---
warp: http://www.constantvzw.org/site/-DiVersions-.html
---

#<multi>[en]DiVersions[fr]DiVersions[nl]DiVersies</multi>

<multi>[en]DiVersions took place from 4 to 11 December 2016 and was inspired by the way versions are inscribed in daily software-practice. With 35 participants we explored how parallel to their conventional narrative of collaboration and consensus, we could produce divergent histories through supporting difference. This one week session was organised by Constant and hosted by the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels.[fr]DiVersions  a eu lieu du 4 décembre au 11 décembre 2016 et s’inspirait de la façon dont les versions font partie de la pratique quotidienne des logiciels. Avec une groupe de 35 participant(e)s, nous avons exploré comment celles-ci peuvent rendre possible, au-delà des pratiques existantes de collaboration et consensus, des formes divergentes de récits historiques en offrant de l’espace à la différence. Cette session d’une semaine etait organisée par Constant en collaboration avec le Musée Royal d’Art et Histoire à Bruxelles.[nl]Diversies vond plaats van 4 tot 11 december 2016 en vertrok vanuit de manier waarop versies deel uitmaken van de dagelijkse software-praktijk. Met 35 deelnemers onderzochten we hoe we naast het gebruikelijke verhaal over samenwerking en consensus, ook divergerende vormen van geschiedschrijving mogelijk kunnen maken door plaats te bieden aan verschil. Deze sessie van een week werd georganiseerd door Constant samen met het Koninklijk Museum voor Kunst en Geschiedenis in Brussel.</multi>

http://www.constantvzw.org/site/-DiVersions-.html

## Other ways of inscribing multiplicity and variety {lang=en}


By the end of 2016, the Royal Museum of Art and History was in the final stages of digitizing its very diverse collection: some 330,000 objects  including clay tablets,  tapestries, mummies, ancient jewellery, vases, coins had been inventoried. Our presence at this moment in time allowed us to put the  concrete practices of art-history, cataloguing and digitisation  technologies in relation with the reflections, prototypes and other  types of experiments generated during the worksession. Version-control systems, Wikis, Etherpads  and other digital writing  tools save log files and ’diffs’ routinely, potentially changing linear  relations between original and copy, redefining questions of authorship  and the archive through technological  conditions. Meticulously logged  workflows promise to make the process  of shared editing a transparent  process because any action can be  reversed or repeated at any time, and  errors or unwanted inputs can be  later corrected. But what types of  alternative collectivity do they make  possible and impossible? How can  we use these timelines, histories,  traces not just in terms of  safeguarding production, but for other ways  of inscribing multiplicity and variety?

## Embrasser la variation et la diversité {lang=fr}


Tout comme d’autres musées fédéraux en Belgique, fin 2016, le Musée était dans la dernière phase de la numérisation de sa collection diversifiée : environ 330.000 objets, dont des tablettes d’argile, des tapisseries, des momies, des bijous antiques, des vases et des pièces de monnaie étaient inventoriés. Cette pratique concrète qui unit l’histoire de l’art et la numérisation, était mise en relation avec les réflexions, les prototypes et d’autres expérimentations qui verront le jour lors de la session de travail. Des systèmes de contrôles de versions, des wikis, des etherpads et d’autres outils de production numérique sauvegardent les fichiers logs et ’diffs’ de façon routinière. Ils créent un contexte technologique dans lequel la relation linéaire entre 
l’original et la copie change, et qui permet de redéfinir des questions autour du droit d’auteur et de l’archive. Puisqu’à tout moment chaque action peut être consultée de nouveau ou répétée et que des erreurs ou des contributions peuvent toujours être corrigées, ces processus d’activités archivés de manière minutieuse promettent de rendre transparente la rédaction partagée. Mais quelles formes de collectivité alternative rendent-ils vraiment possibles ? Comment pouvons-nous mettre à l’usage ces lignes de temps, ces récits et ces traces, non seulement pour garantir la productivité, mais aussi pour trouver des manières d’embrasser la variation et la diversité ?
  
