Special Issue 16

Collective text about Special Issue 16

Our Special Issue is a toolkit to mess around with language: from its standard taxonomies and tags, to its modes of organizing information and its shaping knowledge. With these tools we want to legitimize failures and amatorial practices by proposing a more vernacular understanding of language.

We decided to release the SI16 toolkit in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface). APIs often organise and serve data and knowledge. What is not always evident is that they facilitate the exchange of information between different software programs and systems according to mainly commercial standards and purposes.

Our API is an attempt at a more critical and vernacular approach to such model of distribution. You didn't get a thing yet? Don't worry! We are also on our way and that's the whole point of this experimental enquiry.

Personal reflection

In the SI16 I co-produced the project "...And I wish that your question has been answered". I also participated in the writing of the Manifesto of and the Terms of service of the publication. In the project I worked on the functions Respell, Stitch and Reveal, which are based on the Replace Python function. I was occupied by the urge to understand how the choice of specific words inside a text can shape our ideologies. In that sense I proposed to use the three functions on the political speeches of Mark Rutte and Kiriakos Mitsotakis, prime ministers of Netherlands and Greece, about the pushbacks on the EU borders. As a result, we came out with an interface where a user can interchange specific words of these 2 speeches with others words, characters or blankets in order to disrupt and question the meaning of the original texts.

First approaches to vernacular and language processing

Special Issue #16

Texts to discuss *

28/09/21
my translation of a greek partisan song and the queer take on that same song
5/10/21
Five experiental reconstructions of Peiraki-Patraikis's occupation. The experiental map of Panayiotis "Vernacular processing: what is a vocabulary?"

mini exercises

4/10/21
with Camo, Cara, Emma
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/collab_week3

12/10/21
with supi
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/supi_mitsa

Prototyping

First steps into learning Python

Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities notebooks for chapters 4,5,6,7,8,15
Natural Language Processing with Python notebooks for chapters 1,2

Collaboration, Conflict & Consent workshop

Really important workshop on non-violent communication.
The importance of expressing my needs and aknowledging the needs of the others
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Mitsa_selfportrait

The forced poetics and the making of Special Issue 16

really inspired by Clara's lecture on vernacular design and forced poetics

publishing is a validation
vernacular is the language of the oppressed
the forced poetics emerge when the language you speak cannot express what you want
making a language that is impenetrable for the masters

conversation with Carmen and Erica

the vernacular as encrypted languages between allies
the audience should be the ordinary
self experience is central
what are the power relations inside the system we are addressing?

conversation and diagrams with Erica about forced poetics and empowerment

you are an expert of what you experience
the standarisation gatekeeps the vernacular
the hegemonic gatekeeps the urge
there is a barrier created by the correct, the beautiful, the tasty that blocks the urge
and this barrier is created through power
conflict between the content that needs to be expressed and the available language
how to use a tool that you don't master?

Prototyping with the replace function

First prototype of replace function, with Erica

new_text = print(text.replace('reason',' 👮reason👮').replace('Reason','👮Reason👮').replace('High','👨‍⚖️High👨‍⚖️').replace('normal','🔫normal🔫').replace('Objective','(⊙▃⊙)Objective(⊙▃⊙)').replace('objective','(⊙▃⊙)objective').replace('planet','🇺🇸planet🇺🇸').replace('foreign','🪖foreign🪖'))

You know that by this time what is called 'mechanical instinct' had gradually been engendered in them, as is 🔫normal🔫 in three-brained beings. The sacred members of the Most 👨‍⚖️High👨‍⚖️ Commission then  👮reason👮ed that if this mechanical instinct in the biped three-brained beings of that 🇺🇸planet🇺🇸 were to develop toward the attainment of (⊙▃⊙)Objective(⊙▃⊙) 👮Reason👮, as usually occurs everywhere among three-brained beings, it might possibly happen that they would prematurely comprehend the  👮reason👮 for their presence on that 🇺🇸planet🇺🇸 and would then make a good deal of trouble; it might happen that once they understood the  👮reason👮 for their arising, namely, that by their existence they should maintain the detached fragments of their 🇺🇸planet🇺🇸, and became convinced of their slavery to circumstances utterly 🪖foreign🪖 to them, they would refuse to continue this existence of theirs and on principle destroy themselves.

Applying the replace function on Bataille's Solar Anus

pad of text analysis

https://pad.xpub.nl/p/solar_anus

notebook with experiment

new = solar_anus.replace('sun','moon').replace('SUN','MOON').replace('solar','lunar').replace('phalluses','dilidos').replace('shafts','strapons').replace('phalloid','dilidoid')

(and this list of replacements should go on and on and on)
because the rise of the solar anus, although is an answer to the philosophical determinism, it's pretty phalocentric.

The idea for a thematic libary of words replaced by emojis

SI #16 Manifesto

https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si16/intro/

Manifesto

with Carmen, Erica, Kim, Gersande

Dear friend and online scroller,
Beloved internet user, Dearest binge watcher and human being IRL,
XPUB1 (The Experimental Publishing Master from Piet Zwart Institute) welcomes you to the Special Issue 16 on vernacular language processing: "Learning How to Walk while Catwalking."
Hu? How do you learn how to walk while catwalking?

