From 6a1bd3f79cb968bb2dc5f8a85612c890646aac6e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Stephen Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2024 14:43:52 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] fixed generate things --- aglaia/thesis.md | 11 +- print/index.html | 1753 +++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------- 2 files changed, 874 insertions(+), 890 deletions(-) diff --git a/aglaia/thesis.md b/aglaia/thesis.md index c73dc15..e5cf87d 100644 --- a/aglaia/thesis.md +++ b/aglaia/thesis.md @@ -87,7 +87,9 @@ The notion of hospitality is excessively instrumentalized within the Greek conte Hospitality can function as a filtration mechanism that permits access – lets in – the ones who deserve it, those who have “passports, valid visas, adequate bank statements, or invitations” (Khosravi, 2010). By doing this, unproductive hospitality is being avoided due to sovereign state’s border regulations and checks. Conditional hospitality, is about worthiness, is directed towards migrants deemed good and productive – skilled and capable for assimilation- or a tiny minority of vulnerable and marginalized asylum seekers who lack representation. Only in a world where the nation-state’s boundaries have been dismantled and where the undocumented, stateless, non-citizens are unconditionally accepted, only at this moment, we are able to imagine the “political and ethical survival of humankind” (Agamben, 2000). Hospitality does not seem a matter of choice but a profound urgency, if humanity desires to foster a future together. #### “the right to have rights” + (Arendt, as cited by Khosravi, 2010, p.121) + What about the crossers who managed to travel and reach the desirable “there”, the ones who transcended the borders and the control checks of the ministries of defense(7), the ones who enter but do not own papers, the paperless? What does it mean to be documented and what is inefficiently documented within a territory? They are threatened if they get caught by authorities and also according to the official narrative, they threaten. Since the physical mechanisms of bordering did not succeed in repulsing them, the bureaucratic border appears as an additional layer of filtration. The undocumented are non-citizens, they might be crossers or burners(8), both, or even none. “Undocumented migrants and unauthorized border crossers are polluted and polluting because of their very unclassifiability” (Borelli, Poy, Rué, 2023). The loss of citizenship, denaturalisation, makes somebody denaturalised, they are rendered unnatural. “Citizenship has become the nature of being human” (Koshravi, 2010). According to Hannah Arendt, the right to have rights and claim somebody else’s rights is the only human right (Arendt, as cited by Khosravi, 2010, p. 121). The foundational issue with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is its dependence on the nation-state system. Since human rights are grounded on civil rights, which are essentially citizens’ rights, human rights are tied to the nation-state system. Consequently, human rights can be materialized only in a political community. “Loss of citizenship also means loss of human rights” (Khosravi, 2010) @@ -141,7 +143,6 @@ Undoubtedly the success of bureaucracy is drawn from its efficiency in relation There is a great materiality in bureaucracies. Bureaucratic procedures are often compared to a labyrinth which appears as a similarly complex structure constituted by simple geometrical shapes (Weber, as cited by Cunningham, 2017, p.310). Bureaucratic documents can be complicated and multiple due to this infinite accumulation of really simple but at the same time contradictory elements. A constant juxtaposition of letters, symbols, stamps, signatures, paper, ink, barcodes, QR codes within a circuit of workers, interweaved and interconnected offices, repetitive performative tasks and rituals. Underneath every bureaucratic document, there is a good amount of graphic design labor. What kind of visual strategy is embedded in administrative objects that the design aspect of these artifacts appears to be invisible? The material decisions applied as well as the material constraints attributed to the document can transform or produce different textual meanings and consequently understandings. - > “This does not mean that constraints limit meaning, but on the contrary, constitute it; meaning cannot appear where freedom is absolute or nonexistent: the stem of meaning is that of a supervised freedom” > (Roland Barthes, 1983) @@ -155,11 +156,13 @@ One month ago (from the writing present), my friend Chae made for my birthday th In the latter case, the inscription technology used is the sugar blue paste and the handwriting of Chae. The text in the white-blue government document forces a different reading from the white-blue biscuit document, even if they carry the same bits of information. If I do not read carefully the text in the folder and if I do not act according to the suggested actions there is a threat. The level of threat varies in relation to the case, the identities of the holder, the state, the context, etc. There is no room for negotiation in bureaucracy and this is the omnipresent underlying violence. The threat of violence shrouded within its structures and foundations does not permit any questioning but on the contrary creates “willful blindness” towards themI am referring to those people subjecting others to bureaucratic circles shaped by structurally violent situations as well as people in positions of privilege who deliberately ignore these facts.. Bureaucracies are not stupid inherently rather they manage and coerce processes that reproduce docile and stupid behaviors. --- + ![The birthday biscuit that Chae made, re-creating the Dutch government form](../aglaia/chae_form.jpg) --- ## vocal archives-talking documents + This chapter is mainly a constellation of some prototypes I created while writing and coping with personal bureaucratic challenges. I provided some further space for my anxiety by unpacking and exploring the material conditions that nourished it within this timeline. An administrative decision on a case may not seem necessarily hurtful in linguistic terms. However, it can be injurious and severely threatening. By performing the bureaucratic archival material of my interactions with the government, I aim to draw a parallel narrative highlighting the bordering role of bureaucracy and the concealed underlying violence it perpetuates. @@ -190,6 +193,7 @@ I started working and engaging more with different bureaucratic material that my These 'rituals' are components of a larger “culture of evidence”, serving as a tool that blurs the distinction between discourse and reality (Cunningham, 2017). This culture of evidence influences how people perceive and understand information. The primary purposes of these metrics are twofold: they play a role in the marketing sphere, attracting potential students to the university as well as they are utilized in interactions and negotiations with the government, which increasingly cuts budgets allocated to universities. --- + ![The linguistic experiment of the Quality Assurance Questionnaire Document](../aglaia/quality.jpg) --- @@ -209,6 +213,7 @@ The provided context of this “play” was a social library hosting a masters c ![Leeszaal West Rotterdam - November 2023 – People queuing to receive their documents and sign. I was thinking of queues as a spatial oppressive tool used often by (bureaucratic) authorities. The naturalized image of bodies-in-a-line waiting for “something” to happen at “some point” under the public gaze in an efficiently defined area.](../aglaia/queue.jpg) --- + ![One of the forms that the audience had to fill out during the Lesszaal event](../aglaia/mitsi.jpg) --- @@ -232,9 +237,11 @@ We read the embedded signs, symbols, categories, texts, magical numbers in our p --- + ![Part of the A6 booklet of the transcription of the passport readings session](../aglaia/passport1.png) --- + ![ ](../aglaia/passport2.png) --- @@ -253,6 +260,7 @@ The first and the last moment of the performance was during a semi-public tryout **Reflections-Thoughts:** Vocalizing and embodying the bureaucratic questions was quite useful in acknowledging the government’s voice and presence as something tangible rather than a floating, arbitrary entity. It was interesting observing the bureaucrats performing their role with confidence and entitlement, contrasting with the applicants who appeared to be more stressed to respond convincingly and promptly. There is a notable distinction between performativity and performance. Performing consciously and theatrically amplifying real bureaucratic texts by occupying roles and overidentifying with them can constitute a diffractive moment, a tool itself. From bureaucratic text to performative text scenarios to speech. The embedded (but rather unconscious) performativity of “real” bureaucratic rituals establishes and empowers (bureaucratic) institutions through repetitive acts. These theatrical moments attempt to highlight the shrouded performative elements of these processes. --- + ![A6 booklet of the first chapter of the “theatrical” scenario created out of the Postal Address Application documents and performed by XPUB peers](../aglaia/postal.png) --- @@ -272,6 +280,7 @@ My intention is to facilitate a series of collective performative readings of bu ![ ](../aglaia/objection1.png) --- + ![ ](../aglaia/objection2.png) --- diff --git a/print/index.html b/print/index.html index d4926ca..76b7170 100644 --- a/print/index.html +++ b/print/index.html @@ -22,42 +22,42 @@ -
  • Backplaces
    • +
  • <?water bodies>
    • -
  • <?water bodies>
    • +
  • Backplaces
    • -
  • Talking Documents
    • +
  • Performing the Bureaucratic Border(line)s
    • -
  • Performing the Bureaucratic Border(line)s
    • +
  • Talking Documents
    • -
  • Wink!
    • +
  • Fair Leads
    • -
  • Fair Leads
    • +
  • Wink!
    • -
  • What do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does “graphic design” even mean?!????!!1!?
    • +
  • ⊞
    • -
  • ⊞
    • +
  • do you ever dream about work?


