User:Lor.ensō/Lorenzo's Projects that May/Mayn't

XPUB 2 GRADUATION RESEARCH SEMINAR

1 What do you want to make?

2 How do you plan to make it?

3 What is your timetable?

4 Why do you want to make it?

5 Who can help you and how?

6 Relation to previous practice

7 Relation to a larger context

8 References/bibliography

RENDERDAM_[YEAR].FORMAT

What?

A visual essay based on an inner/outer mono or dialogue I'm currently having considering the rendered imagery of Rotterdam used in both (simulator) games and future architectural concepts of Rotterdam.

Why?

I'm in confusion by the idea of vision / images of the city through virtual representation. Mostly, because I feel that is an image that lacks multiple layers of complex contexts:

Accessibility(concerning disability)

livability (concerning the housing crisis)

affordability(pushing away the inhabitants).

leisureability (queer / underground scenes / festivals / gigs / event)

I don't want it to be a EVERYTHING IS BAD kind of publication, though, more of a concern based... publication?

Workflow (two or three sentences)

Write down thoughts

Search for / collect imagery (make pictures, take screenshots, online posts, journalism) and make compositions..

Timetable

October:

Read up on previously saved sources. Start sketching and writing thoughts down, collecting both sides.

November:

Think about the outcome. start the design and think of it either being a moving image, online or offline zine, a mocksite, etc.

Make a first draft for the first public moment. Maybe trigger a discussion. An anti-campaign. Parody? Satire?

December:

Continue and have something to show / discuss in Gent, to reflect in the project proposal and thesis outline. Have something of a 1,5-2 draft for the break to pick up after the winter break.

Relation to previous practice (two sentences, draw on Text on Practice)

In my Bachelors, I made two works pre and during covid in cinema4d

Pre-covid // Concrete Desert, it was merely a mood based on a song and an exercises to make a certain idea into the landscape.

while-covid // During my internship at SETUP Media Lab, I made a work based on this abstract sterile idea of a new normal. The definition remained variable based on the person talking about it. Yet still based on the bland life we lived back then I made this landscape to reflect upon this so called new normal-fear.

Municipality invests in anti-drug campaign by making new street signs that are puns based on drugs and streetnames. https://www.nu.nl/binnenland/6330231/cokesingel-lijnhaven-en-pillendijk-rotterdam-start-actie-tegen-drugsoverlast.html

People stole the streetsigns. Just imagine all the funding going away that was invested in this very bad campaign. Not only was it bad because of the amount of subsidie that could have gone to i.e. a festival like Metropolis, which is 35 years old but doesn't get funded anymore. But also the common idea of the end user is responsible for the criminal circuit drugs go through, instead of legalizing and have it controlled. It is banished in general.

This is a part of the Renderdam where the city wants to show how tough and edgy it was, but also eradicates that what makes it 'raw'. Cleansing the city of subcultures, nightlife, cultural events.

https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/1900715/drugs-straatborden-nu-al-massaal-gestolen-west-snuifkade-hangt-al-in-studentenhuis

DISABILITY SIMULATOR

What? (two sentences)

A game that mocks the visual representation of virtual environments in Games and City Planning/Branding. The Idea of simulation games cover either daily strife of a certain job or expertise, or a surreal / parody / fantasy driven game.

Why? (two sentences) [old version: How? but very similar to workflow]

In both the promise of new city planning as the concept of a simulator. In games: the person / character is (based on the conception of an) able bodied - I city planning, the mockups always consist of stock footage or 3d rendered.

Workflow (two or three sentences)

The idea is to first think about the gameplay(ux / ui) to use what kind of virtual environments this could take place in. Then pitch to people that work in the same fields of thoughts and others, for the sake of fair use and that doesn't unintentionally becomes a mocking of people with disabilities. And in the end make some sort of beta testing version and present that...?

