<divclass="intro"id="intro"data-aos="hide"data-aos-anchor="#empty"data-aos-duration="300"data-aos-offset="580"><h2>This is an introduction...</h2><h5> ...to the whole freaking thing. You want to cook? Go ahead! Embrace the limitations!!</h5>
<h6>There is no political power without control over the archive, if not over memory.<br><br>You can’t detach an archive from politics and the long history that formed it.<br><br> All contemporary phenomena must be understood contextually and historically, in relation to the power structures - or institutions - that shaped them, and are still shaping our understandings of ourselves, and of our times.
<br><br><br>
Is it possible to archive responsibly?<br>
What would that practice be? How do you sensibly collect, understand, and then *structure* memories? <br></h6>
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<divclass="annotatedreader1">
<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm1"id="commencement"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="320">Commencement<br>& Commandement
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="170">"Let us not begin at the beginning, nor even at the archive. But rather at the word "archive" - and with the archive of so familiar a word." </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="900"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The origin of "archive" is complex, and its meaning has constantly been evolving since it first arose.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The concept of the archive is indeed itself hard to archive</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Commencement/commandment, the chicken or the egg ? </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Was the archive already an archive before it was archived?</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Arkeion : <br>A domicile, an address.<br>Residence of the superior<br> magistartes, the archons,<br>those who commmanded.</div><br>
Ruler [Greek, *arkhein* to rule]<br> One of the 9 chief magistrates. <br>of the city states.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>In the beginning, the word archive referred to Archons, who would file and store important documents in their own homes. </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>According to Aristotle, the power of the king first devolved to the archons, and these offices were filled from the aristocracy by elections every ten years.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"> "On account of their publicly recognized authority, it is at their home, in that place which is their house (private house, family house, or employee's house), that official documents are filed." </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The Archons were entrusted by the general public to store important documents.</li><br><li>They were guardians of these documents.</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Ontology...:<br>Study of the nature of existence<br>or being as such.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>An archive holds both ontological aspects<br>(related to the nature of existence) and nomological<br>(law-like) principles.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"> " The citizens who thus held and signified political power were considered to possess the right to make or to represent the law " </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>What comes *first* and therefore is *chief* ?</li></div><br>
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<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm1"id="public"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">Public = Property + Edicts<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Archons were considered to posess - and therefore posess the right to make, and represent - the law.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">" They do not only ensure the physical security of what is deposited and of the substrate. They are also accorded the hermeneutic right and competence. They have the power to interpret the archives. " </div><br>
data-aos-offset="260">Hermeneutic :<br>Method or theory of interpretation.<br>Concerning interpretation.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The functions of hermeneutics are: "the functions of unification, of identification, of classification."</li><br></div><divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>"Legitimate hermeneutic authority" :<br> The one who holds the archive (the data) is in the position (and has the authority) to interpret it.</li></div><br><divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Domiciliation :<br> Establishment at<br>a place of residence.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"It is thus, in this domiciliation, in this house arrest, that archives take place. The dwelling, this place where they dwell permanently, marks this institutional passage from the private to the public, …" </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The discourse produces the knowledge, the understanding of it.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>A concept doesn't exist until we say it does.</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Edict :<br>A decree or proclamation<br>issued by an authority,<br>and having the force of law.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The passage from the domestic to the *public = property + the edicts*.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Still a private matter even though made public -still stored in private places.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li> Private > Public > Nonsecret?</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">" …which does not always mean from the secret to the nonsecret." </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The "public" archive VS where it is held :<br>in private homes.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Archives change from a private - as in the homes of certain individuals (archons) - to a public matter.</li></div><br><divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Archons are intrusted with the interpretation of the documents they were collecting - the documents which also determined the law.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>How transparent is this process ?</li></div><br><br></div>
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<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm1"id="hermeneutictradition"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">The herme(neu)tic tradition<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Black Box :<br>anything that has<br>mysterious or unknown<br>internal functions or mechanisms.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Archive as a blackbox. The mechanisms within are invisible, visible only to the privileged. </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>We see the inputs and outputs, but not the actions within. Hidden processes of interpretation. </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The archon imposes the law as he has interpreted it, but we folks, have no idea on how he came to the conclusions).</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Topology :<br> τόπος (place, locality)<br>+logy(study of).<br><br>*Computers* The arrangement<br>in which the nodes of a network<br>are connected to each other. </div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"With such a status, the documents, which are not always discursive writings, are only kept and classified under the title of the archive by virtue of a privileged topology."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Physical archives were made public but they were not necessarily promulgated - neither were they accessible to everyone. </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>It was a very enclosed and untransparent matter - the internal processes were not disclosed.</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Topo-nomology :<br>The intersection between<br>the place and the law.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"> "At the intersection of the topological and the nomological, of the place and the law, of the substrate and the authority […]. They all have to do with this topo-nomology, with this archontic dimension of domiciliation… " </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The ones that interpret these documents are the ones making the rules. </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The connection between property, knowledge, and power is established.</li></div><br></div>
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<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm1"id="propertyknowledgepower"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">Property x Knowledge x Power<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>To own and share the knowledge is to own the power.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Archiving comes from, and gives, a position of power.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The archivist always holds the power to frame the material.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The archive is affiliated with the institution or power, which is never neutral.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"…with this archic, in truth patriarchic function, without which no archive would ever come into play or appear as such."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>"Archon" also has a negative, tyrannical connotation.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The "archive" (mostly considered as a neutral instance) actually comes from a rather authoritarian history/concept.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Archiving as a very patriarchal practice.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li> The patriarch refers to the material/book/law text, as if he was a servant of it, and says "it's not my fault what’s in it". lol.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li> The arrogance of power.</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Supremacy :<br>Supreme authority or power.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Content must be categorized in order to be called an archive. It has a particular set of procedures, it strives for a permanence.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The link between the right to archive and power, as well as the right for people in power to select and interpret, doesn’t sound like a good idea.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Don't we all strive for permanence? </li></div><br>
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<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm1"id="afreudianimpression"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">A freudian Impression<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Topography :<br>A description or an analysis<br>of a structured entity,<br>showing the relations among its components.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"A science of the archive must include the theory of this institutionalization, that is to say, at once of the law which begins by inscribing itself there and of the right which authorizes it." </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>History does not write itself, it’s written by people - almost exclusively by a dominant population.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Could it be co-written?</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Demystify :<br>To rid of mystery<br>or obscurity,clarify.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Psychoanalysis as a tool to look at the non-disclosed processes of interpretation.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>By questioning a system of belief, you can come closer to its origin, and its conditions of interpretation, of curation.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Through gaining understanding, some of its power transfers to you.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Power can be taken (from whom?) if you raise awareness towards these said conditions of interpretation, of curation, contextual and hermeneutic circumstances ... </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>It's a subversive act: Instead of focusing only on the content of the archive, one interprets the maker, therefore, undermines/questions their authority.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"This right imposes or supposes a bundle of limits which have a history, a deconstructable history."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Things can be understood contextually and historically, in relation to power structures and institutions that shaped their own concepts.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>We can’t detach the archive from politics and the long history behind it.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>History, for example, being so very masculine and therefore the archive being so biased and excluding.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Also, the concept of the archive is biased towards written cultures and languages.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The fact that for a really long time, and still today, it is harder to archive oral cultures, and therefore cultures that archive themselves in text are usually dominant.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Should one rely on what Freud says about this to classify his works? Should one for example take him at his word when he presents his Moses as a 'historical novel'?"</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Covenant :<br>A usually formal, solemn,<br>and binding agreement.<br>A written agreement or promise</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The intentions behind an archive can be dangerous if their objectivity is taken for granted.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Is the perpetually reflexive state of a human being possible?</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The limits, the borders, and the distinctions have been shaken by an earthquake from which no classificational concept and no implementation of the archive can be sheltered."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>To question a dominant archive’s legitimacy can threaten its authority.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>It exposes its subjectivities.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>It challenges its supremacy.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>What are the desires at stake? Who are/is the archivist.s? What are their motives? Political views? Class? Where are they from?</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Dissemination : <br>To scatter widely.<br>The opening of a subject to<br>widespread discussion<br>and debate.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Don't take information for granted - question their context and the reasons behind the process of selection.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Disseminate - consider all possible influences.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Order is no longer assured."</div><br>
<p>A threat/thread model is a set of rules that lists and evaluates all the resources and contents of a project before starting to embark on the projects' journey. A threat model sets clear limits that must be respected when working together.<br>
During the process we have implemented a thread model to prevent the unwanted publication and communication of sensitive information.
