User:Joca/Learnings t2

Special Issue #5

Software

• writing scripts in Python 3
• process of translating idea to possible structure in python code
• connection of Python to other things, which I used earlier (html/css/javascript)
• how to use weasyprint
• Experience in frontend technologies, some CMS's and arduino/processing. What I like about Python is its simple structure and the way how I can use it to process information and connect it to different outputs. Cleaner to write than javscript. Good addition to my arsenal of prototyping tools.
• Now mostly screenbased. Posters were a good addition. In next project further explore off screen possibilities. Could be sound, or connection to other hardware.
• special issue 5 website

Reader

• Applying feminist methodology like intersectionality, counting and trait theory in the research process of the reader. Influence on choice of the topic, diving into librarianship and why it is framed as a feminized profession. On the choice of articles -> interesting that authors writing about these topics are often women. At first only texts in English, but it was really valuable to also include articles in other languages.
• Use of an library manager like Zotero to keep track of references and articles. And sharing libraries with others.
• Designing a book with the characteristics of the bookscanner and Tesseract in mind. Using orientation and different text colors to make the user choose to scan the text or the annotations, based on the orientation. On a practical note: the text was a bit too close to the spine. This made it possible to make more efficient use of the space on the pages, but it also makes it slightly more difficult too scan the full text.
• -> refer to RW & RM. Synopses as a way to read carefully, package articles in shorter form to share with others. Way to build theoretical framework.
• Reader was made in InDesign. For project made use of Weasyprint. Based on experiences of others Reportlab seems to be more pleasant to use for longform documents, want to make tryouts with that.

Prototyping

• Working with NLTK
• Different ways of analyzing text. Bag of words and using libraries like NLTK and spaCy. Supervised learning (M & C), word vectors (Algolit session)
• Presenting a software centered project. How to do it
• Number of things I want to improve in current script: dynamic updating, make the code more efficient (some double work is done). Next to that: found out about other natural language processing libraries like spaCy, want to dive further in it.
• Building a bookscanner based on a DIY kit. Interesting to see the rationale behind the Archivist scanners, and fox hunt for documentation. You see the use of good quality documentation, when you miss it when working of projects by other people.
• Way to structure python code
• experiments in raw audio to image -> next up, replace audacity by sox. Find a way to add header for color encoding.

RW & RM

• Reading a text to write a synopsis introduces a different way of reading: more carefully, reconstructing how certain statements are made. Required to rightfully summarize them in the synopsis.
• Cybernetics -> how it influenced artists and scientists. Communication
• Writing synopsis hard at first, but it got faster and the synopses got better every time I was writing a new one.
• Synopses as a tool. Way to share highlights of an article with others. Also way to write essay. When you have two synopses, the only thing to complete an essay is to introduce an idea and add your own opinion in which you refer to the synopses.
• Based on the feedback of essay V1, make a number of adjustments and complete V2.
• Making more synopses. Having a collection of them ready helps in creating a theoretical framework for thesis next year.
• Interesting: Drucker, performative materiality. Connects to background in interaction design, and to more media theory and critical approach at XPUB.

Research process

• In terms of ways to document work I like the git and the pads. For some reason I feel more comfortable with their syntax, than the wiki mark-up language used here. The git serves well for software, but the pads are too ephemeral for documentation that needs to be saved on the longer term. Plus wiki articles also easier to find.
• For next trimester on a earlier stage collecting things on the wiki. Went good in trim 1, but was a bit missing in trim 2.