Binary
By Caleb Foss
Full screen viewing is recommended
Binary is a generative text, which explores a non-binary body inhabiting a binary medium. Using a structure inspired by Christopher Strachey’s Loveletters and Allison Knowles’ House of Dust, the algorithm builds each line of text from words/phrases selected from a list of options. However, unlike its inspirations, which select randomly, Binary iterates through all 1,512 possible permutations one by one. After a line of text is rendered, the resulting pixels on screen become cells in John Conway’s zero-player game Life. The animation state is stored in a database so that each viewer picks up where the last viewer left off. The current timecode is displayed at the bottom of the title screen.
