Demiurgus: A Final Confidence

1987 | Computer program on floppy discs, case, printed insert and user’s guide, pewter casting; 6 x 10 x 1.25 ins.

AN EARLY EXAMPLE of digital art, the Demiurgus uses C programming language to create a text-and-graphics computer presentation that explores the nature of existence. Consisting of a pair of five-inch floppy discs – one with “commands,” the other with text and images – Demiurgus, when launched, takes the form of an on-screen book. Unlike analog texts, however, Demiurgus’s narrative is not constrained by the hierarchy of conventional pagination. The user is free to move between screens or “pages” in any direction without regard to their order; texts and images can be read forward, backward, up or down. As a consequence, the program’s presentation contains many possible interpretations. Its statements are divided into two levels, the “Anima” or irrational, and the “Animus” or rational. As the user moves selectively through the screens, those levels merge, leading to an epiphany triggered by an element hidden within the Demiurgus itself. That hidden element is a tiny bust, below, approximately half an inch high (shown much larger here). By pressing the F9 key, the user learns that the sculpt is a portrait of God. What it is actually is a portrait of an elderly, slightly senile neighbor of ours in Astoria. I obtained permission from his family to use him as a model for the deity and gave them a few casts in exchange. Also incorporated into the Demiurgus are my earlier works – the Pocket Universe, the Platometer, the Art Lexicon, the Apical Gesture and On Understanding the World. Like those pieces, this one was also sold in museum gift shops and artists stores.