Somewhere before and after fall break: I just didn’t see it due to the structure

Heinlein’s All You Zombies offers a good example of iteration as it is drawn out in a narrative. If you follow the logic of the story it actually suggests that there is no beginning and no end – more of a rhizomatic type structure. The logic of the time frames as well as duplications of character don’t allow for a linear process. Like the film Primer it is built on loops within loops within loops. Having the students bring in images to represent this structure gave us a good way into the story. The loops were prevalent in many of the images, but there were a handful that found a different way to represent the structure of the story. My hope is when we get to fractals and phase space that these images come in handy.

The same is true for the iteration projects. Part of what I like about this course structure is that it gets me outside of my own examples. I have specific iterative examples I use – and have used – again and again. So – we listened to Steve Reich’s Come Out today – which I think is a fantastic example of iteration that develops in time – so the postmodern idea of sameness with difference. Listening to this piece is – to me – the same as Ed Lorenz computer model of the weather – the two paths begin to diverge and something else is created. We saw that today with the robot bug drawing in that it traced a similar pattern, but still somewhat different.

So – as always – I am impressed by the variety that students bring in as answers to the prompts. We need to explore what type of systems we saw, what the variables were, and how these elements affected the projects. We do see a number of projects that involve volunteers – perhaps more so this time than with the other two projects. So clearly social systems were at work as well as sound and movement and digital applications. We will certainly revisit these in the next class and then build on the ideas with the Reich essay. Since we listened to Come Out today we can listen to Lucier’s I am Sitting in a Room next time – an iterative example that strips away rather than builds up. We can then revisit the projects with these ideas in mind.

What I find odd about the structure of the class as it has developed is the deferral quality – as if we are always getting to the point, but never quite there. Each project is a good example of where we are headed – I just have to wonder if we will ever get there. In mentioning this to Bob his point was to document this process a bit more. It is not something I have seen with the project classes yet – they always felt like they had a clear direction and a clear building up of ideas. Strangely this one has a more chaotic structure – which was totally unintentional on my part. But I suspect it was always lurking there when I taught the class in the past – I just didn’t see it due to the structure.