C is Chaeyoung Kim = ['김채영', '채영', '챙', '챙챙', '챙챙챙', '채니', 'Chae', 'Chaeyoung', 'Chaiyoung', 'Chae as Che Guevera', 'tsjeejong', 'Chany']
G is Gersande = ['Gerry', 'Gi', 'Gigi', 'Gege', 'Ger', 'Jessmondl', 'Chester', 'Sandge', 'Pierre-cendre', 'Gersandre', 'Jackson']

Etc Portal to Contamination

Project Description

The Etc Portal to Contamination is a project initiated by Chaeyoung Kim and Gersande Schellinx in the context of the Special Issue 16 (2021) of the XPUB around the topic of Vernacular Language Processing.

It is a subgroup project hosted by the overall project: Learning How To Walk While Catwalking.

The three-steps experience offered to the user unfolds as follows: the users enter the "etc-portal", on the other side of that portal is presented to them a text in which "gates"(submit boxes) opened up where the users are invited to contaminate the text with their own contaminants. When done with their contamination, the users are then invited to submit them. Finally, the text is immediately returned to them with their latest additions.

The text users are invited to contaminate is an original text by C & G et al.

notes:
📍open the portal? enter the portal? or whatever words, match usage of the words here and there📍
📍'contaminate=>"contaminate"-maybe it should be inside double-quoted📍
📍contaminants=>thoughts, idea, imagination, etc. maybe it should be inside double-quoted📍
📍when done with their contamination, the users can submit those contaminants and shift/rewrite the context. Fun fact: con(together)+text(to weave)📍

etc

Definition

1. etc. /ɛtˈsɛtərə/ adverb adverb: etc.; adverb: &c. used at the end of a list to indicate that further, similar items are included. "protect seedling from damage caused by feet, lawnmowers, pets, etc." (Oxford Dictionary)

2. Et Cetera, abbreviated to etc., etc, et cet., &c. or &c is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean "and other similar things", or "and so forth". Translated literally from Latin, et means 'and', while cētera means 'the rest'; thus the expression translates to 'and the rest'. (Wikipedia)

3. Etc is...
E: end of
T: thinking
C: capacity
("end of thinking capacity", for more funny definition on 'etc.' check out urban dictionary)

The list above is a collection of terms fitting the conceptual idea of etc as a portal to the negative space of a text. What hasn't been mentioned because one assumed you knew what was coming next, kept untold in order to save time, unlisted for lack of space. Usually etc comes at the end of a list of items, things, ideas, people, just enough information for you to understand what the context is about, not enough for you to have every single detailed information. These umbrella terms 📍, or these magical terms are overly used in our life yet often considered unprofessional in the academic world.(maybe not fit in the 'definition') this sentence should be about why through this word ppl can enter negative space.📍

notes:
📍maybe not the 3rd one📍(g) I like ittt
📍cannot come up with more example, or to select that is most suitable for one's intention, C📍 ?? (g) need to explain this
📍I think it is more than giving info that one can understand. it can also be meticulously curated, esp. in a written text. C📍 (g) what do you mean? you can just add it in and explain!!
📍when done with their contamination, the users can submit those contaminants and shift/rewrite the context. (g) yees Fun fact: con(together)+text(to weave)📍

According to C & G

C and G's etcetera list combines different branches of their conceptual understanding of what the etc is.

etcetera = ['et cetera', ' etc ', ' etc.', 'and-so-on', 'and-so-forth', 'and others', 'et al.', 'and all the rest', 'and on and on', 'along with others’, ‘blablabla’, ‘blabla’, ‘and much more’, '...', '(...)','[...]', '[. ...]']

Indeed you find in it, the literal etcs such as 'et cetera', ' etc ' and ' etc.'. Then some textual synonyms or equivalent such as '...', 'and-so-on', 'and-so-forth', 'and others', 'et al.', 'and all the rest', 'and on and on', 'along with others’, ‘blablabla’, ‘blabla’ and ‘and much more’ (some that are more familiar than others). And finally, more startling ones perhaps the three following ones: '(...)','[...]' and '[. ...]'. Punctuation that some might recognise as made used of in more academic contexts, or when quoting someone, something. If those marks are not literal etcs as you most probably won't find them at the end of a sentence, paragraph, description, explanation, we decided to include them in the etcetera list, because they do share with etc an ellipsis use. They omit a share of the development, narrative, reference in order to create a jump in time, space and ideas. Thus living out negative space.

The Contamination Tool

Definition

1. Contamination Contamination is the presence of a constituent, impurity, or some other undesirable element that spoils, corrupts, infects, makes unfit, or makes inferior a material, physical body, natural environment, workplace, etc.(Wikipedia)

2. Contamintae
Late Middle English: from Latin contaminat- ‘made impure’, from the verb contaminare, from contamen ‘contact, pollution’, from con- ‘together with’ + the base of tangere ‘to touch’.(Oxford Languages)

3. Contaminants A polluting or poisonous substance that makes something impure.(Oxford Languages)

Contamination tool
The contamination tool aims to give you the agency over any text, in this case a custom text, to add contaminants (aka. contributions) directly into the text, with no distinction between the original content and the added one. The contaminated text will thus grow and change, with a seamless design as to it's skeleton and the added flesh. A tool for co-authorship or textual piracy. (G)

The contamination tool is a way to visualize the contact between the author and the reader. The author is already inside of the text, the reader who is coming from outside of the text. By imagining the act of contaminating as a touch, a contact between interior and exterior,

Description

If the contamination word might come across as a negative notion, C & G mean it as a neutral term. What is designated here as "contamination" is the pure agency of introducing contaminants, foreign entities to a body of text and make it become part of it, in a seamless way.

On The Other Side: User Notice

On the Other Side

On the other side you are in a face to face with the excerpts list that is an outcome of the etc portal function. This encounter is an opportunity for the user to insert its "contaminants" in the text C & G wrote for this specific platform.

User Notice

The etc portal is first of all a target function. It allows you to find specific words, in our case ones from the etcetera list, and open a space in front of that word in order to write/type in your own textual matters. This attempt at opening up the negative space in texts, is for C & G the occasion to research, observe and gather contents in collaboration with the users. We welcome them to insert any thoughts, information, narrative, that the targeted words might trigger in them. The etc portal is a first experiment in the exploration and navigation of the negative space one can find in texts.

The Ethics of Contamination

If they haven't had the space to come up with a very sharp guideline for this contamination agency, one must be aware of what it implies. Contamination within any kind of text could be used in a creative way, a caring way, when one is conscious that they are using that space with others, to weave different kind of narratives, without the restrictions that can come in a traditional publishing sphere (restrictions that can be understood in time, space, materials, even financially, etc). This unsupervised process can be an open door to many unexpected and delightful happenings, but could also be an open door to different forms of hate speech, exclusive content or harmful statements. The scope of this project is very unlikely to host that kind of content, yet the tool developed by C & G could be used in such ways. Also regarding other textual matters than the one they wrote for the Special Issue 16.

Thus, C & G would like the users to be aware of the tools offered to them, and the agency they have on the content they choose to share with others, as well as write with others. In such way, they should always take into account that what they contaminate, could be contaminated further by other users, and they are responsible for the tone in which these contaminants will evolve from one addition to the other. As C & G are at the initiative of the Etc Portal To Contamination, but will not supervised how the content evolves, they will become observers, as the project unravels.

Textual Output

An Ongoing Text Made In Co-authorship

The text output returned to the user, is the user's as much as it is ours. The last line "An original text by G. Schellinx, Chaeyoung Kim et al." invites the users to add their name after contamination of the text. By submitting their textual information, thoughts, questions, or else, they have submitted what we consider legitimate content, that will then merge with the "original" text and become one. As such, the text itself is ongoing. It has no aimed finished structure or thread. As long as users contaminate it, the text will grow, change. Subvert, invert narrative.