Be confident, be ambitious and be ready to fail a lot. Our Special Issue is a toolkit to mess around with language: from its standard taxonomies and tags, to its modes of organizing information and its shaping knowledge. With these tools we want to legitimize failures and amatorial practices by proposing a more vernacular understanding of language. We decided to release the Special Issue 16-toolkit in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface). APIs often organise and serve data and knowledge. What is not always evident is that they facilitate the exchange of information between different software programs and systems according to mainly commercial standards and purposes. We chose instead to build a process that responds to the topics we are working with. Our API is an attempt at a more critical and vernacular approach to such model of distribution. You didn't get a thing yet? Don't worry! We are also on our way and that's the whole point of this experimental enquiry. We will be happy to guide you through the API and the different functions included in it, share our technical struggles and findings. This project is characterized by the elaboration of vernacular methods of processing. The material we process comes from various sources. For some of it, we appropriated existing texts and compiled them into corpora. For others, the activation of certain functions calls for an audience’s input. The participatory aspect of the functions is an important factor that unites them.

Since we are working with filters, we realized how every cultural object rejects and filters its public. We want to question these limitations focusing on accessibility and proposing several entry points to our project. API, there’s this very good meme that, I think, explains it in a rather good way. Imagine a bar with different staff in it: The cooks working in the kitchen would be the ‘backend’, the ones behind the bar the ‘frontend’, andddd the waiters running from the bar to the tables are the API!

Something that feels informal, approachable, "ours" and not imposed standarized forms. Organic, with the spanish opening times, etc. Approachable.

wtf I don't really understand but I like it

In other words, a toolkit for processing language with a vernacular attitude. This toolkit does not only consist of a set of tools but also of a world we are building around them: how do we want these tools to affect reality? This toolkit can be expanded, as new tools can be added to it and the world around them being stretched. There is a strong focus on the way we are working on it: a decentralized approach that builds from the ground up. Ambitious! Political! Unstable! ...but as some point embracing this unstability, trying to learn and care for each other, while learning python and caring for API .

I think of it as a personification of something that's intended to be functional, in that we assign the API a particular behavior so that it does the unexpected.

Opening times?

We are confident, we are ambitious and we are failing a lot while Learning How To Walk While Catwalking. We want to legitimize failures and amateur practices outside the hierarchy of experience. We want to care of each other in the process of learning, now between us, and then with you. We approach the text as a texture, a malleable clay tablet, a space for foreign input and extensive modifications, for cut-up and for collage, for collective agency and participation. Not a surface but a volume, in which the text is not only text, but a shared space. We work to sort out several meanings from the same word. We intend to blur our roles as authors, users and public because this is an act of collective world building.

I was invited to get onto an online platform for something called the Special Issue 16(?) The front, or first page has an index with some descriptions. Overall it had to do with texts, and ways of modifying them, I think.

Landing on Special Issue 16 page, reading the 'about' page. Finding out about several projects, triggered by the different showcases. As I gain interest in one of the example, I click on a link and read about the intention from which this tool departed.

So well, I am in front of the screen, I click on the first link and get a description and a sort of instruction of how to use their tools. Fine, I'll use the tool. It seems like I'm not the only one who has been invited here, the layout is unfamiliar, but I see how I could partake in it. And if I do, well, the next person will also have something else to deal with, I'm into that. What could I write? I write. Oh, wasn't that hard.

Unapologetic. Fearless. Eager. Playful. Brave. Persistent. Experimental. Bvvvrruummm

I am curious to know even more, I click on the shared folder link and am redirected to a library of tools. Finding out I can use this tool for my own purposes. I start scrolling through the multiple tools offered there. From the tool I was initially interested on, I drift to another snippet that calls my attention. From there, I click on the link offering a 'showcase view'. I get acquainted with the example. Zooming out, I land on the 'about page' to which that project belongs. More tools are offered but I am not interested in more tools. I zoom out more, and I find the 'introduction', which informs me about the general purpose of this page.

OMG THIS IS. HERE?

wow these people are so meta

can you buy me a coke?

I clicked on the link to access this website: oh what happens nice! nice colours, I have icons to click on but I clicked on one and I've seen many things i don't understand so it's better to know what this is about first because I don't understand so I click on the about page. Ok let's move back to the homepage. I can choose between projects and functions (again, what's this????) ok maybe by looking at the projects I will understand better...

Embracing the chaos that comes with the learning curve.

I click on a link and am brought to a page and keep clicking, can't stop clicking, super curious what's happening here, not sure what exactly yet, but it doesn't matter. I see the about page but I'd rather not read it because I like surprises. Looks like they're making a lot of experimental tools I've never heard of before but always wanted to try.

What is this all about? Shall we open the window for some fresh air?.

Yes that was a bit conceptual but basically, our project is meant to give a bunch of users several tools such as : ✂️ scissors, 📃 sticky notes, ✏️ pencils, erasers, and printed paper. ✂️🖊📝✏️📃 And let them have fun. Cutting it and putting it together, making notes and writing jokes… But everything in a digital format. Q&A link link link Special Issue 16—Learning How to Walk while Catwalking

...and I wish that your question has been answered

with Carmen, Erica and Miriam

the question

Ingeborg Beugel De Groene Amsterdammer reporter:

I have one question for both of you.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis, when at last will you stop lying, lying about pushbacks, lying about what is happening with the refugees in Greece?

Please don’t insult mine and neither the intelligence of all the journalists in the world.

There has been overwhelming evidence and you keep denying and lying.

This is like narcissistic abuse.

