From a553f22363a8cf44343b5650db4c07302ae54bf7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ada <> Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2024 16:41:34 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] waterbodies end --- ada/thesis.md | 2 +- print/index.html | 4983 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ print/print_style.css | 7 + 3 files changed, 4991 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 print/index.html diff --git a/ada/thesis.md b/ada/thesis.md index ef4e91b..1954546 100644 --- a/ada/thesis.md +++ b/ada/thesis.md @@ -1041,4 +1041,4 @@ Yun, J. (2020) ‘The Leaving Season’, in Some Are Always Hungry. University of Nebraska Press.\ -
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+

Contents

+ +
+
+ + + +
+
+

Introduction

+

Act 1.

+

Scene 1.

+
Internal. +A reader holds a book in their hands. The first page of the book is +opened, the reader holds it to their face and smells the paper, touches +it. The book touches them back.
+

the book: (whispering in the reader’s ear) Being +vulnerable means being transparent, open and brave, trusting others to +handle stories with care. By publicly sharing and processing our +narratives, we take ownership of our experiences while contributing to a +collective voice. Even when we incorporate stories from others, our +names remain attached to this collective creation: Ada, Aglaia, Irmak, +Stephen. We have created interfaces highlighting the balance between +communal sharing, individual responsibility and awareness.

+

the reader: Interfaces?

+

the book: Interfaces are boundaries that
+connect and separate. They’re the spaces that fill the void between us. +An interface can be an act, a story, a keyboard, a cake; It allows us to +be vulnerable together, to share our stories with and through each +other. I am a collection of these interfaces.

+

the reader: (confused) What do you mean a +collection, like a catalogue?

+
+

the book: Yeah I guess. I weave the words and the +works we created during…

+

the reader: we?

+

the book: …I mean the four of us, the students of +Experimental Publishing at the Piet Zwart Institute. From 2022 until +today, June 2024, we published three special issues together. We wrote +four theses and made four graduation projects. We grew our hair out and +cut it and grew it again and dyed it. We cared and cried for each other, +we brewed muddy coffee and bootlegged books.

+

(The book tears up).

+

Finishing a Master’s is a bit of a heavy moment for us and this book +is a gentle archive, a memory of things that have been beautiful to +us.

+

the reader: (sarcasm) do you have a tissue, im soooo +touched.

+

the book: malaka, just read me.

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

<?water bodies>

+
+A narrative exploration of
divergent digital intimacies +
+
+
+

Water, stories, the body,
+all the things we do, are
+mediums
+that hide and show what’s
+hidden.
+(Rumi, 1995 translation)

+
+

꙳for you

+

All intimacy is about bodies. Is this true? Does it matter? I doubt +it. Do you know? Let’s find out, maybe.

+

Once, I thought that everything in the world was either one or zero +and that there was a harsh straight line between them. Then I found out +you could step or hop across the line, back and forth, if others showed +you how. Today, I am no less binary, no less interested in dichotomies, +but I am willing to dance through them if you are too. Can we dance +these dichotomies together, embracing the contradictions of the virtual +and physical, the comfortable and uncomfortable, intimate and +non-intimate? I can’t do it alone, the subject is too heavy and the +binary is too 1011000. I won’t ask you to resolve these contradictions, +I have no desire to. Instead, I hope we can cultivate the tension and +tenderness inherent in holding together incompatible truths because both +prove necessary.

+

To dance through these dichotomies I will start in a specific +position, growing from Donna Haraway’s in ’A Cyborg Manifesto”. In her +essay, Haraway explores the concept of a cyborg as a rejection of +boundaries between humans, animals, and machines. A symbol for a +feminist posthuman theory that embraces the plasticity of identity. +Before she does all this dancing, however, she takes a strong stance of +blasphemy. She engages seriously with traditional notions of feminism +and identity but with irony, not apostasy, which is to say without full +rejection—without unbelief. My position as I jump will be the same as +hers, ironic faith. My mocking is grave but caring and my primary aim is +for us only to spin fast enough not to see the line anymore, while still +being able to see the binaries. It won’t be an easy dance for us but I +will do my best to keep softening for you, I promise.

+

I will show you a digital body, make it comfortable and then +uncomfortable, lightly intimate, and richly intimate. I have my own +story, my own digital body, of course. This is where I take my second +stance, however. This time, the position is Lauren Berlant’s, from ‘The +Female Complaint’. The book places individual stories as inescapable +autobiographies of a collective experience and uses the personal to +explain an intimate general experience. In our story, the difference +between my body and the collective digital body is unimportant, I hope +you see that. I will tell you my story if you know how to look, but I +will tell you through the stories of many others who shared them with +me. I have no other choice, every time I have tried to tell this story a +chorus of voices has come out.

+

Some of the stories I will tell you will carry memories of pain; +physical and emotional. I will keep holding you while you hear this, but +your limbs may still feel too heavy to dance. In that case, I give you +my full permission to skip, jump, or lay down completely. This is not +choreographed and I care deeply for you.

+

I love you and hope you see what I saw in these stories.

+

Safe dreams now, I will talk to you soon.

+

0. DIGITAL BODIES

+
+

“I think the worst must be finished.
+Whether I am right, don’t tell me.
+Don’t tell me.
+No ringlet of bruise,
+no animal face, the waters salt me
+and I leave it barefoot. I leave you, season
+of still tongues, of roses on nightstands
+beside crushed beer cans. I leave you
+white sand and scraped knees. I leave
+this myth in which I am pig, whose
+death is empty allegory. I leave, I leave—
+At the end of this story,
+I walk into the sea
+and it chooses
+not to drown me.”
+(Yun, 2020)

+
+
+

a. what is a digital body?

+

A digital body is a body on the Internet. A body outside the internet +is simply a body. On the internet, discussions about corporeality +transcend the limitations of physicality, shaping and reshaping +narratives surrounding the self. This text explores the intricate +dynamics within these conversations, dancing at the interplay between +tangible bodies and their digital counterparts. The construction of a +digital body is intricately intertwined with these online dialogues, +necessitating engaged reconstructions of the narratives surrounding +physical existence. Yet, the resulting digital body is a complex and +contradictory entity, embodying the nuances of both its virtual and +tangible origins.

+

There is a specific metaphor that would allow us to better carry +these contradictions as we further explore digital bodies. Do you +remember that dream you had about deep ocean pie? Allow me to remind +you.

+

You were walking on the shore, slowly, during a summer that happened +a long time ago. Your skin was warm and you could feel the wet cool sand +sticking to your feet. The gentle lapping of the waves washed the sand +away as you walked towards the ocean. You stepped, stepped. Then dove. +Underwater, the sea unfolded deeper than you remembered. It was a +vibrant display of life: bright schools of small fish, and tall +colorful, waving corals. It looked like that aquarium you saw once as a +kid. Your arms moved confusingly through the water as if you were wading +through a soup or were terribly tired. On the sandy ocean floor, you saw +a dining table. It had a floating white tablecloth, one plate, a fork, +and a pie in the center of it, on a serving dish. You sat on a chair but +could not feel it underneath you. You ate a heaping slice of pie. It had +a buttery-cooked carrots filling. You woke up. In the world, the sun was +still timid and your bedroom thick with sleep. What a weird dream. You +rubbed your face, sat up on your bed, and drank the glass of water next +to you. You felt full, as if you just ate a plateful of carrot pie.

+

There were two bodies in this story. An awake one and a dream one, an +ocean one. In dreams, bodies have their own set of rules, often blurring +the boundaries between waking and sleeping, wanting and fearing. Digital +bodies are very similar to dream bodies. They exhibit a similar fluidity +and abstraction, a defiance of traditional notions of physicality. They +share the blurring and inherent potential nature of dream bodies. They +are slower, stronger, and different. They switch and change and melt +into each other, they lose and regrow limbs, they run sluggishly and fly +smoothly. If we scream in our dreams, we sometimes wake up still +screaming. Our waking bodies react to our dream bodies, they have the +same tears, the same orgasms, the same drives.

+

This is a story of two bodies, same but different, influenced but not +driven. A tangible body, full of fluids and organs, emotions and +feelings. Cartilage, bacteria, bones, and nerve endings. A digital body, +cable-veined and loud-vented, shiny and loading.

+

The digital body is ethereal and abstracted, embarrassing, graphic, +and real but not physical.

+

This is the beginning.

+

b. body vs. computer

+

Framing the discourse around bodies on the internet as a clear-cut +dichotomy feels clunky in today’s internet landscape. The web is today +available by body, cyborg dimensions of the internet of bodies, or +virtual and augmented realities, creating a complex interplay between +having a body and existing online.

+

As intricate as this dance is now, it certainly did not begin that +way. It started with what felt like a very serious and tangible line +drawn by very serious tangible people; this is real life and this is +virtual life. Even people like Howard Rheingold, pioneers who approached +early virtual life with enthusiasm and care, couldn’t escape +characterizing it as a “bloodless technological ritual” (1993). +Rheingold was an early member of The Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link (Well), +a seminal virtual community built in the 1980s that was renowned for its +impact on digital culture and played a pivotal role in shaping what +would become the landscape of the Internet. Rheingold’s reflections on +his experience on this primordial soup of the Internet offer insight +into the initial conceptualizations of online life by those joyfully +participating.

+

In “The Virtual Community”, Rheingold offers a heartfelt tribute to +intimacy and affection through web- based interactions which, at the +time, were unheard of. He struggles in his efforts to highlight the +legitimacy of his connections, finding no way to do so except by +emphasizing their tangible bodily experiences. The community’s claim to +authenticity thus had to lie in the physical experiences of its members— +the visible bodies and hearable voices, the weddings, births, and +funerals (1993).You’re dreaming again, +good. Would you feel closer to me if you could hear my voice? Is my +voice a sound? Could it be a feeling?

+

Even then, and even by people with no interest in undermining the +value of the virtual, the distinction between physical and virtual was +confusing. Rheingold himself reinforces the boundary of body relations +and computer relations by referring to his family as a “flesh-and-blood +family’ and his close online friends as “unfamiliar faces” (1993). +Constantly interplaying digital connections with the physical +characteristics of the kind of connections people valued before the +internet.I will be honest with you, I +have little patience for this recurring line of thought that seeks to +distinguish people’s noses from their hearts, as if there was a physical +love that is the valuable one and a virtual imaginary one that is feeble +and unworthy.

+

In any case, his primary interest seemed to be to emphasize computer +relations as valid forms of connection between bodies, not to talk of +any distinction quite yet. It’s the eighties, the internet is still +fresh and new and the possibility to form close relations with strangers +online seems fragile and concerning yet exciting. This is the clearest +the distinction between in-real-life and online has ever been and it’s +still fuzzy and unclear.

+

At the same time and in the same digital space as Rheingold, there +was another man, a digital body being formed. This is our second story, +the ocean body we dreamt of earlier is now in a digital primordial soup, +questioning itself and stuck between staying and leaving. In this story, +its name is Tom Mandel and when he died, he did so on the Well.

+

Mandel was a controversial and popular figure in this pioneering +virtual community. According to many other members, Tom Mandel embodied +the essence of the Well—its history, its voice, its attitude. Mandel’s +snarky and verbose provocations started heated discussions, earning him +warnings such as “Don’t Feed The Mandel!” (Leonard, 1995). His sharp +comments often stirred emotions that reminded people of family +arguments, fuelling an intimacy that was characteristic of the Well: +both public and solitary (Hafner, 1997).

+

Until 1995, Mandel had done a quite rigorous job of keeping his body +separate from The Well and had never attended any of the physical +in-person meetings from the community. His only references to being a +body had been on the “health” online conference, where he often talked +about his illnesses. One day, after nearly a decade of daily +interaction, he posted he had got the flu and that he felt quite ill. +When people wished for him to get well soon, he replied he had gone to +get tested and was waiting for a diagnosis. This way, when cancer was +found in his lungs, the community was first to know. In the following +six months, as his illness progressed, the community followed closely +(Hafner, 1997). They were first to know when Nana, a community member +with whom he had had a publicly turbulent relationship, flew to +California to marry him. The community was a witness and is now an +archive of his declining wit as cancer spread to his brain and his +famously articulate and scathing comments got shorter, fearful, and more +tender.Initially, when a member he often +argued with offered to pray for him Mandel had replied: “You can shovel +your self-aggrandizing sentiments up you wide ass sideways for the +duration as far as I’m concerned.” Later, as the cancer progressed: “I +ain’t nearly as brave as you all think. I am scared silly of the pain of +dying this way. I am not very good at playing saint. Pray for me, +please.

+

Before he posted his final goodbye, he chose to do one last thing. +Together with another member, they programmed a bot that posted randomly +characteristic comments from Mandel on The Well—the Mandelbot. In the +topic he had opened to say goodbye, he posted this message about the +bot:

+
+

“I had another motive in opening this topic to tell the truth, one +that winds its way through almost everything I’ve done online in the +five months since my cancer was diagnosed. I figured that, like everyone +else, my physical self wasn’t going to survive forever and I guess I was +going to have less time than actuarials allocateus [actually allocated]. +But if I could reach out and touch everyone I knew on-line… I could toss +out bits and pieces of my virtual self and the memes that make up Tom +Mandel, and then when my body died, I wouldn’t really have to leave… +Large chunks of me would also be here, part of this new space.” (Hafner, +1997)

+
+

With the Mandelbot, Mandel found a way to deal with what he later +called his grieving for the community, with which he could not play +anymore once his own body died. By doing so, he was starting to blend +the boundaries of intimacy through computers and bodies, driven by his +love and grief.It’s out of care and not +lack of relevance that I am not showing you Mandel’s goodbye message. +It’s enough to know he was deep in the grief of having to leave a +community he loved and cared for and that pain was felt in every +word.

+

When he talked about the bot in previous messages, it sounded almost +like a joke. A caring haunting of the platform, to keep his persona +alive for the community in a way that could be quite horrific for those +grieving. In his admission though it becomes clear that this was closer +to an attempt to deal with his grief around losing the community, his +unreadiness to let go of a place he loved so dearly. A place just as +real in emotion, that was built in part by Mandel’s digital body and its +persona.

+

In a tribute posted after his death, fellow Well member and +journalist Andrew Leonard tried to convey his own sense of blended +physicality and emotion.

+
+

“Sneer all you want at the fleshlessness of online community, but on +this night, as tears stream down my face for the third straight evening, +it feels all too real.” (Andrew Leonard, 1995)

+
+

c. bot-feelings

+

An internet body has bot-feelings if allowed to. Let me explain.

+

A bot functions as a different entity from a cyborg, as it does not +attempt to emulate a human body but rather human action and readiness. +Its role is to mirror human behavior online, simulating how a physical +body might act, what it would click on, and what would it say. On social +media, bots engage in a kind of interpretative dance of human +interaction, performing based on instructions provided by +humans.The first bot communities on the +internet are now born, half- mistakenly. They are always spiritual +communities posting religious images created by artificial intelligence, +all the comments echoing choirs of bots praising. Amen, amen, amen. I am +not naive, I know they are built by humans but it is this performance of +religiosity that I am interested in, and how little humanity is shown in +it. It is something else.

+

Unlike an internet body, which represents the virtual embodiment of a +person, a bot doesn’t seek to be a person. It comments under posts +alongside many other bots, all under a fake name and photo but nothing +else to give the illusion of humanity. When an internet body has +bot-feelings, it is a disruptive performance. They are feelings that do +not attempt to be human body feelings, they exist as their own genuine +virtual expression.

+

In “Virtual Intimacies”, McGlotten also incidentally argued that a +virtual body has bot-feelings (2013). He described the virtual as +potential, as a transcendent process of actualization, making it into, +generally, a description of bots. Internet bodies, as virtual, would be +by this understanding also charged with the constant immanent power to +act and to feel like a human body. It is a constant state of becoming, +of not- quite-pretending but never fully being anything either.

+

Most of the time we can tell disembodied bots online from tangible +people and as such they have the potential to be bodies, without ever +trying to be.

+

Of course, when McGlotten described the virtual as such he placed it +in a dichotomy, once again, against the “Intimacies” which are the other +side of his book. The emphasis here lies in intimacy being an embodied +feeling and sense and a carnal one at that. Virtual intimacies are, by +this definition, an inherent failed contradiction. However, McGlotten +plays with the real and non-real in new ways, using the text to +highlight how virtual intimacy is similar to physical intimacy and then, +even more, blurring as he shows the already virtual in physical +intimacies. Applying this to a body, rather than an affective +experience, works just the same.

+

McGlotten uses a conceptualization of the virtual based on the +philosopher Deleuze’s,A step in a step in +a step, sorry. which can be used to refer to a virtual body +as well. The virtual is in this case a cluster of waiting, dreaming, and +remembering, embodying potential. Something that is constantly becoming, +an object and also the subject attributed to it (2001). An internet body +with its bot-feelings is a body in the process of being one, acting as +one, an ideal of one beyond what is physical but including its +possibility.

+

Going a step further in McGlotten’s interpretation of Deleuze, this +also plays into how virtual intimacies mirror queer intimacies as they +approach normative ideals but “can never arrive at them”. Both queer and +virtual relations are imagined by a greater narrative as fantastical, +simulated, immaterial, and artificial—poor imitations and perversions of +a heterosexual, monogamous, and procreative marital partnership (2013). +A virtual body is similarly immanent, with both potential and corruption +at the same time. It carries all the neoliberal normative power of +freedom that a queer body can carry today but also reflects the unseemly +fleshly reality of having one.

+

This is where the story continues. The body from the dream ocean +leaves the primordial soup of the internet to stage a disruptive +performance. It moves from potential creation to a wild spring river. A +fluid being, that exists simultaneously inside and outside normative +constructions. It channels deviant feelings and transcendental opinions +about the collective’s physical form genuinely as people use it to +navigate their physicality. Both virtual and queer intimacies highlight +the constructed nature of identity and desire. They disrupt the notion +of a fixed, essential self, instead embracing the multiplicity and +complexity inherent in human experience. This destabilization of +identity opens up possibilities for self-expression and connection, +creating spaces where individuals can redefine themselves beyond the +constraints of societal expectations while still technically under its +watchful eye. In essence, the parallels between virtual and queer +intimacies underscore the radical potential of both to disrupt and +reimagine the norms that govern our understanding of relationships, +bodies, and identity. They invite us to question the rigid binaries and +hierarchies that structure our society and to embrace the fluidity and +possibility inherent in the human experience.

