SI16 and SI17
Special Issue 16
Collective text about Special Issue 16
Our Special Issue is a toolkit to mess around with language: from its standard taxonomies and tags, to its modes of organizing information and its shaping knowledge. With these tools we want to legitimize failures and amatorial practices by proposing a more vernacular understanding of language.
We decided to release the SI16 toolkit in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface). APIs often organise and serve data and knowledge. What is not always evident is that they facilitate the exchange of information between different software programs and systems according to mainly commercial standards and purposes.
Our API is an attempt at a more critical and vernacular approach to such model of distribution. You didn't get a thing yet? Don't worry! We are also on our way and that's the whole point of this experimental enquiry.
First approaches to vernacular and language processing
Special Issue #16
Texts to discuss *
28/09/21
my translation of a greek partisan song and the queer take on that same song
5/10/21
Five experiental reconstructions of Peiraki-Patraikis's occupation. The experiental map of Panayiotis
"Vernacular processing: what is a vocabulary?"
mini exercises
4/10/21
with Camo, Cara, Emma
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/collab_week3
12/10/21
with supi
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/supi_mitsa
Prototyping
First steps into learning Python
- Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities notebooks for chapters 4,5,6,7,8,15
- Natural Language Processing with Python notebooks for chapters 1,2
Reading Writing and Reasearch Methodologies
Anotating the Intro of Queer Phenomenology
with Carmen, Chae and Miriam
Discussing the text with chae in an experiental approach, having just arrived in Rotterdam and trying to orientate in a very different context.
Trying to read the text through our experiences
"...this is interesting approach, because as a person who just moved here, I feel like I am disoriented in many ways, my habits, my interest, and also how I navigate within this world."
From text
"...A direction is also something one gives. When you tell someone who is lost how to find their way, you give them directions to help them on their way. When you give an order or an instruction (especially a set of instructions guiding the use of equipment) you give directions. Directions are instructions about ‘‘where,’’ but they are also about ‘‘how’’ and ‘‘what’’: directions take us somewhere by the very requirement that we follow a line that is drawn in advance. A direction is thus produced over time; a direction is what we are asked to follow. The etymology of ‘‘direct’’ relates to ‘‘being straight’’ or getting ‘‘straight to the point.’’ To go directly is to follow a line without a detour, without mediation. Within the concept of direction is a concept of ‘‘straightness.’’ To follow a line might be a way of becoming straight, by not deviating at any point..."
queer phenomenology annotation pad
Glossary of Interconnected Keywords
with Chae, Kimberley and Jian
Collective experiment on giving our definitions to keywords that are inteconnected to each other.
glossary of interconnected keywords
SYNOPSIS
trans*re*lationality inter-relation several different "definitions" for the same notion use the lexicon to help navigation through the reader
multiple orders and entry points a "definition" can be an image, a text to complete, a performance, a piece of code, a personal anecdote, a manipulated text etc the different "definitions" have the power to change the story
"definitions" of political notions that also change in time https://www.politicalconcepts.org/ https://www.politicalconcepts.org/occupation-jacques-ranciere/ -----> Definition of occupation by Ranciere use the house of dust code to create a malleable definition
Ways of "defining" a notion:
1. house of dust 2. personal anecdote 3. image? visual thinking/ association of images / linking between different images 4. body languages sensory definitions? sound> sing bowl > share a sensory experience to define a notion 5. translation language (vernacular, academic, english, phonetics etc) sound of words that one can't understand could sometimes be self-explanatory 6. write a poem 7. … 8. … 9. …
This reader has no form yet. It could be a book, a website, an exhibition, a map etc. Keep that in mind! This reader is a lexicon that can be seen as a map. It can be accessed from any entry point, there is not start, no end, the reader can create their own path by using the links to jump between the definitions (or not). In this reader, each notion is being defined several times by the readers following different methods (house of dust, personal anecdote, excerpts from the text itself, image, translation, etc.) The various definitions offer our perspectives on those texts.
Keywords/ lexicon:
1. Navigation 2. Orientation 3. Structure 4. Book 5. Darkness 6.Destination
Aside (these are notes for a general overview): [this reader (title)] presents different ways of reading and writing which are approached from different directions. It is a performative, navigable text. The readers and the text changes as we use them. The reader includes transformations, translations and re-mediations of existing texts. It is accesible from many points of departure and ever-evolving.
