[ Files: http://cloud.constantvzw.org/index.php/s/THUGr6b86Nbv3C0 ]
[ Reading proposals HNI: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K8u572vzcANy9FfLi08dPQki8wAt-zJEMRoAOuaBiEo/edit ]
[ Notes HNI: http://piratepad.nl/4dsewIImLg ]
04/07/2016
http://pad.constantvzw.org/p/disco-
03/07/2016
Testing out existing frameworks, to engage through making, or engaging by critiqueing. The analysis of the existing. The need to be both critical and playful. The weight of criticality. A cyclical practice. Optimism is not playfulness. Matthew does not equal the bot. Criticality before or after (or inside)
TS: "My Brother Works in Twitter"
https://github.com/plummerfernandez/InstituteOf
The bot is already here. (2)
Albert Heijn recipes to ingest:
“Success in today’s global retailing market requires more than retailing knowledge – it requires a flexible technology foundation to optimize operations, innovate, serve customers and support company growth,” said [ ], vice president and general manager, Consumer and Transportation Industries, [ ] Enterprise Services. “Extending our relationship will help [ ] further improve the technology services that support its continued business success."
Under the terms of the agreement, [ ] will continue to provide management and support services for [ ]’s global data center environment, which includes mainframes, servers and storage. In addition, [ ] will implement [ ] Business Service Automation to make server and storage capabilities more robust and more highly available.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=169437
"The electronic data management solution, called SRC-PDM (Product Data Manager) Enterprise Retail Edition is Microsoft-based and built by [ ], a Dutch company specializing in EDI/B2B integration and data synchronization. [ ] managed the project to ensure a smooth implementation.
The system, which replaces the previous manual source document, is used by [ ] to extract the appropriate item data from the Agentrics data pool (formerly WWRE; the hub through which data from suppliers is processed). Of particular value is the simplicity of the SRC solution, which is also used by many suppliers to deliver product and item data into the data pool.The automated system streamlines data processes by reducing manual intervention and serves as the primary interface between the data pool and the internal systems of [ ]. The primary objective of this new solution is to reduce errors. [ ] anticipates that the system will eventually reduce labor and result in fewer delays in getting new products to the store shelves."
https://www.capgemini.com/resources/albert_heijn
Arts is already here.
Another entity to reconnect us. not lock up
Lighthearted -- more human
but not because it doesn't care
problematic dscussion. dancing is interesting as a model of companionship.
keep each other in check
a mob -- pushing each other
different formations; kunga-line.
leading in terms of dance (it takes two to tango) [later, NA: sometimes you want to dance alone]
getting it started
dancefloor metaphor
not performing a dance
role of music. the spice girls
distributed dj
bot as a fellow dancer
there are more people than you and me
group dynamic
affiliations, affinities, ..
it could get a fellowship
how does it make itself part of the gang?
believability. (not really)
making sense.
the friend in common
equal estrangement
moderating the motley crew (tricky)
read what we wrote, and make informed comment
privacy filter? socially uncomfortable
background information
fed to individuals
check who speaks
recommendations, no social interaction
making connections (between people, subjects)
checking with random individuals
conversation enhancer
a collective research companion
snorting, when it would not fit in
patterns, templates , prejudice
awkwardness, deviation from the norm
expectations, preparation
common ground in an interview
interaction
we don't know each other? we do ...
looking for holes to poke
breaking defense
situations:
bot as observer (and act upon it)
tension
echo chamber
repetition
dis-balance
overlapping
dimensional: shifting scale, demanding proof, ...
grammar checker
a good dinner party host. cracks jokes. dims the light
objecting, contrary arguments.
several bots
autistic bots
so: roles?
does not need to solve the situation, be part of it.
ability not to get involved
excelerate
random interactions.
a third entity, a fifth wheel
the odd one out
a-sociality and truth
seeing how it turns out.
bot placebo
search engines are already here
creationism vs collage
speech capture
strangeness -- constructs
love and relationship
sentences that alluded to romance
a worldle but different.
speaking abstractly, understanding through misunderstanding.
transcriptions, translations
follow up questions -- giving a context
http://gentle-demo.lowerquality.com/transcriptions/5e5262b9/
https://lowerquality.com/gentle/ [Rob M. Ochshorn + co]
LF: "alien agency"
LF: "parametrizing a problem space"
LF: "an unintuitive solution"
KK: Pattern matchings that reinforce prejudice. Is this different for the unexpected results proposed by the alien agency that LF brings up?
DZ: finding a locus of control. From what standpoint are we imagining our relationship?
Bot-centric. Computer-people-centric. Human-centric.
DZ: alien agency or corporate (or both?)
impenetrable proposals, not reproducable. need to collaborate.
Recommender systems that get it wrong.
Monetizing recommendations, a different world. Linking money to money.
probing parameterspace. surprising, but not impenetrable.
institution theory. non-logical vs logical.
engineering vs gardening
control, letting go (the garden of machines)
bot-community and the garden metaphor. RM: cooking metaphors are useful.
fear. speed. complexity.
garden vs jungle; the caretaker. multiple metaphors.
machine garden. machine jungle. how to accept vulnerability (redundancy)
the city. a bestiary. roman circus.
re-addressing the brief, the framework.
A confrontation. First me and RM (I back out), DZ does not let go.
