Journal articles on the topic 'LIGHT TRANSMITING CONCRETE'

Recently, research attention has been drawn to the application of novel, unique, and innovative types of construction materials to fulfil diverse objectives associated with the ground-breaking concept of “Greener Architecture”, in order to improve the overall economic value and quality of construction. Among these revolutionary structural building materials is light-transmitting concrete, also referred to as translucent or transparent concrete. This material is based on the concept of nano-optics, which allows exterior light to transmit through internal spaces in which light elements, namely optical fibres, are incorporated during the material’s manufacture. The current review assesses earlier studies of translucent concrete, focusing on its applications, and the appropriate ratio and arrangement pattern of optical fibres. This study also investigated the light-transmitting, mechanical, thermal, and energy-saving properties of translucent concrete by analysing research conducted during the past decade. However, numerous material restrictions and research gaps were found in the earlier literature on this concrete. The principal restrictions relate to the material’s low material strength and the identification of the optimum ratio of fibres. The main gaps identified among the reviewed research investigations relate to tests aiming to identify the influence of dissimilar ratios of optical fibres on the material’s strength and energy-saving properties. In the current review, we also identify and recommend future areas of research, and provide suggestions to address the existing research gaps. Finally, we review the types of translucent materials, their properties, and their advantages and disadvantages, and provide illustrations and value-added applications. The aim is to promote translucent concrete as an attractive, promising, and innovative building material for the construction industry.

Light-transmitting concrete prepared by the combination of light-transmitting materials and concrete matrix is a new building material with functions of energy saving and consumption reduction. In this paper, the current research status of scholars in this field at home and abroad is integrated and explored, so as to carry out the analysis of the interfacial bonding performance between the light-transmitting material and the concrete matrix of light-transmitting concrete. This paper selects acrylic as the light-transmitting material, silicate cement mortar, alkali magnesium sulfate cement mortar, ordinary mortar with cork particles, ordinary mortar with expansion agents, ordinary mortar with basalt fibers, and self-compacting cement mortar as the matrix materials, and tests the interfacial bonding performance of different substrates of light-transmitting concrete made by them. Through the interfacial bonding performance test and compressive strength test, the results of the study showed that the interfacial bonding between the concrete matrix and acrylic with the addition of basalt fibers was superior.

The consumption of artificial light, especially in urban areas, leads to global warming. As a remedy this light transmitting concrete acts as a solution for global warming. Light transmitting concrete is made with cement ,water , very fine sand and thousands of optical fibres reinforced in concrete from one face to another face which guide the light passing through it. Light transmitting concrete is a concrete that is improved in terms of transparency by installing optical fibres into concrete. We used 3% of optical fibre in this concrete. Due to its pellucidity property, it is also called translucent concrete. The application of light transmitting concrete which allows light to transmit through non-transparent concrete reduces energy in closed environments and global warming. Translucent concrete is used in fine architecture as a decorative material. It has all these properties which an eco-friendly technique should have to keep up the green building concept into consideration. The present investigation about the light translucent concrete by using optical fibre and comparing it with conventional concrete. Compressive strength test is performed on the concrete specimen. Utilising 3% more optical fibres enhanced the compressive strength. compressive strength of concrete cube depends on the diameter of the holes in the mold & the diameter of the optical fibre. It is directly proportional to its compressive strength.

Abstract: This experimental study of translucent concrete which has the property of transmitting light from concrete by using optical fibers. Since years concrete has a low impression because of its dirty greyish colour , opaqueness and sharp edge but this concept has been changed after the development of light emitting concrete, which gives the increased strength, better looks and light transmitting features. Plastic optical fibers are used because of its total internal reflection as its working principle as it gives maximum efficiency in transmitting light. This report deals about the introduction of translucent concrete, materials used for making translucent concrete such as fine concrete, cement, optical fiber and procedure of making is also discuss for translucent concrete. After the study of different research paper results respected to 5%, 10% and 15% replacement of aggregate with optical fiber is discuss in this study.

Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with fluid cement that hardens over time. Now days mostly the construction researchers have been trying to improve the quality and reduced dead weight of the structure and enhance its performance. In this current situation there is a demand in natural sand so engineers are using manufactured sand. The aim of our project is to reduce the dead weight of the structure as well increase the strength of the concrete.So we developed light weight aggregate and sand by using waste plastic and glass materials. We developed a concrete by using crushed glass bottles and melted plastic which is considered as light weight concrete. Glass is an ideal material for recycling use of recycled glass helps in energy saving. This indicate that glass can be effectively used as a fine aggregate replacement without substantial change in strength and also we used aluminum metal powder for reducing the member weight by introduced air in concrete. For the innovative and aesthetic purpose we made the concrete to glow using plastic optical fiber which acts as a transmitting agent which also called as translucent concrete in which the optical fiber is inserted in parallel way. We used epoxy to harden the optical fiber (0.75mm) and M20 grade concrete.

