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#!/bin/bash
# TODO: Translate Levie (-> EN), Francois Schuiten (-> EN)
# WE DON'T LIVE IN THAT KIND OF WORLD
convert -background black -bordercolor black -size 1280x800 -fill white -pointsize 120 -border 50 -gravity center -font /home/fs/.fonts/UniversElse-Bold.ttf caption:"We don't live in that kind of world" slide.jpg;
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# INTRO
# The story I am about to tell is a succession of messy entanglements between corporate patronage and faltering local governments.
# In short: how a band of nepotist POLITICIANS squandered the archives of a culturally significant UTOPIAN, where tricked by a global MEGA-CORPORATION, and now are throwing an expensive party to celebrate their public failure under the motto «Investing In Your Future».
# Of course, there is a lot more to say.
# I watched the slow-motion tragedy unfold with astonishment and increasing frustration. It started by simply archiving the stream of newsletters, press releases, pictures and videos. With the help of friends in Mons, Brussels and elsewhere and also through occasions like this event, we're trying to find an angle of attack.
# So today I try again.
# Although set it in the murky social and political landscape of post-industrial Wallonia, 30 mins by train from Brussels (where I live), you will probably recognize many of the ingredients from your own context, or otherwise you have heard similar tales being told from elsewhere.
# [Google Buses]
# Otherwise said, none of the events are themselves exceptional but I think that is exactly the trouble.
###################################################################
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# A would-be cosmopolitan CAPITAL in Europe at the turn of the 19th century. The CAPITAL is flourishing since most of the colonial revenues end up here in one way or another. Scientists, business people, political activists and artists travel from all over the world to discuss new ideas at the numerous international organisations that are being established. In the nearby REGION, miners strike and poverty rules.
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# As a young man, Paul Otlet started to think about a system that could represent the multiple networked relations between objects of various formats with various objectives.
# The Universal Decimal Classification that he designed is specially interesting, because it was explicitly made to map multiple relations between multi-media objects (so not just books) and because it allows for constant transformation and modification.
# In that sense it has a different spirit than the the Dewey Decimal Classification that was developed at the same time by Melvil Dewey in the United States.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max '8-schema.png'
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# THE UTOPIAN was imagining his universal information structure through 'symbolic links' between documents, proposing a system that looks surprisingly similar to what we now might call a 'Semantic Web'.
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'From individual books, collective books are created. Instead of an encyclopedia limited and determined by a certain date, The Universal Book of Knowledge would be an unlimited work, always up to date, always growing, concentrating, absorbing, synthesizing, systematizing every intellectual product from the moment it is born.\n\nTraité sur la documentation, Paul Otlet (1913)' slide.jpg;
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# A concrete example of how this might have worked:
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'0 Generalities
1 Philosophy; Psychology
2 Religion; Theology
3 Social Sciences
4 [Vacant]
5 Natural Sciences; Mathematics
6 Technology
7 The Arts
8 Language; Linguistics; Literature
9 Geography; Biography; History' slide.jpg;
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convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'51 + 53 = Mathematics and chemistry
63:30 or 31:63 = Statistics relating to agriculture
339.5 (410/44) = Trade relations between the United Kingdom
and France 35
94(410)“19”(075) = History of the United Kingdom in the 20th
Century Textbook\n\n
Alex Wright: Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age (1913)' slide.jpg;
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# The idea of an evergrowing, ever-expanding connected index of all human knowledge that writes a collective book. A hypertextual idea of categorization. 0r as the HISTORIAN Alex Wright noted almost a century later:
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'It takes a meta-application like Google or Yahoo! to discover the broader relationships between documents (usually through some combination of syntax, semantics and reputation). But those relationships, however sophisticated the algorithm used to determine them, remain largely unexposed to the end user, never becoming an explicit part of the document’s history (…) Otlet’s vision holds out a tantalizing possibility: marrying the determinism of facets with the relativism of social networks.\n\nForgotten forefather: Paul Otlet, Alex Wright (2003)' slide.jpg;