## Manieren om variatie en verscheidenheid te omarmen {lang=nl}


Eind 2016 was het Museum net als alle andere federale musea in België in de laatste fase van de digitalisering van haar zeer diverse collectie: ongeveer 330.000 voorwerpen, waaronder kleitabletten, wandtapijten, mummies, antieke juwelen, vazen en munten werden geïnventariseerd. De concrete praktijken van kunstgeschiedenis  en digitalisering brachten we in verband met de reflecties, prototypes en andere experimenten die tijdens de werksessie ontstonden. Version-control systemen, Wiki’s, Etherpads en andere digitale productie-gereedschappen slaan routineus logbestanden en ’diffs’ op. Ze creëren een technologische context waarbinnen het lineaire verband tussen origineel en kopie verandert, en waar vragen over auteurschap en het archief opnieuw gedefinieerd kunnen worden. De zorgvuldig bewaarde workflows beloven het proces van gedeelde redactie transparant te maken, doordat je elke actie op elk moment kan terugdraaien of herhalen, en fouten of ongewenste bijdragen kan corrigeren. Maar welke vormen van alternatieve collectiviteit maken ze daadwerkelijk mogelijk? Hoe kunnen we gebruikmaken van al die de tijdlijnen, geschiedenissen en sporen, niet alleen om productiviteit te garanderen, maar ook om een manier te vinden om variatie en verscheidenheid te omarmen?</multi>

## Worksession {lang=en}


The worksession brought  together collaborative practices, active archives and Free Software  tools; each of them long time interests of  Constant. By working through and with tools that operate on data along  temporal and social  dimensions, DiVersions explored the potential for  divergence within  technological infrastructures. We wanted to  experiment with conditions for  multiple authorship (including machines  as author) and explicitly make space for ambiguity. We wanted to  speculate on digital practices that do not erase conflict and variation,  and can work with, not against, misunderstandings between people and  machines, and among machines and  people themselves. Worksessions are intensive transdisciplinary  moments, organised twice a  year by Constant. They aim to provide conditions for participants with  different types of expertise to temporarily link their practice and to  develop ideas, prototypes and  research projects together. We primarily  use Free, Libre and Open Source software and material that is available  under Open Licenses. 

## Séssion de travail {lang=fr}


La session de travail réunissait des réflexions et des expérimentations autour de pratiques collaboratives, archives actives et logiciels libres, des sujets qui font partie du programme de Constant depuis longtemps. En portant attention à des situations dans lesquelles les données numériques influencent les dimensions temporelles et sociales, DiVersions explorait les possibilités de divergences au sein d’une infrastructure technologique. Nous avons expérimenté avec la notion de création collective (y compris les machines comme auteures) et réserver explicitement de l’espace à l’ambiguïté. Nous avons spéculé sur les pratiques numériques dans lesquelles les changements et le conflit ne doivent pas etre évités, et qui savent maîtriser  les malentendus entre humains, entre machines, et bien sûr , aussi entre humains et machines.
Les sessions de travail sont des moments transdisciplinaires intensifs organisés par Constant au rythme de deux éditions par an. Nous créons un environnement de travail temporaire dans lequel les participants peuvent mettre en réseau leurs différentes expertises afin de développer ensemble des idées, des prototypes et de projets de recherche. Nous travaillons principalement avec des logiciels Free, Libres et Open Source et avec des données qui sont disponibles sous des licences libres.

## Werksessie {lang=nl}


De werksessie bracht reflecties en experimenten samen rond collaboratieve praktijken, actieve archieven en vrije software; onderwerpen die al lang op de agenda van Constant staan. Door in te gaan op situaties waarin digitale data op temporele en sociale dimensies inwerken, onderzocht Diversies de mogelijkheden voor divergentie binnen een technologische infrastructuur. We experimenteerden met de condities voor meervoudig auteurschap (inclusief machines als auteur) en maakten expliciet plaats voor ambiguïteit. We speculeerden over digitale praktijken waarin we conflict en verandering niet hoeven te vermijden, en die kunnen omgaan met misverstanden tussen mensen en machines, machines en machines en tussen mensen onderling.
Werksessies zijn intensieve transdisciplinaire momenten die Constant twee keer per jaar organiseert. We creëren een tijdelijke werkomgeving, waar deelnemers hun verschillende soorten expertise aan elkaar kunnen koppelen om samen ideeën, prototypes en onderzoeksprojecten te ontwikkelen. We maken bij voorkeur gebruik van Free, Libre en Open Source software en van data die beschikbaar is onder een open licentie.

