Code may be mysterious, cryptic, and in a sense unknowable, but it is, as Ted Warnell’s
“Lascaux Symbol.ic” reminds us, made. Analogizing the cave painting to code, “Lascaux” reminds us that the hand — craft, skill, technical expertise — comes in between code and surfaces of inscription, here the wall of the cave. Code may in a general sense be opaque and legible only to specialists, much like a cave painting’s sign system, but it has been inscribed, programmed, written. It is conditioned and concretely historical. Whether or not non-human agents have had a 'hand' in its formulation, code remains not only a constructing force but also that which is constructed.