Timetable

September to December could be an idea, since I am participating in <a href="https://constantvzw.org/site/Open-call-Worksession-a-Cane-Sticky-notes-Another-body.html"> Open call Worksession: a Cane, Sticky notes, Another body d/a> and I could test it then with the audience there. But to be honest this project could be more of a critical meme towards abovementioned projects.

Relation to previous practice (two sentences, draw on Text on Practice)

I made something in Unity years ago based on this

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHdNogtlXQz/?img_index=1 https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKKCYDJ46m/

Choices made (two sentences)

None, yet...

OBSESSIVE CATALOGUE OF MADNESS: SPIRITUAL MEDIA PSYCHOSIS

This page is Lorenzo and Alessia's

Here is the pad we are using: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/obsessive_catalogue_of_madness

Intro (general introduction, social context + why we are writing about it)

x let's write it together on the pad x

witchcraft, shamanism, influencers, cults, spiritual colonialism

Romanticisation and Cosplaying the poor, Marie Antoinette and the tradwife movement

In ancient Greece urban people fantasised about the magic of nature and the simplicity of living among animals in the fields. This yearning for an idyllic rustic life persisted throughout history, manifesting in various forms. For example, kings, queens, and aristocrats across Europe created ornamental farms and villages within their own gardens.

One of the most famous ornamental farms is Hameau de la Reine, the queen’s cottage, built for Marie Antoinette at Versailles as now one of the most famous escapist vacation amusement parks. It was a fake village, with fake villagers, to pretend to be a peasant whenever the queen felt like it. Marie Antoinette would dress up and roleplay as the mother of France, milking goats, eating strawberries. This wasn’t really new, while the pastoral movement was going on at the time, nobles were infatuated with the idea of the simple life, they weren’t really interested about the real aspects of peasants' lives, just the aesthetic, just the cosplaying part.
Marie Antoinette overall did some good with all the products coming out of Hameau de la Reine, giving them to the poor, she was still in a golden cage. Many other aristocrats built much more intricate fake peasant amusement parks. This doesn’t change the fact that, thanks to the pastoral movement that found its prime between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the aristocracy found a new romantic desire to find shelter from boringness in a polished fakeness made of humble styling and environments, and that, I believe, it’s a recurrence in our society to these days.
One clear example are the safari-experiences, or the plenty of resorts built around the world.

• Hameau de la Reine, Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette in 1783
• Soho Farmhouse, Oxfordshire, UK, a country escape for the elite
• add safari or resort

I am not really rich, it’s not like I know about rich people’s problems. I know it might be horrible to stop being able to function as a normal human being, going around, without having the freedom to go anonymously to any place, without being bothered or known.
We are, generally, all humans, even rich people are human, when I think about Marie Antoinette I think right away about Michael Jackson and his profound desire of going grocery shopping. A bittersweet story, about loneliness and isolation. This supermarket story right away doesn’t give me any space for compassion, when my mind goes straight to the Fedez and Chiara’s Ferragni supermarket poverty buffet, in 2022.
These two Italian celebrities rented out a supermarket, for one of their birthdays and filmed themself making a mess, playing around, treating the rented place as an amusement park. This act was not about trying to experience something they couldn’t normally do because of their fame. Instead, it was more of a playful or staged performance for content. The reaction to their performance was much negative, with people criticising them for wasting and disrespecting a public space, in a time when food waste and economic hardship are highly sensitive matters. This was even made worse by the fact Carrefour Italia, the supermarket in question, has an infamous 24/7 work schedule, the company would never stop if not for a millionaire's birthday (not even Jesus' birthday! wow).

• Michael Jackson renting a super market to walk around and pretend to shop so that he could have the experience of being a normal person and shopping
• Chiara Ferragni and Fedez during the supermarket incident
• A story from their social media “Party at the supermarket, we can take what we want”

Cottagecore is one of those aesthetical trends that share intriguing overlaps with Marie Antoinette, and the wealthy cosplay.

