*
*radical administration – a script

ACT 1: AFTER THE BAL

Hello there,

I have been thinking a lot about this concept that REDACTED mentioned you had told him about, REDACTED, regarding radical administration. The possibility of administrative functions in an institution being the site for resistance and a critical practice in itself. I don't remember if he mentioned it was a paper or a conference or lecture or personal idea you had shared with him. But I was wondering if you could also direct me towards where I could read some stuff. I seem to remember it was a conference, which would be quite interesting.

And in exchange for this lovely information, I offer a resource in return. I'm not sure you already knew about this, but my curious resource du jour is the conference paper repository of the Grey Literature Network. Dedicated to advancing the network of scientific gray literature publishing. Dating all the way back from 1993. I'm finding it quite curious to go through their archive.

http://www.greynet.org/opengreyrepository.html

TENKS :)

Hello REDACTED

I love this project so much. Nice that it resonates with you as well :) It is initiated by Kate Rich. She is most known for her brilliant feral trade project.

Radmin was a festival and a really nice reader came out. You can find it here:

https://fo.am/publications/radmin-reader-2020/

Kate published an earlier reader here:

https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_READER_FINAL.pdf

Festival info:

https://fo.am/events/radmin/

Thank you for the greynet repo gift!!! I will browse it soon, looks like a treasure trove :)

All the best!

REDACTED

I got the links to the radmin resources! Please send to Mia as well I don't think i have her email! :)

Dear REDACTED,

Thank you so much for the link! I added REDACTED here, and btw she said your presentation on Friday afternoon was amazing — I missed it unfortunately and I hope I'll be able to listen to it if it was recorded :)
Hugs from rainy Brussels