+

1.DIGITAL COMFORT

+
+

The only laws:
+Be radiant.
+Be heavy.
+Be green.
+

+
+
+

Tonight, the dead light up your mind
+like an image of your mind on a scientist’s screen.
+‘The scientists don’t know – and too much.’
+

+
+
+

“In the town square, in the heart of night (a delicacy like the heart +of an artichoke), a man dances cheek-to-cheek with the infinite +blue.
+(Schwartz, 2022)

+
+
+

a. comfort care

+

Let’s care for this digital body. I’ll feed it virtual vegetables +while you wipe away the wear of battery fatigue. And why not encourage +it to take strolls through the network, it might be good for it.

+

But what if it falls ill? What if its sickness is inherent, designed +to echo like the distorted reflection of rippling water a corrupted, +isolated, and repulsive physical form? Then we must comfort care for +it.

+

Comfort care is a key concept in healthcare, described as an art. It +is the simple but not easy art of performing comforting actions by a +nurse for a patient (Kolcaba, 1995). The nurse is in this story an +artist full of intention, using the medium of comforting actions to +produce the artwork of comfort for the uncomfortable. Subtle, +subjective, and thorough. However, achieving comfort for another is far +from straightforward. It demands addressing not only the physical but +also the psychospiritual, environmental, and socio-cultural dimensions +of distress, each requiring its blend of relief, ease, and transcendence +(Kolcaba, 1995).

+

In moments of need, digital comfort may become the only care certain +digressive bodies receive. When the distress a body is in becomes too +culturally uncomfortable, no nurse will come to check on it.

+

If care is offered, it’s often only with a desire to assimilate the +divergent body back into expected standards of normalcy and ability. +This leaves those with non-conforming bodies isolated, ashamed, and +yearning for connection and acceptance.I +am talking here about the distress caused by mental health issues that +have direct connections to physicality—self- injuring in any direct +form; food, drugs, pain. The culturally uncomfortable diseases, the +it’s- personal- responsibility, and just-stop disorders. This is a +hidden topic of this text because I cared more about the pain +surrounding them and the reasons to hide rather than the grim +physicality of them all.

+

In the depths of isolation and confusion, marginalized bodies often +look for belonging and understanding online. Gravitating towards one +another with a hunger born of desperation, forming intimate bonds +through shared pain. Through a shared sense of unwillingness, a lack of +desire, and a desperate need for physical assimilation with the +norm.

+

The healthy body, the normal body, the loved body.

+

On the internet, these digital bodies claw onto each other, holding +each other close and comfort-caring for one another. The spaces where +this happens are rooms, or corners of the internet that I’ll call back +places. Back places were initially defined by the sociologist Goffman as +symbolic spaces where stigmatized people did not need to hide their +stigma(1963). In our story, backplaces are small rooms online, tender +soft spaces reserved by those in terrible psychological pain themselves, +where they can find relief, ease, and transcendence.

+

Of course, when we speak of digital bodies, their physicality is not +relevant. To comfort care for a digital body one would thus need to +provide relief, ease, and transcendence for the mental, emotional, and +spiritual; through the digital environment of the body and the +interpersonal cultural relations of the individual. As with any place of +healing, however, it is a transient place. It is an achy place, for the +last step of the journey will see them leave the community and +compassion that saw and sustained them.

+

There is no other way for divergent people.

+

b. uncomfortable comfort

+

In the past and the present, social scientists have studied the +people in the corners of the internet, characterizing these spaces +between people as deviant. Like children lifting stones to look at the +bugs underneath— simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by the coherence +discovered where once was separation. A partition that was then +reinforced by the scientists themselves as they began documenting the +bugs’ behavior. They eavesdropped on conversations, captured intimate +moments, and asked again and again what made them so different. The more +they probed, the more they made sure to separate their behavior from the +norm to place the deviants against (Adler and Adler, 2005, 2008; Smith, +Wickes & Underwood, 2013).

+

The concept of deviance, particularly concerning what people do with +their bodies and how their bodies behave, I find inherently flawed. +Observing from an artificial external standpoint only serves to further +alienate those already marginalized. I like to approach my research into +the intimacy and comfort care expressed in marginalized digital +communities without the alienation of social science. There are many +approaches one can take if one wishes to avoid this, and the one I am +choosing to borrow is a mathematical approach to anthropology. I would +like to borrow from mathematician Jörn Dunkel’s work in pattern +formation. It’s a conscious choice to approach divergences in bodily +behavior through their similarities, not differences. This includes +specificities in atypicality, of course, but also the distinctions +between me as the writer and them as the writer. You as the reader and +you as the community. Me and you, as a whole. Both exist, both separate +but in what is not of such importance.

+
+

“Though many of these systems are different, fundamentally, we can +see similarities in the structure of their data. It’s very easy to find +differences. What’s more interesting is to find out what’s +similar.”
+(Chu & Dunkel, 2021)

+
+

Individuals who forge and inhabit these communities, fostering +tender, intimate connections amongst themselves, are not deviant but +rather divergent. Deviance involves bifurcation, a split estuary from +the river of appropriate cultural behavior.Of course, the river itself is not a river; it’s +many confused streams that believe themselves both the same and +separate. I don’t know where I’m going with this, I just don’t love the +river of normativity and I’d rather go swim in the ocean of dreams with +you.

+

Divergence can be so much more than that. In mathematics, a divergent +series extends infinitely without converging to a finite limit. A +repetition of partial sums with no clear ending, never reaching zero. +Mathematician Niels Abel once said that “divergent series are in general +something fatal and it is a shame to base any proof on them. [..] The +most essential part of mathematics has no foundation”(1826). Drawing a +parallel to social relations would then imply that there is no end to +divergence, too many paradoxes in the foundation of normativeness to +base anything on it.

+

Harmonic series are, on the other hand, also divergent series. They +are infinite series formed by the summation of all positive unit +fractions, named after music harmonics. The wavelengths of a vibrating +string are a harmonic series. These series also find application in +architecture, establishing harmonious relationships. Despite their +integral role in human aesthetics, all harmonic series diverge, +perpetually expanding without ever concluding. They embody a richness +that transcends conventional boundaries, blending into one another +infinitely.

+
+ + +
+

By likening digital bodies to divergent series, we embrace the +complexity and infinite possibilities arising from their +interconnectedness and deviation from the norm. However, it’s crucial to +note that the divergence I’m discussing here carries a halo of pain, +accompanied by the requirement of bodily discomfort. There are other +forms of divergence, ways to have different bodies that necessitate +creating spaciousness around normativity to allow them grace to +grow.

+

The divergent digital bodies we are dancing with and caring for, +however, are of a particular type. If we were to go back to our water +stories, we’d see that the digital bodies we are following are painful +ones. Cold, deep streams, hard to follow, hard to swim in. Their +divergence from the norm makes them so.

+

They have intricate relationships with themselves, existing in +unstainable forms devoid of comfort, nourishment, or thriving. What does +comfort mean for a body whose whole existence is uncomfortable? +Moreover, what if the comfort care performed for these divergent bodies +makes them too comfortable being in their pained state of self? Could +they be?I heard the idea of living +questions for the first time in “Letters to A Young Poet” by Rainer +Maria Rilke and then again on the podcast On Being with Krista Tippet. +It may be a bit transparent but this entire text is informed by the +concept of keeping the unsolved in your heart and learning to love it. +Not searching for the answers for we cannot live them yet. The point is +to live it all. It could be that at some point we will live our way to +an answer but it is feeling the questions alive within us that is +important. Do you?

+

Caring for a digital body involves providing it with space to live, +giving its experimental bot-feelings tender attention, and revealing +your own vulnerable digital body in response. It’s about giving it an +audience, hands to hold, eyes that meet theirs in understanding. A +rehearsal room, a pillow, a mirror. These rooms, backplaces scattered +across the internet, are hidden enough to allow the divergent to +comfort- care for one another, sometimes to the point where it is only +the same type of divergent digital bodies reflecting back at each +other.

+

So far I have talked fondly of divergence and the harmony of +divergent series, and the need to have no finite ending. I’d like to +tell you a different story now. Divergent digital bodies are, by this +point in our text, built and alive as they can be. They are many, they +are together and seeing each other, producing harmonic waves. They are +in backplaces on the internet, but they are less safe than they seem. +They are themselves resonant echo chambers, with an ongoing risk of +catastrophic acoustic resonance.

+

Acoustic resonance is what happens when an acoustic system amplifies +sound waves whose frequency matches one of its natural frequencies of +vibration. The instrument of amplification is important for the harmonic +series, for the music must not match exactly. An exact match will break +it for the object seeks out its resonance. Resonating at the precise +resonant frequency of a glass will shatter it. Digital bodies meet in +these rooms, amplifying their own waves seeking resonance but the risk +of an exact match is that it may shatter them. These spaces full of +divergent digital bodies quickly grow unstable, tethering echo chambers. +Rooms full of reflections, transforming what was once individual pain +into a mirrored loop of anguish. Caring for your own and others’ bodies +becomes increasingly difficult, making permanent residence in the mirror +room unbearable. You all know you must leave before you meet your exact +resonance.

+

c. unbearable intimacy

+

This is the end of the story. Our digital bodies have a shape, a +sense of life and death, and someone to care for us and to care for. We +are alive and have found intimacy with each other.

+

We live in the backplaces, hiding and being hidden online as we have +been for years. We used to be on invitation-only forums, +password-protected bulletin boards, or encrypted hashtags. Now we are +alive in the glitches between pixels, in a shared language of numbers +and acronyms and misdirection. Avoiding a content moderation algorithm, +always hunting the dashboards of social media websites for visible pain +it can cure by erasure. We cannot tell you where to find you or it might +too. We try to stay alive, to hold each other, hiding behind code words, +fake names, and photos. We care for each other as best we can, the blind +leading the blind, the sick caring for the sick. We have brought our +unseemliness, our gory gross bodies to each other and found tender +intimacy and understanding.

+

On good days, dashboards are full of goodbyes and my heart swells +with hope, for those of us who make it and for the small bright light +telling us that we may be one of them. At the same time, some of us +leave only to come back ghosts of ourselves, hunting threads with the +empty hope of missionaries.

+

Don’t give up, it’s worth it!

+

Most of us scoff at this. The idea of leaving only to come back and +tell people you left is uncomfortable, the failed progress that washes +away hope. A healed patient who regularly comes back to the hospital to +encourage the sick, who wish to be anywhere but there. The genuine love +and care within these communities transpire better under goodbye posts. +When people do heal and shed their accounts’ skin, they often leave it +surrounded by all those who once cared for the digital body within +it.

+

I’m so proud of you! Never come back, we love you so much.

+

Recover, don’t come back. Recover, don’t come back. Recover, never +come back.

+

I had a conversation with a friend who once lived in these spaces +between letters but has since moved outside them. When asked, he +mentioned he could only find recovery by leaving that community. His +body has changed since now it is the spitting image of a standard, +healthy body. I didn’t ask, but he knew I’d wonder. He told me he didn’t +like his new body and preferred the divergent one he once built himself. +Why leave then? Why did you stop?

+

Because that was no life.

+

Now life sparkles, everything feels brighter and more exciting. I got +my will to live back. Before, there was nothing but my body. I was +willing to die for it.

+

He pulls up the sleeve of his shirt to show me his shoulder, where he +has tattooed a symbol for a community friend who died.

+

I hope I never go back. I miss them every day.

+

This is the last dichotomy. For the divergent digital body can’t stay +in a Backplace for very long, the intimacy of it is unbearable. It is an +intimacy that floods, and overruns. In their definition of intimacy in +the context of a public surrounding a cultural phenomenon, the author +Lauren Berlant denotes that intimacy itself always requires hopeful +imagination. It requires belief in the existence of an ideal other who +is emotionally attuned to one’s own experiences and fantasies, +conditioned by the same longings and with willing reciprocity +(2008).If we were to be honest, the +entire exercise of writing this for you requires this very +faith.

+

In the context of the intimacy of a Backplace, where divergent +digital bodies have formed a community around existing outside the +healthy and standard, longing and hopeful intimacy becomes a heavy- +hearted and cardinal concept. Being in these rooms and finding care and +love for others like you can be so uncomfortable when the longings, +experiences, and fantasies you are sharing are centered around pain. The +shared cultural experience of existing as a collective divergent digital +body promises a fantasy of belonging, a collective hope, and commitment +that is extremely fragile.

+

There is a duality then, if not a dichotomy. As a divergent body, +there is nothing you crave more than to be seen and to be loved in a +space where you are safe, where the faces looking at you are not +repulsed but warm with familiarity. Yet, it is this very warmth that +becomes unbearable and an inherently traumatic intimacy. Being loved at +your worst, at your most embarrassing, cultural borderline self is an +agonizing duality to deal with. McGlotten, who was referenced earlier +concerning the potential of bot-feelings of a digital body, now comes +back to remind us of their impossibility. In his book, he talks of a +digital intimacy that inundates us and is both a source of connection +and disconnection (McGlotten, 2013). We are looking at a smaller scale +than he does, but intimacy in the context of shared vulnerability can be +a need just as intolerable.

+

Certain kinds of witnessing can become curses, shivers of resonance +so close to an explosion of glass if only you strike the cord that will +keep me going. Certain kinds of divergence can only end with leaving or +death, truth be told. People in these bodies know this, even if the +digital bodies behave as if there is hope in a future where the +divergence brings joy to one’s life consistently. The shared +vulnerability itself then, is unbearable. I need you to see me, I need +you, who are just like me at my worst, to love me. When you do, I can’t +stand it. It ruins both of us to be seen this way and we need it so +desperately. It has to exist and yet it can’t for long.

+

I leave even though I love all of your digital bodies. I leave +because I love you, little digital body and you are me.

+

2. A LIFE TO BE HAD11

+
+

11 Was this the end of this story?
+In the epilogue, you sit your body down and enter your computer. The air +coming in from the window smells wet and earthy, new. The sun shines low +on the horizon.
+

+

You log in to the internet and realize you are being told a story. +You start to listen, carefully and, full of love, touch the story to let +it know you are there. Delicate-fingered, curious like a child holding a +fallen bird. I hold you and the story tentatively.
+

+

I don’t know if I am touching you, to tell you the truth. Digital +bodies are stories, like physical bodies are, like dreams are, and like +water is.
+

+

Stories that are hard to tell and hard to hear and even more, maybe, +hard to understand. I have loved these stories and I have loved telling +them to you. I hope you understand that my goal was for you to live +these questions, to feel these stories in their confusion. My digital +body, my bot-feelings, my divergent communities. I have given them to +you, so they may live longer, like an obsolete but beloved cyborg shown +in a museum.
+

+

Look: I was here, Look: I was loved, Look: I was saved.
+

+

The digital bodies that kept me alive, kept me from becoming fully a +machine are no longer around in these online rooms. They are in +different places, being touched by tentative hands, being loved for more +than their divergence.
+I am too.
+

+

The rooms, the backplaces, however, are still full of others, +divergent digital bodies who did not leave, who keep caring for each +other at the bottom of the whirlpool. There is no happy ending because +there is no ending. They keep typing and hoping, writing their +collective pain down on keyboards that transmit love letters to each +other. I am not embarrassed by my care for you, but you may be so if it +helps. I know how overwhelming intimacy can be.
+

+

Telling you these stories was important for me, so much so that I +will tell you so many more in a different place if you wish to listen to +me longer. With this story, I dreamt of a digital body for you. It came +from an ocean of dreams, into a primordial soup that gave it enough +shape to become wild rivers, deep streams, sound waves. It flooded and +now, it leaves. A digital body that grew its own feelings, looked for +others like it, and realized its divergence and the need to leave. A +dream body, a primordial body, a disruptive body, a divergent body, and +now, a leaving body. This last story, however, of the leaving and loving +body, is yet to be told.
+

+

The sun is now almost up, and the birds are alive and awake, telling +each other stories just outside the room. We don’t have so much time +left. I have made you something, to tell your digital body the stories +of the leaving and loving body. It is a webpage, the address is +https://vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl/backplaces/.
+

+

You open the page, and you are asked to write the characters you see +in a captcha.
+E5qr7.
+eSq9p.
+8oc8y.
+Fuck.
+You try not to panic, but you know you have been detected.
+

+You pack up your things: the pie I made you, a love letter, a hand made +out of felt, a star, a door, a stuffed animal; and you leave again. +
+

THANK YOU

+

Special thanks to Marloes de Valk, Michael Murtaugh, Manetta Berends, +Joseph Knierzinger and Leslie Robbins.
+Extra thank you to Chae and Kamo from XPUB3 for the food and moral +support in this trying time and to my other xpubini for being great and +eating my snacks and gossiping.
+But most of all I’d like to thank the people in the online communities +I’ve met and loved, you were of course who this thesis was about. Thank +you for saving me, I will always remember you.
+

+

references

+

Adler, P.A. and Adler, P. (2008) ‘The Cyber Worlds of self-injurers: +Deviant communities, relationships, and selves’, Symbolic Interaction, +31(1), pp. 33–56. doi:10.1525/si.2008.31.1.33.

+

Berlant, L.G. (2008) The female complaint the unfinished business of +sentimentality in American culture. Durham: Duke University Press.

+

Chu, J. (2021) Looking for similarities across Complex Systems, MIT +News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Available at: +https://news.mit.edu/2021/jorn-dunkel-complex- systems-0627 (Accessed: +08 March 2024).

+

Deleuze, G., Boyman, A. and Rajchman, J. (2001) Pure immanence: +Essays on a life. New York: Zone Books.

+

Goffman, E. (2022) Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled +identity. London: Penguin Classics. Hafner, K. (1997) The epic saga of +the well, Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.com/1997/05/ff-well/ +(Accessed: 01 February 2024).

+

Haraway, D.J. (2000) ‘A cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and +socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century’, Posthumanism, +pp. 69–84. doi:10.1007/978- 1-137-05194-3_10.

+

Hyacint (2017) Harmonic series to 32, +https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
+Harmonic_series_to_32.svg.