This feature of the Etc Portal To Contamination is one essential aspect of C & G's project. As within the idea of vernacular language processing, they aimed to question the established authority in publishing, hierarchy in textual platforms, alleged legitimacy in speech and narrow consideration in the legitimate world of references.

A Parallel Library

The original idea of C & G, was to introduce contaminants to already existing texts. With each new input from users, the "original" material would change in such ways, that they could build a parallel library with the contaminated texts. A contaminated one.

In the same way that Borges' Library of Babel would contain any books one could imagine (or not), the parallel library could be an alternative to any written text, published or not, sketched, finished or abandoned. Actually, in this logic, our parallel library probably already exists in Borge's Library.

Textual Piracy

The idea of contamination in text, and the tool we've made could make one think about textual piracy: invading an already existing text, slicing through it, leaving words, sentences, ideas behind, like bruises, that might first show, due to a different length of shape in the text's landscape, but after a while the body of text would heal, absorbing the new content as its own. Seamless of what was previously there and sharing it further to other users who wouldn't be able to make the difference with the author's speech and the contaminated one...

Text Input

An Original Text

While working on the Etc Portal to Contamination, C & G had to think along what kind of text they would give the audience (and themselves) to contaminate. As, even if not meant in a harmful way, the idea of contamination is quite a difficult one, and there are some very real issues with copyright and mangling with others' text to be taken into consideration.

We at some point thought of using the vernacular corpora (texts in relation to the vernacular) shared by our teachers this trimester. So we would contaminate what had triggered our thoughts directly. Apply vernacular tools to texts about vernacular issues, topics, subjects. Unfortunately, due to lack of time and lack of means as how to host this kind of text-transformation we decided, for the Special Issue 16 to write an original text for users to contaminate. 📍But maybe using our own text (original text = our own text) makes more sense..? + lack of time and lack of means=> paraphrase (g)you want to paraphrase the sentence above?

A self-reflective text, around the topics of the etcetera and the contamination. A text that includes gates to various topics, in various contexts. There will then be no legal binding to the handling of this text and its evolution with the user's co-authorship, as we present it as an open platform, an invitation for others to think along those lines in a playful interface.

Drafts

Draft #1

Late afternoon, it has been made official by the authorities: the building has to close. No more access will be granted to anyone. The enumeration has been too fast, too sudden and has reached an unprecedented amount of individuals. The clouds froze, the grass faded down, the branches broke into pieces, the ducks scattered in pounds with no bottom, the birds fell mid-air, and much more… Or not exactly like that. But it felt as such. No one could have predicted it, yet, it happened. By lack of time, a lot of things had to be left aside. “Isolated, between two circles (…) On the news, a lot seems to be left out.” Maybe it is due to a lack of information… Or maybe they are trying to save up some for the days to come. Andrew sent us a message on our Canada group chat: “Canada releases 50 million pounds from maple syrup reserve amid global shortage”. Canada is at the heart of the world’s maple syrup supply chain and they seem to know more than the rest of us, for the supply hasn’t ceased! They have been stocking up maple syrup, in case of a crisis. How amazed was I to hear: the world might never run out of maple syrup! At least not before a few more international crisis. Some might think “is the maple syrup industry responsible?!” and others might think this nonsense is bigger than us. One might wonder: “how did it all turned to such an unfamiliar pattern so quickly?”. One does wonder, one wonders everyday. One has infiltrated books, essays, articles, comments, written shows, made documentaries, recorded podcasts, songs, etc… Is there anything left to say? How will the rest of us get a hold of it? Is it chaos or a natural occurrence? Is it oblivion, tyranny or cheer contingency?

No one ever came to the end of it, and whenever one tries, something else comes and interrupts it. We run out of time, run out of space. Curate speech, classify facts, choose references, ignore others and this goes on and on and on. You might see it on paper or even in a train station… The other day, I was getting in the train to go back to Amsterdam. At the Rotterdam Centraal station, on my way to my favourite seat (I like to sit next to the luggage racks, so there is no one in vis-à-vis to me) I overhear a conversation between a woman talking with an elderly man sitting next to her: “Do you need to pay something on this train?” “Oh yes, did you not get the toeslag?” “No, no.”. By the time I take my seat, she stands up, without a coat nor a bag, the chipkaart from the elderly man in hand and goes to the perron in order to pay the toeslag on the machine dedicated for that matter. The first one she tries is in front of my window I want to shout “you just checked yourself out! This is not the right machine!” (I did that once myself, very upsetting). She looks back at it startled, tries again. Still not working. She realises her mistake. Runs to the over side. By the time she paid the man’s toeslag the train’s doors close. I see her run to one door, then try another, but it’s too late, the train is leaving. I stand up, so surprised by what is happening in front of me, speechless. She stands there, with the chipkaart in her hand, without a bag nor a coat. And the train leaves and all the rest is unknown to my keyboard. What made this story’s interruption? The train’s departure? My incapacity at imagining what could have happened else? My unwillingness at citing options, possibilities, opportunities? Did they even know each other? Or was this a good action gone bad? How do you explain such an acte manqué to anyone? Some stories have no backside. Some stories are made to be chopped off, distributed away, never fully grasped. Some stories you feel you know, you probably do, without ever having read yourself. For it’s just here, hanging in the air, contaminating your mind and much more without you knowing about it.

There is a cherry without a pit in my eye, a lemon with no skin in your hand, a soap-shaped potato in your bathroom, a wrinkled puppy dog on your laps, a coverless book on the street, a virgin cocktail with integrity, an alcoholic beverage with ethic, a street-lamp with grain, a low-quality screen in the spa’s waiting room, some butterflies with no wings, lady-bugs with nails, chairs with feet, legs with hairs, nose without nostrils, mouth with no breath, inspiration without context, structures of defamation, a bald kid with hair, a kettle with blisters, a father with a sister, a sibling with temperament, a ramp with no wheels, flowers within a vase in a vase, a sight with no red, a sight with no blue, a sight with no green, a steel of humidity, a stain of clumsiness, some oracle’s statue, and much more. For there is no limit to the associations one can make within language, and no boundaries as to how you, whose eyes are actively running along the page, will read those associations, and make new ones out of them. Yet, I stopped my listing in the midd… Let me guess. You like to dance? Sing? Draw a bit on the side, have many hobbies but are no good at any of them? Or at least pretend so? You are unmentioned, yet full of references, like to shine, but only when invited to do so, like to be alone, but not lonely. Highly capable and naturally lazy, creative and bored, funny and awkward, blablabla. You know what? Really, you are too preoccupied. You know what? Really, you are too full of yourself. You know what? Really, you are too tired. You know what? Really, your head is in the clouds. You know what? Really, your head is in the screens. You know what? Really, your screen is full of heads. You know what? Really, your screen is full of heads in the clouds. You know what? Really, your screen is full of tired heads in the clouds. You know what? Really, your screen is full of tired heads in the cloud that are full of themselves. You know what? You are too preoccupied…