##References + resources 
* [References](https://diversions.hotglue.me/)  (hotglue)
* [Resources](http://pad.constantvzw.org/p/diversions.resources)  (etherpad)
* [Call for participants](http://www.constantvzw.org/site/Call-for-participants-DiVersions.html)
* [Programme](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/programme.diff.html)
* [All notes and traces](https://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/) (etherdump)

##Pictures 
[Gallery](http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/index.php/DiVersions-Worksession) + [Files](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/images/)

##Research visits and interviews


* 05/10/2016: [Serge Lemaitre (curator The Americas) + Emiel van Binnebeke (curator furniture and wood sculpture)](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/2016-10-05/)

* 13/10/2016: [Sophie Balace (curator metals, precious metals) + Saskia Willaert (curator African instruments, MIM)](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/2016-10-13/)

* 08/12/2016: [Interview Nacha Van Steen (e-Collections)](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-08-thursday/2016-12-08-interview-nacha.mp3)

* 08/12/2016: Visit to plaster workshop [audio 1](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-08-thursday/2016-12-08-plaster-workshop-01.mp3) [audio 2](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-08-thursday/2016-12-08-plaster-workshop-02.mp3)

* 09/12/2016: [Saskia Willaert (curator African instruments, MIM)](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/saskia_machine-transcript.diff.html) (automated transcript)

##An afternoon in the museum about collaboration, divergence and the digital archive
Diversions started with an afternoon in the Royal Museum for Art and  History. The program included two lectures and a performance exploring  tools, processes and infrastructures that invite different and divergent  histories.

### Laurence Rassel   
Laurence Rassel joined us to reflect on how digital archives can  transform institutions. How to do things when we consider the  institution as a space for encounters, creativity, possibility and risk?  Laurence Rassel (Brussels) is a cultural worker who can act as a  curator, teacher or organizer. She was recently appointed director of  the école de recherche graphique (Brussels). As director of the Fundació  Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, Laurence initiated Arts combinatòries, a  place for education, exhibition and research situated within the archive  of the institution.  
* [Video](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-04-sunday/DiVersions_LR.webm)
* [Audio](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-04-sunday/2016-12-04-laurence-geraldine.mp3)
* [Slides](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-04-sunday/041216.pdf)

###Geraldine Juárez  
Organizing information is never innocent. This is the motto for  Geraldine Juárez’ preemptive history of The Google Cultural Institute,  an effort to "make the world’s culture accessible online". Viewing  Google Art, Google Cultural Institute and Google Art & Culture  through the lense of digital capitalism, she critically tracks the  evolution of services that appears at a moment in time when public  institutions are increasingly de-funded. Geraldine Juárez (México,  Sweden) works with and across different media-technologies and its  histories, stories, materials and contexts to understand how how  information, knowledge and property is organized, regulated and  exchanged under technological culture and within the market economy.  

* [Video](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-04-sunday/DiVersions_GJ.webm)
* [Audio](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-04-sunday/2016-12-04-laurence-geraldine.mp3)

###Christine De Smedt
Christine De Smedt performed a first sketch of a series of movements  based on her work Untitled 4. 4 choreographic portraits. Her radical  appropriations have now become historical material that could be  archived in a museum context. These transformative gestures allow for  new readings that are not only determined by the logic of the archive,  but also by the context in which they are read. Christine De Smedt  (Brussels) is a choreographer. As a way to come to a self-portrait she  created choreographic portraits of four artists who have influenced  present-day contemporary dance and still do: Jonathan Burrows, Alain  Platel, Xavier Le Roy and Eszter Salamon. She assumed their words and  stories based on interviews about their relationships between life and  work.  
* [Video](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-04-sunday/DiVersions_CDS.webm)

##Startingpoints
Four cases were brought to the table in the beginning of the  worksession. They each provided food for thought, startingpoints for  discussion and ideas to work with and from.

###The Architecture of collective writing (Just For The Record)  
Wikipedia is an interesting playground for future collective  uses of  the more 'pragmatic' archives that are developed today. If we  look at  Wikipedia as an enormous architecture and consider every page as  an  office space, with a history, discussions and a permanent stream of   changes up to the most radical gesture of deleting content, we can   easily get a sense of the working atmosphere of each room. Some are   enjoyable spaces where respect, dialogue and negociation rule; others   can be war spaces where the 'truth' is hold by bots correcting each   other every fragment of a second; or the winning word is held by humans,   amongst which the admin seems to have the most power, although it is   never clear who exactly is sitting around the table, nor how the people   around the table are perceived. Most women are still 'wifes of', or   categorized as 'men' instead of 'humans'. 'Separatism' and 'tea house'   are words used for 'feminist' parallel spaces on Wikipedia. JFTR is   looking for new tools that allow for interference in the atmosphere of a   space, by looking f.ex. for patterns in the use of language in the   talking pages, visualisation of the bots operating and what they're made  of, a thermometer to indicate atmospheres, ... 
<http://justfortherecord.space>
* [Presentation text and notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/just_for_the_record.diff.html)
* [Related reading](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/Architecture_Queer_Theory/)

