The cycle revolves around the idea of a machine designed in such a way that it is impossible to understand the logic behind its construction. We can observe the flickering of the screen and read the results of the algorithm’s calculations, but we are unable to comprehend the logic behind the multidimensional computation. When asking such a machine a question, we can only trust the correctness of its judgments.

At times, the machine reveals its interface. We understand that this is an interface as such, as an idea, but it is difficult to determine the purpose of the elements of individual parts of the screen. Thin, precise lines describe movement and reveal the process.

At some point, you can spend a lot of time watching the calculations live. Vectors are replaced by grids, connecting nodes pulsate and flow smoothly into each other, the image on the screen seems to float and spread. It begins to seem that the natural essence of the algorithm is beginning to emerge through dry and impersonal calculations.

Just as people used to draw atlases for themselves, gathering valuable bits of information, so does the machine begin to operate. Sometimes its calculations turn into paper artifacts. Distant relatives of punch cards and tuning tables probably help the machine calibrate itself, maintaining sufficient autonomy.

Where there is calculation, there is also a space of possibilities. There is no single result: the machine is not interested in obtaining a single answer, but in creating and observing a field of possibilities, moving within it with its sensors and searching for increasingly subtle and rare configurations.

Images of punch cards often recur in this cycle. Ironically, in the most digital and seemingly virtual space of the project, a paper artifact occupies an important place. Assembled from separate parts and fragments, it helps to ensure that it has not changed during its storage. We will never see a smooth change in the file.

There are many types of cards like this. Some of them resemble working documents or elements of a highly specific archive. Others look like punched discs, as if they stored information in a vacuum. The rhythm of the recordings, despite their conciseness, is sufficient.

There is no specific size, shape, or recording standard. Depending on the task, the machine finds the most suitable form for the object. The final silhouette of such boards becomes an independent part of a large answer. How we would like to be able to read and apply the results of these calculations.

We have already seen examples of spaces for performing calculations, but there are also special maps — schematic sets of field interrelationships for the algorithm to work with, the context of reflection and movement. The structure of such a sheet is not essential in itself, even though it looks precise at first glance. This often becomes an interesting quality of the machine — to be strict in appearance while remaining light and free.

These maps are also assembled from fragments. Spreading across the screen surface, they create a modular structure each time, revealing the impermanence of the world of parameters in which the algorithm operates. Every moment in time and every new parameter affects the entire system, forcing the recalculation to start over and over again.