Some thoughts have been scratching my throat lately. It’s not the c-word I promise. I wake up in the morning, and as if the compilation of dreams have reached the top of my body, I burst in coughs, spit out sounds of fury, trying to take shape, say something, but I take two paracetamols, 1L of ginger tea, some thyme drops and the words are swallowed back into my stomach. They’ve tried to contaminate the outside, but I keep them inside, safe, where no one can reach them. They try to invade others, once in a while, they manage a smooth escape. Yes, sometimes I just can’t shut up, the scratch reaches my lips, and spits onto one, that makes two and two brings it to four, four to eight and all the rest is history. We don’t appreciate what is within our guts, the acids that are at work, the pumping trying to stay on pace, the foreign items being assimilated in order to keep everything working. “We do not talk of what is on the other side [. …] The only things we mention are the ones who come out of us, which we suddenly do not feel anymore but can witness.” It’s a strange thing we do not share what is closest to us, which we might think is the easier to describe due to proximity. On the contrary, when one does not see or smell or taste, one doesn’t trust the feeling. It might be yours, but you’d rather leave it out, in order to focus on what is to come. For you have no proof of your feeling until it comes out. And then you might mention it, but really you want to disregard that feeling as fast as you can, roll it aside and not mention it, just one thing amongst others, not worth mentioning. Those can be many things: there was mitvo, there was oop, eep, rhoeadiar, stip and storn, sewats, irsha, dead niks, etc. In the area called Te-ecetra, there is a cat on a tree eating a treat, drinking a tea, he got a cart full of rats and the tracks trace back to tac-tics and tic-tacs. The cat is known in Te-ecetra, for being fond of tea and treats like English people are fond of afternoon teas and biscuits. The cat is always seen carrying a cart full of rats, that leave traces around trees. For in order to enjoy his teas and treats, the cat needs to be high in trees, so not to trigger the rats in the cart, with the sight of tip-top teas and treats. Then alone on the top of his trees, the cat can peacefully, think for hours, days sometimes weeks, how good it is to be a cat in a tree, with a cart full of rats, enjoy teas and treats, in a remote area, while others might no be able to be like the cat in a tree, with a cart full of rats, et cetera, et cetera.

Draft #2

Any day now. We’ve been building up that exhibition and we should be ready any day now. Yet, we have to wait a bit. Just a few days they said. In order to know how to set it up. So, it should be any day now. I promise. Oh wait! Someone is running up to me. It’s Shifra. Here she tells:

“Late afternoon, it has been made official by the authorities: the building has to close. And not only the building, the buildings, the bars, the borders […] the box-office is going through the roof though. Ye, hm, no more access will be granted to anyone, offline I mean. An unprecedented amount of individuals have been reached too fast, too suddenly. The clouds froze, the grass faded down, the branches broke into pieces, the ducks scattered in pounds with no bottom, the birds fell mid-air, and much more. Or not exactly like that. But it felt like that. No one could have predicted it, yet, it happened. By lack of time, a lot of things had to be left aside. Isolated, between two circles (…) On the news, a lot seems to be left out. Maybe it is due to a lack of information. Not due to a lack of attendance! Or maybe they are trying to save up some for the days to come…”

Vrrvrr, ding. My phone turns on. Andrew sent us a message on our Canada group-chat: “Canada releases 50 million pounds from maple syrup reserve amid global shortage”. Canada is at the heart of the world’s maple syrup supply chain and they seem to know more than the rest of us, for the supply hasn’t ceased! They have been stocking up maple syrup, in case of some kind of extraordinary event, like a sunken boat, a crashed plane, a world-wide crisis, and-so-on. How amazed was I to hear: the world might never, yes, what? Never run out of maple syrup I said! At least not before a few more international crisis… My room is a mess so I decide to clean it up. Maybe I can start by sorting it out. Let me see, the paint goes to the upper left drawers, tea bags go to the upper right ones, all the papers go on the shelves. Sorting out my mes s.Hmm… And what about this? Where should I put this flyer? To the trash can? To the drawer? To the shelves? There is no place for this, yet, but I’m keeping it! I’ll put it in a... box.

“Zzzu, rizejuj”, what is that sound? Oh, wait, I forgot the radio was on, what are they talking about? “In the area called Te-ecetra, there is a cat on a tree eating a treat, drinking a tea, he got a cart full of rats and the tracks trace back to tac-tics and tic-tacs. The cat is known in Te-ecetra, for being fond of tea and treats like English people are fond of afternoon teas and biscuits. The cat is always seen carrying a cart full of rats, that leave traces around trees. For in order to enjoy his teas and treats, the cat needs to be high in trees, so not to trigger the rats in the cart, with the sight of tip-top teas and treats. Then alone on the top of his trees, the cat can peacefully, think for hours, days sometimes weeks, how good it is to be a cat in a tree, with a cart full of rats, enjoy teas and treats, in a remote area, while others might no be able to be like the cat in a tree, with a cart full of rats, et cetera, et ceartera, tnezzerac.” Oh my, the news are still completely unhinged. They really don’t know what to talk about anymore. It doesn’t feel like they even know anymore what they are talking about. Oh sh- I need to leave the house!

No one ever came to the end of it, and whenever one tries, something else comes and interrupts it. We run out of time, run out of space, run out of examples. The process can be laborious or instinctive. Curate speech, classify facts, choose references, ignore others and this goes on and on and on. Hm. Where am I now? Oh, Centraal Station, of course. What am I holding? A piece of news on paper, even in a train station… At that time of the year, everything feels displaced. The cold, the lack of light, winter season puts everything in a different time-frame. The transitions from one moment to another are like inconsistent. We go from one place to the other without really experiencing the whole scope of those in-between places. And why would you? It is cold outside. And now I finally made it to the train. The intercity direct is quite warm. I feel lucky about this. I was thinking about something. That piece of newspaper, what was it about? Maybe… The other day, I was getting in the train to go back to Amsterdam. At the Rotterdam Centraal station, on my way to my favourite seat (I like to sit next to the luggage racks, so there is no one in vis-à-vis to me) I overhear a conversation between a woman talking with an elderly man sitting next to her: “Do you need to pay something on this train?” “Oh yes, did you not get the toeslag?” “No, no.”, and-so-forth. By the time I take my seat, she stands up, without a coat nor a bag, the chipkaart from the elderly man in hand and goes to the perron in order to pay the toeslag on the machine dedicated for that matter. The first one she tries is in front of my window I want to shout “you just checked yourself out! This is not the right machine!” (I did that once myself, it was very upsetting). She looks back at it startled, tries again. Still not working. She realises her mistake. Runs to the over side. By the time she paid the man’s toeslag the train’s doors close. I see her run to one door, then try another, but it’s too late, the train is leaving. I stand up, so surprised by what is happening in front of me, speechless. She stands there, with the chipkaart in her hand, without a bag nor a coat. And the train leaves and all the rest is unknown to my keyboard.

What made this story’s interruption? The train’s departure? My incapacity at imagining what could have happened else? Did they even know each other? Or was this a good action gone bad? How do you explain such a jump in time to anyone? I just made it to my train, end of the story for me. The same for that woman, she had made it to the train. And yet she found a way to miss it. Her time was completed. The train’s time too. But she wasn’t in it anymore. Some stories have no backside. Some stories are made to be chopped off, distributed away, never fully grasped. Some stories you feel you know, you probably do, without ever having read yourself. For it’s just here, hanging in the air, contaminating your mind and much more without you knowing about it.

“Amsterdam centraal station, our final stop ladies and gentlemen (train drivers probably never heard about gender-neutral speech), please don’t forget anything in our train. Thank you for traveling with NS and have a great day”. Look, we’re here. And you know. I thought of something during the ride. There is a cherry without a pit in my eye, you don’t see it? And that lemon with no skin in your hand, a potato shaped as a soap in your bathroom, also a wrinkled puppy dog on my laps, coverless book on the street, a virgin cocktail with integrity, an alcoholic beverage with ethic, a street-lamp on during the day, a low-quality screen in the spa’s waiting room, some butterflies with no wings, babies with nails, inspiration without context, structures of defamation, a bald kid with hair, a kettle with blisters, a ramp with no wheels, a steel of humidity, some clumsiness’ stain, and much more. For there is no limit to the associations one can make within language, and no boundaries as to how you, whose eyes are actively running along the page, will read those associations, and make new ones out of them. Yet, I stopped my listing in the midd… Let me guess: You like to dance? Sing? Draw a bit on the side, have many hobbies but are no good at any of them? Or at least pretend so? You are unmentioned, yet full of references, like to shine, but only when invited to do so, like to be alone, but not lonely. Highly capable and naturally lazy, creative and bored, funny and awkward, blablabla.