    • @@ -139,118 +139,6 @@ touched.

    -

    Backplaces

    -

    adadesign.nl/backplaces
    -

    -

    Hi.
    -I made this play for you. It is a question, for us to hold together.

    -

    Is all intimacy about bodies? What is it about our bodies that makes -intimacy? What happens when our bodies distance intimacy from us? This -small anthology of poems and short stories lives with these -questions—about having a body without intimacy and intimacy without a -body. This project is also a homage to everyone who has come before and -alongside me, sharing their vulnerability and emotions on the Internet. -I called the places where these things happen backplaces. They are -small, tender online rooms where people experiencing societally -uncomfortable pain can find relief, ease, and transcendence.
    -

    -

    I made three backplaces for you to see, click, and feel: Solar -Sibling, Hermit Fantasy, and Cake Intimacies. Each of these is the -result of its own unique performance or project. Some of the stories I -will share carry memories of pain—both physical and emotional. As you -sit in the audience, know I am with you, holding your hand through each -scene. If the performance feels overwhelming at any point, you have my -full permission to step out, take a break, or leave. This is not -choreographed, and I care deeply for you.
    -

    -
    - - -
    -

    Solar Sibling is an online performance of shared loss about leaving -and siblings. This project used comments people left on TikTok poetry. I -extracted the emotions from these comments, mixed them with my own, and -crafted them into poems. It is an ongoing performance, ending only when -your feelings are secretly whispered to me. When you do, by typing into -the comment box, your feelings are sent to me and the first act closes -as the sun rises.
    -

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -

    Hermit Fantasy is a short story about a bot who wants to be a hermit. -Inspired by an email response from a survey I conducted about receiving -emotional support on the Internet, this story explores the contradiction -of being online while wanting to disconnect. As an act it’s a series of -letters, click by click.
    -

    -
    -The first letter. - -
    -
    -The second letter. - -
    -

    Cake Intimacies is a performance that took a year to bring together. -It is a small selection of stories people told me and I held to memory -and rewrote here. The stories come from two performances I hosted. -First, I asked participants to eat cake, sitting facing or away from -each other and sharing their stories about cake and the Internet. The -second performance was hosted at the Art Meets Radical Openness -Festival, as part of the Turning of the Internet workshop. For this -performance, I predicted participants’ future lives on the Internet -using felted archetypes and received stories from their Internet past in -return. Now the stories are here, each of them a cake with a filling -that tells a story, merging the bodily with the digital and making a -mess of it all.
    -

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -

    The play ends as all plays do. The curtains close, the website stays -but the stories will never sound the same. For the final act, I give you -the stories. It’s one last game, one last joke to ask my question again. -Digital intimacies about the digital, our bodies and the cakes we eat. -For the last act, I ask you to eat digital stories. To eat a comment, to -eat a digital intimacy. Sharing an act of physical intimacy with -yourself and with me, by eating sweets together. Sweets about digital -intimacies that never had a body. There is no moral, no bow to wrap the -story in. A great big mess of transcendence into the digital, of -intimacy and of bodies. The way it always is. Thankfully.
    -

    -
    - - -
    - -
    - - - -

    <?water bodies>

    A narrative exploration of divergent digital intimacies

    @@ -962,110 +850,118 @@ University of Nebraska Press.

    -
    -

    Talking Documents

    -

    +
    +

    Backplaces

    +

    vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl/backplaces

    +

    Hi.
    +I made this play for you. It is a question, for us to hold together.

