“If cryptography exemplifies a lawful right-hand path for dealing with digital encryption—a scientific method—then poiesis and its interpretation pursue the left-hand path. It is the road of images and their dynamic imagination.”
“As we shall see, more tech breeds more encryption. And with it, Mehr Dunkelheit.”
Summary
The text contrasts cryptography (rational, lawful, scientific) with poiesis (imaginative, interpretive, creative), proposing that art can take a “left-hand path” to engage with encryption not by decoding it, but by aesthetically working through its opacity. As technology proliferates, so does encryption—and with it, deeper layers of obscurity (Mehr Dunkelheit).
Key Ideas
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Aesthetic response to opacity:
When cryptographic decoding is impossible or intentionally withheld, artistic engagement offers an alternative mode of understanding. Rather than seeking to break the code, poiesis explores the experience of not knowing. -
Sarah Myers West’s perspective:
“Surfacing and making visible the imaginaries we develop around encryption provides an entry point to understanding the implications of encryption technologies in a networked society.”
→ Art can reveal the cultural imaginaries that surround encryption, making visible what is otherwise hidden within technical systems.
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Three experiential dimensions of encryption:
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Locked in – A sense of entombment within technological systems; the labor of escaping the enclosure.
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Locked out – The affective frustration of being intellectually excluded from opaque, proprietary technologies.
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Locked down – A confusion of inside and outside, open and closed; the unsettling effects of control and confinement.
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Poiesis and encryption:
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Poiesis = the act of making or creation at the heart of art.
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The article itself is written in an encrypted style, its form mirrors its subject.
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Suggests that encryption is not only a technical process but also an aesthetic and poetic one.
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Critical question:
How might we “work toward its happening”—that is, move from passive contemplation of encrypted systems to actively reshaping or reinterpreting them through creative practice?
Further Reading
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Sarah Myers West, “Surfacing and Making Visible the Imaginaries Around Encryption”
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KW Institute for Contemporary Art – Poetics of Encryption (Curatorial Text)
![[Poetics of Encryption pp 6-11 FD.pdf]]