Whatever your mood mind be, I always find you down the line. Whenever I find myself wander, it is towards you. I rush, slow down, see you on the horizon and you’re there, waving. I know you know, we’re gonna meet. And I know this doesn’t mean it’s over between us. I know our encounter is just the start of something else. Still every time, it feels like cheating. You make me feel like a cheater, or just like I don’t really appreciate things, don’t take my time, with you, with who you really are. I’m sorry. But it always feels like we just don’t have enough time. To make it all happen. Am I making you uncomfortable? Yes, you. Don’t look away. I’m talking to you. I’m trying to reach out, but let me finish first, otherwise it might already be time to say goodbye. We don’t want to say goodbye, yet. What are you thinking about right now? Please, tell me… This sounds so exiting. How can I ever skip ahead with you? I really don’t know what I’m missing out. Yes, I truly don’t know. Tell me more please, tell me more blabla. Oh really? We ran out of time? This sounds like an old story. “We were suppose to spend the whole day together, I know, I know, I’m so sorry but I had to get my groceries done, and then on my way here my chain fell off, so I had to bring my bike to the shop (yes I’m really bad with bikes, ha-ha) and then, I had to catch a bus, etc”. We’ve heard the story before.

Then, go. I still have my piece of newspaper. “All the things you need to know about our cur…” I don’t really want to read this. Let’s think for a bit. This doesn’t always help but some thoughts have been knocking at my throat lately. I wake up in the morning, and as if the compilation of dreams made during the night have reached the top of my body, I burst in coughs, spit out sounds of fury, trying to take shape, say something, but I take two paracetamols, 1L of ginger tea, some thyme drops and the words are swallowed back into my stomach. They’ve tried to contaminate the outside, but I keep them inside, safe, where no one can reach them. They try to invade others, once in a while, they manage a smooth escape. Yes, sometimes I just can’t close my mouth, the knocks reach my lips, and spits onto one, that makes two and two brings it to four, four to eight and all the rest is history. It might sound dirty, but it’s not. It means my body is working, no?

We don’t appreciate what is within our guts, the fluids that are at work, the pumping trying to stay on pace, the foreign items being assimilated in order to keep everything working. “We do not talk of what is on the other side [. …] The only things we mention are the ones that come out of us, which we suddenly do not feel anymore but can witness.” It’s a strange thing we do not share what is closest to us, which we might think is the easiest to describe due to proximity. On the contrary, when one does not see or smell or taste, one doesn’t trust the feeling. It might be yours, but you’d rather leave it out, in order to focus on what is to come. For you have no proof of your feeling until it comes out. And then you might mention it, but really you want to disregard that feeling as fast as you can, roll it aside and not mention it, just one thing amongst others, not worth mentioning…

Oh, here you are again. I don’t know if you are trying to help. Or if you are actively nagging me. I do recognise you’re being useful, sometimes. Okay, every time. But I’m trying to work it out without you, and I’d like you to respect that and not make me feel like I’m dependant of you, please. It’s like going to the store without a grocery list, you have to trust yourself to remember the essentials. Obviously, not everyone makes the right decisions. I tend to come back home with enough to make a cake, when really I went out only to grab some toilet paper. Not my best decision-making, not my proudest choices. That’s the person I aim to become, the one who can remember and come back with the right articles from the store, along with others.

Draft #3

Any day now, it should be any day now. I promise. Oh wait! Someone is running up to me. It’s Shifra. She says:

“Late afternoon, it has been made official by the authorities: the building has to close. And not only the building, the buildings, the bars, the borders […] the box-office is going through the roof though. Ye, hm, no more access will be granted to anyone, offline I mean. An unprecedented amount of individuals have been reached too fast, too suddenly. The clouds froze, the grass faded, the branches broke into pieces, the ducks scattered in pounds with no bottom, the birds fell mid-air, and much more. Or not exactly like that. But it felt like that. No one could have predicted it, yet, it happened. By lack of time, a lot of things had to be left aside. On the news, a lot seems to be left out. Maybe it is due to a lack of information. Not due to a lack of attendance! Or maybe they are trying to save up some for the days to come…”

Vrrvrr, ding. My phone turns on. Andrew sent us a message on our Canada group-chat: “Canada releases 50 million pounds from maple syrup reserve amid global shortage”. Canada is at the heart of the world’s maple syrup supply chain and they have been stocking up maple syrup, in case of some kind of extraordinary event, like a sunken boat, a crashed plane, a world-wide crisis, and-so-on. My room is a mess right now. So I decide to clean it up. Maybe I can start by sorting it out. Let me see, the paint goes to the upper left drawers, tea bags go to the upper right ones, all the papers go on the shelves. Sorting out my mess. Hmm. And what about this? To the trash can? To the drawer? To the shelves? I’m keeping it! I’ll put it in a... box!

“Zzzu, rizejuj”, what is that sound? Oh, wait, I forgot the radio was on, what are they talking about? “In the area called Te-ecetra, there is a cat on a tree eating a treat, drinking a tea, he got a cart full of rats and the tracks trace back to tac-tics and tic-tacs. The cat is known in Te-ecetra, for being fond of tea and treats like English people are fond of afternoon teas and biscuits. The cat is always seen carrying a cart full of rats, that leave traces around trees. For in order to enjoy his teas and treats, the cat needs to be high in trees, so not to trigger the rats in the cart, with the sight of tip-top teas and treats. Then alone on the top of his trees, the cat can peacefully think for hours, days, sometimes weeks, how good it is to be a cat in a tree, with a cart full of rats, enjoying teas and treats, in a remote area, while others might no be able to be like the cat in a tree, with a cart full of rats, et cetera, et ceartera, tnezzerac.” Oh my, the news are still completely unhinged. They really don’t know what to talk about anymore. Sh- I need to leave the house!

No one ever came to the end of it, and whenever one tries, something else comes and interrupts it. We run out of time, run out of space, run out of examples. The process can be laborious or instinctive. Curate speech, classify facts, choose references, ignore others and this goes on and on and on. Hm. Where am I now? Oh, Centraal Station, of course. What am I holding? A piece of news on paper, even in a train station… At that time of the year, everything feels displaced. The cold, the lack of light, winter season puts everything in a different time-frame. The transitions from one moment to another are inconsistent. We go from one place to the other without really experiencing the whole scope of those in-between places. And why would you? It is cold outside. And now I finally made it to the train. The intercity direct is quite warm. I feel lucky about this. I was thinking about something. That piece of newspaper, what was it about? Maybe…

The other day, I was getting in the train to go back to Amsterdam. At the Rotterdam Centraal station, on my way to my favourite seat (I like to sit next to the luggage racks, so there is no one in vis-à-vis to me) I overhear a conversation between a woman talking with an elderly man sitting next to her: “Do you need to pay something on this train?” “Oh yes, did you not get the toeslag?” “No, no.”, and-so-forth. By the time I take my seat, she stands up, without a coat nor a bag, the chipkaart from the elderly man in hand and goes to the perron in order to pay the toeslag on the machine dedicated for that matter. The first one she tries is in front of my window I want to shout “you just checked yourself out! This is not the right machine!” (I did that once myself, it was very upsetting). She looks back at it startled, tries again. Still not working. She realises her mistake. Runs to the other side. By the time she paid the man’s toeslag the train’s doors close. I see her run to one door, then try another, but it’s too late, the train is leaving. I stand up, so surprised by what is happening in front of me, speechless. She stands there, with the chipkaart in her hand, without a bag nor a coat. And the train leaves and all the rest is unknown to my keyboard.

