User:Eleanorg/2.1/work in progress

Grad proposal draft

Prev work

• Physical hosting
• Dissolute img

(and back to...

• Open Sauce
• Play!Fight!)

Themes:

-many subjectivities called to collaborate/cohere

-solidarity called for even with things we may disagree with.

• Proposal: zine on consent, content generated on the fly

was going to expand this into a magazine format, where you have bits of content hosted in different places. but it changes the subject position of the host if they know what they're hosting, so i needed to look more into what this position is. what are the motivations, pleasures and dilemmas of transmitting other ppl's content?

this relates to my own role as 'facilitator' (like a curator but less enamored of hierarchical control). trying to invite participants to be facilitators as well, and to reflect on this 'dual' attitude of Assertiveness and Neutrality (see Seeds briefing at http://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/free/shortfacilitation)

Thinking about a tool for discussion of Consent. Need a tool that combines both:

• the ethical position of endorsing consensual relations over nonconsensual ones
• the ambivalence of endorsing 'consent' while recognizing that individuals aren't autonomous

So I've been seeing how this subjectivity manifests in various social set-ups, where the preliminary task is to 'transmit the content of others':

First experiments

• Photocopied editions

- A single book made multiple by the differing tastes of the copiers

• Transcribers

- A single text split across multiple people, dependent upon their commitment to accuracy.

Residency

Expanding beyond digital realm. Concern shifted from Hosting to Dissemination. Looked at diverse ways of disseminating the views of others.

• Transcribing
• Repeating via earpiece

What's interesting here is how it questions autonomous agency when we start to speak others' words - authorship/agency becomes confused.

More experiments with broadcasting others

Bringing experiments back to networked publishing.

• Image Embedding Ring

Tried out existing method (embedding) for testing willingness to 'broadcast together'

• Placard generator

Learning new methods of transmitting the words of others.

Moving towards: publishing model incorporating the most interesting aspects of the above experiments, probably with more emphasis on P2P technologies. Idea of text as multiple not singular <Marit M - annagrammatical books>.

Where Next

things I'd like to keep from these experiments:

• Image embedding:

Motivations to participate: Pleasure of seeing content from others appearing/changing; Communication within a defined group

• Image embedding:

The challenge of hosting uncomfortable/unpredictable material

• Transcribing & repeating:

Practice at listening to others/getting beyond personal opinion

• Placard generator/ transcribing & repeating:

Confusion over attribution of the content

• Photocopied editions:

Different versions (Eg, printed editions) with minor variations

Things that didn't work so well that I'll leave out/change:

• 'open editing' interfaces that encourage purely formal experimentation/mashups
• ability to 'fork' every time a disagreement happens - multiplicity of versions without a demand for solidarity
• Lack of a stake in the content itself (eg Image Ring), encouraging spam/formalism.

draft spec

• An online publishing tool to gather input from a horizontal network of participants
• Outputs PDF or similar web-to-print mechanism
• Challenges participants to publish the works of others
• Blurs the lines between one text and another, confusing authorship
• Incorporates feature/s I've already developed:

- a request for 'adoption' of content

- challenging users with content from others

- input of labour requested to realize the publication

Next steps

• Figure out which technologies best serve the above aims

understand P2P transmission models/protocols better

learn more about 'post-digital' printing/publishing models - porous books

• Narrow down the spec of the publishing tool I'm going to make
• Situate the project within its intended social context

Make links with relevant people and groups

Find out about relevant events during which the project could be run