+

Kolcaba, K.Y. and Kolcaba, R.J. (1991) ‘An analysis of the concept of +comfort’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 16(11), pp. 1301–1310. +doi:10.1111/j.1365- 2648.1991.tb01558.x.

+

Leonard, A. (no date) All Too Real, https://people.well.com/. +Available at: https://people.well.com/user/cynsa/tom/tom14.html +(Accessed: 01 April 2024).

+

McGlotten, S. (2013) Virtual intimacies: Media, affect, and queer +sociality [Preprint]. doi:10.1353 book27643.

+

Rumi, J. al-Din and Barks, C. (1995) ‘Story Water’, in The Essential +Rumi. New

+

Schwartz, C. (2022) Lecture on Loneliness, Granta. Available at: +https://granta.com/lecture-on-loneliness/ (Accessed: 08 March 2024).

+

Smith, N., Wickes, R. and Underwood, M. (2013) ‘Managing a +marginalised identity in pro-anorexia and fat acceptance +cybercommunities’, Journal of Sociology, 51(4), pp. 950–967. +doi:10.1177/1440783313486220.

+Yun, J. (2020) ‘The Leaving Season’, in Some Are Always Hungry. +University of Nebraska Press.
+ +
+
+</?water bodies> +
+ + + + + + +
+

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.
+

+
+ + +
+

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. + +
+
+ + +
+

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.
+

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

Performing the +Bureaucratic Border(line)s

+
+
+ +
+

introduction

+

This thesis is an assemblageI live +somewhere in the margins of scattered references, footnotes, citations, +examinations embracing the inconvenience of talking back to myself, to +the reader and to all those people whose ideas gave soul to the text. I +shelter in the borderlands of the pages my fragmented thoughts, flying +words, introspections, voices. Enlightenment and inspiration given by +the text “Dear Science” written by Katherine McKittrick. of +thoughts, experiences, interpretations, intuitive explorations of what +borders are, attempting to unleash a conversation concerning the +entangled relation between material injurious borders and bureaucracy. I +unravel empirically the thread of how borders as entities are manifested +and (de)established. How does the lived experience of crossing multiple +borders change and under what conditions?

+

The eastern Mediterranean borderlandI +use the word borderland to refer to Greece as a (mostly) transit zone in +the migrants’ and refugees’ route towards Europe., I +happened to come from, proves to be one of Europe’s deadly borders +towards specific ethnic groups. The embodied experience of borders and +practices of (im)mobility change radically depending on the various +identities of the people crossing them. As I moved to the Netherlands I +started more actively perceiving bureaucracy as another multi-layered +border. I was wondering how this situation is shifted and transformed +moving towards the European North. What is the role of bureaucracy and +how it could be perceived as a mechanism of repulsion for some bodies - +a camouflaged border?

+

But what is my starting point and where does my precarious body fit +within the borders that I am touching? The language of the +administrative document is rigid and hurtful but myself lies between the +margins of these lines. This thesis does not consist of an excessive +inquiry about the profoundly complex concepts of borders and +bureaucracy. On the contrary, it is initiated by personal concerns, +awareness and my positioning. I choose to structure my argument and talk +through a personal process that is being unfolded in parallel with the +writing period. Accordingly, these words are dynamically being reshaped +due to the material constraints of the bureaucratic timeline. A more +distant approach became personal and tangible with +auto-ethnographicalI perceive +auto-ethnography as a way to place myself, my lived experiences, my +identities, reflections in the (artistic) research and talk through them +about structures and within the structures of social, cultural, +political frameworks. elements as I was trying to squish +myself and my urgencies under these thresholds and fit the A4 document +lines.

+

I would like at this point to acknowledge and state explicitly my +privilege recognizing the different levels of otherness produced by the +several bordering mechanisms. My European machine-readable passport as a +designed artifact dictates and facilitates the easiness of my mobility. +In other (many) cases the lack of it creates profoundly a severe +barrier“Passports still function as a +technology to control movement. Technologies like RFID chips and face +recognition are part of a control system for digital state surveillance. +Designing a passport is relative to design a surveillance tool. The +analysis of passport designs rarely looks at the social consequences of +identification, control, and restriction of movement, which can have +violent consequences.” (Ruben Pater, 2021). I do not intend +in any respect to compare my case to the lived experiences and struggles +of migrants and refugees. I utilize the paperwork interface of my +smaller-scale story in order to unravel and foreground the +aforementioned questions.

+

This thesis is very much indebted to some text-vehicles that +mobilized my reflections and nourished the writing process. “Illegal +Traveller, an autoethnography of borders” and “Waiting, a Project in +conversation” both written by Shahram Khosravi as well as “The Utopia of +Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy” by +the anarchist anthropologist David Graeber. Graeber initiated his +research utilizing the horrendous prolonged bureaucratic processes he +had to follow in order to place his sick mother in a nursing home. In +parallel, Khosravi’s work is itself the outgrowth of his own ‘embodied +experience of borders’, of ethnographic fieldwork among undocumented +migrants. I found valuable and inspiring in both texts the personal +filter through which they articulate their positioning and develop +critique.

+

I follow a zoom-in approach in mapping my thoughts beginning from the +large-scale rigid border as entity and ending up at the document as the +smallest designed artifact of the bureaucratic labyrinth. In the first +chapter, I touch the concept of borders in relation to migration. I +begin with a personal inspection and comprehension of material borders +as entities. Alongside, I interweave in the text the concept of +hospitality as a cultural attitude towards ‘strangers’ from the state’s +perspective. Conditional and unconditional. How the document I hold in +my hands reflects positions on the government’s conditional hospitality +and what constraints it dictates.

+

In the second chapter, I unpack bureaucracy and focus on its +bordering function. From migration ghost bureaucracies to the +educational bureaucracies of my surroundings to even smaller components +of this apparatus. I end up analyzing the document as a unit within this +complex network. Through the “interrogation” of the form as an artifact +are emerging issues related to language, graphic design and +transparency, universality, and underlying violence.

+

In the third and last chapter, I bridge the written text with the +ongoing project that runs simultaneously as part of my graduation work +in Experimental Publishing, where I mainly speak through my prototypes. +Talking documents(5) are performative bureaucratic text inspections, +vocal and non-vocal, that intend to create temporal public interventions +through performative readings. The intention is to underline how the +vocalization of bureaucracies as a tool can potentially reveal their +territorial exclusive function and provide space for the invisible +vulnerability.

+
+

“on the other side is the river
+and I cannot cross it
+on the other side is the sea
+I cannot bridge it”
+(Anzaldua, 1987)

+
+

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 +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).

+

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 +bureaucratic experience. Hospitality can be instrumentalized to describe +an individual’s as well as a nation’s response towards strangers within +their enclosed territory - a property, a home, a land, a country. What +does hospitality mean and how hospitality under specific circumstances +can be a tool in the hands of a state?

+

I will share a personal story related to hospitality and bureaucracy. +I was recently evicted from my previous house [31/01/2024] due to a +trapping contract situation. My former roommates and I were forced to +terminate our previous contract and sign a new one that further limited +our rights. The bureaucratic free market language of the contract, the +foreign law language barrier, the threats of the agent and the precarity +of being homeless in a foreign country forced us to sign the new rental +agreement which was the main reason for our eviction. Currently, I am +hosted temporarily by friends until I find a more permanent +accommodation. Meanwhile, the government requires me to declare the new +address which I do not have within five days of my moving. Consequently, +I have to follow another bureaucratic path. This involves requesting +permission for a short-term postal address while declaring the addresses +of my current hosts [4/02/2024]. I gathered the required documents, I +processed a 9-page-text and another one with the personal data of my +hosts and myself and answered questions about:

+
+

why don’t I have a house,
+who are the people who host me,
+what is my relationship with them,
+where do I sleep,
+where do I store my belongings,
+how many people are hosting me and accordingly their personal +data,
+for how long,
+why I cannot register there,
+what days of the week do I stay in the one house and
+what days do I stay in the other house,
+whether and how am I searching for a permanent place and
+what is the tangible proof of my search?

+
+

All these questions provoked thinking around the concept of +conditional hospitality as a behavior of the state towards strangers. I +can see that on a smaller scale it is being applied to the hospitality I +receive from my friends in the middle of an emergency. I am wondering, +though, whether is it that important for the government to know on whose +couch I sleep or where I store my belongings. The omnipresent gaze of a +state who has the right to know every small detail about myself while at +the same time questioning people’s hospitality in case of emergency. It +seems that forms of knowledge are inseparably related to forms of power. +It will take 8 weeks for my request to be processed and for the +government to approve or reject if I deserve my friends’ +hospitality.

+
+

“Today as yesterday, her land and her time are stolen, only because +she is told that she has arrived too late. Much too late”
+(Khosravi, 2021)

+
+

waiting

+

Waiting can be considered as a dramaturgical means embedded in +bureaucratic procedures that camouflage power relations through the +manipulation of people’s time. When people are in the middle of a +bureaucratic process and waiting for the government’s decision on their +case or just waiting for their turn. “The neoliberal technologies of +citizenship enacted through keeping people waiting for jobs, education, +housing, health care, social welfare or pensions turn citizens into +patients of the state” (Khosravi, 2021). I waited two weeks for a +response from the municipality only to discover that my request was +rejected [16/02/2024].

+

Contemporary border practices mirror past colonial practices, as they +exploit migrants’ time by keeping them in prolonged waiting, “like the +way colonial capitalism transformed lands to wastelands to plunder the +wealth underneath” (Khosravi, 2021). The current border regime, known by +extended waiting periods and constant delays, is part of a larger +project aimed at taking away wealth, labor, and time through colonial +accumulation and immediate expulsion.

+

When someone opens their house to a guest, a stranger, someone in +need, means that they open their property to someone. Hospitality is +interweaved with a sense of ownership over something. Expanding the +concept of hospitality to a nation-scale, we could say that the +nation-building process involves people asserting artificial ownership +over a territory even if they do not own any property within this +land.

+

Conditional hospitality is tied to a sense of offering back to the +home-land-nation-state-country as a way to win or trade your permission +to enter and enjoy the hospitality of a place. Coming from specific +places in comparison to others, having to offer some special skills or +your labor - if it is asked for - can be possible conditions that may +allow somebody to receive hospitality. I would say that an efficient +check of these conditions is regularly facilitated through bureaucratic +channels. The concept of unconditional-conditional hospitality is +closely related to exchange. When you do not have something to offer +according to the needs or expectations of a “household”, you may not +receive the gift of hospitality.

+

The notion of hospitality is excessively instrumentalized within the +Greek context portrayed as an “ideal” intertwined with the +nation-building narrative and as a foundational quality - product by the +Greek tourist industry. However, the Greek sea has been an endless +refugee graveyard and the eastern Aegean islands a “warehouse of +souls”For further reading: +https://wearesolomon.com/mag/focus-area/migration/how-the-aegean-islands-became-a-warehouse-of-souls/ +for the last many years. In this case, conditional hospitality applies +primarily to those who invest in and consume.

+

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)

+
+

“…This is a transcribed recording of +my phone during a protest on migration at Dam Square in Amsterdam. I +insert part of the speech of a Palestinian woman addressing the matter +of undocumentedness. Date and time of the recording 18th of June 2023, +15:05. “✶” means undecipherableI am here for the rights of +the children which haven’t be in the taking part in the education since +they have undocumented mothers and they are more than ✶ years. I am here +to represent mothers who are looking for a place to have a sense of +belonging or how long are you trying to continue humiliating them and +the female gender. I am here to express my frustration with +INDImmigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst - +Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service. So +frustrated. And I will not stop talking about democracy. Democracy is +the rule of law 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.”

+
+

bureaucracy as immaterial +border

+

Apart from the rigid visible borders, bureaucracy related to +migrants, refugees and asylum seekers can also constitute an in-between +less visible borderland. I used to perceive bureaucracy as an immaterial +and intangible entity. However, now I can claim that this assumption is +not true. Bureaucracy is material and spatial and can be seen as an +apparatus, a machine, a circuitry, an institution, a territory, a +borderland, a body, a zone – a “dead zone of imagination” as Graeber +claims. It can be inscribed on piles of papers, folders, drawers, +booklets, passports, IDs, documents, screens, tapes, bodies, hospital +corridors, offices, permissions to enter, stay, work, travel, exist, +come and go, leave, visit family, bury a friend.

+

Bureaucratic documents especially those related to migration, can +become territories or should be interpreted “as sites where social +interactions happen, where power relations unfold and are contested” +(Cretton, Geoffrion, 2021). When these bureaucratic objects are used and +manipulated, they can constitute sites of “confrontation, reproduction, +negotiation and performance” (Cretton, Geoffrion, 2021) shaping social +relations and producing meaning.

+

Bureaucracy related to asylum seekers reveals the profound bordering +nature of these practices, as a continuous process of producing +otherness. Accordingly, I see bureaucracy as a practice that raises +material and symbolic walls for specific groups of people who are +rendered unwanted and unwelcome because they dared to cross the borders +of the Global North.I am referring to the +desirable potential destinations of migrants and refugees corresponding +mainly to Global North countries. It is as if they could +never manage to eventually arrive and shelter their lives within the +desirable “there”. “In these bordering processes, we can detect the +“coloniality of asylum” (Borelli, Poy, Rué, 2023).In this text they insert the concept of the +“coloniality of asylum” introduced by Picozza, which talks about how +asylum systems are intertwined with colonial legacies and power +dynamics. These systems are often colonial structures reinforcing +hierarchies between nations and reproducing patterns of domination and +oppression. In this framework, asylum is not just about offering +protection but also about regulating and managing populations in a way +that reflects colonial relationships. Bureaucracies in +practice act as filters, determining who, from an institutional +standpoint, deserves to receive protection and who does not. They +operate as systems that classify non-citizens and place them in a social +hierarchy of disproportionate unequal obligations, lack of rights and +access to institutional support.

+

higher education’s +expanding bureaucracy

+

While I had this inherent concern about borders and bureaucratic +structures in relation to migration, I decided to start zooming in and +explore my own bureaucratic surroundings through my personal lens. As a +student, I was eager to understand and dig into the educational +institutions’ bureaucratic mechanisms being driven by smaller-scale +bureaucratic struggles and peers’ narratives, stories and experiences. +How can higher education in a European country reflect policies around +migration and border control less profoundly. How can education filter +and distinguish, how it can reproduce efficiently itself?

+

I gradually started perceiving the bureaucratic apparatus as an +omnipresent immaterial border - a ghost infrastructure - that one always +encounters but does not really see, a borderland that lies in the gray +zone between visibility and invisibility. Bureaucracy renders us +“stupid” and vulnerable in front of it. It is rarely questioned but it +should be performed efficiently for people to exist properly.

+

The contradiction embedded in many cultural and educational +institutions lies in the level of unawareness regarding surveillance via +multiple bureaucratic rituals that (re)produce docile behaviors. How +these mechanisms are masked and standing in the margins of the visible +nonvisible sphere.

+
+

“This is what makes it possible, for example, for graduate students +to be able to spend days in the stacks of university libraries poring +over Foucault-inspired theoretical tracts about the declining importance +of coercion as a factor in modern life without ever reflecting on that +fact that, had they insisted their right to enter the stacks without +showing a properly stamped and validated ID, armed men would have been +summoned to physically remove them, using whatever force might be +required.”
+(Graeber, 2015)

+
+

The genuine essence of education is not bureaucratic at all, neither +does it have to fit and ground its foundations under a bureaucratic +roof. “The pedagogical process runs counter to the hierarchical, +impersonal qualities of bureaucracy” (Cunningham, 2017). However, people +working in educational institutions acknowledge the fact that entrenched +bureaucratic systems impose their material constraints on teaching +structures and on how these actors in this process interact with each +other.“Students and staff are treated as human capital” (Cunningham, +2017). This determination can dehumanize people involved, like when +“faculty-as-labor” and “students-as-consumers” are marginalized and +treated as just variables.

+
+

“there is no document of civilisation which is not at the same time a +document of barbarism”
+(Benjamin, cited by Pater, 2021)

+
+

the document

+

From fences and armed police to nation-state mechanism of +less-material bordering to bureaucracy to the elements of bureaucracy to +the document itself as the minimum unit of an apparatus. Understanding +and unhiding the violence of a form -violence materialized and at the +same time camouflaged by the language structure, the vocabulary, the +graphic design, their ability to render subjectivities that fit and +don’t fit within the controlled territory of the lines of the form. A +language that fragments, classifies, places and un-places. Thus +bureaucratic apparatus is something more than a metaphor it is also a +symbol. It is hard to see that there are many more layers beneath the +purpose it propagates. A metaphor that is so perfectly materialized as +well as naturalized that you cannot even see it.

+

bureaucracy as textual +institution

+

The bureaucratic apparatus can be considered as something more than +an infrastructure that organizes institutions, markets, states, etc. It +can constitute itself an institution, a textual institution. As the +factory generates commodities and sets them within a circuit of motion, +bureaucracy generates documents and sets them throughout a communicative +circuitry (Cunningham, 2017). An institution that organizes and +(infra)structures other institutions and similarly reproduces itself +through text. The materiality of a text document reflects the ideology +of the interconnected institutions and their underlying bureaucratic +systems. Language occupies a dual contradictory role as the foundational +element of bureaucracy. Language can become a shroud to conceal the +violence and reinforce hierarchical structures and simultaneously can be +transformed into the rigid rational cell itself. They shape their own +narratives, they reflect the institutional narratives.

+

the myth of universality

+

One of the great powers of bureaucracies is their ability to render +themselves transparent. It seems that bureaucracy does not have to say +anything more beyond itself, is self-referential and self-contained. It +is boring or most likely is supposed to be boring. “One can describe the +ritual surrounding it. One can observe how people talk about or react to +it” (Graeber, 2015). The supposed universality of the form which is +carefully constructed can be partly attributed to the individuality and +impersonality of many bureaucratic processes. “Bureaucracies operate +through an assemblage of hierarchy, impersonality, and procedure in +order to complete organizational tasks with maximum efficiency” (Weber, +as cited by Cunningham, 2017, p. 307).