Light-transmitting concrete as a building material already exists in many forms, but its light properties and the possibilities of using it to improve the lighting of interior spaces have not been investigated in detail yet. This paper focuses on the illumination of interior spaces using constructions made of light-transmitting concrete, which will allow light to pass between individual spaces. The experimental measurements carried out are divided into two typical situations using reduced room models. The first part of the paper focuses on the illumination of the room through the penetration of daylight through the ceiling made of light-transmitting concrete. The second part of the paper investigates the transmission of artificial light from one room to another through a non-load-bearing dividing structure composed of unified slabs of light-transmitting concrete. For the experiments, several models and samples were created for comparison. The first step of the experiment was to create slabs of light-transmitting concrete. While there are many options to produce such a slab, the best option is to use high-performance concrete with glass-fiber reinforcement, which improves the load transfer properties, and plastic optical fibers for light transmission. By adding optical fibers, we can achieve the transmission of light between any two spaces. For both of the experiments, we used reduced-scale models of rooms. Slabs with dimensions of 250 × 250 × 20 mm and 250 × 250 × 30 mm were used in three versions: concrete slabs with optical fibers, concrete slabs with air holes and solid slabs. The experiment measured and compared the level of illumination at several points in the model as it passed through each of the three different slabs. Based on the results of these experiments, it was concluded that the interior level of illumination of any space can be improved by using light-transmitting concrete, especially those without access to natural light. The experiment also assessed the strength properties of the slabs in relation to their intended use and compares them with the properties of stone slabs used as cladding.

Consideration of fiber configuration and the distance between the light source or light meter and the LTC specimen in the previous studies is still limited. The incorporation of plastic optical fiber (POF) into concrete with fiber configurations of 5 ´ 5 and 6 ´ 6 grids is investigated in terms of short wall panel application to study its light intensity and strength properties. The light-transmitting concrete (LTC) short wall panel of 300 mm wide ´ 400 mm high ´ 75 mm thick is cast using self-compacting concrete (SCC) to ensure the flowability of the concrete during mixing. The fresh SCC is tested under slump flow, V-funnel, and L-box to verify its fresh properties, while compression test is carried out at 28-days on cube specimens to determine its compressive strength. Then, light transmittance and axial load test under compression are conducted for the LTC wall panel. The findings show that the light intensity of the LTC wall panel increased with the increased number of fiber configurations. However, regardless of fiber configurations, the light intensity reduced with the increase of both light source and light meter distances. In addition, the ultimate axial load of the LTC wall panel with fiber configurations of 5 ´ 5 and 6 ´ 6 grids are 662 kN and 643 kN, respectively. It implies that the fiber configuration does not affect the axial compression load. Furthermore, both LTC wall panels failed solely under pure compression load.

As a new type of green building material, light concrete breaks the concept of traditional concrete, which combines optical fiber, resin and As a new type of green building material, light concrete breaks the concept of traditional concrete, which combines optical fiber, resin and concrete, and can produce multi-form and multi-style products through the change of light, but does not affect its load-bearing. Due to its unique decoration, it is widely used in architecture, landscape, interior decoration, furniture and other major fields. Outdoor light can enter the interior, and indoor privacy will not be conveyed to the outdoors, the change of light and shadow gives people a new feeling, its light transmittance and interior design style light transmittance and interior design style reflect each other, different time periods show different rendering power, the combination of lighting and architecture gives the space a new appeal and meaning.

Introduction: The ENV model proposed by TRIZ secured light transmission by replacing the existing costly transparent optical fibers with low-cost transparent materials with improved constructability, and improved the production method by changing the existing labor-intensive method of laying thousands or tens of thousands of optical fibers into a labor-saving system capable of mass production, which involves the use of a large external multi-porous mold. Results and Conclusion: The application of plastic based bar against optical fiber showed that the light transmitting ability was almost equal as well as the convenience of making light transmitting concrete. Additionally, the difficulties coming from heavy weight of trial product for material preparation, transportation, and processing process were tried to solve by applying lightweight aggregate and light foaming agent while maintaining minimum compressive strength.