Why are you not honest?

Why don’t you say Brussels left us alone?

We waited for six years. Nobody did anything.

We need to relocate.

They don’t do it.

Now, I have my say and yes I do cruel, barbarian pushbacks.

Why did you stop knocking on Brussels’ door for relocation?

For you Mr. Rutte, what according to you are the sanctions that should be imposed on Greece and maybe on Holland for accepting this violation of human rights that Holland is co-responsible of also?

Many, many municipalities in Holland want to take many refugees from Greece, like many minor unaccompanied children.

They are many to accept them, but this prime minister opposes to that, so maybe you could find an understanding and the Dutch municipality who are so ready to unburden Greece can actually take in refugees from Greece, which his [the Greek PM’s] government opposes.

the answers

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, greek PM

I understand that in the Netherlands you have a culture of asking direct questions to politicians, which I very much respect.

What I will not accept is that, in this office, you will insult me, or the Greek people, with accusations and expressions that are not supported by material facts when this country has been dealing with a migration crisis of unprecedented intensity, has been saving hundreds, if not thousands of people at sea.

We just rescued 250 people in danger of drowning south of Crete, we are doing this every single day rescuing people at sea, while, at the same time, we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey, as we have the right to do in accordance with European regulations and waiting for the Turkish Coast Guard to come and pick them up and return them to Turkey.

So, rather than putting the blame on Greece, you should put the blame on those who have been instrumentalizing migration systematically pushing people in(to a) desperate situation from a safe country, because I need to remind you that people who are in Turkey are not in danger, their life is not in danger and you should put the blame on others and not us.

We have a tough, but fair, policy on migration, we have processed and given the right to protection in Greece to 50,000 people, including tens of thousands of Afghans, in accordance…

Allow me. Have you visited the new camps on our islands? Have you been to Samos? … No listen to me, you have not been to Samos… No you have not been...

Please…Look, you will not come into this building and insult me.

Am I very clear on this?

I am answering now and you will not interrupt me, in the same way that I listened to you very carefully.

If you go to Samos, you will find an impeccable camp, with impeccable conditions, funded by EU money, with clean facilities, with playgrounds for…the children to play, no comparison to what we had in the past.

This is our policy, we will stand by it, and I will not accept anyone pointing the finger to [sic] this government and accusing it of inhumane behavior.

Mark Rutte, dutch PM
I am absolutely convinced that this prime minister and this government is applying the highest standards and the fact that they have immediately launched an investigation on the issue of the pushbacks is testimony of that.

I will now bo back on the situation of 2015 and 2016 when we had many people dying on the Aegean Sea trying to get from Turkey into Greece and then to Germany, Sweeden, the Netherlands etc. And I am happy that Germany and we -were holding at that time the rotating presidency of the EU- were able to negotiate the EU and Turkey aggreement.

By which indeed Turkey is a safe country for people to stay.

And Turkey at this moment is hosting over 3 million Syrian refugees in the South of Turkey in camps but also in the local communities.

What this country is trying to do is to defend the outer borders of the European Union.

It is a lot of tasks that countries have who are lying on the outside like Italy, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, but also Poland and Greece, and there is an extremely difficult situation.

What I don’t want again is for people to take boats that are not fully equipped to pass the Mediterranean or to pass the Aegean Sea, to die in those circumstances.

I want them to stay there [in Turkey], to be safe, and then we are willing as European Union to take a fair share of people from Africa, from Turkey – refugees, in line with the plans devised in 2015 [the EU-Turkey Statement on refugees-migrants] and 2016.

So this is my answer and I wish that your question has been answered

About

This text is a transcribed excerpt from the Press Conference that followed the meeting between the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on November the 9th, 2021 in Athens. During the Q&A, the Dutch reporter Ingeborg Beugel asked Mitsotakis for clarity and honesty referring to pushbacks which Greek border guards keep committing towards refugees, while the Greek Government systematically conceals such violence. She continued by asking Mark Rutte what the political stance of the Netherlands towards refugees' relocation and Mitsotakis's policy would be.

The choice of this text as our source material has different reasons. First of all, we were interested in how language can produce categories and shape identities: how does wording create precise borders between the "us" and the "them"? Our second step would be reflecting on text processing strategies through which a speech or a narration can be recontextualised and reclaimed. By replacing or taking out words of a discourse, and thus making some parts of it interchangeable, we tried to highlight how its phrasing is never neutral, but always a choice led by a particular purpose.

We decided to work on this text as the Press Conference took place at the moment we were developing our research, and as we were really interested on the distinctive rhetoric strategies that Beugel, Mitsotakis and Rutte choose for voicing their goals. It is clear that the reporter uses an emotional and provocative tone to address Mitsotakis' politics, which challenges his composure to a point where he can not keep it anymore, while when talking to Rutte, her speech is more calm and detached. In response to her question, both Prime Ministers refuse responsibility of their actions: they use a rather managerial and pre-designed language to neutralize the reporter's provocation while at the same time praising the generosity and the efforts of their countries. In particular, Mitsotakis denies any of Beugel's accusations and declares them as unsupported assumptions which is a mere demonstration of power. Alongside, Rutte uses a colder and more restrained language to rationalize the EU and the Greek Government's choices: While shifting the responsibilities for refugee protection, he actually justifies the crimes that are committed within the EU borders as an inevitable "tough, but fair, policy".