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1. Navigation <moving towards a destination inside a defined space. Navigation is different than the words wandering ( derive in french), which are connected with the desire to create spaces by moving. derives from the latin word navigare, "to sail, sail over, go by sea, steer a ship," (this may imply that navigation derives from and is connected to a maritime economy) <in greek : πλοηγώ which means "to be a navigator and to drive a ship with knowledge into unknown and dangerous waters <https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=navigation
the word 'navigation' is a cousin of the word 'orientation', you have an intention when you navigate, it involves moving(conceptually or physically)
https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/~kimberley/Untitled.html Use the 'house of dust' model to make a collage of several texts
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2. Orientation
the word 'orientation' don't necessarily involve moving, one might have no intention when orient
"objects and spaces are orientated"
Queer Phenomenology, Sara Ahmed
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3. Structure
1) Stand in position 2) Jump 3) Stand still 4) (If there is a ground) Lie down 5) (If there is a wall) Put your body onto the wall 1) Come back where you started
Deleuze and Guattari introduce A Thousand Plateaus by outlining the concept of the rhizome (quoted from A Thousand Plateaus):
1 and 2. Principles of connection and heterogeneity: "...any point of a rhizome can be connected to any other, and must be"; 3. Principle of multiplicity: it is only when the multiple is effectively treated as a substantive, "multiplicity", that it ceases to have any relation to the One; 4. Principle of asignifying rupture: a rhizome may be broken, but it will start up again on one of its old lines, or on new lines; 5 and 6. Principles of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model; it is a "map and not a tracing". They elaborate in the same section, "What distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely oriented toward an experimentation in contact with the real."
Eros in the Library, Melissa Adler
<the word structure creates a certain image of my mind. An unfinished building - "under construction", loud and annoying sounds of machines, metal and concrete. That way I can witness the structure of an object before it reach its final form-destination. When something is finished, proper and whole can hide its structure.
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4. BOOK
A BOOK IS THE PHYSICAL SUPPORT OF TEXT
USING A RECOMBINANT STRUCTURE
TO PROVIDE SEQUENTIAL
NAVIGATION
A BOOK IS AN ARCHIVE
USING WORDS
TO PROVIDE ISOLATED
KNOWLEDGE
A BOOK IS A PORTABLE DATA STORAGE
USING NODES AND LINKS
TO PROVIDE PERFORMATIVE
TRUTH
A BOOK IS A SEQUENCE OF MOMENTS
USING NODES AND LINKS
TO PROVIDE PERFORMATIVE
MEANING
A BOOK IS A SEQUENCE OF MOMENTS
USING LAYERS
TO PROVIDE CERTAIN
NAVIGATION
A BOOK IS AN INTIMATE SPACE
USING JUXTAPOSITIONS
TO PROVIDE RANDOM
INFORMATION
A BOOK IS AN ARTIFACT
USING A SYSTEM OF KNOTTED STRINGS
TO PROVIDE NAVIGATIONAL
NEGOTIATION
A BOOK IS AN INTIMATE SPACE
USING A RECOMBINANT STRUCTURE
TO PROVIDE PRECISE
THOUGHTS
A BOOK IS AN EVENT
USING NODES AND LINKS
TO PROVIDE SEQUENTIAL
ACCESS
A BOOK IS AN INTERFACE
USING ANY NUMBERS OF PHYSICAL FORMS
TO PROVIDE ISOLATED
KNOWLEDGE
A BOOK IS A SEQUENCE OF ROOMS
USING INTERCONNECTIONS
TO PROVIDE CERTAIN
NEGOTIATION
A BOOK IS AN OBJECT
USING LAYERS
TO PROVIDE SPECIFIC
KNOWLEDGE
A BOOK IS A SEQUENCE OF MOMENTS
USING A SYSTEM OF KNOTTED STRINGS
TO PROVIDE SPECIFIC
MEANING
A Book is a physical/non-physical object that can help you get out of darkness, navigate around the world, one might discover one's sexual orientation! A book can be your best friend, or can be a powerful sleeping pill.