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# Envisoning the Radiated library: interconnected media, knowledge served to your armchair.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'Multi_otlet.jpg'
# But for this to become a reality, much work had to be done: first helped by his wife and other volunteers, later by hired staff that produced millions of index cards by hands.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'wright_indexation.jpg'
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# The Universal Bibliography (Répertoire Bibliographique Universel) in 1895:
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'wright_1895_bibliography.jpg'
# ... and around 1910. Apparently you could telegraph to The Universal Bibliography to have your search executed, and have it sent back to you against a reasonable fee.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'paul-otlet-mlle-poels-fichiers.jpg'
#################################################
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'tumblr_mu37awUJT11rinrk9o3_1280.jpg'
# It is 1913. Thanks to the tireless support of THE STATESMAN and by patronage of THE KING, LE PALAIS MONDIAL has become a reality. Occupying the entire left-wing of the magnificient buildings erected for the world exhibition at Parc Cinquantenaire, THE prolific UTOPIAN displays an evergrowing collection of millions of objects, documents and fiches. LE PALAIS MONDIAL receives a steady stream of interested visitors. Very soon, World War I will break out.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'tumblr_mabb7fPJAv1qhe01n.jpg'
# With respected friend THE STATESMAN Henri Lafontaine, THE UTOPIAN Paul Otlet worked day and night to make the dream of LE PALAIS MONDIAL a reality. As a spatial extension to the Universal book, LE PALAIS MONDIAL aimed to gather together all the world's knowledge and classify it according to the Universal Decimal Classification system.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'mondial4.jpg'
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# When THE STATESMAN won a Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913, he donated half of the prize money to LE PALAIS MONDIAL. Also THE INDUSTRIAL, Carnegie, supports THE UTOPIAN with substantial funds.
mplayer -fs -ss 00:05 -endpos 01:50 'Andrew Carnegie au Musée International.mp4'
# Even when his scenography was worlds away from the visual and graphic finesse of his Viennese contemparies Marie and Otto Neurath, thousands of people would visit the rather eclectic displays, invited to connet all possible subjects to other subjects.
# Besides a place for gathering, disseminating and organising knowledge, Otlet and La Fontaine envision LE PALAIS MONDIAL as a platform for international exchange. Here they organized the International Conference of International Associations which was where the Union of International Associations, later United Nations, was established.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'palaismondial.png'
# World War I breaks out, and both sons of THE UTOPIAN are sent out to the battlefields nearby. His oldest son is taken prisoner by the Germans but manages to return after the war. His youngest son is reported missing in the Battle of the Yser but his body is never found.
# THE UTOPIAN is heartbroken but intensifies the work by turning LE PALAIS MONDIAL into a city of knowledge, THE MUNDANEUM. He interests the architect Le Corbusier to design THE MUNDANEUM CITY but he is not successful in convincing any high placed POLITICIAN, neither in Belgium nor abroad, to realise these grand ideas.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max LE CORBUSIER
# Unfortunately, Post World War I Belgium has lost interest in his work. Government support dries up and the endless rooms of displays are hard to maintain from his personal funds. And things get worse.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max '1934-affaire-palais-mondial.jpg'
# In 1934 the publicly accessible rooms at THE MUNDANEUM are closed to make place for the Royal Museum of Art and History. THE UTOPIAN is forced to move his displays to his own home at Rue Fetis. THE UTOPIAN holds a protest by posting himself in front of the door but it does not help.
# In 1944, the year that THE UTOPIAN dies, the German occupiers decide that also the archives and card catalogs of THE MUNDANEUM should be cleared out of the Cinquantenaire, to the former anatomical theatre in Parc Leopold, a derelict building just a few blocks further on.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'otlet_boeken.png'
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mplayer -fs -ss 17:11 -endpos 0:53 'xgvfqc_l-homme-qui-voulait-classer-le-monde-3-3_news.mp4'
# The archive has started a long journey around various buildings, garages and temporary storage places. Fragment from L’homme qui voulait classer le monde (Francoise Lavie).
# The association 'Amis du Palais Mondial' tries to take care of the archives, that remain in Parc Leopold more or less unnoticed until in 1975 a SCIENTIST working at the university of Chicago rediscovers them. He publishes the first biography of THE UTOPIAN, entitled "The Universe of Information: the Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organization".