“Amsterdam centraal station, our final stop ladies and gentlemen (train drivers probably never heard about gender-neutral speech), please don’t forget anything in our train. Thank you for traveling with NS and have a great day”. Look, we’re here. And you know. I thought of something during the ride. There is a cherry without a pit in my eye, you don’t see it? And that lemon with no skin in your hand, a potato shaped as a soap in your bathroom, also a wrinkled puppy dog on my laps, coverless books on the street, a virgin cocktail with integrity, an alcoholic beverage with ethic, structures of defamation, a kettle with blisters, some clumsiness’ stain, and much more. For there is no limit to the associations one can make within language, and no boundaries as to how you, whose eyes are actively running along the page, will read those associations, and make new ones out of them. Yet, I stopped my listing in the midd… Let me guess: You like to dance? Sing? Draw a bit on the side, have many hobbies but are no good at any of them? Or at least pretend so? You are unmentioned, yet full of references, like to shine, but only when invited to do so, like to be alone, but not lonely. Highly capable and naturally lazy, creative and bored, funny and awkward, blablabla.

Whatever your mood might be, I always find you down the line. Whenever I find myself wander, it is towards you. I rush, slow down, see you on the horizon and you’re there, waving. I know you know, we’re gonna meet. And I know this doesn’t mean it’s over between us. I know our encounter is just the start of something else. Still every time, it feels like cheating. You make me feel like a cheater, or just like I don’t really appreciate things, don’t take my time, with you, with who you really are. I’m sorry. But it always feels like we just don’t have enough time. To make it all happen. Am I making you uncomfortable? Yes, you. Don’t look away. I’m talking to you. I’m trying to reach out, but let me finish first, otherwise it might already be time to say goodbye. We don’t want to say goodbye, yet. What are you thinking about right now? Please, tell me… This sounds so exciting. Oh really? We ran out of time? This sounds like an old story.

Then, go. I still have my piece of newspaper. “All the things you need to know about our cur…” I don’t really want to read this. Let’s think for a bit. This doesn’t always help but some thoughts have been knocking at my throat lately. I wake up in the morning, and as if the compilation of dreams dreamt during the night have reached the top of my body, I burst in coughs, spit out sounds of fury, trying to take shape, say something, but I take two paracetamols, 1L of ginger tea, some thyme drops and the words are swallowed back into my stomach. They’ve tried to contaminate the outside, but I keep them inside, safe, where no one can reach them. Yes, sometimes I just can’t close my mouth, the knocks reach my lips, and spits onto one, that makes two and two brings it to four, four to eight and all the rest is history. It might sound dirty, but it’s not. It means my body is working, no?

We don’t appreciate what is within our guts, the fluids that are at work, the pumping trying to stay in pace, the foreign items being assimilated in order to keep everything working. “We do not talk of what is on the other side [. …] The only things we mention are the ones that come out of us, which we suddenly do not feel anymore but can witness.” It’s a strange thing we do not share what is closest to us, which we might think is the easiest to describe due to proximity. You might mention it, but really you want to disregard that feeling as fast as you can, roll it aside and not mention it, just one thing amongst others, not worth mentioning…

Oh, here you are again. I don’t know if you are trying to help. Or if you are actively nagging me. I do recognise you’re being useful, sometimes. Okay, every time. But I’m trying to work it out without you, and I’d like you to respect that and not make me feel like I’m dependent on you, please. It’s like going to the store without a grocery list, you have to trust yourself to remember the essentials. Obviously, not everyone makes the right decisions. I tend to come back home with enough to make a cake, when really I went out only to grab some toilet paper. Not my best decision-making, not my proudest choices. That’s the person I aim to become, the one who can remember and come back with the right articles from the store, along with others.

An original text by G. Schellinx, Chaeyoung Kim et al.

Draft #4

No one ever came to the end of it, and whenever one tries, something else comes and interrupts it. We run out of time, run out of space, run out of examples. The process can be laborious or instinctive. Curate speech, classify facts, choose references, ignore others and this goes on and on and on. Hm. Where am I now? Oh, Centraal Station, of course. What am I holding? A piece of news on paper, even in a train station… At that time of the year, everything feels displaced. The cold, the lack of light, winter season puts everything in a different time-frame. The transitions from one moment to another are inconsistent. We go from one place to the other without really experiencing the whole scope of those in-between places. And why would you? It is cold outside. And now I finally made it to the train. The intercity direct is quite warm. I feel lucky about this. I was thinking about something. That piece of newspaper, what was it about? Maybe…

The other day, I was getting on the train to go back to Amsterdam. At the Rotterdam Centraal station, on my way to my favourite seat (I like to sit next to the luggage racks, so there is no one in vis-à-vis to me) I overhear a conversation between a woman talking with an elderly man sitting next to her: “Do you need to pay something on this train?” “Oh yes, did you not get the toeslag?” “No, no.”, and-so-forth. By the time I take my seat, she stands up, without a coat nor a bag, the chipkaart from the elderly man in hand and goes to the perron in order to pay the toeslag on the machine dedicated for that matter. The first one she tries is in front of my window I want to shout “you just checked yourself out! This is not the right machine!” (I did that once myself, it was very upsetting). She looks back at it startled, tries again. Still not working. She realises her mistake. Runs to the other side. By the time she paid the man’s toeslag the train’s doors close. I see her run to one door, then try another, but it’s too late, the train is leaving. I stand up, so surprised by what is happening in front of me, speechless. She stands there, with the chipkaart in her hand, without a bag nor a coat. And the train leaves and all the rest is unknown to my keyboard.

“Amsterdam centraal station, our final stop ladies and gentlemen (train drivers probably never heard about gender-neutral speech), please don’t forget anything in our train. Thank you for traveling with NS and have a great day”. Look, we’re here. And you know. I thought of something during the ride. There is a cherry without a pit in my eye, you don’t see it? And that lemon with no skin in your hand, a potato shaped as a soap in your bathroom, also a wrinkled puppy dog on my laps, coverless books on the street, a virgin cocktail with integrity, an alcoholic beverage with ethic, structures of defamation, a kettle with blisters, some clumsiness’ stain, and much more. For there is no limit to the associations one can make within language, and no boundaries as to how you, whose eyes are actively running along with the page, will read those associations, and make new ones out of them. Yet, I stopped my listing in the midd… Let me guess: You like to dance? Sing? Draw a bit on the side, have many hobbies but are no good at any of them? Or at least pretend so? You are unmentioned, yet full of references, like to shine, but only when invited to do so, like to be alone, but not lonely. Highly capable and naturally lazy, creative and bored, funny and awkward, blablabla.

Whatever your mood might be, I always find you down the line. Whenever I find myself wander, it is towards you. I rush, slow down, see you on the horizon and you’re there, waving. I know you know, we’re gonna meet. And I know this doesn’t mean it’s over between us. I know our encounter is just the start of something else. Still every time, it feels like cheating. You make me feel like a cheater, or just like I don’t really appreciate things, don’t take my time, with you, with who you really are. I’m sorry. But it always feels like we just don’t have enough time. To make it all happen. Am I making you uncomfortable? Yes, you. Don’t look away. I’m talking to you. I’m trying to reach out, but let me finish first, otherwise, it might already be time to say goodbye. We don’t want to say goodbye, yet. What are you thinking about right now? Please, tell me… This sounds so exciting. Oh really? We ran out of time? This sounds like an old story.

An original text by G. Schellinx, Chaeyoung Kim et al.

History

Overview Etc Project

What kind of entry point

week 6, etc filter as an entry point

The etc filter, a method that will unravel, a gate to look into rejected spaces, a starting point. An etc. filter as an entry point/door to address/look into rejected space/negative space, which can be a starting point, yet to be defined.

Around week 6, C and G were still more leaning towards rejection rather than etc. Or at least etc as a gate to rejected space.