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5. Darkness
Land of Silence and Darkness, Werner Herzog
an object that is really soft and fluffy fur, airy cloth in black/grayish)
Tino Sehgal – This Variation First performed in 2012 at Documenta 13 in Kassel
Back in 2012 I went to Documenta 13 in Kassel with a group other students from art academy. At some point we went to the Tino Sehgals piece "This variation" that was performed in the Hugenottenhaus. As a group of five we were allowed to enter a room that was pitch black. I could neither see my own hand nor the people that were supposed to stand close to me. I tried to walk a few steps to move away from the entrance, but I instantly felt an enormous insecurity: A level of disorientation I never experienced before. So I decided to just stand there and wait, hoping to find any markers in my surroundings that would help me to get orientated. Suddenly I noticed noises, other people breathing, moving around the room, wispering. How were they able to orientate in this darkness? […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSBVEjwVy_0 song: the darkness from "Crazy ex-girlfriend" Rebecca: IN MY LIFE I'VE HAD SO MANY MEN BUT THERE'S ONE I COME BACK TO AGAIN AND AGAIN WE'VE BEEN ON AND OFF FOR SUCH A LONG TIME AND NOW HE'S BACK AND I'M FEELING OH-SO-FINE
HE'S THE DARKNESS MY FIRST LOVE, MY TRUE LOVE THE DARKNESS HE KNOWS ME BETTER THAN ANYONE HE HOLDS ME CLOSE AND WHISPERS THINGS THAT I DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHEN I FEEL THE BUTTERFLIES OF DREAD I KNOW THE DARKNESS IS NEAR
WE MET AROUND THE TIME I STARTED FIRST GRADE EVERY SUMMER AFTER THAT WE'D PLAY SOLITAIRE IN THE SHADE ON PROM NIGHT HE WAS THE ONLY BOY I KISSED AND WHEN HE'D VISIT MY DORM I REMEMBERED HOW MUCH I'D MISS
THE DARKNESS HIS LOVE FOR ME IS PURE THE DARKNESS HE'S HANDSOME FOR A METAPHOR AND HIS NAME IS... TYLER YEAH, THAT FEELS RIGHT HIS NAME IS TYLER HE DRUNK DIALS ME EVERY NIGHT TYLER, TYLER, TYLER YOUR KISS FEELS LIKE A CUT YOU PLAY DRUMS AND WEAR GUYLINER AND YOUR PET NAME FOR ME IS "SLUT"
FOR SO MANY YEARS I'VE USED THE DARKNESS TO FEEL BUT NOW THERE ARE THINGS IN MY LIFE THAT ARE ACTUALLY REAL I GOTTA MAKE A CHOICE, DARLIN' DON'T ASK ME WHY SO WILL I HAVE THE STRENGTH TO TELL THE DARKNESS TO TELL TYLER DARKNESS GOODBYE?
6.Destination
side-note: what would happen if we use 'darkness' as a verb
Approaching the vernacular through the theme of rejection
after our first group meeting
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Rejection_Glossary
rejection as a discourse rejection as a continuous renegotiation between filters rejection as exclusion rejection as fractal rejection as spectrum rejection as contingency (really like this) rejection as violence rejection as oppression rejection as ritual rejection as defensive spell rejection as misunderstanding rejection as border rejection as layer rejection as interface rejection as a selection process rejection as a filter rejection as incomplete structure rejection as foundation rejection as truth / honesty rejection as clarification, transcription, simplification rejection as interpretation/translation rejection as digestion/metabolization rejection as instrument rejection as curation rejection as invitation rejection as inclusion rejection as care rejection as direction rejection as orientation rejection as negative ontology for identity formation rejection as tactic rejection as a trigger for action rejection as turning point rejection as plot twist rejection as suspense rejection as narration and world-building rejection as an act of love rejection as a metaphor rejection as heritage
Collaboration, Conflict & Consent workshop
Really important workshop on non-violent communication.
The importance of expressing my needs and aknowledging the needs of the others
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Mitsa_selfportrait
The forced poetics and the making of Special Issue 16
really inspired by Clara's lecture on vernacular design and forced poetics
- publishing is a validation
- vernacular is the language of the oppressed
- the forced poetics emerge when the language you speak cannot express what you want
- making a language that is impenetrable for the masters
conversation with Carmen and Erica
- the vernacular as encrypted languages between allies
- the audience should be the ordinary
- self experience is central
- what are the power relations inside the system we are addressing?
conversation and diagrams with Erica about forced poetics and empowerment
- you are an expert of what you experience
- the standarisation gatekeeps the vernacular
- the hegemonic gatekeeps the urge
- there is a barrier created by the correct, the beautiful, the tasty that blocks the urge
- and this barrier is created through power
- conflict between the content that needs to be expressed and the available language
- how to use a tool that you don't master?
