Instrumentality: A note on the Aesthetics of Programming

In this paper I want to describe a way to explain the beauty of instrumental action. Instrumental action is, in this paper, any action whose goal lies outside the action itself. Most of our everyday actions could be included in this category: driving to work, taking the buss, writing memos, letters and e-mails, designing cars, managing organisations, etc. We do not do these things for their own sake, we do them in order to attain some other goal. I do not intend to get any deeper into the concept of instrumental action so I will use an example instead of talking in a general manner. I have chosen to lead the argument from the example of programming, but this paper is not primarily about technology. The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) had already been a relatively well known painter for a few years before he became (in)famous for his revolutionary ideas about aesthetics. His ideas are better transmitted through his paintings but he also wrote about them, which makes it easier for anyone who wishes to use them as references. In this case, all references to him are extracted from the collection The New Art-The New Life (Mondrian 1993, Da Capo Press, New York). I shall try to give an account of the aesthetics of instrumental action with the help of Mondrian's writings. I would like to explain the beauty of instrumental action using the concept of "relationships", as Mondrian did for his paintings.