Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines
"Mankind is beginning to understand how to dismantle and reassemble the most complex and unpredictable of its machines: language."
Italo Calvino, Cybernetics and Ghosts (1967).
Alison Knowls' computer generated poem: "The House of Dust (1967) is not only a poem, it is in many ways also an interpretable score.", Maud Jacquin and Sébastien Pluot, House of Dust Journal (2019)
Image:David Bowie using the cut-up technique to write lyrics for Moonage Daydream - from the documentary Cracked Actor(1975)
Special Issue #28 Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines
The project described here is a new iteration of a course first run in 2023 Radio Worm: Protocols for an Active Archive.
This iteration is called Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines, and will run from September to December 2025.
The format will be a weekly live 2 hour radio program, and a “public moment” (tentatively planned for the end of November, 2025).
The course will be developed and run by tutors of XPUB, supported by WORM staff, and the content will be produced by XPUB1 students.
The idea is to produce and maintain a podcast feed of materials related to the program during the duration of the 3 months.
The format of the live event is described further below.
XPUB will be responsible for documenting activities related to the course, and in working with WORM for possible inclusion within their network (for instance working with Ash on materials that could be part of WORM’s Mixcloud channel).
Intro
Image:William Burroughs using the Cut-up technique
Since human beings developed the software of the alphabet, they have engineered a series of technologies to manage and enhance its power. These include storage and operating systems such as books and libraries, along with more recent (computerised) systems of information collation and dissemination.
In the twentieth century, the realisation that writing is a technology – as opposed to a "natural", direct conduit to the soul – came as a creative inspiration to many writers and artists.
- the Surrealists fashioned "exquisite corpses";
- the 'Pataphysicians channeled streams of consciousness;
- the Oulipo group used systems of restraint to open new channels of potential literature;
- the Fluxus group developed protocols for "happenings";
- John Cage established restraints for composition;
- the Scratch Orchestra co-wrote scores for group improvisation.
- William Burroughs used various techniques, including "cut-ups", to scramble the patterns of language that he believed programmed conformity. Sometimes Burroughs used scissors, glue and paper, sometimes he collaged the (then) new media of magnetic tape.
This all sounds liberating, but in the twenty-first century we have reason to be critical of how easily the creative potential of the software of the alphabet can be commodified and pre-programmed. As knowledge transfers to ever-larger datasets, and drops into the hands of a minority who own them, we must ask again: what is our stake in the software of the alphabet?
Where is our agency when human expression through writing is understood as a code managed by a series of protocols?
What is at stake when a large dataset can claim the space of "creativity"?
Can we, through learning about how the past has been structured, shape information technologies that serve our own desires and interests?
Steve will add more comprehensive outline here, this is a gist of what I wanna say...
The outcomes of Special Issue #28 will include:
- a series of radio shows
- writing machines (protocols, codes, Frankenstein devices) which structure the weekly radio shows
- a library of such protocols and techniques will generate scripts...
- to be performed (live) together...
- creating and remixing existing material...
- and using the scripts as improvisational prompts
The outline of the study path:
- Weeks 1-4: Alphabet as software
- Weeks 4-7: 20th century practice - 21st century context
- Weeks 7-12: Reading Ideology: Current Practices - Future Models
XPUB 2024-2026 Survival Guide
Pad of Pads
Wiki Page (same content, more permanent)
Themes
Alphabet is software; writing machines; media ecologies; protocol, feedback and improvisation; "the cybernetic explanation"; situated, materialist practices.
Support
The project has received funding from [...]
Public moment
Schedule
Monday from 10-12 a live radio program is produced by a rotating team of XPUB students together from the Radio WORM Studio.
From 12-13:00 time will be put aside to listen and reflect on the program.
In the afternoon
1) Steve opens with a mini-presentation which provides context and gives an overview of the texts and issues to be discussed that week; followed by
2) an open session, drawing on the texts we have read over the week; and lastly
3) building or designing a writing machine based on the things we have been talking about.
Tuesday = Prototyping with Manetta and/or Joseph [...] material which can feedback into the Monday Special Issue sessions and the Wednesday Methods sessions
Wednesday = Methods with Steve and/or Lidia [...] material that can feedback into the Monday Special Issue sessions and the Tuesday Prototyping sessions.