The rejected space/negative space

What C & G understand as negative space is the unmentioned, untold entailed by the etc&co words. The realm of ideas, words, concepts, expressions that didn't make it to the final edit. What can be imagined or assumed by the reader. What can be looked up by the reader, but don't appear on the paper, on the screen. What supports the main body of text, but is not to be seen. A negative space they want users to re-appropriate, make their own: turn the implicit in explicit content.

How it started

week 7, 1st of November / prototyping class

The Special Issue 16 unfolds under the subject(s) of vernacular language. All classes, online/offline contents and intervenor XPUB1 has had the last few months had some input within the subject. As a group, very early in our process we decided to investigated the topic of Rejection in relation to the theme of Vernacular language.

In the beginning, G's interest in the rejection list was rejection as a starting point, and C's was: rejection as a turning point-a trigger for an action/a change/a different direction.
G's interest started from the work of an AI researcher, Sennay Gebhreab. Sennay Gebhread never took the challenge of discriminatory algorithms as anything but a chance to do better. Investigate those data bias in order to create more inclusive programs. Thus rejections is not a negative endpoint, but rather an opportunity to start something new. Improve, progress, instead of ruminate on incomplete systems, improve them.

C was stuck with the word, 'et cetera' because:
1) Michel Foucault Order of Things (Preface)
2) Despite 'et cetera being frequently used in our daily life, it has been somewhat neglected and considered improper.
And C was curious to know what goes under this ambiguous category, et cetera(and others) boundary.

During the class today, Manetta and Michael introduced us to the concept of corpora and filter. C and G were in a group (cuz we were sitting next to each other(=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=)) and we started a discussion about our interests in regards to the topic of 'rejection'. G mentioned Sennay Gebhreab(will be filled in) who focuses on the (racial) biases in A.I.C talked about her fascination with the 'other' category and et cetera.

During the class, Manetta helped C and G to write a code that goes through the NLTK corpus('Mobydick', 'Pride and Prejudice', etc.)

etc. filter

C and G's intention was:(C: ⤹this part need to be edited⤹, need to mention negative space)
1) Make an etcetera & co filter
2) To give readers a context, not only print/return the target sentence(a sentence that contains etc.) but also print/return previous and next to the target sentence
3) For them to take up that negative space implied by the etcetera & co words.

Here are some snippets from G and C's Jupyter notebook.

from nltk.corpus import Gutenberg
gutenberg.fileids()
print(body)
counter = 0 etcetera = ['et cetera', ' etc ', ' etc.', '...', '[...]', 'and-so-on', 'and-so-forth', 'and others', 'et al.', 'and all the rest', 'and on and on', 'along with others']

for sentence in body:

   for cet in etcetera:
       sentence_str = " ".join(sentence)
       sentence_punc = sentence_str.replace(" ,", ",").replace(" .", ".").replace(" ;", ";")
       
       if cet in sentence_punc:
           prev_sentence = body[counter - 1]
           target_sentence = sentence_punc
           nex_sentence = body[counter + 1]
           print(prev_sentence, target_sentence, nex_sentence)
           print('______')

Our first result was this: ...(to be continued...)

Why the etc. filter

As C and G were learning how to analyze/process txt. files and categorize/structurize using NLTK functions for several weeks, C and G thought what if we shine a light on the usage of etc. which is usually neglected in texts and dialogues. With an intention to see 'et cetera' as a negative space, C and G invite people to the negative space where /concept/words/.../ resides, and encourage readers to imagine what concept/a word/.../ is under that space in an attempt to reflect our way of talking, our way of categorising and our way of writing text.

What is the etc.

'etc.' and all its synonyms(etc&co)

etcetera = ['et cetera', ' etc ', ' etc.', '...', '[...]', 'and-so-on', 'and-so-forth', 'and others', 'et al.', 'and all the rest', 'and on and on', 'along with others']

→ are places where stories usually go to end.

Yet there are the negative space of many situtations, iterations, untold information... It can be a turning point in a text (a trigger to further research, something to unravel, the etc-possibilities"), or where a story starts (the ones that haven't been told). The anything or everything else, as everything that didn't matter enough to be mentioned.

As a young adult the discovery of 'etc' might make one feel important, eloquent. For there is that word, rather acronym, that covers all the thoughts you don't have time to write down or that aren't the "most important" on the spot. Yet you can say "I know more, even though I choose not to say more".

After a while you are told not to use 'etc', "it's too easy", "you don't need to emphasize that there is more, we know there is". A kind of academic stigma, "obviously there is more". So you only mention two or three things, just enough to show you know 'much' (in a way you then could always only know just a few variations, just enough to keep your head above the water) but not too many that you look pedant. Not even allowing a space to those that weren't important enough to be listed. The negative space isn't even given a title anymore, it is just assumed to be there.

On the other side, when used in academics, etc and other "synonyms", or ellipses (like [...]) can be used in a way that assumes the reader knows what has not been mentioned in order to save time. A somewhat pretentious or rash approach from the author, as then the reader is left out with a feeling of lacking some knowledge or not having the appropriate one. It could also be considered as a curiosity-trigger and encourage people to look into incomplete references, or undescribed mentions.

