Meeting 24 July: Karl, Aggeliki, Cristina, Femke, Sofia

Notes from Brussels: https://pad.constantvzw.org/p/infra-resistance-The-Kitchen

A short meeting!

1. Making connections between groups, keeping in touch to bring together in the future

Making connections: are these groups connected to the mailing list? There are also 4 people in the mailing list that try to subscribe and maybe send them an email to subscribe. Cristina can email these 4 people.

2. reflect on how the gathering at The Kitchen went

Cristina: energy for an other meeting on this topic with the kitchen? The meeting felt too short

Ideas of application at apass with The Kitchen on archives. There is a meeting in August with them about that. (when? not defined yet)
Amazed at how open the kitchen were to the topics we propose

Maybe there is a working groups that is more easy to manoeuvre. FS wants to support their application (apass), but not sure how to directly continue on this path of archives/archiving. If the infra-resistance becomes only archiving maybe not the best. 

aggeliki interest in What hosting service could facilitate such archive projects and be a home for these?
karl could potentially support tecnically in later projects

They are commited to that. Include sth in the colonial infra track at Varia?

It is clear to work together and one path is to develop the apass application and the other is to make the next meeting apart from apass. Where to situate it, if we need any budget to make it happen and if it can be inscribed in varia's programme. Maybe to think something else instead of colonial infrastrcutres, knowledge systems ...

3. Next Infra-resistance meeting?

We could already organise a next meeting, smaller to organise for the future. Is this a good continuation of these meetings. 

Where and how to make the meeting happen 

Barcelona or Antwerp

TITiPI has support form Hangar (Barcelona) so we have a space

Athens at AMOQA?
INC meeting, follow the money and how it flows
Finance forensics, debt

These meetings are also about how we keep active ourselves, from our skills and networks we have? How we do activism without becoming financial experts?


Karl: I really liked when Cassandra shared research on pensions system. I wonder about the continuation in distance from technological infrastructure as well. What if there was a session on systems that are not visible. Cassandra will be involved in the session and economists as well. If you have a super computer centered in Israel ...
Session on finance?

Open up the definition of infrastructure. 

What directions/tracks are there under the infra-resistance umbrella? 

Meeting after October. As a moment to gather also with new people.

4. Complicit Chips 5-6 October: who wants to join?

Find a way to think complicity differently, not through boycott, or separating one technology from another. Imbricated technologies. Get our heads around how AI as a fantasy or desire creates violence. There is something in the way this technology work. Interplay between software and hardware development and how that works. It is to bring people together with different types of expertise that want to collaborate on understanding what is going on in may levels that is complex even to start thinking about it. Find a thread to pull in order to resist. NVIDIA presented as the Taylor Swift of computer industry https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq55ek28z98o. People who do border and migration studies, artists that work with graphics, hw hacking. 

This meeting is part of/related to Infra resistance work but organised by TITiPI, if that makes sense?



Meeting 19th June: TL, Elodie, Sofia, 

TODO after meeting:
- Cristina emails Khamoosh
- Insist with DSP Sofia
- Ask Karl and Aggeliki if they have anywhere to stay
- Elodie reaches out to Peggy Pierrot
- FS + Elodie take care of lunch, shopping
- tell people to get tickets and send receipts + bankdetails to Elodie and Femke via email
- check with Martino if someone can stay/is staying
- FS and elo will be at Globe Aroma at 10:00
- FS emails Michael

Who is attending
- Karl (students intifada) + Debora
- Radical data (Jo and Rayen)
- Reem + ... (Subversive films, the kitchen, united screens for palestine, palestine film institute)
- Pipas: Femke, Cristina, Elodie, Sofia, Aggeliki

overview https://cloud.constantvzw.org/s/SaEZTQzXdJWE5xs

Meeting with reem: the kitchen
The kitchen is an office room part of Globe Aroma? Art institution in bxl that is an open house. Network/resources for people who are in precarious situations in Belgium legally. Giving access to Art for everyone. 
The kitchen holds: poster archive, library, resistance films from 60s, 
Reem is really interested in archives, Discourse around visibility/findability/accessibility.
So far they havent published easily searchable websites or whatever but interested in digital tools. There are ideas like recirculating the archive as a practice (intentional circulation, what would it mean and wwho could engage with it).
Intentional circulation. Not just putting things online. In contact with Robert Ochshorn. Worked with aaaarg on the interface. In contact with Constant. Pat of Pirate Library network. Contact with them through the Montage en Paris? Rob spoke with Sub Films about the possibilit of a digital archive. He gave them an RPi that is now on the shelf. They want to change but don't know how. What RPi can do around mobile servers. Spoke about ATNOFS. Spoke about SPLINTER. One track about thinking with them and those tools. Looking for how different strands of work we are involved in could help them think this part.
We will have the room for the whole day, Reem needs to open. Globe Aroma has a room downstairs. We can use the two floors. If we could leave at 19:00ish that would be good.
Reem is trying to get some others from the network to come. I asked her to be present in our morning sessions. Organise something in the afternoon a bit more short that she could get ppl from the network to join. 
Felt like things were falling into place for both of us :)


A group working on archive, not especially on palestine but the sensitivities on archiving practices resonate
Iranian group every day life sounds; https://theeveryday.hotglue.me/?Proposal
listening sessions, Cristina took part in sessions. Remix, moments of listening. Using hotglue.
let's invite them! Cristina adapts email.

