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history
2019 ___ IF THEN ELSE, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg City
2020 - 21 YES: NO, PERHAPS, Mario Mauroner Contemporary, Vienna
2023 ___ The language of image.... Topos, Brussels
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abstract
If Then Else is a conditional statement in programming language, subject to Boolean evaluation, true or false, 0 or 1. The origin of the expression can be traced to the philosophy of language and its predicate logic, which enables us to combine algorithmic and conceptual thinking with aesthetics.
text
As a neon sign hanging in a space it confronts programing logics with written/spoken language, two different set of meaning. As a light sign, it draws a reference to the neon statements of Joseph Kosuth quoting Wittgenstein’s Tractatus inducing a reflection on the epistemological nature of sense as condition for art. Its handwritten nature attributes a tenderness to the austerity of both the statement as the cold light, rendering the phrase into an almost poetic construct.
Variations:
( )
Bracketing is a technique used both in programming as in philosophy: In programming, bracketing is a punctuation used to establish the order of operation or evaluation. In philosophy, bracketing is a verb used to suspense judgement about reality to focus on experience. It’s a commonly used feature within phenomenology, which grew out of Kant’s distinction between ‘phenomena’ (existence object to the senses) and ‘noumena’ (existence independent from the senses).
Run
Run is a command in programming language to start a program, contrary to its meaning in human language where the first intuitive understanding of the word ‘run’ would be to move away; to avoid doing something.
artworks by the belgian artstudio LAb[au] based on writing rooted in concepual art, concrete poetry and autopoeitic machines
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![if the else, LAb[au]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fb1d51_e46b7ed617d747b78c051aa51f20b203~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_979,h_443,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/fb1d51_e46b7ed617d747b78c051aa51f20b203~mv2.jpg)
![if the else, LAb[au], Manuel Abendroth, Els Vermang](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fb1d51_a973c456b7324344b1d4b1fe8f1bacd0~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_490,h_400,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/fb1d51_a973c456b7324344b1d4b1fe8f1bacd0~mv2.jpg)
![if the else, LAb[au]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fb1d51_f0e2c86e32c9458ea8138ce7f3b4fc80~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_490,h_400,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/fb1d51_f0e2c86e32c9458ea8138ce7f3b4fc80~mv2.jpg)