Nicholaus Gutierrez on Alternative Programming Paradigms at What is Technology
Nicholaus Gutierrez received a Spring 2019 BCNM Conference Grant to help cover his costs attending the What is Technology at the University of Oregon. Nicholaus presented “Model Machines: Alternative Programming Paradigms and the Question of Technological Subjectivity.” Read more about his experience in his own words below!
The University of Oregon’s annual “What is…?” conference, held at the White Stag building in downtown Portland, brings together a mix of academics and professionals on topics related to media and science. Past conferences have been on the topics of Film, Media, Documentary, Journalism, and Life. This year’s conference, “What is Technology?” featured plenary speakers approaching the social impact of technology from the perspective of John Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy and Heidegger’s discourse on the essence of technology in his well-known essay “The Question Concerning Technology.” It also featured panels on a range of topics, from the Internet of things to the ethics of product design, leading to a robust discussion among participants about the most effective ways to theorize, design, and in some cases re-purpose the technologies we use.
My paper was entitled “Model Machines: Alternative Programming Paradigms and the Question of Technological Subjectivity.” This paper was part of the panel entitled “Patterns,” loosely grouped around the idea of analyzing the underlying codes and infrastructures that make up digital networks and their software. In my paper, I outlined the historical development of programming languages, arguing that they represent a series of attempts to standardize and normalize development practices that carried their own ideological assumptions, posing the danger of reifying code as rationality itself. I then looked at two experimental research projects, “phenotropic programming” and “harmony-oriented programming,” as potential examples for how programming could be embodied using visual and tactile interfaces, or as alternatives to the Western-style of object taxonomy that is built in to the very structure of something like object-oriented programming. The panel featured a mix of perspectives, drawing an interesting contrast between the differing methodologies that can be brought to bear on the topic of software.
Thanks to BCNM for the support!