+

I had to open a discussion with students from non-EEA (non European +Economic Area) countries in order to understand that they have to +conduct tuberculosis x-rays“To keep the +Residence Permit, some non-European students need to visit the Dutch +Public Health Authority (GGD) after they arrived in the Netherlands. +They will undergo a medical test for tuberculosis (TB). This is a +requirement from the IND (Dutch Immigration Office)”. (Introduction +days, 2021) when they arrive in the Netherlands. It seems +that for the Dutch state, their bodies might be more threatening than +bodies coming from a European country. The relativization in the quality +and the quantity of paperwork requested from different “groups” of +applicants in a specific context deconstructs the myth of the +universality of the bureaucratic form.

+

Undoubtedly the success of bureaucracy is drawn from its efficiency +in relation to schematization as an efficient material quality. “Whether +it’s a matter of forms, rules, statistics, or questionnaires, it is +always a matter of simplification (Cunningham, 2017)”. Bureaucracies +ignore the social existence of a person and fragment, classify and +define them under specific perspectives. Why do they ask for this +information instead of others? “Why place of birth and not, say, place +where you went to grade school? What’s so important about the +signature?” (Graeber, 2015)

+

materiality-underlying +violence

+

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”
+(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 +the left corner of a 229x162 mm standardized dimension folder with a +transparent rectangle that reveals my inscribed name and surname from +the inside part. I did not put any aesthetic critique over this but I +rather felt this rush of stress for the expected response to my +objection letter or a fine or a tax to be paid within a specific +timeline cause another fine would come if I did not comply with +this.

+

One month ago (from the writing present), my friend Chae made for my +birthday this amazing Dutch-government-like biscuit forms, recreating +the entire layout of the document using the interface of a crunchy +biscuit. She used the same color blue scheme and she placed the biscuit +form inside the same standardized dimension folder 229x162 mm with the +same transparent layer that reveals my name and surname. According to +literary critic and theorist Katherine Hayles:

+
+

“to alter the physical form of the artifacts is to change the act of +reading and understanding but mostly you transform the metaphoric and +symbolic network that structures the relation of world to world. To +change the material artifacts is to transform the context and +circumstances for interacting with the words, which inevitably change +the meaning of the word itself. This transformation of meaning is +especially possible when the words interact with the inscription +technologies that produce them”
+(Hayles, 2002)

+
+

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.

+
+ + +
+

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.

+

prototypes

+

1.

+

Title: “Quality Assurance Questionnaire +Censoring”
+When: October 2023
+Where: XPUB studio wall
+Who: myself

+

Description: Some months ago my classmates and I +received an email with a questionnaire aimed at preparing us for the +upcoming quality assurance meeting within the school. Ada and I had a +meeting, in an empty white room with closed doors, with an external +collaborator of the university. The main request was to rate and answer +the pre-formulated questions covering issues about performance, +different and multiple topics related to the course, the teaching staff, +the facilities, the tools provided. The micro linguistic experiment of +highlighting, censoring and annotating this document aimed for an +understanding of what a quality assurance meeting is within an +educational institution.

+

Reflections-Thoughts: This experiment was my first +attempt to start interrogating and observing the language and the +structure of a bureaucratic document. How these “desired” standards +propagated through text. What is the role of the student-client in these +processes as an esoteric gaze of control over the course and their +teachers? My focus was to locate and accumulate all the wording related +to measurements, rate, quantity, assessments, statistics. Highlighting +the disproportionate amount of metrics-related vocabulary was enough to +craft the narrative around this process.

+

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.

+
+
+ + +
+
+

2.

+

Title: “Department of Bureaucracy and Administration +Customs Enforcement”
+When: November 2023
+Where: LeeszaalCommunity +Library in Rotterdam West
+Who: XPUB peers, tutors, friends, alumni

+

Description: During the first public moment at +Leeszaal, I decided to embody and enact the traditional role of a +bureaucrat in a graphic and possibly absurd way performing a small +“theatrical play”. I prepared a 3-page and a 1-page document +incorporating bureaucratic-form aesthetics and requesting applicants’ +fake data and their answers for questions related to educational +bureaucracy. People receiving an applicant number at the entrance of +Leeszaal, queuing to collect their documents from the administration +“office”, filling forms, waiting, receiving stamps, giving fingerprints +and signing, waiting again were the main components of this act.

+

Reflections-Thoughts: Beyond the information +gathered through my bureaucratic-like questionnaires, the most crucial +element of this experiment was the understanding and highlighting of the +hidden performative elements that entrench these “rituals”. It was +amazing seeing the audience becoming instantly actors of the play +enacting willingly a administrative ritualistic scene. The provided +context of this “play” was a social library hosting a masters course +public event on graduation projects. I am wondering whether this +asymphony between the repetitive bureaucratic acts within the space of +Leeszaal, where such acts are not expected to be performed, evoked +contradictory feelings or thoughts. Over-identifying with a role was +being instrumentalized as an “interrogation” of one’s own involvement in +the reproduction of social discourses, power, authority, hegemony.

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

3.

+

Title: “Passport Reading Session”
+When: January 2024
+Where: XML – XPUB studio
+Who: Ada, Aglaia, Stephen, Joseph

+

Description: This prototype is a collective passport +reading session. I asked my classmates to bring their passports or IDs +and sitting in a circular set up we attempted to “scan” our documents. +Every contributor took some time to browse, annotate verbally, +interpret, understand, analyze, vocalize their thoughts on these +artifacts, approaching them from various perspectives. The three +passports and one ID card were all coming from European countries.

+

Reflections-Thoughts: For the first time I observed +this object so closely. The documentation medium was a recording device, +Ada’s mobile phone. The recording was transcribed by voskVosk is an offline open-source speech recognition +toolkit. and myself and a small booklet of our passport +readings was created.

+
+

“So the object here is like not by random it comes from the history +of nation-states and how nation-states and nationalities created like a +form of identity. So nation-state is actually a recent invention that +came into existence over the last two hundred fifty years in the form as +we know it nowadays, in the form of democratic capitalism, before like +monarchies and so on and each citizen of such a nation-state got also +kind of a particular identity”,
+Joseph says about his ID card.

+
+

We read the embedded signs, symbols, categories, texts, magical +numbers in our passports that construct our profiles. Seeing someone’s +passport, ID cards, visas, travel documents might mean that you are able +to understand how easy or not is for them to move, what are their travel +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).

+
+
+ + +
+
+

4.

+

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

+

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.

+
+

+
+

+
+

“we didn’t +cross the border, the border crossed us”

+

As I sit in the waiting area at the gate B7 in the airport preparing +to come back to the Netherlands, I am writing the last lines of this +text. I am thinking of all these borders and gates that my body was able +to pass through smoothly, carrying my magical object through which I +embody power- at least within this context. However, I yearn for a +reality where we stop looking at those bodies that cross the +multifaceted borders and get crossed and entrenched by them, but on the +contrary we start interrogating and shouting at the contexts and the +frameworks that construct them and render them invisible, natural and +powerful.

+
+
+

references

+

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

+

Anzaldua, G. (1987) Borderlands - la Frontera: The new mestiza. 2nd +ed. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books.

+

Austin, J. L. (1975) “lECTURE VII”, in How to do things with words. +Oxford University Press, pp.83-93.

+

Barthes, R. (1983) Fashion system. Translated by M. Ward and R. +Howard. Hill & Wang.

+

Border controls (2017) Defensie.nl. Available at: +https://english.defensie.nl/topics/border-controls

+

Borelli, C., Poy, A., and Rué, A. (2023). “Governing Asylum without +‘Being There’: Ghost Bureaucracy, Outsourcing, and the Unreachability of +the State.” Social Sciences, 12(3), 169. [DOI: +https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12030169]

+

Butler, J. (1997) Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. +London, England: Routledge.

+

Cretton, V., Geoffrion, K. (2021). “Bureaucratic Routes to Migration: +Migrants’ Lived Experience of Paperwork, Clerks and Other Immigration +Intermediaries”, University of Victoria

+

Cunningham, J. (2017), “Rhetorical Tension in Bureaucratic +University”, University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

+

Graeber, D. (2015) The utopia of rules: On technology, stupidity, and +the secret joys of bureaucracy. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House +Publishing

+

Hayles, N. K. (2002) Writing Machines. London, England: MIT +Press.

+

Introduction days (2021) Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. +Available at: +https://www.rotterdamuas.com/study-information/practical-information/international-introduction-days/Tuberculosis-test/ +(Accessed: April 8, 2024).

+

Keshavarz, M. (2016) Design-Politics: An Inquiry into Passports, +Camps and Borders. Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society.

+

Khosravi, S. (2010) “illegal” traveller: An auto-ethnography of +borders. 2010th ed. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

+

Khosravi, S. (ed.) (2021) Waiting - A Project in Conversation. +transcript Verlag.

+

M’charek, A. (2020) “Harraga: Burning borders, navigating +colonialism,” The sociological review, 68(2), pp. 418–434. doi: +10.1177/0038026120905491.

+

Malichudis, S. (2020) How the Aegean islands became a warehouse of +souls, Solomon. Available at: +https://wearesolomon.com/mag/focus-area/migration/how-the-aegean-islands-became-a-warehouse-of-souls/ +(Accessed: April 7, 2024).

+

McKittrick, K. (2021) Dear science and other stories. Durham, NC: +Duke University Press.

+

Mouffe, C. (2008) ‘Art and Democracy: Art as an Agonistic +Internvention’. Open:14 Art as a Public Issue, No.14 (2008), p.4

+

Pater, R. (2021) Caps lock: How capitalism took hold of graphic +design, and how to escape from it. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz.

+

Picozza, F. (2021). The coloniality of asylum : mobility, autonomy +and solidarity in the wake of Europe’s refugee crisis. London: Rowman +& Littlefield Publishers.

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Talking Documents

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Fair Leads

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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.

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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. Knotatomy. 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 crucial in +many fields of labor and life, they are also objects of thought and are +open for wide minds’ appreciation. Throughout history, knots have been +used to connect, stop, secure, bind, protect, decorate, record data, +punish, contain, fly and many other purposes. So if the invention of +flying -which required a wing that was supported using certain types of +knots was initiated with the knowledge of how to use strings to make +things, why wouldn’t a research paper make use of this wonderful art as +an inspiration for writing and interactive reading?

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KNOTS AS OBJECTS TO THINK +WITH

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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 +Rotterdam, I asked participants to write three words that comes to mind +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 difference in how you understand the +same text.

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Seeing how these words, interpretations of a physical object were so +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 +could be used to let something loose or to restrain it; for pleasure or +pain; for going high above or down below… I believe this diversity of +uses can also be seen in how people approach knots as an idea or a +metaphor. One can think it represents chaos where someone else might see +it as a helpful mark. Essentially, this diversity is what got me +interested in knots years ago and since then, I have found ways to +implement this “loop of thought” in my daily life and research methods. +
+

There are two main reasons to why I chose to write this essay in a +“knotted” format. One is that I would like to share my process and +progress of research on this project and this involves “thinking with an +object”, in this case types of knots. In Evocative Objects, Sherry +Turkle, who is a sociologist and the founder of MIT initiative of +technology and self, refers to the object in the exercise of thinking as +emotional and intellectual companions that anchor memory, sustain +relationships and provoke new ideas. I completely agree with this +statement through personal experience. The second reason is that I see +this as an opportunity to experiment if I can use knots as an +interactive (which is not in knots’ nature since they are mainly +practiced in solo) and playful element in writing. This is also why I +would like to take a moment to mention what happens to the interplay of +processes in which we call thought when we think with knots in +specific.

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For Turkle and Seymour Papert, who is a mathematician, computer +scientist and educator that did remarkable research on constructivism, +being able to make a reading experience tangible, or even physically +representable makes the process of thought more concrete. Concrete +thinking in this sense is a way of thinking that I adapted to in the +past years, where you think with the object and imagine it vividly +during the process and address meanings to it as you read or write +along. This way it’s easier to compartmentalize or attribute certain +parts of a text to an imagined or real physical item which makes the +mind at ease with complex chains of thought.

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Imagine you are reading a story… What if you think of the string +itself as the journey and the slip knot (which is a type of stopper +knot) as a representation of an antagonist because of its specific use +in hunting, would this change your approach to reading this story? I +believe so…

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Slipknot is widely +used for catching small animals like rabbits and snares. It is also +commonly used to tie packages.What if instead of a slip +knot a bowline was on the string, would that represent something else in +the story because of its usage in practice. A Bowline is commonly used +to form a fixed loop at the end of a string; it’s strong but easy to +tie, untie. Due to these qualities, we can imagine the bowlineBowline is known to +be used since 1627. Some believe it was used in Ancient Egypt because a +knot resembling it was discovered in the tomb of pharaoh Cheops. Even +after it’s used and very tight, bowline is still easy to untie, which +makes it commonly used. to represent the conclusion in a +story. What if we have a Square Knot, how would that change the course +of a narrative? Square knot is used to bundle objects and make the two +ends of the same string connect. From just this, we can use it to +represent the connection between the beginning and end of a story. My +point is, there are limitless implementations on how to use knots in +literature because of their versatile purposes and the narrative +vocabulary they create. Topologists are still trying to identify +seemingly infinite numbers of combinations which we simply call “knots” +and I see this as an inspiration to keep writing.

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One example of the wondrous versatility and potential of knots is how +they are used to archive and encrypt information. Incan people from the +Andes region recorded information on Quipus, dating back to 700 CE +Quipus are textile devices consisting of several rows of cotton and/or +camelid string that would be knotted in a specific way to record, store +and transmit information ranging from accounting and census data to +communicate complex mathematical and narrative information (Medrano, +Urton, 2018). Another example is the Yakima Time Ball, which was used by +North-American Yakama people to show life events and family +affairs.Square knot is one of +the oldest knots. Romans knew it as Hercules knot. A roman scholar +claimed that it speeds up healing when used to secure a bandage. It is +often used to tie belts and shoe laces.

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This is why I humbly decided to document my research process with a +Quipu of my own. I am trying to symbolize the twists, decisions and +practices throughout this year with knots of my choosing. I was inspired +by Nayeli Vega’s question, “What can a knot become and what can become a +knot?”

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WEAVING INTO THE TEXT

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This thesis expects participation from its reader. You have the +Broken +knots are knots that aren’t tied well, done with a wrong material or was +under more pressure than it could take.option to have a +mode of reading, where you will be guided by strings to This thesis +expects participation from its reader. You have the option to have a +mode of reading, where you will be guided by strings to 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. Bends are joining +knots. They attach two strings together. The bend above is a sheet bend +and it works well when koining two different strings and can take +stress.

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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 +different colors that will get you through the text. This way, the +linear text will become in a way, non-linear by your personal +experience.

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Bear in mind that you can choose to read this thesis from beginning +to end as a single string too if you wish so.

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Combine mode of reading is for readers who are more interested in the +journey and the connections between process and result. Slide mode of +reading is for more laid back readers who aren’t looking to connect +ideas but are more focused on the motivation and purpose of the project. +Build readers are detail oriented and academic readers who would prefer +a “traditional” lead to reading. Hitches are used to +tie strings to a standing solid object. Alongside the +different strings to follow the text, there will be little drawings in +the margins as seen above, which will have different representations +like in a Quipu. Certain knots represent the experiences that raise +interesting opportunities for research and distinct events I went +through while making the project and underneath the drawing you can find +the relation to the knot itself explained. For example if I couldn’t +manage to do something I planned to do, this will be represented with a +broken knot. Bend knots which are used to connect two strings, will be +representing the relation between theories and my own +experiences/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!

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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. +
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Working End

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Loop 1

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Why am I doing this?

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My desire to write a children’s book about grief and memory ignited +when I was studying in college and doing an internship in a publishing +house in Ankara. I was struggling to process a loss I experienced at the +time and to find something to cling to on a daily basis. Then one day I +started hearing a buzzing sound in my bedroom at my family’s house. I +searched everywhere but couldn’t find the source for this noise. I asked +my father and he started searching too. A couple of days passed and the +buzzing was still there.

+

One day I found a bee on the floor in my bedroom and realized that +the bees nested on the roof and were coming inside my room through a gap +in the lamp. I was terrified because I have an allergy to bees and +thought they might sting me in my sleep. This moment was when I realized +I was so determined to find this buzzing sound for some time that I +forgot about dealing with the loss I was experiencing. This made me feel +very guilty and I remember thinking I betrayed the person I lost.

+

As funny as it may appear, I felt like I was sabotaged by these bees +that I thought were here to hurt me but in the end they made me +understand that its ok to let things go and every being does what it has +to do to find its way of survival. The little habitat that they chose to +create in my room seemed like a calling or a sign that I can aff ect +another living being significantly without being aware of it. This goes +for everything, no matter if some people leave us in this world, they +have living matter in us that keeps pulsing. So then I started +researching bees and their ecosystems. I read Alan Watts, Alan Lightman, +Emily Dickinson, Maurice Sendak, Meghan O’Rourke, Oliver Sacks, Joanna +Macy, Rilke, Montaigne and theories on order in chaos, correlative +vision, harmony of contained conflicts and the mortality paradox. I +wrote a lot and erased a lot and fairly figured out the wisdom of not +knowing things.

+

Years passed and I wrote and deleted and rewrote the story that I am +working on to make interactive today so many times and was waiting on it +because it always felt incomplete. In a way it will always be incomplete +because of the natural ambiguity the topic carries. Years later, grief +was back in my life with the loss of my grandfather. So therefore, the +story I wrote and abandoned changed again as I attempted to rewrite it +as a diff erent version of myself with a diff erent understanding of +death. And this went on… The story remained hidden and I forgot why it +ever existed in the first place. I wrote and deleted +and rewrote the story 3 times already. Last year when two +earthquakes hit Syria and Turkey, I was drowned like everyone I know, by +a collective trauma and grief. Then this horrible feeling flared up by +neglect and desperation. It was and still is impossible to mourn so many +strangers at the same time. I lost two dear friends, I was furious, away +from home, mostly alone and remembered vividly my failed attempt to +understand or place grief in one of the piles in my mind.

+

Previous months, I was working on this story (yes, again) but didn’t +know how to tackle the text because it was so diff erent to what I was +experiencing now, when compared to the last time I rewrote it. A tutor +asked me why I wrote this story in the first place and I couldn’t +remember. I kept tracing back to 2016 and step by step, remembered why, +as told above. The consciousness that this story is actually a personal +history of how I went through grief in diff erent stages of my life, +made me realise that it doesn’t have to be or even can be a perfect +story.

