1. Tools for survival meetup: 'Technical therapy'
Do you have technological problems? Do you want to code something but don't know where to start? Do you need to use a new tool, but aren't sure how to? Try technical therapy!

This meetup, builds upon Denise Ferreria da Silva & Valentina Desideri's 'Political Therapy' and will take up 'Technical Therapy' as a practice that thwarts normative colonial measures of technological practice like: quantification, efficiency and productivity. Instead in 'Technical Therapy' sessions, either group, or individual; we will consider what the problem is; identifying tools we might need to approach problems and generate possibilities for attending to these problems that are in constant flux. Sometimes the 'therapists' will be intentionally unseating hierarchies between patients/ therapists/ tools we consider each position as mutable so it can become undone in what it comes to normatively represent. Tools will have problems that need solving, therapists will too - patients will become therapists and have answers and methods of approach. A question will be played with in our practice around what it means to fix: when you fix a broken tool: what do you fix? Do you fix the world that rendered that tool necessary for navigating oppressive systems? Or do you restore it to its previous function so it can continue doing what it's designed for-work? 

Questions that might prompt someone to sign up for a therapy session could be: 'How do I build up the confidence to start working with the terminal on my computer more rather than the GUI?' or 'How do I use this jackhammer?' or 'How do I refuse technical (GAFAM) giants in my working processes?'.

Participants: A roaming ambulant therapy pop-up where people can try different tools to approach or 'expose' problems as well as different kinds of 'medicines' like 'coding', 'opening up the technology'. These low threshold engagements become a way to promote our workshops next to our regular H&D channels. 

Dates: August 2025 – December 2025
Partner/collaborator: Ren Britton (MELT)
Ren Loren Britton (Ren Loren Britton is a trans*disciplinary artist-designer who holds values that reverberate with trans*feminism, technosciences, radical pedagogy and disability justice. Their work practices with loving accountability towards collaboration, accessibility, trans*gender politics and critical technical praxis. https://lorenbritton.com/) 

Location: H&D Studio, NDSM


Pernilla to Ren: this really got chopped. But maybe we can squeeze in a bit more to make it flow a bit better? I hope you dont feel discoraged by the chopps and changes. We can make it anyway we like once the application is through 

______________________________
END :) 
______________________________


______
Proposal Activity: Technical therapy
    Do you have technological problems? Do you want to code something but don't know where to start? Do you need to use a new tool, but aren't sure how to? Try technical therapy!

Technical "Therapy" problematizes both terms within its title. Technical, meaning those practices that engage with care in socio-technical systems that world the kinds of worlds around us and have to do with the tools that we use that shape our worlds as we shape them back. And therapy, a practice of attuning to and identifying what the 'problem' is in group and individual settings and trying out possible strategies to change the 'problem' into a 'possibility' - without the presence of "real" therapists. This research line, intended as a riff off on Denise Ferreria da Silva & Valentina Desideri's 'Political Therapy' will take up 'Technical Therapy' as a practice that thwarts normative colonial measures of technological practice like: quantification, efficiency and productivity. Instead in 'Technical Therapy' sessions, either group, or individual; we will consider what the problem is; identifying tools we might need to approach problems and generate possibilities for attending to these problems that are in constant flux. Working against notions of expertise, we will define who takes up each of the roles in each of the therapy sessions. Sometimes the 'therapists' will be 'patients' and 'tools' will sometimes be 'therapists' too. By intentionally unseating hierarchies between patients/ therapists/ tools we consider each position as mutable and so that it can become undone in what it comes to normatively represent. Tools will have problems that need solving, therapists will too - patients will become therapists and have answers and methods of approach. A question will be played with in our practice around what it means to fix: when you fix a broken tool: what do you fix? Do you fix the world that rendered that tool necessary for navigating oppressive systems? Or do you restore it to its previous function so it can continue doing its designed for-work? 

Questions that might prompt someone to sign up for a therapy session could be: 'How do I build up the confidence to start working with the terminal on my computer more rather than the GUI?' or 'How do I use this jackhammer?' or 'How do I refuse techincal (GAFAM) giants in my working processes?'.

