Plummer-Fernandez, Matthew. 2019. The art of bots: A practice-based study of the multiplicity, entanglements and figuration of sociocomputational assemblages. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26599/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] The art of bots: A practice-based study of the multiplicity, entanglements and figuration of sociocomputational assemblages Matthew Plummer-Fernandez 33365961 Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Design Department Goldsmiths, University of London December 2018 1 Declaration of Authorship: I, Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date: 31/12/2018 2 DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH 6 ABSTRACT 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 9 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 13 A brief history of bots 14 The emergence of artbots 20 Prior notions of computer-related art 27 Note on interdisciplinarity 31 Thesis outline 32 CHAPTER 2: A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING ARTBOTS 34 What is an algorithm? 35 Conceptualising composite arrangements 40 Software architecture 42 Sociocomputational assemblages 47 Artbots 50 Towards a framework 53 Multiplicity 56 Entanglement 58 Figuration 60 Conclusion 62 CHAPTER 3: STUDYING SOCIOCOMPUTATIONAL ASSEMBLAGES 64 Research setting 64 Participant research 65 Inventive and practice-based methods 68 Research through collaboration 70 Research through curation 72 Methodological issues 74 3 Conclusion 77 CHAPTER 4: MULTIPLICITY 78 Making multiplicities 79 Scalability and duration 84 Big Data Pawn Shop 93 Conclusion 98 CHAPTER 5: ENTANGLEMENT 100 User interaction 101 Interactive bots 102 Entanglements at Art of Bots 104 Entanglement 112 Every User 123 Shiv Integer 127 Conclusion 134 CHAPTER 6: FIGURATION 136 Familiar figurations 137 Figuring alternatives 142 Magic Realism Bot 151 MAMMON 154 The Revenant 159 Petita Tatata 162 Novice Art Blogger 166 Conclusion 175 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION 177 Thesis summary 177 Understandings of Web-based software 179 Practice through research 181 4 Methodological contributions 183 From artbots to configurative art 185 Further recommendations 187 REFERENCES 189 APPENDIX I: PRACTICE-BASED WORK 197 I.I Artbot URLs 197 I.II Exhibitions 198 I.III Exhibitions marketing material 199 I.IV Press 204 APPENDIX II. ART OF BOTS 205 II.I Further documentation 205 II.II Exhibition plan 209 II.III Marketing material 210 II.IV Press coverage 213 II.V Interviews 216 5 Digital archive of practice-based research The hard-drive contents submitted with this thesis are also available on Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1ignk5s9kelyj07/AADR4G4QXvxOox5PbMt13JJFa?dl=0 Shortened URL: http://tiny.cc/MPFbots Contents 1. Art of Bots 1.1 Images 1.2 Press 2. All Eyes 2.1 Eyes 2.2 Source code 2.3 Tweet archive 2.4 Twitter data 2.5 Videos 3. Every User 3.1 Images 3.2 Source code 3.3 Tweet archive 3.4 Twitter data 3.5 Users 4. Novice Art Blogger 4.1 Images 4.2 Novice Art Blogger HTML 4.3 NAB posts 4.4 Source code 5. Shiv Integer 5.1 3D Files 5.2 3D Prints 5.3 Emails and comments 5.4 Images 6 5.5 Source Code 5.6 Videos 6. Revenant Bot 6.1 Images 6.2 Source Code 7. Petita Tatata 7.1 Images 7.2 Poems audio 7.3 Source code 7 Abstract This thesis examines and analyses an emerging art practice known as artbots. Artbots are internet-based software applications that are imbued with character and configured to engage and entertain online audiences. This form of practice, and the community of practice leading it, was found to be underrepresented and misunderstood. I argue that this artform is original and warrants a more thorough understanding. This thesis develops a conceptual framework for understanding artbots that focuses on and enables questioning around pertinent aspects of the practice. A wide range of literature was reviewed to provide theoretical underpinnings towards this framework, including literature on algorithm studies, science and technology studies, and software architecture. The devised framework examines artbot case studies through the notions of multiplicity, entanglement, and figuration, having understood artbots as heterogenous sociocomputational assemblages comprised of software components and human intra- activity. The research followed a varied methodology that encompassed participant observation and my own practice-based experiments in producing artbots. The study resulted in several original works. In addition, a showcase titled Art of Bots brought together key proponents and artbots, further providing material that is analysed in this thesis. The study helped identify and discuss artbots with attention to how they utilise modular software components in novel arrangements, how normative human and nonhuman relations of interaction are being eschewed in favour of entangled interrelations, and how artbots challenge common narratives dictating technological constructs by inventing unique characters and figurations. 