Saturday Scripts: - OCTOMODE workshop / tentacular learning / tentacular publishing resonant tentacular publishing - languages within languages - consent concerns Script rosa pad for each workshop # languages within languages script "what meaning meant was meaningless. there were so many languages inside each language, such different meanings for each word, that the dialogical break was inevitable" (Alexis Pauline Gumbs, M Archive - shared with Varia by Jara Rocha) "Don't get hung up about names." (Linus Torvalds in a very passive-aggressive email exchange https://yarchive.net/comp/linux/everything_is_file.html) Through this script, we invite you to take a few moments to alter the language used within programming environments to situate it within the present group. We will be customising system messages, renaming commands, or changing files. Rosa is connected to the Varia hub, which is "a collection of techniques which allows our server in varia to act as a transit point to make other servers, whether located in the space or outside, reachable over the internet." (from the documentation of setting up the varia hub, by Roel Roscam Abbing.) More information about this setup here: https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/pad/p/varia-hub-documentation A possible rhythm to follow: 15 min - Potential alternative route If you have never used a terminal before, we recommend spending some time to get more comfortable with it. The Map Is The Territory game, developed by Solarpunk.cool is a short introduction to the commands you will need: https://solarpunk.cool/zines/map-is-the-territory/ For a quick cheatsheet, see https://www.guru99.com/linux-commands-cheat-sheet.html 25 min - The login oracle (a score within a script) To log into Rosa, there are two ways, a simple one and a more complex one. The simple one gives you access to the Rosa server while you are on the same network (so only when you are in Varia or in the next physical location of Rosa), and the more complex one gives you access on any network you find yourself on. The simple version: What is ssh https://project.xpub.nl/img/xpub_logo_2020.svg SSH is a command that gives you access to another computer from the terminal. First of all, you need to check if you have ssh enabled on your MAC device. Run: $ sudo systemsetup -getremotelogin If remote login and SSH is currently enabled, the command and report will say “Remote Login: On” whereas if SSH is disabled and in the default macOS state, it will say “Remote Login: Off”. If it's Off, run: $ sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin on Open your terminal and run: $ ssh friend@192.168.1.71 You will be prompted for the password. Ask the key holder at the table about this. The more complex version: you will first need to either have to generate an rsa key. To do this, run: $ ssh-keygen $ cd ~/.ssh/ $ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub Copy the output and ask one of the key holders at the table to add your public rsa key to the Varia server. Edit the following file ~/.ssh/config to include: host varia_hub Hostname vvvvvvaria.org User jump Port 12345 ForwardAgent yes IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_varia host rosa Hostname 10.5.1.2 User friend Port 22 ForwardAgent yes ProxyJump varia_hub N.B. that the key path/name should be made specific to your own situation With the above config you can now do run the following command: $ ssh rosa Alexis Pauline Gumbs introduces her book, Dub: Finding Ceremony, as an Oracle [in a lecture called Future of Praxis _ Meridians - feminism, race, transnationalism, found on youtube] "Sylvia Winter says what we need is a socio-poetics, poetics for the society, we need poetics of a possible relation. The situation we have, she explains, is one of separation. The dominant story and the languages in which we reproduce it say that we are not related. Our relationships with people and environment are mediated by capital and violence. Sylvia Winter says we need a poetic practice that finds a way to center our relationships, to displace the unnatural violence that the whole definition of what it is to be human and racist, hetero, patriarchal, colonial, capitalist, and says this is the only way; to be dominated or dominant with resources or without hope. She says, Can we describe it? That attempt should be our work, the point of all our art, the great creative act. There has not been a day since where I have not mentioned Sylvia Winter, and now I have this book where on every page, I cite a moment of Sylvia Winter making a version of this argument in different contexts and in different ways. She is still making that argument right now, insisting that in this moment, when we can actually communicate as a species, all of us in real time, we are better poised than ever, to reject the false universalism that was used to justify colonialism and slavery.That continues to destroy our life chances on this planet. This for me is also the question of meridians connecting points through lines, boundaries, transnationalism, feminism, race.The work of finding and redefining our relation across all of this, the nuanced poetic activity of reclaiming relation as praxis. Sylvia Winter says the ceremony must be found to create what she calls a we that needs no other. And so I'm offering an Oracle. It requires