{"id":1493,"date":"2015-10-01T00:19:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T00:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/listheory.prattsils.org\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2015-10-01T00:19:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T00:19:01","slug":"trace-information-transcendence-and-the-proliferation-of-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/foundations\/2015\/10\/01\/trace-information-transcendence-and-the-proliferation-of-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Trace Information, Transcendence, and the Proliferation of Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Marcia Bates\u2019s treatment of trace information, in her <\/span>Fundamental Forms of Information,<\/span><\/i> seemed awfully cursory. While it fits as a necessary component within the overarching framework she establishes for information, she neglects this process of removal, compared to the ample thought given to the other aspects of her topic. But if we provide trace information further thought, it appears more significant than merely \u201cthe pattern of organization of the residue that is incidental to living processes or which remains after living processes are finished with it (Bates).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we can truly comprehend the importance of trace information, we must briefly explore the foundations that Bates establishes for the entire scope of her system. In her paper, she defines information as patterns of organization, which then get encoded and embodied through how living beings store, translate, and communicate information genetically, neuro-culturally, and exosomatically. Thus, Bates constructs a vision of information as a dynamic flow through complex and interweaving channels. Metaphorically, imagine this process as a tidal pool ecosystem, where inlets bring in substance that sustains and shapes life within its bounds. Without this inflow, life shall starve; however, life also creates waste, which the living\u00a0then removes by the tide pool\u2019s outflow.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Bates, trace information represents the function of this outflow:<\/span><\/p>\n

The flow here is of a different sort \u2014 the Biblical “dust to dust” \u2013 in which structures previously associated with life recede back into their natural, inert forms. Trace information is that information that is degrading from being represented information (encoded or embodied) into being natural information only (neither encoded or embodied) (Bates).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She likens trace information to the \u201cresidue\u201d that once \u201crepresented\u201d life: \u201cno-longer-used wasps\u2019 nest, waste heaps, carrion, disintegrating ancient scrolls, and so on (Bates).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

All these effects are necessary for the aforementioned reasons. Nevertheless, something seems amiss when juxtaposed with this picture of carrion, an exemplar\u00a0she mentioned:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Pictured: Carrion – not waste, lions, hyenas, and vultures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The very name \u201ctrace information\u201d implies that it is beholden to the source of its trace. In her example, the residual value of the fire leveled house resides in the building that once supported life: to expand this idea, death as a slow return to dust. With this, the husk of a wasp\u2019s nest stands as a likely forgotten testament to its time in use. But what then explains all the life in the photograph? Certainly, the lions, hyenas, and vultures find much use in this dead elephant, and apparently not for its trace of\u00a0origin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here, questions arise, what more does death contribute? Does decay allow information to transcend its original use into something greater? Can destruction encode more into life? To further investigate, let us leave the inhospitable systems at play in the savanna for something more digestible by humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before I link this next piece, I shall provide some context. William Basinski created <\/span>The Disintegration Loops<\/span><\/i> through his process of conversion of old tape loops, a common medium for his compositions, from analog to digital. He realized that, because of the magnetic strips\u2019 advanced age, this transfer considerably deteriorated the music represented on the medium itself. The strips literally fell apart as he recorded them. Because he worked with short loops of larger compositions, he could track the continual degradation. In his own words:<\/span><\/p>\n

[I] looked at the CD recorder to make sure it was on \u2014 it was \u2014 so I just sat there, listening as this gorgeous melody decayed over a period of an hour in such a beautiful way. I was just stunned […] ‘Wow, something different is happening here. I don’t need counter melodies. This is its own thing (Basinski).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clearly, the resultant music is\u00a0trace information, once from the residue of playback, and twice from the fact that Basinski found the original loops as left over from recordings stored from many years ago. But in their decay, greater meaning emerges, unexpected from what their original inert forms suggest; the sound loops would diminish in value, if their consistency remained.<\/span><\/p>\n