Regularity

This repetitive process of minimalist marks to create a large pattern seems less like an effort to make the programmer feel the god-like power of the fine artist but rather the plodding repetition of the machine. Yet that single line of instructions proves to be, as this book demonstrates, deceptively simple, building as it repeats the evocation of an unending generation of mazes, linking it to two artistic traditions. The first is the world of craft, particularly pattern-based crafts such as needlework and ornamental design. The second is a movement within the fine arts in the twentieth century to create complex patterns out of repeated procedures upon very basic units. In this way, the aesthetic of 10 PRINT parallels experiments in painting, sculpture, sound composition, video art, performance, experimental animation, and dance, particularly from the decade immediately prior to 10 PRNT. In both cases, the art forms rely on lessons conveyed in 10 PRINT, a continual repetition of a simple rhythmic procedure or rule across a regular space or time signature can create a complex and stimulating gestalt. What fine arts deploy as an act in radical minimalism and craft deploys as a established technique for production, the C64 presents as a glimpse at the potential and the unexpected ramifications of the simple repeated rule.

This repetitive process of minimalist marks to create a large pattern seems less like an effort to make the programmer feel the god-like power of the fine artist but rather the plodding repetition of the machine. Yet that single line of instructions proves to be, as this book demonstrates, deceptively simple, building as it repeats the evocation of an unending generation of mazes, linking it to two artistic traditions. The first is the world of craft, particularly pattern-based crafts such as needlework and ornamental design. The second is a movement within the fine arts in the twentieth century to create complex patterns out of repeated procedures upon very basic units. In this way, the aesthetic of 10 PRINT parallels experiments in painting, sculpture, sound composition, video art, performance, experimental animation, and dance, particularly from the decade immediately prior to 10 PRNT. In both cases, the art forms rely on lessons conveyed in 10 PRINT, a continual repetition of a simple rhythmic procedure or rule across a regular space or time signature can create a complex and stimulating gestalt. What fine arts deploy as an act in radical minimalism and craft deploys as a established technique for production, the C64 presents as a glimpse at the potential and the unexpected ramifications of the simple repeated rule.

[Insert new version of an analysis of 10 PRINT as it employs looping (regularity of process), the regularity of the screen, and regularity of time to create a pattern that repeats without seeming redundant and that fits into a longer artistic and craft tradition.]

[Insert new version of an analysis of 10 PRINT as it employs looping (regularity of process), the regularity of the screen, and regularity of time to create a pattern that repeats without seeming redundant and that fits into a longer artistic and craft tradition.]

In his classic yet provocative text, E.H. Gombrich wrestles with the tensions between repetition and redundancy that can lead to either stimulation or boredom. As he reflects on pavement designs he notes the pleasure in the encountering the pavement whose pattern one cannot fully grasp. Gombrich explains this desire for new information through information theory emerging at the time, where information increases in tandem with unpredictability (9). He goes on to speculate that the viewer examines patterns by trying to anticipate what comes next. “Delight,” he writes, “lies somewhere between boredom and confusion” (9). 10 PRINT no doubt offers similar delights, resulting from its creation of a complex pattern from a simple random alternation. As Gombrich later argues, the greatest novelty computers bring to visual design and variation is not only its ability “to follow any complex rule of organization but also to introduce an exactly calculated dose of randomness” (94). Computers then become entrancing pattern weavers.

In his classic yet provocative text, E.H. Gombrich wrestles with the tensions between repetition and redundancy that can lead to either stimulation or boredom. As he reflects on pavement designs he notes the pleasure in the encountering the pavement whose pattern one cannot fully grasp. Gombrich explains this desire for new information through information theory emerging at the time, where information increases in tandem with unpredictability (9). He goes on to speculate that the viewer examines patterns by trying to anticipate what comes next. “Delight,” he writes, “lies somewhere between boredom and confusion” (9). 10 PRINT no doubt offers similar delights, resulting from its creation of a complex pattern from a simple random alternation. As Gombrich later argues, the greatest novelty computers bring to visual design and variation is not only its ability “to follow any complex rule of organization but also to introduce an exactly calculated dose of randomness” (94). Computers then become entrancing pattern weavers.

[[File:Truchet-Tiles.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sébastien Truchet, "Mémoire sur les combinaisons," ''Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences'', pages 363-372, 1704.]]

[[File:Truchet-Tiles.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Sébastien Truchet, "Mémoire sur les combinaisons," ''Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences'', pages 363-372, 1704.]]

Suddenly the Truchet tiles have generated a design that looks unmistakably like the output of 10 PRINT. The grid still remains -- indicating the edges of each tile -- but the diagonals no longer seem to bound positive or negative space. Instead, they appear to be the walls of a maze, twisty little passages, all different. In this Truchet tile-produced artifact the dynamic between regularity and its opposite come into play, suggesting that regularity is not an aspect of design that exists in isolation, but rather can only be defined by its limitations, by those moments when the regular becomes irregular.

Suddenly the Truchet tiles have generated a design that looks unmistakably like the output of 10 PRINT. The grid still remains -- indicating the edges of each tile -- but the diagonals no longer seem to bound positive or negative space. Instead, they appear to be the walls of a maze, twisty little passages, all different. In this Truchet tile-produced artifact the dynamic between regularity and its opposite come into play, suggesting that regularity is not an aspect of design that exists in isolation, but rather can only be defined by its limitations, by those moments when the regular becomes irregular.

It is important to note that the experiments of Truchet and Douat do not introduce the idea of creating patterns out of simple variations on shapes. Such practice is commonplace across many forms of design, particularly in the realm of ornament. Franz Boas documented compelling examples of theme and variation from Peruvian weavers, for example [cited in Gombrich 72]. In fact, the decorative arts has long held this secret to 10 PRINT.