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max otlet_ARCHIEF.png
# The rather dry and academic biography of THE UTOPIAN did clearly not get the attention it deserved, but it certainly contributed to spark the interest of the HISTORIAN. 40 years later, THE SCIENTIST is now close to his retirement, he relates the experience of finding the archive of THE UTOPIAN in Parc Leopold:
mplayer -fs -ss 0:29 -endpos 1:00 PaulOtletl_inventeurd_internet_.mp4
#################################################
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# 1990s. The former mining REGION is the homebase for the ambitious POLITICIAN. Since the last coal mines closed in the 1960s, THE REGION has had the highest unemployment ratio of THE COUNTRY. The Socialist Party to which THE POLITICIAN of course belongs, has been in power since time immemorial. For THE REGION the future does not look any brighter. ... strike and poverty rules.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'bio_l.jpg'
# In 1991, THE POLITICIAN was assigned by the Socialist Party to oversee the French-speaking Community's Ministry of Education and Audiovisual Policy. Later he became Minister for Communications and Public Undertakings, Minister for Economy, Minister for Telecommunications and Foreign Trade and eventually, much later, THE POLITICAN became prime-minister of THE COUNTRY.
# In the mean time, the archives of THE UTOPIAN, or what was left of it, had been moved from Parc Leopold to a garage somewhere in THE CAPITAL, waiting forever until the plans for a new museum would be realised on the -2 level of Metro station Rogier.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'nord_2008.jpg'
# The Socialist Party had two fractions. One, to which the caretaker of the archive belonged, was loyal to another REGION than THE REGION that the POLITICIAN belonged to and the armwrestling began.
# Until this day it is unclear what exactly happened, but in 1993 THE POLITICIAN succeeds in unwrestling the archive from the hands of his competing party members. Les Amis Du Palais Mondial hand over the responsibility for the archive to a newly created association, THE MUNDANEUM and the collection is moved from THE CAPITAL to a 19th century department store in THE REGION.
# A team of well-known SCENOGRAPHISTS is hired to design the display of the patrimony. In the following two fragments they explain how their design decisions were inspired by 'the contrast between the archaism of the files and the many networked connections that the internet makes possible'.
mplayer -fs -ss 1:20 -endpos 1:46 schuiten-mundaneum.mp4
mplayer -fs -ss 4:14 schuiten-mundaneum.mp4
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'Frederic_Raevens_Mundaneum.jpg'
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'dc5c67d4eb1a93fb354edd9c7b3e12de-1361537453.jpg' #MONDOTHEQUE
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# In 2003, ten years after the opening of THE MUNDANEUM, HISTORIAN Alex Wright writes his blogpost 'Forgotten Forefather', portraying the work of THE UTOPIAN as somehow foreshadowing The Internet; a different reading than the man that has missed his date with history that THE SCENOGRAPHERS evoke.
# THE HISTORIAN included a snippet from a documentary that was released a few years earlier. It carries another allusion to a possible relation between the work of THE UTOPIAN and the Internet. THE FILMMAKER has animated several drawings of the UTOPIAN to explain the concept of the Radiated library:
mplayer -fs otlet_traite_sm.mov
# The documentary plus blogpost are my first encounters with the work of THE UTOPIAN. With a few friends we visit THE MUNDANEUM, realising that since it is opened, ith has been frozen in time; it seems nothing has moved in 10 years.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'verrouille.jpg'
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 28 -size 900x500 caption:'To our amazement, there was no ‘interface’ of any kind to disclose the rows of cards, to sketch the historical context and origins of the collection, or even to mention what kind of museum the visitor is entering. No explanation, guided tour, catalogue, legenda: nothing (...) Apart from the original index on cards, which one is not allowed to touch, an accessible database of the collection does not exist and has never been developed any further than a dummy page on Mundaneums’ website. The ‘Munda.web’ computer space in the building is nothing more than a basic cyber cafe.\n\n
http://routes-routines.constantvzw.org/?p=51
(October 2004)' slide.jpg;
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#################################################
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# 2005. The industrial site is strategically located. It has access to clean water sources, is located next to the main power grid and has sufficient access roads. The inhabitants of THE REGION speak the same language as their big neighbour, but POLITICIANS here are on the contrary eager to provide those incentives that a MEGA-CORPORATION expects.
