREET SIGN. THE LOGOGRAMME OF THE AIDS VIRUS WITH ITS DEGREE OF NOTORIETY, IN THE MEANTIME, COMES CLOSE TO THE POPULARITY OF THE MERCEDES STAR.
ADVERTISING AND MARKETING HAVE ADVANCED THE IDEOLOGICAL INTERLOCKING OF CODES WITH THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE EVERY DAY CONSUMER THROUGH PRODUCT NAMES SUCH AS "DU DARFST" (YOU MAY) OR "NIMM ZWEI" (TAKE TWO). CHEERFUL POST-BEHAVIOURISM AS SELF-SERVICE FOR THE AUTOMATED CONSUMER. "EVERYONE ACCORDING TO HIS NEEDS" CHANGED FROM THE LIBERTARIAN SLOGAN TO THE RELIGIOUS META-CONCEPT OF THE LATE CAPITALISTIC SUPERMARKET'S WORLD OF GOODS AND THE SALVATION ARMY OF POSITIVE THINKING. IN THE PRECONSCIOUS STIMULUS RESPONSE OF THE SOCIALLY STRESSED PRIMATES, IT DOESN'T FIT TOGETHER AT ALL, LIKE FLEEING INSTEAD OF STANDING FIRM TO AN EXPLODING FAST RESTAURANT.
MIND-BYTE MARKETING IS THE FUTURE BAROMETER OF ALL TREND RESEARCHERS AND THE WATERHOLE OF ALL MEDIA FEEDBACK ARTISTS, JUST AS A BOOK OFTEN ONLY REPRESENTS IT IF JUSTIFICATION FOR THE BLURB, INFORMATION SCANNING IS SIMILAR TO THE FILTERING OF RESYNTHESIZEABLE CODES TO FORM A SELF-REFERENTIAL KEY SERVICE, (HIT ME WITH YOUR FUNCTION KEY).
"YES, YOU GET THINGS LIKE THAT: MORE LOGICAL, VERY LOGICAL, LESS LOGICAL- FORMALLY THIS CAN ONLY BE UNDERSTOOD AS LONG AS IT IS MEANINGLESS."
ADVERTISING AND MEDIA OPERATE ACCORDING TO THE CONCEPT OF AFFECTIVE LOGIC AND THE MEANINGFUL HUNCH OF "PERHAPS" ORIGINATING FROM THE DUAL LOGIC, HAS CAST ITS SHADOWY SWEEP ONTO THE SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE, PARTICLES OF THE WORLD BECAME PROBABILITY FUNCTIONS AND MATTER BECAME SYMMETRY. BUT NOT THE INCLINATION FOR POETRY, ON THE CONTRARY, A COMPULSION TO WRITE TRANSFORMS HALFBAKED FACTS INTO TURN-KEY METAPHORS AND SPIRALIZES THE AMBIGUITY OF THE MEDIAL COMMON PLACE INTO THE UPS AND DOWNS OF COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS IN ORDER TO LEAVE ITS SCENT THERE.
WITH A CHEERFUL "EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT", WE LEAF THROUGH THE PRESS OR ABSORB VIVID PICTURES AND JUST AS GENETIC MUTATIONS ARE TRIGGERED OFF THROUGH THE BOMBARDMENT OF COSMIC RADIATION, THE FIELD OF VISION OF THE MEDIA CONSUMER IS PICTURE POINTED BY CATHODE RAYS.
BEING ABLE TO MAKE SENSE, MEANS IN THE KILLER CIRCLE OF DOG EATS DOG: MAKE SENSE OR I'LL EAT YOU.
MAN AS THE FORERUNNER OF THE 100% BIOLOGICALLY DECOMPOSABLE THROW AWAY PACKAGE HAD, IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND, AN AVERAGE EXPIRY DATE OF 30 YEARS.
UNDER FAVOURABLE CONDITIONS AND IN A CIVILIZATION WHICH IS FOUNDED ON WEALTH AND GOOD BEHAVIOUR, THE HUMAN EXPIRY DATE ON THE BIOLOGICAL SPARE WHEEL CAN BE CONSIDERABLY PROLONGED DESPITE RESTRICTED VITALITY. HOWEVER, WITH GREATLY INCREASED LIFE EXPECTANCY, AN ENORMOUS LEISURE PROBLEM ARISES AS AN AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF 30 YEARS APPEARS TO BE MORE THAN SUFFICIENT FOR SEXUAL REPRODUCTION AND THE RAISING OF OFFSPRING. ("IS THERE A LIFE BEFORE DEATH? WHAT RESTS FOREVER IS NOT DEAD, BUT IN UNKNOWN TIMES DEATH STILL COULD DIE!").