The term “cottagecore” was first used on Tumblr around 2010, to tag this growing aesthetic that romanticised the rural life aesthetic.
During the pandemic the interest in cottagecore increased. Everyone was making bread from sourdough, cultivating gardens, and embracing a slower pace of life.
People started thinking more about the toxicity of overconsumption, waste, globalisation, toxic working schedule, and climate change. Cottagecore is a fragment of a new narrative that tries to challenge the mainstream one, the prevailing one that calls all progress as good. Cottagecore is cosy, comforting, and welcoming.

Yes, cool, nice, where’s the dark side tho?
The paradox of cottagecore lies in its success as a nostalgic, anti modern aesthetic thriving in modern spaces. One of the main aspects of cottage core aesthetic lifestyle is loneliness, yet cottagecore content is blooming on social media and online communities. Things change a bit when this aesthetic is not applied just to floral wallpapers and nice linen dresses, but to lifestyle choices and social media interactions as well.

One common criticism of cottagecore is its exclusivity. Much of its content is inspired by literature about wealthy white people being rich and melancholic.
While this could be true, that cottagecore often appeals to a specific community demographic, it’s not correct to say it for me.
I believe capitalism, amongst all, it’s extremely flattening as a system with communities, no one cares about communities, the strawberry dress must be sold to everyone!
And, indeed, fantasising about aesthetics, that could take inspiration from the past but are still performative in the present, can be an extremely useful tool for marginalised communities to empower themself and their identity in spaces that were always white cis coded.

• The strawberry dress from Lirika Matoshi
• The famous dress made in Animal Crossing, the quintessential cottagecore game
• Werner herzog sad beige clothes for sad children, trend initiated by Hayley DeRoche on her meme instagram account @sadbeige, to mock particular fashion websites offering extreme expensive children clothing, with that humble and peasant vibe to it
• Ballerina farm, one of the wealthiest cottagecore influencer out there, used by the tradwife movement as an example

Another critique is the poverty play.
Anything involved in the cottage core movement products’ production has been typically aimed to upper class people (meme di vestiti per bambini ricchi) that never got involved in the country lifestyle, and this is happening again, playing with a nostalgic feeling for those that never experienced that kind of living, that live usually in urban areas. Let's call it anemoia as it should be.
Usually in fashion we see this poverty play… at play.

Fashion was always a manner of trying to understand from which class a person you were talking to were from. Pastoral fashion, for instance, was never about disguising wealth, but rather about cosplaying as the rural poor in a way that made it clear you were wealthy. This artificiality is still present in modern cottagecore, as it is in many trends, such as hip hop and rap fashion. The "shabbiness" typical of real life in nature is fabricated in cottagecore. Another critique, is that concerning the use of the cottagecore aesthetic for the trad wife movement. In the tradwife movement is not about aesthetic and style anymore, is when the aesthetic becomes moralistic and politicised.

Clearly cottagecore is often associated with anti-capitalism and anti-globalisation, and with a profound desire for independence. So to me it’s weird how people associate cottagecore, that seems like a profound liberating aesthetic mostly for women, to the trad wife life, even if I can see some strings there. While they share interests like sustainability, organic cooking, and gardening, cottagecore values loneliness, not family values, and stands apart in its political stance.
To fix sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoral
https://internationaltimes.it/the-millionaires-birthday/
https://www.vogue.com/article/strawberry-dress-lirika-matoshi-popular
https://mom.com/news/mom-calls-out-sad-beige-parenting-trend-instagram

Modern Messiah(s) - [in progress by Lorenzo]

Wim Hof

Method

His breathing method and training in ice cold temperatures are something that people really find interesting. He joined forces with the Radboud University to release in what EenVandaag calls a "scientific breakthrough" since he manages to control his autonomous nerve system and his immune responses. This method has been praised and worshiped for the last decade by (famous) people (Oprah Winfrey, Jim Carrey,  Gwyneth Paltrow), (alternative) health platforms(Gaia, GOOP) and media(TEDx, Vice, etc) which resulted in becoming the institute of Wim Hof.

