User:Ssstephen/grs

20231018

project proposal

What do you want to make?

An assessment of what a ⊞er does, through autoethnographic and academic research. This could be expanded to other people or groups that relate to or interact with ⊞ as a category and label. Secondly, a collection of tools that highlight, stretch, decompartmentalise, undiscipline, annotate, break, cross, laugh at, question, dissolve the boundaries that exist around this apparent object. At the moment these seem like two separate things. They also seem to each consist of lots of little things maybe more as vague constellations rather than fixed objects or even categories. This is intentional.

How do you plan to make it?

Assessment, autoethnography: I have been documenting my practices on this page. I am experimenting with different ways of doing this, so far all based on text annotations. I plan to expand the methodology further to get a wider view of the practices. It could also be possible to document the practices of others, for example through interviews.

Undisciplined tools: Software and hardware tools that interfere with the boundaries as described above. I want to make small prototypes that make a point. I want to review these prototypes and see what they do. For example at the boundaries between ⊞ and other disciplines. At the boundaries between work and play. Taking inputs or sending outputs where they are not traditionally connected.

What is your timetable?

October/November: expand the range of methods and ideas for tools. Reflect on what the research brings.

December/2024: I dont really know. Maybe focus on some specific methods and categories of tools. Maybe keep expanding.

Why do you want to make it?

a desire to decompartmentalise and be more flexible about intra- and inter- personal identity and connection. Yes I have skin but it is full of pores, it is surrounded by and surrounding hairs, it is completely empty.

Who can help you and how?

Marloes, I dont really know how to write a project proposal for example. Joseph and Manetta, with technical aspects of the tools, and technical approaches to documentation maybe. People involved in other practices (disciplines) who could help me explore crossing these boundaries. Writer contacts in Ireland. OSP. Michael. Jian. Frank. Jonathan. xpubs. There are probably more. Maybe I will ask Meghan Clarke I really like her work and it seems relevant.

Relation to previous practice

I have worked and been trained as a ⊞er. I have also worked and been trained as a musician, a theatre maker, a teacher, a web developer. The boundaries have never been clear. I'm not sure will this make them clearer or fuzzier. Hopefully bring the fuzziness into focus, without expecting it to be clear.

Relation to a larger context

I'm struggling with this a little, sometimes it feels too personal. OSP. Ruben Pater. Meghan Clarke. The context of design studios and institutions I was involved with in Ireland. The context of other workers who relate to and struggle under systems and labels like "self-employed", "freelance", "creative". This also makes me a little uncomfortable as most of these workers including me come from an extremely privileged position of literal wealth and other advantages which allow them to operate in these fields. I dont want to suggest their struggles to be worse than or even comparable to those of many others people currently on this planet. I'm worried about the urgency and validity of the work, is this a good way to spend my time?

References/bibliography

see below. Also Jian's work from last year, as well as Supi, Emma, and Kim.

annotated bibliography

By the next session: Make a VERY SHORT bibliography NO MORE THAN THREE KEY TEXTS. Write a very brief (two sentence) outline of the key texts in your bibliography and discuss how they will relate to your thesis). This will be the start of an annotated bibliography.

Caps Lock, Ruben Pater

This book is about ⊞ from several different contexts. It's chapter headings show that it examines the "⊞er as" (salesperson, worker, amateur, activist, etc). It has given me so far lots to think about in terms of the ⊞er's role in society, particularly through a Marxist lens. Further Reading: 'The Politics of Design: A (Not So) Global Design Manual for Visual Communication 2016'.

16 case-stories re-imagining the practice of lay-out, Open Source Publishing

This is relevant to the part where I want to examine the eco-system of tools that surround me, and make tools that play with the boundaries and possibilities. It includes some really interesting experiments in the same spirit. I need to read it again because it gave me loads of fun ideas.

Death of a Son, Jon Silkin

  I have seen stones: I have seen brick
But this house was made up of neither bricks nor stone
    But a house of flesh and blood
      With flesh of stone

  And bricks for blood. A house
Of stones and blood in breathing silence with the other
   Birds singing crazy on its chimneys.
     But this was silence,

The "Moralities" of Poaching. Manufacturing personal artefacts on the factory floor, Anteby, M.

Case study of the weird boundaries or connections between labour and the rest of existence ("leisure"). Situating labour within bigger social structures. It would be interesting to work through a similar lens.

Notes on: De Certeau, M.(1984) The Practice of Everyday Life, Dave Harris

And also the original De Certeau piece. This is about navigating systems, networks and institutions, tactics and counter strategies. It is about disorder and destruction/destructuring.

interrupt the accepted framework and order, which 'leaks... meaning: it is a sieve order' 

A Prehistory of the Cloud, Tung-Hui Hu

This is relevant because I find the cloud based elements of my practices, in particular design software and communication tools, to be very influential on how the practices are carried out. Also the time-sharing aspects of computer and human networks that the book deals with and our modern view of time, where it comes from and how it affects us.

On the Inconvenience of Other People, Lauren Berlant

I dont have a specific reason why its included it's affected everything to be honest. I guess most relevant here is the idea of 'loosening objects' which is the main point of my work, to loosen ⊞.

Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, Clifford Geertz

Or the Interpretation of Culture, but I haven't read much of that except for the title. I am interested in the method of thick description that Geertz used here, trying to look at events, episodes and practices in a lot of detail to understand why people do things, and how they derive meaning from their actions.

20231006

To de-sign design, I will assign a sign.

⊞

Divided. Square. Equilateral. Gridded. Structured. Compartmentalised. When the groma was positioned, the land would be measures and split: north to south, east to west. Conquered. A basis for a military camp, or a trading village. The territory becomes the map. Centuriatio. Limitatio. Normung bringt Ordnung. The Po Valley was once ager publicus, but this act colonised it.

René Descartes invented the x,y,z coordinate system and the rational grid in the seventeenth century. 

Ruben Pater, Caps Lock

René as dreamer, René as mystic. Grids and magic squares and circles have been used for a long time before science, capitalism and other modern hegemonic structures have utilised them. Designer as shaman, potter, or sacred smith. Someone who embues objects with power. I'd like to take my shapes back now thank you.

20231005

tricky issues

im shattered

im frustrated

im super interested in exploring

talking to aglaia (always talking to aglaia)

review of the theatre

economic lens, creative lens, interpersonal lens, other lenses? Maybe I'll end up using one of these more but I also like the idea of giving different viewpoints of the same things.

graphic designer, musician, different disciplines, what connections and relationships are there? starting with thick description but maybe specific lenses. the piece that is produced, the object performance. the theoretical part: the material metaphors as experiments.

constraints: write a sentence per minute while doing something, remember a rehearsal and write one paragraph. different perspectives: the event, the affect, the materials, the relations

its all labour?

why are you here stephen?

what are you doing?

what is the category of graphic design? where is it closed? where can it be bridged or opened?

Today's Outcome: outline for thesis

1) Take the first 30 mins to write a sketch outline of no more than 300 words.

Template for thesis outline:

What do you WANT to write? [What will the text be about? (thesis). What do you want to explore?

Be clear about HOW you want to tell your story.]

Outline three key issues you want to explore.

Please think of only 3 key issues.

...

...

...

Once you identify these you can begin your chapter outline (build on the 3 key issues by asking what research questions these lead to? Why is this key point important to you?).

2) After sketching out what you want to write and 3 key issues, build on the sketch outline You will now have a frame for your text:

Intro (what is this text about)

key issue 1 = chapter 1

key issue 2 = chapter 2

key issue 3 = chapter 3

conclusion

This may change- but it is a start, and it provides material for discussion later today.

this is out lying

practices of connection, sharing, and being-in-common breed a kind of transformation in those involved in the production of a collective space / practice / mode of sociality / movement / resistance. This transformation and change is porous, maessy, and hard to quantify or evaluate, but it is a crucial aspect of these forms of sociality.

Paige Sarlin, Vulnerable Accumulation

In the end, every movement of unlearning the world and reference has to bear the transition of fantasy, desire, and material exchange no longer governed by possession. We write out of where we write from.

Lauren Berlant, On The Inconvenience of Other People

The opinion of the sea. o o o o.

… has anyone ever asked you the question: why are you here stephen? they asked me and I'm starting to form a bit of an opinion on the matter. It's slow but it's certainly forming. But i will fight to keep it amorphous this time, unstratified, well tilled. I will dig around in it actively and play with it. But in the mess and confusion it's ok to identify or describe. Not like Linnaeus but like lying in the grass making stories from the clouds. That one looks like the grids have been taken away. That one looks like a poem, it says; consciously, with love, caring and careful. That one around the sun looks like a green lion. That one looks wait where did it go, it's completely escaped not even a cloud anymore. And now we're lying where the clouds were, dissolved, falling, flying. There's an irony in a blacksmith who wants to give up control. And the shaman trying to do the same. Meanwhile their brother the prince has never been able to control them. The trick is to remove the viewpoint of cybernetics entirely. Where will this tool flow to? What is this strange new dance, I kinda like it? Do you want to play a game with us? Oh I like your picture can you teach me how to draw like that? I'm trying to work out a way to make graphic design without and that can escape from and that imagines otherwise. I don't really like some of this would it be ok if I made a fork? Do you have coffee here? If I made a pot would anyone have some? Is this practice sustainable? Can we make it be somehow, it might be a bit less stressful then? What happens if I plug this in here? It's about integration and combining parts that were previously defined as separate. Everything is going to be fine, that's why its called refining. Eventually if you smash up all the shards enough they will flow like sand. Have you ever been to Murvagh beach the sand is so fine … 

I want to write about the compartmentalisations I find intra- and inter- personally in my life, in particular as they relate to the "profession" / "practice" / "field" / "whatever" of 🤐, the 🤐er. I want to write about my examinations of these and my explorations of ways to cross apparent categories and boundaries. I want to dissolve and reintegrate. The text is about the discipline and potential to be undisciplined, or transdisciplinary but that's not as exciting. It is about living life within particular working conditions, a point or points in social economic and cultural webs, becoming aware of this location and exploring new imaginaries of relating practices and people. How I want to tell my story is through autoethnographic documentation, reflection, academic reference and positioning, description of new connections I am making that may or may not be technological/tool-based, imaginative ravings.