WEEK 0
Monday * September
10 - 13: Meet at WORM
14-17: Afternoon session (in the Aquarium)
14-15:Steve, introduction to the project
+ introduction to WritingMachines Reader
+ introduction to protocols
+ Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun = making writing machines
15-16:Thematic: Why the alphabet is software.
Texts discussed: Walter J. Ong Orality and Literacy (1982); William Burroughs The Ticket That Exploded (1966), the Invisible Generation (1961) and Electronic Revolution (c.1970); Radical Software (1969-74); Kenneth Goldsmith Uncreative Writing, Managing Language in the Digital Age (2011)+ Alison Knowles House of Dust: https://nickm.com/memslam/the_house_of_dust.html
https://www.artbytranslation.org/abtweb/publications/HOUSE_OF_DUST_JOURNAL_25_08_2016_BDEF_PREVIEW.pdf
16-17: making writing machines
Tuesday 17 September
Prototyping introduction, with Manetta & Joseph: setting up your sandbox
Notebook/wiki pages: Sandbox & HTML + CSS
Wednesday * September
Methods with Lidia and Steve
Methods of collective annotation; protocols
Check out Category:Protocol
Next Week's Reading and Watching
Cybernetics and Ghosts - Italo Calvino (1967) https://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/academics/SummerSchool/Dateien2011/Reading_Assignments/iuli_reader2.pdf
Extracts from the WritingMachines Reader: Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy (1982); William Burroughs, The Ticket That Exploded, The invisible Generation (1961) and Electronic Revolution (c.1970); Radical Software (1969-74); Kenneth Goldsmith, Uncreative Writing, Managing Language in the Digital Age (2011);Alison Knowles House of Dust: https://nickm.com/memslam/the_house_of_dust.html.
History of Cut-Ups: https://austinkleon.com/2018/09/18/the-surprisingly-long-history-of-the-cut-up-technique/
WEEK 1
Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines: Radio Broadcast 1
Roles
- (Producer) / (Interface)
- (host)
- (host)
- (host)
Monday * September
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast #01 Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:15 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session.Thematic: Why the alphabet is software #2. Reading Calvino, Burroughs and Radical Software + building a writing machine (the Burroughs-Calvino-Radical Software mix)
Tuesday * September
Prototyping, with Joseph and Manetta: Writing Coding Recording Machines
Wednesday * September
Methods with Lidia and Steve
Next Week's Reading
Alison Knowles, The House of Dust (1967)
https://nickm.com/memslam/the_house_of_dust.html
https://archive.centerforthehumanities.org/james-gallery/exhibitions/house-of-dust
Ursula LeGuin The Author of the Acacia Seeds (1974)
https://xenoflesh.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ursula-k.-le-guin.pdf
N. Katherine Hayles: Writing Machines (2002), (Extract from WritingMachines Reader)
Marta Perano & Kate Crawford, better machines of better humans (2021), in (re)programming Strategies for Self-Renewal (2024)
WEEK 2
Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines: Radio Broadcast 2
Roles
- (producer) / (interface)
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * September
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast #02 Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:15 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session - Reading LeGuin, Knowles and Hayles + building a writing machine (the LeGuin-Knowles, Hayles mix) + reviewing Marta Perano & Kate Crawford, better machines of better humans (2021), in (re)programming Strategies for Self-Renewal (2024)
Tuesday * October
Prototyping, with Manetta/ Joseph
Wednesday * October
Methods with Lidia
Next Week's Reading
Oulipo Group: a Primer For Potential Literature (1998) (extracts from WritingMachines Reader) https://monoskop.org/images/a/a4/Motte_Warren_F_ed_Oulipo_A_Primer_of_Potential_Literature.pdf
WEEK 3
Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines: Radio Broadcast 3
Roles
- Producer(s)
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * October
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast #03 Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:15 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- Pad
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session - Reading Oulipo + building writing machines (Oulipo mix) + brief intro to question: "what is media ecology?"
Tuesday * October
Prototyping, with Joseph/ Manetta
Wednesday 9 October
Methods with Lídia
Next Week's Reading
Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jeanette_winterson_is_humanity_smart_enough_to_survive_itself/transcript
Marta Perano & Kate Crawford, better machines of better humans (2021), in (re)programming Strategies for Self-Renewal (2024)
WEEK 4
Roles
Producer(s)
Host
Host
Host
Monday * October
10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast #04 Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
12:15 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
14:00 - 17:00: Reading Jeanette Winterson on AI (2024),br> how can we trace is the argument to Calvino, Burroughs and Goldsmith, as part of an ongoing literary discourse?