It is important to note that the experiments of Truchet and Douat do not introduce the idea of creating patterns out of simple variations on shapes. Such practice is commonplace across many forms of design, particularly in the realm of ornament. Franz Boas documented compelling examples of theme and variation from Peruvian weavers, for example [cited in Gombrich 72]. In fact, the decorative arts has long held this secret to 10 PRINT.

These examples demonstrate that while the systematic theorization of patterns such as 10 PRINT may emerge periodically, the production of those patterns are deeply woven in the traditions of decorative craft. The parallels of process and pattern place programming in the realm of techne, artistic craft, here one conveyed through the imitation of a set of instructions collected as a technique.

These examples demonstrate that while the systematic theorization of patterns such as 10 PRINT may emerge periodically, the production of those patterns are deeply woven in the traditions of decorative craft. The parallels of process and pattern place programming in the realm of techne, artistic craft, here one conveyed through the imitation of a set of instructions collected as a technique.

Now that we have translated 10 PRINT into tiles, let us move to another material realm, textiles, particularly the early tool for producing regular patterns in textiles, the Jacuard Loom. Prior to that loom, circa 2nd Century BCE, China gave birth to a loom “that made it possible to create a pattern in fabirc...called a drawloom because [it] allowed the warp threads to be drawn up individually to create the design to be woven” (10). However, that loom was irregular, “the arrangement of the individual warp threads was different for every single row of weaving” (10). By contrast, the loom designed by Joseph-Marie Jacquard, was regular and programmable (12). Such a machine relied on an exacting degree of regularity. Of course, much has been made of the Jacquard Loom as the prototypical computer, for example James Essinger's book ''Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age''. The core similarity in these early accounts were the punchcards, which were automatically applied to the control system, which served as patterns for the loom to follow. Interestingly, Essinger notes accounts of an earlier punchcard loom by a weaver named Falcon. However, those punch cards were "clumsily made and unreliable" (36). At the same time, the loom itself had to be made regular in order for the punch cards to fit the pattern. Once the loom was standardized the designs could be planned out on graph paper. Unlike the one-line of instructions of 10 PRINT commercial grade textiles required up to 4000 cards strung together. The cards were applied to a bar, an "elongated cube," full of "hundreds of identical holes...to accommodate the tips of needles," which will be raised according to the selections on the punchcard. As the bar turns with each pick of the shuttle, it moves down the material as if moving down a computer screen. Regularity made possible the Jacquard Loom's ability to draw its intricate patterns.

Now that we have translated 10 PRINT into tiles, let us move to another material realm, textiles, particularly the early tool for producing regular patterns in textiles, the Jacuard Loom. Prior to that loom, circa 2nd Century BCE, China gave birth to a loom “that made it possible to create a pattern in fabirc...called a drawloom because [it] allowed the warp threads to be drawn up individually to create the design to be woven” (10). However, that loom was irregular, “the arrangement of the individual warp threads was different for every single row of weaving” (10). By contrast, the loom designed by Joseph-Marie Jacquard, was regular and programmable (12). Such a machine relied on an exacting degree of regularity. Of course, much has been made of the Jacquard Loom as the prototypical computer, for example James Essinger's book ''Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age''. The core similarity in these early accounts were the punchcards, which were automatically applied to the control system, which served as patterns for the loom to follow. Interestingly, Essinger notes accounts of an earlier punchcard loom by a weaver named Falcon. However, those punch cards were "clumsily made and unreliable" (36). At the same time, the loom itself had to be made regular in order for the punch cards to fit the pattern. Once the loom was standardized the designs could be planned out on graph paper. Unlike the one-line of instructions of 10 PRINT commercial grade textiles required up to 4000 cards strung together. The cards were applied to a bar, an "elongated cube," full of "hundreds of identical holes...to accommodate the tips of needles," which will be raised according to the selections on the punchcard. As the bar turns with each pick of the shuttle, it moves down the material as if moving down a computer screen. Regularity made possible the Jacquard Loom's ability to draw its intricate patterns.

[[File:VeraMolnar-1959.png|400px|thumb|Vera Molnar (French, born Hungary 1924). Distribuition Alèatoire de 4 éléments. 1959]]

[[File:VeraMolnar-1959.png|400px|thumb|Vera Molnar (French, born Hungary 1924). Distribuition Alèatoire de 4 éléments. 1959]]

This grid-based wall drawing wasn't an isolated work within LeWitt's output. He created dozens of similar drawings, each with slightly different rules and allowing for varied lines including arcs and dotted lines.

This grid-based wall drawing wasn't an isolated work within LeWitt's output. He created dozens of similar drawings, each with slightly different rules and allowing for varied lines including arcs and dotted lines.

The Commodore 64, economically and conveniently, hooked to an ordinary television. It was an idea that could be seen in Steve Wozniak's Apple I, introduced in April 1976, and the later and more widespread Apple II. That was the main precedent in home computing, but the idea was not original to Apple. At Atari, television engineer and employee #1 Al Alcorn had designed a ''Pong'' cabinet that, rather than using an expensive commercial CRT, incorporated an ordinary black-and-white television that was initially bought from a retail store. Wozniak, who did the original design for the Atari arcade game Breakout, knew about this trick.

The Commodore 64, economically and conveniently, hooked to an ordinary television. It was an idea that could be seen in Steve Wozniak's Apple I, introduced in April 1976, and the later and more widespread Apple II. That was the main precedent in home computing, but the idea was not original to Apple. At Atari, television engineer and employee #1 Al Alcorn had designed a ''Pong'' cabinet that, rather than using an expensive commercial CRT, incorporated an ordinary black-and-white television that was initially bought from a retail store. Wozniak, who did the original design for the Atari arcade game Breakout, knew about this trick.