<p>A static website, the opposite of dynamic websites, is a website with unchanging content, which is mostly written in <ahref="#htmlcssjs">HTML</a> and outputs the exact same content to each user. Benefits of this model are the lack of dependencies and increased security and performance. <br>
<p>The Dark Web is a portion of the Internet that one cannot reach by the use of regular search engines. Users need specific software, configurations, or authorization to access to be able to use it. This shelter of anonymity is of a great importance while dealing with censorship and privacy concerns, and because of that the Dark Web is also oftenly perceived as a haven for criminal activities. Tor browser is probably the most used tool to access the dark web.<br>
The Dark Web offers the protective layers that make sure the location of the servers and the identity of the users is secure in the case of possible attempts of persecution of any kind.
<p>Using the Tor Browser helps prevent others from tracking your browsing behavior and user details like location. It is provided by the Tor Project, a non-profit organization. It works by routing all your internet traffic trough random nodes, listed in the Tor network and thus rendering the origin of it unrecognizable.
It is probably the most famous tool used to access the <ahref="#darkweb">Dark Web</a>.<br>
<p>Raspberry Pi is a series of small computers with internal RAM & CPU/GPU and several connectors, like USB or Ethernet. They are being used by a big and diverse community, in education or for all kinds of prototyping projects. <br>
We used them as a low cost web server to store our websites. As a security measure, three similar servers in different, secret locations provide continuous access to the material, serving as alternative hosts, should one of them be taken down or fail. The basic code structure is being created with <ahref="#pythonscript">Python</a>.
<i>"In a time where it's possible to freely transfer gigabytes of files over a wireless network within a couple of minutes, an archive of sensitive material was brought to us on a USB stick, hidden in a bag which was transported by a human through the air on a 17-hour flight."<i>
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2.1 <b>Activating archival material and respreading idea's </b><br>
2.2 <b>Restabilizing unpublished and forgotten material </b><br>
2.3 <b>Physical distribution of digital data </b><br>
2.4 <b>Digital Networking advantages </b><br>
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<i>Key questions in this section:<br>
- What if you can't publish because of political change & censorship?<br>
- What if you are not allowed to publish today what you wrote yesterday? <br>
- What are the possibilities of speeding up the printing and publishing process?<br>
- How can you re-enact(ing) the initial publishing gesture, especially from the importance of underground publishing)?<br>
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</p>
<p>
<h6>2.1 Activating archival material and re-spreading idea's: echoes and activation </h6>
Audiences emerge –or are being created– when things are being shared. In the act of connecting like-minded individuals lies a possibility for building communities to share ideas. This is easily prone to dishonest capitalist systems and (extractive) business models. Appropriating printed material that was meant to mass-inform a large public should not be kept behind paywalls managed by self-proclaimed owners of the knowledge and the material that transmits it. In a matter of fact, this also goes against the nature of the original purpose of independent and underground publishing.
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<p>
<i>
Examples on the impact of alternative press: <br>
As André Breton, one of the founders of the 1920s Surrealist art movement, famously declared: “One publishes to find comrades!” This short statement brilliantly embodies the spirit of early avant-garde publishing, as well as that of independent publishing later in the 20th century. Strictly speaking, the main concern here is neither commercial success, nor the aesthetic purity of the printed experiment, nor even the archiving of works (at least not yet). Rather, this kind of publishing is all about fostering and spreading ideas among like-minded people, through the ‘viral’ communication model so often applied by the alternative press.
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Another case in point is the body of work of the Ranters, a radical group which flourished during the second half of the 17th century, with heretical views on religion (if Jesus is in everyone, who needs the Church?), politics (expropriation of the rich and collective ownership of property) and sex (preaching an ideal of free love). Such an extremist rebel group (which counted a few thousand followers in London alone) could easily self-publish and distribute its pamphlets. Though such publications were banned and burned, it was much more difficult to destroy an entire printed edition than had been the case with manuscripts, because of the sheer number of copies as well as their widespread distribution – and so some copies survived, a few even to this day.38 The two major political revolutions of the 18th century were both preceded by a frenzy of intellectual self-publishing activity, including a few ‘underground’ bestsellers. In the case of the French Revolution, many of the countless pamphlets produced were sponsored by printers, based on their potential commercial success.
(Both excerpts taken from Post-Digital Print: The Mutation of Publishing since 1894 by Alessandro Ludovico)
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</p>
<p>
The technological advantages of today can be used to reconsider and improve underground publishing workflows. For example: the digital state allows easy multiplication of material, networking tools allow real-time and remote collaboration, and all kinds of anonymous distribution and file-sharing possibilities are around before possibly converting it into an physical document. Just like the underground press used to function, but make clever use of the benefits and speed of the digital.
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<p>
<h6>2.2 Restabilizing unpublished and forgotten material </h6>
The networking advantage of digital documents allows it to (re)print unpublished and possibly forgotten material and turn it into physical stable objects. In that way, printing on demand is similar to photocopying and mimeography (stencil printing) from the 80's and 90's. Because these methods were relatively cheap and easy to distribute content, alternative presses, underground and self-publishing flourished and became a popular way to target audiences and sub-cultures.
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<p>
The fact that many people still choose to own a printed object tells us that a physical copy is still an essential experience to consume information. Paper has some specific qualities and characteristics that are not yet defeated by the benefits of the digital. Print-on-demand services and being able to print documents yourself at home perfectly illustrate our resistance to an all-digital world. We can fold it, cut it up for clippings, draw on it and re-use it for other types of usage. Again, this shows that our entanglement to the physical object can't be put aside just like that.
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<p>
<h6>2.3 Physical Distributing of digital data </h6>
While the internet can be used to easily transfer and share data, physical exchanges of digital data are used for all kinds of reasons. Methods such as 'sneakernets' create a direct relationship between the users, creating an interpersonal human interaction. They are still being used today because of various security considerations that people face. Depending on the underlying purpose, distributing online or via physical storage media, both have advantages and disadvantages.
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<p>
<small>Sneakernet <br>
Sneakernet is an informal term for the transfer of electronic information by physically moving media such as magnetic tape, floppy disks, optical discs, USB flash drives or external hard drives between computers, rather than transmitting it over a computer network. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet )
</small>
</p>
<p>
<h6>2.4 Digital Networking advantages </h6>
Because of advantages of publishing online, lots of publishers still only sell hard copies of releases due to reasons such as nostalgic motives, political statements against the 'everywhere always online' omnipresence of our current society, or because they want to control the appearance of their product. In addition to satisfying our reading habits, editions can be collectable because of their physical characteristics such as printing techniques, book design, layout, binding, choice of paper, special finishing, etc. These choices affect how we read, receive the message and value it. Although the possibilities of professional printing and finishing techniques are getting more accesible due to technological development, they are often limited in customization and design options as they are marketed as practical solutions for the office environment.
The following texts are intended to function as short insights on what one might encounter when handling a digital archive, especially without having the opportunity to interact with the original physical material. It might (since in my case at least it involved sensitive, sometimes explicit material) lead to a disconnected feeling towards the content; a disconnect that I could not quite put into words. To face this complex relationship, I started to research the following notions:<br>
1.1 <b>Paper as a medium</b><br>
1.2 <b>The repeatability of print (and why we trust it)</b><br>
1.3 <b>The human relation to the physical copy</b><br>
1.4 <b>The materiality of paper</b><br>
1.5 <b>The ambigous state of scanned documents</b><br>
1.6 <b>The aura of the original</b><br>
1.7 <b>The 'clumsyness' of scanned material</b><br>
1.8 <b>How format and layout create memories</b><br>
1.9 <b>Activating archival material </b><br>
1.10 <b>Scanning as an act of resistance</b><br>
<br>
<i>Key questions in this section:<br>
- What is the message of a simulation of a medium?<br>
- How does scanned material relate to experiencing emotional and physical distance of content?<br>
</i>
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.1 Paper as a medium</h6>
Even before the Gutenberg* press changed the world, publishing on paper already had a huge impact on the way that knowledge and information was spread. With the current advent of digital publishing possibilities, the meaning of paper as a medium has changed. Since our normality is to read digital and volatile screen-based content, questions that arise are following: How does this affect our relation to physical material thats is still everywhere around us? How does it shape collective memory? What is its importance in publishing subversive (activist) content?
</p>
<p>
In The Myth of the Paperless Office (MIT Press 2001), Abigail J. Sellen and Richard H. R. Harperin refer to the paper medium as a 'physical conductor': "Through the gestural act of passing the printed product from one person to the next, paper may be seen as a conceptual ‘conductor’: able to transfer the metaphorical ‘energy’ it contains." What does this mean in the case of handling and distributing scanned (archival) material? What is 'the message' of a digital representation of a medium? Does it reduce this so called metaphorical ‘energy’?
