Pro-Programatic

*From Designing Programmes (1964), Karl Gerstner — with an introduction to the introduction by Paul Gredinger ¹.

⋯ Designing programmes can also mean: inventing rules of arrangement. Taking a chemical reaction as a parallel, the designer must try to find a group of new combinations by reference to a kind of formula. The formula is paramount. The formula creates the form. Creates a group of forms. Thus, for instance, there is a formula in poetry corresponding to this conception. The traditional structure of language is dissolved. No grammar. No syntax. The elements are single words. They stand loose in the line with all their valencies free. The rule of the game is permutation. The poems arising are called constellations. Constellations are a poetic programme.²

⋯ More self-evident still, and hence all the less consciously present in one’s mind: the formula of the recipe. First the elements are enumerated: take⋯ potatoes, milk, water, salt, and butter. Then the preparation: peeling, cutting up, boiling, straining, stirring⋯ Result: creamed potatoes. The recipe is the programme. Simple enough. But interpreting many of these programmes is more difficult. And when it comes to designing them, then the difficulties really begin. That is why it is called an art. The culinary art. And then there is still the whole menu to cook: one programme superimposed on another. The full score is a cookery book.³