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Get involved with Etherpad at http://etherpad.org 1 . Data portrait of a potato
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[NL] De verse aardappel die we op de markt kopen heeft hoogstwaarschijnlijk heel andere sporen nagelaten in onze digitale data-architecturen dan de ingevroren aardappel waarmee de fameuse 'Mitraillette' wordt gemaakt in de snackbar verderop. Ook de zoete aardappel, aardappelzetmeel of de machines waarmee de aardappels worden gerooid, en oh ja, ook de mensen die ze telen en verkopen; allen zijn ze vertegenwoordigd met labels en cijfers in databanken over export en import in de Europese Unie, in België, in het Brussels Gewest en misschien ook wel in de gemeente Brussel. Op basis van die cijfers worden grote verdragen onderhandeld zoals onder andere het TTIP, het Trans-Atlantisch Vrijhandels- en Investeringsverdrag tussen Europa en de VS. In samenwerking met mensen uit de buurt, maar ook met een experte als Karin Ulmer, die al meer dan tien jaar de Europese en internationale voedingspolitiek op de voet volgt, creëren we speelse maar kritische portretten van de aardappel in al zijn data-connecties en -disconnecties.

[ENG] The fresh potato we buy at the market will most probably have left very different traces in our digital data-architectures than the frozen sliced potato that is used for the famous 'Mitraillette' in the closest snackbar. Also the sweet potato, the potato flour or the machines that are used to harvest the potato, and oh yes, the people who cultivate and distribute them, all of them are represented with labels and numbers in databases about export and import in the European Union, in Belgium, in the Region of Brussels and who knows, also in the town of Brussels? Big treaties are being negociated based ont hese numbers, like f.e. the TTIP, The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between Europe and the US. 
In collaboration with people from the neighbourhood, but also with an expert like Karin Ulmer, who has been following the European and international food policies for more than ten years, we will create playful but critical portraits of the potato in all its data connections and disconnections.



do we take a political stand in here? is it possible not to take position?
we need clear reason why we want to work on this
"a portrait of the potato"
as a way to interrogate the agreement/the neighbourhood.... tools is the statistics potato as methodology.
-> can be abstract work on the statistics
-> interview people who grow them, fight against GMO-potato
present as a game: look at potato & all its data-attachments/detachments
go in the neighbourhood, look at different species present, if they're represented in the statistics
Karin talking about the context of the TTIP agreement



0701         Potatoes, fresh or chilled
0701         potatoes, fresh or chilled
0710         Vegetables (uncooked or cooked by steaming or boiling in water), frozen
0710 10         potatoes
0712         Dried vegetables, whole, cut, sliced, broken or in powder, but not further prepared
0712 90 05         potatoes, whether or not cut or sliced but not further prepared
0714         Manioc, arrowroot, salep, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes and similar roots and tubers with high starch or inulin content, fresh, chilled, frozen or dried, whether or not sliced or in the form of pellets; sago pith
0714         Manioc, arrowroot, salep, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes and similar roots and tubers with high starch or inulin content, fresh, chilled, frozen or dried, whether or not sliced or in the form of pellets; sago pith
0714 20         Sweet potatoes
1105         Flour, meal, powder, flakes, granules and pellets of potatoes
1105         Flour, meal, powder, flakes, granules and pellets of potatoes
1108         Starches; inulin
1108 13         potato starch
2001         Vegetables, fruit, nuts and other edible parts of plants, prepared or preserved by vinegar or acetic acid
2001 90 40         Yams, sweet potatoes and similar edible parts of plants containing 5 % or more by weight of starch
2001 90 97 81         potatoes and products thereof
 2004         Other vegetables prepared or preserved otherwise than by vinegar or acetic acid, frozen, other than products of heading 2006
2004 10         potatoes
2005         Other vegetables prepared or preserved otherwise than by vinegar or acetic acid, not frozen, other than products of heading 2006
2005 20         potatoes
2008         Fruit, nuts and other edible parts of plants, otherwise prepared or preserved, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter or spirit, not elsewhere specified or included
2008 99 91         Yams, sweet potatoes and similar edible parts of plants, containing 5 % or more by weight of starch
8433         Harvesting or threshing machinery, including straw or fodder balers; grass or hay mowers; machines for cleaning, sorting or grading eggs, fruit or other agricultural produce, other than machinery of heading 8437
8433 53 10         potato diggers and potato harvesters

http://exporthelp.europa.eu/thdapp/comext/ComextServlet?action=output&viewName=eur_partners&simDate=20130101&languageId=en&ahscode1=20019040&cb_reporters=000&cb_partners=all&list_years=2013&measureList=iv&measureList=ev