our relationship and your participation." Oracle Score [these actions are borrowed from a lecture by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, they are edited from a transcript] This Oracle requires your relation. Think of, and activate, a resonant relationship in your own life, maybe part of the reason that you're here, but not a person who's actually here in the room, because that's what's poetic about it. The borders of this university, the limits of capitalist access, even the boundary between life and death cannot eradicate your relations. So we're going to dedicate this space to and for and with our relations. Did you find them? Okay. Write down the name and a little bit about why and who you dedicated to. Take about four minutes to do that right now. Now, think of a question that is at stake for you. In this time in your life. It may have to do with why you prioritise being at this school. It may be related to the person that you dedicated to, or something else that is urgently on your heart. Push away the fear of asking questions we don't already know the answer to. This is not that not to say that that doesn't do anything, just this is not that. Draw on your relation for the power to be poetic in this moment. When you have your question, think of a number between 1 and 49 It could be just the number that comes to you. It could be a number related to your question. Find your number in the book Photograph the words Write a reflection on how this relates to your person, your question, and how you can engage with writing The way this socio-poetic Oracle works is that there are 49 different passages in Dub, that specifically refer to moments of emphasis in Sylvia Winters essays, they are ethno or socio-poetics that I referred to, and those are the 49 We will adapt the score of Alexis Pauline Gumbs for accessing the Rosa server. When logging in, you will see a prompt. You can change this by editing the file /etc/issue using nano. You will need sudo for this: $ sudo nano /etc/issue When logging in, you will see a randomly selected Message Of The Day (MOTD). At the moment, these are excerpts from the book by Gumbs. We invite you to look in the physical space of Varia, the library, the reference book area, the zines, or your own references to add to the oracle. To do this edit the file /etc/motd: $ sudo nano /etc/motd 15 min - Choose your own alias Definition of alias from Merriam-Webster: (Entry 1 of 2) : otherwise called : otherwise known as —used to indicate an additional name that a person (such as a criminal) sometimes uses (Entry 2 of 2) : an assumed or additional name that a person (such as a criminal) sometimes uses In computing, an alias is a command which allows you to replace commands/words with other words. It is mainly used for abbreviating a system command, or for adding default arguments to a regularly used command. Aliases that can currently be found on Rosa in the .bash_aliases file on user friend To start a tmux session to collaboratively write in a terminal: alias together='tmux new -s' run: $ together name_of_session To join an existing tmux session alias join='tmux attach -t' run: $ join name_of_session To make the latest aliases available to be used (run after every change in the .bash_aliases file) alias begin='source ~/.bash_aliases' run: $ begin Next steps Apart from aliases, there are other things we can change: - the lecture file, which contains the message displayed whenever someone uses sudo. To change this run: $ sudo nano /etc/sudoers.unite - cron job that send a message after a certain time. To try this, you could for example print a message to everyone's screens every hour. For this you would first write your message, for example see file /home/friend/broadcast.txt and edit it as you see fit. To make it run, we've added this line to the crontab "0 * * * * cat /home/friend/broadcast.txt | wall" using this command: $ crontab -e The command being run every hour is called "wall". You can use this command to send a message to everyone logged into the terminal: $ write "hello atnofs" References Networking zine by Julia Evans https://jvns.ca/networking-zine-coloured.pdf A server is hard to define https://jvns.ca/blog/2019/12/26/whats-a-server/ https://github.com/jifunks/botany +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ # octomode script +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ # consent script Introduction: (10 mins) To be read out loud by the group, one at a time whenever someone feels like reading and speaking Archival practices, dissemination of information and knowledge sharing are crucial actions for intersectional feminist groups. Thinking about this we quickly come to questions of access, are the materials available to those who need and want them? There is also the question of consent. If you share knowledge, do you let it be shared forever? Do you agree to share it with people you may not know? Is your identity intertwined with what you shared, your body with your data, the traces of your online actions with the shared space around and its community, and... What does that mean? How to take care of yourself and each other? When trying to give our attention to consent while building Rosa, we noticed that we didn't notice(!) many moments when we gave consent to both the hardware and software. We are curious to learn