</p>
<p>
<small>*Gutenberg press revolution
In the mid-15th century, Johannes Gutenberg of Germany introduced a new concept that would make the process of printing books more efficient. With his invention of the printing press, which utilized movable text, thousands of pages per day could be printed. This process increased development in science, art and religion, increasing the amount of shareable knowledge and decreasing costs so more people had access to it.(source:<ahref=" https://www.whipcord.com) "> https://www.whipcord.com)</a><small>
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.2 The repeatability of print (and why we trust it) </h6>
The human attachment of the tangible is nested in our habits of consuming information by reading. Print on paper has a history of significantly contributing to spreading knowledge, opinions, news reports, counter-arguments, and therefore creating collective memories, a trace of time captured within material. As Marshall McLuhan noted in Understanding Media: <i> “Repeatability is the core of the mechanical principle that has dominated our world, especially since the Gutenberg technology. The message of the print and of typography is primarily that of repeatability.” </i> The first book that Gutenberg printed was in fact the Bible. Here, technology made a significant contribution to the spread of religion across the world.
</p>
<p>
And in spite of its fragile material characteristics, paper can be around for a very long time. When information is printed, the content never changes. Only our interpretations do. Comparing it to digital media that can be found on the web, print is much more stable and static and faithful. But if influential technologies change our habits, lets assume this sense of stability and faithfullness is currently changing since screen-reading is already the standard for many.
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.3 The human relation to the physical copy</h6>
So, why are we, in a society which is almost entirely networked and screen-based, still printing and transforming digital text into physical copies? Print has some unique characteristics that are still not overtrown by any other format or medium. The space that printed documents, books, archival material, etc. takes is real. It has mass and a certain weight. The more you store, the less physical space you have available. This is in fact fundamentally different than the materiality of the text that appears on your screen or a file of a document that is stored on your hard drive. The sensory perception, intrinsic to human beings, is not something that is simply going to disappear. This feeling of disconnect, caused by a distortion the sensory perception, is what I encountered while handling the digital scans of archival material. (In my case, the contents of the archival material was often explicit, graphic, politically sensitive and sometimes highly personal in nature, which most likely made this relationship even more complex.)
<p>
<p>
<h6>1.4 The materiality of paper</h6>
There is still no electronic device that fully closed the gap to paper. Paper is foldable and can quickly adjust to different reading methods and activities. It's easy to share it in person which creates human encounters. Tt's very flexible for note-taking and juxtaposing to other material.
</p>
<p>
No matter how high the quality of the reproduction is, some essential questions can be hard to answer when the physical original is absent. For example: What type of paper, printing techniques, ink, etc. were used. All these properties can give more muc detailed information on the time in which the original was produced, what the political state was back then, who produced it, etc. Material such as paper has significant 'flaws': it's very much prone to decay, amongst other weathering risks. When archiving, conditions such as temperature, humidity and fire saftely should be optimal for the preservation of the material.
</p>
<p>
Scanning seems to be the most preservable option available now. While the physical conductor is dematerialized or lost, the message and the information that the material holds are preserved. What does this means for the metaphorical ‘energy’? Does this get lost as well? Or will this be saved and therefore stored into the digital reproductions?
<p>
<p>
<h6>1.5 The ambigous state of scanned documents</h6>
In a way, the image of a scan is ambiguous; a scan is a representation of the original, tangible material. A scan finds itself somehow trapped in between the physical and the digital space. It may nonetheless reveal something about its age, the interactions it had with humans over time. A scan is something that you cannot touch, smell, fold or burn. But the mere presence of a scan proves that the orginal material exists, or existed. It is a carrier that enables information to be made visible, which in turn activates a feeling of trust.
</p>
<p>
When we face the material by only seeing these scans on our screens, a desire for space emerges. We wish to experience a situation of using an actual magnifying glass instead of a zoom function on your computer to enlarge a certain part of the material, ending up seeing fibers instead of pixels. The physical act of going to the material allows different ways of intuitively interacting with the material, instead of having to use a digital interface full of symbols of tools to explore and navigate through the material. Digital spaces leaves less room for a messy, intuitive approach that would in turn bring different results to the process.
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.6 The aura of the original</h6>
Because print as a carrier for text has been around for so long, it 'has always been perceived as a stable extension of human memory', we are used to the fact of believing that once a text is printed, its content is fixed forever. We interpret it as 'being real and permanent'. It somehow obtains an aura*. The reproduction is like a ghost of the aura; trapped somewhere in between the physical and the intangible world.
</p>
<p>
On Wikipedia it is stated that "when the word 'aura' was used by the culture philosopher Walter Benjamin to compare an original artwork to a reproduction, he said that "even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: Its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be"; and that the "sphere of authenticity is outside the technical [sphere]" of the reproduction of artworks. Therefore, the original work of art is an objet d'art independent of the copy; yet, by changing the cultural context of where the art happens to be, the mechanical copy diminishes the aesthetic value of the original work of art."
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.7 The 'clumsyness' of scanned material</h6>
In terms of quality, usability, and readability, a scan can be perceived as a 'clumsy'. When a document is scanned to retrieve only its textual content, present visual information can be redundant, disruptive and highy impractical for processing. However These additional visual presences can in fact be perceived as its strength. An image of a scan usually testifies of the manual act that was performed in the creation of the image - it can reveal extra visual traces such as folds, crooked frames, and even hands trying to keep the pages flat while pressing the material against the glass surface of the scanner. Compared to the plain (or OCR-ed) text, it reinforces the fact of the physical existence of the original.
</p>
<p>
Scans, compared to plain text, also add episodical data such as folds, pencil underlines, marginal notes, censorings, spills, signatures, stamps, stains to the original content. This uncovers an intimate history of the material, its life from before it was scanned. It is a narration that tells us about everything the material had to go through to be preserved - or: not to be destroyed.
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.8 How format and layout create memories</h6>
To some extent, our visual memory can be used to retrieve information from a document. We can remember a certain layout, a typeface, color use, type of paper, which connects the specific document to episodic data, related documents, a time in history etc. A certain format or a layout can tell us a lot about the content. Some documents can be visually distinguished from others, based on our knowledge of a tradition of a specific (historical) expression within a text, a poem, an article, a letter, a report, an academic paper, etc.
</p>
<p>
This can also be applied to digital publications and media. Websites, email conversations, blogs also have a certain recognizable visual characteristics that can be stored as well. This also provides more context on how the information was produced and what the intention was. (As well the source code can reveal a lot of information.)
</p>
<p>
When classified digital documents were released during events that took place around Wikileaks, VAULT7, etc, most of the content that was published was embedded (showed) in its original format. Even though it had all the advantages of digital processing options, the plain content was not simply extracted from the source material. Layout, headings, layout, typographic elements were left to add a layer of trust to the textual content. Sometimes, even information such as document numbers or black blocks that censored information was added. Also, a lot of emails were in fact printed and scanned. When converting digital text into a physical medium and back it almost creates some kind of hyperrealism: something that is more real than the original. (Is there, in the case of documents that were originally created digitally, an actual difference between the original and a reproduction? Can a digital file even have an 'aura'?)</sup>
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.9 Activating archival material </h6>
Often, out-of-print material and limited small press editions are somehow hidden in small institutions and private collections. These places have a lot of specialized knowledge about the contextual, historical and other substantive information of their material. Besides that, it is also important for their local cultural environment that the physical material is located in the place or region where it was originally produced and spread. Yet these collections are mostly unavailable online and therefore cannot be used as public sources of knowledge, they are unavailable to the public or hard to access. Often, the reason for that is the absence of a suitable platform for their dissemination or the limited financial resources available. In some cases, owners don't know how to handle material that is sensitive due to a political climate or censorship.
</p>
<p>
<h6>1.10 Scanning as an act of resistance</h6>
As we can learn from history, in times of political change the freedom of the press can be under pressure and can even lead to censorship. In these circumstances, scanning and (anonymous) publishing can be an act of resistance. Digital scans of physical documents can be used as a legit source for articles to prevent whitewashing, which Wikipedia describes as "to gloss over or cover up vices, crimes or scandals or to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data". Archives that contain marginal (forgotten) documents are essential to keep a collective (cultural) memory alive. There should be no threat to them being erased from history.