IF WE WANT TO MEASURE LIVELINESS TO THE ADAPTATION POSSIBILITY TO ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULUS, THEN DON'T TRUST ANYONE OVER TWENTY, AS APPARENTLY THE ENERGY HAS GONE AND THE FIRE IS OUT SOON AFTER THE DECISIVE SEXUAL CHARACTER PHASE (THE TRANSFORMATION TO THE HONOURABLE MEMBER OF SOCIETY). AS CAN BE SEEN CLEARLY FROM THE ANNUAL RINGS OF THE YOUTH CULTURE AND THE QUICK SUCCESSION OF THEIR TIDES, ONLY A FEW SUCCEED IN TRANSCODING THE MODEL OF THEIR COINING. THE READINESS OF THE BRAIN TO MAKE NEW CONNECTIONS OBVIOUSLY DECREASES TO SUCH A DEGREE THAT THE MUSICAL STYLISTIC EXCRESCENCE CAN NO LONGER BE ACCOMPLISHED AFTER THE "OPEN WINDOW". BE IT FISH OR FROG, BABOON OR HUMAN BEING, THE EMBRIONIC DEVELOPMENT OF VERTEBRATES IS VERY SIMILAR IN ITS INITIAL STAGES, BUT THE DEVELOPMENT STOP AND THE SIDESTEP INTO THE ECO-NICHE NOT ONLY PRESENTED US WITH ADULT ROCK AND POST PUNK, BUT ALSO APPEARS TO BE AN EVOLUTION PHENOMENA.
THE LUXURY OF A PROLONGED ADOLESCENCE IN THE LONG-LIVED WEALTHY CIVILIZATIONS IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOR EXAMPLE, HOW THE DREAM FACTORY OF THE CINEMA FINANCES ITSELF LARGELY FROM THE POCKET MONEY OF THE INTERNATIONAL TEENAGER. THE LEISURE PROBLEM HAS FURTHER INTENSIFIED WITH INCREASING AUTOMATION AND AFTER HAVING SUPERSEDED BLUE COLLAR WORKERS BY THE INTRODUCTION OF INTELLIGENT TECHNICAL PRODUCTION METHODS, THE NEXT STAGE IS READY TO IGNITE: THE AUTOMATION OF INTELLECTUAL WORK DRIVES THE MENTAL SILICON PROTHESIS RIGHT OUT INTO THE SERVICE AREA.
SOON THERE WILL HARDLY BE ANY PRODUCTION SECTORS WHERE MACHINES DO NOT WORK MORE ECONOMICALLY, FASTER, CLEANER, AND MORE EFFICIENTLY THAN HUMAN BEINGS. WHEN WILL THE POST-INDUSTRIAL DATA ECONOMY SWITCH OVER TO AUTO-PILOT AND DISMISS THE WORKING POPULATION INTO HISTORY BY MEANS OF LEISURE SHOCK? THE HEADING "WORK LIBERATES" WAS PART OF THE WEIRD IRONY OF THE MORE RECENT CONTEMPORARY HISTORY; BUT "FREEDOM MAKES WORK" IS AN UNWRITTEN LAW OF THE LEISURE SOCIETY. IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO VERY EXACTLY FOLLOW, BUT FROM WHICH UNCONSCIOUS AFFECTIVE CHANGES AND REGULATIONS OF HIERARCHICALLY SUPERORDINATED, FEELING IMPULSES A "FREE WILL" ORIGINATES, CAN HARDLY STILL BE FOLLOWED. THE SOFTWARE IS THE SAFETY RISK OF COMPUTER-AIDED WAR STRATEGY, COMPLEX SOURCE CODES LEAD A LIFE OF THEIR OWN AND ESCAPE THEIR UNVEILING ON THE ARROW OF TIME.
JUST FOLLOW YOUR NOSE, EVEN JUST A FEW MOLECULES OF A SCENT OR PHEROMONE ARE SUFFICIENT TO AWAKEN MEMORIES OF THE ANIMAL IN HUMAN BEINGS. PRODUCT NAMES LIKE OBSESSION, EGOISTE, OR PITRALON, SPEAK A VERY CLEAR LANGUAGE. SOME RECOLLECTION STORES, THE DRAINERS OF THE MEMORY, APPEAR ONLY TO OPEN IN CERTAIN FRAMES OF MIND AND EMOTIONAL SETTINGS. IT IS ONLY THE TRANSITION INTO THE PHASE AREA OF THE ATTRACTOR THAT PERMITS ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM.
AS A MATTER OF INTEREST, WITH THE STORING AND RECALLING OF COMPLEX COGNITIVE MATERIAL THERE IS A HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE IN WHICH THE INFORMATION STORED IN HIGHER CONSCIOUS STAGES (AWAKENED CONSCIOUSNESS) REMAINS AVAILABLE IN LESS DIFFERENTIATED STATES (DREAM), BUT NOT IN REVERSE. AFTER WAKING UP IT IS OFTEN DIFFICULT TO REMEMBER A DREAM AND WHOEVER HAS AWAKENED FROM A DEEP HYPNOSIS HAS NO DIRECT ACCESS TO THE SUGGESTIONS MADE IN THE HYPNOTIC SLEEP.
IN THE CASE OF OPERATIONS PERFORMED UNDER A GENERAL ANAESTHETIC, ANY NEGATIVE SUGGESTIONS MADE BY THE MEDICAL STAFF PRESENT (E.G. "THE FAT PIG WON'T DO IT MUCH LONGER") CONSIDERABLY HAMPER THE REHABILITATION PROCESS AND HAVE LED TO MALPRACTICE PROCESSES AND ACTION FOR DAMAGES.
EVEN REAL ZOMBIES EAT HAMBURGERS, BUT DO THE BRAIN DEAD EXPERIENCE HUNGER? AT ANY RATE THEY NEED NOURISHMENT AND OXYGEN.
