Josh Nimoy has developed Icons == Function for a commission by HCI-Fun and the F.A.C.T center.

These seven interactive musical compositions use simple combinations of sound, form and colour to analyze the relationship between the functionality of user interfaces, and their iconographic facades. The body of work attempts to eliminate the divide between the outer and inner parts of “the machine” and invite players to explore how we use and interact with computer. Each piece is an abstract visual sound scoring language capable of playing itself back as users give input.

When users browse the thumbnails looking for a state to load and play, they do not see a textual name given to the work, nor a proxy graphic that explains the function by some cultural mapping. Instead, users see the code itself.

What would an interface be like if its iconography were determined by a well-defined rule set?