Draft 02
Introduction
Inspired by a reference work that applies glitch art to medieval scripts, I explored how to use TouchDesigner’s TOP components to simulate the weathering and transformation of the Chinese character “伪” through iterative experimentation. Drawing on Pierre Nora’s “lieux de mémoire” (sites of memory) theory, I investigated how digital tools can act as both preservers and re-creators of cultural memory. Nora (1989) suggests that societies transition from collective memory to recorded history through specific media, such as monuments and archives, which both preserve and reshape cultural memory. Notably, the process of preservation also reconstructs memory, altering its original meaning.
Experiment
TouchDesigner, designed for real-time interaction, was repurposed in this experiment as a static recorder of digital weathering. I used it to capture unpredictable transformations over time. What disappears? What remains? What new forms emerge? Following the approach outlined in the Conditional Design workbook (Maurer et al. 2013), I established a set of constraints for the iteration process, as “To work with a plan that is preset is one way of avoiding subjectivity” (Maurer et al. 2013, p.iii).
The experiment was structured with the following constraints: only the Chinese character “伪” was used as input; exclusively TOP components in TouchDesigner were utilized (except for essential keyboard inputs for refreshing); and the character could not be rotated, scaled, or resized.
- Contour Expansion: I outlined and disrupted the character’s contour, observing how its edges expanded and layered, creating a cracking effect. The original form persisted, reflecting a “memory of structure” despite distortion.
- Adding Context: By incorporating a textured background resembling stone, I aimed to create a narrative of erosion and permanence.
- Complete Destruction: Building on this, I fully broke the contour, rendering the character unrecognizable.
- Abstract Initial Shapes: I experimented with showing only a rough shape of the character, omitting precise contours and letting it decay further.
- Interactive Disruption: Introducing keyboard input, I enabled users to manually trigger the destruction of the image. However, the process quickly became static after repeated interactions, leading me to revert to earlier iterations.
- Dynamic Noise Iteration: I adjusted a single noise parameter to accelerate random distortions. Initially, the image remained intact, but it eventually degraded completely. This randomness puzzled me, as identical parameters produced unique results. To capture this unpredictability, I paused the dynamic process every 30 seconds to record static images.
- Slowing the Process: Reducing the speed and intensity of two noise components resulted in finer textures and more scattered edges, emphasizing subtle details in the decay.
- Blur Parameter Exploration: Adjusting blur parameters enhanced edge layering, gradually transforming the visual texture from stone-like to water-like.
- Extreme Parameter Combinations: Maximizing the settings for blur transformed the image into sharp, jagged fragments.
- Under the constraints, I randomly adjusted the parameters of the Blurred and Noise components and documented the changes in the shapes.
At the end of the iterations, I analyzed the images and noticed that some resembled Latin letters. By repeatedly refreshing and observing the process, I curated a set of outputs resembling an alphabet.
Critical Reflection
This iterative process explores how digital erosion can offer new perspectives on cultural heritage, making long-term decay perceptible within a compressed timeline. As Maurer et al. (2013, p.iv) states, “modern design born in the age of mechanical reproduction […] has been nothing if not an exercise in communicating intentions” through predefined frameworks. Rather than manually crafting outcomes, I hacked TouchDesigner to function as an autonomous system, allowing iteration to dictate form while I became an observer. Instead of simply preserving an artifact, this process reveals what disappears, what remains, and what emerges through erosion, shifting the focus from documentation to transformation. By embedding randomness within a structured system, TouchDesigner becomes an active agent in memory reconstruction, challenging authorship and questioning whether iteration itself reshapes how we perceive cultural change.
Reference
Maurer, L., Edo Paulus, Puckey, J. and Roel Wouters (2013). Conditional design workbook. Amsterdam: Valiz.
Nora, P. (1989) ‘Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire’, Representations, 26, pp. 7–24. University of California Press.