![thumb]](/mediadesign/File:Photo_2022-03-26_16-15-02.jpg)
![thumb]](/mediadesign/File:Photo_2022-03-26_16-15-06.jpg)
![thumb]](/mediadesign/File:Photo_2022-03-26_16-15-13.jpg)
Prototyping with the replace function
First prototype of replace function, with Erica
new_text = print(text.replace('reason',' 👮reason👮').replace('Reason','👮Reason👮').replace('High','👨⚖️High👨⚖️').replace('normal','🔫normal🔫').replace('Objective','(⊙▃⊙)Objective(⊙▃⊙)').replace('objective','(⊙▃⊙)objective').replace('planet','🇺🇸planet🇺🇸').replace('foreign','🪖foreign🪖'))
You know that by this time what is called 'mechanical instinct' had gradually been engendered in them, as is 🔫normal🔫 in three-brained beings. The sacred members of the Most 👨⚖️High👨⚖️ Commission then 👮reason👮ed that if this mechanical instinct in the biped three-brained beings of that 🇺🇸planet🇺🇸 were to develop toward the attainment of (⊙▃⊙)Objective(⊙▃⊙) 👮Reason👮, as usually occurs everywhere among three-brained beings, it might possibly happen that they would prematurely comprehend the 👮reason👮 for their presence on that 🇺🇸planet🇺🇸 and would then make a good deal of trouble; it might happen that once they understood the 👮reason👮 for their arising, namely, that by their existence they should maintain the detached fragments of their 🇺🇸planet🇺🇸, and became convinced of their slavery to circumstances utterly 🪖foreign🪖 to them, they would refuse to continue this existence of theirs and on principle destroy themselves.
Applying the replace function on Bataille's Solar Anus
pad of text analysis
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/solar_anus
notebook with experiment
new = solar_anus.replace('sun','moon').replace('SUN','MOON').replace('solar','lunar').replace('phalluses','dilidos').replace('shafts','strapons').replace('phalloid','dilidoid')
(and this list of replacements should go on and on and on)
because the rise of the solar anus, although is an answer to the philosophical determinism, it's pretty phalocentric.
The idea for a thematic libary of words replaced by emojis
SI #16 Manifesto
https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/si16/intro/
Manifesto
with Carmen, Erica, Kim, Gersande
Dear friend and online scroller,
Beloved internet user,
Dearest binge watcher and human being IRL,
XPUB1 (The Experimental Publishing Master from Piet Zwart Institute) welcomes you to the Special Issue 16 on vernacular language processing: "Learning How to Walk while Catwalking."
Hu? How do you learn how to walk while catwalking?
Be confident, be ambitious and be ready to fail a lot. Our Special Issue is a toolkit to mess around with language: from its standard taxonomies and tags, to its modes of organizing information and its shaping knowledge. With these tools we want to legitimize failures and amatorial practices by proposing a more vernacular understanding of language. We decided to release the Special Issue 16-toolkit in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface). APIs often organise and serve data and knowledge. What is not always evident is that they facilitate the exchange of information between different software programs and systems according to mainly commercial standards and purposes. We chose instead to build a process that responds to the topics we are working with. Our API is an attempt at a more critical and vernacular approach to such model of distribution. You didn't get a thing yet? Don't worry! We are also on our way and that's the whole point of this experimental enquiry. We will be happy to guide you through the API and the different functions included in it, share our technical struggles and findings. This project is characterized by the elaboration of vernacular methods of processing. The material we process comes from various sources. For some of it, we appropriated existing texts and compiled them into corpora. For others, the activation of certain functions calls for an audience’s input. The participatory aspect of the functions is an important factor that unites them.
Since we are working with filters, we realized how every cultural object rejects and filters its public. We want to question these limitations focusing on accessibility and proposing several entry points to our project. API, there’s this very good meme that, I think, explains it in a rather good way. Imagine a bar with different staff in it: The cooks working in the kitchen would be the ‘backend’, the ones behind the bar the ‘frontend’, andddd the waiters running from the bar to the tables are the API!
Something that feels informal, approachable, "ours" and not imposed standarized forms. Organic, with the spanish opening times, etc. Approachable.
wtf I don't really understand but I like it
In other words, a toolkit for processing language with a vernacular attitude. This toolkit does not only consist of a set of tools but also of a world we are building around them: how do we want these tools to affect reality? This toolkit can be expanded, as new tools can be added to it and the world around them being stretched. There is a strong focus on the way we are working on it: a decentralized approach that builds from the ground up. Ambitious! Political! Unstable! ...but as some point embracing this unstability, trying to learn and care for each other, while learning python and caring for API .
I think of it as a personification of something that's intended to be functional, in that we assign the API a particular behavior so that it does the unexpected.
Opening times?