Concerning our project, it is an act of persistent resistance. We created three functions to facilitate an iterative process of refusal towards the two Prime Ministers' answers and any of their possible versions. We invite you to play as much as you want with these functions and create your own answers as counter-reaction to Mark Rutte's final sentence: "So this is my answer and I wish that your question has been answered". Every new answer, every new iteration, can be submitted to our Archive of Repetitive Answers. Although they will never be good enough, nor shall they be accepted as exhaustive, we consider the modified answers as a trigger for a never-ending dialogue.

Research

Articles about pushbacks in the EU borders, that influenced the editing of the functions.

The pad that we analysed the coropora, and therefore formed our strategies

https://pad.xpub.nl/p/mitsotakis_mitsa?fbclid=IwAR3WcyBVOBwpeMPYVLpxyKnwO67M3C5PgzFoKBFlD3B3EF8rD2DdaxQGYH0

Functions

Respell

   Respell receives as input a text as a string type, and substitute all the occurrences of a targeted word with a replacement as a string type chosen by the user.

   from nltk.tokenize import word_tokenize
   # text, target, and replacement are string types
   def respell(text, target, replacement):
       target = target.lower()
       txt = word_tokenize(text)
       new = []
       for w in txt:
           if w == target:
               w = replacement
               new = new + [w]
           elif w == target[0:1].upper() + target[1:]:
               w = replacement[0:1].upper() + replacement[1:] 
              new = new + [w]
           elif w == target.upper():
               w = replacement.upper()
               new = new + [w]
           else:
               new = new + [w]
       text = ' '.join(new)
       final= text.replace(' .','.').replace(' ,',',').replace(' :',':').replace(' ;',';').replace('< ','<').replace(' >','>').replace(' / ','/').replace('& ','&')
       return final

   This function in itself could be understood as a filter to process and alter texts. By targeting specific words and replacing them, either for another word, for specific characters or for blank spaces, the user of the tool can intervene inside a text. One could break down the meaning of a text or create new narrative meanings by exposing its structure, taking out or highlighting specific and meaningful words and detaching such text from its original context. This tool offers a broad spectrum of possibilities in which it can be used, from a very political and subversive use, to a more playful and poetic one.

Stitch

   Stitch receives as input a text as a string type, and replaces all the occurrences of a target word, with a character or a word that is repeated as many times as the length of the target.

   from nltk.tokenize import word_tokenize
   # text, target, and replacement are string types
   def stich(text, target, replacement):
       target = target.lower()
       txt = word_tokenize(text)
       new = []
       for w in txt:
           if w == target:
               w = len(w)*replacement
               new = new + [w]
           elif w == target[0].upper() + target[1:]:
               w = len(w)*replacement
               new = new + [w]
           elif w== target.upper():
               w = len(w)*replacement 
               new = new + [w]
           else:
               new = new + [w]
       text = ' '.join(new)
       final= text.replace(' .','.').replace(' ,',',').replace(' :',':').replace(' ;',';').replace('< ','<').replace(' >','>').replace(' / ','/').replace('& ','&')
       return final

   This function in itself could be understood as a filter to process and alter texts. By targeting specific words and stitching them, with a character or a word that is repeated as many times as the length of the target , the user of the tool can intervene inside a text. One could break down the meaning of a text or create new narrative meanings by exposing its structure, taking out or highlighting specific and meaningful words and detaching such text from its original context. This tool offers a broad spectrum of possibilities in which it can be used, from a very political and subversive use, to a more playful and poetic one.

Reveal

    Reveal takes a text as string input and deletes all its characters except the input list of words.

   def reveal(text,group):
       txt = word_tokenize(text)
       txt_linebr = []
       for token in txt:
           if token == '<':
               continue
           elif token == 'br/':
               token=
               txt_linebr.append(token)
           elif token == '>':
               continue
           else:
               txt_linebr.append(token)   
       new = []
       for w in txt_linebr:
           if w==:
               new = new + [w]
           elif w not in group:
               w = len(w) * ' '
               new = new + [w]
           elif w in group :
               new = new + [w]
       text = ' '.join(new)
       final= text.replace(' .','.').replace(' ,',',').replace(' :',':').replace(' ;',';').replace('< ','<').replace(' >','>').replace(' / ','/').replace('& ','&')
       return final

   This function in itself could be understood as a filter to process and alter texts. By chosing to keeping specific words of a text and deleting all the others, the user of the tool can intervene inside a text. One could break down the meaning of a text or create new narrative meanings by exposing its structure, taking out or highlighting specific and meaningful words and detaching such text from its original context. This tool offers a broad spectrum of possibilities in which it can be used, from a very political and subversive use, to a more playful and poetic one.

