User:Pedro Sá Couto/Special Issue 8
Readings
The reading questions are meant to guide you through the text, so keep them in mind when reading the text.
Write down concepts that are new to you or difficult to grasp so they can be discussed in class.
Chantal Mouffe, Art & Democracy
https://readingpublicimage.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/mouffe_open14_p6-151.pdf
* What does the author mean by 'Agonism' * What does the author mean by 'Hegemony' * What does the author see as a 'Critical art practice'? * What four forms of 'critical art practices' does the author propose? * What is a critical art practice to you? Where could that practice take place?
Brian Larkin, The Politics And Poetics of Infrastructure
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155522
This text is meant as a general introduction to thinking about infrastructure for Anthropologists but it is a very good condensed overview of different approaches to interpreting infrastructure.
* What infrastructure are you currently using to go through this material? What systems are part of that infrastructure? * What is meant by the 'poetics of infrastructure?' * Why is discussing an infrastructure a categorical act? What is the consequence of this act of categorization? * What can be considered as a difference between a technology or system and an infrastructure? * How can an infrastructure operate as an aesthetic or 'fantastical' object?
Sarah Friend, Decentralization and Its Discontents
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km6EYsBYAlY (documentation of talk during Radical Networks, Berlin)
Homebrew homework (for next week):
Prepare for the infrastructour.
- find out the location of your home router
- figure out if you have physical access to it
- figure out the password of your router
- make sure there are free ethernet ports
- make sure there is power available next to your router (for your server)
- Feminist Server Manifesto (2014) -> https://pad.constantvzw.org/p/feministserver (up to line 32)
- What is a federated network? - http://networkcultures.org/unlikeus/resources/articles/what-is-a-federated-network/
homebrewserver.club, Have you considered the Alternative?
https://homebrewserver.club/have-you-considered-the-alternative.html / http://ilu.servus.at/issue9.html
* How can we situate the authors' claim that there are no alternatives? * According to the article, why does cryptography not fully address privacy-related concerns? * What justifies the authors' choice to advocate for alternative approaches, rather than particular apps? * How can 'scale and trust' be understood within the context of federated alternatives?
Zach Blas, Contra-Internet
https://www.e-flux.com/journal/74/59816/contra-internet/
* According to the author, what is the difference between 'disappearing the internet' and 'killing the internet'? * Is it accurate to establish a comparison between the internet and capitalism? Why? * How can we practically explore and perform the paranode as a concept?
Ulises Carrion, The New Art of Making Books
https://monoskop.org/images/4/4e/Carrion_Ulises_Second_Thoughts.pdf
Peter Blasser, An Essay on Worldmaking in Plumbutter
http://www.ciat-lonbarde.net/plumbutter/index.html
Aditya Mandayam, Crux of the Ooze