CONSCIOUSNESS AND READINESS FOR MENTAL RECEPTION CONSUMES ASTONISHINGLY JUST AS MANY CALORIES AS APATHY OR INDOLENCE. ACTING DOESN'T COST ANY MORE STRENGTH THAN REACTING. HERE AT THE CROSSING POINT OF THE CONSTANTLY CHANGING WITH THE PERMAMENT, THERE APPEARS TO BE A HIDDEN SOURCE OF NEGATIVE ENTROPY. CONSCIOUSNESS AS A NON-THERMAL POWER STATION OF AN ENERGY FASTER THAN LIGHT, IS IN ITS SIMULTANEOUSNESS, AN ADHESIVE OF THE UNIVERSE.
THE CINEMA DEVELOPED AS THE TECHNICAL EXECUTION OF THE MODEL OF JACOB'S LADDER AND THE CADRE GRID REMINISCENT OF AN EXTENDED FIRE BRIGADE LADDER REVEALS THE FUNCTIONAL PRINCIPLE WHICH BECOMES SYMBOLIZATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL SYMBOL FOR EMERGENCY LADDER. AS, OF COURSE, IT INVOLVES TOO MUCH EFFORT TO TRANSPORT THE AUDIENCE AT THE CORRESPONDING SPEED ALONG THE CELLULOID LADDER, THE INGENIOUS IDEA AROSE TO MOVE THE FILM ON WITH AN ARTFUL MECHANICAL DEVICE. ULTIMATELY, THE AUDIENCE IS THEN MOVED MORE THAN THE MATERIAL.
THE SPACE BETWEEN THIS FILMED LATTICE FENCE BECOMES A VISION OF A PROJECTED MODULATION OF TRANSPARENCY. AND JUST AS GALILEO'S BINOCULARS, THE VIEW OF THE STARS AND LITTLE STARS PROVOKES THE CRY: "AND THEY DO MOVE!"
BEYOND A PEACEFUL COEXISTANCE, THESE ARTIFICIAL GALAXIES HAVE LONG BEEN INSEPARABLE FROM OUR REAL WORLD, AS IS SHOWN BY THE PICTURE OF THE "FILM TEAR" THAT FREQUENTLY CROPS UP IN COURT PROCEEDINGS. "THE FILM TEAR" AS MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCE STANDS E.G. FOR THE ALCOHOL-RELATED BLACKOUT OF CULTURAL GLOSS AND WHEN THIS SHORT TERM LOSS OF SOCIAL ENTRAINMENT PROCEEDS WITHOUT MUCH HARM BEING DONE, EVERYTHING IS OK AGAIN. THE TECHNICAL FAULT (WE REGRET) OF THE PRIVATE RED-GREEN-BLUE LINE DANCE MONITOR, OF COURSE, REQUIRES A NEW LINGUISTIC REGULATION, E.G. TAPE TEAR, BITMAP ERROR OR ":()*()*(".
RITUALIZED NON-LOCALITY IN THE LOCAL OF YOUR CHOICE IS, OF COURSE, THE BAR: IN THE COURT OF CONTACT OF ZEITGEIST IS THE TEST ROUTE OF HUMAN INTERFACE MODELLING AND THE ARENA FOR BREEDING SELECTION (SON OF A BITCH). A MERRY ROUND CONSISTING OF ATTRACTION AND REPULSION ON A MATRIX OF THE GUESTS' REQUEST INTERVALS. THE COURSE OF A PUBLIC MULTI-LATERAL RELATION BUSINESS CAN BE REPRESENTED AS A DYNAMIC LANDSCAPE OF VIRTUAL MOUNTAINS OF UNEASE AND VALLEYS OF WELL-BEING, IN WHICH THE SUBJECTIVE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE PARTICIPANTS IS ALWAYS DIFFERENT. ENDLESS HUNTS AND THE ROMANTIC TURBULENCE OF CELLULAR SLOT MACHINES ON THE COORDINATES OF THE SOCIAL DISTANCE OF PERSONAL SPACE (30 SECONDS TO COMPLY). THE BIOCULTURALLY RELATED GAMES RULES HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY COMPLICATED AND ABSTRACTED THROUGH MEDIALIZATION. (IS THAT NEW? NO …). AN INDUSTRY OF "SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS" HAS RECORDED ITSELF ENGRAMMATICALLY IN THE UNCONSCIOUS, JUST AS VIRAL GENETIC INFORMATION HAS BEEN INTRODUCED OVER GENERATIONS INTO THE HUMAN GENOTYPE. (SOME OF THESE VIRUSES COULD HAVE BEEN WASHED ONTO OUR PLANET A LONG TIME AGO AS COSMIC FLOTSAM AND JETSAM FROM EXPLODING STAR SYSTEMS AND COULD HAVE MADE MAN INTO THE HOST OF PARASITIC ALIEN LIFE FORMS). IN THIS WAY MAN BECAME HIS DOUBLE, CLONED FROM THE TRIPLETS OF TRIVIAL TRINITY BY PRESS, RADIO AND TELEVISION.
FROM PEN-FRIENDSHIP TO TELEPHONE SEX, FROM THE TELECOM TO IN VITRO FERTILIZATION, IT IS ONLY ONE HOTLINE. SOME BEHAVIOURAL RESEARCHERS REDUCED THE FUNDAMENTAL STATEMENT OF HUMAN COMMUNICATIONS TO THE PRIMAL FORMULA: "I AM HERE! ARE YOU HERE TOO?" A VERBAL EXCHANGE WHICH HAS BEEN PRACTICED SINCE THE VERY EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND (IN THE NON-ELECTRIFIED FLATS OF THE CAVE BEARS). THE FORMULA CHANGED INTO "I AM COMING! ARE YOU COMING TOO?" IN THE SYMBOL OF TELEMATIC MOBILITY AND EROTICIZED TECHNOLOGY.