Website

On the website  https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ It is possible to sign up for events in your area, but if you want to experiment alone there are ways to do so but also anywhere or even let yourself be guided by him (for only €1499,00) in a weekend with Wim.

Allegations

There have been allegations of the Wim Hof Method being related to the death of people. 
Wiki Article of Wim Hof Deaths sources

- https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/wim-hof-california-lawsuit/
- https://eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/item/iceman-onder-vuur/ 
- https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/iceman-oefening-eist-opnieuw-leven~bd0a4600/
- https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/wim-hof-breathing-method-coroner-man-drown-2436121
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/woman-tragically-dies-cold-water-111600703.html
- https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/07/iceman-wim-hof-cleared-of-causing-death-of-american-teenager/utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral
- https://eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/wimhof/ 

Commentary

The discussion about this topic is often countered as

"They're not doing it right"

"they just want to get money out of it"  

"How would someone think this method could kill people, it needs to be done with caution"

"They should carefully have listened and this is just a Darwin Award winner because how can you be so stupid"

Dilemma

And these responses are part of the dilemma. In my personal experience I have first seen the aforementioned EenVandaag article and how Wim Hof as a (semi-self-proclaimed)'super being' has worked together with medical science and tried to motivate people to use their bodies in the same way and to grow the idea of YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE.

People are of course in charge of their own life choices and in participating in these kind of self-help like events.

Appearance(s)

Wim Hof is praised as being this sweet radical hippie person that has found some miraculous superhuman way to control his body through his mind. He gets praised and paid a lot. And that is where it gets interesting. The appearances he makes are at first in talk shows as a medical phenomenon and extreme athlete. In a way it make sense for him to share his 'wisdom' and 'experience' and earn money from that.  

He has multiple specials and features on Gaia.com: "Gaia is a global conscious community that offers over 8,000 titles to members online through the Gaia app and internet-connected devices — featuring original series, instructional videos, and documentaries on yoga, meditation, spiritual growth, personal transformation, alternative history, and the unexplained."

He has connections to Flavo Pasquini's alternative 'news' network called BLCBX, where he is guest on the show and live meetups

Selling books on the website of that's the spirit. A 'spiritual' platform that brings 'spirituality' in one space with conspiracy, alt-right and other thinkers.

Giel Beelen's Kukuru podcast. Former Radio DJ interviews people he finds interesting.

Pseudo

But if the recent majority is on alternative health channels and podcasts, is that still fair? There is a certain need for alternatives to our status quo, the need is based on the lack of justice, systemic change but is then *helped* by influencers that speak in a 'soft' way with 'soft' languages in 'soft' designed studios or on 'soft' websites. These aesthetics appeal to vulnerable people (maybe this is a harsh way of phrasing it).

Most recent allegation

As mentioned in the beginning of this text, there was a recent article in de Volkskrant about Wim Hof 

About a week ago(28-09-24) de Volkskrant released an article about Wim Hof.  Wim Hof is known as someone with a peculiar body and 'method'. He is considered as some sort of guru to his following.

This article was in response to the upcoming movie glorifying the iceman. The newspaper asked for response and Hof replied to most of the questions. But to reply in a later manner was not the case. He replied to POWNED {a 'rebellious / right wing'} in a YouTube video and Shownieuws, an entertainment/showbizz programme.

Former allegation(s) and conflicts

In this article, the idea of Wim Hof being demolished once again is something that makes me feel a bit bittersweet. Because of the alternative (alt-right leaning) connections that Wim Hof has, I don't trust him. I have new discussions with friends every time something happens. I try to remain neutral and to just think this person takes all the jobs he can, regardless of political color.  

The previous cases of deaths are unethical what so ever. I feel that it the dual emotions are a bit too simplified. If a person gets health issues based on the idea of wanting to become better and resulting them to die in such a way, it seems a bit.. cruel to say that it's their own fault.  

What is then the best option, only being allowed to engage in such extreme temperatures with a specialist?

How can you become a specialist in something that isn't really proven but shown?