Through a series of imagined roles through dedicated sessions we will queer what 'help' means and open up the space to question the series of operations that led us to feel like we don't have the confidence to pick up the tools and play around. In this way we will refuse care dynamics that stabalize who needs help and who is the helper. In Technical Therapy we are not offering a service, rather we are opening up a shifting set of relations where the 'problem' is located and what is the 'problem' are open to interpretation as well as what the 'solution' might be remains open for invention too. The therapy sessions might look like: confidence building workshops, coding something together, daring to type something into the terminal or working with bread boards and simple electronics. Throughout this research we will develop roles for ourselves  like 'technical expert', ' bibliomancy expert', 'novice fake therapist', 'experienced fake therapist'. By assembling these roles and playing with 'how to do things' and 'what to do' we will invent new practices of questioning technology that move towards unpacking the messy relations of what problems and technical solutions look/feel like in the first place and explore co-learning skills along the way. Questioning 'knowledge production' by looking at the multiple ways that knowledge is passed on, by/to whom it is passed on and what methods can be used. Embracing the joy of being/feeling brave, with the support of peers and the warmth and myth of external experts.

___

Activity:
- Individual Therapy Pop Up -

- Group Therapy Session -


Dates: August 2025 – December 2025
By: Ren Loren Britton (Ren Loren Britton is a trans*disciplinary artist-designer who holds values that reverberate with trans*feminism, technosciences, radical pedagogy and disability justice. Their work practices with loving accountability towards collaboration, accessibility, trans*gender politics and critical technical praxis. https://lorenbritton.com/) & Pernilla Manjula Philip (H&D)
Location: Amsterdam 


Budget suggestion:
PERSONNELE COSTS 50 Euro p/h:
 
MATERIAL COSTS:                      

INCOME: 
    200 Euro? – lunch contribution + merch sales

____
From Loes: Hey @all when making your budgets could you also think about possible income? This could be eg.
Especially the last one (audience income) is important because per project the accountant looks if theres VAT taxed income from 3rd party (i.e. ticket sales) as a condition for being able to get VAT returns on our expenses within that project. If you dont love the idea of entrance fee maybe it helps to do some construction where entrance fee includes drinks/lunch/a publication/merch. That way visitors pay for that, not for the event itself but we can still apply for the tax benefit. Cheers!


Activity:

- Individual Therapy Pop Up -
(LB) maybe add: who is it for? how many people? duration? locations (and why those?) It could help to illustrate with one concrete scenario, something along these lines:
(LB) NDSM Open in October next year could be really great occasion? There's lots of performative stuff happening and we have the open studio. 
- Group Therapy Session at (H&D) NDSM -
(LB) suggestion: maybe this could be worded a little more concretely while keeping it open. E.g.something like "we will play a game using character cards developed to think through and question what tech therapy might mean and establish all the knowledge present in a given space." 
>> I imagine this will be more in depth. How do the 3 sessions progress? It doesn't have to have a concrete result or outcome but maybe you can make more concrete what you want to make space for/explore and how they follow-up on one another. What you hope people take away from it: maybe reframe how they look at something, find confidence, find peer support, other?
>> also here: who is it for? Do you imagine different participants for the individual vs the group therapy sessions? 

Dates: August 2025 – December 2025
By: Ren Loren Britton (Bio), Pernilla Manjula Philip (Bio) + H&D
Location: Amsterdam 

Flexible Roles:
    - therapists
    - patients
    - tools

- Traveling theater/therapy (an ambulance more than a hospital) --> Varia was making a promotion for a kid, a van - a bakfiets
- Coding something together, daring to type something into the terminal or working with bread boards and simple electronics
- Could we give some love and attention to the look of the tools? Like paint the jackhammer with colours, stickers and text. Maybe we can do this to rental tools from the Blauwe Duime so others who rents the tool after its therapy session will get ripples from our vibe. And also testing out the tools brrrrrrap
- Group and Individual Therapy
- Pop up in places? we come in, where people normally go, a quick therapy session in a pop up tent
- social workshops?