with you, to consider how the processes of setting up a server could be different. We also want to think through how consent appears in the ATNOFS project. As Rosa travels and material accumulates in the storage from many different people, how are participants able to make choices in what materials they share, and how they share them? This is a polyvocal project, do we consent to share across our differences? And how can we build trust and communicate our boundaries? Exercise 1: (15 mins) Hello, consent calling In a circle we think out loud about how consent is relational and can be re-negotiated Intro (read to the group): "The origin of the word consent comes from latin and means “con” (together) + “sentire” (feel), therefore, by itself, ideally, it expresses a mutual feeling" (Peña, Varon 2019). We like to think of consent as a relational process. And as a process, it can and should be re-negotiated. We are asking to think over and about the power dynamics within these infrastructures and relationships, how information, knowledge and its comprehension plays out in these scenarios, who's being affected and how can we care for aligned collective attitudes. We will ask, listen, repeat Someone begins by asking a question to the person next to them that requires consent If the answer is yes then this person (who responded with the yes) poses a new question to the person on their other side If the answer is no then the question moves around but we try a modification, what conditions would be needed for consent? We can also maintain our response of no. If we would never consent to this request then we can change the question completely and continue the circle around We can also choose not to speak if we don't want to, at any time Now we can choose if we would like to do exercise 2 or 3 Exercise 2: (20 mins) Consent related to the server and our relationships around it In pairs or groups of three pick out one scenario of consent from below and talk about it. Scenarios: - You want to use, create or store files in the server but don't want them public or seen by others. How do we keep things private or only available for some in a shared environment? How do we ask for consent? - One service or tool is taking too much space and slowing everything down making it difficult for others to continue their work. How could we deal with this? How do we negotiate server space? Do we have permission to stop or delete processes or files? How and when does consent appear in this scenario? In which moment? What does trust feel like here? Can you change your mind? When you are ready change your scenario, you are also welcome to make a new one. Come together as a whole group to share, discuss and take notes. Exercise 3: Begin to edit a consensual Code of Conduct (CoC) for the server If you went through the languages within languages script already: In the terminal on your computer you can display the running processes of Rosa, you can delete process and manage them in other ways. For example, in the terminal you can type commands such as: ps aux ps aux is a listing of all the processes active in Rosa. Starting from these practices of listening and reading the server, via commands such as px aux, or practices of log reading, how could we write a CoC for the Rosa server? You are welcome to take as a basis the Varia Code of Conduct (https://varia.zone/en/pages/code-of-conduct.html), or any other one, or to create your own. You can make a new pad here: https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/pad/ for the CoC and if you would like to have it indexed, add the magic word "__PUBLISH__". Wrap up - share and discussion: (10 mins) References Everything you own, you've had to build on stolen ground https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/311/pdf (REPLACE) Consent to our data bodies https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/chapters/varia/consent-concerns/ConsentToOurDataBodies.pdf Informed consent - said who? https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/chapters/varia/consent-concerns/Kovacs-and-Jain-Informed-Consent-Said-Who-Final.pdf .......... https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-check-running-process-in-linux-using-command-line/ to do, select some commands and see what you can see https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-check-running-process-in-linux-using-command-line/ [would this exercise continue into the alias workshop - like to change the messages about 'killing' processes? or would it be to add a message like 'is this your process to end?' or can you pose a question to another user, like 'why are you using so much power?' (power not the right word I think) I am not sure how to develop this exercise but it's cool!] ------------------------------- For this we need: - printed and pdfs references - print mini-exercises - pens and paper - access to the rosa pads Notes: trust and curiosity magic words: hidden - transparent - shared - common - just.me - toys - plasticine - fixed / could these conditions be associated with a certain materialily? ooh nice thoughts consent in feminist groups bringing the body back into conversation consent in relation to publishing what material is publishable? how can we add questions into the actions of the server, reminding the feel of the body somehow? pair up to discuse