EVER SINCE THE EARTH HAS BEEN ROUND AND REVOLVES, EVERYTHING REVOLVES AND MOVES, AND TO JUST BE ABLE TO REMAIN AT THE SAME PLACE, THE COMPLETE ROTATION OF THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE HAS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED OVER 24 HOURS. THE CLEAR STAND POINT GETS INTO THE FLUX TO THE LINE AND OPINION BECOMES A QUESTION OF STYLE, CONTEXTUALITY, THE CUDGEL IN THE LAUGHING BAG OF MODERN PERPLEXITY, WILL AT SOME TIME WILL BE SLAIN BY HYPER-CONTEXTUALITY; WITH THE FAINT IDEA THAT SOMEWHERE, EVERYTHING IS SOMEHOW CONNECTED.
EVEN COMPUTERS NEED FUZZY LOGIC AND IT CAN BE SEEN HOW THE PRECISION OF A STATEMENT CAN BE THE REVERSE OF ITS SIGNIFICANCE, WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF A SYSTEM. "NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS" – EVEN WHEN LIFE SEEMS TO BE HARD ENOUGH. FOR, WHOEVER UNDERSTANDS EVERYTHING MUST HAVE UNDERSTOOD SOMETHING WRONG. IT IS NOT A LONG WAY FROM SURVIVAL AND FITNESS TO SELF-OUTSMARTING. THE RELATIONSHIP OF COOPERATION AND SELF-INTEREST WAS KNOWN AS A GAMES-THEORY SITUATION UNDER THE NAME OF PRISONERS' DILEMMA AND AWAKENED THE INTEREST OF MATHEMATICIANS, SCIENTISTS, POLITICAL SCIENTISTS AND EVOLUTONARY BIOLOGISTS. COMPUTER GAMES AND COMPETITIONS FOR ITERATIVE AND TERRITORIAL FORMS OF THE PRISONERS' DILEMMA SHOW JUST HOW COOPERATION STRATEGIES CAN SUCCEED ALTHOUGH SUCCESSFUL FRAUD BRINGS THE BIGGEST GAIN IN THE SHORT-TERM.
LUCKILY ENOUGH, OUR ANTHROPICAL CHAUVINISM RELATIVIZES ITSELF IN RELATION TO THE LIVING BEINGS WHICH RULED THE PLANETS BEFORE US. WITH THE AID OF NEW FINDINGS AND THE ASSISTANCE OF THE YOUTH FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD (THE DINO AS CONTEMPORARY TEDDY BEAR), THE DINOSAURS ARE HITTING BACK AND NO LONGER LET THEMSELVES BE SLANDERED AS THE PLUMP-DULL MONSTERS WHICH WERE OVERRUN BY EVOLUTION ON ACCOUNT OF ALLEGEDLY BEING UNFIT TO LIVE. WHEN THE DINOSAURS STILL LIVED ON THE SPACE SHIP EARTH, THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HOMONIDS WERE ONLY INSIGNIFICANT SORICIDAE AND OPOSSUMS WHICH OCCUPIED ONLY A SMALL ECOLOGICAL NICHE AMONG THE MAMMALS. IS HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF AT THE END, AGAIN, AND IS THE MOUSE WHICH IS NOW TO BE FOUND ON NEARLY EVERY WRITING DESK THE FORERUNNER OF A NEW MASTER RACE?
IT IS NO LONGER PENNIES WHICH FALL FROM HEAVEN BUT GAME CHIPS AND AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT WHO DREAMED OF HOW THE YOUTH COULD TURN INTO PEREFCT FIGHTER PILOTS WITH THE AID OF VIDEO GAMES, WAS STILL ABLE TO EXPERIENCE HOW AIR BATTLES BECAME VIDEO GAMES. JUST AS THE CAPTAIN OF A PLANE ON THE APPROACH FOR LANDING UNDER BAD VISIBILITY CONDITIONS ORIENTATES HIMSELF ON THE SOVEREIGN CONTROL ABILITIES OF THE COMPUTER-EXPERT SYSTEM "AUTOPLIOT", IT IS NOT A DISGRACE TO WITHDRAW IN THE FACE OF A SUPERIOR OPPONENT. IF OVERREACHING DOESN'T PAY, A COOPERATION MODEL COULD POINT OUT THE WAY. THE "DIVIDE AND DOMINATE" PRINCIPLE OF THE OLD WARLORDS DEVELOPS ITS COUNTERACTING FORCE IN ELECTRONIC INTERLINKING. UNITE AND FIGHT!