# "The Marshall Plan" for THE REGION, designed to 'step up the efforts taken to put the Region back on the track to prosperity' is the lates attempt from THE POLITICIAN to shift the situation in his REGION. The plan is ironically named after the American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave billions of support in economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II.
firefox
http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/50.4706/3.8615
& disown; read
# The Marshall plan has far from solved the economic and social problems in THE REGION, but suddenly a curious reference is found to a company called "Crystal Computing".
# Later, we learn that Crystal Computing is in fact a shield company and the investments were actually made by the well-known MEGA-CORPORATION, wanting to remain discreet about the location of its future datacenters.
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'Dans une ambiance où tous les partenaires du "projet Saint-Ghislain" de Google savouraient en silence la confirmation du jour, les anecdotes sur la discrétion imposée durant 18 mois n’ont pas manqué. Outre l’utilisation d’un nom de code, Crystal Computing, qui a valu un jour à Elio Di Rupo d’être interrogé sur l’éventuelle arrivée d’une cristallerie en Wallonie ("J’ai fait diversion comme j’ai pu !", se souvient-il), un accord de confidentialité liait Google, l’Awex et l’Idea, notamment. "A plusieurs reprises, on a eu chaud, parce qu’il était prévu qu’au moindre couac sur ce point, Google arrêtait tout"\nLibre Belgique (27 april 2007)' slide.jpg;
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# In an atmosphere where all partners in the project "Saint-Ghislain" by Google quietly savored the confirmation-of-the-day, the stories about the enforced discretion that lasted 18 months, did not disappoint. In addition to using a code name, Crystal Computing, which resulted in Elio Di Rupo one day being interrogated about the possible arrival of a crystal factory in Wallonia ("I did as I could to divert the attention!" he recalls), a confidentiality agreement was signed that bound Google, AWEX and Idea to secrecy. "On several occasions, we were nervous, because we knew that if there was any hitch at this point, Google could have stopped everything".
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'google71.jpg'
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'google211.jpg'
mplayer -fs Datacenter_Google_in_Saint-Ghislain_op_Street_View_-_YouTube.mp4
# THE KING descends to THE REGION to join THE POLITICIAN.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'media_xl_938761.jpg'
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# In 2010, THE MEGA-CORPORATION holds an Open Day to celebrate the fact that their Datacenter is now fully operational. Of course THE POLITICIAN is invited as a guest of honour.
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mplayer -fs -ss 1:22 -endpos 03:32 GoogleOpenDay-ElioDiRupo.mp4
########################################################
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'google-datacenter-places-07.jpg'
# A few years later, sunset over the datacenter. THE REGION can still not believe it's luck that the THE MEGA-CORPORATION has set up in the area, even when it only takes a handful employees to keep the high-tech facilities running. THE MEGA-CORPORATION shows its satisfaction with the comportment of THE REGION and starts discreetly supporting local cultural initiatives. They also add a second data center.
# A new DIRECTOR, a mr. Jean Deplus now heads the contemporary reincarnation of THE MUNDANEUM. His appointment had little to do with his expertise of the work of the UTOPIAN, but a lot with his importance for local politics in THE REGION. Obviously THE DIRECTOR belongs to the same party as the POLITICIAN.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'R2_002.jpg'
# Here we have him next to the SPOKESMAN for THE MEGACORPORATION.
# THE POLITICIAN has not sit still either. He has launched a new plan, The Creative REGION Action Plan, aiming to "transform the economy of THE REGION through the emergence of a wide?spread innovation and creativity culture".
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'cwed13cp.jpg'
# Simultaneously, he proposed and gained the title Cultural Capital for THE REGION in 2015. It's theme, not suprisingly, will be: 'THE REGION, where technolgy meets culture'.
mplayer -fs googleinmons.mp4
# Did someone say a 1000 jobs?
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'Beaucoup de show, peu d’emplois: Pour son data center belge, le géant des moteurs de recherche a décroché l’un des plus beaux terrains industriels de Wallonie. Résultat : à peine 40 emplois directs et pas un euro d’impôts.</b> Reste que la Région ne voit pas les choses sous cet angle. En janvier, a appris Le Vif/L’Express, le ministre de l’Economie Jean-Claude Marcourt (PS) a notifié à Google le refus d’une aide à l’expansion économique de 10 millions d’euros. Motif : cette aide était conditionnée à la création de 110 emplois directs, loin d’être atteints. Est-ce la raison pour laquelle aucun ministre wallon n’était présent le 10 avril aux côtés d’Elio Di Rupo ? Au cabinet Marcourt, on assure que les relations avec l’entreprise américaine sont au beau fixe : « C’est le ministre qui a permis ce nouvel investissement de Google, en négociant avec son fournisseur d’électricité (NDLR : Electrabel) une réduction de son énorme facture. »\n\nLe Vif, April 2013' slide.jpg;
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# [Translate] No taxes paid, Dutch Sandwich and Double Irish. No jobs.
