View source for User:Riviera/Integrated formative assessment: proposal phase (trimester 4)/Assessment

Slides accompanying this presentation are available at https://hub.xpub.nl/chopchop/~river/t4-assessment/slides.html

<span id="introduction"></span>
= Introduction =

Over the next twenty minutes, I will discuss the research I would like to conduct over the next four and six months. I have articulated my intentions in two documents consisting of a Project Proposal and a thesis outline. In what follows, I situate the content of these documents in relation to a few things which took place in 2024.

<span id="memorable-times-from-2024"></span>
= Memorable times from 2024 =

In order I will speak in detail about

# Server Long Table
# Human Computing Git Exercise
# ''Printer Jam''

I’ll jump right in by speaking about the…

<span id="server-long-table"></span>
= Server Long Table =

In mid-October I organised a community discussion around servers. Ten people joined the in-person conversation. An hour-long recording was made using several dynamic microphones, a mixing desk and a portable audio recording device.

<span id="an-image"></span>
== An Image ==

This image shows the Long Table which took place at Klankschool. Klankschool are a group of almost 50 people, based in and around Rotterdam, who learn from, work with and teach each other about sound. These people are gathered in a WhatsApp chat which was created in April and not by me. Klankschool is informally based in a space in the South of Rotterdam where this Long Table took place. A Long Table is way of holding a conversation about a topic. It was developed in the early 2000s by Lois Weaver, a member of the performance collective Split Britches. It’s a ‘table where the anecdote, the personal story, the theoretical point and the statistical piece of data have a place [and] one thing’s not privileged over another’ (Weaver cited in McAvinchey, 2014, p.29). It’s about building community through activating audiences via democratic and feminist practice. Interlocutors are encouraged to write their thoughts on a tablecloth while holding polite conversation with one another. According to Split Britches (n.d.) ‘The Long Table is an open-source format: you are welcome to use it as a means of generating discussion on any subject you choose’. While well-intentioned, I am sceptical about Split Britches’ use of Web 2.0 social media platforms for holding discussions about the technique. It makes it difficult to get involved with the conversations about Long Table discussions.

<span id="reflections"></span>
== Reflections ==

Overall the conversation was productive and I’m grateful to those who set aside time to take part. The question arose as to what need there is for a server in this context. For me, the question is not so much what need is there but rather, how useful is something if it’s only temporary? How best to engage people? What can a server offer in the context of making experimental sounds? Maintaining a server for Klankschool-related purposes has been an aspect of my practice since this time. The Klankschool server is a Mac Pro computer from the early 2010s. I borrowed it from the department. It’s running Arch Linux and is connected via ethernet to a router located at my flat. Core users of the server include Joseph, Stephen Kerr, who graduated last year, and Rosa. Besides me, there are perhaps two other people who have used the server so far. I’ll return to this later when I discuss my project proposal.

In general “Forking” the format of the Long Table could make for an interesting workshop for members of Klankschool. Enter the…

<span id="human-computing-git-exercise-january-16th"></span>
= Human Computing Git Exercise (January 16th) =

This memorable human computing exercise took place 11 months ago. The exercise was led by Manetta. She was inspired by a video of people performing a quick sort algorithm through the medium of an Hungarian folk dance. This and similar performative exercises are coherent with the open-source ethos of the Long Table and the ideas it encapsulates. In the Git exercise two people took on the role of the Git repository and everyone else took on the role of repository user.

<span id="three-images"></span>
== Three Images ==

These images illustrate different parts of the exercise. Users of the Git repository received pieces of gridded A4 paper, a pen, and a handful of A7-sized pieces of card. The exercise involved filling out the boxes on the A4 paper and recording the changed co-ordinates on the commit messages. The commits were then pushed to the repository. The role of the repository group was to keep track of the order in which the commits were received. Thus, users making pull requests were able to retrieve file content by reading the commit messages.

<span id="reflections-1"></span>
== Reflections ==

For me, the git exercise took up the relationship between the body and software. It reminded me of Pauline Oliveros’ ''Software for People'', a sonic exercise for musicians from the late 1970s. It also drew my attention to the 4-bit addition with humans exercise which took place on this course in 2012. Along with the Hungarian folk dance and Marthe Van Dessel’s performative exercise ''Home is a Server'', these activities illustrate that software can run on groups of humans. In general, these performances prefer props over technology. And I chose this example because it underscores my fascination with embodied ways of thinking through software.

