New Working Book List

General & Formal Systems Theory

Math:

-The Universal Computer- Martin Davis

-The Turing Omnibus- A.K. Dewdney

-Infinity and the Mind- Rudy Rucker

Science:

-General Systems Theory- Ludwig von Bertalanffy

-Complexification- John L. Casti

Philosophy:

- Critical Environments: Postmodern Theory and the Pragmatics of the “Outside”- Cary Wolfe

- Observing Complexity: Systems Theory and Postmodernity- Cary Wolfe

- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus- Ludwig Wittgenstein

Art Theory:

- selection of Systems Art essays (http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/burnham/homepage.html)

- selections from Computer Music Tutorial- Curtis Roads (“Systems Theory: Linked Automata,” “Brief History of Formal Processes in Music”)

Instantiations:

Hans Haacke

Iannis Xenakis

Chaos Theory

Math:

Poincaré

-Mathematics and the Unexpected- Ivars Ekeland

-Chaos, Fractals and Power Laws- Manfred Schroeder

Science:

- Chaos: Making a New Science- James Gleick

- The Turbulent Mirror- John Briggs and F. David Peat

Philosophy:

- Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science- N. Katherine Hayles

Art Theory:

- selections from Computer Music Tutorial (“Stochastic Processes,” “Fractals,” “Chaos Generators”)

- "Aesthetics of Failure"- Kim Cascone

Instantiations:

- Snow Crash- Neal Stephenson

John Cage

Oval

Pollock

Rauschenberg

Julie Mehretu

Jared Tarbell

Complexity Theory

Math:

-A New Kind of Science- Stephen Wolfram

Science:

- Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos- Seth Lloyd

- Critical Mass- Philip Ball

Philosophy:

- A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity- Manuel DeLanda

Art Theory:

- “Abstraction and Complexity”- Lev Manovich

- selections from Computer Music Tutorial (“Cellular Automata” “Total Automation vs. Iterative Composition”)

Instantiations:

Information Theory (isomorphism, mapping, the location of meaning)

Math:

- Meta-math!: The Quest for Omega- Gregory Chaitin

- Mind Tools- Rudy Rucker

Science:

- Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Theory is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, From our Brains to Black Holes- Charles Seife

Philosophy:

Art Theory:

- Art as Language: Wittgenstein, Meaning and Aesthetic Theory- G.L. Hagberg

Instantiations:

- Pattern Recognition- Gibson

- Crying of Lot 49- Thomas Pynchon

- "Entropy"- Pynchon

- selections of Borges (Library of Babel, Garden of Forking Paths, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis, Tertius)

- Valis- Philip K. Dick

Postmodernity (Axiom systems, undefined terms, incompleteness, relativity, recursion, self-reference, intertextuality)

Math:

- Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty- Morris Kline

Science:

- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions- Thomas Kuhn

- Against Method- Paul Feyerabend

Philosophy:

- The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge- Jean-François Lyotard

- "From Postmodernism to Postmodernity: the Local/Global Context” http://www.ihabhassan.com/postmodernism_to_postmodernity.htm

- Mythologies- Roland Barthes

- Limits of Interpretation- Umberto Eco

- Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature- Richard Rorty

Art Theory:

Instantiations:

- Gravity's Rainbow-Thomas Pynchon

- White Noise- Don DeLillo

- Infinite Jest- David Foster Wallace

Artificial Intelligence & Artificial Life

Math:

-The Computational Beauty of Nature- Gary William Flake

Science:

- How we Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics- N. Katherine Hayles

- Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology- Steven Levy

Philosophy:

Art Theory:

- Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life- Mitchell Whitelaw

Instantiations:

- Galatea 2.2- Richard Powers