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In the end with the experience I had with loss, 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. 11 7 +4

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Loop 2

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The effect of storytelling knowledge on kids’ development and +creativity. What can we learn from open ended and multiple ending +stories?

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ability to form basic stories or to express their emotions through +fictional characters or events. Children are not born with a wide +vocabulary of emotions and expressions. They learn how to read, mimic +and express their feelings over time. The more children read, write and +are exposed to social environments, the more they widen their sense and +ability of expressing themselves. The language gained as kids comes in +many forms and storytelling plays a crucial role in this development. +The exposure to stories prepares the kids to the era of reading and +writing. Children come to understand and value feelings through +conversation (Dettore, 2002). When children are offered to read or share +stories, they also learn to understand people around them better and +gain emotional literacy.

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Storytelling has been a means of communicating with others for many +centuries. It is not only a way to discuss important events, but also a +way to entertain one another (Lawrence & Paige, 2013). Stories have +been told orally, in writing or with drawings for thousands of years and +some of these stories are still alive. This is because language is a +living thing that travels through time and still remains brand new. When +necessary, it just adapts form, evolves and blends in with the changing +world. Children comprehend the idea that they have a story to tell by +hearing other stories and this ignites the imagination. We tend to +forget many things but almost everyone remembers one small story they +heard or read when they were a kid, this moment we remember is the +moment a certain story sparked for us.

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Nowadays storytelling takes many forms. For example, some readers’ +story might even begin from here although it isn’t the beginning. +Interactivity is one of the storytelling forms that can signifi- cantly +improve children’s creativity. This is mainly because children as +readers or listeners get to contribute and aff ect the story. This of +course requires and improves creative and active thinking. Getting the +chance to choose a path for a fictional character gives the child the +freedom and confi dence of constructing a world, a character or an +adventure. Although this is essentially “writing” as we know it, +children think of this as a game, yet to discover they are actually +becoming writers. What kind of reward can we expect from active +participation in a story? Narrative pleasure can be generally described +in terms of immersions (spatial, temporal, emotional, epistemic) in a +fictional world (Ryan, 2009). When we are set to create or co-create a +world, the narrative has effects on us such as curiosity, suspense and +surprise. At this point, we start creatively producing ideas to keep +these three emotions. Multiliteracy +theory helped me ground my passion of using multimedia for children’s +literature. Interactive storytelling reminds everyone but +especially children that there are limitless endings to a story that is +solely up to the maker’s creation. Learning to think this way instead of +knowing or assuming an end to a story, I think influences the children’s +decision making abilities and sense of responsibility towards their +creations. It is basically the same in theatre where if an actor chooses +to create an imaginary suitcase on stage, they can’t simply leave this +object they created on stage and exit the scene because the audience +will wonder why the actor didn’t take the imaginary suitcase as they +left. In this case, when kids decide to choose a path or item or any +attribute for a character in a story, they feel responsible and curious +to see it through to the end or decide what to do with it. This +interactivity therefore creates a unique bond between the reader/writer +and the text.

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There are many theories on how to approach interactive literature for +children. Multi-literacy theory and digital literacies are some of the +theories which I find relevant to my aim with Wink. Multiliteracy theory +in a nutshell is an education oriented framework that aims to expand +traditional reading and writing skills. This theory was developed by the +New London Group. They were a collective of scholars and educators who +addressed the changing nature of literacy in an increasingly globalized, +digital world. The theory explores multiple modes of communication +consisting The sense of storytelling settles for kids, starting from age +three. By this time, children have the of multimodal communication, +cultural and social contexts, critical inquiry, socio-cultural learning +theory and pedagogical implications. Multimodal communication focuses on +the variety of communication techniques. This was groundbreaking in the +90s because of its acknowledgment of a diverse range of literacies and +its departure from traditional approaches to literary texts. This theory +includes new media and communication studies such as visual, digital, +special and gestural literacies.

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I kept this theory in mind as I chose the interactivity elements to +use in the picture book. I think the usage of multiple media such as +sound, image and games is a good way to start and diff erentiate from a +regular interactive e-book. The fact that this theory has an educational +perspective and is taking the rapidly changing qualities of literature +seriously, made me consider it as a guide in designing the +prototype.

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Looking through the perspective of multiliteracies, questions come up +for me that lead to the rest of this thesis: What is an interactive +picture book? Is it a book? Is it a game? Is it an exercise?

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What is it defined as? How can we design an interactive reading +environment without confusing children?

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8 9 +5

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Loop 3

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Differences and similarities between interactive e-books and +storytelling games.

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Storytelling games and interactive e-books have many things in +common. To begin with, they both centralize the narrative to engage the +audience. While both of these formats are storytelling tools, e-books +tend to stay more in a linear narrative and format when compared to +storytelling games where the audience is commonly the main character. +Reading experiences are also a way to be in the shoes of the narrator or +the character but in a storytelling game, you embody the mission and the +experience overrules the story most of the time. In the specific example +of a child, storytelling games are complicated and puzzle driven where +the player has missions to complete. Whereas in an interactive e-book, +the missions are solely based on the interactive elements implemented in +the text and images.

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Another difference is that the visual world in an interactive e-book +is less cinematic and has limited movement. The imagery plays a massive +role in a storytelling game where the world created is offered to the +player. In an interactive e-book, the text itself is designed to be +playful and ready for readers to discover.

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The main difference in my opinion that separates these two methods of +storytelling is the reward. In a game, we expect to be rewarded by a +victory, passing a level or unlocking something throughout the +experience. In an interactive e-book, we work with the story and in +return we expect a good experience and there is no reward other than +that. But, the whole design of interactivity involves aspects of a game +where the reader –not the player- is captured by surprise effects or +elements that come up on the pages. This ignites curiosity but not +ambition, which is a good start to foster the love for reading. +5 4 +11

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Loop 4

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Ways of using interactivity in digital platforms

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CASA theory, also known as the Cognitive-Aff ective-Social Theory of +Learning and Development, is a framework used in educational psychology +to understand how learning occurs within the context of cognitive, aff +ective, and social factors. Research on cognitive learning with keeping +in mind the limited attention span and memory factors. For children in +specific, I think these are very important factors to keep in mind when +trying to design an interactive experience. This is because children get +bored very easily and can be disengaged because of failure of +solving/understanding something in a story. This is something I kept in +mind as I wrote for children and chose the interactive elements in the +story. CASA framework +helped me understand the key elements in designing for +children.

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Finding the balance between making the interactive element surprising +and making it easy to interact with is the key to designing for kids in +this scenario. We don’t want to make them struggle and use the limited +attention span in a non-engaging way but we want to keep the reading +interesting enough so they want to continue.

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Digging deeper into how to do this, I found Children Computer +Interaction (CCI) study very useful. This study examines how children of +different ages and developmental stages interact with digital devices +and how these interactions can support their growth. This made me think +about digital gestures; how they change through generations and how to +use these to design a platform where children can navigate easily and +freely. CCI suggests that when introducing a new media to children its +better to start easy and clear when they try it. Through this I think +the best easy interaction is the tap or click for children. It is easy +to do, instinctive and common. So I decided to base the interactive +elements on click animations. CCI was a theory +that helped me decide on the interactive elements. There +are multiple ways to use digital gestures in storytelling to make the +experience more intriguing. These are usually elements such as sound, +animations, voice-overs that are ignited with a click or tap by the +reader. For children younger than 5, its usually just tapping over the +page and experiencing an action-reaction. For older kids between the +ages 6-8, I made some workshops to figure out which types of interactive +elements are most useful in engaging them in the reading process.

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It is true that sound and animations are very inclusive and it is +engaging for kids to find out which part of a page is interactive by +clicking on images. Another thing I found out is that kids enjoy being a +part of the story. For the prototype of Bee Within (the story I am using +to test interactivity also can be read in the appendix) I will focus on +color, sound and click based animations according to the results of my +research. 4 3 +2

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Loop 5

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What is the target age group for the designated prototype and +why?

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It is tricky when it comes to choosing the right age spectrum for +children’s interactive literature. Children between the ages 3-5, +referred to as preschoolers have more developed social skills and day by +day increasing interest in play. They can take on roles in imaginative +play scenarios. They can also share and take turns more, listen and +think about rules of a game. They can form friendships and connections +easily.

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This +data about school age children was a starting point to choose the age +group to have the workshops with.

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School age children are between the ages 6-12, which is Wink’s chosen +age group is a little different. These kids can form more rooted +friendships and engage in more complex narratives. They learn to +negotiate and compromise around this time as well. This age group is +desired for Wink because kids this age are open to creative problem +solving, connecting events and comprehending slightly more complex +narratives. Moreover, this age group would benefit the most from the +interactive stories and the reading process because of the developmental +phase they are in.

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The average amount of time children between these ages use on a daily +basis is depending on their parents and circumstances. But to be fair, +it is often not less than 2 hours. If a child isn’t very interested in +spending these hours reading a book, why not ask them: “Would you like +to be a part of a story?”

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Today, kids from age 3 can use digital gestures successfully and +experience these as simple as flipping the page of a book. This is why +it is fairly easy to create an interactive picture book which kids can +navigate themselves and be able to browse through with or without their +parents. But for Wink, I chose to design for older kids because I want +to experiment on multi-leveled narratives and I want to avoid the risk +of confusing children. 3 10 +7

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Loop 6

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Limits of interactivity in narratives for children and why do we have +less modes of reading and writing for children?

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Although there are many upsides of creating digital environments for +children due to their advanced skills in technology from early ages, +there are also risks involved in this where the kid can be overwhelmed +and confused due to the autonomy they receive. Reading a story is +supposed to be effortless and a good free time activity but with +interactive picture books, it is slightly more than that and more +complicated as an experience. This is the elbow of +our strings. Elbows are created when an additional twist is added to a +loop. In this case, it represents the counter argument in the +string.

+

First of all, with the story at hand, called Bee Within, there are +two other stories in one. Although the main story is about a little +girl’s journey, kids get the chance to hear the Queen Bee’s story and +the tree’s story as well. This is not a must but if they interact with +certain pictures on the page, they will be led to the bee’s perspective +or the trees. This is where the storyline can get a little bit +complicated for younger kids. The child reader at this point should be +able to follow the main storyline after visiting the side quests or +stories presented in the interactive book. To create this balance I +tried to limit the interactive elements I used in the main story. I +tried to keep the picture animations limited and focused more on the +storylines.

+

Another aspect I am concerned about after the workshop I did with the +kids, is the risk of confusion due to an undefined and multimodal design +for a “book”. Kids tend to be confused when they can’t define things or +are asked to improvise without knowing the purpose.They know what a book +is and that it is similar to what they encounter on the screen. But the +method of reading and interacting with Bee Within is different than what +they are used to. This concerns me because they might prefer to just +read a book or play a game instead of discovering a new thing, which +they are exposed to daily because they are always in a process of active +learning. So one more thing to learn might come as exhausting. +Therefore, in designing, I want to make interactions as clear as +possible for them. 9 11 +8

+

Loop 7

+

Interactive reading and writing examples and surveys done with +kids.

+

As an improvisation theater enthusiast myself, I tried to engage the +kids with the story through some exercises and games during the +workshops. My aim was to see how involved they want to be in +storytelling. Improvisation has a certain way of storytelling and +interaction where there are either too many options or none. You need to +have good empathy and harmony with the person you are acting with and +you are designated to be creative in your own way. I tried to use +several improv games and warmups to involve the kids in the story more +and see how they see certain characters from the picture book.

+

My first attempt was to make a survey at the end of workshops with +kids to whether they liked it or not, but when I researched further, +surveying with kids has very different methods and complications. +There is a +broken knot here because I ended up not doing a survey with children at +the workshops. Most kids either really like or really +dislike things. Finding the in between emotions with a survey, ends up +being vague. Most surveys done with kids use emoticons as representation +of a good or bad or average time. Instead, I chose to observe the +environment and understand how much empathy kids can offer in an +interactive reading or playing environment. 6 2 +6

+

Loop 8

+

What does the joy of destruction and the awe effect have to do with +interactivity? Indeed, why did we ever start playing games? The most +important aspect of a game for me is that it surprises you and leaves +you in awe towards something you weren’t expecting happened. I feel like +every reaction I give when I’m surprised, is a mirror of what I felt +when I was playing freeze and had to stop moving at any given time or +when I found the last friend hiding somewhere in hide and seek. This +feeling of appreciation and unexpectedness is why most people remember +certain games, movies from their childhoods very vividly. Its an +introduction to a feeling we experience maybe for the first time because +we don’t necessarily learn from books how and when to feel surprised, +that is why it’s a surprise; we live it, experience it and it leaves and +impression with us.

+

In my opinion, what drives everyone as a common denominator is +amazement; because it takes us to our childhoods or distant memories +where we first felt that feeling of awe. This is the main purpose behind +any kind of interactive design and I think books can be an amazing +medium to experiment this with. Specifically because this ancient device +can take us to numerous worlds. For me as a millennial, books give me +enough amazement as it is. But as I worked in publishing through the +years and observed, I think kids today need something more to ignite +their interest. There are so many factors in a picture book such as the +image, the text and sound which can be played with to create an +experience that is more surprising. This is the main purpose behind my +research and protoype. Today’s world being visually stimulating and +serving very short attention spans with social media, it is a tough task +to insert a story or reading experience that requires full attention and +patience. There are examples of Tiktok stories, Instagram reels, audio +books and games that try to tell stories worth listening with attention. +Wink is also an attempt to do this and I believe the key is to make an +already engaging story enriched with interactive elements that appear to +you through a click if you choose to. I think this is also the key to +nourishing a new way of storytelling. 7 5 +3

+

Loop 9

+

Interactivity in reading and writing in history. What changed?

+

Interactivity has always been an experimental area in literature from +inscriptions to narrative games then to playable stories and artificial +intelligence. I will expand some of these examples from the rich history +of interactive fiction. When I dig a little bit into the media +archaeology there are three still relevant aspects that strike me and +change/improve my approach to Wink. The first is the need to connect +that remains untouched through centuries of human communication, the +second is how there were multiple projects concerning interactive media +especially for kids that later turned into narrative games or remained +as prototypes and lastly how the integration of media and literature has +been such a grand topic even before information and technology era. Some +examples to this is music, masks, puppets, props used in +storytelling.

+

Ancient texts with annotations such as The Odyssey, The Mahabharata +are maybe the earliest written interactive experiences in a historical +context. They are published with notes and explanations, clarifications +which make the text inhabit different opinions and approaches in an +engaging way where the reader can choose to hop on and off from the +annotation and margin texts.

+

From the 70s to the present there have been many examples but I will +be focusing on a few here. One of them is, Choose your own adventure +books which allowed the reader to participate in the plot. These still +exist as picture books where you are directed to certain pages according +to the choices you make throughout the story. Along with this were also +board games and cards that required interactive inputs. Some examples to +this is exploding kittens or cards against humanity where the player has +the autonomy to be creative and fill in the blanks to win the game. +Simultaneously, text-based adventure games such as Zork and Adventure +were popular. Early days of computing offered a wide space for exploring +virtual worlds. In the early 80s, hypertext fiction contributed to +electronic literature. Hyperlinks were used as a tool to navigate a text +and choose paths of reading. This inspired me to write this thesis with +different modes of reading as well. After the 80’s, Interactive fiction +gained popularity as a genre of interacting with text based input. +Dynabook by Alan Kay was prototyped during this time as a promising +reading and writing device designed for children.

+

The 21st century offers a combination of text and illustrations in +augmented reality books that have animations, sound and external +interactions. These are followed by digital storytelling platforms like +Wattpad and Storybird and interactive e-book apps such as Pibocco, Bookr +and Tiny Minies. Most of these apps are dedicated to education however +and not solely to creativity. Their aim is to use creative elements to +foster education for kids.

+

With Wink, I want to use a mainly educational tool (a book) to foster +creativity and expression. So I believe it is the opposite purpose as to +these examples in certain ways. I am trying to combine the delicacy of a +narrative where you can only be a reader and the excitement of +autonomous writing and experiencing.

+

This is because I think the understanding and usage of media changed +in the last years. Some tools that created the awe effect for users +faded and left their place to more compact designs. Although audio books +were very welcome at some point, younger users nowadays prefer book +summary apps or podcasts to them. Of course they are still used and not +outdated but there is certainly a visible change to where media is +heading. 10 8 +10

+

Loop 10

+

Experimentation of creative exercises to be used in WINK. Exercises +of storytelling with words, images, drawing, sound and gestures.

+

Before I completed the prototype of Wink, I reached out to an +international school in Rotterdam to make a 20 minute workshop with kids +between ages 6-8. The aim here was to grasp the interactive elements in +the picture book to implement in the digital framework. I wanted to see +which parts of the story the children found exiting and which ones are +not so thrilling for them. It also helped me draw the pictures for the +book accordingly and edit the text with their reactions in mind. Due to +a privacy agreement, I couldn’t record or use any data from the workshop +but I made some helpful observations from my time there. This loop is all about +the observations I made during the workshops and the decisions I made, +according to the results.

+

The first workshop I planned consisted of two main parts that made up +20 minutes. The first 10 minutes we read Bee Within (attached in the +appendix) together in a circle and the last 10 minutes we played little +improvisation games, focused on the three main characters in the story +(the bee, the kid and the tree). I made three groups and gave these +groups the three characters. I asked them to embody a character +throughout the workshop and be loyal to it. Each group of three had 1 +minute on the stage to silently improvise their characters. They were to +use one sentence if they wanted to speak.

+

During the first part, I couldn’t observe as I was busy reading but +their teacher kindly took notes during this time, regarding the +children’ reactions to parts of the story. I inserted the bees and trees +narrative to the reading by tossing the paper I had in my hand and +picking up a new one as I kept reading the bees and trees story. This +was crucial because I wanted to see if this multiple stories in one +concept would be confusing for kids. The teacher told me that they were +excited about my gesture of juggling papers as I seemingly read one +story. They were intrigued and confused at first but they did keep up +with the storyline and understood all. Her notes basically said they +were very focused and less interested in the kids journey. They really +liked the bee and were a bit confused with the tree.