one question and later share with the group - write these questions magic words _XXX_ in relation to publishing and whats in between publish or not-publish like: transparent - hidden / how trust plays a part what does permissions mean in the server? read logs on what / who is taking space use w to see who is in the server References: https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/read/311/pdf https://codingrights.org/docs/ConsentToOurDataBodies.pdf "informed and active consent, when expressed in situations of power equality, can be seen by some as one of the building blocks to ensure the rights to self determination, autonomy and freedom." "at a symbolic, social and subjective level, consent is structured from a system of hierarchically organized opposition based on the sexual order and the logics of dominance: it is women’s responsibility to establish limits to male attempts to obtain “something” from them. it’s not just about consent or not, but fundamentally the possibility of doing so. In this regard, it seems interesting to recall what Sara Ahmed (2017) says about the intersectional approach towards an impossibility of saying “no”: “The experience of being subordinate – deemed lower or of a lower rank – could be understood as being deprived of no. To be deprived of no is to be determined by another’s will”. consent is linked with financial autonomy and economic parity. “Harvey Weinstein and the Economics of Consent” (2017)Brit Marling Consent would be a structural problem that is experienced at an individual level (Pérez, 2016). According to Gira Grant (2016), consent is not only given but also is builded from multiple factors as the location, the moment, the emotional state, trust and desire. consent has a relational and communication (verbal and nonverbal) dimension where power relationships matter (Tinat, 2012, Fraisse, 2012). Ahmed (2017) states “for feminism: no is a political labure”. In other words, “if your position is precarious you might not be able to afford no. [...] This is why the less precarious might have a political obligation to say no on behalf of or alongside those who are more precarious”. we, as consumers of services from a very few companies that hold the monopoly of the most used communications tools and social media networks, are deprived of “no” when we face the terms and conditions of such platforms. We are forced to take a oversimplified binary option between agree or disagree, while the latest ultimately means opting for some level of digital exclusion. This situation represents structural problem, which, from the feminist perspectives that we mapped before, won’t be solved by the individual level. notice and consent seems consistent with the idea of free market, “because personal information may be conceived as part of the price of online exchange, all is deemed well if buyers are informed of a seller’s practices collecting and using personal information and are allowed freely to decide if the price is right” (Nissenbaum, 2011, p.34). As Solove (2013) states, “the current legal view of consent is incoherent (...) law treats consent as a simple binary (that is, it either exists or it does not). Consent is far more nuanced, and privacy laws need a new approach that accounts for the nuances without getting too complex to be workable” our offline and online life is radically interconnected. But also - and here is a very important second argument - our online/offline life is “radically heterogeneous, comprising multiple social contexts”. Berinato 2011 A very similar approach has Julie E. Cohen. For her, to understand privacy simply as an individual right is a mistake: “The ability to have, maintain, and manage privacy depends heavily on the attributes of one’s social, material, and informational environment” (2012). In this way, privacy is not a thing or an abstract right, but an environmental condition that enables situated subjects to navigate within preexisting cultural and social matrices (Cohen, 2012, 2018). as context is crucial to consent, we have to accept its fluid nature (...) we can change our opinion over time depending on how we feel in any given moment and how we evaluate the situation” (Carmi, 2018). The origin of the word consent comes from latin and means “con” (together) + “sentire” (feel), therefore, by itself, ideally, it expresses a mutual feeling. feminist theories and discourses also tend to list a series of qualifiers to make the understanding of consent meaningful. In this sense, values that are normally included as consent qualifiers reinforce that the act of consent needs to be: - a) active, meaning actively agreeing with body and words to do so (not only the absence of no); - b) clear and intelligible; - c) informed, fully conscious; - d) freely given, out of choice and free will; - e) specific to a situation, therefore f) retractable and g) ongoing... