Algorhythmics, Media Archaeology and beyond
The term “algorhythmics” generates a trajectory and a field of research, that inquires time-based, technological processes, which occur when matter is modulated by symbolic and logical structures, such as instructions written as code. Algorhythms are the timing effects of computation.
Four years after I defended my PhD under Wolfgang Ernst (check interview 1 and 2) at Humboldt University Berlin (see this for an description in German) the concept of algorhythm or algorhythmics I then developed beginning with my Masterthesis (2006) seems to get slowly some attention (for example by Douglas Kahn or Shannon Mattern, not to speak the early help by Jussi Parikka 1 and 2.).
Furthermore two different Routledge book chapters I recently wrote on this subject will get published this year (2016, see list below). And we just organized a dense workshop on “Sounding Out the Anthropocene” in Basel Switzerland (call for papers) [Thanks to Felix Gerloff and Sebastian Schwesinger].
Nowadays, everybody seems to write about algorithms, algorithmic age, control and society etc. Good reasons to shortly wrap up my thoughts on that still evolving field of study.
Algorhythm = Algorithm + Rhythm
“Algorithm” is a term used in computer science that means a finite sequence of step-by-step instructions active in computers as core modules of software. They are procedures mostly for solving a problem. Algorithms are therefore sometimes regarded as results of design. Prior to the existence of either computer science or algorithms, Plato defined “rhythm” as a time-based order of movement (Laws 664e–665a), where movement is a material process that can be measured by a technical instrument. Rhythm then is an effect of ordering and measurement. “Algorhythmics,” then is a research field, that inquires time-based, technological processes, which occur when matter is modulated by symbolic and logical structures, such as instructions written as code. Algorhythms are the timing effects of computation. Such processes are micro-events, which operate on scales and levels that are usually below or beyond our perceptual threshold. Still, they are ubiquitous and operate across all aspects of our life.
The theoretical framework of algorhythmics was strongly influenced by the work of Wolfgang Ernst and his method of media archaeology, but is as well informed by different approaches within media studies, including media ecology, political ecology, and ecological history. Usually it is not only crucial to grasp the workings, effects, and rhythms of one algorithm, but also important to get an idea of the relations and feedback loops involved, such as when algorithms start to interact with each other in unintended ways. An aesthetics of technological ecosystems — a techno-aesthetics of the twenty-first century — is required, one that does not forget that today’s systems and epistemic, social, economic and planetarian infrastructures consist of millions of interconnected, algorhythmic micro-worlds.
Algorhythmics is thus not only a mere sense-making of simple algorithmic structures or communications protocols as I did with AlgorhythmicSorting (2010/11) (1 and 2) and Detektors (2009–) (with Martin Howse) [hear also the radio talk linked below] but moreover an approach to investigate into the rhythms and timing of distributed becoming in complex networks. Algorhythmics is not only interested into the topological aspects of networks, simply spoken their graphs, but ask about the processes and dynamics of communication evolving in such networks by speculating and modelling how such becomings might sound.
While one could grasp the growing ecosystem of intelligent machines and small invisible devices connected to our smart phones, tablets, and laptops by drawing on Vilem Flusser’s work, one can at the same time imagine it as a never-ending stream of algorhythmic effects that may generate effects even on a planetary level. How do agents affect each other in such ecosystems? How does a trend spread across them? How can we hear and see such trends? What are the scientific models that let us understand such dynamics?How deep are these micro-operations built into society? How do complex timings and behaviors evolve and emerge in ecosystems? What are the pathologies of our data-driven society? Can we cure them?
Algorhythmic activity is most of the time invisible, seamless and unnoticed, and only becomes apparent when the operation causes unintended, unforeseen, pathologic effects. Small programming mistakes, minimal incompatibilities or any sort of carelessly scheduled and designed timing can cause breakdowns. It is highly difficult to program algorithms that can avoid such failures and breakdowns. Great caution is required, especially when the algorhythmic processes are recursively intertwined or create a feedback circuit. Following the work by French epistemologist Georges Canguilhem (1904–1995), pathology is here defined as a divergence from the normal, from a state of equilibrium, that the system faces due to external influences from the environment (Canguilhem, Georges. 1991. The Normal and the Pathological. New York: Zone Books, p.269). Both living organisms and “technical-economical groups” (Ibid., p.284) — which I call algorhythmic ecosystems — can show “micromonstosities”, as a result of “false rhythm” (Ibid., p.276). Due to the physics of telecommunications these micro-failures are not immediately tangible and remain often unnoticed, until they generate concrete, mostly economic effects.
A future scenario for education might include a cabinet of curiosities with various algorhythmic models, games and simulations pathological and non-pathologic ones, which explain different layers, levels, and spheres of computation, including their benefits and dangers. Since last summer I have been thinking more towards concretizing these thoughts and recently wrote a tenative article on working with computer based models. Students could use these media/models to understand other media as well as the relationships between media. We have created a continuously expanding and evolving, heterogeneous new world based on algorithmic structures. To understand its wonders, dangers, future, and past is a never-ending, but surely rewarding, task.
List of my writings related to “algorhythmics”
Most of my publications are readable on academia.edu.
Miyazaki, Shintaro. 2012. “Algorhythmics: Understanding Micro-Temporality in Computational Cultures.” Computational Cultures. A Journal of Software Studies 2.
— — — . 2013a. “AlgoRHYTHMS Everywhere — a Heuristic Approach to Everyday Technologies.” Thamyris/Intersecting 26: 135–48.
— — — . 2013b. “Urban Sounds Unheard-of: A Media Archaeology of Ubiquitous Infospheres.” Continuum 27 (4): 514–22.
in German: — — — . 2013. “Algorhythmisiert. Eine Medienarchäologie digitaler Signale und (un)erhörter Zeiteffekte” (Berliner PROGRAMM einer Medienwissenschaft Bd. 12), Berlin: Kadmos Kulturverlag.
In print (spring 2016):
— — — . 2016. “Algorhythmic Ecosystems: Neoliberal Couplings And Their Pathogenesis 1960–” In Algorithmic Cultures. Essays on Meaning, Performance and New Technologies, edited by Robert Seyfert and Jonathan Roberge, forthcoming. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.
— — — . 2016. “Algorhythmics: A Diffractive Approach for Understanding Computation.” In Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities, edited by Jentery Sayers, forthcoming, Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.