###One commit doesn't make a story (Alex Leray)  
Open Source Publishing is a collective of designers and programmers  working with Free, Libre and  Open Source tools. A few years ago, as  part of their daily workflow,  they started to use the versioning  software tool 'git', and many other  collaborative tools (etherpad,  owncloud, ...). Each of these tools has  its own way of keeping  archives, logs and timestamps. The result is a  treasure trove of very  rich and at the same time fragmented traces that  could potentially tell  the story of their collective design practise,  but always almost, or  not yet. So far OSP made several attempts to knit  together these  fragments into stories, bridging gaps in temporality and  materiality.  There is a tension between capture and narration, between  automatic  logs and storytelling. What should be integrated in the story?  How to  account for the heterogeneity of processes and data? How can the   context be made (in)visible? Maybe some visualisation might help? Or   other generative tools? Alex presents us some of OSP experiments on   rendering their practice legible and invites us to think together about   how to tell stories between a collective of people, projects and tools.  
* <http://osp.kitchen/work/stories/>
* [Audio](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-06-tuesday/Conference_Alex.WAV)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/One_commit.diff.html)

###Histories of conflicts and confusions (Zeljko Blace)  
Established museums and archives are currently considering to   re-approach or re-label their sedimented and consolidated collections   through incremental interventions (changing labels and interpretations   of post-colonial artworks for example) or even they invite artists and   activists for special projects (queering the van abbemuseum). Newly   established initiatives are struggling with incoherence and gaps (Gay   Museum in Berlin). How do we come to terms with all this? Zeljko is not   only interested in how we could produce divergent histories (of   minorities) through supporting different interpretations, but also in   how to produce histories of conflicts and confusions and make spaces for   future antagonisms and divergences. This is especially interesting  when  oral histories meet material ones and when artefacts (as  'evidence')  meet artworks (as 'subjectivities'). Their juxtaposition  asks us to take  unexpected confusions into consideration or even  confluences of  methodologies and perspectives. We could think of  developing discourses  that could be extrapolated from ontologies and  vocabularies. He is particularly interested in participatory systems  that could foster not  collaboration, but contestation and multiple  contextualizations in coordinated and parallel ways.  
* [Presentation text and notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/conflicts_and_confusions.diff.html)

### Different orders coexist (Michael Murtaugh + Nicolas Maleve)   
"Computational vandalism means working with this and other  qualities of  computing; the capacity for repetition, speed,  interpretation by   combination, the layering of operations and so on. In  this sense,   computational vandalism works with the aesthetic, social,  material and   imaginal forces that are gathered as compositional terms within  computing." ([Matthew Fuller in an interview with SICV, Vandalist Iconophilia](http://editorialconcreta.org/Vandalist-Iconophilia)). As the Scandinavian Institute for Computational Vandalism, Nicolas  Malevé and Michael Murtaugh have developed a series of  experiments in   connection with the archives of the artists Erkki  Kurenniemi, Asger  Jorn  and Guttom Guttorsgaard. Probing into large  collections of  digital and  digitised collections, they employed  Computer Vision  algorithms as  interlocutors, to explore alternative  interpretations,  different  orderings and seeing through other eyes. The  images started  to  masquerade as text, and texts start to behave as  images. For  DiVersions, Michael and Nicolas turned the SICV toolkit onto  the actual  files and databases of the Cinquantenaire museum itself.  Working on  the archive as a whole, SICV redrew relations and genealogies in the  order(s) of art history.
* [BLOG](http://sicv.activearchives.org/logbook/)
* [audio 1](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-06-tuesday/Conference_Michael_Nicolas_01.WAV) + [audio 2](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/2016-12-06-tuesday/Conference_Michael_Nicolas_02.WAV)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/different_orders_coexist.diff.html)

##Terms of use: opening and closing the archive


For Constant worksessions, we developed etherbox, a custom local  server infrastructure for collaborative situations. During DiVersions we  tested a first iteration of a ritual for the opening and closing of  this temporary collective space.
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/terms_of_use.diff.html)
* [Interview with etherbox](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/interview-with-an-etherbox.diff.html)

