From d5e91091ad00d54088b3fbbd7e7eaa3076caa6bb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: grgr Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2023 17:08:18 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] first commit --- thesis_draft.md | 139 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 139 insertions(+) create mode 100644 thesis_draft.md diff --git a/thesis_draft.md b/thesis_draft.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..466700f --- /dev/null +++ b/thesis_draft.md @@ -0,0 +1,139 @@ +--- +title: +description: +--- + +### 0 // introduction: + + +#### radical admin as caregiver? +radical admin as a caregiver is the idea that the admin facilitates circulation of resources but is also sensitive to the well-being of the org's people + + + + +Let's start from this depressive realism? +what is this depressive realism that we have to face when dealing with cultures? and not only with cultures, but with labour within the field of digital cultures (there will be a series of definitiions for what I mean by cultures) and not only within digital cultures, but specifically within the context of self-organized cultural organizations, groups, collectives, small institutions that rely on open source technologies both infrastructurally and [thematically ](how do you say when something is what you study, research, or produce ...). And even more, the ways of organizing and relating to the diffent components, internally, and with the different reality, externally, follow a series of principles rooted within the field of open source software, but also, more broadly within anarco, anticapitalist and feminist tendencies [unpack the connection]. these self organized groups create small but very complex systems which try to thrive and compete against the neoliberal logics of contemporary cultural production, in a process of continuous negotiation of the conditions of autonomy, dependency, sustainability, care, failure [this sentence is a bit populistic, will unpack...] +The point is, how Earl McCabe puts it in his/their(?) interview to Lauren Berlant, "In our moment of economic crisis, austerity, and unemployment, it seems especially important to be realistic about the objective constraints on life in our world". As described by Lauren Berlant, depressive realism is a perception of reality which allows for the accountability of "awkwardness, incoherence, and the difficulty of staying in sync with the world at the heart of what also binds people to the social"(Berlant, 2015). Depressive realism as a sort of coping mechanism that trains and strenghten sensitivity towards those constaints on life, which became invisible, naturalized by neoliberal working standards. +In digital realm this translates into... [... ] +In this capitalism realism (Fisher, 2015) where "there's no alternative", those contraints on life are threatening to the core small self-organized cultural realities are one of those places where these contrains on life manifest as [digital discomfort ... ] + +This need for realism, is translated to me to the call for getting to know the present we live in order to regain agency on it. + + + + + I want to introduce here what how and why of the System Requirement specification: + + 1) the research question that for now is: + + in the context of self-organized cultural organizations that deal with [open source guidelines and/or self-hosted technologies, how is administration operated in between maintenance and sustainability? + + where + + the word sustainability demands and creates the context for a bearable environment at a techno-social/political/economical level + + and the maintenance responds to instances of (write) sustainability (read: care/well being, economic/financial stability, etc) with actual hands-on practice, tools, strategies and guidelines... + + 2) introducing radical administration as point of view from which the research will be conducted + + the shift to an admin perspective in cultural production/publishing allows for an overview of the material conditions of existence of any cultural project. + + survival difficulties of projects that include self-organized and self-hosted technologies: the admin point of view could be a place where the contradictions between the needs of these projects (often based on a strong immaterial unpaid labour) and the pressures of the rising living costs manifest and can be addressed. + + 3) introducing the method of research: the boiler inspections and the approach of 'maintenance' + + introduction of the chapters + + 4) instructions on how to contribute to the Specification + + + +### 1 // admin realism (realismo amministrativo) + + In this chapter I want to expand on the idea of embracing the admin point of view: admin as an observatory on self-organized collaborative cultural projects (that follow F/OSS principles*), + + in more details: what it means to inhabit this role as cultural producer, how does reality look like from this point of view, and all the sweet ideological assumptions i want to believe about what an admin is/does (which are: see below) + + assumption 1: admin = serving, curing, caring + + assumption 2: admin as the space where things are wrapped into value, maintained, and made "real" (what do you mean? maybe see Kate Rich) + + assumption 3: admin can creatively use their bureaucratic tools to cope with depressive realism (Lauren Berlant) and/or capitalist realism (Mark F) + + burocrazy is a bitch dere's no escapin it*: now bureaucracy comes in and all the assumption start loosening their romance. + + definition of bureaucracy: drawing from graeber's idea of bureaucracy as a sort of byproduct of structural violence in society, and the very (rethorical) proof of the existence of things (f.e. you cannot be proven born or dead if you don't have the correspondent certificate).... Let's go and have a look at how other people are doing, meet you in the conclusions again... + + + main references here: + + kate rich + + Femke & Co. + + D Graeber + + bulshit jobs + + tba + + +* Quote from Linton Kwesi Johnson + + +### 2 // maintenance of bureaucratic infrastructures + + In this chapter i want to introduce the subquestion (which is actually a pre-question) of what needs to be sustained/maintained in the first place and how. + + so needs and wants and their maintenance with/against bureaucratic infrastructures. which in other words could be: maintaining sustainability, and the sustainability of maintenance itself + + the approach of maintenance (??another assumption maybe) + + how can maintenance be cared and shared? can bureaucracy stop being bitchy and stupid? + + building up on these question to create suspance and expectations on boiler inspections lol + + + main references here: + + Salvatore Iaconesi e Oriana Persico + + David Graeber again + + Femke & Co. + + TBA + + + +### 3 // Boiler inspections + + introduction of the boiler inspections in more details + + breaking down the assumptions + + the boiler inspection is a situated report on how different self- organized cultural organizations operate administration in between sustainability and maintenance. + + the objective is then to situate what needs to be sustained and how (maintenance), in practice these could be the part in which specific fields like care, collective work, learning, failure, clumsiness, affect... are given specific meaning and (use-)value through bureacuratic documents (like CsOC), practices (f.e. specific practices for decision making, roles, work distribution etc) and tools (f.e. softares), all of which delineate the bureaucratic infrastructure. + + + New pad is coming here https://pad.xpub.nl/p/grgr_boiler_inspection + + I will treat this part as separated content for now bc it's more practical + + + +### 4 // conclusions: imaginative bureaucracy + + conclusions on what i learnt and deduced from boiler inspections + + activating: turning the tools of bureaucracy into props to trigger storytelling, critique and dialogue >> what happened during boiler inspections? + + questions for further research + + + +### appendix : Table of Death + + don't ask yet plzz (˵ᵕ̴᷄ ˶̫ ˶ᵕ̴᷅˵) \ No newline at end of file