THE WORLD WAR AMONGST COMPUTERS HAS BEEN RAGING FOR YEARS AS CORE WARS AND, AS OPPOSED TO START WARS, PROGRESSES COMPLETELY WITHOUT LOSS OF BLOOD. AND PARADOXICALLY THIS CAN ONLY BE TERMED AS BEING HUMAN IN FRONT OF THE BACKGROUND OF "REAL" WARS IN WHICH THERE IS NO VICTOR ANY MORE. INBREEDING AND SPECIALIZATION ARE AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ABILITY TO ADAPT AND OVER-SPECIALIZING IS THE FASTEST WAY TO EXTINCTION. ON THE WAY TO THE GLOBAL SELF-FULFILLING MEDIA, DATA DEAMONS DEVELOP TO FORM EMANCIPATED KNOWBOTS ON A SILICON PLANET OF ELECTRONIC SELF-STIMULATION. ("DO ANDROIDS DREAM ABOUT ELECTRICAL SHEEP?")
AMUSINGLY ENOUGH, THE BASIS OF THE MATERIAL WORLD (MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND?) IS STILL GOLD, THE MEANS OF PAYMENT OF ANALPHABETIC PIRATES AND CRAFTY CHIEFTAINS. AND ALTHOUGH, FOR CENTURIES NOW, MORE AND MORE GOLD HAS BEEN PRODUCED AND BROUGHT INTO CIRCULATION, THERE IS HARDLY LESS POVERTY THAN BEFORE. EVEN WHEN AN AUSTRIAN DAILY NEWSPAPER ADVERTISES FOR ITSELF WITH THE SLOGAN "INTELLIGENCE CAN BE BOUGHT"(1), IT BECOMES MORE AND MORE EVIDENT JUST HOW PASSE THE ECONOMIC APPRAISAL SYSTEM IS. YET THE INFORMATION WAR RAGES AND SETS NEW STANDARDS: PATENTED MICE AND COPYRIGHT TOMATOES HAVE ALARMED BIG MONEY, TO CONQUER THE GENETIC MAPS WITH GENOM DECODERS.
AS IS WELL KNOWN, YOU CAN'T EAT MONEY, BUT YOU CAN EAT TRANSGENIC PRODUCTS AND THE INFORMATION CODED IN IT CAN SUDDENLY CAUSE A HARDWORKING BUSINESS MAN TO EXCHANGE A SUITCASE FULL OF GOLD FOR A FEW NUTS OR GRAINS OF CEREAL.
IN THE GENETIC GOLD RUSH, THE DIRECT INFLUENCE OF A SEMEN BANK IS SHOWN ON THE STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS OF A DATA BANK. WHO GETS THE PATENT FOR THE NEW PERSON? WHO MONOPOLIZES THE SPECIES? WHO LICENSES THE BORN WINNERS AND LOSERS? IS THERE A MARKET FOR TRANSGENIC CENTAURS, CONTORTIONISTS, DWARFS OR SELF-LUMINOUS HOUSE PLANTS? TRADE IN CHANGE! FROM CONSUMER ELECTRONICS TO CONSUMER BIOLOGICALS, FROM ANIMATRONIC ENVIRONMENT TO THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL ECOLOGICAL HYPERSPACE-DESIGN OF THE BIOMASS. THE KEY TO SUCCESS IS RECOMBINATION, LIFE IS CHANGE, SO RESIST THE BEGINNINGS – TRANSCODE YOURSELF! (REVOLUTIONS GOBBLE UP THEIR CHILDREN, BUT YOU CAN'T FOOL THE CHILDREN OF THE SYNVOLUTION).
FRY LUKEWARM REALITY SCHNITZEL WITH STATISTIC INSUFFICIENCY IN THE BODY FAT OF THE MENTALLY STILLBORN, ARE THEY PERPETUUM PERPLEX OF NEW HIGH TECH FEUDALISM. IN A RESTAURANT WHERE ONLY THE MENU IS ON OFFER (THE ULTIMATE FAST FOOD), THE KAISERS NEW CLOTHES SUGGEST THEMSELVES. IN THE DEAD FLANK ARMS OF GAME, FUN AND EXCITEMENT, WHERE FIGURES CARVE FIGURES WITHOUT MAKING THEIR GAME, LIE THE HEAPS OF COMPLEX IGNORANCE LIKE METABOLISM PRODUCTS.
CODING AND DECODING WERE AT THE CRADLE OF MODERN INFORMATICS IN THE WAR OF THE BRAINS (ENIGMA VS. TURING, WW II). CRYPTOLOGY AND THE SCIENCE OF COMPLEX DYNAMIC SYSTEMS UNVEIL THE MYSTERIES OF OPEN SECRETS AND THE MECHANISMS OF WONDERFUL FOG MACHINES OF PUBLIC OPINION FORMING. WHILE THE CONES OF PANIC SEARCHLIGHTS FALL ON THE CLOUD BANKS OF CULTURAL STEAM, THE PSYCHOCYBERNETIC TARGET SIGHTING MECHANICS ARE HEATING UP. EVERYTHING IS REVOLVING, EVERYTHING IS MOVING IN THE GLOBAL PLAYGROUND "PANTA RHEI", AND EVEN THE VACUUM OF THE EMPTY SPACE IS FLOODED BY ENERGY FLUCTUATIONS (ON WHICH THE LAWS OF NATURE OF THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES DEPEND).
PERHAPS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL OF SEMOLINA PUDDING THERE IS THE GENERAL KEY TO THE SYNLOGISTICAL PERMAFLUX WITH WHICH THE VISCIOUS CIRCLE OF CODED PROJECTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS CAN BE ALLOWED TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO A NON-DETERMINISTIC HYPERCYCLE.