</p>
<p>
Here is why the availability of a (preferably) high-quality digital reproduction is important. It greatly increases the accessibility and reduces the need to visit the location where the physical original material is kept. This is also beneficial for the preservation of the material, since physical handling can be risky: documents can get lost or destroyed. Intentionally or not. Although not entirely safe - scanning and storing digitally also reduce the dangers of a collection being endangered/threatened by the forces of nature.
Markup languages are used to structure the linguistic syntax of a chosen system in a more user-friendly way. These languages are supposed to be easier to use than the actual code, as they are to be read by humans. What is written can easily be converted into the syntax of other languages.
Markdown has been originally developed to simplify writing <ahref="#htmlcssjs">HTML</a>, but has ever since changed its role and now it provides conversions into different formats.<br>
We used Markdown while creating the <ahref="#annotatedreaders">annotated readers (SWARM 1,2,3)</a> in order to convert plain text into html.<br>
<p>An <ahref="#etherpad">Etherpad</a> document can be used to collectively work on <ahref="#htmlcssjs">HTML, CSS and Javascript</a> code, while still seeing a real time preview, using <ahref="#curl">CURL</a>.<br>
We used this method while creating the website you're looking at.
<p>An <ahref="#etherpad">Etherpad</a> document can be used to collectively work on <ahref="#htmlcssjs">HTML, CSS and Javascript</a> code, while still seeing a real time preview, using <ahref="#curl">CURL</a>.<br>
We used this method while creating the website you're looking at.
<p>Hypertext Markup language (HTML) is what the basic building blocks of the web are made of. This language defines and categorizes the content of a website and guides the user, e.g. from one page to another with the use of the so called hyperlinks.<br>
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is the visual facade, the makeup that is put on top of the HTML content. It refers to the categories assigned before. It is responsible for how a website looks like and also for basic interactions & animations.<br>
Java Script (JS) is the busy crane-worker that is still around, even after the building is already finished, to rearrange building blocks. Java Script controls interactions, animations, the loading and transformation of content.<br>
These languages can either be written all in one document or in separate ones, linked to one another.<br>
We used HTML, CSS and Java Script to create this website. We used CSS and Java Script to further edit the HTML created with <ahref="#query2html">query2HTML</a>.<br>
<p>MediaWiki, the basis for Wikipedia and most other MediaWiki websites, is a free and open-source "collaboration and documentation" platform engine. Wiki markup is the language used to write content on a wiki website. <br>
MediaWik served us as a platform that allows many users to handle large amounts of image files and metadata collectively. It features helpful tools to do so, such as <ahref="#pageforms">page forms</a>, <ahref="#semanticqueries">semantic queries</a> and an <ahref="#api">API</a>.
<p>When having first contact with the material that will constitute your work, getting a first quick overview and comprehending the scale of it, can influence the development of your process drastically. The reason for this is that, especially in time-limited projects, the first impressions significantly affect or even determine the creative and conceptual design that you decide for. Therefore, the fist contact with the material should be made with caution and calmness.<br>
In order to get a good overview of the archival material, when we first encountered it, we divided the documents, skimmed them and created a <ahref="#polytpych">polyptych summary</a> that also served as a basis for a collective discussion. Beforehand, we had <ahref="#readingexercises">trained our understanding of text</a> in order to be able to process the material effectively.
<p>Traditionally a Polyptych is a painting, split into sections. In this case we used the idea of a polyptych as an exercise that enables us to get a first impression of the archive material. <br>
<br>
<divclass="code">Skim the material and intuitively look for subjectively interesting details that seem meaningful to you or stand out for any reason. In order to create the Polyptych, collect a set number of these details, approximately 30. Each detail should be enlarged to fill an A4 page. Afterwards, print out your personal collection, arrange it on the floor in an order that makes sense to you in whatever way. As everybody in the group does this, take time to to look at the formations(Polyptych) of each individual, let them explain their work, observations and methods behind the ordering system. Discuss it collectively.</div>
<p>To be able to navigate the material, you have to make connections in between the documents, get an overview of all of the existing data and from this develop a structure for the archive. We chose to categorize the material with content and format related categories.<br>
To start, each person skimmed a portion of the archive they were responsible for (as decided when dividing the work). During this process, properties that we considered relevant and/or seemed to be recurring throughout the material were collected for each document. Further, all categories and properties were gathered, discussed and reduced to the necessary. The thereby generated set of categories and properties was then applied to the documents by re-skimming them. The categories and properties were later used for the upload of the material to MediaWiki using page forms and were structured there.<br>
<p>Tesseract is a free "optical character recognition" (OCR) engine, and supposedly was the first one of its kind. It recognizes text within images and outputs this textual content in either a text file or a PDF in which the text is selectable and searchable.<br>
Tesseract is essential to provide a comprehensive overview when working with a big batch of scanned documents. The quality of the results depends very much on the quality of the documents and thus can result in the need for large-scale revisions. More concretely - not all images that contain text seem to be readable by Tesseract. Some images might be damaged (faded ink, strange font, etc.), therefore the recognition does not afford precise results. This is when humans come back into play, to edit and correct the inaccuracies, to proofread the machine.
<h6>Communication is crucial.<br>Language is never just there, never neutral, nor innocent. Words are actions.<br><br>Having a multitude of perpectives on a subject will broaden your understanding of it :<br><br>iterrupting can be a tactic, a tool to narrow down the panorama, and shape it to their interests. <br><br> Not being interrupted is a priviledge, a luxury. If you are constantly being interrupted, you will have have to deviate to be heard. Propaganda and censorship are constantly trying to limit the fair distribution of communicating ressources. Authority controls resources, and will try to take down any content advocating for political dissidence or discordance. Who gets to articulates the laws? Who articulates the memory of it ? Don’t forget this.<br><br>Speaking up is taking action.<br><br>How do you publish in times of such political urgency ?<br>What do we have to protect ourselves about ? Who from ? for how long ?<br> And what tools do we need to do it ?<br></h6>
</div></div>
<divclass="annotatedreader2">
<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm2"id="channelreceiver"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">INFORMATION SOURCE>>channel>>RECEIVER<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Communication is crucial. </li></div><br><divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Communication: <br>Act or fact of communicating.<br>Interchange of thoughts<br>or opinions... </div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The era we are entering might well be characterized as an era of communication."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Language is never "just there", never neutral or innocent. Using words is taking actions. </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Communication is the responsibility of decision!</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Can someone avoid their responsibility by not communicating at all?</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>One can also avoid it by communicating!</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Language :<br>any set or system of such symbols<br>enabling people to communicate<br>intelligibly with one another.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Just like with the archive, language can shelter and conceal itself.</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Signal :<br>a gesture, action, or sound<br>that is used to convey<br>information or instructions.<br>typically by prearrangement<br>between the parties concerned.</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Channel : <br>*computers* a path for the<br> transfer of signals or data<br>within a computer<br>or between a computer and<br>its peripheral equipment.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The *information source* selects the desired message out of a set of possible messages, the transmitter changes the message into the *signal*, which is sent over the communications channel to the *receiver* where it is decoded back into the message and delivered to the destination."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Information source > desired message > signal > receiver.</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Code :<br>A system of signals<br>used in transmitting messages.<br><br> A systematic collection<br>of regulations <br>or rules of procedure.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The transmission of the desired message depends on the source, the signal, and the destination. </li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The receiver and the transmitter have to understand the same code.</li></div><br>
</div></div>
<divclass="annotatedreader2">
<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm2"id="noise"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">*NOISE*<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Encoding :<br>To change something into a system<br>for sending messages secretly,<br>or to represent complicated information<br>in a simple or short way.</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Decoding :<br>To discover the meaning of information<br>given in a secret or complicated way<br>or to understand the meaning<br>of a word or phrase<br>in a foreign language in the correct way.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Every such system contains noise."</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Noise :<br>A term used in the communications field<br>to designate any outside force that<br>acts on the transmitted signal<br>to vary it from the original.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Noise can prevent the information from getting through intact.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The transmission can change the message.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The encoding/decoding process - can blur/change the message.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Let's take painting as an example of a signal transmitting a coded message."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">Painting as language :<br><br><li>Information source = painter’s mind and experience</li><br><li>Signal = the painting</li><br><li>Receiver = those who see the painting</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The receivers' interpretations of the signal (here painting) will depend on the noise.</li></div><br><divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Background :<br>One's origin, education, experience,<br> etc.,<br><br>*fine arts* The surface against which<br>represented objects and forms<br>are perceived or depicted.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Noise does not necessarily mean sound.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Noise is everything that leads to the interpretation of the painting :<br><br>the eyes, and nervous systems, and previous conditionings of those who are watching it.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The background of the receiver might sometimes be so different from the transmitter’s background that understanding the intended meaning may be challenging.</li></div><br>
</div></div>
<divclass="annotatedreader2">
<divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm2"id="noiseinterruption"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">Noise = Interruption<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Let us not begin at the beginning, nor even at the noise. But rather at the word "noise"- and with the noise of so familiar a word.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The city rat invites the country rat, […] where the city rat lives in the house of a big tax farmer. But we know that the feast is cut short. The two companions scurry off when they hear a noise at the door. It was only a noise, but it was also a message, a bit of information producing panic: …"</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"… an interruption, …"</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Interruption :<br>A break in the continuity<br>of something.<br>Something that causes a stoppage<br>or break in the continuity<br>of something.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"… a corruption, … "</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Corruption : <br>Dishonest or illegal behavior<br>especially by powerful people.<br><br>DEPRAVITY<br><br>Inducement to wrong by improper<br> or unlawful means (bribery)</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"… a rupture of information."</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Rupture : <br>Breaking apart,<br>the state of being broken apart.<br>A breach of peaceful<br>or friendly relations.<br>*specifically* open hostility<br>or war between nations.</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Rupture de stock :<br>*french* A deficiency in amount,<br>a temporary lack of material<br>that prevents from<br>providing the demand.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Was the noise really a message? Wasn't it, rather, static, a parasite?"</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Parasite : <br>An organism that lives on<br>or in an organism of another<br>species, known as the host,<br>from the body of which<br>it obtains nutriment.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Noise can be parasitic.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Noise interrupts, corrupts, creates a rupture.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>It does not necessarily mean sound.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Interruption = tactic/tool to cease power.</li></div><br><divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Censorship can be a form of noise.</li></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"If anything acts on the signal so as to bury it in an unpredictable and undesirable way in the communications system, it is noise."</div><br>
</div></div>
<divclass="annotatedreader2"><divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm2"id="interruption"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">The "Rat" is always interrupted<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Uniformity :<br>Always the same,<br>as in character or degree;<br><br>Lack of diversity or variation.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Uniformity, mass production, and standardisation, limit the fair distribution of resources (communicating resources).</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Having a multitude of perpectives on a subject obviously broadens your understanding of it.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Here, the parasitic noise interrupts the feast, just like noise can interrupt communication between people.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Noise, when it interrupts, parasites, implies a hierarchy, a dependency.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>It can narrow and withhold messages, distort others.</li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Distortion : <br>The act of twisting or altering<br> something out of its true, natural,<br>or original state.<br>A distortion of the facts.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Information-washing of the dominant class is the distortion, the long-term static noise.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>A class of people. The "white collar criminals", generating their own order. </li></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Imposteur :<br>*french*<br>The word "Imposteur" means both<br>"tax-collector" and "impostor".</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Tax Farmer : <br>A parasite who has the last word,<br>who produces disorder and<br>who generates a different order."<br><br>A parasite, living off […] the land.<br><br>Industry pillages and plunders:<br>Such farmer is a part of a matrix.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The modern illness […] , the engulfing of intelligence in the leisure [jouissance] of the homogeneous. […] ; Real production is unexpected and improbable; it overflows with information and is always immediately parasited."</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Matrix :<br>The cultural, social, or political<br> environment in which<br>something develops.<br><br>A situation or surrounding<br>substance within which something<br>originates, develops, is contained<br></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">"Freedom of expression<br>is the matrix,<br>the indispensable condition,<br>of nearly every form of freedom".</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Not being interrupted is coupled with power is a luxury - the "rat" is always interrupted, the "king" never.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>If you are constantly being interrupted, you have to deviate to be heard.</li></div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>If you are constantly being interrupted, you have to deviate to be understood.</li>It segments production.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The situation repeats itself throughout history, for history has never lacked for political parasites. History is full of them, or maybe is made solely of them. Dinner is served among the parasites."</div><br>
</div></div>
<divclass="annotatedreader2"><divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm2"id="urgency"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">Publishing in times of urgency<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Idiosyncrasies :<br>A structural or behavioral characteristic<br>peculiar to an individual or group.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The noise that tends to disrupt the signal can take many forms. It can be the quality of the light, or the color of the light, or the prejudices of the viewer, or the idiosyncrasies of the painter."</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Propaganda :<br>Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately<br>spread widely to help or harm a person,<br>group, movement, institution, nation, etc.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Propaganda and censorship as a constant, parasitic noise. </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Constant struggle, a fight for position.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Relation between information and energy.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Professional archivists have the power and authority to construct a dominant narrative on virtually any topic. Unfortunately, the archival world is built on a legacy of colonialism, appropriation, and community disenfranchisement. The power imbalance between archivists and the marginalized communities they often document leads to the dissemination of inaccurate and harmful accounts."
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>For an oppressor, distortion would be the noise of those who disagree with them.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Political dissidents create the noise that interrupt the feast of oppressors.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Resistance movements can generate a counter/ a different order.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>From beyond this point and in this chain, everybody becomes a parasite.</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Wikipedia edit wars :<br>Conflict of interest or non-neutrality.<br>When wikipedia administrators/editors<br> keep going back and fourth<br>with statements in Wikipedia<br>due to a lack of source.<br><br>This creates a bias towards<br>statements that align with<br>the government's views,<br>since content published by dissidents are stategically and systematically censored<br>and taken off the internet. </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Wikipedia, for example, was not created for a world in which censorship still exists : </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Sources and references are being deleted, writers being chased after, etc… </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Who gets to articulates the laws? Who articulates the memory of it ? Don’t forget this.</div><br>
</div></div>
<divclass="annotatedreader2"><divclass="filterDiv Ar Swarm2"id="redundancy"><divclass="sectiontitles"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="140">Noise <Redundancy<hrclass="line1"></div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"It is communication that keeps a society together, and though these people seem unaware of each other's existence, neither looking nor speaking, one group meets and filters through the other with hardly two individuals coming in contact."</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Symbol :<br> The abstraction of an idea.<br>A communication at once<br>anonymous and personal.</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Beacon :<br>A guiding or warning signal,<br>as a light or fire.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Communication through symbols. </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Beacons as means of communication (flags, cross barriers of sound).</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Meaning is produced, information/data is being generated.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"The storm warning flags are part of a long, evolutionary tradition of signals, but their beginnings were probably in basic reactions to color and form, basic enough to make their communications carry beyond the barriers of language and custom."</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Symbols as the abstraction of an idea.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>The idea that you can understand people without knowing all their codes/languages ?</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>through all language barriers ? </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>language of many portals = philosophical.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Symbols change and evolve : Are they part of language or a wander of communication ?</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Entropy : <br>*communication theory*<br>A measure of the efficiency<br>of a system<br>(such as a code or a language)<br>in transmitting information.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Meaning is very and must be transmitted in the most thoughtful way to be received in the desired way.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Multiple communication systems that make up one great machine.</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Noise […] could change the message from I LOVE YOU to I HATE YOU. How do you combat it? One way is through redundancy - I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU."</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Redundancy :<br>Repetition of linguistic information<br>inherent in the structure<br>of a language.<br><br>Repetition of parts<br>or all of a message<br>to circumvent transmission errors.<br><br>Excessive wordiness<br>or repetition in expression.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Redundancy in transmitting is a way to reduce noise in a message.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Market information is most efficient, for its redundancy
</div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"We will use a New York stockbroker's office as the information source and a Los Angeles stockbroker's office as the destination."</div><br>
<divclass="glossary"data-aos="slide-left"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="260">Stockbroker :<br>A professional who executes<br>buy and sell orders<br>for stocks<br>and other securities<br>on behalf of clients.</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>Message transmission between two stockbrokers’ offices, for example :</div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>There may exist at the information source just two possible messages: BUY or SELL. </div><br>
<divclass="bulletpoints"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70"><li>If the signal is distorted in such a way as to change SELL to SELF, as there are only two possible messages, BUY and SELL, there is sufficient redundancy in the spelling of the words that even if it did read SELF, the information would still be clear. </div><br>
<divclass="quote"data-aos="fade-down"data-aos-duration="800"data-aos-offset="70">"Another is increasing the power of the transmitter; this combats noise, as does the careful beaming of the signal, or duplicating the message via other signals."</div><br>
<p>Web2Print is a method, that uses websites as a basis from which print layouts are created. When using this online workflow contents are open to a number of contributors, flexible and easy to change throughout the process.<br>
We used Web2Print to enable the printing of the website you're looking at, as well as for the creation of the <ahref="#annotatedreaders">annotated readers (SWARM)</a> in their physical form.