Jameera contact via TL in Beirut, organising archives with Palestinians, they looking for infr support and solidarity
she is going to be in Toronto at that time. Could present work.
Doing underground work in Toronto. Interested in working with this community of experts in solidarity. TL join the public moment with her.
Tam also is a radical archivist with a lot of expertise. Bridging archival knowledge with digital knowledge. Tam and Jameera organised together. Tam did a thesis on Palestinian presence on Israeli archives.

Send a report afterwards to a larger network


HOUSING
2 x 2 people can stay with 
Tina (Jo and Rayen stay sat night + xxxx + xxxx)
Femke: 1p, Karl (Saturday)
Elodie: Sofia arrive fri night + sat night, Cristina stay sat night
Imane: Aggeliki? Imane?
Martino?: (check, Aggeliki?)

PROGRAMME
11:00 Opening, introductions
12:00 Prepare worksession, split up in tracks/groups
- one track on mobile archives, servers, ...
- one track on the toollist?
- one track ...
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Worksession
15:00 Worksession
16:00 Worksession
16:30 Break & prepare for online
17:00 Online
18:00 Online
18:30 end

>> Femke will be there at 10

Things to bring:
Installed RPs, publications (ATNOFS etc...)
SPLINTER: https://cloud.constantvzw.org/apps/files/files/884772?dir=/2.%20Projects/Cane-Sticky_Note-Another_Body/Drempel%20drempel%20drempel&openfile=true



TO DO LIST AFTER THE MEETING:
    
- Send email to the list and keep track of budget and sign ups (Aggeliki)
- Personal invitations (1 person per group can travel)
- offer the dates on signal with INFRA-RESISTANCE group - SBT
- Femke check space etc. 
- check in on beds
- invite other people that could be interested/contribute

INFRA-RESISTANT ARCHIVES
Saturday 29 June 2024
Hosted by The Kitchen (+ Globe Aroma)
Moutstraat 26, 1000 Brussel

Meeting 6 June 14:00 CET (Femke, Cristina, Aggeliki, Sofia)

What do we want to do
Who to invite
Budget
- travel
- stay
- fees?
- The Kitchen?
- online poss/or even organised group online together? (hp asking) 
- 4+5 October, Brussels again

NOTES

AD: What is this for: supporting the students, the mapping. Practical, and also a bit bigger: a larger context, other approaches. Different groups?

S: Trouble for digital archiving. To do it for the long term. People are looking in the past a lot. Irritated of how the archive is used for a collection of things, have a bit of a sense of how the archives are designed. Discuss the goal and aims of what the archive can do. The material means, how sustainable it is. The question of divestment. One thing was using cargo collective archive. I was initially thinking getting into conversations with people. How to handle the question of how can we do archiving with the long term ocuupation, without patronizing. How to do it in a way to not lecture people about instagram. 
---> and ideal thing would be sharing knowledge and maybe even resources

C: I am interested in the case of https://intifada.mokumkraakt.nl/ how to think about security, how to contribute. What is lacking. The acto of archiving and the lack of access, sharing.

F: interested in the concrete case of subversive archives. wanting to put the films they showed in documenta online. finding ways to support them. maybe through the NoN. thinking about networks a lot. another thing: does infra-resistance want to bring support? hands-on, doing things. meeting having 2 elements.

S: making website, technical solutions, to serve different archiving needs. Maintenance issues. Sharing resources

F: Add a section to the infra-resistance publication? 

A: subversive film archive also has been thinking about security. bring this into the conversation.

F: from the grant that tm organised for Berlin 2024, managed by Constant and Femke. 3000 euros left. propose to use half of that money for this meeting, leave the other half for a meeting in october where we will try to work on NVDIA hardware on complicit chips. i.e 1500 for 29 June

travel:
3 x Amsterdam 180
5 x Rotterdam 250
1 x Basel 300
1 x France 350
1 x Berlin 250
= 1330

some left for food, buffer etc.


