Welcome to the GitHub repository for the final project of the INT 80TH course, "Mediated Worlds/THEMAS Technologies+Humanities Emphasis," completed at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2018. This project was also showcased in a university art gallery during 2019.
Course Title: Mediated Worlds/THEMAS Technologies+Humanities Emphasis (INT 80TH)
Course Description: This course provided an integrative overview of media arts and technologies, with an emphasis on the interconnections between technologies and humanities, engineering and mathematics, and arts and science. The THEMAS model proposed a continuum across disciplines that had previously been separated by narrow specializations. Specifically, this class focused on Technologies+Humanities within the overall THEMAS framework.
You can access the project online at the following URL: Project Website
This project is based on the concept of the "Infinite Monkey Theorem," which posits that a monkey pressing keys at random on a keyboard for an infinite amount of time will eventually type any given text, even something as complex as the complete works of William Shakespeare. Instead of using monkeys, the project employs the concept of a Normal Number, an irrational number whose decimals are uniformly distributed. This property ensures that no combination of digits occurs more frequently than any other, creating a source of truly random input.
The project translates these random inputs into three main components:
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Random Pixels: The random input is coded into RGB color pixels to generate ever-changing images, representing the evolution of patterns. These images symbolize the potential for randomness to generate vast amounts of content, including historical moments, personal life stories, and future events.
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Random Sounds: The project also generates sounds with random frequencies. Over an infinite amount of time, these frequencies could produce any imaginable melody, highlighting the infinite possibilities of randomness.
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Random Words: The screen displays random words that users can arrange in an attempt to make sense of them. This component represents the futile human pursuit of knowledge in a chaotic and unintelligible world, echoing the philosophy of the absurd, as articulated by Albert Camus.
The project serves as a metaphorical exploration of the philosophy of the absurd. It underscores humanity's quest for meaning, unity, and clarity in a universe devoid of God and eternal truths. The project's main character seeks to answer the ultimate question, "What's the meaning of life?" However, the probability of obtaining an answer is astronomically low, much like our quest to comprehend the universe. Despite our relentless pursuit of understanding, our intelligence and existence are limited, making complete comprehension impossible.
This project tries to answer my question. It's a tool to find an answer. An answer to it and to all possible questions. Mine, yours and everyone questions. And also, to make all the possible questions.Because that is what we do. That is what we try to do every day of our life. Try to answer our questions. In order to be able to understand the world. To understand who we are, what is all of this about, or even what's the meaning of life. Our human nature made us need to understand everything to feel secure and comfortable. It's an evolutionary issue. We don't like unpredictable events.
But that human nature is contradictory. At the same time, the same human nature made this task impossible to accomplish. Our intelligence and existence time is limited. The answer is out there probably. But we will never find it.
This is a representation of random numbers that is programmed to run for an infinite amount of time. Here is the answer to all your questions. You just have to wait enough time.
Eventually, this background will show every image that you can think about. Every historical event, a picture of your first birthday, the face of your future children, your own death, or even a perfect video for this class presentation. The words that you are reading can show your name, the name of the person you will marry, the most beautiful poem that someone could do. This music that you are listening eventually can reproduce your favorite song or any Mozart concertos. You just have to wait for long enough.
This world that I created is a representation of reality itself. You can try to organize this that you are seeing by moving the different words. Or deleting them. And some organizations can make more sense than others for you. We can make categories as technology, humanities, science, and art to organize the information. But that's only an illusion. It can make more sense for our human mind, which is blurred and biased. Because our mind likes order according to this human vision. But it is not real. Reality and the universe are chaos.
We can't find an answer. Then, does it make any sense to look for it? Why are we looking at this if we know that the probability of getting what we want to see is close to 0? Because it's beautiful in its own way and enjoyable. Life is an end itself, not a means to find its sense.
Thank you for exploring this project repository. Feel free to dive into the code, experiment with the project, and engage with its philosophical implications.