Setting:
    - What is therapy? (good question, now that you say it I realize so many things are theraputic. Does it need to be framed at this stadge?) 



References:

Making Referrals:
"The crip analytic of interdependence helps us understand how technoscience can simultaneously be entangled with global networks of domination and also provide opportunities for kinship and connection" Crip Technoscience Manifesto, Hamraie, A., & Fritsch, K. (2019)

"Crip technoscience struggles for futures in which disability is anticipated and welcomed, and in which all disabled people thrive, regardless of their productivity. By endorsing accessible futures, we refuse to treat access as an issue of technical compliance or rehabilitation, as a simple technological fix, or a checklist. Instead, we define access as collective, messy, experimental, frictional, and generative. Accessible futures require our interdependence" Crip Technoscience Manifesto, Hamraie, A., & Fritsch, K. (2019)


Comment:

Reference: https://faketherapy.wordpress.com/political-therapy/






Notes from meeting between Ren & Pernilla
11 August 2024
—> self education — look further at that
—> maker culture - squatters and design justice - maker spaces from Jamaican Sound Systems, that often gets overlooked, - maker spaces that don’t look like makerspaces — tool rental place 
—> analogue system for filing and archiving, squatter mentality — no no no no you can do this, in a commercial space wouldn’t be daring 
—> making, the hands-on making <— 
—> material and technique and making things —> 
—> Fake Therapy
—> There’s the tools and there’s the confidence to pick up the tools. Coding and hammering and reading and speaking. 
—> Confidence building 
—> technology confidence building workshops for disabled and trans* people
—> power tools, coding, going into the terminal in your computer, different things for different people, learning and achieving goals 
—> daring to type something into the terminal 
—> Solar Punk - working with these ESP’s - pick up signals with a 30 meter range, treasure hunt - would decorate these boxes and servers and code them, something really nice about having this both together
—> quick reference to the Audre Lorde, the masters tools - interesting somehow, ownership and tools and literally tools 
--> Pernilla performance "Dr. Philip" 

counter propositions to techno-optimist desires for social progress through normative measures of quantification, efficiency and productivity. 

Ren's Draft Proposals:
Draft 1:
Technical "Therapy" (Me and H&D love this direction. Ren, should we focus on shaping this as an activity?)(Ren here, yes would love to! I also apprecaited the comment from below about problematizing 'fake' and also I was thinking we could problematize the role of the doctors that are brought up too, maybe through unseating ideas around expertise? Also seems like there is a world we could get into if we wanted to around referrals etc.?). Pernilla: YES!
    Do you have technological problems? Do you want to code something but don't know where to start? Do you need to use a new tool, but aren't sure how to? Try technical therapy!
Indended as a direct fork from Denise Ferreria da Silva & Valentina Desideri's 'Political Therapy' and 'Sensing Salon' projects - 'Technical Therapy' will take on the role of the fake therapist by suggesting "solutions" to techno-optimist desires that thwart normative colonial measures of technological practice like: quantification, efficiency and productivity. A question that someone might bring to us could be 'How do I build up the confidence to start working with the terminal on my computer more rather than the GUI?' or 'How do I use this jackhammer?' Through a series of imagined roles through dedicated sessions we will queer what 'help' means and open up the space to question the series of operations that led us to feel like we don't have the confidence to pick up the tools and play around. The therapy sessions might look like confidence building workshops, coding something together, daring to type something into the terminal or working with bread boards and simple electronics. Throughout this research we will develop roles for ourselves  like 'technical expert', ' bibliomancy expert', 'novice fake therapist', 'experienced fake therapist'. By assembling these roles and playing with 'how to do things' and 'what to do' we will invent new practices of questioning technology that move towards unpacking the messy relations of what problems and technical solutions look/feel like in the first place and co-learning skills along the way. Simultaneously we will be working with  Questioning 'knowledge production' by looking at the multipul ways that knowledge is passed on, by/to whom it is passed on and what tools can be used. Embracing the joy of being/feeling brave, with the support of peers and the warmth and myth of the extrenal experts.

