Codeworks: Netart on the border of Language and Codes

Since the founding manifesto of the French Oulipo Group in 1962, in which it proposed writing poetry in computer programming language, there have been forms of electronic literature that not only employ computers primarily as text generators or audiovisual media, but also use programming, command, markup, and protocol codes as their medium. Departing from popular forms of this literature in the computer hacker culture, network artists like jodi, antiorp, and mez have been developing new poetic and artistic languages since the mid-nineties, for which the artist and theorist Alan Sondheim has coined the name “Codework.” Codeworks are technically simple e-mails whose text, however, calls to mind associations of computer crashes and interferences, viruses and spam. Initially, they were sent via network art mailing lists as interferences; later entire forums dedicated to the genre, individual styles, and private languages by individual and often pseudonymous code artists began developing. This program attempts for the first time to transpose codeworks from the written source text to radiophony. Participants: Florian Cramer (editor), literary scholar, Berlin, Germany Tsila Hassine, media-design student, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam Alejandra Perez Nuñez, media-design student, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam Sasson Kung, media-design student, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam Fabian Vögeli, media-art student, HGK, Zürich Alan Sondheim, Nnetwork and codework artist, New York noemata , pseudonymous code artist, Norway Further authors: mez (Mary Anne Breeze), network artist, Sidney, Australia Inke Arns , curator and critic, Dortmund and Berlin, Germany