REDACTED

ACT 2: INVITED TO THE BAL

how are we gonna use this week for the project
it's already happening
yes
hahahaha
shared notes attached to
that's gonna become very meta
attached hahaha
i dunno REDACTED if you saw it
on the left
that's pretty impressive
thanks
alright
if you want we are prepared to get going quickly
experimental chat
test it out
it feels very intimidating to see the words written
secretary
we are being witnessed
it's like a camera
yeah
but you get used to it
and there is a difference in the fact that your face and body are not present in the recording
but your voice is palpable
that;s true
so
REDACTED REDACTED
great trial in radical administration
no names
i will remove the names
but this way it's transparent you can always check what is being written about u
it's not like the anthropologist's field notesbook
wherein you are recorded without your knowledge or consent
of what's recording
yeah
ok il shut up now
no
um
so uh i dunno if you guys talked earlier a little bit about
bring something that surpasses the realm of art
that can sort of spin into different spherres and how to set up a systemthat doesn't mimic existing systems
ummmmm
and to
find ways to address missing pieces in BAL
uh sorry our pad is a bit all over
i'm reading a bit from where we left off
um
is it an idea to start with i dunno so if we say that we have certain gols of finding a system
certain questions
a questionnaire of what we need
becomes the bulding cblocks of this system
who does the archive service, who services it and who does it service
from that question what is bottom up archiving for us
maybe it can lead also to a sort of protocol
uh
as a protocol of how to answer those questions
those gaps
what it will take
in the way it is done it will need some changes
mm hmmm
yeah i think so too um
maybe we can start with oops sorry what it is at the moment
if you're asking who it is for we couldstart imagining based on what we know
who it is for for the moment
who is witnessing this
think about persons we know
who could like
but maybe are less present
instead of talking about more abstract
i think the who is it for
when we talked earlier
i was only thinking about it as a question for building a system that caters to someone
i've separated it from the content which is not a good idea
there is a non system
absolutely
in terms of collection, who should it be/is it for
for me it is very what i hold dear
in the past bec of the protocol and how it was displayed it was very there's this text about reparative vs paranoid reading
it was landing on the reparative side
(am hoooked on this text)
how do u search for knowledge, what r u looking for
material about vs material from
encouragement, wish to show underrepresented groups
a place and a space in the city
a physical volume to the material
it's for people who need to be reassured that they have a space in the public sphere of brussels
can we elaborate on the idea of volume
this idea of volume was smth that came up a lot in the preparation for this workshop
maybe it's
no it's great
the thing of the secretary
volume in terms of size
at a certain scale you cannot gnore it anymore
act of opening it up
harder to ignore
crossover with volumes
REDACTED you are using volumes in a publication sense
sound and material not only yeah
i was indeed curious when REDACTED you talked about redistribution of volume, credits, capital, and access
what u were meaning in terms of volume
that eh REdACTEED you were mentioning volume coming close to that, how things are archived, the boxes and all the material dimensions of an archive as it was fought and materialized at some point
maybe we can question that
how to make those materials alive
or smth like that
that was interesting as well
crossover of volume just being LOUD as well
its big and loud
also smth literal volume of material that needs to be formatted acertain way to fit somewhere
flattening
loss of nuance
materiality
you cannot touch the original
this is also nice bec this idea early on came from you REDACTED
volume in the sense of being able to copy things
BAL collection is non original copies
that's quite important
treasuring the non-original archive
TREASURER!!!
still have i don't really know what i want to make
often there is so much value involved in archiving
5 editions
site
collector
feeding into capitalistic idea of property and exclusivity
loose thought
bothers me
a kind of
someone else is gatekeeper to your history
act up t shirt
they get sold for a lot of money
they weren't made for that
they weren't air jordans
bizarre
galleries that make fortunes on the estates of certain artists
there is
yeah
can't touch the original t shirts
vulnerable
how much should you preserve
material things age it's nice
loose thing
touches on ephemera
what we are handling
digital copies of ephemeral material
weird freeze frame
CZAR'S BLUE PRINTS
wears and tears
what does that passage of time mean
something good to be figured out there along those lines
super impt
that u mention again
forgot that is
big dimension
when u had this experience in EUROPEAN COUNTRY
the materials were very different more crafted with more silkscreen several colors
it was so funny
coming from this specific context the local materials
were already made to be photocopied for questions of means probably
that's very different from the EUROPEAN COUNTRY material
everyone seemed to have their own workshop and all gorgeously printed
so yeah i think it's relevant in that sense
what were u thinking about when u were talking about volume
This is so nice
Sometimes, there is another coleague, whom i'm translating with, and we have this code to say I'm done.
In terms of volumes, I was thinking about this idea for the text I'm writing for more than 6 months
Also thinking about how it is presented
Public — presentation
Text about engorgement (close to sources of capital)
adjust the volume
the closer you get the easier to get
need to dis-engorge
need to circulate
painful process to be so close to capital
your position of being from the perifery becomes your identity
but you become more in the center, less interesting suddenly
it's bleeding, painful
volumes in terms of sound
who is heard and who isn't
audibility (not only visibility)
form of appearing
how can mimcry be really hommage and not piracy
amplify each other's volume rather than cannibalize
Matthew Stadler (Publication Studio) neighbor, no longer going to go home, finally having his library shipped. what happens when you are not connected to your library. You migrate first, then re-unification
Library: grounds you, have to be its custodian
Responisibility
sense of domesticity
boxes: volume
*Custodian*
interesting exercice
what volume foes your library occupy
how much space you deem essential
nice how this flipping of how it goes having having books being something that are notoriously difficult ot move heavy that can also be really anchoring
especially for peope who move a lot and live between different countries something that becomes dofficult to move it becomes a comfort
Moved so much, can live in a suitcase… at some point, maybe age, refuse to divest, need to remember who I am
People who have dementia, encarged to bring familiar objects because it grounds them
need for: this time, taking my books with me, this time it is coming with me (hermits: on their back)
how linked it is to memory
research backs of this phenomenon
difficlut to tell days apart in lockdown
memory is linked ot movement in physical space
objects
surroundings
habit driven
cut it
your way of narrating
logging memory
falls away
is it monday
is it friday
memory
physical presence
nice
need
something that feels
physical
bring that in
resonate
working on different
somehow
commonality
narration
time
memory
volume
memory manifested
in physical presence
what is that makes us feel
reassured
grounded
in ten years — currently at that stage
last week heard i have to move again
6 years all myarchives and all stuff from diff parts
records
get rid of it
dragging it with me again
donate it
maybe you need it at some point to feel wholly
depends if you feel you leave in a permanent way
that's it I'm gone
the city broke my heart
the whole nation
I was not going to return
something died
this is my souvenir
ritualistic
like the lock (?) of hair that you cut in rememberance
remembrance
how does it help?
interesting
i don't know
taking notes i became more aware of what i was saying
curious to see
how u write
what u write
more on that
it feels
i don't know who wrote what
sometimes keywords and sometimes
as an editor i like these things
a great tool for collaborative writing, idea of the voice
if you do a more faithfull
people hear themselves
a lot of the ego
oh my god
when you write collaboratively you can get into these arguments
people can live with a collective transcription more easily
a transcription can be broadcasting
you can have it re-performed
broadcast
distinction between
transcription can be a tool for collaborative writing
we were alerady doing collaborative writing by speaking
really nice to chat a bit work session
the transcription almost becomes a play
archival material is also like
referring to Rosemary NEEDS REMOVE????
question of formats for archive
with the BAL project I was desperate for audio,
video
this opens ways
to look at an archive
the idea of a guide as well
with R* we collaborated on a project with REDACTED
archive that was political in nature, history not familiar with
even if the participants had permission, there was this fear of cultural appopriation
they became whiter while they were writing (??)
this fear is useful, but if it's internalized it can become racial purity
fuck decolonization
necessity of a guide
unboxing video on youtube
conversation about unboxing in the archive recorded
sth compelling about seeing people taking things out of boxes
Mary Poppins
R* felt super alone, because people who are the memory are getting older and dying
sth between age
and the time age needs to talk about its wisdom
staring at me taking plants out of a box
let's take a package and digest it together
playing on anticipation
looking at family albums with parents, aunts and uncles
between family album and mystery box
drawing a box
so…
super interesting
first time ever I went to an archive it was the lesbian and gay in Amtserdam (now at OBA)
were in renovation, everything was in boxes
whole afternoon got access to these boxes, not labelled or ordered
was crazy what we found
took some stuff
sometimes it's crying to take someting out of box aarchive
re-circulation
liberation
taking stuff out of boxes to put in the righ box
categorisation
with these archives: very difficult
stimes if you look for seomthing you don't find it in the box it's supposed to be
what do you think about categorisation?
decided to use alphabetical+ chronological
meetings of two categorisation systems
we have all the material digitally
categorization
it's not set one way of doing
time to clean up
how to best organize is open
not so much time, chronological was easier
room for thinking of other systems
volume could be an intersting way to approach it…
archive navigation structure based on volume
in a way that's how REDACTED approached it in the space
printing big and hiding everything
printed on these big papers glue together garlands
look in pockets of the garland
u couldnt see from 1 point of view
u had to look in each pocket
that was to be able to push it into a big volume without putting people on exposition
asking audience to be active
do something
work for the information
what do we have a lot of material on (volume)
chronological (by volume)
scale of something
and also we have
a lot that is digitized
REDACTED do you have the facsimiles
who has the physical volumes
we gave away a bunch
but i have some
i also think
volume is interesting but for the exhibition we looked into archives so you have to deal w the volumes they have
if someone dies it sometimes goes into an archive
if it's a person working on architecture there will be a huge volume on architecture
(?)
lots of gaps to fill somehow
deal with the material
different from a library different way of collecting
literally ticking boxes

