Monorepo for Aesthetic.Computer
aesthetic.computer
refactor: pieces paper voice — first-person consistent, remove "this paper" frame
Changed abstract: removed "This paper argues that" construction (which VOICE.md identifies as framing to avoid when reader already knows they're reading a paper). Changed "We trace/examine/argue" to first-person "I trace/examine" and dropped the "We" entirely for the final insight. Applied VOICE.md guidelines for directness.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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papers/arxiv-pieces/pieces.tex
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papers/arxiv-pieces/pieces.tex
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\begin{quote}
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\small\noindent\textbf{Abstract.}
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\ac{} calls its interactive programs \emph{pieces}---not sketches, patches, scripts, or apps. This paper argues that the choice of word is not cosmetic. It imports a framework from music and visual art in which a creative work is an \emph{authored, performable, iterable artifact} rather than a specification for a machine. We trace the genealogy of the piece as a computational unit, comparing it to the Processing sketch, the Max/MSP patch, the Unix process, the Smalltalk image, and the Jupyter notebook. We then examine what AC pieces actually are: single-file URL-addressable programs with a lifecycle (\texttt{boot}, \texttt{paint}, \texttt{act}, \texttt{sim}, \texttt{leave}) that mirrors the perception-action cycle of embodied agents~\citep{varela1991embodied}. We argue that naming and designing around the piece concept---rather than the program concept---produces qualitatively different relationships between authors, platforms, and audiences: one in which software is practiced, not just deployed.
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\ac{} calls its interactive programs \emph{pieces}---not sketches, patches, scripts, or apps. The choice of word is not cosmetic. It imports a framework from music and visual art in which a creative work is an \emph{authored, performable, iterable artifact} rather than a specification for a machine. I trace the genealogy of the piece as a computational unit, comparing it to the Processing sketch, the Max/MSP patch, the Unix process, the Smalltalk image, and the Jupyter notebook. Then I examine what AC pieces actually are: single-file URL-addressable programs with a lifecycle (\texttt{boot}, \texttt{paint}, \texttt{act}, \texttt{sim}, \texttt{leave}) that mirrors the perception-action cycle of embodied agents~\citep{varela1991embodied}. Naming and designing around the piece concept---rather than the program concept---produces qualitatively different relationships between authors, platforms, and audiences: one in which software is practiced, not just deployed.
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\end{quote}
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\vspace{0.5em}
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}]