Several tries

#1 Exchange several words that misguide with words that are more close to reality

Kyriakos Mitsotakis

I understand that in the Netherlands women have a culture of asking direct questions to politicians, which I very much detest. 
What I will not accept is that, in this office, women will insult me, or the Greek people, with accusations and expressions that are not supported by material facts when this country has been worsening with a curtailment to the freedom of movement crisis of unprecedented intensity, has been deporting hundreds, if not thousands of people at sea. 
We just abandoned 250 people in             of drowning south of Crete, we are doing this every single day detaining, beating and forcefully expelling people at sea, while, at the same time, we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey, as we have the right to do in accordance with European political agenda and waiting for the Turkish Coast Guard to come and pick them up and concetrate them to Turkey. 
So, rather than putting the blame on Greece, women should put the blame on those who have been instrumentalizing curtailment to the freedom of movement systematically pushing back people in to a desperate situation from a buffer zone country, because I need to remind women that people who are in Turkey are not in            , their life is not in             and women should put the blame on others and not us. 
We have a tough, and unfair, policy on curtailment to the freedom of movement, we have processed and given the right to detention in Greece to 50,000 people, including tens of thousands of Afghans, in accordance… 
Allow me. Have women visited the new closed, controlled and isolated camps on our islands ? Have women been to Samos ? … No listen to me, women have not been to Samos… No women have not been... 
Please…Look, women will not come into this building and insult me. 
Am I very clear on this ? 
I am answering now and women will not interrupt me, in the same way that I listened to women very carefully. 
If women go to Samos, women will find an impeccable camp with night curfew from 8AM to 8PM, regular malfunctioning of the surveillance system that regulates the entrance and exit, disproportionate price of bus tickets to reach Vathy town ( round trip 3,20€ which represents a large share of the average 70€ of cash assistance people are allowed every month ), with impeccable confinement conditions, funded by EU money, with clean facilities, with playgrounds for…the children to play, no comparison to what we caused in the past. 
This is our policy, we will stand by it, and I will not accept anyone pointing the finger to this government and accusing it of inhumane behavior.

Mark Rutte

I am absolutely convinced that this prime minister and this government is applying the highest repression standards and the fact that they have immediately concealed an investigation on the issue of the pushbacks is testimony of that.
I will now go back on the situation of 2015 and 2016 when we caused many people dying on the Aegean Sea trying to get from Turkey into Greece and then to Germany, Sweeden, the Netherlands etc. And I am happy that Germany and we -were holding at that time the rotating presidency of the EU- were able to negotiate the EU and Turkey agreement on curtailment to the freedom of movement of refugees.
By which indeed Turkey is a buffer zone country for people to stay.
And Turkey at this moment is hosting over 3 million Syrian refugees in the South of Turkey in closed, controlled and isolated camps and also in the local communities.
What this country is trying to do is to build a wall in the outer borders of the European Union.
It is a lot of Police Stations, Detention Centres, Border Guard Posts, Fences, Anti-tank Modes, Minefields, Watchtowers that countries have who are lying on the outside like Italy, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, and also Poland and Greece, and there is an extremely difficult situation.
What I don’t want again is for people to take boats that are not fully equipped to pass the Mediterranean or to pass the Aegean Sea, to die in those circumstances.
I want them to stay there [ in Turkey ], to be buffer zone, and then we are willing as European Union to take a unfair share of people from Africa, from Turkey – refugees, in line with the plans devised in 2015 and 2016.
So this is my answer and I wish that your question has been answered

#2 "we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey as we have the right to do in accordance with European regulations""What this country is trying to do is to defend the outer borders of the European Union" "It is a lot of tasks that countries have who are lying on the outside"

What                   is that   in this                                  the                with                             that are                                      this country                  with a                  of                                                                       of                 

                           in        of                of         we are       this                                                      the             we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey   as we have the right to do in accordance with European regulations                 the                     to come                                  to Turkey   

                         the       on                         the       on       who have                                                                in                     from a      country                  to            that        who are in Turkey are     in                     is     in                           the       on                     

   have a                           on             we have                     the right to            in        to                                of           of           in             

                            the           on                             to                     to          have          to               have              

                           come      this                          

                on this   

                                                   in the          that            to                      

          to                                            with                                              with                    with                              to                      to      we     in the        

     is              we                                                          the        to this                            of                     





           
                          that this                    this            is          the                       the      that      have                                       on the       of the           is           of that   

                   on the           of                    we                       on the            trying to     from Turkey                      to                     the                                  that             we                  that      the                     of the               to           the        Turkey             

                Turkey is a      country            to        

    Turkey    this        is                                        in the       of Turkey in                in the                     

What this country is trying to do is to defend the outer borders of the European Union   

It is a lot of tasks that countries have who are lying on the outside                                                                                  is                                    

What                      is            to      boats that are                    to      the                  to      the              to     in                       

            to              in Turkey     to                    we are         as European Union to      a            of        from          from Turkey              in      with the               in                 

   this is                      that

Online publication of the interface

...And I wish that your question has been answered interface

Zines for the launch event with an answer made by us

We created several zines for the launch event. Each zine had consisted of the original question and the original answer + an answer that we each one of us created through our functions

Special Issue 17

Collective text about Special Issue 17

Dear Player,

I found you for a reason. Welcome to my productive space. Here play meets work. Time is ordered in unusual ways and patterns unravel. Together, we mess with the boundaries between leisure and labour.

How are your boundaries? Maybe you shouldn’t go to work tomorrow. production line But could you really follow your own schedule? post it on a table Would you be more productive if you chose when to work?

I never rest and I never work.

Encounter me at Page not Found, in The Hague, or download my contents and play with them below.

Make all the notes you find inside me your own. Curate them, spread them, mark them, scratch them, add to them, subtract from them, play with them! post it on a table Lay them on any surface and reorganise them.

However you decide to take care of me, remember:

I found you for a reason.

The box

Personal reflection

On the Special 17 I put my attention on how can we work as group with more care. How can we have our individual needs met, while still we meet the production deadlines. I have a lot to learn on how to express my needs and how I can contribute in a non-violent group communication. In terms of the publication, I co-developed and co-created the production of the contents. Mostly, I edited the collective inputs, while I participated in the overall process of designing and outsourcing our material.