Konrad Becker
Among other presentations at this Ars we will be carrying out some taste tests, and in addition, results of the gene manipulation of edible plants, bacteria and other animals. It is again a question of a reorientation. And it is a question of nutrition. So it is quite possible that the following thoughts seem to border on the trivial.
It was in fact a newspaper article that drew our attention to the material. It concerned a "breakthrough in partially fluid foodstuffs technology" and a US Army sandwich containing "shelfstable fermented meat" kept fresh by "synergetic protection against corrosion", which can allegedly bring about a significant increase in the "Lipid stability".
These are, incidentally, precisely those qualities that no Parisian connoisseur would under any circumstances want to find lacking when tucking into his roast at a restaurant:
GARÇON (from the French): Everything to your satisfaction, sir?
GOURMET: It seems to me as if the Lipid stability had not been mixed with synergetic corrosion protection this time.
GARÇON: But of course it is, sir. But lately, if I may say so, we have replaced the whey protein concentrate we used to use as a binder with egg albumin, which is especially effective in improving the oxidative rancidity and water capacity.
At this point we are merely scratching the surface of the enormous area of foodstuff alteration and the numerous possibilities available to future generations of the artistically gifted.
Food has of course always been naturally (and artificially) coloured and moulded. Probably because not many people have ever wanted to eat a green-grey, slimy sausage, and because certain pale tomatoes, known as flesh tomatoes, seem somehow irradiated, sickly and dangerous.
These are of course prejudices whose roots go back to the long-forgotten days when man was a free lion in free nature, and preferred fresh, bloody meat to decaying leftovers. Man was never, or seldom, a vulture. (Consumption of partially decomposed bodies has only been reported from Fore in the highlands of New Guinea, incidentally, with fatal consequences.)
This is why even some smells are hard for man to tolerate. And this is why he prefers the glowing colour red in all its shades to the pale and cancer-causing colours. Letting chicory grow red is not an aesthetic question, and certainly not an ethical one.
So much for the biological origins of aesthetic taste preferences. Philo-genetic and culturally developed preferences are probably also the reason why supporters of nature are firmly convinced that genetic manipulation of the shape and colour of defenceless vegetables is going too far and that only minor indispositions of creation should be corrected. If, for instance, an evil Colorado beetle is torturing corn, or if sugar beet is beset with fungus and cannot thrive the way it should, or if tomatoes try to grow hard and red but are prematurely harvested. In the interests of nature, corrections can be made according to the original blueprints. Any further intentions are reprehensible. Even Der Spiegel (15/93) warns of "Gene Feeding" and airbrushes a precautionary, deterrent picture of an apocalyptic vision on its cover: flat radishes, octagonal peppers, pentagonal sausage slices with white inserts.
The gene discussion in general has inspired witty illustrators to draw horror scenarios and two-headed monsters, renditions as good as our first unsuccessful attempts in school to portray St. Nicholas on horseback after we simply renamed each of these failures without any further ado.
But bred creatures have been vegetating, without much uproar, ever since man took up the redesigning of flora and fauna. Crippled dogs, pigs, geese. The portion-sized chicken on the grill, the broiler is a particularly monstrous example of hormonal breeding culture. If this poor creature were not slaughtered within forty days its rapid growth hormones would turn it into a wretch incapable of life in the wild.
Foodstuff producers, despite their creativity, know their aesthetic limits. Hence, as an extra, this quiz question: should the gene technician, the artist working with biological materials, only go about making changes in an ideal-typical direction, using picture-books and clichés as models, or can he from time to time create the odd Frankenstein, dragon, or rubbish-eating bush? Assuming, that is, that such techniques were not beyond the bounds of what is realistically possible.
Just to avoid any misunderstanding: Nobody wants a complete fantasy world. Nobody would want to turn the vegetable market into a paper box with rabbit-shaped carrots, striped lemons, or designer plums, autographed but otherwise original in their simplicity. It is sufficient that artists invent cute handbags and hilarious clocks. Despite this, or just because of this, here are three more non-competitive, leading questions: must bio-art be a division of the decorative arts? Are the visible characteristics of food at all important? Does history not show the plastic arts to be the development of aesthetic taste; that formal preferences with differing half-lives fall apart just as they came about?
It is to be expected that the possibilities of gene manipulation will also be used to practice beautification on food.
Consumer-friendly, sales-boosting, populistic. Even without genetic techniques, foodstuffs are altered mainly for these reasons. They are coloured, flavour strengthened, aromatised, emulsified, homogenised, sulphured, etched, held in shape by stabilisers, thickeners, and subjected to other processes of which the ordinary consumer knows little.
That is the one department. In the other, biochemists and genetic engineers develop the novel food which displays certain specific characteristics while suppressing others. For instance, it must make the eater big and strong, but not unnecessarily fat – or ill. Or not fat and not ill. And not ugly either.
Tobacco plants with higher nicotine content are in the pipeline, the sugar content of pumpkins, and manipulated tomatoes are coming into circulation in the USA which in principle look like tomatoes, are red and not too small, taste like tomatoes, sweet and fruity, have their vitamins and nutrients, everything as it should be, and they keep all these qualities for weeks.
This is not to be taken for granted in a tomato. In the last few years they have also been beautiful, red and firm, which is why they too were loosely termed tomatoes, although they tasted more like the fourth state of water.
