Caretakers Week 3

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Caretakers Week 3

Riviera, Lorenzo, Senka
Etherpad for the planning of the episode: [1]

Planning

0–0.10h > Give context into what we're doing: (duration: 5-10min)
Who are we and what are we doing? 

0.10–0.40h > Allowing space for pre-recorded material, group contributions, sound boards (possibly at the beginning)
- Ursula Franklin [https://archive.org/details/the-real-world-of-technology] (part 1 - prescriptive and holistic  technology - Senka edits to duration of: 30 minutes)

0.40–1.20h >  Imaginary Future Protocols  
                 + Livecoded remix of archived material from Worm 
                      + Call in? 

1.20–2.00h > Everyone really wants to know about archives but at this point they're too afraid to ask 
                  Read out loud highlighted Phelan + annotations (two channel panning) - weaving reading - once you're done reading, hand off the text to the next person
                         + if we have too much time do a performative reading of chiming in > from the Reading Rhythms Club zine
                                - read annotations after the highlighted part

Protocols for the Broadcast

Etherpad

  • All 3 of us spend 40 minutes each in the Etherpad to remain in communication with the root folder

Collecting personal protocols

  • interaction / feedback with the root folder
  • Ask the group to write a protocol and articulate why the protocol is important to them
  • Expanding on a protocol
  • Request for protocols on Zulip;
  • Expanding our audience/ audience development
  • Record the protocols on a soundboard (routines, ways of going about things)

Imaginary Future Protocols Protocol (text to send out)

  1. Invitation to write down your protocols on a shared pad (this could be a routine, a personal protocol, or one that relates to collective, or specifically our group)
  2. Record yourself expanding on the meaning of the protocol (Why this protocol? What does it mean to you?)
  3. The protocols are only accepted when done voluntarily (you don't have to.)
  4. Post the protocol recording >>> post on the wiki page: Imaginary future protocols (link here)

Phelan text

  1. paste text on the Etherpad
  2. everyone highlights a part of the text we will read outloud and annotates it
  3. relate the text more to archives and protocols
  4. scann the text and add a comment next to every part you think relates to Archive and Protocol
  5. One person reads the annotations and another the text - interruptions are welcome (one is panned left one right)
  6. Use the soundboard I have coded with my sounds to signal when a new annotation arises and when a new chapter starts. Find soundboard here> [2]

Chiming in / Choral reading
This was a reading proposal I had given from the zine Julia Wilhelm and I made for our on-going collaboration Reading Rhythms Club, an experimental nomadic reading club.
The instructions for the reading method are roughly:

  • One person starts reading the text
  • The others join in, reading words or sections they want to sonically highlight, emphasize and echo
  • Embrace the awkwardness until you all sync

Fetching recordings from chopchop

Instructions provided by Riviera:

Open up a terminal:
    ssh username@145.24.139.16 
    tree /media/worm/radio 
    cd /media/worm/radio/\$RECYCLE.BIN/S-1-5-21-3426670779-3816479968-38713968-1002/\$RVUIP6R 
    ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp3 ~/outputfile.wav

          (Chosen sounds can percussive, elongated, they can be voices.)
Pick sounds at random (the collection is too vast) from: 
    /media/worm/radio/\$RECYCLE.BIN/S-1-5-21-3426670779-3816479968-38713968-1002/\$RVUIP6R on chopchop
Once you picked a sound, use FileZilla to download them on your computer
In total 3 to 9 sounds will be used
          (If you have variations of the sounds you can place them in a folder)
Potentially collaborating with Tidal Cycles network setup

They need to be wav files. You can convert to wav using: 
    $ ffmpeg -i INPUTFILE OUTPUTFILE 
so, for example:  
    $ ffmpeg -i /media/worm/radio/\$RECYCLE.BIN/S-1-5-21-3426670779-3816479968-38713968-1002/\$RVUIP6R/awesome-recording.mp3 ~/awesome-recording.wav

Soundboard

For reading the Phelan text and annotations, we decided to include sounds as signifiers for when a next annotation arises, or when we start reading a new paragraph. This was done to provide easier navigation through the text, since what we're doing are a kind of sonic highlight.
For this I HTML-ed and CSS-ed a little prototype of a soundboard. Very simple and rudimentary, there are buttons, you can press them. Sound bits taken for Riviera's livecoding were included in it, and you can play multiple at a time, which means they will overlap. Soundboard can be found on chopchop >>[3]
It looks something like this>>>

Screenshot soundboard.png

Reflection

Shownotes for everyone in the aquarium [4]
Key Insights

  • Jitsi interaction can be accomplished, people just have to tune in and turn of the broadcast. This way they will only listen to the call without delay.
  • The musicality of the chiming in reading was liked, it opened the text up more and kept people's attention
  • Background livecoding was well received, although at times distracting for us to read with
  • The lecture of Ursula Franklin built a firm ground to talk about our personal protocols