etc in other languages

Afrikaans: ensovoorts; also ensovoort and en so voort(s). (abbreviation: ens.)
Albanian: e të tjera (abbr.: etj.)
Arabic: إلى آخره، إلخ (ila akhereh, ilakh-kh)
Armenian: և այլն (yev ayln)
Azerbaijani: və sairə (abbr.: və s.) or və sairə və ilaxır (abbr.: və s. və i.a.)
Basque: eta abar (abbr.: etab.)
Bengali: ইত্যাদি (ittādi) or প্রভৃতি (probhriti) is used for et cetera while "প্রমুখ" (promukh) is used for et alii
Bulgarian: и така нататък (abbr.: и т.н.)[romanization needed]
Catalan: etcètera (abbr.: etc.)
Chinese: 等 (děng) or "等等" (děngděng)
Croatian language: i tako dalje (abbr.: itd.)
Czech: a tak dále (abbr.: atd.)
Danish: og så videre (abbr.: osv.)
Dutch: enzovoort or enzovoorts (abbr.: enz.)
Esperanto: kaj tiel plu (abbr.: ktp.)
Estonian: ja nii edasi (abbr.: jne)
Faroese: og so framvegis (abbr.: osfr. or o.s.fr.)
Finnish: ja niin edelleen (abbr.: jne.) or "ynnä muuta sellaista" (abbr.: yms.)
French: et cetera, et cætera, or et caetera (abbr.: etc.)
Galician: e o demais, or etcétera (abbr. etc.)
Georgian: და ასე შემდეგ (abbr.: და ა.შ.)[romanization needed]
German: usw. for und so weiter ("and so forth").
Greek: και τα λοιπά (ke ta lipá, abbr.: κτλ.)
Gujarati: વગેરે[romanization needed]
Ancient Greek: καὶ τὰ ἕτερα (ke ta étera)
Hebrew: וכולי (v'hulei, abbr.: וכו') or וכדומה (v'hadomeh, abbr.: וכד') or וגומר (v'gomer, abbr.: וג')
Hindi: इत्यादि (ityadi)
Hungarian: és a többi (abbr.: stb.), és így tovább; etc. is in regular use, too
Icelandic: og svo framvegis (abbr.: o.s.frv.)
Indonesian: dan lain-lain (abbr.: dll.), dan sebagainya (used for similar things; abbr.: dsb.), dan seterusnya (used for sequences; abbr.: dst.)
Irish: agus araile (abbr.: srl./⁊rl)isiXhosa: njalo-njalo
Italian: eccetera, pronounced [etˈtʃɛːtera] (abbr.: ecc. or etc.)
Japanese: "その他" (sono ta, sono hoka), or suffix "等" (tō, nado) or "など" (nado), "エトセトラ/えとせとら" (etosetora)
Kannada: "ಇತರೆ" (itarae) or "ಇತ್ಯಾದಿ" (ityadi)
Korean: "등/等"(deung) or "기타/其他" (gita)
Kyrgyz: жана башкалар (abbr.: ж.б.), дагы ушул сыяктуулар (abbr.: д.у.с.)[romanization needed]
Lao: ຯລຯ (read as ແລະອຶ່ນໆ lɛ-ɯːn-ɯːn)
Latvian: un tā tālāk (abbr.: utt.)
Lithuanian: ir taip toliau (abbr.: ir t.t.)
Macedonian: и така натаму (abbr.: итн.)[romanization needed]
Malagasy: sy ny sisa (abbr.: sns.)
Malayalam: തുടങ്ങിയവ (pronounced thudangiyava)
Maltese: eċċetera (abbr.: eċċ.)
Marathi: इत्यादी (pron. ityadi)
Mongolian: гэх мэт (abbr.: г.м.)[romanization needed]
Nepali language: आदि, इत्यादि[romanization needed] aadi
Norwegian (bokmål): og så videre (abbr.: osv.)
Norwegian (nynorsk): og så bortetter (abbr.: osb.) or og så vidare (osv.)
Odia: ଇତ୍ୟାଦି
Persian: وغیره (va gheireh)
Polish: i tak dalej (abbr.: itd.)
Portuguese: et cetera (abbr.: etc.)
Punjabi: ਆਦਿਕ (pron. aadik) and ਆਦਿ (pron. aadi)
Romanian: și așa mai departe (abbr.: ș.a.m.d.), or și celelalte (abbr.: ș.cl.); the latter somewhat obsolete
Russian: и так далее (rom.: i tak daleje) (abbr.: и т.д.), or и тому подобное (rom.: i tomu podobnoje) (abbr.: и т.п.)
Sanskrit: इत्यादिः (ityaadih)
Serbo-Croatian: i tako dalje / и тако даље (abbr.: itd. / итд.)
Sesotho: jwalo-jwalo (abbr.: j.j.)
Slovak: a tak ďalej (abbr.: atď.)
Slovenian: in tako dalje (abbr.: itd.)
Sorani:هەتادوایی،هتد (hata dwayy, abbr.: htd)
Somali:Iyo wixii lamida (abbr.:IWM)
Spanish: etcétera (abbr.: etc.)
Swahili: na kadhalika (abbr.: n.k.)
Swedish: och så vidare (abbr.: o.s.v.)
Tagalog: at iba pa (abbr: atbp.)
Tamil: இன்ன பிற (pron. iṉṉa piṟa), முதலியன (pron. mutaliyaṉa)
Telugu: "ఇతర", "ఇత్యాది", "మొదలగునవి" or "మొదలైనవి", "వగైరా"(pronounced as "ithara", "ithyaadhi", "modalagunavi" or "modhalainavi", "vagairaa")
Thai: ฯลฯ (This three-letter combination is not an abbreviation but a sign called ไปยาลใหญ่ "paiyan yai". It is to be read และอื่นๆ "lae uen uen", or และอื่นๆ อีกมากมาย "lae uen uen ik mak mai", meaning "and others" or "and many others", respectively.)
Turkish: ve benzerleri (abbr.: vb.) or vesaire (abbr.: vs.)
Turkmen: we şuňa meňzeşler (abbr.: we ş.m.)
Ukrainian: тощо (toshcho)
Urdu: وغیرہ وغیرہ (vagherah vagherah)
Uyghur: قاتارلىق[romanization needed]
Vietnamese: vân vân (abbr.: v.v.)
Welsh: ac yn y blaen (abbr.: ayyb)
Yiddish: און אזוי ווייטער (rom. un azoy vayter) (abbr.:א. א. וו.‎)

Research and Process

Starting-point

week 8, 8th of november / prototyping

First brainstorming takes place at week 8, C & G try to understand what the potential of the etc. filter is, what they want to investigate, maybe what they want to discover? Still maybe leads, their ideas are scattered, the technical features will also dictate somewhat sometimes where they go.

Before class
Before the prototyping class, G and C have a meeting about what they thought about around the et cetera concept. This meeting was a brainstorming session for both of them.

Here is the list of keywords that C and G talked about:

Cut-ups
Filters
Functions(adj)
etc rebuilder
Jane Austen flirting tool
Time-saving tool
Incomplete info, infinite list of things
Direction that is continuous (like and...)
Do we see etc. or others as a category in a contemporary context?

→ Soundblog, see Alles...

During class G and C learned how to make input-etc etherpad and output-etc etherpad using API! C IS SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS METHOD.

Input Etc
Output Etc

A New Lead

week 9, 15th of November / etc. a gate (or a portal) to contamination

Today, during class, everyone presented their prototypes. Ones made in smaller groups, as well as individual projects. The class was very inspiring and the etc. project grew in a new direction. C & G's target(the etc.) encountered a tool: the contamination tool. Now not only do they want to target the etc. in different content as a gate to the negative space, but they also want to transit their project, turn the etc. into a portal through which anyone could enter, observe excerpts targeted by the filter and insert(a.k.a contaminate) their own content. Then the contaminated content will be returned, seamless, in a parallel publication...

What is contamination

By combining the replace_filter notion presented on monday 15th by Mitsa and Erica, to their etc. filter, C and G can now target the etc&co (see "what is the etc."), to find gates to infiltrate content.

As previously mentioned the etc&co is negative space, a gate to the unmentioned, unworthy, content rejected by lack of time. They want to open up that negative space for others to investigate, contaminate, explore and enjoy. A space where no corners are left unseen.

What kind of content do they want to contaminate

So far C and G have been using the Gutenberg default texts as input to try out the etc. filter. While, it might be a nice field to observe in order to study different genres in literature, the Gutenberg files don't seem like an appropriate fit for their concept. Latest idea has been to convert all the texts they've been given to read in class, that orbit around the topic of the vernacular.

First successful trial for contamination of etc. portal

About the format

Also, C and G decided to let go of the format of nomadic publication, a.k.a. yet-to-be-named-publication(see 'week 8, 9th of November / Class with Cristina'). Because it didn't seem like a relevant format anymore. The nomadic publication and the etc. filter became two different projects. In order to accurately engage with the etc. filter, they have to change the focus regarding the outcome or platform of the publication. It suddenly feels like the most appropriate formate for the etc. filter could only be achieved online. The nomadic publication, which is a physical platform, entails that they would leave out "negative space" (in this case what could also be called blank space) for people to fill in... This would go against a free input, as people would be constraint in another kind of space they would define prior to giving it to them. When online, the amount of content another wants to contribute is free for them to decide. It can be 'nothing', a space, one word, a sentence, a paragraph, a text → the space will grow with their input, and will not depend of the space given for that input to be filled.

Individual session with Clara Balaguer

week 9, 18th of November

G: Ethics & description of the contamination tool

During her talk with Clara, G got a lot to think about. Clara mentioned this anarchist summer school they attended in Spain, where they also worked on concepts of negative and positive freedom, negative and positive power. Negative power being for example, listening as form of exerting, instead of taking up space with speech. G though it was very inspiring to look at "negative" concepts as actually inclusive and powerful ones. Which also confirmed the feeling C & G had of what it meant to open up that negative space for others.

Clara then mentioned negative space that already exists, like the one on Wikipedia. In the edit pages, they mentioned their own activist in work, in keep stream of history whole, with pages like the one of Ferdinand Marcos, where in order to keep the facts visible to everyone, all mentions of any facts, information needs to be highly footnoted in order to keep things publicised, public and visible. The back page of the wikipedia page, its "negative space" is thus highly contaminated with footnotes, to keep the slightest compromising detail alive.

