[Original at https://absurdevidence.radiostudent.si/borut/estetski_stroji/
and at https://www.turborebop.net/estetski_stroji/]

Estetski stroji = Aestetic Machines

experiment no. 3: THE LOGIC SPACE
(sound performance for four participants arranged by B. SAVSKI)

Prostor kontemplacije in komunikacije smo raztegovali v četrtek, 23. januarja 2003 ob 21.00 v Galeriji Kapelica (z leve: Matjaž Manček, Iva Novak, Dario Cortese, Borut Savski)

experiment no. 4: AMPLIFICATION
= translation, dynamics, autopoiesis, cybernetic loop… of a black box
(audio-visual installation)

Najprej je bil stroj …
… in stroj je rodil človeka.
First there was Machine …
… and Machine gave birth to Human.

stroji: mehanizmi, proteze, orodja, družbe, institucije, … ideologije, teorije, … identitete, podobe …
machines: mechanisms (automata), prosthetics, tools, societies, institutions, … ideologies, theories, … identities, images …

Prior to any cognition there is a differentiation of qualities to opposing values. The curved, spiral space flattens – to the opposingly positioned meanings, subjects, entities (-> dualisation, duality). It is only from this moment on, that we can operate with this space (-> measure). Bad is opposed to good (-> within the space of Ethics and Quality), black is opposed to white (-> within the space of Colour and Physics). Thus created multi-dimensional space is a reduced space of metaphors – of course, itself being a metaphor -> a rationalized model of the world. The structure is clear, but nevertheless, an image, a shadow, a reflection of the original curving. A forcibly flattened space, where there used to be Nature, is a space of Human. Contemplation (-> the personal) and communication (-> the collective) create an ordered logic space (-> a structure), which can also be a space of Aesthetics.

Logic is the method (-> algorithm, mechanism, automata, machine, …), which provides (-> serves) us – from a number of presuppositions (->the input data) – with the final decision (-> the output value). The result is with the complex machines (-> the “black boxes”, the non-algorithmic systems) always an abstraction (-> a simplification, a non-conform translation) of the many input values to a smaller number output values. Of course, there is never infinite number of decisions, since it is exactly the reduction of the number of input variables the basic motive for “calculating” with the logic machines. Abstraction thus becomes its own entity, body – seemingly without the past (giving no possibility for back-calculation to the more basic set of previous input variables) – with no possibility for total understanding (-> of translation, of communication). Even more: the abstraction itself becomes an undistinguishable (and unrecognizable) part of the system. The newly constructed body (-> system, abstraction, …) “doesn’t know” anymore, whether the motivation for the decision-making was its own (-> of the previous “body”), or the consequence of some previously incorporated calculation (-> abstraction).

The circular (-> cybernetic, autopoietic) law in such systems (-> the auto-referential systems), causes complex feedback loops, since the structure (-> the quality) of new input values differs from the previous input values. For example: famine causes dispair, which causes anger, which causes revolution. Every result is of a different nature. Since each is an abstraction, entity with its own (complex) bodies, with no direct connection to the input values (information, dražljaji) that gave them birth, they can no longer be differentiated or separated from the system – only if we find out about their exact geneology (-> all the combination of causes that led to the embodiment of these abstractions). Because of the erasure of its causes (and the erasure of clear causal relations) such abstractions/bodies are universalized. Abstractions/bodies can be called archetypes, stereotypes, patterns, habits, culture, identity, etc …

Any further abstraction can be included in the existing system arbitrarily. What’s more – in the manner of associative thinking – arbitrary (even hierarchical) connections of “closed loops” are formed, from which the original body (-> system T(i)) is also not exempted. The system/ box is “black” – we are dealing with “not fully” comprehensible actions and reactions of a complex system – the system provides us only with appearance (-> an image). For our (partial) understanding (-> knowing of the identity of the system) we need analysis of (the largest possible number of) contained “abstractions” of the system. Statistical analysis of complex (-> non-algorithmic) systems (discussed above) only introduces additional abstraction (statistics, like the described system, reduces a large number of data to a few representative values). So we can’t talk about statistics in any other way than as an abstraction.

Systems can be said to be known (to us observers) when we know their reactions to input stimuli (-> the transfer function). In complex (-> autopoietic) systems, this method fails. In other words: these are immanently inscrutable (-> unpredictable, non-logarithmic) systems. The result is always only an abstracted consequence (-> picture, image, abstraction) of internal processes. Internal processes can be extremely dynamic (-> search for motivation, rationalization) – all with the aim of justifying (however simple) decision. Does it then even make sense to give weight to decisions? We transfer the focus of observation to internal processes: to the associative rapid assembly (connection) of ever-new algorithmic (-> processual, cognitive) structures, a series (-> sequence) of consequential decisions and – only figuratively: the identity of such a system. Identity exists only as a descriptive (-> poetic) property of the system. Of course: abstraction…

experiment no. 4: AMPLIFICATION
= translation, dynamics, autopoiesis, cybernetic loop… of a “black box” system
audio-visual installation

Amplification: magnification, accentuation…

The opposite meaning would be filtering (of the view). We extract information with a focused view, while filtering out the unnecessary. Basically, this is the principle of reductionism, which we cannot avoid when modeling (the world). Modeling = rendering = reducing = abstracting. Opposite to filtering stands amplification, but we are still in the domain of modeling = … = abstracting, but with a different ∓ sign. Looking “into the essence” may not really reveal the whole, but perhaps in detail it can reveal “fractal patterns”. Is chaos just an additional (fractal) pattern? From the structure (-> building,  machine) we use the reverse engineering to try to extract the original curved space …