<p>When developing the structure, form and function of the publication, it was essential to collect references. For inspiration, but also to communicate complex ideas in a team. Very helpful were lectures and discussions with <ahref="https://maydayrooms.org/">Maydayroom</a>, <ahref="http://www.warpweftmemory.net/">The Warp and Weft of Memory</a> and <ahref="http://osp.kitchen/">OpenSourcePublishing</a>.
<p>GIT is a version-based online data storage service that is used mostly to collectively work on code. This collaborative working environment retains all versions created, it is non-destructive. It also features the option of dividing a project into different versions, so called branches, which can be processed separately, and merged again afterwards.<br>
<p>Using the slow reading method we have read several texts as a group. We have collected annotations, additional information and imagery on an Etherpad. Afterwards, we have collectively revised the collected content, added a glossary, styled it with CSS - designed a cover and designed the overall appearance of it. We have converted it to a print layout using the <ahref="#ether2html">Ether2HTML</a> and <ahref="#web2print">Web2Print</a> methods. Afterwards, we have printed out this material as booklets, which we have named: SWARM 1, 2 & 3.
<p>We created a code of conduct to make sure that we were on the same page about the fundamentals of our regular interactions as a group. It served as a reference on how to approach each other and helped prevent avoidable unconstructive conflict.<br>
<br>
<divclass="code">
<ul>
<li>Listen, don’t interrupt.</li>
<li>Listen actively - Show that you’ve understood.</li>
<li>If you don’t agree, you can still accept others opinions.</li>
<li>When negotiating, be convivial (be nice!).</li>
<li>Ask what is needed before you give.</li>
<li>If personal issues arise, try to address/resolve - if not: park it for the sake of the project.</li>
<li>When you don’t understand, ask for help (be humble).</li>
<li>Be aware of the space you take. (Check temperature - silence is OKAY!)</li>
<li>Before making a decision, check with others (might be an unhappy average).</li>
<li>Speak for yourself and your own experience (see links: nonviolent communication)</li>
<li>Use „AND“ instead of „BUT“ and „HOWEVER“.</li>
<li>These rules can be modified by consensus.</li>
<p>To develop an understanding of a complex topic, basic research - on/offline - is the first necessary step to take. Talking about the facts as a group and/or collectively reading texts on the topic can help in the process. If possible, the best way to develop a deeper understanding is to get in touch with experts and/or witnesses. In the best case, to conduct an interview or even organize a meeting as a group or a workshop on the topic. Also taking as many different points of view, even if you don’t agree with them, is an imperative to create a differentiated opinion on a complex matter.
Individuals don’t know they are going to be archived. The act of archiving clusters them together even if they didn’t intend that. For the outsider, the material that they produced can seem like some kind of collective work that was created in a certain time span, maybe even with the aim of being in some sort of a bundle. We collect it all together under a theme, title or event and hope it does justice to the writers, makers, editors etc.
The intent of the act makes it all come together in to form an “archive”, a very general word. This process can go in many directions, it is almost arbitrary. I came across an article called “Archive, Archive, Archive!” by the artist Julie Bacon. The article speaks about archiving in the postmodern art world. I felt like it described some of my feelings. She writes: “Surveillance practices mark our time, and people are aware to caring degrees that they are documented, and that bodies of information exist that pertain to them but are remote from them”. When you write a poem, take a photograph or write a political article arguing against your government, do you always think about what will happen when it gets public? Can you know that someday someone else will use this material in ways that you maybe didn’t intend to?<br>
“Does inclusion liberate us? Does the act of putting things on display empower us or do away with hidden forces, put them under control?”
In this process there are more questions than definitive answers. Reading, tagging and sorting the material means you spend a significant amount of time with the archival material. . A relationship is formed and with it your own perspective. When a third party is dealing with the material it imprints itself in it.
</p>
<p>
How should we observe the archive? We are not seeking to “improve” it, but merely to represent the idea behind it and make it accessible to a wider audience. We were given a purpose, willingly or not, so we joined forces, had many conversations, discussions and arguments. We tried to make something that will balance all the different elements that were effecting us and the success of this process can not be measured by regular standards. “Drawing the purse of these thoughts together, what glitters is the poetic-political value of archives, the fact that their aesthetics seek of, and more than that are ineffably bound with, subjecthood: their imagination is a form of agency, their agency colours our dreams, by that I mean our actions.” The time spent with the archive is a significant parameter. Things that were clear to us at the beginning, could have completely changed by now. The more you dive in, the more you know and the less you realise you don’t know. “An awareness of the relationship between practice and ideology is key. The choice of what we do and how transmits attitude, as much as the content and the motives that we are owning up to or claiming”.
</p>
<p>
I find myself asking more question, not trying to give answers. I direct them to myself, my colleagues or into space. If we had more time, would the number of questions increase or decrease? We search the past to answer questions about the present and the future. The fact that the archive was created makes it a part of the present and future. It can be a tool for answers but for much more questions as well.
</p>
<p>
This was written based on my personal experience and in relation to the article “Archive, Archive, Archive!” By Julie Bacon, Circa Art Magazine, 2007.
<p>Page forms is an extension that provides a <ahref="#mediawiki">MediaWiki</a> instance with templates to create pages, edit pages and add query data to them. <br>
We used these forms to implement the same categories for each document and assign them their collected properties.<br>
<p>While lexical search returns literal matches to a search request, semantic search "understands" the query. When compiling the search results, this search procedure relies on previously entered, definitive, metadata information and thus usually returns more accurate results. Multiple requests can be combined to create more complex queries. There are two different factors to the queries: Which pages the search is based on and which information is obtained from them. <ahref="#mediawiki">WikiMedia</a> uses a simple semantic language "semantic MediaWiki" for this.<br>
We used it to selectively query the previously entered content using meta data.<br>
<i>Not all the meanings can be constructed rationally.</i>
</p>
<p>
Excuse the wind. He has no control over his actions.
</p>
<p>
One of my friends said that we can blame the wind for everything that is going on now. This chaoticism, this unpredictability of the directions that things are taking, that we are taking - as a globalized entity.
</p>
<p>
And I wonder a lot about this - multiple organisms constructing one, a global subject (maybe a westernized/first-world subject, governed, disciplined and regulated by political apparatuses that are the slaves of this abstraction of capital, so are we the slaves. Control exerted over a global mass.) [Foucault, biopolitics] We always exclude, trapped in a bias of our own privileges. The unthinkable Other does not constitute this pseudo-global entity humanity is. The process of somehow disabling humanity in its whole/as a whole has always been present.
</p>
<p>
The wind comes here as a good metaphor on the unpredictability of how things will go. Causality that we can't plan or understand. The scope of affairs is now too big for anyone to be able to comprehend it fully. There is no after. There is no going back to how things were. There is only an uncertain continuation, conditioned by the deterioration of our systems, infrastructures and perceived stability. (One thing that I do count on - heavily - is the revaluation of human contact, communication, vicinity, connection, solidarity and empathy - born in the synapses between individuals, growing over the cracks of systemic repression whose interests lay in the management of death - struggling against the death of capitalism, as we know it.) [Mbembe, necropolitics]
</p>
<p>
And the constant that remains is belief. <br>
The wind blows from the North, East, South, West and North-East, South-East, North-West, South-West. From all the defined directions of the sky and the combinations in between them. The liminalities and the divisions within abstract constructs constitute what we believe in.
</p>
<p>
I said once in a song of mine (maybe it was a poem): <i>"Mathematics give me a sense of meaning, when emotions fail." </i>And, this is my recurrent observation of humanity in its interactive potential, it does not have the space to stretch, branch out, take over. Rationality, the discourse of logos, the utter need to understand, to grasp, to clarify and to stabilize is taking the lead and, while doing so, dismissing all of the other potentialities of human nature. Sensation, emotion and all their derivatives that exceed an individual and find their place in relationality, reinforcing the translucent material that holds us together. To make political rhetorics passionate!?
</p>
<p>
Abstract constructions such as border, nation, money - and so many others. Collective imaginaries, crude mental infrastructures that seemingly bring us together. What do they actually do? A raw deconstruction of the mere possibility of us being at the same space, same time, combined.[<ahref="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZoMzWraS_c">How does it feel?</a>] To be a collective organism, a massive organic entity. And then these building blocks of material of our realities just get scattered all around the consequences of some mischances and bad decisions from before our times.