+

There were 12 international kids and 3 of them didn’t want to join +the workshop, they wanted to observe. I told them that they could paint +and draw what they see. The drawings they made were of their classmates +acting as trees or bees. They drew their classmate with a stinger and +the other was of a classmate as a tree with his hands wide open as he +was performing.

+

What struck me most on the second part of the workshop was how these +kids used the room so freely and in relation to their characters. +Because we read the story before the improvisation games, some of their +characters were influenced by how it is in the story we read. Next +workshop, I am planning to not tell the story but to talk about it +before and give context. This is because I want to see how their +understanding changes without a limitation of a story.

+

Bees in the classroom that day were all very active and they used +chairs, tables and windows to position themselves in a higher +perspective. Children who played the kid were usually standing closer to +the trees and looked very calm. Trees were all very different. One of +the kids used postits as leaves. Some of them didn’t have leaves because +it is winter. Trees didn’t move at all and the bees were buzzing all +around. “The kid” usually sat near the tree, on the tree (as in the +other performers’ lap or hugged them).

+

Overall only 2 groups used the option to say a sentence which were, +“I want to go on an adventure”
+“I don’t wanna leave Gray(the tree)”

+

This was a good feedback for me because I realized they are very +perceptive of actions and facial expressions rather than words. The +workshop we did in the studio with XPUB 2 students was harder than the +session with the kids because everyone felt so restricted to obligations +and were not comfortable to let go of bodily control. No one actually +attempted in using objects from the room which is a huge difference with +the kids because they drew on their faces, used plastic bags as wings +for the bee and made sounds with their mouths as trees.

+

The next workshop was to discover how improv would work without +reading the story first. This workshop was fruitful because it helped me +realize how much information or guidance I have to offer for children in +order for them to be comfortable to participate and interact without +confusion. We made a circle and I summarized the story to the kids, +acting in the middle of the circle. This broke the ice completely +because I was a part of the workshop and they thought I was funny. For +the next part, I divided the group in three and assigned a character to +them. After this, I asked them to decide on an attitude, pop in the +middle and tell or act out their character. I went first and they +followed easily. They were not under the influence of the story so the +performances were different but they still got influenced by each other, +which in my opinion is inevitable. Some of the kids were buzzing/running +around, the “kids” were walking around, acting like they are playing +which I found very interesting. Some trees were small some were mighty +and old. It was helpful to see the different attributions they gave to +the characters.

+

After the circle session, they separated in three groups: the kids, +the bees and the trees. I asked each group to come up, walk around +randomly, embodying the character they chose. Then as I rang the bell, I +asked them to change the character. I asked them to be a busy, tired, +injured, happy and scared bee one by one. They kept walking randomly and +acted these feelings out. For the “kids”, I asked them to be angry, sad, +scared, and curious. For the trees I asked them to be wise, mad, funny +and happy. The results were amazing. They adapted very quickly to the +changing of emotions which showed me that this age gap was good to work +with. The trees stopped walking as I changed the emotions and this was +an affirmation to not animate the tree with movement but more with +changing of color and tiny animations. They mostly used arms and face +expressions to show the emotions, some of them ducked or made sounds. As +I said mad, one of the kids ran and put her red jacket on. This made me +think about using color to show emotions for the tree. It was good to +see that they weren’t scared or discouraged by negative emotions as +well. We ended the workshop by drawing our characters. It was nice to +see them own their imaginary characters enough to draw them with joy. +There is a +broken knot here because I changed my mind about adding motional +elements to the tree character. Kids seemed to see the tree as +stationary.

+

The last workshop was dedicated to discovering the sound aspect. The +tree in the story speaks in verses so I chose one verse and +read/performed it in a circle to begin with. Then I gave them some +instruments: a drum, a bell, aluminum folio, a balloon and a bubble +wrap. I asked for a few volunteers and they made sound effects as I read +the verse very slowly. This went good and I saw that they like to +dramatize the sounds and make them funny or unexpected. They used the +bubble wrap to make sounds for snowing or aluminum folio for the +volcano. They had great fun but I think I made a mistake by making a few +kids do foley at the same time because they didn’t know how to take +turns and were hesitant at first. Then quite impressively, they made +their own system where they took turns to make effects for each +sentence.

+

Then I made four groups of three. 3 kids as actors and 3 kids as +foley actors. They buddied up and made short scenes where one group made +sounds effects to the others acting on stage. This was the best part of +this workshop because they could lead the actors with the sounds they +made or vice versa. This I think is very important because it shows that +they like to be a part of or be effective to the story itself. They were +very creative in using the objects in the room and turning them into a +tool for sound. They enjoyed to foley the bee and the other characters +not so much. Which showed me that I should focus on the sound of the bee +in the prototype.

+

Overall, the workshops were very helpful for me to understand where +to focus on as I develop. I realized that some of the sound, color and +movement animations I planned were too complicated and I decided to make +them more simplistic. I decided to animate the tree with only color +because I was effected by this one participant who took the red jacket +to represent the tree was mad. For the bee I decided to focus on sound +more. For the kid I decided to use more visual animations to make it +more interesting.

+

One other thing the workshops helped me with is the multiple stories +I am planning to tell in one narrative. The book I have has two side +quest/stories so it nice to see that kids weren’t confused with these +narratives. I decided to make the story of the tree as a click game +where the lines appear by clicking and the bee’s story through a text +based game. I wanted to use click game with the tree because it seemed +like they needed more stimulation to be interested in that story and I +though a ‘reveal the story’ click game could keep them interested. For +the bee, knowing they like the character, I wanted to make it more like +a game to give the kids a chance and autonomy to be a part of the story +itself. 2 6 +9

+

Loop 11

+

The differences of these exercises in WINK than the already existing +interactive e-book platforms The interactive e-book apps existing today, +made especially for children, are quite similar in both format and +purpose. If we take a look at Bookr, Piboco, and Kotobee, we can see +they seek a new way to tell a story but have one mode of reading. The +stories are linear and can be read once, without side quests. This is +the main difference with what I am trying to design. Wink acts as a tool +to play with and choose paths. The story isn’t linear in the traditional +way where you interact with the pictures and finish the book but there +are side stories to the main story that they can discover or choose not +to. I think this is a solid difference. This makes it a playable +narrative, different from a book.

+

This prototype is a good start to see how far I can get with the +interactive elements and side stories without confusing or discouraging +the children. There are many other aspects that can be implemented to +this design such as writing elements and drawing but for the meantime, +also in correspondence with the workshops, I choose to test the sound +and image along with one main and two small narratives.

+

For future prototypes, I envision space to draw and write as a +contribution to the story and maybe turning Wink into a hybrid format +with more autonomous features. For me, at this point, it’s valuable and +essential to see if my technique of combining narratives is working or +not.

+

Loop 12

+

Standing End

+

12 12 +12 After many loops of +thought, we are here at the standing end of the thesis. There is room +for more loops and knots in the future to secure this string of thought +but for now, we have come to the dock and rest ashore.

+

Reading this thesis with a string, using concrete thinking as a +technique to go through a research and text was a helpful exercise for +me and helped me mark my thoughts and ideas. The overarching theme of +knots and experimental approach to modes of reading was valuable for me +to share and try as an enthusiastic young writer. I like that I asked +the reader to interact with the thesis and follow paths accordingly.

+

It was enlightening to see the results of working with kids and be +able to see from their point of view and alter everything according to +these encounters. Using CCI and Multiliteracy theory as a guide to +approach the design and prototype was helpful in understanding how to +approach and tackle the desire of making something for children.

+

Now from where I stand, I feel more rooted and have a clearer idea of +what works and doesn’t work. Some features that I think would work very +well like the choice of writing didn’t go as planned because multiple +narratives is already too much. I realized I underestimated the effect +of introducing a new media to children. This is why I decided to take it +step by step with the interactivity.

+

Taking a step to make Wink and using the story I wrote and feel is +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. +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.

+

Ingold, T. (2015) The life of lines.London, England: Routledge.

+

Lawrence, R. L. and Paige, D. S. (2016) “What our ancestors knew: +Teaching and learning through storytelling:What our ancestors knew: +Teaching and learning through storytelling,” New directions for adult +and continuing education, 2016(149), pp. 63–72. doi: +10.1002/ace.20177.

+

Papert, S. and Papert, S. A. (2020) Mindstorms (revised): Children, +computers, and powerful ideas. London, England: Basic Books.

+

Ryan, M.-L. (2009) “From narrative games to playable stories: Toward +a poetics of interactive narrative,” StoryWorlds A Journal of Narrative +Studies, 1(1), pp. 43–59. doi: 10.1353/stw.0.0003.

+

Smeets, D. and Bus, A. (2013) “Picture Storybooks Go Digital: Pros +and Cons,” in Quality Reading Instruction in the Age of Common Core +Standards. International Reading Association, pp. 176–189.

+

Strohecker, C. (ed.) (1978) Why knot? MIT.

+

The Effect of Multimodality in Increasing Motivation and +Collaboration among 4th CSE EFL Students (no date).

+

Turkle, S. (ed.) (2014) Evocative objects: Things we think with. MIT +Press.

+

Urton, M. M. &. (2018) The khipu code: the knotty mystery of the +Inkas’ 3D records, aeon. Available at: https:// +aeon.co/ideas/the-khipu-code-the-knotty-mystery-of-the-inkas-3d-records.

+

Vega, N. (2022) Codes in Knots. Sensing Digital Memories, The Whole +Life. Available at: https://wholelife.hkw.de/ +codes-in-knots-sensing-digital-memories/.

+
+

Acknowledgements

+

Thank you Marloes de Valk, for your enlightening feedbacks and ideas. +Thank you Michael Murtaugh, Manetta Berends, Joseph Knierzinger, Leslie +Robbins and Steve Rushton for sharing your time and knowledge with me +throughout these years.

+

Thank you XPUB friends for funny, hectic and memorable moments we +made together.

+

Thanks to my family and especially Kemal, my brother, who supported +me in my studies and encouraged me to do better, always…

+

So long and thanks for all the fish!

+
+ +
+ + + + +
+
+

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.

+
+ + +
+

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 called it, “Bee Within”.

+

Bee Within, is a story about grief/memory 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.

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

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.

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

⊞

+
+

Stephen Kerr

+

⊞

+

Thesis submitted to the Department of Experimental Publishing, Piet +Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, in partial fulfilment of the +requirements for the final examination for the degree of Master of Arts +in Fine Art & ⊞: Experimental Publishing.

+

Adviser: Marloes de Valk
+Second Reader: Joseph Knierzinger
+Word count: 7828 words

+

To de-sign design, I +will assign a sign: ⊞

+

This symbol represents design in this writing in an attempt to avoid +the assumed meaning of the word and examine it as something unknown, to +mystify it, to examine its structure. The label ⊞ is a functional part +of a belief system involving order, structure, and rationality and I +want to break it. Removing the label is part of loosening the object, +making it avilable to transition (Berlant, 2022).

+
+ + +
+
+ + +
+
+ + +
+
+ + +
+
+Homage to the Square, Josef Albers, 1954. + +
+
+ + +
+
+ + +
+
+ + +
+
+

Introduction

+

This document is a collection of fragments exploring beliefs about +labour in the creative industries, in particular graphic ⊞. Each +fragment focusses on the social, cultural, political, spiritual or +religious aspects of these beliefs through an ethnographic lens. They +record, celebrate and question the meaning that ⊞ers give to their +actions and how those meanings affect the world they live in. And it’s +about how ⊞ers feel when we live with these beliefs: we feel a bit funny +and I want to talk about it. 

+

I use various modes of address and different lenses to further +fragment the definition of ⊞. The origin of the word thesis is to set or +to put, but I am trying to show you something liquid that can’t be +placed but shimmers and disappears through the sand. I document some ⊞ +activities, in my own work and the work and writings of others who +identify with the label of ⊞er. The writing dissolves and reintegrates +definitions of ⊞ from different voices to show the multiplicity of +beliefs from practitioners, and to explore what it means to acknowledge +these beliefs beside eachother: the tensions and harmonies, some +lineages and some breaks. What is going on here in this thing we call +⊞? 

+

This is a collection of stories about living life with particular +working conditions, located at certain points in social, economic and +cultural webs. In my practice-based research I gather and tell these +stories through (auto)ethnographic methods: documenting how ⊞er’s work, +conducting interviews, improvising communal performances and exploratory +tool-making. This document collates and reflects on this research. 

+

What is a ⊞er?

+
    +
  1. A ⊞er is a person who wakes up at 5am but refuses to open their +eyes. There are birds talking outside, it’s probably getting bright +already. Something is wrong, not sure what. They finally open their eyes +and there’s the ceiling again. When the light comes in sideways over the +curtains this early you can see all the little ripples and imperfections +in it. Nothing. Ribcage. Stomach. The front of the ⊞er’s legs ache. It +would be better to sleep again. Have to pay taxes again next week. A ⊞er +is someone who wonders if that invoice will come through I need to +follow up on it. The birds are so loud. 
    2. +
  2. The role of the ⊞er is to count back from five to two and +realise that was only three hours same as yesterday. They use ⊞ thinking +to never get back to sleep. They need excellent time management skills +to make this short moment feel like an eternity, several times a week. +⊞ers have an acute spatial awareness and an eye for detail: although the +ceiling seems miles away they focus on each tiny ripple for hours. A ⊞er +is someone who will work the whole waking day today, but it’s better +than last week when there was no work. ⊞ers look at their phone and see +their alarm is going to go off in ten minutes, so they switch it off and +get up.
    3. +
+

The precarity of working in the creative industries, in particular as +a freelancer or within a small studio, induces anxiety. There is a +belief that the ⊞er as freelancer is empowered by their autonomy, but in +fact the ⊞er as worker is trapped by it. ⊞ is work and this work is +believed to be inherently good. Work in our society is understood as “an +individual moral practice and collective ethical obligation” which +shapes the worker’s identity in positive ways (Weeks, 2011). The ⊞er +believes they are a skilled or talented worker, someone who possesses +spatial awareness, time management skills, and the capacity to carry out +work effectively and efficiently. 

+

⊞ers are entangled in the Protestant religious underpinnings of the +European work ethic (Pater, 2022). ⊞ is seen as a vocation which +expresses and creates the ⊞er’s identity, and the process or its results +make a valuable contribution to society. People understand the world and +interact with it smoothly, thanks to the work of ⊞ers. ⊞ers pick the +right materials to save the planet and increase efficiency and whatever +else it is people find important. But the ⊞er becomes anxious despite +meeting these goals and becoming this person. In reality, the ⊞er is a +bot, the ⊞er is software. Value is extracted from their time, creativity +and expertise which makes them stressed. ⊞ers are a creative cloud, a +service to be tapped into, a cpu being run too hot. There is something +to be learnt from the revelation that being replaced by machines proves +we were being treated as machines all along. 

+

Geestelijk

+

There was a belief that ⊞ could be a crystal goblet (Warde, 1913), +something unbiased, clear and, in more recent versions of the theory, +serving the context it fits within. But the foundations of this belief +in functionality and rationality dont seem to come themselves from +something functional or rational. 

+

De Stijl members, such as Piet Mondriaan and Theo van Doesburg +(Figure 6), in their 1917 manifesto described a “new consciousness of +the age […] directed towards the universal”. There was a drive towards +universal standardisation or pureness of culture from the rich white +men. Purity is a concept that turns up a lot in Mondriaan’s writings, eg +Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art (1917). They claimed a shared +spirit was driving this universalisation. A later paragraph of the +manifesto is translated into english as:

+ +

In this translation it appears the authors believed in an emerging +consciousness of the age, something collective which would bring an +international unity. The members of De Stijl were neither aligning +themselves with the capitalists or socialists but believed in an inner +connection between those who were joined in the spiritual body of the +new world (De Stijl, Manifesto III, 1921). The word intellectual, or +geestelijk in the original Dutch, can also be translated as “spiritual, +mental, ecclesiastical, clerical, sacred, ghostly, pneumatic”. The +choice to translate as intellectual seems to be the most rational +interpretation of this sentence, an effort to make the theories of De +Stijl appear more materialist without the spiritual element. Compare +with this translation:

+ +

In this translation it is clearer that the members of De Stijl saw a +link between the effects of what they made materially and their attempts +to be fighting spiritually against the domination of individualism. I +care about this story because of how it contextualises contemporary ⊞ +practice. Is contemporary ⊞ practice still involved in this spiritual +battle? Did the new consciousness of 1917 survive the past century, did +it procreate? Can aesthetics have generational trauma? William Morris, +Constructivism, De Stijl, Bauhaus, International Style, International +Typographic Style, Swiss Style, then what happened. Modernist artists +had spiritual beliefs, and again I care about these people from a +hundred years ago because of the effect they have on the present. 

+

Imagine I could trace this thought from Mondriaan all the way to +myself, wow, cool thesis. Swiss style became corporate identity ⊞ and +encouraged minimalism in ⊞. 21st century Flat ⊞, such as Metro ⊞ +language from Microsoft and Material ⊞ (Google, 2014), claim direct +descendance from the International Typographic Style and that pretty +much brings us up to date. I wonder about the use of the word Material +in Google’s ⊞ strategy, I wonder about the ghostly absence of the +geestelijk fight of De Stijl. Is Google’s choice of name another +example, as with the subtle change in the translation above, that the +spiritual element is no longer as important a part of the ⊞er’s +worldview as it was a hundred years ago? 

