Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 21, No. 491.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
www.princeton.edu/humanist/
Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:24:07 +0000
From: Nathaniel Bobbitt <flautabaja_at_hotmail.com>
Subject: Visual Language
The Glint and Glitter of Glass: The Future of Publishing with a
Post-DNA Alphabet
Nathaniel Bobbitt
We live in a time that never was and never will be again. Such clever
statements can be reflected in the media works of Beckett and the
methodical "image-related thoughts" of Escher's studies of the plane
(color symmetry). We sit on the schism between the interval (Zeno)
and the computer (Turing). The following introduces a ruler (Cantor)
as a substitute for doing humanities (creative, analytic, scholarly)
with computers. Since the discovery of the structure of DNA, the
advent of fractals, and micro-computing the stage has been set for
greater contributions to the body of human knowledge with one draw-back:
An inability to interact directly with nature.
By developing a post-DNA alphabet I have arrived at a system to mark
difference through a system of rulers (fractals).
This system offers methods that bring to the humanities and life
sciences the prospect of doing research through direct interact with nature.
A post-DNA alphabet revisits earlier attempts at inventing language
(Joyce, Cummings, Pound, Fenollosa, and G.Urton) and understanding
structure (Darwin, Watson, Peirce, Barthes, Bassler, and J. Hawkins).
In each of these cases the machine, the artifact (document), and
function is overlaid with a lithographic based mode of communication.
The implementation of a new symbol system (character set) needs to
also identify its own communication theory as found in: Internet,
social networks, or brain plasticity. The prospect of developing a
post-DNA alphabet leads to the implementation of a publishing
infrastructure that foregos lithographic forms of information exchange.
William Blake had already anticipated the importance of the
publishing process (acid technique) in a visionary expression:
"...This I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, with
corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting
apparent surfaces away, and revealing the infinite which was hid"
The role of developing a publishing infrastructure (optical) is to
form a new view of documents that looks beyond the artifact found
through digitization. What is ready for incubation will illustrate
the role of visualization and simulation in scholarship,
classification, and technical or expressive communication.
I am looking for projects, researchers, and opportunities to further
collaborate: to teach the global community a new language that breaks
the information barrier with a fresh pattern to interact with nature.
A multi-faceted character set has been designed to mark difference
through a system of highlights. See:
See page 5:
http://web.mit.edu/i-m/resources/downloads2006/IM2.1SubmissionCompendium.pdf
As we turn towards natural computing (Paun, T. Head, Adleman) a
symbolic system forms the seeds for natural computing sensors.
Without a proper character set the ability to do science or
philosophy with computers lags without the necessary symbolic or
computational structure.
For more details contact me directly at:
eye_at_nabslab.com
Received on Mon Jan 21 2008 - 04:13:37 EST
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