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++==+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ resonant tentacular publishing This script is a transformation of a previous resonant publishing workshop, hosted during Zinecamp in November 2021 by Simon Browne, Artemis Grylakki, Alice Strete and Manetta Berends. It also has roots in the Read & Repair session organised by amy pickles and Cristina Cochior in Varia throughout 2021. "We are sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. We are recording the sound of our speaking voices and we are going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of our speech, with the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What we will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. We regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but, more as a way to smooth out any irregularities our speech might have." See https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/chapters/varia/resonant-tentacular-publishing/ for an audio version of the piece. Variation of Alvin Lucier, "I am sitting in a room". http://www.nicolascollins.com/texts/SittingInARoom.pdf During this session we will experiment with models of resonant publishing: publishing that is not left at the end of a process of thought, but is embedded in a social, technical and collective process where thought develops and unfolds. While being with many bodies and voices in a shared space we will operate in a tentacular mode, a variation of tentacular thinking, which is a term that Donna Haraway used to refer to thinking with eight legged species: "I remember that tentacle comes from the Latin tentaculum, meaning “feeler,” and tentare, meaning “to feel” and “to try”; (...) The tentacular ones tangle me in sf. Their many appendages make string figures; they entwine me in the poiesis—the making—of speculative fabulation, science fiction, science fact, speculative feminism, soin deficelle, so far. The tentacular ones make attachments and detachments; they ake cuts and knots; they make a difference; they weave paths and consequences but not determinisms; they are both open and knotted in some ways and not others. sf is storytelling and fact telling; it is the patterning of possible worlds and possible times, material-semiotic worlds, gone, here, and yet to come. I work with string figures as a theoretical trope, a way to think-with a host of companions in sympoietic threading, felting, tangling, tracking, and sorting. I work with and in sf as material-semiotic composting, as theory in the mud, as muddle." "Tentacular Thinking" in Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke University Press, 2016. https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/chapters/varia/resonant-tentacular-publishing/Tentacular-Thinking_Donna-Haraway.pdf Combining tools like etherpad and web-to-print techniques introduce a range of possibilities for publishing practices. This script focuses specifically on collective PDF making, using a tool called octomode. Starting in the middle of the different userspaces that these tools create, the proposal is to experiment with user-subjectivities, pad-listening, di-versioning and other methods that will allow us to re-turn to notions of resonance through vibration, citation and recording. This script introduces methods for collective PDF making, using octomode's pad-publishing environment in which actions of writing, processing and lay-out making continuously cross each other. The proposal is to make a zine together around resonance and produce it in a tentacular mode. A possible rhythm to follow 15 minutes: Install yourselves (as much as you wish) - octomode: https://hub.vvvvvvaria.org/rosa/pads/rosa.raw.html scroll down to "How to use octomode?" - Markdown: https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/markdown/ - CSS: https://curly-braces.hashbase.io/ + https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/css/ - paged.js: https://pagedjs.org/ - "resonance": resonant publishing? "echoing" the room? ...? 15 minutes: Echoes (exercises to warm up - see below) 30 minutes: Resonant listening & speaking - 15 minutes: in pairs, going to another space and listening, then responding (see below) - 15 minutes: 2 resonant streams: collective editing / collective designing --- CONTINUE --- 30 minutes: Continue resonant listening & speaking 25 minutes: Printing/collating/binding - How would you like to print? Paper format? Type? Colour? - How would you like to collate? In order, or not? - How would you like to bind? Which materials? 5 minutes: Share and wrap up Echoes Echo 1 → What is your screen's width? Fill one entire line with your colour. You can press space or use any other key. → Write one or more words in the line without breaking it. You might need to delete some spaces. Echo 2 → Fill in one line of the pad with your preferred (nick)name, your pronouns, and anything else you would like to share with the group about yourself. Echo 3 → Change your pad colour using the colour wheel on the top right. → Open as many browsers as you can and access this pad url from different locations. You can also use Incognito Mode for this in the same browser. → Finish the following sentence from your different user-subjectivities: We are sitting in a room, ... Resonant listening & speaking → Time for experimenting with "pad listening" and "pad speaking". → In groups of 2, explore your surroundings, which can be indoors or outside. Listen together to voices, sounds, discussions, noises. → Can you record what you hear? In pairs, take turns beginning a sentence, and ending it. https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/resonant-rings https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/resonator Server games https://itsfoss.com/best-command-line-games-linux/