# THE MANAGER has become assistant-director of THE MUNDANEUM.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'delphinejenart.jpg'
# She worked in the communication department since 2004 but now she was also responsible for communication but now she also manages public and private funds and that includes the partnership with THE MEGA-CORPORATION.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max IETS VAN EEN OVERGANG
# THE MANAGER had noted early on that the HISTORIAN was employed by an established American newspaper. He never disapointed her in underlining the importance of the work by THE UTOPIAN, that would otherwise have been forgotten and she makes an effort to keep him informed.
# Ten years after that first blogpost, the HISTORIAN has decided to make THE UTOPIAN the subject of his next book. When he is invited to the World Science Festival, and in the presence of THE EVANGELIST he uses the platform to call attention to 'his' forgotten forefather, THE UTOPIAN.
mplayer -fs -ss 1:50 -endpos 1:02 The_Televised_Book_Or_the_Real_Web_1.0.3gp
# "An analog ancestor to THE MEGA-CORPORATION, there you have it.
# Does anyone really believe that the Internet was invented in THE COUNTRY? It does not really matter. The MANAGER could not have dreamt of a better way to get media attention for the work of the UTOPIAN that has so far been difficult to communicate. THE MEGA-CORPORATION is happy to discover from a fellow American that it has historical roots in a francophone part of Europe.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'affiche40x60_internet-histoire-belge_web72.jpg'
firefox
http://www.mundaneum.org/
& disown; read
# THE MANAGER picks up the thread and drives the point home with the exhibition 'Renaissance 2.0: Voyage aux origines du web'
mplayer -fs 2.0 _ Voyage aux origines du web.mp4
# THE MUNDANEUM almost gets away with an exhibition that uncritically celebrates a direct connection between the oeuvre of the UTOPIAN and the MEGA-CORPORATION.
# THE HISTORIAN is of course invited to attend the opening of the exhibition. He attempts a slightly less instrumental reading of the work of the UTOPIAN-inventor, and adds a mild parental warning:
mplayer -fs -ss 0:03 -endpos 0:59 Renaissance2.0-LaparoleàAlexWright.mp4
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 28 -size 900x500 caption:'A la mémoire souillée de Paul Otlet par son propre Mundaneum
Google Larry Page et Sergei Brin sont littéralement mis aux antipodes du projet porté par Paul Otlet et Henri Lafontaine. Ils n’ont strictement aucun point commun. Aucun.
Les premiers pavanent dans le classement Forbes des plus grandes fortunes mondiales. Sans originalité, ils exploitent les données personnelles comme Exxon Mobil ou Texaco exploitent le pétrole. Au moins ces derniers ne masquent-ils pas leurs réelles motivations.
Papy Spinning
http://www.webcontentspinning.com/a-la-memoire-souillee-de-paul-otlet-par-son-propre-mundaneum-et-google/
(April 2013)' slide.jpg;
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# THE BLOGGER is less diplomatic, and writes: To the soiled memory of Paul Otlet by its own Mundaneum. Google's Larry Page and Sergei Brin are literally presented as the antithesis of the project developed by Otlet and Henri Lafontaine. They have absolutely nothing in common. Nothing. The first strut in the Forbes 500. Without any originality, they exploit personal data like Exxon Mobil or Texaco operated oil. But at least they do not they mask their true motivations.