</p>
<p>
I see now three children on a balcony, holding guns. They are observing carefully, searching for their targets - aiming and shooting. Playful game, is it a pigeon or a person who disobeys the rules? The regulation of the masses is exercised by its very particles. Power is dispersed, diffused. There is no king, no tyrant we can point at with our fists and run towards in wrath. Who to rebel against? Against the part within ourselves that is obliged to follow some repressive structure of obedience?
</p>
<p>
It is this silent communication that happens. How animals feel the earthquake coming, there is something in the air that makes them nervous. And the birds are up in the air, flying all around, releasing sounds that only their peers can understand, we have no idea what they are saying. [Didn't Adorno say something like: Brave are the ones who allows themselves to understand the language of the birds. ??? They know stuff.]
</p>
<p>
Language. Meaning. Communication. Understanding.
</p>
<p>
And then the doors close and they open suddenly. The doors of meaning on the verge between understanding and oblivion. Somewhere in between, always somewhere in between. Collective meaning-making. Plurality of voices in the voice of the collective organism. So silent it seems.
</p>
<p>
I talked to a friend yesterday, she is a gemini, she has this problem - it was funny, it is funny how we might boil down our concerns onto our personal horoscopes. Again, an abstract construction that wants to help you understand things, and then they get even more complicated.
</p>
<p>
The world is foreign to simplicity. The natural take on how things are is immense complexity and chaos. And then with a punch of one hand, firmly, we try to tame it, and put it in a form that is understandable. For a while, maybe, it holds its stability, sooner or later it dismantles again. And we panic. Should we wonder?
</p>
<p>
Who are these guys training for? Punches, kickbox. If there is a war coming, we are going to have to use more weapons then just our bodies, intellect, predictions. The war is already happening. What is war anyways? There is this discourse going on about this whole viral virus situation - hello pigeons - being at war with an invisible enemy. We have to defend our integrity. It is not about life, it is about death. And nobody wants to die. Nobody wants to suffer. Pain is painful. [prof. Sapolsky, behavioural science] Except the ones that do, and the ones that got used to the idea of doing so. I believe there is this strong pressure of surviving, and - honestly - I like it. (Gotta love my privilege.) But it is more than just mere survival. I want to survive well. [Maria Hlavajova was talking about this in december]
</p>
<p>
And here, we come to screaming and interaction. War, again. If you do not know the war is already happening, and you hear a big crowd screaming, somewhere, 3 blocks away from you. Not too far, you can hear the mass, the distinct voices of many people. You can't estimate how many there are, there is a lot of them. And then the first thought that pops up - it happened to me in 2016 [nazi group attack on the <ahref="http://atrog.org/en/">Autonomous Rog Factory squat </a> in Ljubljana we were defending against eviction] - is this screaming ... What caused it? What does it react to?
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Did it react to something beautiful, fun and joyful, something that we are celebrating by letting our voices penetrate into the air around and just letting it echo out loud. Joining the screams of other people. Letting the overall scream be so loud that everybody hears it, not only 3 blocks around, everybody, the whole world screams it.
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<p>
Kind of masked in silence, masked in our own habit of not releasing this scream - this is the opposite of it - the scream that targets the inside is even louder, and its potency is nerve-wracking. The scream that wants to be heard, the scream that wants to release itself, but be damned, there is something preventing that! The inability to express. (Rational rethorics that do not allow the release of emotion. The high-pitched utterance of women, called "ololyga". Patriarchal logos. "Thank you", ancestral fathers.) [<ahref="https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/User:Angeliki/Grad-thesis">Angeliki Diakrousi, Let's Talk About Unspeakable Things</a>]
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<p>
Like an impala, when she thinks she is going to be eaten by a leopard. Captured in the claws and sharp teeth of the predator, she freezes. She freezes and plays dead and waits for her death. And then, there is a hyena, entering the scene. And the leopard doesn't want any trouble, so he moves away from his prey, leaving the impala laying on the floor in a state of catatonic immobility. The impala, struck by a sudden shock, a bodily sensation, she is heavy and still like a stone statue. And she remains to be so, until ... she starts moving. Until she reverses the scream that was echoing inside of her body. Until she decides that her scream has the possibility to be released. And what happens then is that her body suddenly starts shaking, trembling. Like a vigorous earthquake. The shake starts in her legs and then continues to spread over her whole body. And this is how impala, the doomed prey, brings herself back to life and then continues her path into it. The discharging cycle kept her from accumulating trauma, from dying in the place that was designated for her, almost certain death. Hyena, thank you, you were a beautiful and needed variable in this situation. [<ahref="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox7Uj2pw-80">Observe it here.</a>]
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<p>
What is important to understand here, is the very process of releasing the scream. The step that is so important for any being, also humans. It prevents the trauma, it prevents death (that is, death of any kind - whether the death of the organism, or the death of sensoriality, of the voice etc.) Individual trauma. Collective trauma.
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<p>
The reason behind the lack of a voice, the echoing scream of the collective organism, might as well be the deep trauma accumulated in the world and the time and the repression this collective organism lives on a daily basis. Its "natural" environment disables the organism. This is not how symbiosis is supposed to function, right?
Back to the scream being released. The release depends on an irrational decision, on something that is embodied, something that is the body itself. The body, unrepressed by logos. <i> body <voice> logos.</i> [Mladen Dolar, A voice and nothing more.] The scream can forget about meaning altogether, emotion prevails. The animal instinct wakes up. Does this recognition of the animal within mean the awakening of the Political Animal? [Aristotle, Politics]
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<p>
The other option - apart from the beautiful and joyful scream that tells about the success of a community, of the good that happened, of pleasure - is the scream of terror, of horror, of something that is ultimately bad. Caused by something that strikes you, something that strikes the collective organism (If there is such a thing. What about the posthumanist notion that the human body is already a conglomeration of so many microbiotic organisms, collectively assembling an entity?). And then, instead of being caught in this dread, you let out this pressing scream and everybody hears it. The scream is a sensory, emotional response to a strong stimuli, to the horrors (or the pleasures) experienced. It testifies of rage, the absence of hope, the need for help, (enjoyment). It is a primal utterance imprinted in our DNA. An utterance dismissed by the social contracts currently in place. Considered as vulgar, disruptive, unfitted. Children screaming.
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And me, 3 blocks away, I cannot distinguish one scream from the other scream, both seem the same. Their nature is nothing that I can predict or grasp. And that is a scary fact! In fact, I don't know ... Now the wind blew my thoughts away, the thoughts about screaming. Maybe that's a good thing. I can think about silence now.
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Silence sometimes just prevails in the brain, very rarely, but sometimes - the brain is empty. (Does this signify the absence of morality? The absence of Socrates' Daemon? [Dolar]) It is empty like a gliding surface of ice and reflections, something that is yet to be determined. Something that is a blank page, a space of opportunities, a space of so many noises - none of them being in the forefront. They are somehow all merged into a soup - like a cosmic soup, not a chicken soup. Plurality. Multiplicity. Multitudinousness. Completely interwoven one into the other. All of them, all of these sounds in silence. Each one of them is moving at a different pace. Ah, this shining, glimmering sensation of it being very far and very close at once. Silence as a loud chaotic presence of indistinguishable voices. And nobody cares what reality is, because reality differs on every subjective eye, sight. Ah, then one can rest, because none of the impulses are more present than others, none of the thoughts are more correct than others, none of the meanings or the emotion or the sensation are more pressing than others. Maybe that is the absolute state of bliss, maybe that is what they call zen. To observe, but nothing in particular. To observe everything in its entirety. The whole picture! The macro moment of sensing and thinking in this flux that never ceases, but we disrupt it with the need to get the thoughts heard, with the need to emphasize, to choose, to deliberate. To pick the right particle of silence and amplify it until it becomes the fuckingscream that resonates in our ears so much, that all of the other possibilities of silence dissipate into mere possibilities. The overflow of thoughts also prevents us from hearing them. Their presence is compromised. Isn't that sad in its own beautiful way?
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So, silence can be bright and relieving, in some sort of a pre-natal state of any being, of a being of any thought, of presence ... Silence as the presence of the untold. The materiality of dreams - I wonder where it comes from, it might as well come from silence. The multiplicity of sounds which all are equal. Is this the state of equality that we as humanity are striving towards? Are we?
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But silence can only be pleasant if we CHOOSE it as the object of our contemplation and admiration, if we are not obliged to stare into her eyes. If it is a personal, an almost intimate decision. If she affords herself to us as an insight into a distant existence of a multifaceted, always present sonority. [of course: John Cage, 4''33'] By the way - the saying that goes: Silence speaks louder than words. - do we still believe that?
