A Software Lexicon by Colin Higgs 

“to speak is to do something—something other than to express what one thinks, to translate what one knows, and something other than to play with the structure of language” – Michel Foucault 

The above quote lends itself to the complexity of understanding a software lexicon as software has developed from something that is as straight forward as simple instructional direct lines of code to the multifaceted complexity of networked algorithms that incorporate machine learning using huge amounts of large data. Speaking directly about a software lexicon can be very dry experience (in relation to loops, information, interaction, memory etc.). As an alternative to looking directly at the lexicon of software perhaps we can approach different aspects of Software studies equally through the artworks Software studies organizations support. There should a direct correlation between the software lexicon and the art they produce.

“Software artworks pay attention to the specific technical/cultural qualities that explicate the general concerns in the field of software (art) studies” 

–Winnie Soon 

Pure Data

One of the easiest things to do with software and a data set is to show a direct correlation between the two sources. This can either be a direct correlation of stored data or a direct correlation of realtime data. Two different examples of this kind of artwork are : 
Denver International Airport – Flight Paths by OCR 2014 https://vimeo.com/91516172 and
Wind Map (2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JOzP0LmVLw
Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas

In the first example we basically see a re-enactment of the exact flight paths over Denver International airport. What makes this interesting from an art perspective is the knowledge that they are real flight paths data sets but seeing them in a graphical way is quite hypnotic and poetic (something as strict as flight paths can still possess an artistic merit).
A development of this direct correlation of data with art is the Wind Map (2012) which shows the data live from all around the Unites States. It shows a human connection between graphical data and people: people connect the data to where they live. And again the wind is shown graphically. However, one new element was added when in realtime a hurricane that landed into the United States was recorded live (see http://hint.fm/projects/wind/ for stills.)
The experience was very emotional for people seeing the hurricane evolve in realtime and even scary. Software and data evolved from a direct liason to software and data that was imbued with an emotional experience.

Clever Data

Software Art studies becomes really interesting when someone uses real data and software in a imaginative way and the results make the data even more compelling. Two brilliant examples of this type of work are by the artist R. Luke DuBois.
The first one is Hard Data 2009 https://vimeo.com/135763038. This records the Iraq war as both a musical and written piece of art detailing all the casualties throughout the war. Each note represents a fatality. The arc of the music follows the arc of the conflict. As well as seeing the actual names and places of the casualties we feel them even more with the accompanying music There is an arbitrary factor of the chosen notes of the music but the power of the music to engage the audience with the number of the fatalities is powerful.
The second example by the same artist is called A More Perfect Union (2011) https://vimeo.com/19662829.  A census of the USA based on data collected from 21 dating websites and downloading 24 million peoples information and the words they used with these dating sites. DuBois replaced the place names on a map with the words people most used from that place. The map of the USA became a cultural map of language and communication. Personal data was perceived as a map of the USA.  It completely changed the perception of the data and maps. Software and data evolved into a cultural phenomenon.

Emotional Data

A further progression of software art studies happens when live data and software produce a organic and emotional response as in the case when seeing the Listening Post 2003 by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD36IajCz6A The artist captured live snippets of data (all starting with “I Am”) from internet chat rooms, bulletin boards and other public forums. They were vocalized by a synthetic voice. The installation was trying to give you access to large scale data where as traditionally we have been shown data at a small scale. The viewer felt immersed a in vast organic soup of human sentiments. Data and software merged to produce the humanization of data.

Political Data

The installation PRISM The Beacon Frame (2014) by Juan Oliver and  Daniil Vasiliev https://vimeo.com/141521582 shows a political use of software and data that can occur when using techniques of wireless (WiFi) device localization and mapping, pretending to be a cellular network and hijacking the on going conversations similar to the security agencies GCHQ (UK) and NSA (USA). Data corresponding to these hijacking events are projected through the prism, and in turn showered onto the walls in a rich and exploitative light show. Software and data form a strong political message of entrapment and surveillance.

In conclusion, the above examples are a brief demonstration of how software and data art have been used in a variety of ways with regards to pure, clever, emotional and political data. Each example being more complex than the previous one.  It seems prudent to say that the lexicon of software studies should not be wholly focused on the building blocks of what the software and data consist of but more on the experience of the software and data by the viewer. The lexicon of software should humanize aspects of data results. The artists above may have used data as raw material for their work however they not only humanize the experience of receiving data about a subject matter, they connect with the essence of the subject matter in a way that is both poetic and thought provoking. The lexicon of software should have these emotional and cultural terms in its vocabulary. The artists may speak through the use of data but the voice is human.