We are confident, we are ambitious and we are failing a lot while Learning How To Walk While Catwalking. We want to legitimize failures and amateur practices outside the hierarchy of experience. We want to care of each other in the process of learning, now between us, and then with you. We approach the text as a texture, a malleable clay tablet, a space for foreign input and extensive modifications, for cut-up and for collage, for collective agency and participation. Not a surface but a volume, in which the text is not only text, but a shared space. We work to sort out several meanings from the same word. We intend to blur our roles as authors, users and public because this is an act of collective world building.
I was invited to get onto an online platform for something called the Special Issue 16(?) The front, or first page has an index with some descriptions. Overall it had to do with texts, and ways of modifying them, I think.
Landing on Special Issue 16 page, reading the 'about' page. Finding out about several projects, triggered by the different showcases. As I gain interest in one of the example, I click on a link and read about the intention from which this tool departed.
So well, I am in front of the screen, I click on the first link and get a description and a sort of instruction of how to use their tools. Fine, I'll use the tool. It seems like I'm not the only one who has been invited here, the layout is unfamiliar, but I see how I could partake in it. And if I do, well, the next person will also have something else to deal with, I'm into that. What could I write? I write. Oh, wasn't that hard.
Unapologetic. Fearless. Eager. Playful. Brave. Persistent. Experimental. Bvvvrruummm
I am curious to know even more, I click on the shared folder link and am redirected to a library of tools. Finding out I can use this tool for my own purposes. I start scrolling through the multiple tools offered there. From the tool I was initially interested on, I drift to another snippet that calls my attention. From there, I click on the link offering a 'showcase view'. I get acquainted with the example. Zooming out, I land on the 'about page' to which that project belongs. More tools are offered but I am not interested in more tools. I zoom out more, and I find the 'introduction', which informs me about the general purpose of this page.
OMG THIS IS. HERE?
wow these people are so meta
can you buy me a coke?
I clicked on the link to access this website: oh what happens nice! nice colours, I have icons to click on but I clicked on one and I've seen many things i don't understand so it's better to know what this is about first because I don't understand so I click on the about page. Ok let's move back to the homepage. I can choose between projects and functions (again, what's this????) ok maybe by looking at the projects I will understand better...
Embracing the chaos that comes with the learning curve.
I click on a link and am brought to a page and keep clicking, can't stop clicking, super curious what's happening here, not sure what exactly yet, but it doesn't matter. I see the about page but I'd rather not read it because I like surprises. Looks like they're making a lot of experimental tools I've never heard of before but always wanted to try.
What is this all about? Shall we open the window for some fresh air?.
Yes that was a bit conceptual but basically, our project is meant to give a bunch of users several tools such as : ✂️ scissors, 📃 sticky notes, ✏️ pencils, erasers, and printed paper. ✂️🖊📝✏️📃 And let them have fun. Cutting it and putting it together, making notes and writing jokes… But everything in a digital format. Q&A link link link Special Issue 16—Learning How to Walk while Catwalking
...and I wish that your question has been answered
with Carmen, Erica and Miriam
the question
Ingeborg Beugel De Groene Amsterdammer reporter:
I have one question for both of you.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis, when at last will you stop lying, lying about pushbacks, lying about what is happening with the refugees in Greece?
Please don’t insult mine and neither the intelligence of all the journalists in the world.
There has been overwhelming evidence and you keep denying and lying.
This is like narcissistic abuse.
Why are you not honest?
Why don’t you say Brussels left us alone?
We waited for six years. Nobody did anything.
We need to relocate.
They don’t do it.
Now, I have my say and yes I do cruel, barbarian pushbacks.
Why did you stop knocking on Brussels’ door for relocation?
For you Mr. Rutte, what according to you are the sanctions that should be imposed on Greece and maybe on Holland for accepting this violation of human rights that Holland is co-responsible of also?
Many, many municipalities in Holland want to take many refugees from Greece, like many minor unaccompanied children.
They are many to accept them, but this prime minister opposes to that, so maybe you could find an understanding and the Dutch municipality who are so ready to unburden Greece can actually take in refugees from Greece, which his [the Greek PM’s] government opposes.
the answers
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, greek PM
I understand that in the Netherlands you have a culture of asking direct questions to politicians, which I very much respect.
What I will not accept is that, in this office, you will insult me, or the Greek people, with accusations and expressions that are not supported by material facts when this country has been dealing with a migration crisis of unprecedented intensity, has been saving hundreds, if not thousands of people at sea.
We just rescued 250 people in danger of drowning south of Crete, we are doing this every single day rescuing people at sea, while, at the same time, we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey, as we have the right to do in accordance with European regulations and waiting for the Turkish Coast Guard to come and pick them up and return them to Turkey.