    +

    Is all intimacy about bodies? What is it about our bodies that makes +intimacy? What happens when our bodies distance intimacy from us? This +small anthology of poems and short stories lives with these +questions—about having a body without intimacy and intimacy without a +body. This project is also a homage to everyone who has come before and +alongside me, sharing their vulnerability and emotions on the Internet. +I called the places where these things happen backplaces. They are +small, tender online rooms where people experiencing societally +uncomfortable pain can find relief, ease, and transcendence.
    +

    +

    I made three backplaces for you to see, click, and feel: Solar +Sibling, Hermit Fantasy, and Cake Intimacies. Each of these is the +result of its own unique performance or project. Some of the stories I +will share carry memories of pain—both physical and emotional. As you +sit in the audience, know I am with you, holding your hand through each +scene. If the performance feels overwhelming at any point, you have my +full permission to step out, take a break, or leave. This is not +choreographed, and I care deeply for you.
    +

    - - + +
    -

    This project appeared as a need to explore potential bureaucratic -dramaturgies within the educational institution I was part as a student. -I was curious about educational bureaucratic mechanisms being driven by -smaller-scale paperwork struggles and peers’ narratives, stories and -experiences. However, unexpected emergencies - due to my eviction on the -31st of January 2024 - placed centrally my personal struggles unfolded -in parallel with the making period. I ended up conducting accidentally -auto-ethnography as the project was dynamically being reshaped due to -the material constraints of the bureaucratic timeline.

    -

    Talking Documents are performative bureaucratic text inspections that -intend to create temporal public interventions through performative -readings. I utilized the paperwork interface of my smaller-scale story -in order to unravel and foreground questions related to the role of -bureaucracy as less material border and as a regulatory mechanism -reflecting narratives, ideologies, policies.

    -

    Central element of this project is a seven-act scenario that -construct my personal paperwork story, unraveling the actual struggles -of my communication with the government. The body of the text of the -“theatrical” script is sourced from the original documents, email -threads as well as recordings of the conversations with the municipality -of Rotterdam I documented and archived throughout this period. I -preserved the sequence of the given sentences and by discarding the -graphic design of the initial forms, I structured and repurposed the -text into a playable scenario.

    +

    Solar Sibling is an online performance of shared loss about leaving +and siblings. This project used comments people left on TikTok poetry. I +extracted the emotions from these comments, mixed them with my own, and +crafted them into poems. It is an ongoing performance, ending only when +your feelings are secretly whispered to me. When you do, by typing into +the comment box, your feelings are sent to me and the first act closes +as the sun rises.
    +

    - - + +
    -

    - - + +
    -

    -

    I perceive the document as a unit and as the fundamental symbolic -interface of the bureaucratic network. The transformation of the -materiality of a document into a scenario to be enacted collectively in -public aims to examine these artifacts and highlight the shrouded -performative elements of these processes.

    -

    I see the collective readings of these scenarios as a way of instant -publishing and as a communal tool of inspecting bureaucratic bordering -infrastructures. How can these re-enactments be situated in different -institutional contexts and examine their structures? I organized a -series of performative readings of my own bureaucratic literature in -different spaces and contexts, pubic and semi-public WDKA, Art Meets -Radical Openness Festival in Linz, the City Hall of Rotterdam where I -invited people to perform the play together, like a tiny theater.

    +

    Hermit Fantasy is a short story about a bot who wants to be a hermit. +Inspired by an email response from a survey I conducted about receiving +emotional support on the Internet, this story explores the contradiction +of being online while wanting to disconnect. As an act it’s a series of +letters, click by click.
    +

    - - +The first letter. +
    -

    - - +The second letter. +
    +

    Cake Intimacies is a performance that took a year to bring together. +It is a small selection of stories people told me and I held to memory +and rewrote here. The stories come from two performances I hosted. +First, I asked participants to eat cake, sitting facing or away from +each other and sharing their stories about cake and the Internet. The +second performance was hosted at the Art Meets Radical Openness +Festival, as part of the Turning of the Internet workshop. For this +performance, I predicted participants’ future lives on the Internet +using felted archetypes and received stories from their Internet past in +return. Now the stories are here, each of them a cake with a filling +that tells a story, merging the bodily with the digital and making a +mess of it all.
    +

    -The garden of Gemeente - + + +
    +
    + + +
    +

    The play ends as all plays do. The curtains close, the website stays +but the stories will never sound the same. For the final act, I give you +the stories. It’s one last game, one last joke to ask my question again. +Digital intimacies about the digital, our bodies and the cakes we eat. +For the last act, I ask you to eat digital stories. To eat a comment, to +eat a digital intimacy. Sharing an act of physical intimacy with +yourself and with me, by eating sweets together. Sweets about digital +intimacies that never had a body. There is no moral, no bow to wrap the +story in. A great big mess of transcendence into the digital, of +intimacy and of bodies. The way it always is. Thankfully.
    +

    +
    + +
    -

    The marginal voices of potential applicants are embodying and -enacting a role. “The speech does not only describe but brings things -into existence”(Austin, 1975). My intention was to stretch the limits of -dramaturgical speech through vocalizing a document and turn individual -administrative cases into public ones. How do the inscribed words in the -documents are not descriptive but on the contrary “are instrumentalized -in getting things done”(Butler,1997). Words as active agents. Bodies as -low-tech “human microphones”. A group of people performs the -bureaucratic scenario in chorus, out loud, in the corridor of the -school’s building, in the main hall, at the square right across, outside -of the municipality building.

    -

    I documented and recorded these public acts and I re-created the -collectively voiced scenario. This audio piece is a constellation of -different recordings and soundscapes of these public moments, a vocal -archive, published in the graduation exhibition of XPUB in 2024.

    -<<<<<<< HEAD
    -

    Performing the Bureaucratic Border(line)s

    -

    borders

    -======= -

    Performing the Bureaucratic Border(line)s

    @@ -1169,7 +1065,7 @@ vocalization of bureaucracies as a tool can potentially reveal their territorial exclusive function and provide space for the invisible vulnerability.

    ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d +

    borders

    “on the other side is the river
    and I cannot cross it
    @@ -1177,13 +1073,6 @@ on the other side is the sea
    I cannot bridge it”
    (Anzaldua, 1987)

    -<<<<<<< HEAD -

    How a border is defined? How, as an entity, does it define? How is it performed? I used to think of borders in a material concrete way, coming from a country of the European South that constitutes a rigid, violent border that repulses and kills thousands of migrants and refugees. In the following chapter, I will attempt to explore the terrain of material borders in relation to bureaucracy as another multi-layered filter.

