Regime Change Friday 25/11/2016
http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/index.php/Regime-Change
https://apass.be/common-conference/
09:30 arrive
- write statement
- draw schedule for the day
- draw timeline
- start current infrastructure map
10:30
- FS arrives with printer + clock
- Bluetack, pens, tape
11:00 - 11:45 Steven/Christian
- drawing current infrastructure map
11:30 - 12:15 Kristien
12:00 - 12:45 Joke
12:30 - 13:15 Nicolas
13:45 start work on commitment
15:30
REGIME CHANGE
with Kate Rich, Femke Snelting and Magdalena Tyzlik-Carver
Friday 25 November, office hours: 11:00-15:30
Presentation: 15:30-17:30
A day long session, aimed at aligning the a.pass computing infrastructure with the ambitions and aspirations summoned by the commons. Tech giants currently dominate all forms of digital communication, from cloud-storage to production tools and archiving systems. For cultural institutions like a.pass and many kindred spirit organisations, there is potential for resistance. Kate, Magda and Femke will use the common power of their intersecting practices in art, technology and theory, to break the spell of this paralysing digital regime. With the aid of Free, Libre and Open Source software, the transposition agents will begin to transform the relation of a.pass to its computing technology. Throughout the day the trio will conduct fieldwork, draw up solemn oaths & commit the institution to a rite of passage: from efficiency to curiosity; from scarcity to multiplicity and from solution to possibility. Champagne served all day.
radically different/new artist subjectivity summoned by the commons
*----->rendered in the infrastructure
- What is the digital infrastructure there to do? What is its function
(what is it / what you use/ what is critical /used)
- a.pass/commons of performers + infrastructure + administration + people + buildings + collaborators + publics + others
- performing protocols written by others vs developing protocols written by us/all [so we perform them together -----commoning ------]
- becoming with infrastructure
- how can we draw the commons with people + infrastructure
- aligning the a.pass computing infrastructure with the ambitious and aspirations summoned by the commons
*---------> conjure the continuity between sensibitility + achievements of a.pass programe & the systems that support it
*
*---------> how to propose + sustain
--------
11:00 - 12:00 Steven t.b.c. (or Christian?) // interview: Kate record + add + record: Magda note + hosting: champagne and burning: Femke
11:30 - 12:30 Kristien // interview: Kate record + add: Magda note + hosting: Femke
12:00 - 13:00 Nicolas // interview: Magda record + add: Femke note + hosting: Kate
12:30 - 13:30 Joke // interview: Magda record + add: Femke note + hosting: Kate
13:30-15:30: office-work
15:30-17.00: Regime Change, presentation after office-work
- Arguments for the Regime Change
-
- Magda Transition
headphones
clock
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Meeting Steven Jouwersma, 31/10/2016
SJ enters conversation with question: "is Google evil" and "things have to work". FS trying to start at the other end.
What is a.pass relation to computational services? Why does it matter? Why would you make a change?
- Tension with specific topic of this block on Commoning
- Tension in general institutional discourse: re-imagining situations and environments, capitalist critique
Understanding contradiction when using tools and services that confirm, install hegemonic regimes.
SJ prefers to use budget for tech to support FLOSS development.
Tools:
- computers all MacOs (Admin is PC/windows)
- Tools available a mix of FLOSS, already available on mac or cracked.
- Tech-literacy generally low ("I need to explain how to unzip a file") and relationship to it uninvested, it just has to work
- most participants have their own laptops; a.pass machines less used since three years
SJ sees this as a potential for a new beginning ("somewhere to start"); is researching FLOSS tools and experiments with installing Linux on a laptop at home.
Infrastructure:
- a.pass runs their 'own' mailserver (!)
- Website is based on Wordpress
- Googledocs
- Google drive
- Google Calendar
- Mailchimp - for external mailings
- Local archive, 'cloud'
Webserver maintained by Guido, not always responding to e-mails; is not paid anymore for maintenance. SJ would like to clarify that relation, f.e. a forfait so that he can take on some of the updating etc. Tech infrastructure has evolved organically, is "a bit of a mess". It seems that responsibilities are not very clearly divided, time to rethink.