8 List of illustrations Figure 1. Computer architecture diagram for Storyblocks, a Web-based service for searching for licensable ‘stock’ photographs. ____________________________ 45 Figure 2. Earth Rover Bot (2014) by Colin Mitchell, at the location in Russia where changes to the Twitter API caused the configuration to cease working. https://twitter.com/EarthRoverBot. ____________________________________ 80 Figure 3. Museum Bot (2014) by Darius Kazemi. http://twitter.com/museumbot. ____ 81 Figure 4. Reverse OCR producing a scribble that reads "goodness". http://reverseocr.tumblr.com/image/166751774363 _______________________ 83 Figure 5. Cloud OCR (2015) by Everest Pipkin. http://everest-pipkin.com/ _________ 83 Figure 6. The Raspberry Pi computer with Wi-Fi dongle that hosted the artbots made during this study. __________________________________________________ 86 Figure 7. An eye produced by All Eyes (2014). https://twitter.com/_all_eyes ________ 86 Figure 8. A screenshot of Everyword (2007) by Allison Parrish. https://twitter.com/everyword ________________________________________ 87 Figure 9. Everyword producing the word “sex”, its most popular word by June 2014. 88 Figure 10. Every Icon, 1996 by John F. Simon Jr. The wall hanging version was comprised of the software running on a Macintosh PowerBook170 encased in plastic acrylic. ____________________________________________________ 89 Figure 11. Tweets from Everyword uttering the words “bush”, “did”, “nine”, and “eleven” were appropriated by Twitter users as a means to spread the message “Bush did 9/11”. Screenshot taken from https://twitter.com/thetrashknight/status/578538466407002112. _____________ 89 Figure 12. The Ephemerides (2015) by Allison Parrish. ________________________ 91 Figure 13. The Ephemerides was reconfigured as a chapbook for Art of Bots (2016). _ 92 Figure 14. A cropped screenshot of http://twitter.com/unchartedatlas _____________ 92 Figure 15. Screenshot of https://twitter.com/cspan5 by Sam Lavigne. _____________ 94 Figure 16. Presentation of CSPAN-5 and Parliament-Live at Art of Bots, April 2016._ 95 Figure 17. A screenshot of http://bigdatapawnshop.lav.io. ______________________ 96 Figure 18. The HTML inspector reveals the source image that is superimposed onto the Zazzle product. When the Web shop visitor clicks on a codename, speculative products are generated ‘on-the-fly’, by fetching a random selection of Zazzle products and replacing their design with that of the leaked NSA document, simply by substituting the source image in the URL. ____________________________ 97 Figure 19. Big Data Pawn Shop at Art of Bots, 2016 __________________________ 97 9 Figure 20. Zazzle marketplace items offered by Supernova23 ___________________ 98 Figure 21. http://twitter.com/SortingBot by Darius Kazemi. ____________________ 104 Figure 22. User-audience interface for 5Point9Billion, presented at Art of Bots. ____ 105 Figure 23. The 5Point9Billion floor-based star map, presented at Art of Bots. ______ 105 Figure 24. Screenshot (cropped) of https://twitter.com/GraphicScoreBot. Graphic Score Bot (2016) by Emma Winston. ______________________________________ 108 Figure 25. Treatise (1967) by Cornelius Cardew was a compilation of graphic scores drawn by the avant-garde composer (Cardew 1967). _____________________ 108 Figure 26. Emma Winston performing to Graphic Score Bot at Art of Bots. _______ 109 Figure 27. Screenshot of https://twitter.com/artassignbot by Jeff Thompson, demonstrating a completed artwork from Bot Art School. __________________ 110 Figure 28. Bot Art School at Art of Bots. Jeff Thompson (second from left) hands an art assignment to a new assignee. _______________________________________ 111 Figure 29. Visitors making bots using Cheap Bots Done Quick at Art of Bots, 2016 _ 112 Figure 30. Screenshot of https://twitter.com/pentametron, by Ranjit Bhatnagar. ____ 113 Figure 31. http://twitter.com/empathydeck by Erica Scourti. ___________________ 115 Figure 32. Oliver the dog by the window, with the microphone