↺. Project Proposal

Working title: Glossary for a diffractive publishing practice

↺. what do I want to make, and why?

I'm currently starting a small-publishing project with my friend Maria Paris called attempt. Together, in colaboration with different artists we have released three publications in the realm of arts. One photo-book, one trio of speculative fiction tales, and an essay that reflects about translation and distance. The project I'm proposing to make would be the continuity of this collaboration with her and it would map and expand our practice by speculating possible paths for future publications.

This project is a hybrid bilingual publication that is simultaneously a glossary, a system, an experiment, and a manifesto.

↺ ○ glossary ○ ↺ ✴︎ system ✴︎ ↺ ◈ experiment ◈ ↺ ⧆ manifesto ⧆ ↺

{draw a diagram}

○ glossary ---> as the matter ---> It is composed of words and their annotations.

✴︎ system ---> as the form ---> It tends to organize itself as a complex system. A system fundamentally open, unpredictable, non-linear, adaptative, mutable...

◈ experiment ---> as the movement. It activates itself by trying out.

⧆ manifesto ---> as the intention ---> It reflects and declare possible statements.

Therefore, it is a publication that challenges the idea of a glossary as its own core by conceiving it as a system of never-ending defined words. It is an interconnected system of words activated by trying out and speculating on possible connections among each other. It is an experiment to manifest reflections on possible futures for small-publishing practices on arts.

The plan is to gather a system of words and their annotations to cross-references between different sources in English and Spanish. These vocabularies come from the already existing publishing books I've been reading(see book sources), publishing projects I'm interested in(see project sources), past publishing experiences I was part of(see experience sources), and other vocabularies inside other realms I find relevant to connect to the research(see expanded sources). This experiment aims to activate a conversation between sources in different languages and discourses by highlighting problematics, bringing up questions, and experimenting over processes, results, and infrastructure of the practice.

In the end, this project is an attempt to state paths inside my own publishing practice, because I believe it is necessary to state missions as contemporary actors inside the publishing realm by reflecting on it and taking responsibility for it. Although this path may be one and multiples at the same time, those have to come with the strong idea of "creating with" in a collective interconnected world.

↺. How do you plan to make it, and When?

Given the big scope of the project and being aware of its never-ending nature. I'm planning to organize it through different stages, and present them as states of it.

Each state run in parallel different processes related to every component of the project. These are marked in the timetable with different symbols (○ glossary, ✴︎ system, ◈ experiment, ⧆ manifesto), and they are framed in a period of time during the semester.

////////////////////// STATE 1 //////////////////////

October {

*[✓] ○. Individually gather and annotate words from the list of sources. Create a workflow (see ↺.✴︎.) 
*[✓] ○.◈. Event: (11 Oct) Aquarium 1.0: A small ecosystem of living thoughts. Workshop "Glossary of glossaries" (see ↺.○.◈.).

}

November {

*	[✓] ○. Individually gather and annotate words from the list of sources. 
*[✓] ◈. Prototyping layouts (see ↺.✴︎.)
*	[✓] ⧆. ◈. Creating the infrastructure to self-host the project (see ↺. ⧆ ~ ◈.)
*	[] ○.◈. Event: (29 Nov) Aquarium 2.0: A small ecosystem of living thoughts. Publish "A brief Glossary of Glossaries" digesting the results of the first Aquarium
*	[] ⧆. Choosing a limited amount of sources to harvest by  conversing with Maria

}

December {

 * [] ○. Individually gather and annotate words from the list of sources.
 * [] △. ✴︎. Prototyping. Playing with the current state of the system.  
 * [] ⧆. ◈. Debugging the infrastructure to self-host the project.
 *	[] ⟡. Pausing the individual gathering and converse with Maria the current state of words to continue.

}

↺. State 1 Outputs: * Self-host Infrastructure 1. Self-host public server (rpi) 2. Self-host etherpad instance * Workflow to gather and annotate the words * Selection of Sources * "A brief Glossary of Glossaries"

////////////////////// STATE 2 //////////////////////

January {

 - [] ○. ✴︎. ◈. sort them with a visual system of symbols to cross-references and start weaving (see ↺. ⧆ ~ ◈.).

- [] ○. ✴︎. ◈. ⧆. Make the glossary public by asking people to contribute with annotations over the words using the pad. (see 'who can help me' section) - [] ○. ✴︎. ◈. Prototyping. Experiment with the current state of the system by testing the open-system possibilities.

}

February {

 - [] ○. ✴︎. Keep on collectively gathering annotations over the words to open the system.