"The crip analytic of interdependence helps us understand how technoscience can simultaneously be entangled with global networks of domination and also provide opportunities for kinship and connection" Crip Technoscience Manifesto, Hamraie, A., & Fritsch, K. (2019)

"Crip technoscience struggles for futures in which disability is anticipated and welcomed, and in which all disabled people thrive, regardless of their productivity. By endorsing accessible futures, we refuse to treat access as an issue of technical compliance or rehabilitation, as a simple technological fix, or a checklist. Instead, we define access as collective, messy, experimental, frictional, and generative. Accessible futures require our interdependence" Crip Technoscience Manifesto, Hamraie, A., & Fritsch, K. (2019)


Comment:

Reference: https://faketherapy.wordpress.com/political-therapy/

Draft 2:
    Do you have technological problems? Do you want to code something but don't know where to start? Do you need to use a new tool, but aren't sure how to? Try technical therapy!

Technical "Therapy" problematizes both terms within its title. Technical, meaning those practices that engage with care in socio-technical systems that world the kinds of worlds around us and have to do with the tools that we use that shape our worlds as we shape them back. And therapy, a practice of attuning to and identifying what the 'problem' is in group and individual settings and trying out possible strategies to change the 'problem' into a 'possibility' - without the presence of "real" therapists. This research line, intended as a riff off on Denise Ferreria da Silva & Valentina Desideri's 'Political Therapy' will take up 'Technical Therapy' as a practice that thwarts normative colonial measures of technological practice like: quantification, efficiency and productivity. Instead in 'Technical Therapy' sessions, either group, or individual; we will consider what the problem is; identifying tools we might need to approach problems and generate possibilities for attending to these problems that are in constant flux. Working against notions of expertise, we will define who takes up each of the roles in each of the therapy sessions. Sometimes the 'therapists' will be 'patients' and 'tools' will sometimes be 'therapists' too. By intentionally unseating hierarchies between patients/ therapists/ tools we consider each position as mutable and so that it can become undone in what it comes to normatively represent. Tools will have problems that need solving, therapists will too - patients will become therapists and have answers and methods of approach. A question will be played with in our practice around what it means to fix: when you fix a broken tool: what do you fix? Do you fix the world that rendered that tool necessary for navigating oppressive systems? Or do you restore it to its previous function so it can continue doing its designed for-work? 

Questions that might prompt someone to sign up for a therapy session could be: 'How do I build up the confidence to start working with the terminal on my computer more rather than the GUI?' or 'How do I use this jackhammer?' or 'How do I refuse techincal (GAFAM) giants in my working processes?'.

Through a series of imagined roles through dedicated sessions we will queer what 'help' means and open up the space to question the series of operations that led us to feel like we don't have the confidence to pick up the tools and play around. In this way we will refuse care dynamics that stabalize who needs help and who is the helper. In Technical Therapy we are not offering a service, rather we are opening up a shifting set of relations where the 'problem' is located and what is the 'problem' are open to interpretation as well as what the 'solution' might be remains open for invention too. The therapy sessions might look like: confidence building workshops, coding something together, daring to type something into the terminal or working with bread boards and simple electronics. Throughout this research we will develop roles for ourselves  like 'technical expert', ' bibliomancy expert', 'novice fake therapist', 'experienced fake therapist'. By assembling these roles and playing with 'how to do things' and 'what to do' we will invent new practices of questioning technology that move towards unpacking the messy relations of what problems and technical solutions look/feel like in the first place and explore co-learning skills along the way. Questioning 'knowledge production' by looking at the multiple ways that knowledge is passed on, by/to whom it is passed on and what methods can be used. Embracing the joy of being/feeling brave, with the support of peers and the warmth and myth of external experts.

_____
Workshop ideas:
- Coding something together, daring to type something into the terminal or working with bread boards and simple electronics
- Could we give some love and attention to the look of the tools? Like paint the jackhammer with colours, stickers and text. Maybe we can do this to rental tools from the Blauwe Duime so others who rents the tool after its therapy session will get ripples from our vibe. And also testing out the tools brrrrrrap
- Group or Individual Therapy
- Traveling theater/therapy (an ambulance more than a hospital) --> Varia was making a promotion for a kid, a van - a bakfiets
- Pop up in places? we come in, where people normally go, a quick therapy session in a pop up tent
- social workshops?