    -

    What constitutes a border? Is it a wall, a line, a fence, a machine, a door, an armed body or a wound on the land? When somebody crosses a border are they consciously aware of the act of crossing? I am crossing the pedestrian street and walking on the white stripes to reach the pedestrian route right across. Are the white stripes a border or a territory to be crossed to reach another situation? Does the way I perform my walking when I step onto the white stripes change? Is there any embodied knowledge about what could be classified as border? Under which circumstances does this knowledge become canonical? I hop over a fence that separates one garden from another. What if instead of assuming that the fence is a device or a furniture or a material of enclosure, it is just part of the same land? The process or act of jumping a fence can be itself a moment of segregation and a moment of re-establishing or demonstrating the bordering function of it.

    -

    Borders could be considered as devices of both exclusion and inclusion that filter people and define forms of circulation and movement in ways no less violent than those applied in repulsive measures. Closure and exclusion are only one function of the nation-state borders. Of course, borders are not always that visible or treated and perceived as borders, as Rumford argues they are “designed not to look like borders, located in one place but projected in another entirely” (Rumford, cited by Keshavarz, 2016, p.298)

    -

    As institutions, they seem to be much more complex, flexible, or even penetrable in comparison with the traditional image of a wall as a bordering device that demonstrates in a way itself. Crossing and borders are inherently defined in relation to each other. “Where there is a border, there is also a border crossing, legal as well as illegal” (Khosravi, 2010).

    -======= -

    borders

    How a border is defined? How, as an entity, does it define? How is it performed? I used to think of borders in a material concrete way, coming from a country of the European South that constitutes a rigid, violent @@ -1218,7 +1107,6 @@ bordering device that demonstrates in a way itself. Crossing and borders are inherently defined in relation to each other. “Where there is a border, there is also a border crossing, legal as well as illegal” (Khosravi, 2010).

    ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d

    conditional hospitality

    I started thinking about hospitality as a cultural behavior and as an inseparable term in the context of borders due to a recent personal @@ -1335,22 +1223,22 @@ the “political and ethical survival of humankind” (Agamben, 2000). Hospitality does not seem a matter of choice but a profound urgency, if humanity desires to foster a future together.

    “the right to have rights”

    -

    (Arendt, as cited by Khosravi, 2010, p.121) What about the crossers -who managed to travel and reach the desirable “there”, the ones who -transcended the borders and the control checks of the ministries of -defense(7), the ones who enter but do not own papers, the paperless? -What does it mean to be documented and what is inefficiently documented -within a territory? They are threatened if they get caught by -authorities and also according to the official narrative, they threaten. -Since the physical mechanisms of bordering did not succeed in repulsing -them, the bureaucratic border appears as an additional layer of -filtration. The undocumented are non-citizens, they might be crossers or -burners(8), both, or even none. “Undocumented migrants and unauthorized -border crossers are polluted and polluting because of their very -unclassifiability” (Borelli, Poy, Rué, 2023). The loss of citizenship, -denaturalisation, makes somebody denaturalised, they are rendered -unnatural. “Citizenship has become the nature of being human” (Koshravi, -2010).

    +

    (Arendt, as cited by Khosravi, 2010, p.121)

    +

    What about the crossers who managed to travel and reach the desirable +“there”, the ones who transcended the borders and the control checks of +the ministries of defense(7), the ones who enter but do not own papers, +the paperless? What does it mean to be documented and what is +inefficiently documented within a territory? They are threatened if they +get caught by authorities and also according to the official narrative, +they threaten. Since the physical mechanisms of bordering did not +succeed in repulsing them, the bureaucratic border appears as an +additional layer of filtration. The undocumented are non-citizens, they +might be crossers or burners(8), both, or even none. “Undocumented +migrants and unauthorized border crossers are polluted and polluting +because of their very unclassifiability” (Borelli, Poy, Rué, 2023). The +loss of citizenship, denaturalisation, makes somebody denaturalised, +they are rendered unnatural. “Citizenship has become the nature of being +human” (Koshravi, 2010).

    According to Hannah Arendt, the right to have rights and claim somebody else’s rights is the only human right (Arendt, as cited by Khosravi, 2010, p. 121). The foundational issue with the Universal @@ -1380,8 +1268,6 @@ where everybody feels included. Democracy is a rule of law where everybody feels * We, undocumented people, we don’t feel a sense of belonging from the system.”

    -<<<<<<< HEAD -=======

    bureaucracy as immaterial border

    @@ -1555,14 +1441,11 @@ graphic design labor. What kind of visual strategy is embedded in administrative objects that the design aspect of these artifacts appears to be invisible? The material decisions applied as well as the material constraints attributed to the document can transform or produce -different textual meanings and consequently understandings.

    -
    -

    “This does not mean that constraints limit meaning, but on the -contrary, constitute it; meaning cannot appear where freedom is absolute -or nonexistent: the stem of meaning is that of a supervised -freedom”
    -(Roland Barthes, 1983)

    -
    +different textual meanings and consequently understandings. > “This +does not mean that constraints limit meaning, but on the contrary, +constitute it; meaning cannot appear where freedom is absolute or +nonexistent: the stem of meaning is that of a supervised freedom”
    +> (Roland Barthes, 1983)

    When I encountered the green logo of the municipality of Rotterdam I did not cultivate any feelings of enthusiasm or even boredom. A big calligraphic “R” with the flawless green ribbons that penetrate it on @@ -1608,23 +1491,14 @@ as people in positions of privilege who deliberately ignore these facts.. Bureaucracies are not stupid inherently rather they manage and coerce processes that reproduce docile and stupid behaviors.

    ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d +
    The birthday biscuit that Chae made, re-creating the Dutch government form
    -<<<<<<< HEAD
    -

    vocal archives-talking documents

    -

    This chapter is mainly a constellation of some prototypes I created while writing and coping with personal bureaucratic challenges. I provided some further space for my anxiety by unpacking and exploring the material conditions that nourished it within this timeline.

    -

    An administrative decision on a case may not seem necessarily hurtful in linguistic terms. However, it can be injurious and severely threatening. By performing the bureaucratic archival material of my interactions with the government, I aim to draw a parallel narrative highlighting the bordering role of bureaucracy and the concealed underlying violence it perpetuates.