## Prototypes
Ideas, concepts and prototypes developed during the worksession. 

###Woman, visibility and an essay on representing women on Wikipedia -- a call for action and images (Catherine Lenoble)


A reflection on possible new types of contributions on Wikipedia,  filling the gap in the production of a visual culture specific to  representing female personalities, and more generally, women on  Wikipedia.
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0229.webm)
* [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Visual_representation_of_women)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/woman.diff.html)
* [Wikipedia:Writing_about_women](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_about_women)
* [Wikipedia:Writing_about_men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_about_men)
* [Category:Portrait_drawings_of_women](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Portrait_drawings_of_women)
* [Category:Portrait_drawings_of_men](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Portrait_drawings_of_men)

###A Wikipedia template for conflicts and confusions (Zeljko Blace, Myriam Arsenault-Goulet)


A strategic proposal for a set of 'progressive' banner templates to  be added to Wikipedia. One would for example allow logged-in users to  call for additional voices and dynamic balancing, another to flag  normativity.
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0230.webm)
* [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:L%C3%A9onie_Butler/sandbox)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/conflicts_and_confusions.diff.html)

###DiyVersions (Lionel Broye)


A proposal to bring the collection outside the museum walls and to  link the objects to different and external contexts in order to create  new narratives with and around them.
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0231.webm)
* [Presentation text](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/DiyVersions/DiyVersions.txt)
* [Visuals](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/DiyVersions/)

###Hexatic (workingtitle) (Alexandre Leray, Magnus Lawrie, Adva Zakai)
Exploring tools and processes related to software versioning such as  'git add note',  a series of experiments with narration and editorial  processes through conversation, disagreement and conflict. 
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0233.webm)
* [Recording of the script](https://asciinema.org/a/cel358ytg5o3uhi2n8z95yzwe)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/One_commit.diff.html)
* [Repository](<http://gitlab.constantvzw.org/diversions/hexatic)

###Other orderings exist (Michael Murtaugh, Nicolas Maleve)
Background and forground, scraping and structured data. Computer  Vision algorithms employed as interlocutors, to explore alternative  interpretations, different orderings and seeing through other eyes of  digital and  digitised collections.
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0234.webm)
* Notes: [friday](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/different_orders_friday.diff.html) + [wednesday](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/different_orders_wednesday.diff.html)
* Tools: [Scraping](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/Scraping.diff.html) + [erasing the background](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/erasing_the_background.diff.html)

###Stacks & volumes (Mia Melvaer, Phil Langley, Julie Boschat-Thorez, Michael Murtaugh, An Mertens)
Using 'volume' as an ordering device, Stacks & Volumes  prototypes a different kind of inventory, 'cutting across' current categorisations and groupings.
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0235.webm)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/Stacking.diff.html)
* [Images](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/stacking/Presentation%20visuals%20Diversion%20Stacks%20and%20Volumes.pdf)
* [Materials](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/stacking)
* Objects made of ... (Mia Melvaer)
* [Audio guide](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/stacking/Second%20Take%20Corridor.m4a)

###Tracking dates / Plotting timescales (Phil Langley)


Plotting the multiple dates (acquisition, production, addition to the database) of objects in the Carmentis data base
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0236.webm)
* [Visuals](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/tracking%20dates)

###Notation as a parasite (Cristina Cochior)
Following the description of a [plugin for the image manipulation programme The Gimp as parasitic activity.](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/gimpparasites)

###Objects made to speak / voorwerpen spreken / objets parlants I (Mia Melvaer, An Mertens)
Based on existing descriptions, this algoritm proposes new objects, to be added to the museum catalogue.
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0238.webm)

###Objects made to speak / voorwerpen spreken / objets parlants II (An Mertens)
What do objects have to say, when we listen to them through the  catalogue? An algorithmicly generated catalogue of "women" present in  the museum catalogue.
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0243.webm)
* [Materials](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/objects_made_to_speak)
* [Gift to the Museum on Women's Day 2017, 40 catalogues of 'Objects with Hair'](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/objects_made_to_speak/For_the_museum_40_x_20_objects_with_hair/)

###Objects and stories in the Mesoamerican room


Could we imagine an audio-guide that whispers multiple voices into our ears? Could they tell a different story in each ear? Would they enter in conversation with each other?
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0239.webm)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/objects_and_stories.diff.html)
* [Materials](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/objects_and_stories/)

###Not just Pretty Ladies (Loraine Furter)
A [new Wikipedia page for Pretty Ladies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Ladies_(female_figurines)), detailing their problematic naming.

