BEAUT.E(CODE), Karen Hanmer

Exhibition Label: "Cryptograph: An Exhibition for Alan Turing," Mar-2012, Stephen Goddard BEAUT.E(CODE) is a book made up of 36 keypunched computer cards. Created by book artist Karen Hanmer in collaboration with computer professionals, each page bares a personal statement about what these individuals find beautiful, compelling, or imaginative about the act of programming. The cards themselves represent an analog method of storing and transmitting computer code that, while obsolete, was the primary support for data from the advent of the jacquard loom in the 19th century through the 1980s. Standard cards such as these were designed at the IBM Corporation in 1928, and contain 80 columns, each with 10 numerical positions. The contributing writers of BEAUT.E(CODE) limited their statements to less than 80 characters (the maximum content of any single punched card), demonstrating an elegant concision that echoes their individual statements about the refinement and grace of well-written code.