    -

    A bureaucratic text does not just describe a reality, a decision, a case or an action, but on the contrary, it is capable of changing the reality or the order of things that is described via these words. Bureaucratic official documents are inherently performative. These texts regulate and bring situations into being.

    -

    My intention in transforming bureaucratic texts into “playable” scenarios is to explore how embodying these texts in public through collective speechI imagine the theatrical play as a “human microphone”, a low-tech amplification device. A group of people performs the bureaucratic scenario in chorus, out loud, in the corridor of the school’s building, in the main hall, at the square right across, outside of the municipality building. The term is borrowed from the protests of the Occupy Wall Street Movement in 2011. People were gathered around the speaker repeating what the speaker was saying in order to ensure that everyone could hear the announcements during large assemblies. Human bodies became a hack in order to replace the forbidden technology. In New York it is required to ask for permission from authorities to use “amplified sound” in public space. can provoke different forms of interpretations and open tiny conceptual holes. “The meaning of a performative act is to be found in this apparent coincidence of signifying and enacting” (Butler, 1997). The performative bureaucratic utterances - the vocal documents - attempt to bring into existence -by overidentifying, exaggerating, acting- the discomfort, the threat, the violence which is mainly condemned into private individual spheres.

    -

    How performing a collection of small bureaucratic stories can function as an instant micro intervention and potentially produce a public discourse. Where do we perform this speech, where and when does the “theater” take place? Who is the audience? I am particularly interested in the site-specificity of these “acts”. How can these re-enactments be situated in an educational context and examine its structures? Is it possible for this small-scale publics to provoke the emergence of temporal spaces of marginal vulnerable voicings? According to the agonistic approach of the political theorist Chantal Mouffe, critical art is art that provokes dissensus, that makes visible what the dominant narrative tends to undermine and displace. “It is constituted by a multiplicity of artistic practices aiming at giving a voice to all those who are silenced within the framework of the existing hegemony” (Mouffe, 2008).

    -

    I started working and engaging more with different bureaucratic material that my peers and I encountered regularly or appeared in our (e)mail (in)boxes and are partly related to our identities as foreign students coming from different places. I chose to start touching and looking for various bureaucracies that surround me as a personal filter towards it. From identification documents and application forms to rental contracts, funding applications, visa applications, quality assurance questionnaires related to the university, assessment criteria, supermarket point gathering cards, receipts. A sequence of locked doors to be unlocked more or less easily via multiple bureaucratic keys. The methods and tools used to scrutinize the administrative artifacts are not rigid or distinct. It is mainly a “collection” of small bureaucratic experiments - closely related to language as well as the performative “nature” of these texts themselves. I was intrigued by how transforming the material conditions of a piece of text could influence the potential understandings and perceptions of its meaning.

    -=======

    vocal archives-talking documents

    This chapter is mainly a constellation of some prototypes I created @@ -1728,15 +1602,13 @@ these metrics are twofold: they play a role in the marketing sphere, attracting potential students to the university as well as they are utilized in interactions and negotiations with the government, which increasingly cuts budgets allocated to universities.

    ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d +
    The linguistic experiment of the Quality Assurance Questionnaire Document
    -<<<<<<< HEAD -=======

    2.

    Title: “Department of Bureaucracy and Administration @@ -1778,15 +1650,13 @@ authorities. The naturalized image of bodies-in-a-line waiting for “something” to happen at “some point” under the public gaze in an efficiently defined area. ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d +

    One of the forms that the audience had to fill out during the Lesszaal event
    -<<<<<<< HEAD -=======

    3.

    Title: “Passport Reading Session”
    @@ -1824,35 +1694,21 @@ paths, how departure or arrival is smooth or cruel. Are there emotions along the way? For some people these are documents “that embody power — minimal or no waiting, peaceful departure, warm and confident arrival” (Khosravi, 2021).

    ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d +
    Part of the A6 booklet of the transcription of the passport readings session
    -<<<<<<< HEAD -

    4.

    -======= +

    4.

    ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d

    Title: “Postal Address Application Scenario”
    When: February 2024
    Where: Room in Wijnhaven Building, 4th floor
    Who: XPUB 1,2,3, tutors, Leslie

    -<<<<<<< HEAD -

    Description: This scenario is the first part of a series of small episodes that construct a bureaucratic story unfolding the processes of my communication with the government. The body of the text of the “theatrical” script is sourced from the original documents as well as recordings of the conversation I had with the municipality throughout this process. I preserved the sequence of the given sentences and by discarding the graphic design of the initial form, I structured and repurposed the text into a scenario. The main actors were two bureaucrats vocalizing the questions addressed in the form, in turns and sometimes speaking simultaneously like a choir, three applicants answering the questions similarly while a narrator mainly provided the audience with the context and the storyline constructing the scenery of the different scenes.

    -

    The first and the last moment of the performance was during a semi-public tryout moment where XPUB peers performed the distributed scenario in a white room on the 4th floor of the Winjhaven building. They were seated having as a border a black long-table. A border furniture between the bureaucrats and the applicants. The narrator was standing still behind them while they were surrounded by the audience. The main documentation media of the act were a camera on a tripod, a recorder in the middle of the table and myself reconstructing the memory of the re-enactement at that present - 6 days later.

    -

    Reflections-Thoughts: Vocalizing and embodying the bureaucratic questions was quite useful in acknowledging the government’s voice and presence as something tangible rather than a floating, arbitrary entity. It was interesting observing the bureaucrats performing their role with confidence and entitlement, contrasting with the applicants who appeared to be more stressed to respond convincingly and promptly. There is a notable distinction between performativity and performance. Performing consciously and theatrically amplifying real bureaucratic texts by occupying roles and overidentifying with them can constitute a diffractive moment, a tool itself. From bureaucratic text to performative text scenarios to speech. The embedded (but rather unconscious) performativity of “real” bureaucratic rituals establishes and empowers (bureaucratic) institutions through repetitive acts. These theatrical moments attempt to highlight the shrouded performative elements of these processes.