So, rather than putting the blame on Greece, you should put the blame on those who have been instrumentalizing migration systematically pushing people in(to a) desperate situation from a safe country, because I need to remind you that people who are in Turkey are not in danger, their life is not in danger and you should put the blame on others and not us.
We have a tough, but fair, policy on migration, we have processed and given the right to protection in Greece to 50,000 people, including tens of thousands of Afghans, in accordance…
Allow me. Have you visited the new camps on our islands? Have you been to Samos? … No listen to me, you have not been to Samos… No you have not been...
Please…Look, you will not come into this building and insult me.
Am I very clear on this?
I am answering now and you will not interrupt me, in the same way that I listened to you very carefully.
If you go to Samos, you will find an impeccable camp, with impeccable conditions, funded by EU money, with clean facilities, with playgrounds for…the children to play, no comparison to what we had in the past.
This is our policy, we will stand by it, and I will not accept anyone pointing the finger to [sic] this government and accusing it of inhumane behavior.
Mark Rutte, dutch PM
I am absolutely convinced that this prime minister and this government is applying the highest standards and the fact that they have immediately launched an investigation on the issue of the pushbacks is testimony of that.
I will now bo back on the situation of 2015 and 2016 when we had many people dying on the Aegean Sea trying to get from Turkey into Greece and then to Germany, Sweeden, the Netherlands etc. And I am happy that Germany and we -were holding at that time the rotating presidency of the EU- were able to negotiate the EU and Turkey aggreement.
By which indeed Turkey is a safe country for people to stay.
And Turkey at this moment is hosting over 3 million Syrian refugees in the South of Turkey in camps but also in the local communities.
What this country is trying to do is to defend the outer borders of the European Union.
It is a lot of tasks that countries have who are lying on the outside like Italy, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, but also Poland and Greece, and there is an extremely difficult situation.
What I don’t want again is for people to take boats that are not fully equipped to pass the Mediterranean or to pass the Aegean Sea, to die in those circumstances.
I want them to stay there [in Turkey], to be safe, and then we are willing as European Union to take a fair share of people from Africa, from Turkey – refugees, in line with the plans devised in 2015 [the EU-Turkey Statement on refugees-migrants] and 2016.
So this is my answer and I wish that your question has been answered
About
This text is a transcribed excerpt from the Press Conference that followed the meeting between the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on November the 9th, 2021 in Athens. During the Q&A, the Dutch reporter Ingeborg Beugel asked Mitsotakis for clarity and honesty referring to pushbacks which Greek border guards keep committing towards refugees, while the Greek Government systematically conceals such violence. She continued by asking Mark Rutte what the political stance of the Netherlands towards refugees' relocation and Mitsotakis's policy would be.
The choice of this text as our source material has different reasons. First of all, we were interested in how language can produce categories and shape identities: how does wording create precise borders between the "us" and the "them"? Our second step would be reflecting on text processing strategies through which a speech or a narration can be recontextualised and reclaimed. By replacing or taking out words of a discourse, and thus making some parts of it interchangeable, we tried to highlight how its phrasing is never neutral, but always a choice led by a particular purpose.
We decided to work on this text as the Press Conference took place at the moment we were developing our research, and as we were really interested on the distinctive rhetoric strategies that Beugel, Mitsotakis and Rutte choose for voicing their goals. It is clear that the reporter uses an emotional and provocative tone to address Mitsotakis' politics, which challenges his composure to a point where he can not keep it anymore, while when talking to Rutte, her speech is more calm and detached. In response to her question, both Prime Ministers refuse responsibility of their actions: they use a rather managerial and pre-designed language to neutralize the reporter's provocation while at the same time praising the generosity and the efforts of their countries. In particular, Mitsotakis denies any of Beugel's accusations and declares them as unsupported assumptions which is a mere demonstration of power. Alongside, Rutte uses a colder and more restrained language to rationalize the EU and the Greek Government's choices: While shifting the responsibilities for refugee protection, he actually justifies the crimes that are committed within the EU borders as an inevitable "tough, but fair, policy".
Concerning our project, it is an act of persistent resistance. We created three functions to facilitate an iterative process of refusal towards the two Prime Ministers' answers and any of their possible versions. We invite you to play as much as you want with these functions and create your own answers as counter-reaction to Mark Rutte's final sentence: "So this is my answer and I wish that your question has been answered". Every new answer, every new iteration, can be submitted to our Archive of Repetitive Answers. Although they will never be good enough, nor shall they be accepted as exhaustive, we consider the modified answers as a trigger for a never-ending dialogue.
