Working on an interview Scott and I did with Noah and Coover and Josh Carroll last December I listen to the recording as Noah talks about peripheral reading and I, intrigued, ask more, and then tell him about a seed I once planted on my desktop that grew for a week and then wilted, but not before leaving me with a seed to give to a friend. I want to plant another flower so I search each version of my blog, tracking it down, finally, in a post from November 2001, when I was still writing in Norwegian, still using Blogger. The flower is by David Claerbout, and it’s called Present. You can still download a seed, perfect for hoping for spring. Unfortunately, the Mac version is for Mac Classic. It tries to install itself on a desktop I never use, too peripheral for pleasure now. But I’ll remember the idea: a peripheral artwork which is present over time though rarely the focus of my attention. Noah et.al.’s The Impermanence Agent is like that too. Like Present, it takes about a week to unfold, but rather than growing on your desktop, it pops up in windows of your browser as you read the web.

Perhaps Present still works in Windows? Try and see!