little intro

a_first_chapter.md

@@ -2,30 +2,115 @@
 title: Hacking maintenance with care
 subtitle: some principles for a gentle polite caring survival in self-administered and floss infrastructures
 disclaimer: the title and subtitle might change
-reading conditions:
 
-chapter: admin realism
+other option: tales oh gentle polite caring survival from ... infrastructure
+reading conditions:
+chapter: admin realism or intro?
 ---
 
+## introduction
+
+
 *More and more of us looked up one day and realized that the emperor had no clothes. It is in this dilemma that new tools for noticing seem so important*
 *Anna Tsing - The mushroom at the end of the world*
 
 
 That we are living in time of crisis it is no surprise, as well as there's no wonder in saying the current [economic and ecologic system] is no longer sustainable. It's actually been a while that the emperor has been going around with no clothes. Of course, we can all laugh about it. But even if more and more people started noticing that majestic nakedness and got used to it, to the point that is no longer a scandal, there is something that remains uncanny about this image, something awkward that a simple smile cannot undo.
-I'm wandering what would have happened if only Andersen's folk tale wouldn't have stopped there, and perhaps this is a worthy exercise of imagination: what would have been the reaction of the peasants after the laughter had gone? How to deal with such a realization?
-Now, while the emperor keeps walking followed by his retinue of ministers, nobles and other crooks, it doesn't really matter if what we look at is a metaphor for a specific form of power structure, capitalism (sorry, i need to say it), that is loosing its meaning/authority/legitimacy. What matters is that this capitalism, in its multiple forms, has created an incredibly interwoven network of dependencies and dominations which is threatened to collapse at every moment, creating a generalised condition of precarity. And here it comes the big dilemma: are you playing dumb and joining the emperor's entourage or are you facing precarity? And if the latter is the case, how to survive?
+I'm wandering what would have happened if only Andersen's tale wouldn't have stopped there, and perhaps this is a worthy exercise of imagination: what would have been the reaction of the peasants after the laughter had gone? How to deal with such a realization?
 
-I like to think that in this question lies the reason why Andersen couldn't help but end the story with a laughter. Firstly because he could have never answer for somebody else. Secondly because at that point the folktale would probably fork into a miriad of versions, in which the narration had to adapt to the locality of histories and individuals' [own strategies to cope with, well, life.] And thirdly, that collective laughter is the symbol that the folklore encoded in order to point towards the diversity of survival strategies, turning the awkward image of nakedness into an ironic opening of possibilities. (sorry, getting meta).
+Now, while the emperor keeps walking followed by his retinue of ministers, nobles and other crooks, it doesn't really matter if what we look at is a metaphor for a specific form of power structure, capitalism, that is loosing its meaning/authority/legitimacy. What matters is that this capitalism, in its multiple forms, has created an incredibly interwoven network of dependencies and dominations which is threatened to collapse at every moment, thus creating a generalised condition of precarity and violence. And here it comes the big dilemma: are you playing dumb and joining the emperor's entourage or are you facing precarity? And if the latter is the case, how to survive?
 
-* connection with the inital quote: the art of noticing and need for tools
-* connection of the context of the thesis 
-...tbc
+I like to think that in this question lies the reason why Andersen couldn't help but ending the story with a laughter. Firstly because he wouldn't answer the dilemma for anyone else. Secondly because at that point the folktale would probably fork into a miriad of versions, in which the narration had to adapt to the locality of histories and individuals' own strategies to cope with, well, life. And thirdly, that collective laughter is precisely the symbol that the folklore encoded in order to point out towards the diversity of survival strategies, turning the awkward image of nakedness into an ironic opening of possibilities. 
+At the very beginning of her book "The mushroom at the end of the world", Anna Tsing suggests indeed that precarity may be used as a lens able to open our gaze on what has been left behind by *progress*, within the ruins of its own paradigm. The arts of noticing and their tools are therefore crucial to navigate the edges of capitalism, where [striving] is a matter of a contingent participation to an economy and ecology of collaborative survival (Tsing, 2015). Here, unintentional assemblages of stories and knowledges juxtappose, creating unique patterns of commoning (Bollier, Helfrich).
+
+
+[...] *being attentive to the surroundings in the present moment, hyding the eyes behind binoculars-shaped hands, diffracting into the infinitely small and infinitely distant at the same time, introducing yourself as a chain of causations and effect generated within a context, repeat three times from the start, then continue, negotiating conditions of existence within* [...]
+
+
+Back in November 2022, when I was asked to submit the first thesis outline and project proposal I panicked. I found myself to realize I will (very) soon transition between an educational environment and the establishment of a [(precarious) hopefully creative (publishing) whatever practice]. I needed a strategy, I couldn't afford loosing my time writing a thesis, let alone producing a graduation project. It was in that moment that I started charting the master plan to survive after graduation, disguised as a thesis and grad proj.
+
+
+[
+But where to start? The average Dutch educational institution is a great cradle for radicalization of cultures, but at the same time it participates in the commodification of cultural production according to a paradigm of neoliberal exploitation which ultimately means more precarity. 
+
+I needed to look beyond the institution, places where i could find shelter and appreciation, even without being hyper specialized in one specific software, nor with having a 3 page curriculum... 
+]
+
+
+It was in these days, that i started to feel somehow conforted by the word "commons", "that is, the creation of social relation and spaces built on solidarity, the communal sharing of wealth, and cooperative work and decision-making", as Federici describes it (2019, *From crisis to commons: Reproductive work, affective labour and technology, and the transformation of everyday life* in *Re-enchanting the world. Feminism and the politics of the commons*).
+
+commons referes to a relation of belonging. 
+it sets the terrain for a caring survival between autonomy and dependency
+is it changing with circumstances? because that is "the stuff of survival" (tsing, same)
+
+[self-organizing, but in a collective way
+autonomy - dependency ]
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+
+
+[...]
+
+Commons, as a word, attracts a series of worlds, which i will limit to n 3, in order to define the scope of my master plan: care, businesses, and computers (open source software). 
+
+![schema radmin](radmin_care_schema.jpeg)
+
+*the scope of the research, or the schema of the terrain*
+
+
+From my experience I often observed these three worlds satelliting around eachothers, sometimes clashing with violence. But other times they encounter, offering a fertile ground for the formation of a specific kind of inhabitants that share a common profile in between a caretaker, an administrator, and a hacker.
+
+* commons as a pattern/linkage in care, administr and floss >> women labour (federici), radical administration and feral business (rich), and hacker culture as described in (coleman)
+
+* research question:
+in the context of self-organized cultural organizations that rely on floss software infrastructures and/or  self-hosted technologies, how is administration operated in between maintenance and sustainability? (in between might create poles)
+
+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 such (write) sustainability (read: care/well being, economic/financial stability, etc) with actual hands-on practice, tools, strategies and guidelines...
 
