Greimas.exe: digital code in the

generative trajectory of expression

Everardo REYES

Université Paris 8 / Lab. Paragraphe

The Digital Subject #4 Codes

Org : P. Cassou-Noguès, C. Larsonneur, A. Regnauld.

Nov. 16 - 20, 2015. Archives Nationales & Université Paris 8

Semiotic contr ibutions to the

study of code and software

Code and software… where / how to start analyzing?

Word 1.0 Microsoft, 1989

1021 files in 33 folders Most of source code in C

Also text documents

x86 assembler-language

executable tools, batch files, and more.

Heterogeneity: levels of analysis

Processing 3 C. Reas & B. Fry, 2015

82,000 lines of code

Source code mainly in Java

Sign, Text, Object, Practice… all of them?

Our contr ibution: understanding code as a dynamic component within a generative trajectory of expression

Semiosis

Expression plane

Content plane

matter, support, susceptible

interpretation, narrativity, discourse

meaning, signification

Planes of language that constitute the semiotic function Elaborated by Hjelmslev, based on Saussure

Semiosis

Expression plane

Content plane

Form of expression

Substance of expression

Substance of content

Form of content

Each plane has a form and substance structure / perceptible, invariant / variant

Generative trajectory of content

Generative trajectory of expression

[ J. Fontanille, 2008, p. 34 ]

Semiosis

Expression plane

Content plane

Styles stratégiques

Formants récurrents

Isotopies figuratives de l’expression

Dispositif d’énonciation / inscription

Support formel d’inscription

Morphologie praxique

Scène prédicative

Processus d’accommodation

Gestion stratégique des pratiques

Iconisation des comportements stratégiques

Signs

Texts- enunciations

Objects

Practices

Strategies

Life forms

How to adapt it to code?

Object

Formal support: Raster grid

Material support: Display technologies [ screens CRT, plasma, LED, DLP ], capturing [ cameras CCD ], processing and storing [ processors, hard drives ]

Text

Network of isotopies: Programming language syntax Elements of the Graphical User Interface [ GUI ]

Inscription support: Programming paradigms User Interfaces Programming code

Signs

Source of formants: Binary code, electron diffusion, access to RAM/ROM

Recurrent formants: Data types, Data structures Algorithms [ logical and mathematical rules ]

Reference of Processing Dictionary of functions and signs

Software visualizations of Processing 2 E. Reyes, 2014

Signs, texts, and objects are the underlying levels of

practices and life forms

At each dimension, we could analyze code as enunciation and

focus on interrelated interpretative schemes

Shaping cultures… cultures of software and cultures where

software is increasingly employed, but with a different

foundation of practices, typologies, terminology, signs [ art,

humanities, digital humanities ]

Text and practices

• Procedural [ FORTRAN, ALGOL, PASCAL, C ]

• Imperative [ BASIC ]

• Declarative [ LOGO, PROLOG ]

• Functional [ LISP, ML ]: logically superior

• Object-oriented [ SMALLTALK, EIFFEL, C++ ]: synthesis of

procedural structurability and functional logic design

Programming languages do not stem from the recourse to

a logical model, although the machine they control are

explicitly based upon such a model.

[ Hagen, 2006 (in Chun & Keenan) : 157 - 175 ]

The machine grew out of Cold War, economy, organization of labor, numbers game

The structure of the von Neumann machine did not reveal that this

machine would be more than a new calculator, namely a new

communications medium

[ Hagen, 2006 (in Chun & Keenan) : 157 - 175 ]

Object and practices

What kind of user is being imagined and put in place?

Which models of “work” have informed Word?

It cannot order alphabetically list items or produce combinatorial poetry

[ Fuller, 2003 : 137 - 165 ]

Strategies and practices

Industrie aujourd’hui : restructurée pour s’adapter aux

potentialités et vicissitudes des logiciels

La vaste majorité de logiciels concernés sont écrits en langages orientés objet (C++, Ruby ou Java)

Non seulement structurent mais aussi influencent la logique

de l’identification, de la capture et de la médiation

[ Galloway, 2012 : 85 - 99 ]

Life forms and practices

A transposition of elements from the whole culture

Challenge and risk of deformations: There are receiving and sending cultures

They have to create their own version towards foreign elements

It is important to analyze every level of the trajectory to see how

matter and substance modify interpretations and meaning

From Digital ↔ Humanit ies

Merci de votre attention

Everardo REYES

Université Paris 8 / Lab. Paragraphe