Abstract: Transparent concrete is the new type of concrete introduced in the modern era which carries special property of light transmitting due to presence of optical fibers & is also known as translucent concrete or light transmitting concrete. It is lighter than conventional concrete having special features such as low density and thermal conductivity with main advantage of reduction in dead weight, faster building rate in construction, lower haulage & handling cost. Light is transmitted from one surface of the brick wall to the other due to glass rods along the overall width of the wall which allows light to pass through. An optical glass fiber (or optical fibre) is a flexible, transparent fibre made of glass (silica)or plastic, slightly thicker than a human hair & can function as waveguide, or “light pipe” to transmit light between the two ends. Main aim of the study is to design translucent concrete blocks with the use of glass rods with sand & cement then analyse their various physical & engineering properties with respect to conventional concrete blocks by adding glass rods of 1%, 2 %, 3 % 4 % 5% at 1.5 cm spacing

Abstract: Light-transmitting concrete, known also as translucent concrete, is literally the brightest concrete development in recent years. Strands of optical fibers are cast by the thousands into concrete to transmit light, either natural or artificial, into all spaces surrounding the resulting translucent panels. The material can be used in a variety of architectural and interior design applications, such as wall cladding and dividers. The main theme of this paper is use of optical fibers in concrete, which is energy saving and green technology. It lends great energy savings in closed and non-ventilated spaces. Due to small size of the fibers, they blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of aggregate. By using plastic optical fibers in concrete specimens, light transmission occurs through optical fibers, which make it possible to see light, shades and even colors through very thick walls. The work presented in this paper reports an investigation on the behavior of concrete and mortar with optical fiber. Concrete and mortar cube are casted with fibers to study the properties and to compare with optical fiber. The light transmission of concrete samples made with different fiber amount varies from 2% to 4% and with thickness 0.25mm to 0.75mm were studied. The light transmission is seen to increase with the increase in fiber content and increase in the diameter. Keywords: Optical fibre, Light transmitting concrete, Translucent concrete.

Concrete, a material that can be used as a building material and at the same time when mixed with light source, can enhance the beauty of a space as well as open new ways to experiment with it. The vision behind the research is to contribute with the manufacturers who are having “vision of cities that glow from within” through the use of concrete embedded with optic fiber strands. The aim of this research is to determine light transmitting properties of translucent concrete embedded with plastic fiber optics. In this experimental study, the amount of light is calculated that is able to transmit through the concrete. The four concrete blocks of equal size but different in amounts of plastic fiber optic strands are made. The research concluded that the fiber optics has the good light guiding properties which allow light to pass through the concrete in sufficient amount. The concrete with plastic fiber optics is named as translucent concrete, provides endless varieties of applications, not only aesthetically pleasing, but it can also promote safety, privacy and security as well as integrate the idea of saving green energy in the construction industry.

Modern technology studies and research developments have enhanced the quality and innovation of concrete. Transparent concrete is concrete that has light-transmitting properties which transmit light through the optical fibre. Optical fibres are reinforced in the conventional concrete mixture from one face to another face, which allows direct light to transmit through it. Daylighting factor is one of the fundamental qualities of the energy efficiency of a building. The thermal performance is also crucial to providing comfort to the building occupants. The literature studies cover the light transmittance and thermal performance of transparent concrete. Selected literature studies are reviewed based on the related topic, Asian countries, and countries with a similar climate to Malaysia. This research applies quantitative method where it was focus on experimental study to transparent concrete. The overall result indicates improvement on light transmission and thermal performance as the plastic optical fibre increased compared to conventional concrete. The total average outdoor surface temperature of transparent concrete shows a difference of 0.989°C lower than conventional concrete. The total average temperature different between conventional concrete and transparent concrete (560 optical fibre) are 0.9°C. This experiment's significant contribution is that using more plastic fibre optic reduces thermal conductivity and heat gain while allowing for greater daylighting. Finally, transparent concrete shows effectiveness on light transmission and thermal resistance where it can contribute to building industry on green building and sustainable design. However, the further studies on thermal performance with longer duration is required to analyses the thermal heat loss.

