@ -19,9 +19,9 @@ Focus on software documentation as an interface between code, users, developers,
Research how writing software documentation changes depending on the context and actors involved.
Experiment with software documentation as a generative device to keep thinking through code from multiple and different perspectives.
Experiment with software documentation as a generative device to keep thinking through code from different perspectives.
Explore software documentation as iterative process, a format that grows and shrinks through versioning, and embrances branching to adapt to other environments.
Explore software documentation as iterative process, as a format that grows and shrinks through versioning and embrances branching to adapt to specific environments.
Develop tools to facilitate rich software documentation. To assist and stimulate the writing process with prompts and gently reminders that software documentation is a form of care.
@ -35,15 +35,15 @@ Develop tools to facilitate rich software documentation. To assist and stimulate
### How do you plan to make it?
Define a domain of research. Where does software documentation begin and where does it end? What about tutorial, guideline, and demo? How porous is this surface?
Define a domain of research. Where does software documentation begin and where does it end? What about tutorials, guidelines, and demos? How porous or tentacular is this surface?
Set some references by looking back at the works made last year and read them through the axis of code and care. Or some other system of coordinates that suits better. Could the process of writing some documentation reactivate old prototypes, or cast different light on them?
Set some references by looking back at the works made last year and read them through the axis of code and care. Or some other system of coordinates that suits better. Could the process of writing documentation reactivate old prototypes, or cast different light onto them?
Expand the research to tap into projects outside XPUB, such as freelance works and [artistic research](../ooc-summer-session/). Are there ways to make the documentation process more sustainable? Which strategies to overcome a low-resources environment? What are the relations between documentation and the communities around a software?
Expand the research to tap into ongoing projects outside XPUB, such as freelance works and [parallel research](../ooc-summer-session/). Are there ways to make the documentation process more sustainable? Are there strategies to overcome a low-resources environment? What are the relations between documentation and the communities around a software?
Question the nature of the documentation: what does it take for granted? For what kind of public is it produced, and what kind of public does it produce? How does it normalize the context around the software? What are its politics of access? How does it create entry points and how does it gatekeep?
Question the nature of the documentation: what does it take for granted? For what kind of public it is produced, and what kind of public does it produce? How does it normalize the context around the software? What are its politics of access? How does it create entry points and how does it gatekeep?
Try to infiltrate the industry of software development through their documentation. Attempt to expose their typical public to these questions in subtle ways. Offer entry points and escape routes from the universal solution proposed by big corporates.
Try to infiltrate the industry of software development through documentation. Attempt to expose their public to these questions in subtle ways. Offer entry points and escape routes from the universal solution proposed by big corporates.
<!-- There are three main nodes in the graph of this project. Writing software, taking care, and staying low. -->
@ -65,22 +65,22 @@ Try to infiltrate the industry of software development through their documentati
Define a domain of research. Do not decide on it's granularity.
Define the premises where which to ground the project by revisiting first year projects. Draw a political compass of software as care.
Define the premises where which to ground the project by revisiting first year projects.
Think about a glossary and possible formats to test some concept in a small scale, such as the first public moment at Leeszal or the freelance works.
Experiment while writing the documentation for the [Padliography](https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/padliography/) and the [Workbook](https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/workbook/).
Experiment writing the documentation for the [Padliography](https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/padliography/) and the [Workbook](https://hub.xpub.nl/soupboat/workbook/).
**November**
Work on OOC for December performance at NaO Festival, Milan. What does it mean to document a bespoke tool that I'm developing just for this project? Experiment with the documentation for the interactive patch of OOC.
Work on OOC for December performance at NaO Festival, Milan. What does it mean to document a bespoke tool developed just for this project? Experiment with the documentation for the interactive patch of OOC.
Get in touch with key figures to interview for research.
Gather material to have an historical overview of software documentation.
**December**
OOC performance in Milan.
Follow-up about the different documentation processes.
Gather material to have an historical overview of software documentation.
**January**
Gather material to have a critical overview around software documentation.
@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ Interview and case studies from different communities?
Experiment with the idea of versioning, branching, collaborative writing.
**March**
Induce dreams about the final outcome with a follow-up on the thesis research.
Self-induce dreams about the final outcome with a follow-up on the thesis research.
Research and prototype possible formats for graduation project outcome.
**April**
@ -114,16 +114,16 @@ Siesta
### Why do you want to make it?
Software comes from a really specific occidental cultural tradition.
Software tends to priviledge masculine, binary, exploitative and extractive practices.
Software is shrouded in technical obscurity.
Software comes invisible, transparent, neutral.
Software comes from a really specific occidental cultural tradition.
Software tends to priviledge masculine, binary, exploitative and extractive practices.
Software is shrouded in technical obscurity.
Software comes invisible, transparent, neutral.
Software models the world in order to control it.
To make software means not only to write code, but also to take a stance regarding this trends.
To make software means not only to write code, but also to take a stance regarding this trends.
To make software means not only to write code, but also to create a context and community around it.
Documentation is a space that interfaces the different actors around software. Software documentation is a space with potential to renegotiate and reclaim given margins and entry points. It is a chance to undo what is normalized, and let different knowledges and voices participate in the discourse around software.
Documentation is a space that interfaces the different actors around software. Software documentation is a space with potential to renegotiate and reclaim given margins and entry points. It is a chance to overwrite what is normalized, and let different knowledges and voices participate in the discourse around software.
Documenting software it's a complex practice. Documenting software is a process of translation. Writing documentation it's more difficult than writing software itself. It requires a lot of time and energy, and it involves many different skills: writing, coding, knowing how to share and at which intensity. It's a collaborative practice that could open to different voices.
@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ These contingencies are situated in precise contexts, and these contexts are dif
To make place for code turns to be a necessary act of care in the process of sharing knowledge. This does not mean to constrain the usage of some piece of software, or provide opinionated solutions or tutorials, but rather letting others know where does this code come from, and where it would like to go.
> “Our machines should be non-binary, decentralized and unknowing.” (James Bridle. “Ways of Being.”)
> “To think again or anew, we need to re-enchant our tools.” (James Bridle. “New Dark Age.”)
Documentation is a way to produce narrations around software. To create a world for a software to inhabit, to give it affordances and stretch what is possible to do or to think with it. Documentation is a space for the political of software. It's a surface that could host ideas in close contact with codes, letting them entangle and shape each other.
