User:ØverLørd/Special Issue 22

Personal Notes on Special Issue 22:
Protocols for an active archive

week 1

monday 18/9

This day started with a tour at worm. We got to see the different workstations, the studios and the different event spaces. The highlight of this tour was to see the radio-studio, which we were going to occupy for the following weeks. I think it is very nice that we can get introduced to the creative communities, which breathe life into the the cultural scene of Rotterdam.

When we got back to school we discussed the concept of post-digital as it is at the core of the study-programme´s philosophy and approach to art and design.
From my understanding the concept envelopes how processes and relations are mediated and conducted through a multiplicity of various channels that can be both digital, mechanical or human. Understanding these interfaces between different nodes in a network bears a lot of potential for exploration and experimention.
To further explore this concept we were introduced to a tape-recorder-and-player which could could record and was a suggested tool for creating material for our radio broadcast.

To start exploring the theme of this Special Issue we had got a small task related to field recordings. The task was to use radio aporee´s field recording archive, and find a recording that provoked a memory. Then we recorded ourselves talking about this memory in one recording, and read the meta-data of the origianl field recording in another. Finally the task called for us to compile these three recordings in a wiki page.

This task taught us how to activate an archive, and how one can interact and iterate over information available. In this task there were multiple archives being activated: radio aporees field recording archive, our personal archive of memory, and the wiki-archive of the PZI.

Another theme of the Special Issue was discussed, the theme of protocols, therefore the group discussed different protocols for how the radio broadcast at worm could be carried out. Since our first broadcast was the following day, one of the most urgent questions was who was going to be in the studio for this first day. The group agreed that Bernadette, Maria and Victor was going to be the first group of caretakers to inhabit the Radio Worm Studio. As preparation for the first broadcast Riviera and Victor experimented with the tape-player/recorder, by covering the erase-head of the device, they were able to layer different recordings on top of each other. The different recordings collaged came from the radio, and a box of tapes from a flea marked.

Tuesday 19/9

This was the day of the first broadcast, with Bernadette, Maria and Victor as the caretakers.

Initially we played a 20 minute recording by Udo from radio Aporee, where he introduces the Radio aporee project. This gave us some to to get familiar with the equipment, and set up in the studio. It also served as a nice segway into the next planned section of the show: the field recordings the group collectively made the day before.

After the recording was finished we gave a brief introduction to Xpub by reading the course description of the wiki page.

In order to activate the archive of the field recordings memory task, we used two computers and live-mixed the recordings utilizing the built in play back features of the wiki. This included changing the playback speed as well as playing different recording simultaneously. During this live-mixing-experiment another experiment was carried out in the studio: a field recording of the studio was made, which we then broadcasted.

The next segment of the broadcast, we played the pre-recorded mix-tap Riviera and Victor made the day before. We also gave a brief explanation on how the mix-tape was made.

In another section of the broadcast Maria read excerpts from a book, during this section we started experimenting with the different equipment we hade connected. Creating a landscape with the help of the tape-player, computer and mixing-table.

The experience of being in the studio was very interesting, with little to no experience with similar equipment the broadcast became explorative and expermental. A common theme for this broadcast could maybe be activating archives, as this was at the core of our approach. To utilize different tools to source different materials, and the play them back in various ways. Different archives activated in this session were: Radio Aporee, memory archives of the Xpub students, Old cassettes, a book, Ai jingle.generator and Youtube. Activating and iterating over different sourced materials, is a potent way of crating content, whilst also raising question regarding authorship and materiality

After the broadcast we went on a visit to a gallery called Mama, where a previous Xpub student had organized an exhibition. The exhibit was focused around sensor technology and the IoT that permeates life in late-capitalist urban environments. More specifically there is a project in the makings, where the government in Rotterdam are introducing lamp posts with wifi, so they can connect to your phone and track your every move, all in the name of security and sustainability. The exhibit problematized how these technologies come with great ethical implications relating to surveillance and social control of the city´s inhabitants. It did this by framing the IoT ecosystem as this autonomous ecosystem, with trash-can clams and toy hamsters.

After the gallery visit a session in prototyping was the next up on the agenda. In this session we set up a Pi-server using ssh(I think). After creating our users and getting a brief introduction to how to communicate with the server through the terminal, we connected a line printer. This line-printer prints every line of text posted to the wall of the server. During this i printed a lot of ascii-art horses made with an online tool. It was and interesting experience in how we can collectively/collaboratively work through the server.

Wednesday 20/9

This day was dedicated to the Methods course. A course which equips us with different tools and resources that help us investigate and reflect upon our practices, through different theoretical frameworks.

The theme of this day was annotation. We were invited to develop protocols for making collective annotations. To do this we were divided into smaller groups, and each group was assigned a text which they were supposed to make annotations of.