This week I would like to

1) know more about tools/formats that we aren't familiar with
2) create a workable system that incorporates/measures blank spaces, missing information, to be able to point out missing pieces
Log not existant pieces or categories
making empty folders or emtpty links (like the red links on wikipedia)
measuring the blank space
is it too abstract?

Exercise for Secretaries
Two versions of same dictation

libraries are like big museums or institutions
archives can be more small scale, personal
reflect the taste of the original owner
archives are still very white, male,
even in the “LGBT” archives
hard to find other voices
transition to the OBA > stamp on it (“homosaurus”: sounds weird, )
like to think in terms of frictionary
fictionary pictionary
urban dictionary
sometimes definitions of words clash
homosaurus seems like dinosaurs

libraries are big museums
taste of the original owner
i dunno
more thinking aloud
archives are white and male
LGBT archives even in our own research hard to find all the voices
OBA in AMS traditional way of organizing
homosaurus
weird
dinosaur
FRICTIONARY
is it time for a break
continue another day or time
 *



[14:34] Mia : I'm just making some coffee, be there soon
[14:35] jessica : Anyone here?
[14:35] jessica : Ah ok Mia
[14:37] Mia : heyy
[14:37] Loraine : yes
[14:37] Loraine : you don't hear me
[14:37] Loraine : hmm
[14:38] Loraine : so weird I don't manage to make it work
[14:38] Loraine : but I hear you!
[14:39] Loraine : you can start and I'm trying to fix
[14:39] Loraine : I'll just try to fix it and listen
[14:39] Loraine : (i tried to log out
[14:57] Welcome to UNBOUND BAL(L) ROOM! For help on using BigBlueButton see these (short) <a href="http://www.bigbluebutton.org/html5" target="_blank">tutorial videos</a>. To join the audio bridge click the phone button. Use a headset to avoid causing background noise for others. This server is running <a href="http://docs.bigbluebutton.org/" target="_blank">BigBlueButton</a>...
[15:06] jessica : Loraine you're gone from the screens
[15:09] Clara : canonical lists they were called when the internet began