The prospect of light-conducting concrete in railway construction is associated with an increase in recent years in interest in creating a barrier-free environment, including at railway stations, platforms, pedestrian crossings, in pedestrian tunnels, and so on. The material makes it possible to duplicate marking elements in hazardous areas of passenger movement at night without breaking the material environment, which will facilitate care for it in the winter. When creating innovative pedestrian crossings (equipped with interactive lanes that duplicate the traffic light for pedestrians), the use of light-conducting concrete will increase the antivandistance of the engineering arrangement. Unlike polymeric materials, the litracon material considered in the article does not change its properties under the influence of high temperatures, is not susceptible to instantaneous violation of the integrity and loss of surface properties under mechanical stresses. The high cost of the material does not yet allow its widespread use in the construction of railway infrastructure facilities on an industrial scale, however, with an increase in the production of optical fiber (the most expensive component of light-conducting concrete) and the search for new technologies that reduce the cost of its production, a drop in prices for this type of raw material is naturally expected. One of the areas of application of light-conducting concrete can be transport construction and landscaping of on-site territories (sidewalks, stairs, platforms) in terms of increasing their interactivity in the dark. The article proposes a composition (No. 1) corresponding to the compressive strength and tensile strength when bending, the requirements for products used in railway construction, for which light-conductive concrete can be used. The problem of light-transmitting concrete in the maintenance of railway infrastructure in the Republic of Belarus is being raised for the first time

Attenuation of sound transmitting between rooms oriented over one another inside buildings is studied. Transmission loss and sound transmission class were measured by an independent, accredited, acoustics laboratory with and without a variety of modular acoustic ceilings suspended under a baseline concrete floor structure. Ceiling panel material types include stone wool, fiberglass and mineral fiber. Ceilings were tested with and without the presence of service penetrations for supply air diffusers, return air grilles and light fixtures. Some ceilings were also scanned with a sound intensity probe and the resulting color sound maps are used as a supplemental method of evaluating both isolation and absorption performance of the individual components of the ceiling systems. Results show that while the effects of ceiling panel type on absorption performance, and thus room acoustics, is substantial, the material type and weight of the ceiling panels do not substantially affect the overall isolation performance of the floor-ceiling assembly.

This research paper deals with the mechanical properties of translucent concrete. Translucent concrete block is prepared by inserting the optical fibers from one side to other. The casted translucent concrete cubes are tested for mechanical properties and compare the results with mechanical properties. The cost analysis is carried out for both the concretes. Results show the improved tensile strength and similar compressive strength of translucent concrete than conventional concrete.

Buildings consume large amounts of energy, and lighting consumes a substantial amount of this energy. Therefore, an alternative technology that depends more on natural lighting is needed in order to reduce the building energy consumption. In this paper, based on the excellent properties of light guiding and elasto-optic effect of optical fibre, a novel transparent concrete with plastic optical fibres (POFs) arranged into the concrete was developed and evaluated. The light transmitting performance of plastic optical fibre transparent concrete product (PTCP) was tested by optical power method. The ZEMAX software was used to simulate the transparent test, and the prediction model was established to predict the light transmittance of PTCP. The evaluation of the energy-saving effect due to the use of this building material was studied using the Autodesk Ecotect software. The results showed that PTCP possesses excellent light transmittance property, which was proportional to the content of the optical fibres. The model established by ZEMAX can effectively predict the transmittance of PTCP. The average daylighting factor of the room built with PTCP was increased by nearly 30%, the lighting uniformity was upgraded by nearly 40% and nearly 20% reduction in energy consumption was realised.

Green buildings are constructed mainly using sustainable materials which create healthy environment inside the building by reduced product emissions. The introduction of the translucent concrete into green buildings created a new innovation in sustainable construction. The ability to introduce refined natural lighting whereas maintaining privacy provides large environmental benefits additionally to its aesthetic ones, as well as reducing the cost of heating and lighting. The aim of the paper is a detailed study on the current status and past studies in the area of translucent concrete. Anyway, this new building material is in its developing stage and it has a wide scope in the future. Keywords: Energy savings, Green buildings, Light transmitting characteristics, Optical fibers, Sustainable construction, Translucent concrete.

