"To whom it may affect," (first 21 pages PDF)
"Graduation project":
To whom it may affect, (This page is a temporary form, the design of the publication is still in process
"What follows is a corpus of four letters respectively addressed to Jeanne van Heeswijk, Erica Gargaglione, Carolina Castro and Chaiyoung Kim (Chae)—but also, to all of them at once and, ultimately, "to whom it may affect".
Each addressee is concerned with collective approaches whether their practice comprises rehearsing collectiveness, inspecting and documenting mechanics of self-organised cultural organisations, actually co-organising activities within a cultural organisation or more particularly questioning the effect of intimacy on publishing practices through experiments. At last, I would like to acknowledge all addressees for having played a consented or incidental role in the process and the publication of this epistolary chronicle.
Departing from a local issue—itself stemming from the context-specific process of a collective publication—these letters intend to give an account of recurring conflicts relating to collective processes.
The publishing of private missives both represents an invitation and a record of the relations involved in a process that is challenging to document or that may be overridden by its design. These series of epistles are punctuated with a collection of methods to practice collectiveness in publishing contexts. In turn, the suggested methods may be enacted and adapted to any collectivity."
+in process
+in process
Previous experiments at XPUB:
| Annotating
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Collective editing tools
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Restaging reality
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Acknowledgment
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52.948.000 tales
- Experiment
- Working with existing content as a constraint
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Audience's agency
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Space and surrounding
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Common narration to host multiple voices
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Price tag SI17  Pricing involving audience's decision
AccAcc  Schedule of the event affected by the attendee's number
Public moment #1
Public moment #3
 Self-proclaimed co-hosting, with Erica, at Het Bollendpandje this time with more awareness than the previous
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X-Kitchen
- Experiment
- This project is mentioned in the thesis as well as in the project
- Role in special issue process: Facilitating tools for self-organisation with the aim of generating equitable outcomes
SI18, "Uneven pattern"
SI18, "SIX"
...where an ordinary private setting was turned into a stage, hosting and broadcasting a program.
- published on: 2022, May
- published from: Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam
- published @: (URL)
- published by: Erica, Kamo & Kimberley
- guest-publishers: XPUB students (all names), XPUB tutor (Femke Snelting)
- public: anyone with url
- narrative: A day-long conversation and workshop on cross-reading methods developed by students of XPUB. The conversation is facilitated and documented thanks to a script, as well as (sound) recorded and broadcasted.
1.
notes/observation/traces:
"XPUB studio": A large room in a modern school building; individual desks with computers and monitors; opening and closing time; students and tutors of XPUB
"XPUB living room": A circular arrangement of two red and one green sofa; a makeshift coffee table; an eclectic assemblage of objects dismissed from their respective functions a long time ago (air pump, dead cactus, mouldy cup, empty mustard jar, etc.) and organically accumulating as time and students pass by.
2.
The contrasting nature of the "XPUB studio" and the "XPUB living room" gives meaning to the two space's relation: a space of exchange at the heart of the room emerging from the need for sociability; a space where traces left by individuals persist in contrast to individual desks that are emptied and restored at the end of each school year.
gesture: (dis)placed in an empty room, the familiar arrangement becomes a stage (reenactment)— awareness prompted by the mic, the script and other recording materials. Repurpose an old setting, turning a private space into a space of publication.
F.N.P
- Page Not Found's alternative reality
- Using a wiki format to create sections that describe a different aspect FNP, different members of the group can contribute to the narration, resulting in collective world building
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Retrospective narration as a tool to document a situation
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Interdependencies introduction assignment
"Somewhere on the highway, publishing" (thesis)
- A thesis investigating collective practices of graphic design and self-organisation tools made by self-organised groups with a publishing practice.
- Opens up to the project (in which excerpts of the thesis are featured)
"To whom it may affect" (project)
- Project extending the thesis research to a series of letters addressed to 4 individuals concerned with collective processes leading to publishing. The letters describes and analyse past "publishing situations", gives an account of the tools originating from these encountered situations and proposes a series of instructions, methods, exercises to an audience of designers, editors, publishers (or others) concerned with questions around collectivity.