    -

    conclusion

    -

    next chapters of the case with reference number A.B.2024.4.03188

    -

    I expanded the “play” by incorporating additional “scenes” sourced again from the documents accompanying the ongoing “conversation with the government”. Two weeks after submitting my application for a short-term postal address [16/02/2024], I received a letter from the municipality stating their rejection of my request and warning me of potential fines if I fail to declare a valid address and provide a rental contract. After extensive communication with the municipality, I decided to respond to this decision by writing and sending an objection letter [19/02/2024]. The objections committee received my letter [21/02/2024], and after some days, they issued a confirmation letter outlining the following steps of the objection process which involves hearings with municipality lawyers and further investigation of my case. The textual components collaged for the next “episodes” are sourced from the transcribed recordings of my actual conversations with the municipality clerks, my objection letter, the confirmation documents including the steps I am required to take.

    -

    My case has finished by this time. I withdrew my objection [7/03/2024] and I de-registered [11/03/2024] after a good amount of stress and precarity. My bureaucratic literature is meant to be read and voiced collectively. People’s bureaucratic literatures should be read and voiced collectively.

    -

    My intention is to facilitate a series of collective performative readings of bureaucratic scenarios or other portable paperwork stories as a way of publishing and inspecting bureaucratic bordering infrastructures. The marginal voices of potential applicants are embodying and performing a role. “The speech does not only describe but brings things into existence” (Austin, 1975). I would like to stretch the limits of dramaturgical speech through vocalizing a document in public with others and turn an individual administrative case into a public one. How do the inscribed words in the documents are not descriptive but on the contrary “are instrumentalized in getting things done” (Butler, 1997). Words as active agents. I am inviting past and future applicants, traumatized students, injured bearers, bureaucratic border crossers, stressed expired document holders or just curious people to share, vocalize, talk through, read out loud, amplify, (un)name, unplace, dismantle the injurious words of these artifacts.

    -

    -=======

    Description: This scenario is the first part of a series of small episodes that construct a bureaucratic story unfolding the processes of my communication with the government. The body of the @@ -1890,6 +1746,7 @@ unconscious) performativity of “real” bureaucratic rituals establishes and empowers (bureaucratic) institutions through repetitive acts. These theatrical moments attempt to highlight the shrouded performative elements of these processes.

    +
    A6 booklet of the first chapter of the “theatrical” scenario created out of the Postal Address Application documents and performed by XPUB peers @@ -1939,8 +1796,9 @@ border crossers, stressed expired document holders or just curious people to share, vocalize, talk through, read out loud, amplify, (un)name, unplace, dismantle the injurious words of these artifacts.

    -

    +

    +
    +

    “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us”(20)

    @@ -1955,7 +1813,6 @@ contrary we start interrogating and shouting at the contexts and the frameworks that construct them and render them invisible, natural and powerful.

    ->>>>>>> 4d862d536e0c633a3cbd8cfd41517c7a6764385d

    references

    Agamben, G. (2000) Means without end: Notes on politics. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    @@ -2014,133 +1871,125 @@ and solidarity in the wake of Europe’s refugee crisis. London: Rowman -
    -

    Wink!

    -

    A Prototype -for Interactive Children’s Literature

    -

    Wink is a prototype for an interactive picture book platform. This -platform aims to make reading into a mindfull and thought provoking -process by using interactive and playful elements, multiple stories -within one narrative and sound elements. Especially today where -consumerism and low attention span is a rising issue especially amongst -young readers, this was an important task to tackle. The thought of Wink -emerged to find a more sustainable and creative way of reading for -elementary school children.

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -

    Working as a children’s literature editor for years, I came to a -realisation that picture books were turning into another object that -kids read and consume on daily basis. At least this is what I observed -in Turkey. Teachers and parents were finding it difficult to find new -books constantly or were tired of rereading the same book. As a young -person in the publishing sector, I believe there should be more options -for children as there is for adults; such as ebooks, audiobooks etc. But -moreover a “book” that can be redefined, reread or be interacted with. -So I revisited an old story I wrote, translated to English and named it, -“Bee Within”.

    -
    - - -
    -
    - - -
    -

    Bee Within, is a story about grief and it is based on my experiences -throughout the years. I erased it, rewrote it, edited it, destroyed it -multiple times over the past years, simultaneously with new experiences -of loss. In the end, I believe the story turned out to be an ode to -remembering or might I say an ode to not being able to forget or an ode -to the fear of forgetting which I now think is a great and sweet battle -between death and life. I think it is an important subject to touch -upon, especially for children dealing with trauma in many parts of the -world.

    +
    +

    Talking Documents

    +

    - - + +
    +

    This project appeared as a need to explore potential bureaucratic +dramaturgies within the educational institution I was part as a student. +I was curious about educational bureaucratic mechanisms being driven by +smaller-scale paperwork struggles and peers’ narratives, stories and +experiences. However, unexpected emergencies - due to my eviction on the +31st of January 2024 - placed centrally my personal struggles unfolded +in parallel with the making period. I ended up conducting accidentally +auto-ethnography as the project was dynamically being reshaped due to +the material constraints of the bureaucratic timeline.

    +

    Talking Documents are performative bureaucratic text inspections that +intend to create temporal public interventions through performative +readings. I utilized the paperwork interface of my smaller-scale story +in order to unravel and foreground questions related to the role of +bureaucracy as less material border and as a regulatory mechanism +reflecting narratives, ideologies, policies.

    +

    Central element of this project is a seven-act scenario that +construct my personal paperwork story, unraveling the actual struggles +of my communication with the government. The body of the text of the +“theatrical” script is sourced from the original documents, email +threads as well as recordings of the conversations with the municipality +of Rotterdam I documented and archived throughout this period. I +preserved the sequence of the given sentences and by discarding the +graphic design of the initial forms, I structured and repurposed the +text into a playable scenario.

    - - + +
    -

    Over the past two years, experimenting with storytelling techniques, -interactivity options and workshops with children and adults, around -reading and doing various exercises on Bee Within, I improved the story -to be a more playful and interactive one which can be re-read, re-played -and eventually re-formed non digitally to be reachable for all -children.

    +

    - - + +
    +

    +

    I perceive the document as a unit and as the fundamental symbolic +interface of the bureaucratic network. The transformation of the +materiality of a document into a scenario to be enacted collectively in +public aims to examine these artifacts and highlight the shrouded +performative elements of these processes.