###On goddesses, ladies and other maids (Donatella Portoghese)
A possible guided tour of some of the objects exhibited in the  Mesoamerican room. It investigates in a playful way how the information  we get influences our perception of the artworks. What do we communicate  and what do we omit? How do we talk about women and beauty outside  Western colonial parameters? What does the World Wibe Web have to tell  us about these concepts?The absent context (Arianna Marcolini)Speaking from the Pretty Ladies in familiar and unfamiliar tongues to evoke absent contextsUnderneath the Goddess (Wendy Van Wynsberghe)A sound recording from under the Mesoamerican room
* [Audio](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/objects_and_stories/Tour04_under_the_americas_EDIT.wav)

###Carmentis
From the past into the future and back again. Prototyping a  decolonization of the museum collection through critical observations of  its digital infrastructure, and how it changed in time. 
* [Video 1](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0240.webm) + [Video 2](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0241.webm)
* [Notes on digital infrastructure](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/cloud.diff.html)
* [Conversation notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/decolonize_ZLS.diff.html)
* [Presentation notes](http://etherdump.constantvzw.org/p/new_fire_ceremony.diff.html)

###1996 vision (Gottfried Haider)


Speculative software proposal. A research into the history of the  museums' digital infrastructures and collection management systems lead  to a re-imagination of the current digital collection through the tools  and styles that would have been state of the art in 1996.
* [Screenshots + letter](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/1996)

###Printing/exporting the catalog, a geneology (Martino Monti)
A closer look at the Museum catalogues over time, their publication processes and politics, on paper and on line.

###Stanley in the database (Sam Muirhead)
Re-narrating the story of Carmentis, a caring goddess in the database.

### A new fire ceremony (Seda Guerses, Zoumana Meite)
A poetic proposal for a new start of the collection and its  institution, moulded to not forget its own history. Inspired by an Aztec  ceremony that was performed once every 52 years.

###Background, foreground: differences that matter (Cristina Cochior, Nicolas Maleve, Peter Westenberg)


Experiments with the distinction between foreground and background in the digital images scraped from the museum collection's website
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0242.webm)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/introDifferences.diff.html)
* [Materials](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/Differences_that_matter)

###A collection of incertitudes (peut-etre, maybe, sometimes, possibly, ...) (Marie Lecrivain, Martin Campilo)


A query into the online catalogue following the  parameter of uncertainty. How do you find doubts in the database if the  "question mark" (?) is not taken in account by the search engine of  Carmentis?
* [Video](http://video.constantvzw.org/diversions/presentations/MVI_0244.webm)
* [Notes](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/etherdump/incertitudes.diff.html)
* [Materials](http://diversions.constantvzw.org/projects/incertitudes)

## Colophon
DiVersions worksession, 4-10 December 2016, organised by Constant in collaboration with The Museum for Art and History, Brussels. With: Adva Zakai, Alexandre Leray, André Castro, An Mertens, Arianne   Marcolini, Catherine Lenoble, Cristina Cochior, Donatella Portoghese,  Laurence Rassel, Femke Snelting, Christine De Smedt, Gottfried Haider,  Geraldine Juárez, Julie  Boschat-Thorez, Kristien Van denbrande, Lionel  Broye, Loraine Furter, Magnus Lawrie, Marie Lecrivain, Martin Campilo,  Martino Monti, Mia  Melvaer, Michael Murtaugh, Serge Lemaitre, Sophie  Balace, Emile Van Binnebeke, Saskia Willaert, Chris Vastenhoudt, Myriam  Arsenault-Goulet,  Nicolas Maleve, Peter Westenberg, Phil Langley, Sam  Muirhead, Sarah Magnan, Seda Guerses, Wendy Van Wynsberghe, Zeljko  Blace, Zoumana Meite. Video- and soundrecordings: Stefan Piat, Peter  Westenberg, Wendy Van Wynsberghe. Food: Joris Vermeir, Guillaume Bernier.

License (unless otherwise noticed): [FAL](http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/)

## Afterlife

In 2019, concepts, ideas and prototypes from the worksession are being further developed in the context of a collaboration with PACKED, Werkplaats Immaterieel Erfgoed, UGent and RoSa. Follow the developments here: http://diversions.constantvzw.org/wiki