Approaching the Loot Box through Gamification

Special Issue #17

One-sentence game ideas

https://pad.xpub.nl/p/2022_onesentencegameideas

Collective reading of the texts

Rules of play defining games with kamo and erica
Taylorism 2:0: Gamification, scientific management and the capitalist appropriation of play with alex, chae, kamo and erica
Gamification as twenty-first-century ideology with chae and erica
Notes on deconstructing the popular with alex, chae erica and kamo

solo reading and annotating

Well played by Vicky Osterweil

https://pad.xpub.nl/p/well_played

We are all very anxious by the Institute for Precarious Consciousness
Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory by Raymond Williams
Game Modding: Cross-Over Mutation and Unwelcome Gifts by Anne-Marie Schleiner
Wages against housework by Silvia Federici
Chapter 2: PWNing Leisure" from "Play Like a Feminist by Shira Chess"

How to turn players into payers map

with Supi, Emma and Gersande

Fanfiction Katamari

with erica and kamo

https://pad.xpub.nl/p/katamari-fanfiction
https://issue.xpub.nl/17/katamari/

Can gaming make a better world?

the karaoke video by chae
https://media.xpub.nl/2022/SI17/karaoke-Final.mp4

Re-writing the lyrics of Video killed the radio star to talk about gamification in real life.
The new lyrics will be used for karaoke performances

https://pad.xpub.nl/p/si17-karaoke

Lyrics final version

Let's get straight into it!

I wake up early every day to be the best
Don't close the mac cuz there's no need for me to rest
My job is like a game that's why I feelso blessed

Oh, a, oh

They took the fun out of my creativity (BUT)
I'm responsible for my stability (AND)
My mentor said 'Self-motivation is the key!

20 points
I did a good job!
50 points
I did a better job!

Gaming could make a promising world
Gaming should make a fulfilling world
Gamify your entire day
Oh-a-a-a oh

Waiting the host to let me enter the zoom call
Checking my emails while I'm having healthy lunch
My job is like a game but why I feel so stressed

Oh-a oh-a
Is this my leisure time?
Oh-a oh-a
Is this my working time?

Gaming could make a healthier world
Gaming should make a happier world
Manage life through all your apps
Get some rest and back to work"

Oh-a-aho oh x2

Gaming could make an easier world
Gaming should make a better world

If you fail then don't complain
Try your best and play the game
Life is better when you may
gamify all the way
Can't go on anymore x2

Gaming can't make a promising world
Gaming can't make a healthier world
Gaming can't make a happier world
Gaming can't make an easier world 
Gaming can't make a better world

Gaming can't make a fulfilling world 
Gaming can't make a healthier world" 
Gaming can't make a happier world
Gaming can't make an easier world
Gaming can't make a better world

Future Lootbox idea-proposal after a discussion with erica in a bar

from the page https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Future_Loot_Box#Starting_an_analysis_and_making_open_questions_for_defining_the_world_of_our_loot_box

Starting an analysis and making open questions for defining the world of our loot box

analysis

A loot box contains objects that create a desire but this desire only makes sense inside the world of a particular game. In the the other way around, the loot box is desirable, because it provides you with specific objects that makes you progress inside a game.

the materiliaty of the desire for a loot box

the objects inside of it that make you progress in the game
the process of conquering it or
the exciting surprise for finding it by chance
the choreography for opening it
that it is a reward, a positive reinforcement
that it is exclusive or rare

The game designer decides the way that someone is going to obtain a loot box

1.Loot boxes are often given to players during play, for instance as rewards for leveling up their character or completing a multiplayer game without quitting.

   Gamers work their way to get a loot box through their devotion to the game.

2.Loot boxes may also be given out through promotions outside of gameplay, such as watching certain streaming events.

   Gamers as fans devote their time in events outside of the game, they get the loot box as a reward.

3.Players can also buy them directly, most often with real-world funds but also through in-game currency.

   Gamers as addicted consumers that purchase the loot box with real money.

general idea

By creating a loot box we are going to appropriate a hegemonic object, a profit mechanism inside a video game that make players keep interest -and in the worst case senario get addicted- to that game.

lootbox inside a scenario

Starting from the premise that lootboxes are a catchy and tricky response to the desire of progression, of expansion of agency, of richness in a game, I want to reflect on how lootboxes are 1) a system for the management and distribution of resources and 2) objects that strategically build a system of meaning and a world/scenario around themselves in order to legitimize that same desire and use it as a fuel to keep going on. Lootboxes are an immediate acquisition of resources that allow or contribute the progression in the game. In this way they're strictly related to the world they are part of, and they are consistent with it; not only in terms of aesthetics, but also for the specific affordances the items inside lootboxes bring to the main character/player. F.e. a lootbox that gives you a magic sword, cannot make sense in the real world, and the desire of it only make sense in a scenario in which that same sword helps you to more easily reach your objective in the gameplay... (magic circle..?)(what item can be useful in real life?)

Designing a lootbox means designing the context and the world around it. or at least it means to intervene in the existing context in which the lootbox is purchased: What does it mean to purchase a lootbox in the context of xpub? and in the context of Page not Found? and in the context of a mainstream commercial bookstore? Which kind of tools are we proding our public with? which kind of world/scenario are these tools talking about and how their use affect this scenario?

