User:Tash/grad prototyping2

Prototyping 14 Jan

Discussion with Andre:

research on self censorship habits in Indonesia in last 5 years. Focus on informal silencing mechanisms
urgency: different actors using social media to promote certain ideologies and suppress others, in an organized way
large scale tactical media
first idea: series of workshops where people could talk back to these problematics and learn how to resist them - can we suggest ways to view social media as a collective practice?
problems: how to manage my role? as facilitator? educator? outsider? then – logistically, how to perform these workshops from NL?
also, how to maximize the chance that the project goes beyond the workshops I host?
Instead of workshops: developing an RPG, which presents several different strategies for performing and participating in social media environments that are especially hostile toward women.
the game is multiplayer and has both online and offline aspects
through roleplay, it invites you to engage in the manufactured arena of social media, but not as yourself – allowing you to experiment with a new relation to the medium
the game and its outcomes (profiles created, comments left behind, accounts reported) are different every time it is played; consecutive games and gamers may interact with each other
Plus point: "Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements."
also: "Together, the players may collaborate on a story involving those characters; create, develop, and "explore" the setting; or vicariously experience an adventure outside the bounds of everyday life."
Plus point: game development and gameplay can be collective, but the game is in itself also framework which can be used over and over without me

think of: mechanisms that allow the collective to be aware of itself (hashtags? codes?)
reward?
rules?
challenge?
how can the game to be distributed? in a physical space? across virtual network?

References:
The Game: The Game by Angela Washko
The Game: The Game is a multi-choice videogame which takes the form of a dating simulator, pitting you against six men who are aggressively vying for your attention at a bar. Composed entirely of scenarios, techniques, and language from texts and instructional videos created by these seduction coaches, The Game: The Game flips the script on the iterative processes of some of the world’s most prominent pick-up artists. If their techniques are systematically manipulative, The Game: The Game allows you to tactically explore, expose, and defuse them.

Gabriella Coleman book
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/19/hacker-hoaxer-whistleblower-spy-many-faces-anonymous-gabriella-coleman-review
https://gabriellacoleman.org/

ORES wikipedia editing workshop by Cristina and Manetta
https://pad.vvvvvvaria.org/trust%3Cin%3Eformation.workshop

Constant Dullart
The Possibility of an Army
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bmvged/an-artist-is-creating-a-facebook-army-out-of-dead-soldiers-names
https://vimeo.com/145450925

Python Libs to track instagram:
https://instagram-engineering.com/web-service-efficiency-at-instagram-with-python-4976d078e366
https://github.com/facebookarchive/python-instagram

To do next:

start with small scale, start developing the aims, premises of the game
document the development of the game
context: instagram
central meeting space
tracking mechanism:
rules
goals
publishing mechanism
my role: setting up the rules and then observe