Meeting Karin 20-10
http://www.grain.org/
website on cqrrelations-TTIP

*   before: people read documents with the basics of TTIP (Q&A by the   Greens), maybe choose their own dataset to bring (experiences,   sentiments, games, and numbers...)
check/find Human Scale Development (Barefoot Economics) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Max_Neef
* look at one product in detail & gather the data: ex. potato vs corn/gmo ('mais has a lot of data') or trademark seeds
http://exporthelp.europa.eu
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu
http://www.ustr.gov/
on seeds: http://www.worldseed.org/isf/home.html
http://www.euroseeds.org/
http://www.amseed.org/
neonicotinoide (?) (bees dying) // link to film about people pollinizing
* media coverage : bilaterals.org
Departing of TTIP and going plurilateral, Pierre Defraignet

Karin working for Aprodev (member of Concord), in your own capacity
http://www.concordeurope.org/
Karel De Gucht on Gemran TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnOTyOjV4I4



Starting point is a dataset that is used in policy making/regulations & practises

Proposal by Karin Ulmer 
http://www.aprodev.eu/
    prepare some cases that are taken into the TTIP http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/
     Negociations are lead from an ideological model that puts € up front -  economics of scale-, and leads to more distance between humans and  nature, the products that feed them and the way they are produced (based  on ideas by Jan Douwe Vanderploeg, Universiteit Wageningen http://www.jandouwevanderploeg.com) .  All trade is measured by only one criteria: the yield of corn  (opbrengst); are not taken into account : the amount of insecticide, the  amount of soil, water needed to produce it...). Also a kilo of potatoes  has a an ecological footprint. And what if we would look at the true  cost of agricultural production? It would show how inefficient the  current TTIP is.
    Proposal to look at other patterns for growth.

Karin  mail: "... Am re-reading a bit of  Tony Lawson, Cambridge based  economist -  the key problem for any change  of economic politics is to  go beyond the models ie data fed,  computerised mathematical general  equilibrium models. Hence, art needs  or could come in. Ideology won’t  help. He said that at any university  these days, you could teach  leftish or right-ish economics, nobody  really cares, but you MUST USE  COMPUTERISED MODELs as a method! 
On   the data, there is much more. I can do a bit of research beforehand on   the food streams and food production and energy systems, which would  be  worthwhile or could be used by myself for other purposes as well,  so  could be done. 
And   yes, I’m in this with much of myself, keen to see or explore what ways   and means can crack the ‘machine’ (at risk of becoming a totalitarian   system), expose the naked emperor, or as you put it – de-throne the   algorithm. "

'Brussels Fritten':
Pommes  have 5568 CO2 units while an organic potatoe has 138 CO2 emissions.  Hence, 40 times as much. Conclusion:  Kartoffelsuppe essen!   J 
Source: eco institute in Darmstadt, Germany 
Es   gäbe aber auch eine einfachere Faustformel: Mit jeder   Verarbeitungsstufe eines Lebensmittels verschlechtert sich die   Ökobilanz. So hat nach Untersuchungen des Ökoinstituts Darmstadt eine   Biokartoffel einen geradezu babyhaften CO2-Fußabdruck von 138   CO2-Äquivalenten. Als Trockenpulver für Kartoffelpüree ist der Abdruck   schon ausgewachsene 3354 Einheiten groß. Und  in Form von Pommes aus  der Tiefkühltruhe ist die Klima-Fußspur  riesenhaft: 5568 Einheiten, das  ist 40 Mal so viel wie im Rohzustand. Egal also, wie groß das Biosiegel auf der Pommes-Packung leuchtet, nachhaltig sind Tiefkühl-Pommes nie.
http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/energie/lebensmittel-wie-gut-ist-bio-wirklich-seite-4/5154090-4.html

-> idea to go into discussion with Kate Rich, Barbara Van Dyck 
Both seems a bit out of focus for Karin
Kate's  Feral Trade project seems to be more about an alternative informal way  of distribution, can be interesting as an alternative to work with http://www.feraltrade.org
GMO's  are a domain in itself, on which there is an ongoing non-discussion  with very clear arguments contra and pro; the risk is high that focus  will be displaced http://www.fieldliberation.org/en/

-> if Karin is interested in artist perspective, there need to be her expertise  present every day, in order to keep exchanging, discussing.... (Karin  could possibly come for 1 h a day if it is early morning or late  afternoon...)