“We may no longer be able to trust technology. A computer program could, without warning, become an uncontrollable force, triggered by a date, an event or a timer.” (Clough and Mungo 223) Introduction In 1991 the Information Security Handbook noted how “society is becoming increasingly dependent on the accurate and timely distribution of information” (Shain 4). This dependence, however, exposed the society to new kinds of dangers, accidents that have to do with information disorders – viruses, worms, bugs, malicious hackers etc. In this essay, I focus on digital viruses as disorderly elements within the digital culture. It is due to certain key principles in computing and computer security that viruses and worms have acquired their contemporary status as malicious software, that is, malware – elements of chaos, accident and disorder. According to my claim, the fear of viruses does not stem just from the contemporary culture of digital technology. It is part of a longer genealogy of modern computing, which has emphasized issues of control, reliability and order. Viruses and worms threaten the conceptual ontology of digital culture in a similar fashion as epidemic diseases have been figures for social disorder throughout Western history. Unlike AIDS or other deadly biological viruses, computer viruses have not been known to cause casualties to humans, yet they have been treated the last years as the “killer viruses of digital culture”, connotating the seriousness of the threat. A “viral perspective” to digital culture reveals how underlying articulations of order are used to construct an all-too-harmonious picture of computers in modern society. Reliability Anti-virus manuals, guidebooks and other such publications have especially contributed to our understanding of viruses as threats to the orderly digital society. The editorial of the first issue of Virus Bulletin (July 1989) sees viruses as a cunning form of vandalism and an indication of ”sabotage mentality”. Viruses destroy information and produce uncontrollability: Rather like Hitler’s V1 ‘flying bomb’, no-one knows when or where a computer virus will strike. They attack indiscriminately. Virus writers, whether or not they have targeted specific companies or individuals, must know that their programs, once unleashed, soon become uncontrollable. (Virus Bulletin 2) Computer viruses mean unreliable and unexpected danger: they are a chaotic element within a system based on security and order. According to a widely embraced view computer security means 1) confidentiality (the privacy of sensitive information), 2) integrity (authorized information and program exchange) and 3) availability (systems work promptly and allow access to authorized users). (E.g. Shain 5). Viruses and other forms of malicious code are, consequently, a direct threat to these values, part of the modern episteme in general. This is what I will here define as “a computational way of thinking”. The concept refers not only to the epistemological and ontological presuppositions in actual computer science discussions, but also to the larger cultural historical contexts surrounding the design, implementation and use of computers. Of course, one has to note that computers have never been those reliable and rational dream-machines they have been taken to be, as they are exposed to various potentials for breaking down of which viruses and worms form only a minor part. Yet, interestingly, reading professional and popular depictions of digital viruses reveals that these sources do consider computers as otherwise integrated, coherent and pristine machines of rationality, which are only temporarily disturbed by the evil occurrences of external malicious software. Control The virus researcher Vesselin Bontchev acknowledges how issues of trust and control are at the heart of computing and the virus threat: “a computer virus steals the control of the computer from the user. The virus activity ruins the trust that the user has in his/her machine, because it causes the user to lose his or her belief that she or he can control this machine” (31). This definition resonates with broader cultural trends of modernization. Zygmunt Bauman has expressed the essence of modern science as an ”ambition to conquer Nature and subordinate it to human needs” (39). Bauman understands this as ”control management”: the moulding of things to suit human needs. The essence of modern technology proceeds along the same lines, defined through values of progress, controllability, subordination of chaos and reification of the world. From the 19th-century on, technology became closely associated with advances in science. The values of order and control were embedded in the machines and technological systems, and with time, these values became the characteristics of modern technological culture. In this vein modernity can be defined as a new attitude towards controlling information. Capitalism and digital culture as historical phenomena share the valuation of abstraction, standardization and mechanization, which were already part of the technological culture of the 19th-century. Similarly, Turing’s universal machine was above all a machine of ordering and translation, with which heterogenous phenomena could be equated. This idea, concretised in typewriters, conveyer belts, assembly lines, calculators and computers served the basis for both digital machines and capitalism. The concrete connection was the capitalist need to control the increasingly complex amount of production, circulation and signs. Rationalism – as exemplified in Babbage’s differential calculators, Taylor’s ideas of work-management and cybernetics – was the image of thought incorporated in these machines (Gere 19–40). Rationalism In general, first order cybernetics fulfilled the project of modern abstract rationalism. In other words, notions of control and order play a significant role in the archaeology of information technological security, and these themes are especially visible in the thinking of Norbert Wiener, the pioneer of cybernetics. Wiener’s cybernetics touches, most of all, upon the question of understanding the world as communication circuits and controlling them via successful feedback loops that maintain