 
 
+*the point of view of the research, or creating a character for a parasiting camouflage*
+camouflage: wearing the clothes of the admin to infiltrate and these orgs and extort vital information including how to do taxes, how negotiate working conditions, how to self-sustain 
+* admin as caregiver
 
 
 
+*field research, or infiltration through the pipes of the boiler*
+once the field has been defined, a series of self-orgs started to pop up like mushrooms...
+* trying to look at specif assemblages in which these realms exist, even if in different proportion, snowballing and travelling through the infrastructure connection of the context of the thesis 
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+in the field of [digital (experimental) publishing], 
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+...tbc
+
+
 
 
 
@@ -33,21 +118,19 @@ I like to think that in this question lies the reason why Andersen couldn't help
 
 
 
-What matters is that this situation of precarity creates a big dilemma: how to survive? Apparently the choices are 2: either joining the emperor's entourage, or, and this one is more probable, you're left alone, and it is precisely what it is desirable for the absurd theatre to keep running. In this isolation of the ruins, what Anna Tsing has the courage to suggest is that....
 
 
 
 
 
 
-introducing the shift of vision, helped by noticing tools
-coupling with the entrance quote by ursula le guin: if the emperor is dead then what? tsing proposes to use the lens of precarity 
 
 the precarity and the unsustainable
 
 the project of the thesis is a fieldwork in the crisis of evry day life in a specific context
 
-the irony of doing taxes, it seems the monster that self-employed, free lancers need to confront, a topic for adults, a boring weekend on the spreadsheet. What is it actually to do the taxes? can we do taxes otherwise? what is it that we need to pay and for whom?
+the irony of doing taxes, it seems the monster that self-employed/free lancers need to confront, a topic for adults, a boring weekend on the spreadsheet. What is it actually to do the taxes? can we do taxes otherwise? what is it that we need to pay and for whom?
+
 
 the contraddiction of paying taxes if we are in a survival mode
 taxes and the common

thesis_messy_outline.md

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ donatella from constant : donatella@constantvzw.org
 
 
 * the radmin journal 
+(maybe I'd like to think, a bit in a meta way, that the thesis can narrate this journey of writing a thesis in the very particular context of xpub. at least in the introduction maybe)  actually the point of journaling is to have a mode of address of a strategic plan to survive and infiltrate the self-orgs disguised as a thesis 
 
 In the transition between an educational environment and the establishment of a creative (publishing) practice in the field of [digital (experimental) publishing], a lot of questions arise around how much of the so far carefully constructed values of sustainability, care, collective learning, and autonomy around collaborative work would actually survive, and at which cost. 
 
@@ -45,8 +46,7 @@ Still, there are some takeaway from this incomparable parallel:
 - simone weil draws an analysis of the material [infra-]structure and the more ideological dynamics within a group/society and how they influence each other, and there is something of this way of proceeding that I will use too [well.. marx but we're also sick of him at a certain point]
 - ...
 
-###### connecting to the scope of the research and research question
-"realistically depressing" world (Berlant, 2011),
+##### "realistically depressing" world (Berlant, 2011),
 
 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 definitions 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 ...). 
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ and the third one, will I actuallly learn to do my taxes after all?
 
 
 #### 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
+radical admin as a caregiver and hacker is the idea that the admin facilitates circulation of resources in a creative way, but is also sensitive to the well-being of the org's people
 
 #### radical admin as point of view where things get real.
 
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ and the maintenance responds to instances of (write) sustainability (read: care/
 
 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. 
+the shift to an admin perspective in cultural production/publishing allows for an overview of the material conditions of existence of a 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.