Then amongst other thing, they talked about how quotation marks ('(...)', '[. ...]', '[...]') are used by writers to quote, mention someone else's work, and how that re-manipulation of someone else's textual work can be widely re-contextualised in one's advantage.

C: etc as a portal

C had this unsatisfactory feeling of the role that 'etc.' plays in the contamination (more specifically, replace function). C could not pinpoint what this discomfort was, but during the individual session with Clara, C had a chance to step back and approach 'etc' from a different point of view. Here are some of the interesting things that came up during the discussion with Clara:

etc as a portal
etc as a temporal space(etc is where present and future overlaps)
etc is tightly connected to the context

week 10, 22nd of November, Prototyping class with Michael& Manetta

Michael and Manetta showed C & G how to combine the API with HTML form tag. With the help of Manetta, C and G wrote what needs to be done, step by step.
Very important: Manetta gave great advice: keeping close to where we started, which is ET CETERA.

This structural sketch is C and G's compass/navigator for this SP16 project

Update of the structural sketch, made on the 24.11 after having some technical issues

Graph update

Also, M and M introduced the magic of Flask! C spent several days reading through Flask and Jinga webpage.

At Varia

week 10, 23rd of November, with Cristina Italic text

Queer API Cristina introduced a project, 'Queer API'. SUPER NICE project!!! U can find more info >>>here(C will link URL tomorrow)<<<

ETC Portal/Contamination Tool

Here are some of the interesting points that came up during the discussion with Cristina:

Each contaminated content added on to the text? Or every time the contaminated text rebooted so the reader/participant/user starts from the uncontaminated text?

Interesting word choice: "contamination"=> COVID-related (of course ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ), the word 'contamination is still a broad enough term allowing some space to the user, the word 'contamination is closely related to 'vernacular(literally meaning vulgar)'

Which corpora? Which text should we choose?

One text? Or multiple texts?

Should we deliberately only give the target_sent(the sentence that contains 'etc.')? Or more(pre_sent/terget_sent/nex_sent) to give the reader some idea of the context? => element of surprise, you can read the whole text(contaminated ver.) later, at the very last. If you give the whole context, then it suddenly became a tool(well this is also nice but...). The gesture of contextualizing and decontextualizing.. those subtle/nuanced shifts of actions. This directly relates to G's interest in how knowledge is passed on, using de-contextualized(quotes, footnotes, references) knowledge to legitimise one's argument.

What about instead of using a 'replace function'-> using an 'add function' => This is closely related to C's concern/discomfort(see week 9, 18th of November, individual session with Clara Balaguer) and if we add content instead of replacing the content, it stays true to the role of etc as a portal.

Congratulation token (see C and G's compass thumbnail image): C and G, AGAIN, realize and appreciate C and G's common interest in how to encourage ppl to participate, make this project more accessible and playful.

How can we push even further, the aspect of contamination?

Need to be careful and mindful about the fact that you are inserting something into someone else's text => reminds Aymeric's lecture on copyright (=> MAYBE C and G can use Aymeric's PhD thesis?! 💥🤯 WILD 🤯💥)

Queer API => good reference, customized error messages

Which language will C and G choose to invite the reader/participant/user => put this info at the very end... G said something about easter egg

Which format could be used in terms of the distribution? => button of share, print, display uncontaminated ver./contaminated ver., ...

Collective authorship/How to handle conflict(meaning when two ppl are trying to contaminate at the same time) => Flask session maybe?, API policy about the conflict, can it be real-time as Etherpad?(C's afterthought)

How should we deal with the contaminants? => moderation(?), list of words that rejects certain words

ETC is used when the author, writer, speaker wants to give some examples to make a point => which resonates with the specificity in vernacular

API closely connects to the aspect of contamination => extending and spreading, MORE PPL! MORE DISTRIBUTION! VIRAL!

Early-stage Plans

week 8, 9th of november / class with Cristina
After having a check-in moment and group discussion with Cristina from 10:00 - 17:30(!!), G and C agreed on the following things:

1) Filter etc & co
→ Synonyms
→ Gate to the negative space
In notebook/logbook (Jupyter-like layout),

2) Run the filter etc & co
→ Use the filter to find negative space in content online(things that we wrote in etherpads, NLTK corpora, references gathered by XPUB1 and Cristina, Steve, Manetta, and Michael)

3) Yet-to-be-named-publication
→ Physical publication
→ Annotations/updates can go back to the notebook
→ Logbook as intro
→ The instructions
→ Negative space waiting to be filled

4) And others(Mainly documentation)
→ Track and tracing nomadic publication
→ C and G delivery service, pick-up
→ Hand-to-hand
→ Last reader/author chooses the next one

... back to number 1), full circle ⥀

This plan aimed to have an ongoing publication in which we would welcome a collaborative authorship with a common input and multiple outputs.

week 8, 13th of november / meeting at C's house
For the greater good of the special Issue 16, every subgroup agreed to submit in a group meeting a proposal, crossing inputs from the different projects in order to create a coherent issue. The following steps were submitted to the group meeting on the 16th of Tuesday, C and G had a meeting prior to decide on the important points.

1/ What is the content?
A step-by-step journey in our research Gather SI16 Research (since September: Pads, Glossary, Prototype) → edit research Picking and gathering in the field of thoughts, our vernacular content, our fragmented yet somewhat related contents

2.1/ Editorial Process
The online and printed publications are two sides of the same publication, they do not echo each-other but complete one another. (publish content that is more suitable for online goes online) Make a research-catalogue/reader (a printed-part and an online one that can be filled in different ways). (ex: the space try-out platform where everyone can add comments on the screen-content)

Both printed&online publications should have a negative space/blanks for the public to fill-in —> enable different publics/ways to interact with content

2.2/ Curatorial Process
Curate publications in the space of VARIA Within event that also needs a shape Find Identity SI16 Prepare interaction with public (how do we encourage them to be part of our research?)

3/ At Varia
Engage with the public on our research-catalogue/reader, talks on the different sections/chapters/subjects we engaged with Make public react to certain instructions to fill-in negative space with their process/thoughts (Ex: what is vernacular language? Maybe you have something for us to illustrate a kind of vernacular with us, what is the last message you send today? Can you add it to the publication?) Guided discussions to enable accessibility, welcome all kinds of discourse
sample instructions might be as such:

Pick and share your oldest memo in your memo app
Pick and share your latest text message
Pick and share one picture from your photo album
Pick and share one of the unclosed web page content

4/ Outro
The launch of SI16 will be the occasion of welcoming the public into the publications, the process of a publication and its growth. The printed-parts will be distributed to the last visitors in order for them to keep adding to the content and the keys to the online-part of the publication will be spread for it to also continue growing. Has the publication an anonymous input or is it a thread of added authors? (Both options can also work together)

Random Diary/History

week 10, 26th of november / group session with Danny van der Kleij
Danny THE programmer made some suggestions on the overall structure of the project website and self-reflective text, for seed text.

Danney the programmer suggestion

chae not the programmer_yet_

week 11, 29th of november / Michael and Manetta, THE SAVIOR
Before the prototyping class on week 11, C and G wrote technical questions about how to write a code that actually functions(😂).
Michael guided us through how to achieve C and G's vision(?) and after prototyping class C was like...

(C: hmmm.. not the best/appropriate meme, will change that later!)

week 12, 6th of december / prototyping class with Michael
Today's quote:
MERGING IS HARD!!!
NEVER LOSE STRUCTURE, JUST ADD IT!

Today was tough. It was like either one of these:
a) Riding a roller coaster
b) Zooming in with my right eye and zooming out with my left eye
or,
c):

Colophon

Reference

Credits

Cristina
Clara
Michael
Manetta
C and G