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As the nature of the scream, also the nature of silence can be the force that causes us to suffer. It can be the engine of torture. Nerve-wracking and unpleasant. Stuttering voices, words that cannot flow directly into the ears of their possible beholders, meanders of avoidance of meaning. Suppressed opinions and intellects.
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Sometimes, it is the social contract that prevents us from being able to utter, to reside in silence. Other times, it is the authority, the teacher that compels you into being silent and only speaking when you are ordered to do so. At times, you, yourself and your lack of confidence or the internalized absence of subjective relevance keeps your mouth shut, while thoughts are racing in all directions, crashing at full speed into walls that we build around ourselves.
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Sonic pollution. The noise of the sirens that signify urgency and disaster make our voices inaudible. We go silent when the fear of shock strikes us. Cities go silent when we are forced to stay inside, the frequency of real-life interactions gets smaller. (But here, I have to state this crucial difference of our pandemic to the others that happened in the past. During the plague, people could not communicate! Now, we do nothing but that. Just think of it. After the plague nothing changed. What will happen to us? Is this difference of having the possibility to exchange meanings as potent as I imagine?)
The silence in the atmosphere before a big storm ... You can smell the rain before it hits the ground.
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At times, it is the repressive government that takes away your human right to speak freely and articulate your opinion, offering it to the world. Absoluteness, one voice that governs thoughts of all. The powerful voice. The acousmatic voice. (Pythagoras that lectures from behind a screen, the Wizard of Oz.) [Dolar] <ahref="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY4jU85o8pE&t=">The illusion of the source of the powerful sound.</a>The pressure to conform. Hegemony over meaning.
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Censorship - a repressive act targeted towards the human potential of meaning-making and sense-making. I consider censorship as being a severely physical act. Holding a firm hand against the mouth of the one that attempts to speak (scream). Gasping for air. Cutting out somebodys' tongue ... And it is not only physical in this particular visceral sense. The consequences of censorship effect and endanger the very lives of the people that disobey its forceful decree. Here, I must also say that censorship is not the prohibition of a voice per se, but a prohibition of any meaning-making activity (here encompassing voice and its derivatives (text), but also art (any sort of imagery) - in all, any form that transmits meaning.
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Let's also take a glance at the overwhelming quantity of data that we are being fed with daily. How is data treated, who owns it, how it accumulates capital - these are the crucial questions in this age of digitalization and global connectivity. [Vectorialists vs hackers. Hackers Manifesto - Mackenzie Wark] The world of <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-truth">post-truth</a>. Who to trust? Whose words to internalize? How to train our personal subjective sieves that drain out the unnecessary meanings, like we would drain the spaghetti water?
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Words are dangerous. Meanings are dangerous. <br>
Fragile abstract constructions are endangered. Opposing the hegemony over meaning is dangerous for the ones in this delinquent activity of resistance, because it is de facto dangerous for the entirety of the hegemonic powers that put us in this tight corner in the first place.
On the other hand - how dangerous is it really to be empowered to speak? It is not always a life-threatening situation that we, as the emancipated voices face. It all depends on our location in this world and the forces that govern it. The future is, nonetheless predictable. Observing situations in politically repressive environments of the past and the present affords us the construction of a prediction on how things will evolve in time, wherever we are. The tendencies are clear.
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A glance at history, at presence - at any given time, humans find ways to disguise their meanings with the intention of sharing them (no matter what the repressive factor is). It might be by using symbols. Substituting Jesus for a fish somewhere under the grounds of <ahref="http://www.historyofpainters.com/catacombs.htm">catacombs</a> for example. The intricate art of cryptology. Or memes that depict much more than they appear to - with the knowledge of the context they are created in, they can be read as a source of pure content. We invent poetry, metaphors, analogies (we empower interpretation, or better said: we empower meaning through interpretation.) - to say things that should not be said, that should not be understood by everyone. Abstract. Disguised. Lyric. Generic. Only the ones that need to understand it, get the code, the recipe to recognize the meanings under their disguise. Sometimes meanings are reserved for particular people, but mostly they are avoiding the people that should not hear them. <br>
Are they afraid of meanings? Are they dreaded by the fact of how concepts and thoughts and meanings, produces of the human mind would break apart their constructions of power and authority, their takes on the world that we must adjust to, comprehend as the truth and nothing but the truth? What does God think of all this? "Who has the right to construct narratives?"
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The ones that hold power are the ones that have the capability, the taken (not given) right to interpret, to guide the meaning anywhere that they want to. [arche - archons as the ones that have power over commencement and commandement. Archive fever - Jacques Derrida] They hold the knowledge, they are the ones that interpret it, they are the ones that reinforce the laws and rules. They write and speak speeches to convince us into absolute belief. They draw graphs and pull numbers out to impress us. They consider their truth as the objective truth, the only truth that has the right to exist. They are the ones that write histories. And history is always written by the winners of battles. Political power is the voice that narrates the past, the present and the future. History. Daily life. Absolute power over meaning - do we give them that?
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Not everyone is simply going to be convinced. To doubt, to <ahref="https://soundcloud.com/tisaneza/i-can-think-with-my-own-head">think with your own head</a>. To claim the right to utter, to speak, to scream, to express, to state. To construct meanings and share them with others is a human need and a right. When it is taken away from us, we are fueled to oppose, our need to resist is enhanced. To interpret and to contextualize are crucial abilities that allow us to escape repression. Therefore, there is always a stream of resistance, a community - sometimes hiding in the catacombs, other times anonymously roaming the space of the web - a hive of thinkers and philosophers and radical particles that think not alike the rest. [see: <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(chemistry)">chemistry - radical</a>.] Your next-door neighbours? <br>
Possibility. Vision. Utopia. Reality. The antidotes. To intervene. To react. To invent. To hack. To be listened to!?
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There are always ways to spread these thoughts and meanings across the walls of restrictions and regulations and attempts of discipline. Meanings get formed behind closed doors, in the underground mechanisms of collective articulation, within currents of resistance - sometimes lonely, pertaining to an individual as well as oftenly shared and exercised collectively. <br>
Is this the process of the formation of the collective voice? A collective organism of utterance? Rising from repression, from a counter-position to the existing state of affairs. It is the scream that is being expressed, gradually becoming louder and more present, less afraid and empowered, emancipated, stronger > full of meaning! See it as a bubble that is rising from the bottom, floating upwards and popping on the surface, visible to everyone! <br>
Meanings can never be killed.
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<p>
<i>One girl just looked at me in a really weird way. I think I got a little bit too involved in what I was saying.</i><br>
<i>And, another police car in a <strike>fucking</strike> park.</i><br>
<i>For a moment, everything seemed to be so ordinary.</i>
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From this position of un-knowing and attempting to understand - in a visceral, holistic way, I say thank you, to you that kept up with all of these thoughts, meanings that had the need to be at least provisionally articulated. Thank you for your participation in their resonance, going outwards.
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Maybe this is the process of the formation of the collective voice. <br>
You tell me.
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<p>
What about the empowerment of the individual voice? Individuals do, after all, constitute the collective. <br>
<p>An API (Application Programming Interface) is an interface that enables external programs or systems to communicate with the software. The API defines how to access and how to define requests. Some APIs are created specifically for certain programs, others follow industry standards.<br>
We used MediaWiki's API to organize and bundle a large amount of material and later in the process also to export the search queries from the Wiki user interface and then, using <ahref="#query2html">query2html</a>, converted them to HTML.
<p>Python is a highly abstract (high-level) programming language in which logical and clearly structured codes for projects of various sizes have been written since 1991. It is equipped/comes with a significant amount of libraries that simplify complex tasks.<br>
We used the Python library Mwclient to interface with the <ahref="#mediawiki">MediaWiki</a><ahref="#api">API</a> in order to extract the results of semantic queries.
<p>Using the <ahref="#mediawiki">MediaWiki</a><ahref="#api">API</a>, <ahref="#pythonscript">Python</a> and <ahref="#pandoc">Pandoc</a> we converted the results of <ahref="#semanticqueries">semantic queries</a> to a <ahref="#staticwebsite">static website</a>.
<p>Under certain conditions it may be necessary to publish content without leaving a trace of identity behind. To protect the contributors and server locations also means working with some technical limitations. At our project, this boiled down to facing reduced bandwidth speed when accessing websites, hosted in the Dark web through the Tor Browser, and also because of the necessity of implementing a static website.
It makes no sense to try and work against these restrictions, but rather to accept and find ways to work within the limitations. A clearly defined field of work can also speed up and enrich the process.<br>
