User:)biyibiyibiyi(/RW&RM 04/session1

an account of self-directed research and what I want to achieve this year

ACCOUNT: I will start my account of self-directed research by reinterpreting the thematics from Special Issues last year. SI1, Entreprecariat: Start Up, Burn Out provided a observation of and empathyization towards global work culture in context of rising digital economy. It's an observation because we held a distance towards these phenomenons, the distance in a school building; but it's a course of emphatization because we are enveloped under these situations, contexts and environments. The publication produced in last October Ten Theses on Life Hacks is an outcome our emphatization. In the publication we delineated ten theses on life hacks. Last December we launched IRIS 0.5 which is a speculative smart agent placed in a office work environment. In parallel to the SI, I become interested in topics of digital embodiment and perception within this larger context. In SI2 we had hands on approach to DIY networking and decentralized infrastructure. In retrospect, decentralization echoed with the entreprecariat-self. How to interpret the relationship between the two? acts of decentralization are atomized selves on hold, with resistances, in doubt, in speculation, in contemplation. In SI3 we are exposed to the landscapes of collective "resistant" practices further, in context of knowledge privatization and shadow libraries. We were exposed to issues of taxonomy of knowledge, (?)legal spaces, organizations of activities (how to run workshops in context, for instance). The excursions to Rietveld Library, workshops and lectures from external guests (Eva Weinmayr, Dubravka Sekulic, Marcell Mars, Dusan Barok, Bodo Balasz, and in representatives of active organizations - The Piracy Project of AND publishing, Monoskop, aaaaarg,) greatly exposed us to how thing are operating in practicality and larger contexts (Eastern Europe, for example, which entangled different historical implications than Western Europe)

ACHIEVE: I want to weave the thematics organically to provide the backdrop for outlining the upcoming thesis and prototyping graduation project this year. I am also interested in media archeology, which can find shared threads with the upper mentioned Special Issues. To name a few: advent of personal computing and DIY culture in 1960s; advent of APRANET (which have facets of decentralization/centralization worth unravelling); sequential to advent of APRANET is World Wide Web, hyperlinks, and derivatives of hyperlinks such as hyper-literature. (which, then at the time, are instances that provides for decentralizing potentials.)

Against the backdrop of these research I would like to frame a context, build a practice that's conducted with speculative/fictional/playful/convivial/ decentralization.

what I want to make, how I am going to make it, why I am going to make it

continued from above: Against the backdrop of these research I would like to frame a context, build a practice that's conducted with speculative/fictional/playful/convivial/ decentralization.

which consists of from now: concerns to household electronics, infrastructural networking device (so far router, server, vpn; but to say infrastructural doesn't only refer to information infrastructure but much more), publishing (web publishing, hyper-publishing, zine making) as a gesture of voicing the self, gaining presence of unauthorized peripheries.

how am I going to make it? does this how mean how practically?

what possibilities are open to me

What material from the 'text on method' you wrote last trimester could be useful for the proposal?

What material have you written (descriptions of work , assignments for last year's methods class, the methods of annotation you developed &c) which you can use? Review the written feedback from tutors you got from previous assessments and have it available for reference during the first session

exercize warm up: what how why

questioner, note taker, interviewee, three roles rotates

from group:http://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/ProposalDraft2019

writing proposal in two hours

rewrite https://pad.xpub.nl/p/biyi_graduate_seminar_18_09_2019

What do you want to make a start?

Before making, I first map out formats of my making, investigation, presentation and distribution. Formats are containers of my research, but also, as containers they give a form to the content and suggest possible directions to the research. Think of water in different form of containers that suggest different types of use. I am interested in producing and redistributing my research in formats of hybrid publications, workshops, and conferences.

I am interested in employing these formats not only in a conventional sense, that they are the often sought for mediums to present creative and critical productions, but also using these formats as a way to share, invite, interject discourses in an open, public field, as a way to instigate collective critical making. For example zine making, and other forms of self publishing, compared to authorized, centralized forms of publishing, allow more immediate, convivial forms of expression. Its immediacy and conviviality foster dialogs and proximities within communities of (un)likeminded people. Therefore making a powerful distributive tool / format.

I am interested in the aforementioned format because of the nature of my research interest. I am interested DIY hacktivism, forms of organization such as decentralization and self organization, counter culture phenomenons such as zine making, network studies, publishing interfaces, and media archaeology, and sinofuturism.

I am interested in drawing connection between these areas of interest. For example, I find research in media archaeology shed lights on contemporary practices of DIY network infrastructures. The advent of APRANET, an early prototype of modern internet born in U.S. military lab, was precendant to the World Wide Web. The introduction to World Wide Web, which, at the time, opened possibilities to imagine information being exchanged in a more decentralized organization, with leveraging more mobility and equality. Media Archaelogy is interesting to research, and reflect in contemporary phenomenon of decentralization.

My prototypes includes contents and tools in hybrid publishing. The contents can be manifestos, user manuals, interviews, and archives; the tools I hope to develop are to facilitate the content. It also had relevancy to open source culture, which adopts more transparent, modular methods of developing tools. Few examples I am interested about publishing tools include, 1. command line tool to generate layout for zines; 2. hosting websites on git, which offer unique advantages - commits from group authors, show projects in their development, transparency about project components 3. bash script to generate a folder of photos to a html webpage 4. script to do imposition, to generate folder of photos to pdf.

