User:E.zn/ppo2

______________________________________________________________________________________ Project Proposal

_____________ 1. What do you want to make?

This project is taking several interlinked routes: web-based applications, command line tools, and autonomous servers and networks. Its development is tied to and informed by my research into DIY tools and methods implemented by the individuals and collectives for the purpose of either coping with the limitations imposed upon them or in search of ways to operate outside the established systems and techniques.  Furthermore, the prototypes I have been working on define my project on a practical level:
-- I started out by running a web server on RPi at my place and hosting a website leverburns.blue
    --- The flexibility and autonomy that comes with it gives me freedom and inclination to modify and try things out on it on a regular basis.
-- Used Terminado to make my server terminal available via browser at leverburns.blue/x, which is also displayed on an index page.
    --- Executing this python script brings some sense of vulnerability for me; exposing my server this way gets personal. At the same time it is interesting to bring a terminal in a browser setting and let others in remotely.
-- Used netcat to chat and send files between machines.
    --- I'm drawn how to-the-point and simple this tool is.
-- Tried setting up piratebox [piratebox.cc]. Although it didn't go through, I'm going to implement this idea idea in a different way, as having a local/offline server with file upload/download options is important for me in this process.
-- I am hosting an Etherpad instance on my RPi at eth.leverburns.blue
    --- I'm using this tool more often after self-hosting it.

_____________ 2. How do you plan to make it?

My thesis and project are interconnected, which means further prototyping is integral to my process as my findings are reflected in my practice. As a method of developing the project I'm taking two opposite approaches simultaneously: 
    
--------- Bottom-up

    -- Learning python : we've used this language in past special issues and it helped us implement wide variety of ideas.
    -- Familiarizing myself with basic hardware/electrical engineering : to gain more understanding of hardware hacking/repair and hardware-software communication.
    -- Going further with command line : I use it daily and wish to explore it more.

    This way of working is important to me as knowing the tools gives me insights and clues to new ideas
 
--------- Top-down

    -- Picking up and/or combining the chunks of already existing codes and resources to implement concrete ideas during prototyping.

_____________ 3. What is your timetable?

-- October-December 
    --- Keep experimenting with different tools, threading and molding these processes into specific ideas.
    --- Implement self-hosting practices
    --- Start learning Python
    --- Start learning the basics of hardware/electrical engineering
    --- Explore command line more
    --- Thesis research
    --- Draft of the 1st chapter of thesis
    --- Start conducting interviews

-- January-February
    --- Focused prototyping 
    --- Keep going with Python
    --- Keep going with hardware/electrical engineering
    --- Explore command line more
    --- Py.rate.chnic workshop
    --- Continue the thesis reasearch
    --- Conduct more interviews
    --- Prepare the first draft of the thesis

-- March-April
    --- Write the second draft of the thesis
    --- Nearing the final phase of prototyping
    --- Write the final version of the thesis

-- May-June
    --- Finalize the project
    --- Prepare for the grad show

_____________ 4. Why do you want to make it?

'When people say "technology" these days, they generally mean IMPOSED ENVIRONMENTS.' -- Ted Nelson

Technologies have specific intent behind them, they are not arbitrary or neutral, and their prevalence means us having to play on someone else's terms and in accordance to their interests. This exacerbates in proportion to pervasiveness of a specific technological instance and the powers it allocates to people behind it.
I want to operate in a 'blank'/paranodal space, outside the established system while unavoidably being part of it in many ways. I want independence from imposed environments and gain flexibility while still existing within them and having an experience of building the tools from ground up and fostering the possibilities to modify them to  fit my ideas  and needs serves this purpose precisely. I want to make a useful tool for myself and anyone interested. This has a potential to go beyond the tool and expand/mutate/connect in a practical sense, through knowledge-sharing and setting off the conversations.

_____________ 5. Who can help you and how?

Michael Murtaugh and Manetta Berends : technical implementation and feedback on contextualizing

_____________ 6. Relation to previous practice

-- Several years ago I made a sound installation for which i conducted a desk research on Facebook black-box and associative memory to better understand the effect of the platform on its users. The interface design in conjunction with the ways humans form and retrieve memories made it easier to form biases and keep the users entangled in the platform. [This work also involved field recordings of the prominent local [Dnipro] areas, which were later distorted and 'bent' by the installation itself.]

This time around i want to approach the matters from an active position, rather than solely investigating them.

-- The way we used the tools out of necessity in relation to the idea during the past special issues is valuable to me, because it centers the purpose and process in its approach and not the tools themselves.