# For THE POLITICIAN, a new era as prime-minister has begun, but he does not forget that the interests of THE REGION and THE MEGACORPORATION converge. Second after his respected colleague in the White House, he invites the MEGA-CORPORATION to publish a 360 degrees high resolution view of his office.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'google-belgium-primeminister-di-rupo_crop.jpeg'
# Also, the second data center is about to be finished. This time THE POLITICIAN makes sure that the international press is present. The results are better than expected.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'google-belgium-primeminister-di-rupo.jpg'
##############################################
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'google_49.jpg'
# Headquarters of the MEGA-CORPORATION in THE CAPITAL, looking out at the same Parc Leopold where the archive of THE UTOPIAN once stranded. THE POLITICIAN is attending the celebration of the cooperation agreement between THE MEGA-CORPORATION and THE MUNDANEUM. THE POLITICIAN has just been appointed Prime Minister of THE COUNTRY and draws a decent crowd. The ceremony starts with the screening of a video: 'THE UTOPIAN, the man who dreamt the internet'"
mplayer -fs Introduction\ au\ Mundaneum\ -\ Paul\ Otlet\,\ visionnaire.mp4
# From the press statement by THE MEGA-CORPORATION:
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'Our partnership with Mundaneum is part of a larger project to revive the memory of Europe’s computing pioneers. Europe played a crucial role in the invention of computers and the Internet, yet all too often has forgotten its innovators. “This is a beautiful story between Google and us, which allows allows us to recognize the memory of the Mundaneum,” says the Mundaneum’s director Jean-Paul Deplus. For Google, it’s just as exciting to rediscover our own roots.\n\nHonoring and supporting Belgian Internet Pioneers.\nGoogle Policy Europe blog (March 2013)' slide.jpg;
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max slide.jpg
# Before launching into a lenghty speech about the way the interests of THE MEGA-CORPORATION and THE REGION obviously converge and how it is imperative that THE REGION turns from coal-mining to data-mining, THE POLITICIAN diverts from his pre-written speech and adds a personal note:
mplayer -fs -ss 8:02 -endpos 0:41 PrimeMinisterElioDiRupoVisitsGoogleBelgium.mp4
##############################################
# [IMAGE HERE - LOGO Cultural Institute]
# The MEGA-CORPORATION has created it's very own CULTURAL INSTITUTE, and sends its teams of ENGINEERS to THE REGIONS to scan any content they can lay their hands on. Our REGION has officially refused THE MEGA-CORPORATION permission to scan the valuable archives of THE MUNDANEUM but THE MANAGER makes sure that they have access to the documents, for communication purposes.
# THE CULTURAL INSTITUTE is a spin-off of the MEGA-CORPORATION Art project, that was originally developed by THE FOUNDER in his 20% 'free' time. Like Oscar Wilde I can't resist the temptation to include this presentation by THE FOUNDER:
mplayer -fs -ss 01:27 -endpos 0:28 closeyoureyes.mp4
firefox
http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/collection/mundaneum?hl=en
& disown; read
# The Terms of Use state that "the imagery is provided for the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the Cultural Institute site.". The images are not available from THE MUNDANEUM website but exclusively available through THE MEGA-CORPORATION CULTURAL INSTITUTE.
# For the CULTURAL INSTITUTE website, the MEGA-CORPORATION uses the same web-technologies that power MEGA-CORPORATION Maps, so each image has 5 zoom levels and is cut up in tiles of 512 by 512 pixels.
# The images have no structured metadata and are not available for download. There are no links between the documents on the THE MEGA-CORPORATION CULTURAL INSTITUTE and THE MUNDANEUM on-line catalogue. You can not search the collection specifically. The images can not be embedded in other sites, unless through social media widgets provided by THE MEGA-CORPORATION.
# At a conference on 'Open Culture', THE DIRECTOR of THE CULTURAL INSTITUTE puts his audience at ease. THE MEGA-CORPORATION CULTURAL INSTITUTE is just another engineering project at the service of cultural institutions.
mplayer -fs -ss 0:17 -endpos 0:40 SteveCrossan_OpenCulture2012.mp4
# THE REGION has also made an effort to digitize culturally significant documents, including some material from THE MUNDANEUM.
firefox
http://www.numeriques.be
& disown; read
# There are very little documents and it is not very clear what the selection is based on. But there is proper meta-data and references to how to find the document in the archival institution it is kept. But while all documents of THE UTOPIAN are in the Public Domain since this year, 'Le clic droit deactivite' (right click disabled).
# THE MUNDANEUM is obviously not the only cultural institute visited by THE ENGINEERS from the MEGA-CORPORATION. Being one of the first projects appearing on MEGA-CORPORATION art and later the MEGA-CORPORATION cultural institute, THE SPOKESMAN of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel insists that one of the center’s goals is to disseminate information about the Holocaust as widely as possible.