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 Figuring out recurring methods, gestures, etc. |
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To whom it may affect,
Table of content
| Timeline |
Tools for collective editing and self-organisation |
Narration |
Addressees |
Letters |
At the show |
Beyond the show
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- Take-away (public moment n.3) collective process of publishing
- Take-away questions that shall not be taken away co-authored response to an uncomfortable situation occurring in the collective process
- Account of a local issue (2 previous points) placed in perspective with other collective process-related issues in the thesis
- Observing the same issue iterating in ongoing collective processes of publishing
- Addressing these observations through writing letters of acknowledgement to addressees that are themselves working collectively and/or occupying different roles in a same publishing project
- Prototyping instructions for methods developed in the course of past collective processes of publishing, abstracting from their particular context towards a format that can be enacted and adjusted by any other collectivity
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- Publisqueshions (published questions)
...a method suggesting making a private concern public, by formulating it as a list of questions. Self-proclaimed co-hosting, with Erica, at Het Bollendpandje  Take-away zine, passed on during the event
- X-Kitchen
...Tool for collective decision making, group discussion, brainstorm.  Instructions for this exercise also offer the reader to directly copy and cut each role description.
- Foot-note
...Exercise to find editorial connections between the contributors involved at a mid to advanced stage of the process.  'Foot-note' played by 5 people
- Close reading in closeness
...a tool for close reading, conversing and editing in small group (2-3)  "Close reading in closeness"  "Close reading in closeness"
- Instructions for collective editorial
...an exercise, structured as workshop, is intended to practice editorial activities collectively in a rather small amount of time. It may be used at an advanced stage of the publishing process, especially when individuals aim to bring their personal work or research in perspective with one another. This production format is conceived as an attempt to break an eventual sequential order where individual contributions end up compiling into a communal publication.
- Physical editor
...a methodology for editing physically with paper, scissors and tape, mostly for text editing and connecting loose ends.  Supi applying the method in her process
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Somewhere on the highway, publishing (thesis)
Take-away ("public moment n.3")
This part recounts the process and outcome of a publishing event collectively organised to present the work in progress of 11 graduating student at XPUB (class of 2023)
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Jeanne van Heeswijk
...follow-up of an interaction that occurred during an ice breaker activity on the occasion of a workshop on letter-writing at BAK.
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Dear Jeanne,
- Introduction to matters of collective practices and self-organisation
- Description of a role-play (X-Kitchen) as a method "to practice the collective"
- Questioning the addressee about their position in relation to collectivity
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- Display copy
During the show, the giant display copy will be instructed to be passed on from visitor to visitor and will not have a fixed place.  Mock-up of an exaggeratedly scaled-up publication  A format that can be navigated and read in collectivity
- Post counter
 Introducing delay in the acquisition of the publication
- Pricing
 Pricing system aiming at equity
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- Launch in various design bookshop which I collaborated with in the past such as San Serriffe (Ams) and Rile (Bx).
- Hosting a workshop at W139 (Ams) as continuation of the ones I co-hosted in the past
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Erica Gargaglione
..."participant" at XPUB, class of 2023
..."contributor" to Take-away ("public moment n.3")
..."co-host" (self-proclaimed) on the occasion of the "public moments n.1 and 3"
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Dear Erica,
- Introduction to co-hosting methods as ways to "publicly acknowledge our concern" regarding the "numbness" of relations within the collectivity we operate from.
- Two understandings of "collectivity":
One operating as an equal division of things and resulting in a sequence of individual contributions (as an example),
the other being an act of engaging with others to produce something collectively, taking a position and acknowledging other's resulting in an equitable outcome. (see line 15)
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Carolina Castro
..."contact person" at Het Bollenpandje
..."contact person" during the organisation of Take-away ("public moment n.3")
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Chaiyoung Kim (Chae)
..."participant" at XPUB, class of 2023
..."contributor" to Take-away ("public moment n.3")
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Dear Chae,
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References:
- Heeswijk, J. "Preparing for the not-yet", in Paula Pais, A. & F. Strauss, C. (2016)Slow Reader. Amsterdam: Valiz pp.42—53.
- Hirshhorn, T. (2005) Anschool. Bonnefanten museum
- Garcés, M. (2012). Honesty with the real. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 4(1), p.18820. doi: [link]
- Groten, A. 2022. Figuring things out together: On the relationship between design and collective practice. Ph.D. Universiteit Leiden [online] Accessible at: link