Winterson's Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jeanette_winterson_is_humanity_smart_enough_to_survive_itself/transcript
Marta Perano & Kate Crawford, better machines of better humans (2021), in (re)programming Strategies for Self-Renewal (2024)
Kate Crawford, The Altas of AI - extract (2024)
Tuesday * October
Prototyping with Manetta / Joseph
Wednesday * October
Methods with Lidia and Steve in the Aquarium
Next week's reading:
Fred Turner, Shifting Politics of te Computational Metaphor; in From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) Note Steve will give overview of this text on Monday afternoon session (what is "media ecology"?). Gregory Bateson, The Cybernetic Explanation (1967); John Markoff, What the Doremouse Said, How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (2005);Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron The Californian Ideology (1995) https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideology;Charlie Gere, Probing the Beginnings of Digital Art Practice, everything Magazine Volume 4, issue 2 (2002)
WEEK 5
20th century practice - 21st century context
Image:From Radical Software (1970)
Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines: Radio Broadcast 4
Roles
- Producer(s)
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * October
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast #04 Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:15 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Fred Turner, Shifting Politics of te Computational Metaphor; in From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) Note Steve will give overview of this text on Monday afternoon session (what is "media ecology"?);Gregory Bateson, The Cybernetic Explanation (1967); John Markoff, What the Doremouse Said, How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (2005);Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron The Californian Ideology (1995)https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideology;Charlie Gere, Probing the Beginnings of Digital Art Practice, everything Magazine Volume 4, issue 2 (2002)
Tuesday * October
Prototyping, with Manetta / Joseph
Wednesday * October
Methods with Lidia and Steve in the Aquarium
Next Week's Reading
(Historical text) John C. Lily, M.D. The Human Biocomputer (1974), extract, also in the WritingMachines Reader
(Historical text) Dr. Gordon Pask & Susan Curran, Maverick Machines, from Microman, Computers and the Evolution of Consciousness (1982), extract, also in the WritingMachines Reader;
N. Katherine Hayles How We Became Posthuman (1999) extract, also in the WritingMachines Reader
Ursula Le Guin, ‘A Rant About ”Technology”’. Available at: https://www.ursulakleguin.com/a- rant-about-technology , Le Ursula Le Guin, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. London: Ignota Books.
WEEK 6
[[[Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachines5]]
Roles
- Producer(s)
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * October
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast #05 Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session
Past visions of the future: Reading: N. Katherine Hayles How We Became Posthuman (1999) extract, also in the WritingMachines Reader + (Historical text) John C. Lily, M.D. The Human Biocomputer (1974), extract, also in the WritingMachines Reader + (Historical text) Dr. Gordon Pask & Susan Curran, Maverick Machines, Microman, Computers and the Evolution of Consciousness (1982), extract, also in the WritingMachines Reader;N. Katherine Hayles How We Became Posthuman (1999) extract, also in the WritingMachines Reader; Ursula Le Guin, ‘A Rant About ”Technology”’. Available at: https://www.ursulakleguin.com/a- rant-about-technology; Ursula Le Guin, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. London: Ignota Books.
Next week current visions of the future:
Tuesday * October
Prototyping, with Joseph/ Manetta
Wednesday * October
Methods with Lídia
Next Week's Reading
Richard Barbrook, Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines To The Global Village (2007), extract from WritingMachines Reader; some predictions from Wired magazine; some current projections.
WEEK 7
FALL BREAK
WEEK 8
Reading Ideology: Current Practice - Future Models
Roles
- Producer
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * November
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session
Afternoon: Reading ideology: Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines To The Global Village (2007), extract from WritingMachines Reader; + predictions from Wired magazine (recent past); + some current projections.
