Discussion no.06, Black Gooey Universe

Link to the Reading

Black Gooey Universe by American Artist

Introduction

This is a piece that talks about the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and some of its history. This is kind of a "sequel" or "extra features" of the Alan Kay talk as it talks more about the funding and people behind "The Mother of All Demos" by Douglas Engelbart, XEROX Parc and its bean bag chairs and the origins of Silicon Valley as we know it today. It talks about the GUI as being primarily "white" (as a metaphor for paper for understandability to the non-technical person), and how this was in opposition to the more bespoke systems like those based in terminals that were primarily "black." It also proposes an alternative "Black Gooey Universe"

About American Artist (From their website)

AMERICAN ARTIST makes thought experiments that mine the history of technology, race, and knowledge production, beginning with their legal name change in 2013. Their artwork primarily takes the form of sculpture, software, and video. Artist is a recipient of the 2024 New York Artadia Award and a Trellis Art Fund grantee. They are a former resident of Smack Mellon, Red Bull Arts Detroit, Abrons Art Center, Recess, EYEBEAM, Pioneer Works, and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. They have exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, and Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, Cultured, Artforum, and Art in America. Artist is a former co-director of the School for Poetic Computation and a faculty at Yale University.

Things to think about

• Have you ever had to use the terminal, DOS, or similar? What was your experience? (If no, think about media where you may have experienced a predominantly "black" computing space, like The Matrix, or a movie from the 1980's, or a video shown by Alan Kay in his lecture)
• Do you feel "implicated" in this discussion of "whiteness" of the GUI and the proposal of a black gooey universe? That is to say, do you feel as if your acceptance of, excitement about, or usage of computers with GUI interfaces make you feel as though you have accepted some of these systems without criticality?
• What are some factors of the Black Gooey Universe and how do you interpret them?

What to submit

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