Which leads us to the hierarchy of sensory information acquisition. What is it that leads us to identify an object as a tomato, the visual or taste information? With natural products, taste seems to come second. In the first instance, a tomato is a tomato if it looks like a tomato, i.e., when it is not cracked, even if it does not taste of anything.
Products that are already marked by a synthetic character are a different matter. Where there are no archetypes, there are no formal taboos. Chocolate is blue, red and green, and everyone finds that amusing. It is brown and white, liquid, flaky and solid, none of which has ever caused anyone to lose their lunch. If synthetics look like soiled nappies, taste like them and are named accordingly, they will sell. If eggs look like rotten eggs and are marketed as such, they will not sell. Even if biological technology should one day imbue them with all important nutrients.
Is a tomato really only a tomato if it looks like one? Categorizing into groups and the identity of kinds and sorts will be no simple matter in the future. It never was an exact science, but will only be complicated by gene transformation. Take fruit, for example.
Everybody knows what fruit is. Saint Augustine himself thought he knew what fruit was, at least as long as he was not asked to define it. To define fruit precisely is more difficult than one might think. According to the encyclopedia it is what grows on herb- and wood-like plants, but this is not satisfactory because it could of course apply just as well to the tomato, the pumpkin, and other kinds of vegetable. On the other hand, ashanti nuts would not count as fruit because they grow in the ground, even though dried nuts are counted as dry fruit. What else could they be?
Hair-splitting. It is much simpler to define a lion. Not that there are no problems of demarcation, but they are of a more obscure nature. A philosopher like Robin G. Collingwood might pose the question "Is a lion still a lion if it is a dead lion?", for instance when watching the film "Leila the Lioness", in which Leila the Lioness does in fact die. Once the eyes are closed, has the lion become the dust it was, metaphorically, during its lifetime?
And what if the lioness were alive but had no legs? And no fur? Or pink fur? Does a boneless pink lion belong in the lion family?
A comparison of the genomes gives one a clue as to whether the apparent similarity between two organisms is coincidental or derives from common ancestry.
But how, if one tiny gene, essential for classification, were missing? Or if on the other hand many genes were altered, without even resulting in a single white hair on the lion turning black?
A duck is a duck if it waddles, quacks and looks like a duck. This saying from the McCarthy era, which was used to unmask every American who was in some way liberal as a Soviet spy, does have some merit – as far as the waddling goes. But then again, maybe not.
Are there ducks that neither waddle nor quack? And conversely, are there not quacking Republicans who waddle and look like ducks?
Not that the following quote from Collingwood on this subject is boring, hard to understand, or otherwise fitting. It is just that no self-respecting catalogue contribution is really complete without a quote from two philosophers or two quotes from one:
"The definition of every given kind of thing", writes Collingwood, "is simultaneously the definition of a good thing of this kind: since a thing that is good for its kind is simply a thing that exhibits the attributes of its kind."
The distinguishing features by which an object is categorized as a duck or a lion are in Collingwood's opinion the same features, whether they are to a greater or lesser extent apparent, by which one lion is judged to be more of a lion than another one is. But then, what is the other one?
Enough of that. Back to the vegetables. What was announced at the beginning as a trivial message is this: Produce at the vegetable market should only be judged by its appearance to the same extent as the black square in the art museum – that is, not at all.
Even the more discerning customers, who know that all that glitters is not tasty, and all that is tasty is not safe, even customers who would rather buy bio-mass and faded goods, and feel they are thereby consuming quality, are labouring under illusions. Not just because the market has long since adjusted its strategies to these new, superficial quality criteria with varying degrees of refinement and has accordingly widened its range from the ripe, spotless and tasteless to the small, shrivelled and also tasteless, but because various forms of cosmetics have been applied too.
Food stays fresh longer after ionization through irradiation with gamma rays. Buyers looking for visual information to make their choices actually mean fresh, vitamin-rich food when they decide for the smooth, shiny surface, are in reality getting the old product, whose nutritional value has become a question of survival. (War and TV, Hanser, Munich, 1993). But can the other senses no longer be trusted?
We sent off for a small test sample from a military survival packet. Of course we could not assume that this represented the state of the art. Who would give away such secrets? But one thing became clear: the information our senses deliver does not match the contents of such a packet.
What we got looked ambiguous at best. The label said chicken stew, but even a starving Rambo could only have taken what gushed out of the slime-green sachet to be a mistake, wrongly labelled construction material, or fertilizer.
When a thick, brown mass triggers associations of involuntary repulsion, the cause is either the personal or collective memory. The mass can still be highly nutritious, independently of its appearance. The important thing is what it is rather than who eats it.
Of course, as we have learned from Pavlov, the appearance and smell of the food have an effect on its insalivation, and therefore its digestion, that should not be underestimated. Complete substitute nutrition, the diet prescribed to astronauts and other victims of stomach disorders, has no appearance or smell. Conditioned salivation therefore has its limits, which can sometimes be advantageous, but in the case of soluble space food, is not even necessary.
In the case of the survival food however, the slime in question either smelled like its surroundings, for instance, when toilets were nearby, or it smelled like toilets when in the presence of apricot blossoms, which struck us as being a suitably suitable instructive example of synaesthesia.
