disco- Recording of a conversation with Merel Noordman, 2 July 2016 21:03:46-21:35:22, Arnhem (NL) http://gentle-demo.lowerquality.com/transcriptions/cf979102/ Transcribed through: https://lowerquality.com/gentle/ and https://trint.com/ Disco- Discou-rse Disco-re Disco-rd Disco-rdian Church Disco-RD aka (Research and Development, RoBOTic Definition, RoBOTic Democracy, RoBOTic Dancefloor, RoBOTic Deconstruction, RoBOTic Destabilization, Resolution Definition, Relevant Democracy Robotic Dilligence, Robotic Doppelgänger, Robotic Definition, Rational Dilligence) Digital Intell Spatial Coordination Org From Disco to Disco http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2d4bd_whirlpool-from-disco-to-disco_music http://sentence.yourdictionary.com/discord Discord may allow for computation! Why did Eris throw the golden apple? Because of Eris' disagreeable nature she was the only goddess not to be invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. When she turned up anyway, she was refused admittance and, in a rage, threw a golden apple amongst the goddesses inscribed "To the fairest." The collective form of research Research often is a predetermined process that involves multiple agents that are located in different spaces, organizations, formats, media, places and times. Those agents are organised according to various patterns, rhythms, hierarchies, and protocols. For example, the academic framework defines multiple tiers that are granted different forms and quantities of agency: canonical figure, Professor, assistant Professor, Principal Investigator, lecturer, graduate student, undergraduate student, and research subject. The different tiers imply a flow of theory and critique (downwards) and primary or "raw" content (upwards). The institutional context prioritises written documents in order to archive and expand the knowledge it contains. These structures offer an illusory architecture of knowledge and condition/limit the ways in which "conversation" is part of the process of doing research. When conditioned by institutional research institutes, conversational practices take place in highly formalized settings, like the conference and the lecture. Only when organized in these formations the outcomes of conversations are acknowledged as "knowledge". In more collective forms of doing research, the question how conversations ought to be conducted and what gets recognized as knowledge and insight is itself part of a collective process. We'd like to imagine this collective process in terms of a dance. On the other hand, a conversational framework relies more on a social code which can be respected or disrespected) and a channeling of data and knowledge into individual vocal expressions in a sequence. We want to think of conversation as a dance. The conversation can be transcribed or technologically mediated, but that process always introduces other logics or information into the conversation (and thus alters its recorded form). Could research also operate as a dancefloor? We talk a lot, but don't dance nearly enough. What distinctive qualities could a computational contributor bring to a conversation? *How would one be able to recognise 'it' to be non human? *Would it be more concerned by humility? *Would this be a form of otherness without suffering? *Does that mean there are no consequences to its presence? *When does that suffering goes away? *What conditions of the conversation cause this suffering and how can these be addressed by disco-? *How does it interfere with the geometrical setup of a conversation, and the hierarchy that lies within it (also think of language and habitus)? *How does it operate differently from protocols already installed through conversational habits in a meeting, parlament etc? *In what ways would disco-'s presence have changed both the ways in which conversations took place during this retreat as well as its outcomes? http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2d4bd_whirlpool-from-disco-to-disc The dancefloor as paradigm We talk a lot, but don't dance nearly enough. So how can conversation [and subsequently research?] be more like a dancefloor? Dancefloors are complex spaces that operate based on some implicit understandings: 0. Disco Rituals, the preparation before the disco, i.e. Shaping your Disco body: The disco nap, hygiene of body, getting in the mood, choice of clothes , contacting your disco buddies. *All bodies are sharing the same spatial framework at the same scale. *Each body has an independence of motion that is relative (mutually inclusive or exclusive, depending on the free will of each body) to the independence of motion of all other bodies. *Each body has a simultaneity of motion that is coextensive with the simultaneity of motion of all other bodies. *The expressive capacity of each body may be unequal and subject to several determinative factors: expertise, bravery, will, imagination, familiarity, acceptance, freedom, normativity, ability, free time, implicit or explicit codes of conduct. *The dancefloor may encourage or discourage inequalities through different factors: price of entry, public versus domestic setting, legal status, dress code, darkness, volume, accessibility of audience to DJ, level of intoxication, legal status and enforcement for various intoxicants, sexual orientation, gender, race, class. *Participation in the dancefloor can assume different registers. These include but are not limited to: improvised expressive dancing; choreographed expressive