KK "all these points are totally valid"
MO: "I understand all these points"
affinity groups. infinity groups. agonism.
different perspectives. choose one.
02/07/2016
The bot is already here.
Before arriving, I receive an email from KK: "Retreat for the ARTs - Uitnodiging om samen te werken"
It's a link to a Google Drive account, I cannot log in.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-V6ZhGQ1zZ_Tk4tR0ZoTTVWSDA&usp=sharing&ts=57768630&tid=0B8LpLXLpBS3fSjN5a3hEZTA0Wk0
I email the usual "I don't have a Google-account. Is there another way to share materials/collaborate?"
KK emails back: "Ah. Do you have a suggestion"
At the end of the morning session, the group discusses how to share materials with each other.
KK, apologetic: "I am sorry (but) we're using a Google Drive account"
The group breaks up for lunch. I hesitate to stick around because I know what is coming. I do not like myself in this situation, to disrupt convenience and also I get too worked up. I say I find it boring. Discussions usually play out more or less like this: "I so agree with you, it is so important" (turns around to check gmail).
DZ: "I have been trying to get off Google my accounts but it is too hard" (am I now asked to absolve? I should learn to tone down intensity. I make awkward apologies afterwards)
LB: "Tell us what else we should use". I hesitate to point at the Constant etherpad installation or set up accounts on http://owncloud.constantvzw.org but I say "This is not my problem, but yours", and I mean it.
I am perplexed. I am by now used to public institutions (academic, cultural) handing their communication and collaboration infrastructure over to commercial services without reservation, and routinely expect that everyone else is doing the same. I am even used to the way tech-aware institutions can spend a lot of intellectual energy on discussing "the politics of interfaces" and then get rather aggressive when the possibility of Killing The Account, of cutting the umbilical cord gets a bit too real [ http://www.gredits.org/interfacepolitics/en/interface-manifesto-eng/ ]. But we are discussing the design brief for a computational research entity here, that will somehow operate within a cultural organisation. How can we even begin to imagine its criticality, let alone its radicality if we are not able to think outside the all-encompassing techno-capital infrastructure of Alphabet inc.? This is not just any on-line service. Google is currently the main investor, developer and beneficar of machine learning technologies. They are "at the forefront" as they say themselves [ http://research.google.com/pubs/MachineIntelligence.html ]. Responsible for many of the algorithms and techniques that are actually in use in this area and most importantly, producing powerful imaginations around it [Ray Kurzweil propheting singularity, Eric Schmidt advising the Pentagon]. The convenient dependency on these services is not a fact of nature; their sensation of naturalness should deeply trouble us.
KK now cannot avoid to bring up the issue and tries to convince the group to use etherpad instead. Someone shouts: "What about dropbox?" another: "What about e-mailing it?" The discussion trails off.
I get out my laptop, this is also odd. LB: "What is this?!" Between all the researchers in the room, I am the only one without a MacBook.
I hook up with LF, he senses my distress, understands the issue and wants to help. LF tries to "fix" the problem by importing the Drive instance into his owncloud installation, but he can't share it with others. To allow the Drive to show up in his owncloud, he needs to login to the Google API with his Account. Obviously there are no unsuspected backdoors to this universe.
I feel somehow out of my skin. LF asks me for a pgp key, I send him my public key. He notices that the Constant owncloudserver does not have https, I feel embarrassed.
But eventually we manage to create a sort of federated sharing between our two instances of owncloud, and that feels nice. I cannot share the url with others though, so it means that only LF and me can see the files inside of the folder.
LF: "I have multiple personas when it comes to these things" but he does not finish his sentence. He sighs and then: "It starts to feel like work". He closes his laptop.
The next morning.
I want to make a screenshot of the Google Drive login screen, the one I was locked out of earlier, but someone must have changed a default setting. I can now see everyones folders and documents. I cannot add a folder myself obviously.
It is nice to finally be able to see materials produced by others in the group. I guess this also means the issue will be considered resolved and disappear again into the background.
Two weeks later.
An e-mail from NA with a drop-box link. We can only access by signing up for an account. LF is the one to respond this time:
*
*I do no have a dropbox account and do not intend to open one. I do not tend to support companies where war criminals and spymasters (Condoleezza Rice) sit on the board of directors. See: http://www.drop-dropbox.com/
*If there's anything that you think I must absolutely get, please email me and I can offer you a website to upload it.
I am grateful -- staring at the dropbox login screen just minutes earlier, deciding to ignore the issue this time (and the dropbox). But then NA responds:
*I'm quite aware of the political insensitivity of my choice to use Dropbox. It was made purely – and consciously – out of convenience. It was my responsibility and didn't want to ask anyone to organize it for me. As a side note, while I'm sure the topic of convenience / compulsion in software politics / FLOSS is a dead horse, I still think it would have been nice to have this discussion during the retreat.
(we obviously did)
*I thought this could, at the very least, encourage some less-computationally savvy people to become more dextrous in their use of software platforms.
*As it's already been set up I'd rather keep using this. Feel free to send LF whatever, but LF, please send everything to me.
Can't ignore now and will need to find a way to respond [ Another chapter for "Lets first get things done" http://twentysix.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-196-lets-first-get-things-done-on-division-of-labour-and-techno-political-practices-of-delegation-in-times-of-crisis ? ].