- Individual Therapy Pop Up -
- Group Therapy Session at H&D -

Setting:
    - What is therapy? (good question, now that you say it I realize so many things are theraputic. Does it need to be framed at this stadge?) 

Flexible Roles:
    - therapists
    - patients
    - tools

Dates: August 2025 – December 2025
By: Ren Loren Britton (Bio), Pernilla Manjula Philip (Bio) + H&D
Location: NDSM Amsterdam

References:

Making Referrals:
"The crip analytic of interdependence helps us understand how technoscience can simultaneously be entangled with global networks of domination and also provide opportunities for kinship and connection" Crip Technoscience Manifesto, Hamraie, A., & Fritsch, K. (2019)

"Crip technoscience struggles for futures in which disability is anticipated and welcomed, and in which all disabled people thrive, regardless of their productivity. By endorsing accessible futures, we refuse to treat access as an issue of technical compliance or rehabilitation, as a simple technological fix, or a checklist. Instead, we define access as collective, messy, experimental, frictional, and generative. Accessible futures require our interdependence" Crip Technoscience Manifesto, Hamraie, A., & Fritsch, K. (2019)


Comment:

Reference: https://faketherapy.wordpress.com/political-therapy/



De Blauwe Duim Collaboration (think this could complement the Technical "Therapy" activity)
This would be a collaboration between H&D and the 'De Blauwe Duim' tool borrowing shed. I think this could both be a chance to work with a local context and perhaps also study their system for filing & archiving. Maybe a comparison could be drawn between the archiving practices with H&D. I would propose some hanging out as method here, and also a kind of building/technical/accomplice project. Maybe when someone goes to borrow a tool, they also get a flyer from us that is like - 'do you also need your hardware/software fixed? we can't promise anything but a lot of interest and becoming accomplice in understanding your technical problems'? It could be a way to connect to the community around this tool shed - and also a practice of expanding the kind of tooling up and supports that can be imagined to be supportive of this space? There is something about this idea that realtes to 'flipping of the script' prioritizing those without the means -- which is a practice against big tech who, as the proposal writes alwasy prioritizes those with the means.

If a leading principle can only set us back, how can we imagine a post-progress configuration for our techno-social fabric? Together with our large and diverse community of critical makers, H&D sets out to develop constructive counter propositions to techno-optimist desires for social progress through normative measures of quantification, efficiency and productivity. 

Post progress
unpacking what has already been there
making accessible what is already there
making smaller 

Tooling Up with What We Already Have
Something about this idea around 'post progress' makes me think about all of the work that H&D has already done. I wonder if there are some echoes of research or projects that could be turned into little tools that could be shared? I'm thinking about the worksheet we made for the Crip Time Clock workshop - what if that was forked and used as a worksheet for another purpose? Or with my idea around the Coalition Bouquet project, what if this practice i'm developing around telling stories between coalitions that have gone well between different parties became something H&D hosted over time - as a way to collect these stories and host them in a library. I guess I'm trying to think here of making the resources we already have around more accessible as tools for each other - though how to do this is a bit unformed so far. 

Other ideas not yet formed:
🍀shifting the archive of who is the teacher, moving towards the plantropocene as a direction of research
🍀World Wide Web rather than Wood Wide Web 
🍀how about movement towards education as a practice of freedom? what are the tools of community liberation? 
🍀how about a 'flipping of the script' prioritizing those without the means 

Some notes on the language in the document that Pernilla sent me -- what about moving from the framweorks presente to: 
🍀self-sufficiency --> community-sufficiency
🍀ecology --> including and naming as such, more-than-humans as collaborators in our practices
🍀alternative education --> education as the practice of freedom
🍀"do it yourself" --> from DIY to DIWO "do it with others" 
Thank you Ren, great points! 



https://meet.jit.si/Plansandapplication2025