Research
Articles about pushbacks in the EU borders, that influenced the editing of the functions.
- https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/frontex-chapter-ii-complicit-in-pushbacks/
- https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-border-agency-frontex-complicit-in-greek-refugee-pushback-campaign-a-4b6cba29-35a3-4d8c-a49f-a12daad450d7
- https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2020/10/23/frontex-at-fault-european-border-force-complicit-in-illegal-pushbacks
- https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/torment-in-turkey/
- https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/unmasking-europes-shadow-armies/
- https://www.lighthousereports.nl/investigation/frontex-in-the-central-mediterranean/
- https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2021/11/17/beugel-greece-safety-leave-dutch-journalist/
The pad that we analysed the coropora, and therefore formed our strategies
Functions
Respell
Respell receives as input a text as a string type, and substitute all the occurrences of a targeted word with a replacement as a string type chosen by the user.
from nltk.tokenize import word_tokenize
# text, target, and replacement are string types
def respell(text, target, replacement):
target = target.lower()
txt = word_tokenize(text)
new = []
for w in txt:
if w == target:
w = replacement
new = new + [w]
elif w == target[0:1].upper() + target[1:]:
w = replacement[0:1].upper() + replacement[1:]
new = new + [w]
elif w == target.upper():
w = replacement.upper()
new = new + [w]
else:
new = new + [w]
text = ' '.join(new)
final= text.replace(' .','.').replace(' ,',',').replace(' :',':').replace(' ;',';').replace('< ','<').replace(' >','>').replace(' / ','/').replace('& ','&')
return final
This function in itself could be understood as a filter to process and alter texts. By targeting specific words and replacing them, either for another word, for specific characters or for blank spaces, the user of the tool can intervene inside a text. One could break down the meaning of a text or create new narrative meanings by exposing its structure, taking out or highlighting specific and meaningful words and detaching such text from its original context. This tool offers a broad spectrum of possibilities in which it can be used, from a very political and subversive use, to a more playful and poetic one.
Stitch
Stitch receives as input a text as a string type, and replaces all the occurrences of a target word, with a character or a word that is repeated as many times as the length of the target.
from nltk.tokenize import word_tokenize
# text, target, and replacement are string types
def stich(text, target, replacement):
target = target.lower()
txt = word_tokenize(text)
new = []
for w in txt:
if w == target:
w = len(w)*replacement
new = new + [w]
elif w == target[0].upper() + target[1:]:
w = len(w)*replacement
new = new + [w]
elif w== target.upper():
w = len(w)*replacement
new = new + [w]
else:
new = new + [w]
text = ' '.join(new)
final= text.replace(' .','.').replace(' ,',',').replace(' :',':').replace(' ;',';').replace('< ','<').replace(' >','>').replace(' / ','/').replace('& ','&')
return final
This function in itself could be understood as a filter to process and alter texts. By targeting specific words and stitching them, with a character or a word that is repeated as many times as the length of the target , the user of the tool can intervene inside a text. One could break down the meaning of a text or create new narrative meanings by exposing its structure, taking out or highlighting specific and meaningful words and detaching such text from its original context. This tool offers a broad spectrum of possibilities in which it can be used, from a very political and subversive use, to a more playful and poetic one.
Reveal
Reveal takes a text as string input and deletes all its characters except the input list of words.
def reveal(text,group):
txt = word_tokenize(text)
txt_linebr = []
for token in txt:
if token == '<':
continue
elif token == 'br/':
token=
txt_linebr.append(token)
elif token == '>':
continue
else:
txt_linebr.append(token)
new = []
for w in txt_linebr:
if w==:
new = new + [w]
elif w not in group:
w = len(w) * ' '
new = new + [w]
elif w in group :
new = new + [w]
text = ' '.join(new)
final= text.replace(' .','.').replace(' ,',',').replace(' :',':').replace(' ;',';').replace('< ','<').replace(' >','>').replace(' / ','/').replace('& ','&')
return final
This function in itself could be understood as a filter to process and alter texts. By chosing to keeping specific words of a text and deleting all the others, the user of the tool can intervene inside a text. One could break down the meaning of a text or create new narrative meanings by exposing its structure, taking out or highlighting specific and meaningful words and detaching such text from its original context. This tool offers a broad spectrum of possibilities in which it can be used, from a very political and subversive use, to a more playful and poetic one.
