Ramsey Nasser: Interview Excerpts from CLOUDS (2014)
Channel: The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry
Date: 2023-04-05

This video presents excerpts of raw interview footage from CLOUDS (2014). Directed by Jae Minard and James George, CLOUDS is an interactive, generative, computational documentary that allows the viewer to explore different perspectives on the intersection of code and culture. Filmed using the RGBD 3D cinema format and created entirely with open-source software, CLOUDS uses a data-driven story engine to present an endless, ever-changing conversation about the role of computational thinking in contemporary arts and design. More information is at cloudsdocumentary.com.

Ramsey Nasser (@ra) investigates programming languages as mediums of self expression. By looking at code as a vehicle of thought, he develops new languages to explore the relationship between human imagination and machine instruction.He wrote Alb, the first Arabic programming language, to provoke dialogue about the dominance of english in computer culture. His other work includes software and game design. [2014 Biography]

00:05 1. Ramsey Intro
00:15 2. designing languages
00:41 3. not interested in design fiction
01:09 4. literacy
01:33 5. the curse of 60s tech
02:06 6. language self expression
02:20 7. why code is special
02:29 8. code specifies behavior
02:44 9. it's not painting 1
03:07 10. it's not painting 2
03:24 11. a piece of my mind
03:35 12. cloud 1
03:56 13. cloud 2
04:04 14. independent of any human
04:19 15. no ambiguity allowed
04:45 16. a hundred million
05:12 17. thinking previously unthinkable thoughts
05:39 18. beauty of code
06:16 19. language as expression
06:28 20. beauty of the score
06:39 21. conway
07:20 22. ALB 1
08:29 23. ALB 2
09:30 24. ALB 3
09:56 25. ALB 4
10:06 26. ALB 5
10:28 27. complacency 1
11:02 28. complacency 2
11:13 29. traditional engineering
11:38 30. arab abstraction 1
12:22 31. arab abstraction 2
12:58 32. algorithm comes from arabic
13:11 33. does nature compute? 1
13:20 34. does nature compute? 2
13:44 35. fluxus
14:17 36. what is a computer
14:28 37. social computer
15:15 38. computer was a person
15:31 39. computation is interpretation of rules
15:42 40. DNA and code
16:02 41. Alan Kay biocomputing
16:23 42. biology and the internet
16:51 43. resilient internet
17:12 44. the internet 1
18:06 45. distributed model
18:31 46. algorithms run wild
19:21 47. dating algorithms
19:42 48. dystopia
20:08 49. ownership and programming
20:34 50. Google glass
21:13 51. google's business model 1
21:24 52. google's business model 2
22:19 53. emoji is restricted
22:47 54. legos 1
23:47 55. legos 2
24:48 56. legos 3
25:15 57. minecraft 1
26:10 58. minecraft 2
26:32 59. wizardry 1
26:46 60. wizardry 2
26:51 61. games for access
27:13 62. heiroglyphs
27:47 63. Conway 1
29:01 64. Conway 2
29:45 65. Conway 3
30:03 66. emergence from simple rules
30:57 67. New Kind of Science
31:13 68. elegant system
31:29 69. complicated C++
31:46 70. C++ built the modern world
32:24 71. unmaintainable code
32:38 72. trapese 1
33:23 73. trapese 2
33:36 74. videogame development
33:44 75. operating system biases

Directors: Jae Minard and James George
Executive Producer: Golan Levin (CMU)
Producer: Winslow Porter
Design Director: Bradley G Munkowitz