Outline three key issues you want to explore.

1. What is a 🤐er and what is the act of 🤐? (reflexive mode, contextual, multiple lenses. What compartments and boundaries exist, why are they there what do they do, what do they prevent). I would like this to be based on various modes of describing, examining and understanding. It is not about one practice but the reality of being more as a person than one practice. An example that a life doesnt fit into categories neatly. Being aware of my white gmt male position also and the privileges that allow me to flow between these categories and occupy this much space.
2. What can a 🤐 be and what can the act of 🤐 be? (imaginative and description of practice: tools and breaking boundaries of disciplines, destructuring my self) Again it is not about this one category. From the observations in the first question and the growing awareness that will hopefully come from this, making tools and work that cross structural boundaries. It is an anticapitalist action as it is about disclosing what has been enclosed. As a human this is my time and my space. Again I'm aware not everyone has the freedom to do this and I would like to draw attention to that.
3. Where else can these categories be opened and shattered and bridged and dissolved? (imaginative and description of practice: interpersonal and collaborative, destructuring society). Some of the boundaries are interpersonal rather than within or solvable by one person. I think structural issues will appear in the research of the first issue about division of labour as well as class stratification of society. Similar to the second part I hope I can find ways to bridge or break or seep through the walls.

I dont really like that it all refers to "🤐", the whole point is to break this label. byeeee.

listening to yalou and luni talk about this

writing style of floating and emerging fits with the goal of the maker and topic. good intro. surreal, dreamy transcendy

the second part is more practical eg compartmentalisation

need more information. some of the words are confusing: amorphous,

categories and boundaries need more specific information: what are the emojis? the smiley as graphic designer, but could these symbols be explained like the legend on a map. or if you dont want to be so concrete then add a longer introduction. you can mention or bridge to this language without defining exactly. a small explanation card. what do words symbols elements mean in this context.

more examples needed. what categories? what could be possible? more in depth and more information over all.

who asked "why are you here stephen?" no no one has asked us that!

its fun to look at all the questions. what is cybernetics? these questions are very specific, but also general? I feel like these were the questions that went through the makers mind, they are personalised.

"Eventually if you smash up all the shards enough they will flow like sand. Have you ever been to Murvagh beach the sand is so fine" is nice. it feels like a stream of consciousness.

I want to know more about the personal connection to design and graphic design, its not in the first part or the second so much but in the three issues it seems important. what is the motivation. how did the maker get to this point of questioning.

The third question is broad but good.

I dont really like that it all refers to "🤐", the whole point is to break this label. byeeee. Is also important, and takes the power away from the symbol or explains it.

why was this specific emoji used? Will it be in the final text, will it be replaced by another symbol?

Allowing other questions in?

an active reading

20231003

I missed the first two weeks. I feel lost. The venn diagram looks like a doughnut of the first within the second. Or if you can imagine a doughnut where the hole thing is void like a void within a void. I'm learning how to live with it.

From my snooping I decided I would look at these pages and maybe draw some conclusions.

Guides and Guidelines

Graduate_proposal_guidelines

I should write this. Started versions here and here but they need time. I need to spin around a little more first. Guidelines on this page help me understand how to write it though.

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

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Second Readers Guidelines

not super relevant for now but the outcome criteria for essays are listed which are handy. These are presumably in the handbook maybe should read that again too. In what ways are these useful to my work apart from being required or expected of me?

• Intelligibly express your ideas, thoughts and reflections in written English 
• Articulate in writing a clear direction of your graduate project by being able to identify complex and coherent questions, concepts and appropriate forms 
• Clearly structure and analyse an argument 
• Use relevant source material and references 
• Research texts and practices and reflect upon them analytically 
• Synthesize different forms of knowledge in a coherent, imaginative and distinctive manner 
• Position ones own views within a broader context 
• Recognize and perform the appropriate mode of address within a given context 
• Engage in active dialogue about your written work with others 

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A Guide to Essay Writing (including guide to Harvard method).

Technical stuff about structuring and referencing and all that.

• have a question
• have a method of analysis

"Do your conclusions have any relevance to you or anyone else? They should and you should say why. You should expand on the effect or implication of your research for your own work, as well as on the position you take within the larger debate on the subject you have addressed. This is the real point of the project report, and it should not be missed!"

There is also further reading on essay writing mentioned at the end:

For guidance on writing essays and good research practice, you are advised to consult: Tom Davis, How to Write an Essay, http://www.unask.com/teaching/howto/essay.htm http://www.unask.com/teaching/howto/essay.htm. For a more advanced introduction, read Rob Barnes, Successful Study for Degrees, Routledge, 1992, chapter 6, p. 64-87. (This book can be found in the course library.)

A good overview of different types of references and how to cite them, have a look at: https://library.aru.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm

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Thesis Guidelines

Technical stuff about delivering the thesis.

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Criteria for evaluation (Thesis)

These are the same as listed above.

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