The judge in the most reason death case has ruled that Wim Hof isn't liable even though there

My bias in this dilemma is that Wim Hof is a charlatan that profits from gullibility and people in certain situations and mindsets and reveals his true colours when he speaks on alternative stages.  

To counterpoint my argument,

in 2023, Scott Carney made a 'documentary' against Wim Hof. Scott Carney is a journlist that in 2011 traveled to Poland from US to meet him and 'expose' him.  Carney was then completely convinced of Hof's technique and changed 180 degrees and he wrote a book in support of WHM.

The counter-dilemma is that Scott Carney now has focussed his practice on exposing Wim Hof rather than supporting him and making his business around anti-ganda (instead of propaganda?).

The 'documentary' lacks proper journalism and is only beneficial for my 'A-HA! WE GOT EM' irrational underbelly. I'd rather just see justice in general.

https://kloptdatwel.nl/2023/07/16/wim-hof-en-zijn-bedrijf-hebben-een-claim-van-67-miljoen-dollar-aan-de-broek/

https://youtu.be/14iDVubY3us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu5CkkaHB1A

https://skepsis.nl/wim-hof-methode/

XPUB 1

Abstractifying the map

  Abstractifying the walk as the memory that it is,

  a blend of words, lines, colors and shapes

  as shape of personal drawing designs rather than monitored landscapes in schematically saved geolocations

This idea is about being your own tracking device. Making your walk into poetic visual rather than a monitored given. It's about looking at your route as a circuit. Would this circuit work? Are there stable connections, or are these broken?

- change your track into a circuit

- note your tracks but without context

- follow the lines of the map but don't save them

- just draw them and symbolize your strolling

The colours you use are based on the coördinates https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/File:WhatsApp_Image_2024-05-15_at_11.32.53_4cd4be77.jpg

Example:

#519167

#692299

#008052  

#445580

#906951

#000346

  take note: since these coördinates are short 4 numbers, add 2 x 00's

this is your colour spectrum per location

etvwiiln

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Dull Pedestrian 3D walk

A walk from my house to PZI in pedestrian mode of 3DRotterdam

Inaccessible Geocaching

Geocache / geoguessr ------ Accessing Location

Limited acces / disability

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/pedestrian-word-history-usage-dull-commonplace

Notes made on 230424 before class:

Latitudes and altitudes

defined by the prime meridian and the equator \

meridian meaning MidDay

Equator -> AeQuator -> circulus Aequator diei etonoctus

Circle equalizing day and night

make equal

equa

Timezones

geopolitics

Will continue this laterrrrrrr

170424

Inner-Troubleshooting

What is it?

The performance of ageism onto older electronics

or

Techno-biased Projection turned into a critical self-reflection

Case in point:

the iiyama screen at my desk is not working because it is too old!!!!!!! >:(

it's a projection on my own prejudgement

Why make it?

A frustration to both my inhabited luxury of having a second screen and finding that 'older machines are nice when they are usable but I have also grown biased to this "newer == better" while that is horse shit not true

Workflow

I see it for me that I would keep track of all the transactions that I inhabited and how these interactions grew into me. More a practice actually.

Timetable*

this is a short-time based project. A self-reflective practice, actually. This exercise can be done in 5-10 minutes.

over the long run it can be practiced with multiple forms of technology

be it the dependence of the droplet-key to enter the front door

Rapid prototype

Why isn't my screen working, old piece of electronic trash

Go stand against the wall! You should be ashamed

oh but maybe... it's not the screen.. let's try another HDMI to USB-C connector*

oh but it is working?!

maybe I should be less dependent than I think I am on these things

this is a bit dramatic but it's funny to be confronted with your own technological habits

Previous practice

The Monster of Albert Heijn

https://lorenzoquint.nl/ah.html

A previous project based on the newness / oldness of electronics in consumer culture and the adaptation of automated grocery shopping. It was based on growing annoyance.