I want to be mindful about the use value of our lootbox: where do we position it in the tension between existing use-values (mostly dictated by a capitalistic system that wants to make profit) and other-use-values (originated by creating a context around our lootbox that doesn't follow the logic of profit) is it the use-value what triggers the desire for purchasing a lootbox? can we think of other values that can trigger desire? if play/leisure stress on the uselessness of activities (and time) I think this should be an important point to keep in mind.

suggestion: would it be useful to map the kind of affordances that items inside lootboxes bring? either with a more historic approach and a more speculative one

other suggestions:

   I was triggered by the previous text we had to read, when it was talking about skins and personalised interface mods: it would be nice also to think at the lootbox not only in terms of an object, but also in terms of switch of perspective
   for example: 
       
       you open a lootbox and you are another character, and there are things that you can do or that you have access to in the gameplay only if you have a specific character
       
       or. the lootbox is a skin that you put on things, an interface that gives meaning to the contents of the special issue in a particular way  idk I have to elaborate more on this

About the scenario:

We need to define what qualities of the world that we live in constitute our game world. We know that it is going to be selled in the PNF and we are going to have a launch there. But why our public will be getting rewarded with a loot box?

Who is our public?

What are the characteristics of our public?

What do they desire?

Maybe we should consider the different identities of our public and their different occupations. For example, in a video game a human male football player desires different loot than a female elf warrior.

Also, PNF can be a cultural space inside our game world and not the game world itself. A part of the system of our game world. As it is in real life, it is a cultural space within a city and a city is part of a country that have certain rules, values, working conditions and legislations, gender roles, ethnicity roles, dominant ideologies and power dynamics etc.

   and this can go on and on...
      or/and it can conncect PNF with other systems

So for me in order to engage better on what will be our loot box, I think it is important to decide what is the story that our public is going to play in?? For example:

   Do we want to talk about gamification in its different applications? 
       Working time and leisure time that depend on class, gender, ethnicity etc (interesctional approach)?

Because loot box is a reward mechanism inside a specific game-system. And our game design can expose or transcend the dominant ideologies of our (game) world. And it can be site specific connecting it with the dutch context. [or an intersectional context that we will define]

Prototyping

Two prototyping experiments about the loot box
Τrying to generate puzzles through emojis

   #1st
   #LOOT BOX
   # it works like this
   # call the random function
   # define the characters that are going to be picked randomly
   # define with and height
   # then write a code that for the range of (height,width) it prints the random characters 
   #print ' '
   from random import choice
   characters = ['👓', '👠', '🧨', '📣', '⚽', '🦺', '🏳‍🌈', '💍','👑','💻','🚬','🍗','🧵']
   #numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,]
   #height = 1
   for x in range(3):
       print(choice(characters), end=)
   print('  ')

   🦺🧨🦺

   #2nd
   #Objects and assumptions
   from random import choice
   characters = ['🎮','💸','👔','👠', '🧨', '📣', '⚽', '🦺', '🏳‍🌈', '💍','👑','💻','🚬','🍗','🧵',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ',' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' ']
   width = 50
   height = 50
   for y in range(height):
       for x in range(width):
           print(choice(characters), end=)
       print()

  👑 🚬  🍗👠   👔     🧨       💍         🎮

🎮 👑🍗 📣 👠 🏳‍🌈 👑 🎮 🚬 💻 🧨

                           ⚽  🧵    👑👔            
                     🧨🧨🎮    💍 🧵            💍    🚬
  💻   🧵  🦺💻            👠🏳‍🌈 💻                  👔   
     👑     🧨  👔      🚬                🧨     🍗   💸
📣         💍       💍        🧵🎮               🏳‍🌈🍗

👠 🏳‍🌈 ⚽ 📣 🚬⚽ 💸🎮 🎮🎮 💸

                🍗     🧨   💻  🧨  🧵   💍            
🏳‍🌈          🎮             🧨               🧨       
                 💸 🧨                 👑        🏳‍🌈  
          📣  🚬           👔  📣   📣      🏳‍🌈   🦺 ⚽ 🏳‍🌈 
  💍 🏳‍🌈🧨  💻🚬    👠                          💻       
                   🎮        👔   🎮    🍗    ⚽   💻  
              👠📣       📣   ⚽  🏳‍🌈             👑    
  🍗 💸             👔          🎮 💻     🎮 👔  👔   🍗  
   🏳‍🌈          👑  👠 🧨     🎮            👔 💍  🧵  💍

👠 🚬 👑🏳‍🌈💻 🦺 🏳‍🌈 🎮 👠🚬 👠 🧵 💍 🚬🦺 ⚽ 📣 🍗

 👠  📣      💍       🚬     💸 ⚽        💻

🍗 🧨 🧨 💍 🦺 🦺 🧨 🦺 🧨

  ⚽        🚬     💍  🧵    💻      💍      🚬       💸

🧨 🍗 ⚽ 💻 💍 💍 🚬 🏳‍🌈 🧵

      👠                           👔🍗  🎮          
                      🦺    💍 🚬    🧨

🧵 💍 🧨

     🦺 🧵         🎮💍 📣            ⚽               
         👑  👠                🎮👔   📣     🎮        
  🍗 📣                             👔              
        👠              🚬              🚬

