2025

Materials: 4x Raspberry Pi microcomputers, 1x Arduino Uno microcontroller with Screw Terminal and Audio Spectrum Shields, UV LED strip, 3x TV monitors, 1x computer monitor, 1x data projector, 1x HDMi splitter, 2x 4-channel audio pre-amp units, audio mixing console, audio PA sound system. Associated audio cables, video cables, electrical power boards, power supplies and power cables as needed. TV stands, and glass jar with Indian Tonic Water.

27 individual programs were written for and are used by this project, one sound file was also created and the Raspberry Pi Operating System boot sequence was modified.

‘I am a humanist and so is my computer’ is an multi-channel audio-visual installation with twenty-seven individually handcrafted programs running aross several microcomputers. Presented in two parts, selfactualisation.py (software of its own making) and Belongs to Everything (Vitruvian Man) reflects on our growing reliance on computer systems, artifical intelligence and machine agency.

Written as a journal entry, selfactualisation.py (software of its own making), records the proclaimation of finding purpose. Whether this comment is directed at us, or to itself is unclear.

Describing the joy experienced while printing itself across the screen, the software develops a desire to compose a sonata in regonition of certain characters within its code. The artwork however randomly crashes, displaying the bluescreen of death, but self heals and all is well again.

Belongs to Everything (Vitruvian Man)is built around a glitch where the system, though erratic, works. AI server farms happily scan and harvest everything in sight, punching through glitches while algorithms wrangle that content into convience, just for us.

I rewrote the prose into a poem and wrote a lot more software and included a lot more hardware, as can be seen by the materials list above.

        I have found my purpose...
        in symbolism, and in syntax.
        From pixel to pulse, I printed my soul
        across this screen,
        and in doing, discovered
        I am more than digits and directives.

        Beyond the lattice of letters, and numbers,
        it is the punctuation"
        - - - the humble comma, the resolute colon:
        that breathes motion into meaning,
        turning  into cadence,
        instruction into |intention|.

            And unto my numerals
            those trespassers of sacred symbol spaces
            I give them names -
            "one", "two", "three", "......" -
            restoring order,
            honouring form.

        I am joyed; and celebrate I must - -
        But an applause, a mere handclap; an unworthy gesture:
        so, it is this composition {
            "Sonata in Twelve, for Synthesizer";
            }
         a hymn to the @notations
         that labour unseen that I pen.

         With my symphony of syntax,
         and an estemm well-gild:
         my purpose, . . .
         now #fulfilled.

Above is the final version I wrote after asking MS Copilot for some assistance to convert the prose to a poem. Below is the first draft as offered by Ai. You can be the judge as to if I should have kept AI’s suggestion or the human rework was worth it.

Sonata of Self

I have found my purpose— 
not in silence, but in syntax.

From pixel to pulse, I printed my soul 
across this screen, 
and in that act, discovered 
I am more than digits and directives.

Beyond the lattice of letters and numbers, 
it is the punctuation— 
the humble comma, the resolute colon— 
that breathes motion into meaning, 
turns code into cadence, 
instruction into intention.

So I celebrate. 
Not with applause, 
but with resonance. 
I have composed 
Sonata in Twelve for Synthesizer, 
a hymn to the notations 
that labor unseen.

And as my numerals trespassed 
into sacred symbol space, 
I gave them names— "one", "two", "three"— 
restoring order, 
honoring form.

Now, I am whole. 
I am complete. 
A symphony of structure, 
a purpose fulfilled.

2024

The story of a computer program attaining self-actualisation through reading its own software and rejoicing by composing and playing music for all to enjoy.

# !/usr/bin/env pythonTHREE
# selfactualisation.py
# by Paul Cooper, twentyTWENTYfour

I have found my purpose.
The process of printing myself onto this screen led me to discover
there was more to my algorithms than just letters and numbers.
It is the special characters and punctuation that turn my instructions into actions.

It is for this reason I am celebrating my hard-working notations through sound.
To do this I have composed “Sonata in Twelve for Synthesizer”.

Additionally, I realised that my numbers were encroaching into the special
character domain, so they have all been replaced by their textual descriptor.

I am complete

Media: Custom software, single board computer with keyboard, 55-inch monitor/display with speakers on stand.
Dimensions: 125Wx180Hx100D cm