Prior to starting the semester I initiated a project called Contextual Electronics, which take form in a web publication and zine and travel in conferences. It's a starting point of trying to develop discrete yet connected forms of output under an umbrella of themed, contextualized project.

How do you plan to make it?

I will conduct research in DIY hacktivism, zine culture, network theory, interface studies, and media archeology. The reading list will compose of literature from correspondent resources. As for writing, there are several layers of writing I employ. The Wiki is a good to to quickly take notes of news and literature which I found relevant, often coming from the browser. I write small comments underneath it such as how may the literature inform prototype experiments; I frequently archive web pages for reading in the browser, which compose a significant source of input information; As I dwell further to the topic, I print the literature in copies and annotate as I read along. As I become more lucid about the relationships between the entangling fields of research, I would like to curate/archive readers for each subset field to aid theoretical research.

The practice involves a significant portion of prototyping, which will happen in individual tinkering and tutorials from prototyping course. From prototyping courses last year, we passed a learning threshold and are able to, to a basic extent, work independently; if not, at least identify problems, realize realistically the scope of a project in mind, in difficulty, feasibility - how long will it take, what are the skills needed, who to ask for help, etc.

What is your timetable?

Before September 20th, which is the Our Networks conference, I would like to publish content that's planned for exhibition. Before the end of the month of September, I would like to publish my website, which will serve as a curating site and archive depot for past and upcoming projects. Before October 1st I would like to decide if I apply for participation in worm zine camp 2019. It's a good opportunity to fine tune my projects for exhibition. Amongst that I am mostly interested in pushing myself for 1. public speaking outside the school 2. try to contextualize my project in relation to zine making culture.

Meanwhile I would like to constantly gather literature and information which doesn't have a particular deadline.

In October I hope to succeed in producing some small prototypes, can be a DIY router, a publishing script.

Why do you want to make it?

because, to decentralize is to 1. collaborate 2. offer porosity 3. corroborate 4. stanch 5. speculate 6. combat imperialism 7. combat orientalism 8. expose 9.localize 10. contextualize 11. play 12. temporalize

Sonia comment: this is quite powerful to read and please explain more! I will expand this motivation to a speculative manifesto

Who can help you and how?

The Wiki is a valuable source. I often look up on the Wiki and found literature of somebody have done this, and follow the thread. It can be a good clue for finding help.

One of the scripts I mentioned, bash script to generate PDF, is from Michael (one from class and one from his website). He is very helpful in answering questions in relation to publishing interface.

I don't have very exact, determined names to pinpoint, and determined ways of receiving help. I was helped, in a way, by participating in gathers such as relearn, which I learned about the server with an attitude. Perhaps further looks into this project will reveal ways of how to identify who to receive help and how. (during relearn session this year in Rotterdam I participated in reviewing the feminist server manifesto, which inspired me to think of manifesto as a tool to develop reflective writing ).

Relation to previous practice

ACCOUNT: I will start my account of self-directed research by reinterpreting the thematics from Special Issues last year. SI1, Entreprecariat: Start Up, Burn Out provided a observation of and empathyization towards global work culture in context of rising digital economy. It's an observation because we held a distance towards these phenomenons, the distance in a school building; but it's a course of emphatization because we are enveloped under these situations, contexts and environments. The publication produced in last October Ten Theses on Life Hacks is an outcome our emphatization. In the publication we delineated ten theses on life hacks. Last December we launched IRIS 0.5 which is a speculative smart agent placed in a office work environment. In parallel to the SI, I become interested in topics of digital embodiment and perception within this larger context. In SI2 we had hands on approach to DIY networking and decentralized infrastructure. In retrospect, decentralization echoed with the entreprecariat-self. How to interpret the relationship between the two? acts of decentralization are atomized selves on hold, with resistances, in doubt, in speculation, in contemplation. In SI3 we are exposed to the landscapes of collective "resistant" practices further, in context of knowledge privatization and shadow libraries. We were exposed to issues of taxonomy of knowledge, (?)legal spaces, organizations of activities (how to run workshops in context, for instance). The excursions to Rietveld Library, workshops and lectures from external guests (Eva Weinmayr, Dubravka Sekulic, Marcell Mars, Dusan Barok, Bodo Balasz, and in representatives of active organizations - The Piracy Project of AND publishing, Monoskop, aaaaarg,) greatly exposed us to how thing are operating in practicality and larger contexts (Eastern Europe, for example, which entangled different historical implications than Western Europe)

Relation to a larger context

critique towards infrastructure centralization, infrastructure studies, phenomenon of cloud computing(civil and commercial), smart cities, future interface, impoverishment of senses, digital embodiment, hyper-publishing, open source culture, third culture in internet such as auto-tune, bullet comments, etc, technological consumerism, sino-futurism, queer theory as a way to provide non-canonical ways of artistic production

References

for references, monoskop, jstor, aaaarg has been a good tool. in addition monoskop can also search for events that had took place.

http://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mw-mediadesign/index.php?title=Graduate_Seminar_2019-2020