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'People need to remember that Yad Vashem’s mission statement is not about technology,” he said. “Maybe in a world where there was money for everything, you wouldn’t need money from people like Google. But we don’t live in that kind of world."\n\nMichael Lieber, chief information officer Yad Vashem (2011)' slide.jpg;
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max slide.jpg
# If we don’t live in that kind of world, in what world do we live?
# THE ARCHIVIST is responsible for what remains of the vast archive produced by the prolific UTOPIAN but works only parttime at the Mundaneum. She is a respectable historical scientist and not too impressed by the realpolitik of her superiors, the MANAGER and THE DIRECTOR.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'Screenshot from 2014-10-30 12:44:16.png'
# We asked THE ARCHIVIST about the deal that THE MUNDANEUM made with the MEGA-CORPORATION.
mplayer -audiofile manfroid_PD.mp3 -sub manfroid.srt -ss 26:43 -endpos 03:59 silent.mpg -fs
# Right. We don’t live in that kind of world.
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feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 1382427784124_vint_cerf_bann2.jpg
# Newsflash! THE EVANGELIST will visit THE REGION! THE DIRECTOR and THE MANAGER have collaborated with THE POLITICIANS to meticulously prepare the event. Everything is ready for the arrival of THE EVANGELIST, the great American internet pioneer, one of "the fathers of the Internet". He sold his soul to THE MEGA-CORPORATION but nobody seems to mind.
mplayer -fs VintonCerfinBelgium_.mp4
mplayer -ss 16:03 -endpos 1:13 -fs "Direct Vint Cerf à Mons.3gp"
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feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'DSC_0094.jpg'
# A well-equipped conference center in THE REGION, or maybe in another one. Laptops with appropriate stickers, keychains, usb-disks and tasteful snacks. Just outside are crowded industrial landscapes, carefully cultivated fields and man-made canals. Or maybe it is rural out there; Nordic, and Lutheran, a place of big spaces, big forests, and big lakes. The atmosphere is cheerful as the visitors from the Northern REGION much in common with their hosts from the Southern REGION, and vice versa.
# Joining REGION to REGION, THE MEGA-CORPORATION has worked with THE MUNDANEUM to prepare a funding application for Creative Europe. I guess you'll notice the one moment near the end of the video when the up-tempo elevator music was turned down.
mplayer -fs "Mons_Where_Belgium_meets_Finland.3gp"
mplayer -ss 00:16 -endpos 10:13 -fs "From_industrial_heartland_to_Internet_age_round_2.3gp" #END!!!!
rr
convert -background white -border 50 -bordercolor white -font PropCourierSans-Medium.ttf -pointsize 30 -size 900x500 caption:'And yet, both are homes to Google data centres, and when our Finnish partners recently visited Belgium for two days of workshops, they found many things in common. Both regions built their economies on big traditional industries that are fast disappearing - paper and pulp in Finland, coal and steel in Belgium. Both have big neighbors - Russia and France. And both have willpower to work with us to help jump, as our partners put it, “from the Industrial Heartland to the Internet age.”\n\n
http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.de/2013/12/joining-belgium-and-finland-around-data.html
' slide.jpg;
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#CONCLUSION
convert -background black -bordercolor black -size 1280x800 -fill white -pointsize 120 -border 50 -gravity center -font /home/fs/.fonts/UniversElse-Bold.ttf caption:"We don't live in that kind of world" slide.jpg;
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max 'slide.jpg'
# By trying to understand the way Paul Otlet's Radiated Library is being turned int to THE MEGA-CORPORATION on paper, I am trying of course to denaturalize the effect, trying to find space for other stories that could have been told in it's place.
feh -x --fullscreen --zoom max IMG_0966.JPG
# So when MEGA-CORPORATIONS in unison with POLITICIANS, DIRECTORS, MANAGERS, and to some degree SCIENTISTS and HISTORIANS start to repeat to each other, and to all at us, that There Is No Alternative while at the same time selling THE UTOPIAN statement “No idea is too great or foolish when it comes to changing the world” back to us ...
# So if that statement is really true, I am wondering what is holding us back.