Tuesday * November
Prototyping, with Manetta
Wednesday * November
Methods with Lídia
Next Week's Reading
Marloes de Valk, Soft Technology and Appropriate Technology (2025)
WEEK 9
Roles
- Producer(s)
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * November
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session: Marloes de Valk, Soft Technology and Appropriate Technology (2025)
Tuesday * November
Prototyping,* Joseph /Manetta
Wednesday * NOVERMBER
Methods with Lidia
Next Week's Reading
WEEK 10
Roles
- Producer(s)
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * November
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session TBD
Tuesday * November
Prototyping, with Manetta /Joseph
Wednesday * November
Methods with Lídia
Next Week's Reading
WEEK 11
Roles
- Producer
- Host
- Host
- Host
Wiki page: https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Week_7_Radio_-_Music_Archive
Monday 25 November
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session = situating practice # 1:
Tuesday * November
WEEK 12
Roles
- Producer(s)
- Host
- Host
- Host
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Week_11_Radio_Show_-_SE25_Event_ReMix%27d
Monday * December
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session = Situating Practice # 2
Tuesday * December
Prototyping, with Manetta
Wednesday * December
Methods with Lídia
Next Week's Reading
TBD
WEEK 13
Final Broadcast Week
Roles
- Producer(s)'
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * December
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session Situating practice # 3
Tuesday * December
Prototyping, with Manetta / Joseph
References from last year
From last year the Protocol Category, with specific Decision Making protocols such as All voices heard and Voting by show of hands
Specific attention to Licenses, Open licenses, and Open licenses session that was the basis of a zine.
Nature Study Notes, and Portland Pattern Repository ... parallels.
Exemplary webpages that document the history of a project while also creating a web-page based (re)performance tool:
- BBC Radiophonic workshop + Delia Derbyshire
- MOD/S3M/XM Module Player for Web Audio and code chiptune2.js
- Some Assembly Required
- Radio Aporee
- Janek Schaefer: Custom players, his soundartresources
- Generative Music (players) Throbbing Gristle / Buddha Machine? Pirate Radio History [Media Fragments]* (https://www.w3.org/TR/media-frags/ The Deep, Rivers Solomon + Clipping (Hybrid Pub)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_(novella)
- Platoniq Burnstation
- Distributed Proofreaders and the podcast recording -- interview with An?
- Botopera
Licenses
Laurence Rassel Show http://www.ultrared.org/publicrecord/archive/2-01/2-01-014/2-01-014.html
Partners
XPUB is the 2 years Master program in Experimental Publishing at the Willem de Kooning Academy, part of the Hogeschool Rotterdam (http://xpub.nl). XPUB focuses on the acts of making things public and creating publics in the age of post-digital networks.
Radio WORM (https://radio.worm.org) is an online radio platform at the heart of WORM Rotterdam. Their studio hosts audio production of all descriptions (sound art, experimental music, interviews, mixes, informal reporting and in-depth talk-based series), with over 80 resident shows as well as a shifting schedule of one-off events, mini-series and special guests.
WORM Pirate Bay (http://thepiratebay.worm.org/) is a physical archive and working facility at WORM comprising DVDs, VHS tapes, zines, books, CDs, board games and other remnants from WORM’s production history. WPB is about unconventional knowledge sharing and artistic production that might not be valued by traditional understandings of high art.
The project will involve the assistance and cooperation of: Ash Kilmartin, Lukas Simonis, Lieuwe Zelle (Radio WORM), Ari Ralph (Worm Pirate Bay), and Florian Cramer, Michael Murtaugh (WDKA/XPUB), and XPUB prototyping + methods tutors.
PUBLIC EVENT
Public event at WORM (TBC)
documentation (template)
PLEASE use the following template in a Wiki page about your project for the Special Issue 25 event.
==Title of the project==
==Short description== (the one asked by PR)
==Cookbook== (how, steps of the making) with pictures
==Refs and resources== (external links)
==Additional info== (optional)
==Event Rider==
===Items===
- Item [ ]
===Space===
- X x Xm
- Internet/Power/etc
===Time===
- Async/ 1 hour slot/etc
A NOTE FROM THE LOGISTICS TEAM:
Resources needed: on your wiki project page, let us know if you need power, lighting and internet for your installation. It would also be appreciated if you could provide a list of other equipment needed (example: table, lamps, chairs, etc…). Also leave a not if you have any equipment that is on the list.
Event timings: for the jam session and text-to-speech to text to music, think about a potential timing for your event. The rest of the artworks/ installations will be working throughout the entire event. You can also list down this info on the wiki project page.
Space requirements (floorplan): on Monday, we will discuss the floorpan together, but during the weekend- you can think about how much space you would need during the event.
Project pages:
! After the event: please add pictures of the finished piece in the space ! PAD: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachinesPrototyp%26Methods