+

Excerpt +from an interview with Conor Clarke, 1st December 2023

+

Conor Clarke is a Director of ⊞ Factory, independent Irish ⊞ +agency based in Dublin. His work has featured in international +publications such as Who’s Who in Graphic ⊞, Graphis, Novum +Gebrauchsgrafik, and the New York Art Directors Club Annual. He was the +recipient of the Catherine Donnelly Lifetime Achievement Award for his +contribution to ⊞ in Ireland and is the Course Director of ⊞ West, an +international summer ⊞ school located in the beautiful village of +Letterfrack on the West Coast of Ireland. (⊞west.eu, 2023)

+
+ + +

Maths and grids

+

Why not choose a spiral or a circle if you dream of ⊞ers as shamans? +Why the grid of squares? There are strong links beween ⊞ and +mathematics, Josef Muller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems (Figure 2) +for example or Karl Gerstner’s ⊞ing Programmes (1964). I read +these ⊞ theorists as you might comparatively read religious texts. What +were or are the beliefs of the authors and their audiences?
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    
+    

+ +

These texts present a worldview where ⊞ can be mathematical, +objective or problem-solving. In Muller-Brockman’s text the focus is on +the formal qualities of the ⊞ in particular the use of grids and +typographic systems. Gerstner’s focus is more on the effect of the ⊞, +and the ability of ⊞ to solve a problem. Rationality and creativity are +presented as proportional to eachother. He makes space for the +intellectual by pushing aside feelings. 

+

The graphic ⊞er is presented as a functional actor in society who +makes the world better. Gerstner seems to be implying that creative ⊞ +comes from following the intellect and some rational cause and effect +process. I find it interesting that ⊞ claims this rational basis in the +same historical period when science and mathematics, its supposed +foundations, became much less rational and predictable, for example in +chaos theory. It makes me think that the rationality serves some other +purpose.

+

The ⊞ grid and the written +word

+

Why do ⊞ers believe in using a grid to present the written word, and +where did this belief come from and how did it develop? It can be +materially traced back to Guthenberg and metal type but that’s boring. +Magic squares have been used in astrology books and grimoires throughout +history (Figure 3). French poet Stéphane Mallarmé is sometimes quoted as +a precursor to modernist typography (Muller-Brockmann, 1981). Why did +Steve McCaffrey include the manifesto of De Stijl with CARNIVAL +(1973)? De Stijl is best known for its painters and architects, and +theories from both of these fields affected later ⊞ theories. But they +also were poets and had literary theories similar to the german +expressionists. Man’s attempt to find oneness with the whole of creation +through a cosmic hybris. 

+ +
+

The developments of the written word and its relationship to form in +the 20th century is very much a part of the history of ⊞. I care about +this story because it affects contemporary practitioners. I believe +there is something magical in graphic composition and the layout of +typography, something that can’t be grasped in the words alone. They’re +non-canonical for ⊞ers but how have people who put words on pages like +Mallarmé and McCaffrey influenced my beliefs about the written word? +What makes one thing fit in the category of art, another ⊞ and yet +another concrete poetry?

+

Mystically +assigning or finding meanings in ⊞

+

This autoethnographic annotation attempts to really miss as many +cultural and technical cues as possible. It’s watching the ⊞er, me, and +being totally mystified by their behaviour. 

+
+
    +
  1. A rhythm exists and I wonder why. There is music and there are +voices, and my fingers press the keys and the colours of the screen +flicker and morph. There appears to be a life or energy flowing +somewhere between these things and I am curious about it.
    2. +
  2. The screen shimmers between different symbols, letters, images. +The colours are symbolic. White means the ground, although sometimes it +switches to white symbols on a dark ground. They are full of meaning and +relationship. I press two buttons to the left of the keyboard and the +screen answers with a flicker.
    3. +
  3. I count out loud to 40. It symbolises both the number of pages +to be made and the enormity of the task. It represents a period in the +desert, long but with an end in sight. What is the relationship of the +desert to the stars? If the screen can flicker from a dark to a light +ground, is it possible for the sky to also switch from day to +night?
    4. +
  4. I have taken three of the forty steps.
    5. +
  5. I have taken seven of the forty steps.
    6. +
  6. ⊞ is a series of movements and reconfigurations. It is a +creative act and one of elision. I use the keyboard to communicate my +will to the machine with commands such as “Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V”. I +firstly inform the computer that I wish to control it. Each letter has a +deep and layered meaning. CVCVCVCVCVCVCVCVCV. “Alt+Tab” asks the screen +to flicker. The computer must match my multithreading. It must be +prepared to follow my changing demands in our shared focus. FAVCV. F is +to seek, but it is optimistically labelled to find. I enter the +incorrect combination of symbols (“samle”) the incantation is useless +and I will not find what I seek. I try again “sample” and the computer +gives me what I desire. Why does the machine demand perfection? Why does +it value perfection in me, what is it trying to teach me? Why wont it +leave me alone?
    7. +
  7. I have taken eleven of the forty steps. I will rest.
    8. +
+

What +does ⊞ do? What is the ⊞er trying to do by pressing all these buttons +and making the screen vibrate?

+ +

I wasn’t trying to generate longing, I was trying to make an annual +report. It was a corporate job I was working on, a nice one to have +because it’s fairly well paid and not too complicated. A bit boring and +kinda repetitive, but you can just put your headphones on and get stuck +into it. I was pretty happy with the results in the end, but for sure +not the type of work you’re supposed to be proud of as a ⊞er.

+ +

And of course Piet Zwart’s (Figure 8) famous electrical cable +catalogues. ⊞ is just work, chill. Is a ⊞er a user or a server? Maybe ⊞ +is an example of our general belief in this dichotomy not quite making +sense or fitting reality. The ⊞er is working for whom? Themselves? Their +clients?

+
+ +

This quote relates to freelancing generally in some way, and +deconstructing the work or worker. Are workers things? Yeah, kinda. ⊞ers +don’t have super powers, contrary to some beliefs within the industry. +For example on what⊞cando.com it is suggested that we should “re⊞ +everything!”. Let’s actually not do that. ⊞ers are mostly just humans +working on computers like so many other bots. ⊞ers try to create +clarity, to assign meaning and understand: “Confusion and clutter are +failures of ⊞, not attributes of information” (Tufte, 1990, p.53). What +if the sounds of my fingers and my keyboard are not noise but music: we +are quasi-robots and maybe its good to listen to our little Taylorist +finger tappings and see what else is being said.

+

Excerpt +from an interview with the members of Distinctive Repetition on 1st +December 2023.

+

Distinctive Repetition is an award-winning graphic ⊞ studio based in +Dublin, Ireland. Principal ⊞er and Institute of Creative Advertising and +⊞ past-president, Rossi McAuley, is joined in this interview by ⊞ers +Jenny Leahy and Ben Nagle. This interview was carried out around a table +with the interviewer in the bottom right corner (◲) and the three +members of the studio in the other three seats.

+ + +

About the interview

+

Before meeting them in person, I mailed a small booklet to the +interviewees entitled Enthusiasm to give context to the +conversation. The word enthusiasm originally meant inspiration or +possession by a god. The booklet recounted three mystical dreams René +Descartes had which he credited as a moment of inspiration or enthusiasm +that influenced his later work on rationalism, and related to his work +on geometry and grids (Figure 4). As well as the content of the dreams, +the booklet described their relevance:
+    

+ +

Descartes felt that interpreting his dreams was an appropriate method +to develop a rational theory of skepticism, which led to some of the +philosophical foundations of modern scientific and mathematical +theories. The booklet also drew parallels with Martin Luther’s +scrupulous doubt, “Only God and certain madmen have no doubts!”. Like +Descartes, Luther’s new theories helped to give the basis for the +structure of thought for the following centuries. These stories were +presented together to direct the focus of the conversation towards +belief, rationalism and grids. The fact that rationalism is a belief +system, as pervasive as it may be, and suggestively hinting through its +relationship with grids that there +is a relationship with ⊞.

+ + +

They seem so sad it hurts to hear them talk about the oozing. Are you +supposed to put jelly in the fridge, it just needs time to settle right? +My nana used to put the jelly in the freezer. There’s an instability in +how they talk in the interview for sure, or more a desire for stability. +Was it ever stable? Do you really want it to be? Its gooey and not the +way it should be but its still jelly and thats fun and its probably +delicious. Their hands are there as something that is for grasping and +jelly is there as something that can’t be grasped. Is it terrifying, are +they resigned to it? 

+ +

I can’t explain the angst they are feeling but I can describe it +because I’ve felt it too. It feels like I’m having a heart attack. It +feels like I’m about to black out. It got to a stage where I couldn’t +talk to other people without being completely frozen jelly. It is the +feeling of lists and lists and lists. It’s the feeling of never +resolved, all the time. We believe we are busy and under pressure and +struggling to survive. That makes us anxious and stressed.

+ + +

The grids are not being used, the grids are useless. Drawers full of +them, all useless. Whats the point of sitting here in this studio. They +dont fit, they dont make sense, they’re trying to order something that +can’t be ordered. Or possibly shouldnt be ordered, the ordering is +misplaced and there is a human urge to stop, just stop.

+

Modern work

+ +
+

Adolf Loos was a modernist architect whose writings such as +Ornament and Crime in 1910 influenced modernist ideals of +functionalism and minimalism. He rejected ornament and favoured the use +of good materials which showed “God’s own wonder”. I wonder what is the +relation of Loos’ ideas to Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the +Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 1905) that was published five years +earlier. Work as a duty which benefits the individual and society as a +whole, do ⊞ers still believe this today? I like taking Loos’ quote out +of context here, instead in the context of the feelings of the +interviewees, revolting the supposedly modern cause they are working +with. 

+

But also Loos was found guilty of pedophelia and it feels kind of +aggressive to include his voice here at all. This is part of the point +of what I’m getting at: there’s this tradition of ⊞ and so many parts of +it make me uncomfortable or really disgusted and I don’t know what to do +with all that. I just wanted to go to art school and draw circles and +maybe thats the problem and sure simple materials are pretty, but yeah +jelly is exactly what it feels like, you’re right.

+

Graphic ⊞ is often performed by paid professionals in what is known +as the creative industry: as a profession and an activity, ⊞ is +considered to be creative. There are some positive preconceptions about +the creative industry and what it does, but I see it as an assimilation +of cultural activity into a neoliberal economic framework. Creativity in +this context is used to reproduce the status quo and and grow capital +(Mould, 2018). But maybe we can profit from examining the margins +created by this terminology: ⊞ is less functional than it seems. People +in creative jobs are stressed and this is reflected in their dreams. +Workers have rights and those rights are systemically undermined. Being +self employed or part of an independent studio brings anxiety and +challenges. Some ⊞ers try to structure the world around them and like +things to be neat and tidy, which makes us uncomfortable existing in +precarious work conditions.

+

The Roman grid

+

The Roman grid was a land measurement method used in the Roman +colonies for example in the Po Valley (Figure 7). With a surveying tool +called the groma, the colonisers would divide the land from north to +south and east to west, resulting in a square grid of roads and land. At +Orange, France, a cadaster has been found which shows the division of +land in a geometric way, helping the colonisers to privatise the land +and allocate it to roman veterans (Figure 1). The name groma, as well as +referring to the surveying tool, describes the central point of the +grid, the origin. Is making grids just a way to control and colonise? Do +all grids have origins? In Descartes’ use of the grid there was also an +attempt to order and structure chaos:

+ +

A part of the belief systems of ⊞ers is that the world is chaotic and +their role is to order it or even simplify it. This belief may be +inherited from a wider cultural belief of the same general drive: to +order and simplify. Humans try to make sense of the world. ⊞ers make +sense of ⊞ briefs and structure them into something understandable to an +audience or target market. 

+
+ + +

Is there an answer to this question, do they know the answer to this +question? I get the impression they have a gut feeling about the answer +but are afraid of it.

+

An +analysis of a joke about ⊞ in the early 21st century

+

When reviewing the AIGA Next conference in Denver Colorado, 2008, ⊞ +critic Adrian Shaughnessy tells a joke:

+ +

This joke is funny because in the setup where it is easy to tell them +apart, the reader should assume the beer fans are drunk and therefore +raucous, misbehaving or maybe just having a lot of fun. But then he +unexpectedly suggests that they were in fact more serious than the ⊞ers. +This gives the reader a problem to address: is he claiming the ⊞ers were +even more outrageous than what we assumed of the beer fans, or the beer +fans were in fact taking their own conference seriously? As both seem +unbelievable the true funniness of the joke hits home in it’s implied +meaning: ⊞ers are boring as fuck.

+
+

An +annotation of my practices as a graphic ⊞er on a typical working day, +23rd October 2023

+
    +
  1. I read an email
    2. +
  2. and
    3. +
  3. I type
    4. +
  4. Alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab alt tab ctrl c +ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl c ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v +ctrl v ctrl v ctrl v
    5. +
+
+

⊞ers interact with the computer through keyboard and mouse usage. +Compared to other computer users, my interaction involves lots of +pressing of function keys, something common with other technical +computer users and not so much with other creative workers. What is +creative in the repetitive and low level operation of a computer? Is a +pianist creative? What’s the difference, I think they are being creative +in different ways. ⊞ers and other specialists like video editors or +photo colourists are using a computer as a tool, the musician is +performing on an instrument. Maybe this distinction doesn’t have to be +so clear though. I am questioning this here because I think there is +some fairly complicated belief system about artists and their tools that +has had an effect on ⊞ers. ⊞ gives itself a history of conflict and +harmony between artisans and industrialisation, for example in Bauhaus +founder Walter Gropius claiming William Morris as a precursor (Bayer, +1975). 

+

I think it is important to show that ⊞ers are workers with tools, +their repetitive tasks are a form of labour as are their creative +processes. In the annotation opposite my aim is to mystify the manual +and digital labour, rather than demystify the creative ideation +part. 

+

Following this annotation I made a digital tool to record all +keystrokes on my computer. Then I printed them out with a pen plotter to +celebrate the labour that had taken place. It took several hours to plot +the keylogging data from just a few minutes of the ⊞er’s labour. 

+

LibreOffice

+
    +
  1. I have no idea what any of this structuring does. And I don’t +care. But I would like to remove the page title from the export. It is +in another tab called User Interface. I also select only page 1 to save +to PDF. Now I run into a software issue in this workflow: the best +software for the next part of the job is Adobe Acrobat Pro. How +aggressively do I want to remove this software from my workflow? Not +aggressively enough I guess because here I am still using it. I don’t +know any other software that really gives me details of how a document +will print or lets me edit PDFs on such a useful level.
    2. +
  2. For example the title still exported (it always does, is this a +LibreOffice bug or just I don’t know what to do with the new software +yet?). It takes two seconds to remove in edit mode in Acrobat. I also +delete the page number, I don’t even know how to turn that off from +LibreOffice. The print dialogue in Acrobat is also so powerful, its so +easy to print actual size which is important to me. It is structured and +reliable. 
    3. +
+

Like many other ⊞ers, I was trained to only use Adobe products. I try +to switch to open source alternatives because I believe in using +software developed and maintained by a community rather than a private +company, and as a worker believe I should be in control of my tools. In +this annotation, I was trying to ⊞ and export a single page document in +LibreOffice, an open source desktop publishing software. The +documentation reflects on my frustrations and struggles to switch to a +workflow that relies less on proprietary software for print ⊞. 

+

Proprietary software from big mean tech corporations is based on a +model of society and economy where a few people own things and everybody +else has a hard time. I believe the internet gives an opportunity for +knowledge (including software code) to be shared. I like the idea of +modifying my tools, this is easier technically and legally with open +source software. I would prefer my tools to be developed by me and my +peers. These are some of my beliefs as a ⊞er about my work and my tools. +They’re a bit idealistic but also optimistic in a good way.

+ +

Transitioning to open source software sucks. I spent years learning +other tools and its like starting all over again. There is a dual +commitment in my beliefs about how my tools should be built and my +desire to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. My action of +fumbling with open source programs reflects my belief that they are +worthwhile, and my action of still using Adobe Acrobat Pro reflects my +belief that there are better things to do with my time than restarting +software when it crashes again. Some parts of graphic ⊞ have become so +entangled in capitalist ways of working, it can be immobilising to try +to act without engaging with the icky parts. Our dependencies on +ecosystems of tools and workflows are not enforced, but it can be +difficult to exist outside them, or more specifically, beside them.

+
    +
  1. “And I don’t care.” 
    2. +
+

It’s so obviously not true. The conflict of wanting to change my +workflow with wanting to complete my work tasks efficiently doesn’t keep +me up at night, but it is important to me and other ⊞ers. Open source ⊞ +software is unreliable and unstandardised, it takes longer to do things +and then when they are nearly done the program crashes and I’ve lost all +my work. The standards of open source software have not been widely +embraced by the ⊞ community. To fit into a workflow with peers you have +to use Adobe products. Even web ⊞ers who engage with open standards can +find the need to work with proprietary software, because these tools are +deeply integrated into the workflows of their peers. Can you send me +that in a normal file format please, I can’t open it. 
+ 

+

Work Sans

+
    +
  1. The font is Work Sans SemiBold and it is set in 10pt, colour +“automatic”. I think even if it wasn’t automatic I would make it black, +because I want to print it clearly and cheaply. I use Work Sans because +I am trying to switch to using Open Font Licence and open source fonts +more generally. Previously I would have used Helvetica Now or some other +proprietary font. There is a visual difference between these fonts too +which is also relevant buuuuut this description is getting very detailed +maybe not right now.
    2. +
+
+

Similarly to the software changes, this documentation of my practice +sees me choosing open source fonts. I’m really ambivalent about this. I +do like the idea of being able to modify a font when needed, but I have +done so regardless of whether the font licence allows it. I’m more +comfortable ethically with a font being open source. Buying fonts is +expensive for freelancers and small studios, and open source fonts are +more commonly free of charge. Many ⊞ers pirate fonts rather than buy +them, or are locked into a font subscription. In Adobe software, Adobe +subscription fonts don’t load unless a connection to the creative cloud +is verified.

+

For my work, fonts are also a tool, one that I need to practice with +and one that needs to be suitable for the job. So changing font is a +little like a ceramicist changing clay. Work Sans is good for online use +because Google Fonts serves it as a web font for free, the open source +font I want to use is served most reliably by a large corporation I have +issues with. This balancing act of practical considerations and +idealistic beliefs is kind of ironic and reminds me again that my values +can be inconsistent and to me a bit funny. 
+ 
+The use of fonts as tools is full of tensions from ⊞ers’ belief systems. +Like many ⊞ers, I want to use open source fonts. I also want to use +fonts that will load quickly from a content delivery network for web +projects. I also want fonts to be cheap and well made and I am +interested in fonts that are free. The internet is full of illegal and +pirated copies of fonts that are not supposed to be free of charge. I +sometimes receive or am asked to send font files outside of their +licence. I dont have a huge amount of respect for some of these +licences. But at the same time font ⊞ers are my friends and colleagues, +I have ⊞ed fonts. What does a ⊞er’s actual use of fonts say about their +beliefs around copyright? Do ⊞ers believe in intellectual property? What +value do ⊞ers, specifically typographers, see in their work and that of +their close peers, the font ⊞ers, and how does copyright relate to these +values?