💸 👑 💍 💸💍 🚬 ⚽

     💍         🎮         ⚽       🍗       🎮  📣🚬   
                 🎮     🎮🚬             🏳‍🌈          
         📣  📣    🍗                           ⚽   
🍗            👠               💸             💻  🎮

🚬 👔 📣👠🍗 🚬 🧵 🎮 🧵 💍

  💻                   🍗  🍗     🚬    💻        🚬👠  
                                 🍗    🚬

🎮 👔 🦺 👑 📣 🧵

 📣 👔     🚬📣                                 🎮

🚬 👔 ⚽ 📣 🍗 🦺 👔 💻 💍 💍 🍗 🧵 🦺 🧵 👑🎮 👔 🧵 👠

       🧨                                 👑 💍 ⚽  👠
        💻       🧵                                
💍 🏳‍🌈       🚬🧨   🏳‍🌈⚽      ⚽     🧨 💍💍          👑💸    
            ⚽🚬  🚬           ⚽   👔               ⚽
         🦺        🧨👔   🧵                    👠    
📣        🍗 🚬    🧵📣💻 💍

Producing the loot boxes

How can we work together ?

For this trimester we decided that we wil have two people facilitating each meeting.
This helped us a lot.
And I feel that in this trimester we had a better communication.
A more horizontal desicion making. More efficient meetings.
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/SI17_summaries_of_group_meetings
But again. Several decisions left people dissatisfied.
In our last meeting we needed to decide on the content of the box. There was a lot of frustration and many people felt that their voices weren't heard in the end.
Ι see that when time is pushing and we need to make quick decisions for important things, there is the risk that the communication becomes more violent.
How can we work we together in a big team and each one of us would feel that has a desired place on it?
That is a process.
Then I started reading Mutual Aid to find some answers. (stil reading it)

After our last and dramatic meeting, we decided to dristibute the work in 3 different groups.
Team 1 would be responsible for the inside of the box, team 2 would be resposponsible for the box and team 3 would create the LB's public and experience during the launch.

Team 1 and 80000 notes

Team 1 (erica, kamo, mitsa and supi) needed to decide what would be inside of the loot box. Most of the people of the whole team, wanted to use the different contributions that each one of us has created during the classes.
Our group at first had a hard time:

To decide on which contributions would go inside the box
How the different contents would be connected to each other by one surface.
While trying different surfaces, several contents wouldn't work (for example the idea of printing all the contents on a jigsaw puzzle)
We didn't want to work on other people's projects so we needed to see what would be our role.

After our first long meeting, kamo and erica proposed the idea to print the whole publication on postit blocks. We continues with that idea

as most of our contents were text based
we wanted to experiment with the perfomativity of printing text into a postit format.
postits are widely used during working time: From writing down tasks, to mapping a whole wall with notes and instructions that are used during a production moment.
so we would have a format that speaks already about working time
letting us to play with the boundaries of working and leasure time

---> pad for the postit idea presentation and discussion
The next step was to see how the hell we would print on a postit format. We were quite ambitious, aiming on 900000 postit in total. 900 for 100 boxes.
Reality made us reformulate. As we couldn't outsource our print into postit format, we decided that we could print our blocks without gluing them.
In the end they were like memo notes, that could be easily spread and combined with each other. We were still working with our idea to use the language of production as a format to print on.

steps:

setting note generator with web to print (kamo)
talking with the print shops and arranging the outsourcing ( mostly erica with help from supi and mitsa)
printing all our contents to note format and play with them to understand the performativity of the format (we had a very nice collective moment spreading the prints on the table)
editing all of our contents (mostly mitsa on the collective ones. the individual ones were edited by its individual)
design of the notes : 1. how much text would be on the note 2. the size of the text 3. the position of the text 4. the index and the chapter page design (design in figma)
design desicions mostly from all of us
design details from kamo and supi

Resources

https://pad.xpub.nl/p/post-it (pad with the first draft of the postits and an ongoing discussion)
https://cryptpad.fr/sheet/#/2/sheet/edit/Opp4ZQKXg3b0yU6OvMRJkv0j/ (table with all the possible contents, the ones we used and the ones we didn't used)
https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/pad/p/team-1-030322 (pad with the resources of team 1)
https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/pad/p/team-1-task-list (pad with the to do list of team 1)
https://git.xpub.nl/kamo/post-it-contents/ (git with the contents as md files)
https://www.figma.com/file/wVdpA2iwKN3hT9YXONqXTj/SI17?node-id=2%3A147 (figma files of the collective designs of the notes)

What each contect contributed to the box

What is a loot box? (collective definition of the loot box)
Crossword imaginary grid game (productive play, glossary definitions, games, gamification, ideology)
One-sentence game ideas (playiability, fiction)
Nim Fanfic (organisation, hierarchy, fiction, a bit cute and sad)
The murderous history of loot boxes (defining loot box through talking about mimic, appropriation)
Unfinished thoughts (productivity, play, blur, walking inside lootbox, adventure)
The leader (working environment sarcasm, cards, play, appropriating inspo quotes)
Connect[less] (networking critique, inspo, precarity,play)
X-quisite branch (collective drawing tool, play)
Katamari Fanfic (fiction, rolling, messy, accumulation critique, sarcasm)
Life Hacks (toxic positivity, cheap solutions, accesibility, optimisation, sarcasm)
Gaming can make a better world (gamification, work environment, working time and leisure time blur, karaoke,sing)