The Conditional Loop

This is the blog of Lan Xuan Le, graduate student in the field of Film & Media Studies.  I call this project The Conditional Loop because it provides a way for me to focus and think about how I approach the writing of my own history.  A conditional loop in programming — as I understand it — forms a basic set of actions executed by the computer.  If some variable X is above or below a certain value, then execute this action. Else, do nothing.  By using this loop, computer programmers can build incredibly sophisticated cascades of actions that respond to values and inputs.  In a similar way, I chose the image of the conditional loop to emphasize the acts of personal and academic writing as a process of writing from the values and inputs we mobilize.  What do we put in?  What comes out?  The image of programming keeps me from pretending that what I write is “right” or “natural” and that, after all, I am writing towards and ends.  So to that end, I must ask myself, “If this thing, then what history?”