But when it comes to actually consuming the food, it should be evaluated with the really competent sense, which should count for more than appearance and smell put together. The nutritional value of a substance may occasionally be apparent from a distance by the way it diffuses and reflects light, but on-the-spot chemical contact is still more reliable. Besides, the interaction of optical, smell and taste contact sometimes contains different information about the type of a meal than just its smell and appearance. Immediacy is without a doubt the surest way to ascertain the qualities of an object. The content of the package tasted the way it smelled and looked. Even so, the greatest caution is called for here. Think of the ducks. Just because a sauce tastes and smells like it looks, it does not really have to be bad. As always in life, it is a question of inherent values.
This insight came to us in the course of observing a dog who was assisting us with our investigations. The dog ate the lipid muck but this does not change anything about the fact that the same dog occasionally eats empty pizza cartons.
The important thing is: that the army ration, prepared for emergencies, is a triumph for food preparation technology. It meets all the guidelines for healthy dining and is logistically well thought out as far as hygiene and longevity regulations are concerned. Psychologically, it is even a palette ahead of the elementary and complete food served in hospitals, as it is not defined purely in terms of chemistry but reveals a psychological component in its range of smells and colours. But it is perhaps just for this reason that it lags seriously behind duck food.
Thus we reach our first conclusion. Eating means "a choice of material supply", writes James J. Gibson ("Senses and the Perception Process", Huber 1973). And "for every kind of creature there are substances that contribute to its diet, but also others which have no nutritional value. The former must therefore be selected and extracted from the available range of biochemical substances." The question is: how? Some things taste good, some smell all right, some even look tasty. Creatures with the urge for self-preservation will still be more careful with these old, tried and tested, instinctive perception modes and subordinate them to rational guidelines, despite all insalivation theories. In their choice of food, at least, pure reason quite unexpectedly scores over the sense-oriented choice of feelings.
We are depending less and less on the primary information available to our organs of perception. Nutrient tables and chemical analyses will be the future basis for classification at mealtimes. They provide better protection than juicy looking illusions concealing heavy metals. When in doubt and having to make a choice, even linen wallpaper would be better for you than the unexamined asparagus shoot – assuming that the wallpaper passes its protein and vitamin test with flying colours.
Waiter: Sir, today's dish is a rich, tasty wallpaper. It has a protein share of 63% – especially Lysine, by the way – and only 15% fat, to say nothing of the vitamins.
Gourmet: Hopefully without connective tissue.
Waiter: Regretfully, it is a linen wallpaper.
Fiction, admittedly. With fiction it's like goose pimples. It comes with shivers and excitement, fear and frustration. And nobody knows what to do with it. Better not to have any more fiction. Or maybe just once more:
If steaks are recombined from pieces of meat, so could wallpaper or fly larvae. It is only a question of the sculptural quality. Common housefly larvae incidentally have the same share of protein as the fly larvae that are produced. These larvae are made up of the same cultures and only the barriers of our conditioned western visual prejudices prevent us from enjoying wallpaper and flies as much as we enjoy sick pigs.
The body can no longer determine which things are good for it and which things are bad using the senses it has developed for the purpose. This seems to be the conventional wisdom from the "Bubba psychology" field, the same laboriously formulated results, scientifically backed up at great expense, that world-wise grandmas could confirm just as well for free.
All the same, and the grandmas are asking this too, what is it all about? Should we only let secondary information guide us? Should we study books and carry out C14 tests at the vegetable market before filling the basket? Should be bite into the apple before we get too excited about its bright red colour, to avoid disappointment when we get home? And does biting the apple tell us more than looking at it?
What is important in making the right choice? What must our eyes and noses be on the lookout for?
We are tortured by the question of how we will safely identify good food in the near future, when food is no longer even genetically what it claims to be, to say nothing of its appearance and smell.
Even the names of the meals are hollow. At the restaurant, the diner orders the "cat in juice" if he puts his trust in names. What do names mean anyway? What hides behind "minced meat roast" or a "green salad"? What hides behind titles like pigeon soup, laboratory goulash or cold dog?
The diner orders according to the expectations he has of the names of the dishes and the waiter's recommendations. He looks at the food, smells it, and tastes it. And yet he seldom discovers what he is really eating, what nourishment and poison he has ordered.
Regrettably, secondary information also threatens not to communicate things that could be of advantage and of life-saving importance to the customer. The waiter who points out that the baked mice are really a Bohemian desert speciality made of yeast dough can also, if necessary, offer the chemical composition of the dough. This would not mean much to most of the guests. Extra information sometimes causes more confusion than enlightenment. At least as long as superficial, formal appeals dominate the hierarchy of sensual information. Only through a completely unassessed and random use of optical shapes and colours, smells and flavour enhancers will the consumer grasp the minimal relevance of these superficial aestheticizations, and learn to take note of background information.
It is time the experiences of the plastic arts – especially in this century – the systematic deconstruction of all formal values, that these experiences were applied.
Among other presentations at this Ars we will be carrying out some taste tests, and in addition, results of the gene manipulation of edible plants, bacteria and other animals. Art history has also taught us that genetically varied plants, bacteria and other animals can be aestheticized through auratization – with a context and observation, through veneration and discourse.
This way research results become icons of the new design possibilities. The first genetically altered oil plant is like the first painting executed in perspective – worth seeing.
Wolfgang Zinggl
Das Projekt wurde ermöglicht durch die großzügige Unterstützung der Fa. THYSSEN Gerüstbau, Traun, sowie durch die freundliche Unterstützung der Fa. Delikomat, Wien, und der Fa. Ing. Markovits, Wien.
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