-> proposal to work on it all together, for 1 week and to organise different subgroups, a department of mapping f.i.

-> the link to Brussels starts to feel a bit artificial (30-9)
De  thema's  draaien rond de verschillende soorten data die door een stad  stromen en  die de dagelijkse realiteit vormen waar we deel van  uitmaken; de  recursieve impact van data op de realiteit die ze  vertegenwoordigd is  verschillend, links kunnen bestaan van lokaal,  Europees naar globaal


Possible 'departments/guests' could be mapping/quantification/regeneration departments or:

* local
Le Début des Haricots? Citymined (water/garden)
Calafou river analysis: http://biolab.tachanka.org/river.html // http://hackteria.org/wiki/DIY_Fluids_Narratives
Rafaela's maps for Parlez-vous St Gilles?

* policy making
Parl-track 
EPFSUG 
NURPA


* mapping -> routes in the city (who has the dataset? who is the data-expert)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system
It might be interesting to look at how Gis systems are apparently already widely used in policy making on the territory..
geographical tool like Open Street Map is not linked to qualitative data, like f.ex. most current names in certain neighbourhood
-> Pierre Huyghebaert, Pierre Marchand - worked with Olivier Bastin on linking geographical and cadastral data
dataset: BIS/surveillance maps/Open Street Map
-> League de Droits de l'Homme & Antoinette Rouvroy

Martino: I had a chat with a classmate of mine who is also architect, we
talked about GIS systems, which is mapping the city with data basically.
He explained that in Berlin it's apparently already used a lot, the new
developments plan are drawn on the basis of GIS mapping of a
naieghbourhood.. (ie. cost per sq meter, income of residents, etc..)
I find it quite interesting, I'm trying to get him involved cos it would
be nice to revive the "city" track http://www.mybrugis.irisnet.be/MyBruGIS/brugis/
meanwhile in berlin: http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/geoinformation/fis-broker/

some propaganda on big data and a big city: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/03/big_data_excerpt_how_mike_flowers_revolutionized_new_york_s_building_inspections.html   
"Their  method was inherently inexact, but the vast amount of data they  were  able to use more than compensated for the imperfections"


* ecological
-> VTI???


Communicatienetwerken
Sociale media, privacy, telefoon, internet, maar ook: mond op mond - word to mouth - bouche à l'oreille :
Wie bezit de communicatiekanalen ? (Telekommunisten), ? Hoe ziet fysiek condities van een datapakket eruit (Bitnik + Assange)
Hoe komen we aan datasets :-)  ? 
Mogelijke 'kerngasten' 
Seda Gürses, Bits of Freedom, Dimitry Kleiner
Joey  de Jong (Waag Society) works on the project Open Kaart (being   honest)   where they have built a website to make comprehensible what   actually   happens to your data. Answer a few questions and discover  how  many   agencies know you and what happens with your information.
http://www.newhorizonsfestival.nl/nhf_programma/wat-weet-de-stad-van-jou/

Other possiblities:
Energie:
Verkeer,  aanpassing van leefritmes en routines, bio-energie, aardstralen,  brandstof, grote bedrijven, electrabel, audio volkswagen ford ...  windenergie
Misschien leent dit thema zich voor het genereren van data ? (windmolen, EMF stralen .. ) 
hmmm ik denk dat we nog even over de relevantie moeten nadenken
Voorbeeldproject, maar niet zo positief: dirtyenergymoney.com

Transport
We hebben hte gehad over de stoplichten politiek en het hacken van flitscamera's omdat hun ip adres op de box genoteerd staat. 
Als  'transport' anders zou heten: 'mobiliteit' .. misschien kunnen we dan  kijken of Open Streetmap open data in de aanbieding heeft ? of de stad  Brussel ?
of naar de datapolitiek van STIB ?
look for databike ... 
harley davidson bikers and data truckers ?


Migratie (this seems a large and complicated topic, well known, risk to fall into what we know already, proposal to stay on sthg light)
Een  groot voordeel van dit thema is dat de data direct een politieke kleur  heeft, en ook dat het over mensen gaat. Wie woont hier al dan niet  legaal, waarvandaan en waarheen, hoe definieer je afkomst religie recht  in cijfers ? 
Met  migratie als thema halen we een mogelijkheid binnen om het te hebben  over EU werkers versus sans papiers. Misschien vinden we actiegroepen,  stadsdiensten die over cijfers beschikken (BIS, .... )