<span id="printer-jam"></span>
= Printer Jam =

There was a collaborative performance which Rosa and I worked on together. The performance, humorously titled ''Printer Jam'' took place on June 1st during Gulaschprogrammiernacht 22 at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. There was also an earlier iteration of the performance which we presented in May at Varia.

<span id="six-images"></span>
== Six Images ==

The images on this slide are frames from the video recording of the performance in Germany. ''Printer Jam'' melded live coding and Arduino to generate music with abandoned printers. The performance makes use of wired and wireless technology to power a set of motors according to patterned sequences. Powering the motors on and off causes the internal parts of the printer to move. For example the paper feed components. We amplified the sounds of these motions using piezoelectric disks and dynamic microphones.

<span id="reflections-and-audio"></span>
== Reflections and Audio ==

I was motivated to work with printers after installing and configuring the Common Unix Printing System on our collective server chopchop during the previous trimester. In working on ''Printer Jam'', I gained insight into wiring up and programming microcontrollers. I advanced my soldering skills through attending printer hacking workshops organised by Joseph. I developed a greater appreciation for modifying hardware.

The video mixer told us after the performance that it was the weirdest thing he’d seen at the Gulaschprogrammiernacht.

People have watched the video recording of the performance more than 250 times.

Here’s what some of it sounded like

Broadly that brings me to my

<span id="thesis-outline"></span>
= Thesis Outline =

As a Linux user I wanted to find a way of writing about the operating system. I was drawn to the maintenance of servers running Linux as a way into this topic. However, I expect my thesis will be different to what I outlined. My writings so far are about codework rather than server maintenance.

Overall, I am motivated to write a stand-alone academic essay about body-based software. What is body-based software?

An approximation might be:

Computational processes expressed in natural languages which can run on or through an embodied substrate.

A handful of examples of this sort were given earlier in the presentation. Still, there is a limited amount of literature on this topic so it is necessary to provide context in order to clarify the concept.

it might make sense to write about live coding. This would challenge the limits of my technical and contextual understanding of the performance practice for the better. A good deal of research has been written about live coding. Body-based software diverges from live coding aesthetically and to a lesser extent ideologically.

I utilised ''Tidal Cycles'' in ''Printer Jam'' to send patterned messages to the printers. This live coding software library was initially written by Alex McLean and has an active community around it. ''Tidal Cycles'' is written in the purely functional, lazy programming language known as Haskell. By no means is everything in body-based software functional, even if it is about performance. In that sense, body-based software overlaps with codework in that in does not need to be executed on a machine. It “infects” the body in a similar way to how code contaminates language in codework.

Codework, along with live coding, offers a useful point of departure in this regard. What constitutes codework? It’s a debated topic. The concept was initially articulated by Alan Sondheim (2001). Some people write that Codework is regarded as an electronic literature or e-lit genre. For others it is a practice adjacent to poetry often involving hypertext. Several critics explain codework in terms of whether the code is executable or not and there is limited consensus about this matter. The writings of those who argue in favour of executable codework chime with writings about live coding. In this sense, codework is tangential to live coding.

The question which naturally arises is: How do codework and live coding cohere with body-based software? I hope that writing about these topics will facilitate drawing out the most salient aspects of body-based software and clarifying what it means.

<span id="project-proposal"></span>
= Project Proposal =

My project proposal is to collaborate with Rosa on a workshop series at Klankschool and write entries for a newsletter.

<span id="newsletter"></span>
= Newsletter =

I initially intended to send out the newsletter via email to people subscribed to a list. I setup a mail server inside a Linux container on the Klankschool server. But, due to circumstances beyond my control, I was able to send, but I was not able to receive, emails. At the moment the plan is to generate the newsletter with a static site generator.

I will write in the newsletter as a way of keeping people up to date with what is going on regarding the server. For instance, some SSL certificates are about to expire. There’s a reason for this and so I might write about it. The newsletter is inspired by my tendency to write about what I am doing and post it on the wiki. It will be published online on the unrepair.klank.school website every Last Quarter Moon between January and June. The primary audience of the newsletter are the active Klankschool community members in the Whatsapp group chat, website visitors and workshop attendees.