Has tried using Slack for project planning, did not work yet. Discussing internal e-mail communication: participants not used to separate threads. FS proposes using a mailinglist; showing different uses of it (Piet Zwart Instituut, Constant internal mailinglist, project-related lists). Thinking of a digital "blackboard", a page announcing latest news. Etherpad?
Relation between technology and artistic research; his own interest and disinterest in media art. SJ: "it should not be about the technology". At a.pass SJ is sometimes contributing as artist, mixes with production, role of ad-hoc problem solver.
Hesitation. SJ stresses at different moments that he prefers a slow transition rather than a "revolution". FS insists that when it comes to tools, it will be hard to offer support for both. SJ: "should we do this"? FS: "what can happen, what are you afraid of?"
- lack of knowledge @ participants
- dependency on infrastructure; "we can not afford it if it does not work"
- adding additional confusion to the entry of participants
FS shows some FLOSS tools and softwares, mainly:
- Owncloud (could address needs Googledocs, Google drive, Google Calendar)
- etherpad (seems to be less attractive for some reason)
- mailman, lurk (we both feel a mailinglist could be an interesting addition to the ecosystem)
Interested in experimenting with installing mailman as an exercise to "make it concrete". We discuss longer timeframe: making a beginning at the artist commoner meeting (both discourse, commitment and mailman install). January-April 2017 Steven will be off; pick-up again in spring. FS in a.pass January-May 2018 so that is a good time to evaluate, adjust.
OK with handing us ssh/root for mailserver (is this where it would be installed?); would like to be part/know what is happening. Meet on Thursday to test and try, and involve SJ on Friday too?
///////////////////////////////
Regime Change With Kate Rich, Femke Snelting and Magdalena Tyzlik-Carver
Friday 25 November, office hours: 11:00-16:00. Presentation: 16:00-18:00
A day long session, aimed at aligning the a.pass computing infrastructure with the ambitions and aspirations summoned by the commons. Tech giants currently dominate all forms of digital communication, from cloud-storage to production tools and archiving systems. For cultural institutions like a.pass and many kindred spirit organisations, there is potential for resistance. Kate, Magda and Femke will use the common power of their intersecting practices in art, technology and theory, to break the spell of this paralysing digital regime. With the aid of Free, Libre and Open Source software, the transposition agents will begin to transform the a.pass relation to its computing technology. Throughout the day the trio will conduct fieldwork, draw up solemn oaths & commit the institution to a rite of passage: from efficiency to curiosity; from scarcity to multiplicity and from solution to possibility. Champagne served all day.
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NOTES
from noun to verb [thinking in verbs, verb[al thinking, :
common - commoning - .....................
art/artist - .......................
subject/identity - becoming
transformation - destruction - abandoning identities - self(selves) making / making of the self
different vocabularies: detox, transformation
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mailman install: root install
room?
printer --
bring champagne as a sign of your commitment to the transition
things to be trashed? let's not get distracted?
"ritual is about the two things together" it is the space between them -- the polish end of winter, burning the straw woman, and drown it.
adding not substracting
guiding witches
pretty scarecrow
projector / place to be mapping
11:00 Start with a song, incense, drums, magda headdress
11:30 converations. what it means to care for infrastructure
11:00 Nicolas / Kristien
12:00 Kristien + Steven
12:30 Steven
13:00 Steven + Joke
13:30 Joke
14:00 work, manifesto, mailman install
14:30 work, manifesto map the connectivity already there at apass (evolved organically)
15:00 work, manifesto
15:30 work, manifesto - golden framed. mailman manifesto mailout
16:00 present commitment -
16:30
18:00 END with the song
commons as radically pragmatic,no grand gestures but everyday, mundane, wild and feral borders in the making and un-making, crossing,
smudging the place with sage/palo santo/frankincense