+
+

Follow up questions for +Conor

+

Hey Conor, hope you’re keeping well these days? I’ve been going +through the interview from back in December and was wondering if you +would mind me including this piece in my thesis:

+

I guess the thesis has become a lot about ⊞ers and the beliefs they +have about their work, and its effect on the world around them. I was +really interested in your answer to this question because I think it +shows something a lot of other ⊞ers including me feel too; some desire +to structure the world around us, to have things be resolved, organised, +fitting together. And not just a desire but maybe even a belief that +this is really what our job is for? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, +but to me this maybe hints at part of the reason we’re am drawn to a +field like graphic ⊞? Curious to know what you think.

+

And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im +totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  

+

Thanks,
+Stephen

+
+

Follow up questions for ◱

+

Yo ◱, hope all’s good with you these days? 

+

I’ve been piecing together the interviews from December and I’d love +to include this section about your dream if that’s alright with you? It +seems to get at something I feel as well: this system that we’ve built +up and these drawers full of grids, sometimes there’s an angst or +unresolved feeling that they’re not going to work, they dont fit as an +answer to the problem. 

+

For me I think it might be something to do with order and chaos if +that doesn’t seem too much of a stretch, I’ve this need to structure +things and fit them in a form, and the dream seems to get at that fear +that it’s not going to work. The grid is solid but reality turns out to +be jelly at best, but very often custard and little bits of tinned +strawberry and soggy sponge. 

+

I assumed the dream is about the pressure or anxiety of running a +studio? I wonder for you, do you see it more relating to the work itself +or the management around that, or are these things that you consider +separate from eachother? I’m curious to know if you think of it the same +way, or maybe it’s something else to you and I’m projecting :)

+

And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im +totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.

+

Thanks,
+Stephen

+
+

Follow up questions for ◳

+

Hey ◳, hope youre good! 

+

I’m thinking of putting this section of the interview we did back in +december in my thesis. Is that ok with you? I want to include it because +I think it really captures some emotions that ⊞ers feel quite often, +some stress or anxiety or an attempt to grab onto something more stable. +But I also find it really interesting that you were talking about jelly +slipping through your hands, any idea why you didn’t say sand or mud or +gold but jelly? To me it seems like a fun and cute material to pick, +even though its a bit lumpy and maybe even kinda gross sometimes. 

+

I’ve been really interested in foods made of gelatin recently and +there’s something so mesmerising about them even though they’re never +the most appetising, and for sure unnatural or over-processed. Maybe you +just said it off hand, but it makes sense to me as well about being a +⊞er in some way? Something enjoyable and lovable about the jelly despite +its weird unnatural wiggliness. Really interested to know if you have +any thoughts or maybe you meant something completely different.

+

And if youre uncomfortable with being included in this way, Im +totally fine with anonymising, removing, or editing.  

+

Thanks,
+Stephen

+

Conclusion

+

The title of this document, ⊞, was borrowed from the mathematical +theory of free probability where it symbolises free additive +convolution, a way of relating terms that is more nuanced than +traditional ideas of cause and effect. In the fragmented look at ⊞ in +this document, which we’ve reached the end of now, I hope to have done +something similar: a convoluted addition, freely placing things together +to be held for a moment. 

+

⊞ involves a wide range of activities; typing, drawing grids, +communicating with other specialists, quoting, drinking coffee, working +out of office hours, having panic attacks, arguing, building myths, +personal expression, keyboard shortcuts, dreaming, rubbing paper and +exhaling, tilting your head and looking at the screen. We have examined +when and how these actions happen, and more importantly, why they do, +according to the ⊞ers carrying them out. 

+

These stories were gathered through various modes of describing, +listening and understanding. It is important that these are different +from conventional ways to frame the discipline, as I think a shift in +viewpoint is needed. So not “⊞er as Author” (Rock, 1996), “⊞er as +salesperson” (Pater, 2021) but instead ⊞er “sitting at the machine, +thinking” (Brodine, 1990) or “⊞er without qualities” (Lorusso, 2023). +The fragments have been situated and subjective rather than objective, +they have been outside of categories because the categories are broken +anyway. 

+
+

Conclusion

+

Last night I dreamt I was standing on a hill in the Swiss Alps and +you were there and all of our friends and the hill was covered in little +fields but not like a grid like lots of different shapes and sizes and +the sky opened in two and a ring of light so bright it nearly blinded me +came out of my chest and yours and they all merged into eachother and +everyone opened their mouths to sing and the air was filled with so many +sounds and one ⊞er walked up to me and smiled and said 

+ +

and then I was them and you were me and we laughed and fell over and +the hill turned into a bright pink jelly ocean the whole sky was this +sort of green-blue and we all surfed wobbly waves and some people’s +surfboards were Quiksilver and some they had built themselves from a git +repository but the sun was a walnut and it was definitely moving but I +couldnt tell was it rising or setting but it didn’t matter to us the +surf was great and everything smelled like magnolias.

+
+
+
+

Acknowledgements

+

Thanks to Ada, Aglaia, Ben, Chae, Conor, Irmak, Jenny, Joseph, kamo, +Leslie, Manetta, Marloes, Michael, Rossi.

+
+

Bibliography

+

Bayer, H. et al. (1975) Bauhaus, 1919-1928. New +York: Museum of Modern Art. 

+

Berlant, L. (2022) On the Inconvenience of Other People, +Durham: Duke University Press.

+

Brodine, K. (1990) Woman Sitting at the Machine, Thinking: +Poems. Seattle: Red Letter Press.

+

creativechair (2018) ‘Michael Bierut’ [Interview], Creative +Chair. Available at: creativechair.org/michael-bierut (Accessed: 15 +April 2024).

+

Design West (2024) Design West. Available at: +designwest.eu (Accessed: 16 April 2024).

+

Driessen, C. P. G. (2020). Descartes was here; In Search of the +Origin of Cartesian Space’. In R. Koolhaas (Ed.), Countryside, A +Report (pp. 274-297)
+ 
+Gates, B (2004) Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software +Architect, Microsoft Corporation [speech transcript] University of +Illinois Urbana-Champaign February 24, 2004 Available at: +web.archive.org/web/
+20040607040830/https://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/02-24UnivIllinois.asp +(Accessed: 13 April 2024)

+

Gerstner, K. and Keller, D. (1964) Designing Programmes. +Teufen (AR): Niggli. 

+

Google (2014) Introduction, Material Design. +Available at: m1.material.io (Accessed: 16 April 2024). 

+

Hu, T.-H. (2024) Digital Lethargy: Dispatches from an age of +disconnection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

+

The Idea of the Book (2024) CARNIVAL: the first panel +1967–70 [book description] Available at: theideaofthe
+book.com/pages/books/529/steve-mccaffery/carnival-the-first-panel-1967-70 +(Accessed: 13 April 2024)

+

Loos, A. (2019) Ornament and Crime. London: Penguin. 

+

Lorusso, S. (2023) What Design Can’t Do: Essays on design and +disillusion. Eindhoven: Set Margins. 

+

Mondriaan , P. et al., (1917) ‘Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art’, +De Stijl, Nov. 

+

Mould, O. (2018) Against Creativity. London: Verso.

+

Müller-Brockmann, J. (1981) Grid systems in graphic ⊞. +Stuttgart: Hatje. 

+

Pater, R. (2021) Caps Lock. Amsterdam: Valiz.

+

Rock, M., (1996) The ⊞er as Author. Available at: +2x4.org/ideas/1996/⊞er-as-author (Accessed: 16 April 2024). 

+

Shaughnessy, A. (2005) How to Be a Graphic ⊞er, without Losing +Your Soul. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press.

+

Shaughnessy, A. (2013) Scratching the Surface. London: Unit +Editions.

+

Tufte, E (1991) The Visual Display of Quantitative +Information. Cheshire: Graphics Press.

+

Van der Velden, D., (2006) ‘Research & Destroy: A Plea for ⊞ as +Research’, Metropolis M 2, April/May 2006.

+

Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1917) ‘Manifesto I’, De Stijl, +Nov. 

+

Van Doesburg, T. et al. (1921) +‘Manifesto III’, De Stijl, Aug.

+

Warde, B. (1913) ‘Printing Should be Invisible’ The Crystal +Goblet, Sixteen Essays on Typography, London: The Sylvan Press.

+

Weber, M., (1905) “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of +Capitalism”, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften 20, no. 1 (1904), +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.

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

Special Issues

+

Special Issues are publications thrice released by first-year XPUB +Master’s students. Each edition focuses on a specific theme or issue. +The themes tie to external events and collaborations. Students and staff +work together to explore these themes, rethinking what a publication can +be. Each edition culminates in a celebratory release party.The +structure, tools, and workflows are reset every trimester. This reset +allows roles to rotate among participants and fosters an adapting +learning environment. It provides a space to experiment beyond +traditional collaborative methods.

+

Our inaugural Special Issue was number 19, in collaboration with +Simon Browne. Garden Leeszaal was a snapshot of Leeszaal Library through +the metaphor of gardening. During the release, we invited participants +to engage with the library’s discarded books. We pruned, gleaned, and +grafted the books using pens, pen-plotters, scissors, and glue. Then we +harvested a book of our collective work. Garden Leeszaal was an open +dialogue. It was a tool for collective writing, a group-made collage, +and an archive. For us, being a gardener meant caring for the people and +books that formed the library.

+

The following Special Issue was number 20, assisted by Lìdia Pereira +and Artemis Gryllaki. Console was 20 hand-made wooden boxes. It was an +oracle and an emotional first aid kit to help you help yourself. It +invites you to delve into its contents to discover healing methods. +Console offers refuge for dreams, memories, and worries. It guides you +to face the past. You will then meet your fortune and gain a new view +through rituals and practices. It prompts everyday questions with +magical answers, asking: Are you ready to play?

+

Our last special issue was number 21. TTY was guided by kubernētēs +Martino Morandi and weekly guest collaborators. We started with a Model +33 Teletype machine, the bridge between typewriters and computer +interfaces. Through guest contributions, we explored the intersection of +historical and contemporary computing. The Special Issue evolved into an +ever-changing “Exquisite Corpse Network” chasing weekly publications. +Along the way, we created gestures, concrete vinyl poetry, phone +stories, and much more.

+ +
+ + + + +
+
+

Garden Leeszaal

+
+

Special Issue XIX

+

Public libraries are more than just access points to knowledge. They +are social sites where readers cross over while reading together, +annotating, organising and structuring. A book could be bound at the +spine, or an electronic file gathered together with digital binding. A +library could be an accumulated stack of printed books, a modular +collection of software packages, a method of distributing e-books, a +writing machine.

+

In the Special Issue 19, How do we library that? or alternatively +Garden Leeszaal, we started re-considering the word “library” as a verb; +actions that sustains the production, collection and distribution of +texts. A dive into the understanding structure of libraries as systems +of producing knowledge and unpacking classification as a process that +(un)names, distinguishes, excludes, displaces, organizes life. From the +library to the section to the shelf to the book to the page to the text. +The zooming in and zooming out process. The library as a plain text.

+

Like community gardens, libraries are about tenderness and +approachability. However, does every book and each person feel welcome +in these spaces? Publications are empty leaves if there is no one to +read them. Libraries are soulless storage rooms if there is no one to +visit them. People give meaning to libraries and publications alike. +People are the reason for their existence. People tend to cultivate +plants. Audiences tend to foster content. The public tends to enrich the +context. Libraries as complex social infrastructures.

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+ + +
+

The release of the Special Issue 19 was a momentary snapshot of the +current state of a library seen through the metaphor of gardening; +pruning, gleaning, growing, grafting and harvesting. Garden Leeszaal is +an open conversation; a collective writing tool, a cooperative collage +and an archive. We asked everyone to think of the library as a garden. +For us, being a gardener means caring; caring for the people and books +that form this space.

+

During the collective moment in Leeszaal people started diving into +recycle bins, grabbing books, tearing pages apart, drawing, pen +plotting, weaving words together, cutting words, removing words, +overwriting, printing, and scanning. It was magical having an object in +the end. A whole book was made by all of us that evening. Stations, +machines, a cloud of cards, a sleeve that warms up THE BOOK.

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Console

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Special Issue XX

+

Console is an oracle; an emotional first aid kit that helps you help +yourself. Console invites you to open the box and discover ways of +healing. Console provides shelter for your dreams, memories and worries. +Face the past and encounter your fortune. Console gives you a new +vantage point; a set of rituals and practices that help you cope and +care. Console asks everyday questions that give magical answers.

+

Special Issue XX was co-published by xpub and Page Not Found, Den +Haag. With guest editors Lídia Pereira ♈︎ and Artemis Gryllaki ♐ we +unraveled games and rituals, mapping the common characteristics and the +differences between games and rituals in relation to ideology and +counter-hegemony. We practiced, performed and annotated rituals, +connected (or not) with our cultural backgrounds while we questioned the +magic circle. We dived into the worlds of text adventure games and +clicking games while drinking coffee. We talked about class, base, +superstructure, (counter)hegemony, ideology and materialism. We +discussed how games and rituals can function as reproductive +technologies of the culture industries. We annotated games, focusing on +the role of ideology and social reproduction. We reinterpreted bits of +the world and created stories from it (modding, fiction, narrative) +focusing on community, interaction, relationships, grief and +healing.

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Worry Dolls +

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TTY

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Special Issue 21

+

why shd it only make use of the tips of the fingers as contact points +of flowing multi directional creativity. If I invented a word placing +machine, an “expression-scriber,” if you will, then I would have a kind +of instrument into which I could step & sit or sprawl or hang & +use not only my fingers to make words express feelings but elbows, feet, +head, behind, and all the sounds I wanted, screams, grunts, taps, +itches, I’d have magnetically recorded, at the same time, & +translated into word or perhaps even the final xpressed thought/feeling +wd not be merely word or sheet, but itself, the xpression, three +dimensional-able to be touched, or tasted or felt, or entered, or heard +or carried like a speaking singing constantly communicating charm. A +typewriter is corny!!

+

Amiri Baraka, Technology & Ethos, +http://www.soulsista.com/titanic/baraka.html

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+

This issue started from a single technical object: a Model 33 +Teletype machine. The teletype is the meeting point between typewriters +and computer interfaces, a first automated translator of letters into +bits. Equipped with a keyboard, a transmitter and a punchcard +read-writer, it is a historical link between early transmission +technology such as the telegraph and the Internet of today. Under the +administration of our kubernētēs, Martino Morandi, each week hosted a +guest contributor who joined us in unfolding the many cultural and +technical layers that we found stratified in such a machine, reading +them as questions to our contemporary involvements with computing and +with networks.

+

The format of the issue consisted of on an on-going publishing +arrangement, constantly re-considered and escaping definition at every +point in spacetime, a sort of Exquisite Corpse Network. It evaded +naming, location, and explanation; the Briki, the Breadbrick, the Worm +Blob. A plan to release weekly bricks was wattled by a shared +understanding of time into something more complex in structure, less +structured in complexity.

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Initially, the week’s caretakers were responsible for collecting +materials from our guest contributions, which included lectures, +collective readings, hands-on exercises, an excursion to the Houweling +Telecom Museum, Rotterdam and another to Constant, Brussels. The +caretakers were responsible for recording audio, editing notes, +transcribing code, taking pictures, and making lunch. Meanwhile the +week’s editors were responsible for coming up with a further step in how +the publishing progressed, by adding new connections and interfaces, +creating languages, plotting strikes and cherishing memories. This mode +of publishing made us develop our own collective understandings of +inter-operation, of networked care and access, backward- and +forward-compatibility, obsolence and futurability.

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Teletypewriters ushered in a new mode of inscription of writing: if +the typewriter set up a grid of letters and voids of the same size, +turning the absence of a letter (the space) into a key itself (the +spacebar), the teletypewriter finished it by inscribing the space in the +very same material as all other letters: electrical zeros and ones, that +were to immediately leave the machine. The Teletype Model 33, one of the +most widely produced and distributed text-based terminals in the 1970s, +introduced multiple technological concretizations that are present in +the computers of today as a sort of legacy, such as the qwerty keyboard +with control keys, the ascii character encoding and the TTY terminal +capability. We have created short-circuits that allow us to remember +otherwise technical progress and computational genealogies.

+

TTY was produced in april-june 2023 as special issue 21 with guest +editor Martino Morandi, and contributors Andrea di Serego Alighieri, +Femke Snelting, Isabelle Sully, Jara Rocha, Roel Roscam Abbing, and +Zoumana Meïté.

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Reviews

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+Lídia Pereira + +
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+ + +
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+Steve Rushton + +
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+Boyana Stoilova + +
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+Simon Browne + +
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Colophon

+

vulnerable-interfaces.xpub.nl

+

Special thanks goes to the XPUB staff for their expert help and +guidance: Manetta Berends, Simone Browne, Artemis Gryllaki, Jeanne van +Heeswijk, Joseph Knierzinger, Michael Murtaugh, Martino Morandi, Lídia +Pereira, Steve Rushton, Kimmy Spreeuwenberg, Marloes de Valk and in +particular Leslie Robbins for her years of inexplicable +exceptionalism.

+

Created by: Ada, Aglaia, Stephen and Irmak Suzan (XPUB graduates year +2022–24)

+

Print run: 200 copies

+

Printed and bound at: Publication Station, Willem De Kooning Academy, +Rotterdam

+

Paper stock: Clairefontaine Dune 80gsm, Clairefontaine Paint-On Denim +250gsm.

+

Typeface: Platypi by David Sargent, licensed under the SIL Open Font +License, Version 1.1.

+

Photography and illustration: Unless otherwise stated, all +photography, illustrations and other types of visualisations in this +publication are created by the same authors as the text.

+

Digital tools: 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 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.

+

Experimental Publishiiiiiing,
Wijnhaven 61,
4th floor,
+3011 WJ Rotterdam,
The Netherlands.

+
+ +
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