Playing with Code(s)

Code can be approached as a conceptual framework. We could also consider here substituting the word code for conditions or instructions.

To make code is to make the conditions for something to be generated.

In this class, we’ll be considering code in a literal sense, as computer code. However, the history of code in art has been informed by a long relationship between instructions, art, and games.

Rules as Code: Danish Clapping Game

Play in pairs

Instructions:

  • Face your partner and clap your thighs at the same time.

  • Choose an arm position randomly: Both arms up, both arms to the left, both arms to the right.

  • If you choose the same position, after you clap your thighs, clap your partners hands and repeat from the top If you choose different positions, repeat from the top.

Code and Art

Vera Molnar

Vera Molnar. Lettres de ma Mère (“Letter from my Mother”). 1987. Courtesy of The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection

Loose Codes of Art

Robert Barry

Robert Barry. ART WORK. 1970.

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1964.
Yoko Ono. Grapefruit. 1964.
Yoko Ono. DOLLAR PIECE. 1963.

Instructions:

DOLLAR PIECE

Select an amount of dollar.
Imagine all the things that
you can buy with that amount.(a)
Imagine all the things that
you cannot buy with that amount.(b)
Write it on a piece of paper.


1963 spring

Strict Codes of Art

Mel Bochner

Mel Bochner. Measurement Room: No Vantage Point. 2019–2020.

Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt. Wall Drawing #260 (1975)

Wall Drawing #260 (1975)

Instructions:

“On black walls, all two-part combinations of white arcs from corners and sides, and white straight, not-straight, and broken lines.”

Wall Drawing #118. 1971

Instructions:

“On a wall surface, any continuous stretch of wall, using a hard pencil, place fifty points at random. The points should be evenly distributed over the area of the wall. All of the points should be connected by straight lines.”

Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective - MASS MoCA

Modified version of #118 for paper:

On a pieces of paper, using a pencil,
pen, or other writing utensil,
place twenty points at random.
The points should be evenly distributed
over the area of one of the paper's sides.
All of the points should be connected
with straight lines.

Code Version, Moving

Game Codes: Dots & Boxes

Instructions:

Draw a three by three  grid of dots

Each player takes turns drawing a horizontal
or vertical line that connects two dots

The player who completes the fourth
side of a 1×1 box earns one point 
and takes another turn (mark initials in the box)

The player with the most boxes at the end wins