the stasis of a system. This theory relates closely the problem of entropy, a classical notion in statistical mechanics from the 19th-century: “Just as the amount of information in a system is a measure of its degree of organization, so the entropy of a system is a measure of its degree of disorganization; and the one is simply the negative of the other” (Wiener 11). Wiener and the modern era share a respect for control and security. As products of modernity, cybernetics, systems theory and information theory are all in a way theories of order and cleanliness. This is the main theme of Stephen Pfohl’s essay “The Cybernetic Delirium of Norbert Wiener”, in which he describes the cultural historical background of modern cybernetic culture. To Pfohl, cybernetics does not mean a purely academic discipline but “a term connoting the most far-reaching of ultramodern forms of social control.” Pfohl delineates the genealogy of cybernetics from the early projects on anti-aircraft artillery to the functioning of the contemporary capitalist media culture. For Pfohl, Wiener’s theories connect directly to the power structures of modern society, sacrificing other ways of being, restricting other possible worlds from emerging. Paraphrasing Pfohl, cybernetics regulates and modifies the dynamic flows of the world into fixed, stabilized and controlled boundaries. Noise The engineering problem of logical calculation and communication of signals without noise expands towards the more general cultural fields of power and articulation. I would especially like to pick up the notion of noise, which, as understood by Bauman, means undefinability, incoherence, incongruity, incompatibility, illogicality, irrationality, ambiguity, confusion, undecidability, ambivalence, all tropes of “the other of order” (7). For cybernetics and early computer pioneers, noise meant a managing problem, objects in the way of transmitting signals. Noise as the most important problem for the rise of modern discourse networks was not solved once and for all in any historical phase, but remained part of the communication acts ever since, and the only resolution to the problem of non-communication was to incorporate it within the system (Kittler 242). Computer viruses can be understood as contemporary instances of this notion of noise. They are software that short-circuit the “normal” operations of a computer and connect themselves to the basic functioning of the machine. Viruses mean short-term wiring of noise to the components of a computer. By definition, viruses have been conceived as a threat to any computer system for a) virus activity is always uncontrollable, because the actions of the virus program are autonomous and b) viruses behave indeterminately and unpredictably (Lamacka 195). In a much more positive vein, this coupling of computing order and viral disorder has been noted by recent net art projects. According to the net artist Jaromil the digital domain produces a form of chaos – which is inconvenient because it is unusual and fertile – on which people can surf. In that chaos, viruses are spontaneous compositions which are like lyrical poems in causing imperfections in machines ”made to work” and in representing the rebellion of our digital serfs. Jaromil takes noise as the starting point and articulates how viruses function also as forms of resistance to the contemporary informational capitalist ideology of the digital. Charlie Gere’s analysis of the connections between modern technology and capitalism is apt in this regard as well: the abstract, standardizing and mechanizing machines of modernization serve the basis for both the cult of the digital and contemporary capitalism in a way that makes these two almost siblings. Thus, also accidents of this techno-capitalist culture are not solely technical, but social in that they are articulated on a plane of society and cultural interaction. Viruses can thus be understood as those “unwanted bads” that are a by-product of post-industrial culture of production of goods (Van Loon), as well as they can be viewed alongside other mass mediated apocalyptic monsters threatening the order of contemporary Western culture, as Luca Lampo from the net art group _[epidemiC]_ suggests: We feel that “The Virus” is the “stranger”, the “other”, in our machine, a sort of digital sans papier—uncontrollable diversity. Once Hollywood, like Empire, finished killing “Indians” and the “Soviet Russians”, the Hollywood propaganda machine had to build other anti-Empire monsters to keep alive the social imaginary of 2001: aliens, meteors, epidemic… so many monsters. In this light, while being technical bits of code that from time to time cause trouble for users, viruses act also as social signs which can be activated in various contexts. For representatives of the official computer culture viruses and worms are signs of disorder, chaos and crime that undermine the presumed reliability of digital culture, which would otherwise function “normally.” Yet, according to some commentators, viral disorder should not mean solely anarchy but a space for variation and experimentation that resist the one-way ideology of computer rationalism. (See Sampson; Cohen; Deleuze.) For some, that ideology has been crystallized in the figure of Microsoft, a popular target for virus attacks. This view accentuates that the genealogy of computers and rationalism analysed above is but one potential history. There is always the possibility to write the counter-memory of the disorderly, accidental, probabilistic and contingent nature of technological culture. Hence, viruses might prove out to be also intellectual tools, with which to create new concepts and viewpoints to digital culture and the cultural history of computing and technology in general. Already Martin Heidegger (§ 16) proposed that modern technology reveals itself at the moment of its breaking. In this sense, viruses reveal the functioning of a certain ideological or micro-political constitution of digital order. The challenge is not to take any notion of a “healthy” cultural network without disturbances as the starting point, but to see elements of break-up as part and parcel of those systems. 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