Second assessment
11.12.2023
S P E C I A L I S S U E 1 9 - G A R D E N L E E S Z A A L
https://issue.xpub.nl/19/index.html
S P E C I A L I S S U E 2 0 - C O N S O L E
https://issue.xpub.nl/20/index.html
S P E C I A L I S S U E 2 1 - T T Y
https://issue.xpub.nl/21/index.html
This issue started from a single technical object: a Model 33 Teletype machine. The teletype is the meeting point between typewriters and computer interfaces, a first automated translator of letters into bits. Equipped with a keyboard, a transmitter and a punchcard read-writer, it is a historical link between early transmission technology such as the telegraph and the Internet of today. Under the administration of Martino Morandi each week hosted a guest contributor who joined us in unfolding the many cultural and technical layers that we found strdtifies in such a machine, reading them as questions to our involvements with computing and with networks.
The format of the issue consisted of on an on-going publishing arrangement, constantly re-considered.. the Briki, the Breadbrick, the Worm Blob. A plan to release weekly bricks was roofed by a shared understanding of time into something more complex in structure, less structured in complexity.
CARE-TAKING MAPS
Initially, the week's caretakers were responsible for collecting materials from our guest contributions, which included lectures, collective readings, hands-on exercises, an excursion to the Telecom Museum, Rotterdam and another to Constant, Brussels. The caretakers were responsible for recording audio, editing notes, transcribing code, taking pictures. Meanwhile the week's editors were responsible for coming up with a further step in how the publishing progressed, by adding new connections and interfaces, creating languages, plotting strikes and cherishing memories.
INSCRIPTION EXERCISES
Teletypewriters ushered in a new mode of inscription of writing: if the typewriter set up a grid of letters and voids of the same size, turning the absence of a letter (the space) into a key itself (the spacebar), the teletypewriter finished it by inscribing the space in the very same material as all other letters: electrical zeros and ones, that were to immediately leave the machine. The Teletype Model 33, one of the most widely produced and distributed text-based terminals in the 1970s, introduced multiple technological concretizations that are present in the computers of today as a sort of legacy, such as the qwerty keyboard with control keys, the ascii character encoding and the TTY terminal capability. We have created short-circuits that allow us to remember otherwise technical progress and computational genealogies.
1st RELEASE - CONCRETE POETRY
GESTURE GLOSSARY
The aim is to see if a gesture glossary works and how it will work best. Also to see what kind of different interpretations there will be on gestures of our memory. To test the gesture glossary idea, and see what different meanings appear or already exist in the current vocabulary. Putting next to each other different agreements on linguistic and body units, testing what makes sense. Investigating and playing with communicational channels in between us, how a body language is documented, how it expands, how it is capable of creating or enhancing identities. To be an xpub means to speak/perform the xpub language?
TELETYPE ZINE
This zine, meant to be held in hands, contains abstract(ion)s of images, notes, writings and fingerprints left by Femke, Martino, and xpub1 on a 4 sq.m paper in mid-May 2023 during class. Following instructions we (Aglaia, Irmak and Boyana) wrote for ourselves and enforced them voluntarily upon us, we used the teletype machine to create new images out of everyone's input. We embraced the TTY's all possibilities and limitations like interface, speed, character set, and paper, and turned the machine into a medium, our means of abstraction. In that sense, we approached everyone's input (the big roll of paper) as a data source, and through a set of specific actions, performed by the three of us on the teletype, we abstracted details (fractions) of the plot to focus the attention while leaving space for contingency and open interpretation.
STRIKE
https://issue.xpub.nl/21/strike/index.html
Inspired by the "The Phantom of the Operator" documentary, our project delved into the unusual idea of a website going on strike. Engaging in discussions both inside and outside the classroom, we explored the nature of strikes, labor actions, and the often overlooked realm of invisible labor. As our ideas took shape and questions arose, we realized that disrupting the functionality of the XPUB & Lens-Based Media Wiki, a platform where PZI people regularly access information, could have a significant impact. Initially, we considered redirecting all the links to SI21's page or a Manifesto, effectively occupying the Wiki. However, considering the imminent assessment weeks for XPUB and LBM, we decided against interfering with users' daily wiki experience and workflow. Instead, we embraced a different approach to realize our idea while preserving the Wiki's main functionality. Our solution was to unveil the previously unseen labor and highlight its significance. We added specific texts to corresponding wiki pages, seamlessly integrating them into the current SI21 sub-release. To distinguish these pieces of text as additions and explanations, we placed them on top of each page with the "wiki comments" command, and thus rendering them as hidden elements, i.e. invisible on page load. This allowed us to provide comprehensive details about our intentions and the underlying ideas while maintaining the wiki's regular functionality.
HEXALOGUE
OVERLAP WEBSITE
We have a bag full of planets, stars, our favorite moments, darkest fears, best intentions and worst feelings. We contain them and sometimes they overlap each other. Sometimes we are happy and sad; sometimes we forget why we were even mad in the beginning. But we also share some of these moments or galaxies that reside in our bags with other souls. We remember the same moment through a different window. We remember that day as cold, whereas they remember it as warm. One by one, these moments create one snapshot of the reality. The reality we create collectively. We sometimes trust our memories and our memories always trust us. We overlap, we crawl through the memory lane. We go silently through the gates of space and time, we exchange our sights with each other and for one spectacular moment, all the stars in our bags spill and we get to see through each others' eyes. Our bag is now in the middle, its ready for you to discover and see the networks of our minds, make knots in the middle or intervene with what we call is a collective memory of few xpubbers.