User:Pleun/grad/Proposal1stversion

Word count 1500 max.

What are you working on now?

I am working on multiple projects at the moment:

WORM (I am doing an internship at WORM, because I wanted to have a place next to graduation where I can produce without thinking too much. I am making quick posters, books, maps etc.)
Bits of Freedom (I am designing for the Big Brother Awards 2016 of Bits of Freedom. An identity and small publication)
XPUB (I joined the first-years in their prototyping sessions)

What are you thinking of making?

Last year I started multiple research projects, but they never fully developed. I am thinking of further developing one now, but it's hard for me to choose. So I will write them out to help me make a decision.

The legend of Jon Postel / Two minutes of Jon Postel; God of the Internet
The Line

Jon Postel

At the end of the last century one man tried to take back power in a time when the influence of the American government over the internet was growing. He redirected all data to flow via his own server, basically making him the one guy having power over that data. They say it lasted about two minutes, before a government official on the phone with the university director shut it down and took power back. Freedom through dictatorship.

I am very interested in this moment, because it marks a very important shift in behaviour of government towards the network. Next to that I'm interested in what it is that creates a legend. Could Jon Postel with a second (digital) life have influence on the web today?

The Line

This project is a bit harder to explain, because it entails so much. I thought about it too much, but also too little in a structured way. It started with trying to create a Technology of the Self and ended up touching subjects of sensory deprivation/overload (and the commodification of it), privacy, mass surveillance and public/private space. I was writing an essay for Steve about Technology of the Self in a society of control. How can we still get to know ourselves when we are in a constant state of performance and a by ourself created commodified version of ourselves. Is it an illusion that there is anything underneath this layer or are we becoming our public character. Do we have to be almost schizophrenic and create a private and public version of ourselves?

Meanwhile I was doing two little projects:

How do you plan to make it?

Describe how you will go about conducting your research through reading, writing and practice. In other words, through a combination of these approaches, you will explore questions or interests you have laid out in your general introduction. In this section you can help us understand how your project will come together on a practical level and talk about possible outcome(s). Of course, the outcome(s) may change as your research evolves, but it's important to have some idea of how your project might come together as a whole.

Why do you want to make it?

Who can help you and how?

Relation to previous practice

How does your research connect to previous projects you have done? Here you can use the descriptions you made in the first session or make new descriptions

Relation to a larger context

Meaning practices or ideas that go beyond the scope of your personal work. Write briefly about other projects or theoretical material which share an affinity with your project. For example, if you are researching urban interventions, you might want to research about Situationist approaches to psychogeography, urban tactical media and activist strategies of reclaiming the streets. Or, if you want to explore the way data is tracked, you might touch upon the politics of data mining by referencing concerns laid out by the Electronic Frontier or highlight theoretical questions raised by Wendy Chun or others. (Keep in mind that we are *not* expecting well formulated conclusions or persuasive arguments in the proposal phase. At this juncture, it's simply about showing an awareness of a broader context, which you will later build upon as your research progresses.)

Thesis Intention

References

A list of references (Remember that dictionaries, encyclopedias and wikipedia are not references to be listed. These are starting points which should lead to more substantial texts and practices.) As with your previous essays, the references need to be formatted according to the Harvard method.)

Feel free to include any visual material to substantiate, illustrate or elucidate your proposal. For example use images to reference your work or that of others.

Back to Main Project Seminar:

https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Graduate_Seminar_2015-2016