Unbestimmtheitsspielräume Algorithmischer Geflechte
Leeway of Vagueness in Algorithmic Meshes in Contemporary Art

2016
Diploma thesis
University for Art and Design, Offenbach am Main

Algorithms are regarded as an independent technology. Vague are components of algorithmic meshes which include indetermination: due to the detachment from concrete phenomena one algorithm can serve different functions; vast data structures of neuronal networks elude the human capable determinability; there is a leeway between theoretical notation and practical execution; through the interaction of several algorithms these might be able to elude its intended purpose.


Since Baumgartens foundation of the aesthetics as a philosophic discipline, vagueness is a fundamental attribute in an aesthetic experience between subject and object. The object, through its sensuous phenomena, eludes a definite determination, in fact it triggers new attempts of determination continually. Algorithms in contrast operate below the surface and are particularly invisible and silent. If one deals in a successful manner with them through art, algorithms appear in perceivable phenomena and enable an aesthetic play. Art can offer an leeway of vagueness, which isn’t given in function-oriented daily routine. Subject as well as object are taken into account: an indeterminate access from the subject – free from an external determination of benefit, as well as an indeterminate objective mode of operation – the contact between object and environment isn’t fully controlled by the subject. Algorithmic processes, whose if-then-logic isn’t explorable in daily routine, becomes explorable in an aesthetic perspective through art.