Several tries
#1 Exchange several words that misguide with words that are more close to reality
Kyriakos Mitsotakis
I understand that in the Netherlands women have a culture of asking direct questions to politicians, which I very much detest. What I will not accept is that, in this office, women will insult me, or the Greek people, with accusations and expressions that are not supported by material facts when this country has been worsening with a curtailment to the freedom of movement crisis of unprecedented intensity, has been deporting hundreds, if not thousands of people at sea. We just abandoned 250 people in of drowning south of Crete, we are doing this every single day detaining, beating and forcefully expelling people at sea, while, at the same time, we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey, as we have the right to do in accordance with European political agenda and waiting for the Turkish Coast Guard to come and pick them up and concetrate them to Turkey. So, rather than putting the blame on Greece, women should put the blame on those who have been instrumentalizing curtailment to the freedom of movement systematically pushing back people in to a desperate situation from a buffer zone country, because I need to remind women that people who are in Turkey are not in , their life is not in and women should put the blame on others and not us. We have a tough, and unfair, policy on curtailment to the freedom of movement, we have processed and given the right to detention in Greece to 50,000 people, including tens of thousands of Afghans, in accordance… Allow me. Have women visited the new closed, controlled and isolated camps on our islands ? Have women been to Samos ? … No listen to me, women have not been to Samos… No women have not been... Please…Look, women will not come into this building and insult me. Am I very clear on this ? I am answering now and women will not interrupt me, in the same way that I listened to women very carefully. If women go to Samos, women will find an impeccable camp with night curfew from 8AM to 8PM, regular malfunctioning of the surveillance system that regulates the entrance and exit, disproportionate price of bus tickets to reach Vathy town ( round trip 3,20€ which represents a large share of the average 70€ of cash assistance people are allowed every month ), with impeccable confinement conditions, funded by EU money, with clean facilities, with playgrounds for…the children to play, no comparison to what we caused in the past. This is our policy, we will stand by it, and I will not accept anyone pointing the finger to this government and accusing it of inhumane behavior.
Mark Rutte
I am absolutely convinced that this prime minister and this government is applying the highest repression standards and the fact that they have immediately concealed an investigation on the issue of the pushbacks is testimony of that. I will now go back on the situation of 2015 and 2016 when we caused many people dying on the Aegean Sea trying to get from Turkey into Greece and then to Germany, Sweeden, the Netherlands etc. And I am happy that Germany and we -were holding at that time the rotating presidency of the EU- were able to negotiate the EU and Turkey agreement on curtailment to the freedom of movement of refugees. By which indeed Turkey is a buffer zone country for people to stay. And Turkey at this moment is hosting over 3 million Syrian refugees in the South of Turkey in closed, controlled and isolated camps and also in the local communities. What this country is trying to do is to build a wall in the outer borders of the European Union. It is a lot of Police Stations, Detention Centres, Border Guard Posts, Fences, Anti-tank Modes, Minefields, Watchtowers that countries have who are lying on the outside like Italy, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, and also Poland and Greece, and there is an extremely difficult situation. What I don’t want again is for people to take boats that are not fully equipped to pass the Mediterranean or to pass the Aegean Sea, to die in those circumstances. I want them to stay there [ in Turkey ], to be buffer zone, and then we are willing as European Union to take a unfair share of people from Africa, from Turkey – refugees, in line with the plans devised in 2015 and 2016. So this is my answer and I wish that your question has been answered
#2 "we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey as we have the right to do in accordance with European regulations""What this country is trying to do is to defend the outer borders of the European Union" "It is a lot of tasks that countries have who are lying on the outside"
What is that in this the with that are this country with a of of
in of of we are this the we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey as we have the right to do in accordance with European regulations the to come to Turkey
the on the on who have in from a country to that who are in Turkey are in is in the on
have a on we have the right to in to of of in
the on to to have to have
come this
on this
in the that to
to with with with to to we in the
is we the to this of
that this this is the the that have on the of the is of that
on the of we on the trying to from Turkey to the that we that the of the to the Turkey
Turkey is a country to
Turkey this is in the of Turkey in in the
What this country is trying to do is to defend the outer borders of the European Union
It is a lot of tasks that countries have who are lying on the outside is
What is to boats that are to the to the to in
to in Turkey to we are as European Union to a of from from Turkey in with the in
this is that
Online publication of the interface
...And I wish that your question has been answered interface
![thumb]](/mediadesign/File:Interface_form.jpg)
![thumb]](/mediadesign/File:Archive_of_Repetitive_answers.jpg)
Zines for the launch event with an answer made by us
We created several zines for the launch event. Each zine had consisted of the original question and the original answer + an answer that we each one of us created through our functions
![thumb]](/mediadesign/File:277212447_677150646857991_854869514669607839_n.jpg)