    +

    I see the collective readings of these scenarios as a way of instant +publishing and as a communal tool of inspecting bureaucratic bordering +infrastructures. How can these re-enactments be situated in different +institutional contexts and examine their structures? I organized a +series of performative readings of my own bureaucratic literature in +different spaces and contexts, pubic and semi-public WDKA, Art Meets +Radical Openness Festival in Linz, the City Hall of Rotterdam where I +invited people to perform the play together, like a tiny theater.

    - - + +
    -

    Here is some more documentation from the beggining of this journey -towards making accesible interactive narratives…

    +

    - - + +
    - - +The garden of Gemeente +
    +

    The marginal voices of potential applicants are embodying and +enacting a role. “The speech does not only describe but brings things +into existence”(Austin, 1975). My intention was to stretch the limits of +dramaturgical speech through vocalizing a document and turn individual +administrative cases into public ones. How do the inscribed words in the +documents are not descriptive but on the contrary “are instrumentalized +in getting things done”(Butler,1997). Words as active agents. Bodies as +low-tech “human microphones”. A group of people performs the +bureaucratic scenario in chorus, out loud, in the corridor of the +school’s building, in the main hall, at the square right across, outside +of the municipality building.

    +

    I documented and recorded these public acts and I re-created the +collectively voiced scenario. This audio piece is a constellation of +different recordings and soundscapes of these public moments, a vocal +archive, published in the graduation exhibition of XPUB in 2024.

    -
    +

    Fair Leads

    Fair leads or Fair winds is a saying sailors and knotters use to greet each other. It comes from the working end of a string that will soon be forming a knot.

    -

    I would like to clarify and introduce some terms for you in order to +I would like to clarify and introduce some terms for you in order to read this text in the desired way. For a while, we will stay in the bight of this journey as we move into forming loops, theories and ideas on how interactive picture books can be used to foster curiosity for reading and creativity for children. I am building a web platform called Wink that aims to contain a children’s story I wrote and am making into -an interactive experience, in relation to my research.

    +an interactive experience, in relation to my research. +
    +knot words from Leeszaal + +

    Through this bight of the thesis, I feel the necessity to clarify my intention of using knots as a “thinking and writing object” throughout my research journey. Although knots are physical objects and technically @@ -2154,7 +2003,7 @@ strings to make things, why wouldn’t a research paper make use of this wonderful art as an inspiration for writing and interactive reading?

    KNOTS AS OBJECTS TO THINK WITH

    -

    There is a delicate complexity of thinking of and with knots, which +There is a delicate complexity of thinking of and with knots, which ignites layers of simultaneous connections to one’s specific experience; where one person may associate the knots with struggles they face, another may think of connecting or thriving times. In a workshop in @@ -2163,12 +2012,27 @@ when they think of knots. There were some words in common like strong, chaotic, confusing and anxious. On the other hand, there were variations of connection, binding, bridge and support. Keeping these answers in mind or by coming up with your words on knots and embodying them in the -practice of reading would make a diff erence in how you understand the -same text.

    +practice of reading would make a difference in how you understand the +same text. +
    +knot words from Leeszaal + +
    +
    +
    +knot words from Leeszaal + +

    Seeing how these words, interpretations of a physical object were so -diff erent to each other was transcendental. In this thesis, I am -excited to share my understanding of knots with you. My three words for -knots are resistance, imagination and infinity. Keeping these in mind, I +different to each other was transcendental. In this thesis, I am excited +to share my understanding of knots with you. My three words for knots +are resistance, imagination and infinity. Keeping these in mind, I experimented with certain reading modes as you will see later on.

    Knots are known to be used 15 to 17 thousand years ago for multiple purposes. These purposes were often opposing each other. For example, it @@ -2246,7 +2110,7 @@ start reading from a certain section according to the type of reader you are and read the loops one by one until the end, weaving through the text. To determine the string or mode of reading, there are some simple questions to answer.

    -

    The three modes of reading are combine, slide, build . After you +

    The three modes of reading are combine, slide, build. After you discover the starting point with the yes or no map in the upcoming pages, you will continue the reading journey through the strings of diff erent colors that will get you through the text. This way, the linear @@ -2271,14 +2135,21 @@ strings, will be representing the relation between theories and my ownexperiences/motivations. Hitches which are knots that are formed around a solid object, such as a spar, post, or ring will be representing the evidence or data I have collected on the subject. We -move on now with the working end and make some loops! ## HOW TO CHOOSE -YOUR STRING This map will reveal your mode of reading. The order of -reading will be indicated with a loop sign Please hold a string in your -hand as you read the text and make knots or loops as you weave through -the reading as an exercise for concrete thinking. See you at the -standing end! and a number on top of the sign with a color. This is the -numeric order you can follow to read the thesis.

    -

    Working End

    +move on now with the working end and make some loops!

    +

    HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR STRING

    +This map will reveal your mode of reading. The order of reading will be +indicated with a loop sign Please hold a string in your hand as you read +the text and make knots or loops as you weave through the reading as an +exercise for concrete thinking. See you at the standing end! and a +number on top of the sign with a color. This is the numeric order you +should follow to read the thesis, if you choose to read with a mode. +Every reader starts from 1 and continues until 12, with a consecutive +numeric order, according to their color/mode. +
    +knot words from Leeszaal +
    +

    Working End

    Loop 1

    Why am I doing this?

    My desire to write a children’s book about grief and memory ignited @@ -2869,10 +2740,9 @@ important in my personal history as a prototype was a breakthrough. I feel like my interest and desire to discover new ways of writing, reading and experiencing literature is ongoing and it was a beautiful journey so far. I am looking forward to making more knots on this long -and mysterious string at hand.

    -

    Bibliography

    -

    Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (2009) ‘“multiliteracies”: New Literacies, -new learning’, Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), pp. 164–195. +and mysterious string at hand. ## Bibliography Cope, B. +and Kalantzis, M. (2009) ‘“multiliteracies”: New Literacies, new +learning’, Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), pp. 164–195. doi:10.1080/15544800903076044.
    Dettore, E. (2002) “Children’s emotional GrowthAdults’ role as emotional archaeologists,” Childhood education, 78(5), pp. 278–281. doi: 10.1080/00094056.2002.10522741.
    @@ -2904,521 +2774,120 @@ codes-in-knots-sensing-digital-memories/.