A topic I am eager to explore further and write about are the terms of service of the server. Currently, there are no terms of service. This is a problem because it leaves the behavioural possibilities of service users wide open. This risk should not be underestimated. To that end, I am reminded of the following questions by Cristian Fuchs. Fuchs (2017) asks: “How does the community network deal with actual crime occurring in its network? How can it best minimise the occurrence of crime?” Although writing about community networks, there are comparable concerns at play in the context of running a server. A critical framework in this respect is the Digital Services Act (Anon, 2022) of the European Parliament. For example, Article 14 of this act states that intermediary service providers make their terms and conditions readily available. This is in the interests of “a safe, predictable and trustworthy online environment” which I value in these times (Ibid.). Besides writing about the server in newsletter format, I would also write about the workshops I hold. One question is, how might the server feature in the workshop series?

<span id="workshop-series"></span>
= Workshop Series =

The workshop series will feature 12 workshops and run between January and June. I will lead some of these, Rosa will lead some, and some we may lead together. Rosa and I agree to pattern out a more thorough plan for the content of the workshops over the break. The workshop series converges on topics which reflect meeting points of our individual research. In many respects performance, as it intersects with software, is the focus of my research. This is foregrounded in my plan to write a thesis about Body-based software. It is also a thematic aspect of the three experiences from 2024 which I have spoken about so far. I would like to hold workshops which incorporate body-based software activities as a way of contributing to my thesis research.

Currently, the Klankschool server prototype is a background element of the workshop series. It hosts services that may pertain to the running and documenting of the workshops. This includes organisational components such as OpenProject as illustrated in Appendix A. It also extends to ways of publicising the events including a federated calendar. There are also file sharing systems such as git and sftp running on the server. Ultimately, I cannot keep the services running on the Mac Pro forever, because the machine belongs to XPUB and I must give it back. That’s not a problem for short-term infrastructure like OpenProject. However, it is a problem for the longevity of the calendar, which is the most used feature of the server. I have set things up in view of this fact, using Linux containers and USB hard drives to ensure a level of hardware independence. As all the services are containerised they can simply be migrated to this a different machine. Then it’s just a matter of re-configuring some DNS settings – Which would be another newsletter entry.

However, speaking of another machine:

<ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;">
<li><p>Joseph gave me a computer in mid-October. He either found it on the street or got it for one Euro. He said I could do whatever I want with it.</p></li>
<li><p>I obtained one the Supermicro servers pictured on the left from V2_ on Friday.</p></li></ol>

I am curious about ways of including servers in the workshop series. Or any material outcome that may arise from it. Currently, I am unable to access the BIOS on the Supermicro server because it is not giving me any video output. I expect it will be necessary to open up the machine to fix this issue. This can be done during the repair cafes which Rosa is organising. People could join in with this and it would not coincide with the workshops. The workshops and repair cafes run on alternate weeks.

<span id="wrapping-up"></span>
= Wrapping up =

I’ll summarise what I have discussed over the past 20 minutes or so to bring the presentation to a close. I spoke about three memorable occasions which have informed the trajectory of my research over the past year. Performance and software are a core theme in each of these. I then spoke about thesis outline. It is different to what I outlined in writing prior to this assessment. I prefer the thought of writing about body-based software over writing hyperbole about knowledge practices in the context of server maintenance. I then spoke about the project proposal. It involves running a series of workshops about body-based software. My interest in servers stems from my desire to use Linux as a way of bringing people together. Therefore, in the meanwhile, I will continue maintaining the server and update people about what takes place on it.

<span id="bibliography"></span>
= Bibliography =

Anon (2022) Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act) (Text with EEA relevance), OJ L, vol. 277 [Online]. Available at http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj/eng (Accessed 25 November 2024).

Fuchs, C. (2017) ‘Sustainability and community networks’, Telematics and Informatics, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 628–639 [Online]. DOI: 10.1016/j.tele.2016.10.003.

McAvinchey, C. (2014) ‘Lois Weaver: Interview and introduction by Caoimhe McAvinchey’, in Performance and Community: Commentary and Case Studies, London, England, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, pp. 21–32 [Online]. DOI: 10.5040/9781408166505.

<span id="appendix-a-gantt-chart"></span>
= Appendix A: Gantt Chart =

This is an illustration of the timeline of events Rosa and I have planned between January and June. The Gantt chart is very useful for project management and Rosa has consistently agreed on the convenience of this software. It’s publicly available on an OpenProject instance running on the Mac Pro server. It will remain up to date over the duration of the project and provide insight into our working processes.