Incredulity and the Digit

Abstract

To follow the inevitable and historical impact of technology on the practice of art and its reception this text looks to flesh out some effects of the digital on contemporary culture. Here, the term ‘digital’ is used in the broadest sense in order to approach the complex relationships emerging between the real world, so to speak, and immaterial code which constructs a virtual world of computing. Specifically, this text is interested in deepening our understanding of the function of the digit(al) in relation to the action of poking. The ‘poke’ bridges the oft unconsidered gap between pushing the physical body of the computer into computational action and the inquisitive engagement of human thought with a material world.