The start of a new year is just as good a time as any to announce a new identity.
Welcome.
This website exists as a “living archive,” as any good node on the graph of the Internet does, to serve as the starting vertex of the depth-first search I have undertaken to catalogue all of the discrete ways of connecting a broad range of concepts in computer science, mathematics, art, literature, philosophy, music, science, history and as many other subjects of study as my little Atlassian shoulders can bear. The aim is to eschew prioritizing any one singular perspective, but rather to frequently (and sometimes perhaps without warning) to turn the work on its side, to view its composition from an altered relation to its overarching plane of Cartesian space.
I will not be leading you down the path to the oft-visited realms of empirical singularity that a one-point perspective is wont to do.
In the spirit of the great Donald Knuth, this blog attempts to serve as a collection of documents that are derived from both theory and practice. As Herbert Marcuse stated in his work, “Art and Liberation,” art has the power, the potential energy perhaps, to catalyze further understanding, further engagement with concepts whose very names can feel as imposing and impenetrable as iron-glad gates to a palatial estate. To Marcuse, art is only successful when it utilizes both theory and praxis (which I will interpret in this context as practice.) And après Knuth, computer programming is an art, in and of itself.
A note on images. The images on this website are watermarked, using a python script I wrote, (see future blog posts for a more in-depth explanation of the process I use for watermarking images of my work), to minimize redistribution of my work without due credit. If you would like to reference my work, I welcome collaboration. I only ask that you cite your sources as I have cited mine, so that none of us presume to not be standing on the shoulders of giants.
The subject of the essays (blog posts, projects, etc) will be, in a nod to my favorite pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus, in a state of flux — which is to say that there will be no strictly defined set of subjects which will be included as topics for exploration or investigation. I will include disparate pieces, in variadic forms and on a particularly wide-sweeping breadth of subjects, which will all serve as nodes on this graph that I am constructing. For the most part, the blog will center around concepts in computer science, particularly information security (henceforth referred to as “InfoSec”), but will also include pieces of art criticism (included but not limited to “visual art,” (again, a tricky thing to define, so I wil say any form of “fine art” that includes but is not limited to painting, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, installation, performance, sound and digital; I ask the reader extend me the courtesy to expand this definition as needed and to pose questions about any forms or works not included that you feel I may have neglected.)) as well as mathematical proofs, and the occasional prose or poem.
Consider this a Socratic dialogue with myself, and you, dear reader, can merely enjoy the spectacle. I only ask that you do applaud at the appropriate intervals, though only if you feel it is merited. Please refrain from throwing rotten tomatoes; no shade to nightshades, I just don’t want any stains on my black cashmere turtleneck. As an audience member, your role in this dramatic engagement is of the utmost importance, and I implore you to speak up and boo if there are logical errors in my proofs. If you disagree with what I say, read me for filth, but be prepared for a rebuttal and please come armed with your predicates and conclusions.
No one is keeping you here. There are many extraordinary things on the Internet that you are welcome to go and explore. Click the x any time you feel overwhelmed. Just know that this site will still be here, and your ticket for the show is always valid.