When categorising galaxies there are three known shapes; ellipticals, spirals and irregulars. Irregulars are so named because there is little understanding of why they occur. These visually chaotic constellations keep us guessing about the true meaning of the great unknown. How can we start to think beyond when we have so little grasp of that before us?
Categorisation is a fundamental part of understanding the world. In the eighteenth century Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus established a system for grouping organisms by type. This taxonomy has helped fellow zoologists to identify and name flora and fauna, but there are issues with this approach. The pangolin, the only mammal with scales, is so unique it had to be classified in its own order1. Anomalies such as this could signify that how we perceive the world is radically different to the logic that underlies it.
In 1934 the mathematician Alan Turing devised his universal computing machine which theorised the computer long before it was possible. He saw in numbers something many could not, helping us simplify our understanding of the world. Problems have since arisen in computer science, such as the P vs. NP problem which asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified can also be solved quickly. First posed in 1971, over 50 years later there is still no answer to this question.
Within each Programme is a diverse set of practices which orbit, crash, disintegrate and meld to grasp at unknowable ideologies which may well be the themes of tomorrow. Beyond the tangible or imaginable lives the fodder of true innovators, the deepest of thinkers whose synapses click and pop at a different rate to the average person. Whether manifesting as utopian fictions, painted abstractions or speculative robotics, these inventive students are delving into a sphere which lies further afield than we can currently grasp.
