Code as culture

Project summary

During the residency that I will do in Platohedro during March 2018, I want to continue with my research on the development of methodologies and tools for learning and reflection on new technologies, through art and play. In this case, I will focus on programming languages ​​as generators of cultural grammars: what we are or are not aware of in programming, such as its implications of gender, race and culture, for example. I will investigate popular programming languages ​​and other alternative languages: feminist, native, embodied , visual, tangible …

The ultimate goal is, through this research, both individually and collectively through a series of workshops, develop an educational tool that allows the discovery of these concepts through experience, reflection and debate, and finally the collective search for possible solutions to the problem / debate. (e.g., the creation of our own programming language)

Pilot workshop offered during the Civic School in Barcelona in June 2017

In the talk, programming languages ​​were discussed as generators of cultural grammars: what we are or are not aware of in programming, such as its implications of gender, race and culture, for example. I will talk about popular programming languages, their origin and development, as well as other alternative languages: feminist, native, bodily, visual, tangible …

After the talk, a small exercise / workshop was developed in which the way of proposing a new programming language as reflexive exercise after what was learned.

The participants were divided into 3 groups. Each group was encouraged to create their own programming language with paper and pen. The written codes would later be interpreted by the other participants, who became the compilers. By doing so, we created with algorithmic rules a system of communication between humans through which we were more aware of how we act culturally.