Who is available for the day:

Online:


Which projects to invite:
- Subversive Film (Reem, The Kitchen) OK FS
- Students intifada : https://intifada.mokumkraakt.nl/ (via DSP + Karl?) OK, check if anyone else -- maybe Karl?
- Radical Data, we're creating an international map of solidarity actions in schools and universities (Basel) FS https://untilmap.com https://radicaldata.org/projects/
- United screens for Palestine (connected to Kitchen?) check if anyone to invite AD -> IB
- https://learningpalestine.hotglue.me/ (radio, who? where?) AD
- https://dark.society.systems (Berlin/Germany) AD (can also do if you need help, AD! --ccl)
- https://palestineecransmemoire.com/A-propos (France) SBT

NEXT MEETING (2h)

17 June after 14-16h FS ccl SBT
19 June before 10-12h FS ccl SBT

PROGRAMME

11:00 Worksession
12:00 Worksession
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Worksession
15:00 Worksession
16:00 Worksession
16:30 Break & prepare for online
17:00 Online
18:00 Online
18:30 end


Announcement:

Dear list,

On Saturday 29 June 11:00-18:30 we will organise a third INFRA-RESISTANCE meeting. We will gather for a day of digital archiving in solidarity with Palestine. We will be hosted by The Kitchen in Brussels. Together with groups working in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and France we will share experiences and knowledges of creating, securing and maintaining their archives, and work concretely to establish solidarity and mutual support among participants.

We are concerned with current organising and archiving anti-colonial solidarity on commercial cloud infrastructures (Instagram, Google docs, Whatsapp, Eventbrite, Wix, Zoom, ...). The INFRA-RESISTANCE group works with and develops various digital tools outside Big Tech that can be used for organising: some more secure and useful than their cloud alternatives, others (also) more creative or experimental.

INFRA-RESISTANCE is an informal session for activists, artists and organisers on Palestine. Previous meetings took place in December 2023 at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam and in February 2024 at Varia in Rottedam.

The meeting is in-person but from 17:00-18:30 we will discuss and share online with everyone involved, and think about future steps.

If you would be interested to join us in organising this or in attending, please reply to this message privately. If you need support for travel or lodging, get in touch as well, we have some support for travel within Europe.

If you think of other people that would be interested, please invite them and let us know if they attend.

Saturday 29 June 2024
Hosted by The Kitchen (+ Globe Aroma)
Moutstraat 26, 1000 Brussel



------
Protocol:
prioritising financially the needs of the group, guests and leftover can be used for other attendees


POTENTIAL GUESTS (Sofia has all email addresses)
* https://intifada.mokumkraakt.nl/
* https://accountabilityarchive.org/ (USA)
* https://www.instagram.com/archive_of_silence/ (GERMANY)
* https://learningpalestine.hotglue.me/ (NETHERLANDS)
* https://unitedscreensforpalestine.org/ (BELGIUM)
* https://dark.society.systems (GERMANY?)
* https://www.nakba-archive.org/ (OUTSIDE EUROPE?)
* https://palestineecransmemoire.com/A-propos (FRANCE)
* https://islamophobieindex.com/%C3%A0-propos-du-site (adjacent but related)
* Iyo Bizzeck Beyond AI https://imagining-otherwise.ch/en/contributors/iyo-bisseck, we're creating an international map of solidarity actions in schools and universities (France/Switzerland) https://untilmap.com
* https://www.hasbaratracker.com/
* Sofia is in touch with someone involved with a prototype for a website listing ties and complicity with zionists for all Dutch Unis

In Brussels
* Subversive Film https://schoolofartsgent.be/agenda/i-laugh-because-i-know-they-cant-kill-me
* The Kitchen https://www.sophia.be/2024/05/24/recipes-for-solidarity/


EMAIL DRAFT:                         
Dear...

We are a group of researchers, academics, activists, artists and designers working on digital infrastructures in relation to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. One of our domains of interest, practice and expertise is archival practice. 

Our focus is on researching and developing methods to create and preserve knowledge while actively divesting from extractive digital services which support the Israeli government’s military-technological complex. Some of us with additional allies in our periphery have published this call earlier this year: https://varia.zone/8m/ and have organised this public conversation last February https://varia.zone/en/infraresistance.html.

We are reaching out to you with a proposal to exchange about archival design, tools and methods for short and long term aims. We want to organise a meet up in the upcoming month where several archival initiatives such as yours would be invited to share their experiences with building their own archives and exchange impressions or recommendations. We are also eager to make concrete contributions, create solidarity, exchange and support between people working for justice. 

Practically speaking, we are based in a constellation of West-European countries but will host the session in Belgium on the 29th of June. We are also working on a budget to accommodate travel and offer food and places to  sleep at friends houses.




Would you be interested?


In solidarity,

The Infraresistance group



POTENTIAL DATES FOR A MEETING IN BELGIUM (please add the dates that suit you best)
5-6 June : Miryiam, Karl (with a lot of difficulty and cancellations), Sofia (seems a bit too soon), Aggeliki, Femke (nearly no time to help prepare)
8-9 June : Femke (only 9 June), sofia, Karl (only 8 june), Miriyam
15-16 June : Miriyam
22-23 June : Sofia, Cristina, Miriyam
28-29-30 June : Imane (28 is moeilijk), Karl, Sofia (need to know early to cancel current plans), Aggeliki, martino, Femke (not on 28), Cristina
5-6-7 July : Karl, Sofia, Aggeliki, Cristina
13-14 July : Femke, Karl, Cristina, imane

hp - online poss