- [] ○. ✴︎. ◈. Prototyping. Experiment with the current state of the system by testing the open-system possibilities with the multiple annotations structure.

}

March {

 - [] ○. ◈. ⧆. Converse with Maria and activate the Glossary by thinking ways to make public the current state of the project. (see ↺.◈.⧆.) 
 - [] ○. ◈. ✴︎. Prototyping. Web-to-print layout experimentation.

↺. State 2 Outputs: * Visual system of symbols * Collective annotation session over the words * Experiments on the Openness of the project. * Proposal of the first printed version of it (if it's the case).

////////////////////// STATE 3 //////////////////////

- April {

- [] ○. ◈. ✴︎. ⧆. Prototyping/Press. Web-to-print layout experimentation. Space to debug and start revising and proof prints

}

- May {

- [] ○. ◈. ✴︎. ⧆. Prototyping/Press. Trying out the publication. Space to debug and print.

}

- June {

 - [] ○. ◈. ✴︎. ⧆. Prototyping/Press. Trying out the publication. Space to debug and binding.

- [] ○. 24th: Graduation Show That day I imagine presenting the project as an installation/constellation of the three state outcomes of the process.

↺. State 3 Outputs: * a first printed version of a Glossary for a diffractive publishing practice

}

↺.⟡. Challenging the glossary structure

To challenge the idea of the glossary itself, I plan to unpack its structure and recognize which aspects of it are useful and which ones would be interesting to experiment with. It is interesting to me to explore what is beyond the definition of a word regarding the ontological possibilities.

Some of the questions I'm planning to reflect on in this stage of the process are:

↺ What does it mean conceptually to write down a list of terms, words, and explanations?

↺ How a vertical and closed structure of terminology can be conceived as a horizontal and open one?

↺ What is the voice of these annotations on the words, who is speaking?

↺ When constructing knowledge, how to not prioritize written language?

↺.⟡.◈. Glossary of Glossaries

As a HackPack that explored the glossary structure, I proposed a collective workshop of making a 'glossary of glossaries' by collecting, reflecting, writing, and annotating on glossaries.

{diagram} {photos}

Out-puts to have in mind:

↺. The alphabetical hierarchy

↺. Explanation beyond written Language

↺. The location of it inside a publication

↺. The power of collective & multiple interpretations

↺.●. Gathering Nodes

The words of the glossary are gonna be gathered by reading, writing, surfing, drawing, conversing, and reflecting on my own practice as an artist and publisher, but also in close collaboration with my publishing partner, Maria Paris.

So far, I have the glossary just as a list of words, and some of them have already an annotation. The idea is to start annotating on them and then do an exercise of filtering. I still don't know how many are they going to be and how it's going to be the style of its annotations. I'm working on it.

PAD: https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/pad/p/camilo_glossary

For the technical side, the workflow for gathering the material is using markdown, etherpad, pandoc, html and css. Concretely, I'm writing down all the words on a etherpad using markdown language and converting them into html using a python script that calls the markdown file via API and process is it with the library pandoc. This creates a website that is styled using css.

One of the intentions of the project is to start creating the glossary in a way that lets me manipulate and transform easily into different materials and mediums. That is why I'm using the web-to-print flow to be able to experiment with the words in a hybrid way.

URL: https://hub.xpub.nl/sandbot/~camilo/Glossary/

↺.⧆◈. Weaving threads

As an exercise of making this project a tool for creation by experiment. I'm planning to 'thread'(make connections) some nodes of the system to suggest routes over it. That would give me the opportunity to experiment and give concrete outcomes out of it. Not to prove a sort of modularity, but to entangle the multiplicity of it, being able to ground it down by giving reasons, materials, and ideas for the actual publishing practice.

These threads are attempts to activate the glossary as a manifesto.

↺. How to not make this project a 'ready to use' modular structure?

↺.◈. Translating

Lately, I've been thinking about the possibilities to construct this glossary in different languages, more concretely English and Spanish. But, due to the limitation of time, maybe this can be something to solve at the end of the process if it's possible. Or is it something that can happen organically and simultaneously?

↺. Why am I doing this?

I'm currently starting a publishing project with Maria called attempt, and we would like to state ourselves paths and resources to focus on. This project would be the continuity of an ongoing practice that I've been developing as an artist and publisher, but most of all would be the way to digest, ruminate and **circulate** the experiences, tools, and projects I was part of the last year of the course.

Therefore, this project is an attempt to state a path inside my own publishing practice, because I believe it is necessary to state our mission as contemporary actors inside the publishing realm. Although this path may be one and multiples at the same time, those have to come with the strong idea of "creating with" in a collective interconnected world.