    -
    -

    What -do graphic designers do all day and why do they do it and what does -“graphic design” even mean?!????!!1!?

    +
    +

    Wink!

    +

    A Prototype +for Interactive Children’s Literature

    +

    Wink is a prototype for an interactive picture book platform. This +platform aims to make reading into a mindfull and thought provoking +process by using interactive and playful elements, multiple stories +within one narrative and sound elements. Especially today where +consumerism and low attention span is a rising issue especially amongst +young readers, this was an important task to tackle. The thought of Wink +emerged to find a more sustainable and creative way of reading for +elementary school children.

    - - + +
    -

    I cut my thumb so every time I type i can feel it in my nerve -endings. Not true, it’s my left thumb so I don’t type with it. Not true, -I feel it anyway. Why are most of the function keys on the left of the -keyboard. What’s so functional about pressing buttons. Stephen Kerr is a -designer and musician based in. Have you ever loved an instrument? The -Ctrl key broke like four times since I moved here. I have one more -replacement because I bought a bunch of them but at some point I gave up -and use an external keyboard. I dunno I’m more confused than ever. It -was something to do with dreams and working. It’s the middle of the -night I’m writing this on my phone. If I had a dream this is when I -would be writing it. The memory is fuzzy: either I don’t remember or it -didn’t make sense in the first place. It was something to do with -fuzziness and memory no wait. Phones don’t have keyboards in real life -this doesn’t make sense. I’m trying to type but I don’t think I can get -it on the way to the office for the weekend and I think it was a good -idea to do it and I was thinking about you and I was thinking of you and -I was thinking about you and I was in the same place as a friend of mine -and I was in the studio and we were in the studio and we were in the -studio and we were in the studio and we were in the

    - - + +
    -

    Practice-led artistic research into the 21st century phenomenon of -the graphic designer. I held graphic design in my hands using -ethnography, toolmaking and performance as research methods. I examined -how designers spend their time in everyday life, this designer, me, as -well as you, what are we doing? What are our worldviews, belief systems, -mythologies and ideologies?

    - - + +
    +

    Working as a children’s literature editor for years, I came to a +realisation that picture books were turning into another object that +kids read and consume on daily basis. At least this is what I observed +in Turkey. Teachers and parents were finding it difficult to find new +books constantly or were tired of rereading the same book. As a young +person in the publishing sector, I believe there should be more options +for children as there is for adults; such as ebooks, audiobooks etc. But +moreover a “book” that can be redefined, reread or be interacted with. +So I revisited an old story I wrote, translated to English and named it, +“Bee Within”.

    - - + +
    -
    -

    Secondly, during my studies at XPUB, I plan to combine different -strands of my practices (design, music, programming, theatre). Being a -designer is an important part of my identity, and I am keen to make work -true to who I am.

    -
    -

    Excerpt from xpub application letter, March 15th 2022.

    - - + +
    +

    Bee Within, is a story about grief and it is based on my experiences +throughout the years. I erased it, rewrote it, edited it, destroyed it +multiple times over the past years, simultaneously with new experiences +of loss. In the end, I believe the story turned out to be an ode to +remembering or might I say an ode to not being able to forget or an ode +to the fear of forgetting which I now think is a great and sweet battle +between death and life. I think it is an important subject to touch +upon, especially for children dealing with trauma in many parts of the +world.

    - - + +
    -Where do dreams come from? - + +
    +

    Over the past two years, experimenting with storytelling techniques, +interactivity options and workshops with children and adults, around +reading and doing various exercises on Bee Within, I improved the story +to be a more playful and interactive one which can be re-read, re-played +and eventually re-formed non digitally to be reachable for all +children.

    - - + +
    - - + + +
    +

    Here is some more documentation from the beggining of this journey +towards making accesible interactive narratives…

    +
    + + +
    +
    + +
    -
    -
    +

    ⊞

    Stephen Kerr

    @@ -4374,6 +3843,512 @@ pp. 1–54; 21, no. 1 (1905), pp. 1–110.

    +
    +

    do you ever dream about +work?

    +

    stephen kerr, 2024

    +

    Reading an email in a dream and you can hear the voices of every word +you read. Or the one where you’re on a computer working, frantically +typing, late, stressed, rushed. What about that dream where you had no +idea how to do your job, everyone is going to know you’re a fake. In +this project I have made spaces for us to share our dreams about labour, +and through that allow conversations about our work, our working +conditions, and the feelings we’re left with when we fall asleep each +night.

    +

    For the past year I have spoken with designers, artists and makers +finding out how they spend their time in everyday life, what they +believe and how they feel. In our dreams we feel the weird bits the +most: hmm a bit uncomfortable, ooh that gave me a fright, aah so, so +sad. Through performances, online tools and storytelling, I want to hold +these dreams together, to unite our experiences. Online I have made tools to gather +stories and tools to tell them. I have facilitated group dream re-enactments (a few times), using felt dolls to share our night time +theatre.

    +

    stephen kerr is a graphic designer or a musician or a very weird +and long dream.

    + + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + +
    +Web page to share and read labour dreams. Scroll down for more. +
    +
    +
    + +
    +Interactive dream telling. Click then type your story. +
    +
    +
    + + +
    +
    + + +
    +
    +Where do dreams come from? + +
    +

    Licensing information

    +

    This work is free to distribute or modify under the terms of the SIXX +license as published by XPUB, either version one of the SIXX License or +any later version. See the SIXX License for more details. A copy of the +license can be found on vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl/license.

    + + + + + + + + + +
    + + +

    Special Issues

    Special Issues are publications thrice released by first-year XPUB @@ -4823,11 +4798,11 @@ of one only thing.

    Writing in Etherpad. Version control in git. Design in Inkscape. Layout in paged.js. Printing in Adobe Acrobat.

    Licensing information

    -

    This publication is free to distrubite or modify under the terms of +

    This publication is free to distribute or modify under the terms of the SIXX license as published by XPUB, either version one of the SIXX License or any later version. See the SIXX License for more details. A -copy of the license can be found on -vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl/license

    +copy of the license can be found on vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl/license.

    Postal address

    Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design: Experimental Publishing, Piet Zwart Institute, P.O. Box 1272, 3000 BG Rotterdam, The Netherlands.