dancing; choreographer; chaperone; wallflower; barfly; bartender; disc-jockey; lighting controller; technician; cleaner; bouncer/ID-checker; policeman; drugdealer; poledancers; bathroom attendant; ... *Spaces in Disco, Bar, VIP Room, Backstage, Restrooms, DJ Desk On computational transcription To outsource the work of listening to two constellations of softwares (one an experimental software called 'gentle aligner' and the other an on-line service called 'xxxx') means that disco- is already part of the conversation. How text-to-speech 'works'. "Forced aligners are computer programs that take media files and their transcripts and return extremely precise timing information for each word (and phoneme) in the media" [gentle] Both (check) use the principle of 'alignment' to match the input (a soundfile) to pre-existing language models, in order to arrive at a level of [an impression of] accuracy. Analyse a sample in gentle vs. one in dragon. Talk about the ingredients for processing; different levels of access/interrogation possible (license, publicness, interface). Difference between the audio document and the text-file as a trace of a live event. How do we grant it importance? Why would we listen to it? Nudging? Should everyone have sympathy for it? Does it have to be authorative? Conclusively, through the metaphor of the dancefloor we address the ambiguous Cartesian dualism and distinction between the "immaterial" mind and "material" body. The metaphor or geometry of the dancefloor can be considered a tool to overcome this outdated notion of the separation of body and mind. The immateriality of the disco bot or the "discourse"....please ad What issues could disco- address? I think disco- can help create a better balance between content and context of conversations. Moments of disruption/frustration/blocking of conversational flow often come from an unacknowledged or unequally acknowledged disconnect between content and context of conversation: for example: when institutions organize group conversations with the stated aim to make their institution more multiplicit, some, often the ones who are “the others” might perceive it as a problem when the usual suspects are the loudest and most present in this conversation. Yet, there might still be a normative culture in place that prevent people from critically addressing this disconnect resulting in "the others" being put on the spot for speaking out. Or to bring the question to a concrete example of this retreat: Ex. sat evening: we aim to have an open group discussion on ethics and artificial intelligence. One participant gets worked up on issues he has with the ethics of the conversation itself: according to him some people speak a lot while others don’t get heard, which result in him being angry and respond in a way that is countereffective in the sense that it does *not* make more room for the "other" voices/for multiplicity. Perhaps disco- could have intervened here in a way that would allow this person himself, and others who didn’t speak up more, to add to the conversation without the frustration and tension that now came with it. Perhaps disco- could help generate common ground by re-aligning content and context of the conversation. Playfully suggesting a change of theme/topic/approach that addresses this person's frustration in a way that is constructive to the conversation itself in terms of its topic. So, disco- should be able to sense the disconnect and respond to it. It should also have a sense of autonomy in this respect, so, not only "respond" to participants' frustrations but also indicate on its own accord when, according to disco-, there is a disconnect. Common issue with group conversations is not merely that there is a lack of common ground, but often the absence of awareness that there is no common ground, or that the ground on which people stand has shifted. This is the additional information/awareness/intervention that disco- could bring; either by generating common ground or by enabling a situation in which multiplicit conversation can take place without common ground. What? FS: I would like disco- to be an experiment with the figure of the invited outsider. Because it does not have to suffer from it (it doesn't?), it could wondering about how it operates (or not) through awkwardness, embarassment, tension, difference. It does a privilege check. It invites additional outsiders into the conversation. It shifts the register (talks about sex. brings up the body) Rupture, Interference, Stop, Pause, Play, " Rewind Selecta" (DJ Music Lingo) In the moment of rupture the hierarchies within a conversation, the entanglements are made visible. :-) hear hear anything else it could or should make visible/tangible/perceivable? the lights are low. we can only recognize shapes, gestures, speed and movement. we recognize it through its patterns, through the way we envision ourself mimicing, dancing with. it speaks the same language. Notes from 'Dance Dance Revolution' > intersting terms to describe the flow/timeline of the dance/research/discussion. *Stream - Indicates the overall density of the steps of the song. *Voltage - Indicates the peak density of the steps. *Chaos - Indicates "off-beat" steps; those that do not occur in 4th or 8th beats. *Air - Indicates the amount of double steps (i.e. jumps) and shock arrows within the song. *Freeze - Indicates the number of freeze arrows within the song Comment RoBOT as equalizer of speech of conflict RoBOT as equalizer within the realm of conversation The BOT is being incorporated by late capitalism