Relation to a wider context

Choices made

This proposal is more a black mirror, how I adapt to these technological differences out of laziness yet also being forced to the new electronic consumerist habits.

Blaming it on a fine working 'older' screen, while a newer connection cable is the actual error in the connection.

I always think about a conversation I had with a stranger at Antwerpen train station about that (2013) in Belgium everything electronic wasn't working because it was too old (check in / out, ATM, public transport) and in NL the same things weren't working because it was just too new.

The work could be a step by step list of showing my own thought pattern through the automated steps.

other examples

Laundry

1. I need to do my laundry
2. for my laundry I need to upgrade 20 euros on my AppWash app
3. for my laundry I need to see through Internet of Things-technology if the washing and/or drying machines
4. for my laundry I need to have data on my phone, to check in with €1,50-€2,00
5. in order to do my laundry, I need to buy data to pay.

Keyboard connections

for all my 'regular' keyboards  to get the '€' I need to ctrl + shift + 

on the 'alternative keyboard' I get '¼' or '¤' ((I use blind typing on this keyboard because actually using the system is not really helping))

```

(<<Steve has been asked to unpack "Choices made" (here are 2 interpretations):

1) Why is this proposal different from your previous work? Perhaps there was a change of mind along the way. Perhaps you wanted to approach things differently. So, why did you choose to take the proposal in this direction? A change of mind demonstrates that you are thinking critically about your practice. ("choices made" is there to help you unpack your process).

2) You may interpret it as an opportunity to list the procedures you will go through when making the work. Again, these choices are critical (because you chose to do one thing rather than something else:-)

Is this proposal clear?

What can be done to make it clearer?

As a group, identify core texts and references that help with the proposal?

Why is this text necessary

Rapid prototype template

Write one sentence instruction for a work.

Make it.

100424

A project for startup errors.

Things that go too slow for a quick demand. The kind of things that make you want to push force the power button to stop and start over.

Why make it?

To deal with the errors the morning, to beat around the bushes and to be annoyed for no particularly valid reason at all

workflow:

   follow this mantra

Timetable

do this on the daily, when you are confused and unsollicitedly force your good intentions on to others, your network needs to grow, the pyramid needs to be filled.

Previous practice

gradproject, step by step obsession

Relation to a wider context

quick fix

Choice made

>be me

>be annoyed

>think about the productivity

>think about the way there 's a business based on this

> make a course

   (Please include rapid prototype.)

https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mw-mediadesign/images/4/47/How_to_seem_like_you_know_what_you_are_doing.jpg

   1. you are relaxed

   2. too relaxed

   3. why are you so slow today

   4. start!!!

   5. try this exercise

       1. weigh your eyelids, brain, shoulders in a homeopathic way

       2. nose exhales are not healthy!

           1. do not ask what things mean, just accept it or get out of here anyway

       3. think for a solution for problem that does not exist

       4. if that is not possible, think of a problem for a solution that does not exist

       5. if that is not possible, think of huge problems that you could benefit of

       6. join a 3-day course to get certified

       7. congratulations, you now seem like you know what you are doing

   6. at least you know seem like you are on the right path.

   7. why are you still reading this, you should know better.

A non-problem solution demanding mantra

Nothing-ing

whazzit

A critique on commodification of anything that is new to another person.

Why make it?

The example of *Niksen* (which means to do nothing), it has been shown sinds 2019 or so as some sort of wellness trend (bbc). Which literally means 'nothing-ing' tHe ArT oF dOiNg NoThInG

_Dolce far niente_ ... _Dolce far niente_ (literally 'sweetness [of] doing nothing, sweet idleness') is an Italian saying.

https://www.flowmagazine.nl/mental-health/de-kunst-van-het-nietsdoen-wat-je-kunt-leren-van-het-italiaanse-dolce-far-niente.html

workflow

Timetable

-

Previous practice

'I am Dutch' jk but it's again a bit of a wellness critique with blatant claims profiting on a burnout culture

Relation to a wider context

Profiting on burn-out culture.

Choices made

less is more