Spaghettimonster >> https://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=9137
Bandsalat >> https://github.com/clockdiv/Spaghettimonster/

Sensitive Puppets >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157713930789442

Monstersalat >> https://www.plusea.at/?p=7201

tucked away under the shade of a tree, The Headless Pin Tattoo Studio is open to all, and always hiring. come by and let us temporarily tattoo you with a design that captures your current project. while we work on you, lay back, relax, tell us about your practice. what are you making? why are you making? open up to us, tell us more, what ideas are you chasing? what ideas are chasing you?

to us makers/hackers the world is a malleable place, full of materials and tools that we can use to realize our ideas and shape our surroundings. but what about how we are equally remade in our collaborations with other materials?
if our tools and materials could talk, what stories would they tell of “our” making?

in the summer of 2021 a small group of humans headed to PIFcamp to tattoo people’s projects as stories of their making.

: tattoo artists :
https://leonivoegelin.com/
https://rodolfoacostacastro.github.io/
https://www.jannenorakummer.de/
https://julianjungel.de/
https://www.plusea.at/

she’s been storytelling

he’s been navigating

she’s been jumping

she’s been imagining

she’s been drawing

he’s been breathing

he’s been ferminting

she’s been hurting

he’s been listening

she’s been sending

she’s been wanting

more photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157719753897571
pifcamp >> https://pif.camp/tattoostales-from-the-making/

Performed for the first time during On Stage at FFT Düsseldorf, Saturday March 14th, 10am

This “performative making experience” was based on the idea that taking parts apart (to see what is inside and understand how they work, in order to re-make them differently), could be used as a hands-on experience for participants to engage with other narratives.

The idea of “making as a means of other experiences” had been fermenting in my mind for some time, but the LEG-9 narrative and performance was conceived and realized during one long last evening at Game on Stage, and performed early the next morning. It was a first try to explore the format, and thematically influenced by the spread of COVID-19.

Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157713507450651
Game on Stage >> https://fft-duesseldorf.de/stueck/game-on-stage/
Game on Stage docu >> https://fft-duesseldorf.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/zine_game-on-stage.pdf
Game on Stage zine >> https://fft-duesseldorf.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/zine_game-on-stage.pdf

The Experiance

The Story

A recent outbreak of the Loose Empathy Gift virus [LEG-9] has caused researchers to discover that human empathy may well be the result of an Empathy Gift virus. Human empathy has until now been considered to be a cognitive emotional ability. This new information, that empathy is in fact the result of a non-human cell-culture that we host within us, may well give us cause to rethink our relations with our emotions and foreign cells.

LEG-9 causes infected individuals to experience lower levels of empathy because the LEG-9 virus cells in their body render the Empathy Gift cells [EG-4] defunct. Common practice in developing virus cures has been to eradicate viral cells. A new movement towards Altruistic Modification Methods (AMMs) looks to shift human cures away from human-centric acts of destruction. It considers life-forms harmful to human life to have rights for their survival, and thus calls for altruistic methods in the treatment of such conflicts.

The Virus

The Altruistic Modification Process

Empathy Gift virus [EG-4]

Loose Empathy Gift virus [LEG-9] –> Modified LEG-9 [MLEG-9]

The Forms

First Contact Protocol:

Filled:

Follow-up Questionnaire:

The Documentation

First we took parts apart to experiance it for ourselves:

The life-beat tool:

Process text by Nora:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
a guided meditation
in noticing the electrical conductivity of materials
including our bodies
a practice in
unraveling our material knots
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

An ongoing collaboration with Fereshteh Toosi.

We first met in June 2019, during a week-long workshop titled Blurring Boundaries that Hannah taught at Shakerag. We had a chance to experience each other’s practices and discovered that we are both trying to understand how humanity has come to perceive itself as separate from nature, to trace the effects of this ideology on the current environmental crisis, and to explore possible undoings of this distinction, through our artistic and technological practices.

We next met in November 2019 for a 1-week residency titled —Tasting the Change— in the English countryside. Here we shared thoughts on how conversation on the climate crisis has turned to the possibility that we have run out of time. Movements like Extinction Rebellion are calling for us to consider human extinction as a real possibility. In the face of this possible future, some are seeking new ways to survive while many people around the world have already been suffering displacement and health effects of material extraction for a long time. It is the residents of wealthier countries who are only now beginning to feel threatened by humans’ impact on the earth.

We’ve tried to distill our thoughts into three leading questions:
* How to make our way towards a new vantage point of human-nature-culture entanglement?
* How do render ourselves careful instead of helpless?
* How to deal with our positions of privilege in such an undertaking?

Unraveling our Material Knots is our first step in tracing our human-nature-culture division. What >means< make ourselves feel more part of the material world, and not separate from it?
We want to act upon this feeling.

//
other working titles:
Invisible Circuits
Common Ground
Human-Nature Interactions (HNI)
//

Photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157711843743071
Tasting the Change: residency >> https://artdotearth.org/hothouse-coolhouse-residency/

My plans for Dinacon were to develop An Underwater Studio Practice, but when I arrived and began going underwater to crochet and (thanks to Kitty) discovered plarn (plastic yarn), this practice lead me to write a story about ocean plastic as the result of our human ability to make.

>> https://www.dinacon.org/2018/07/24/crochetteering-a-tale-of-fishy-innovation/
>> https://www.dinacon.org/2018/06/02/an-underwater-studio-practice/
Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157696220704072

Chapter 1: The FPEA

One day all the fish in all the oceans complained to all the humans on all the lands about all the plastic in all the oceans. The humans were upset by this complaint be- cause although they had been suspecting for some time that all their plastic ending up in all the oceans was not a good thing, they had not done anything about it. The humans told the fish their complaint was unwarranted and continued to ignore a fact. The fish told the humans that they would result to drastic measures and threatened with bio-terrorism. Their equivalent of suicide bombing would mean swarms of fish would swim to highly toxic water to intoxicate themselves with pollution that would travel all the way up the food-chain to kill “innocent” humans.

This posed a serious thread that the humans could not choose to ignore. A committee was voted into action. This committee met for several week to come up with a very creative solution. And this was their conclusion:

Plastic is in fact a valuable resource and the fish have not been able to recognise this. Humans must educate fish on how they can use this resource to their own benefit.

As part of this Fish Plastics Education Act, makers and plastics technologists were recruited to go underwater and teach the fish how to make useful things from the plastics in their oceans.
After only a few months of running this programme it was deemed a huge success. This fish were thrilled by all the possibilities available to them and had many ideas for “up-cycling” the plastics in their oceans. But there was a problem, the fish were not able to make the things the humans were showing them themselves. Without hand and big enough brains, they could not man the machines or manipulate the materials. The human answer to this dilemma was to hire a fill-time crew of professional makers to spend their days underwater making whatever the fish told them to out of plastic.

Chapter 2: Plarn
Implementing the Fish Plastic Education Act was a huge undertaking that required all the humans in all the lands to cooperate. Although lands in which little or no fish were part of the traditional diet were reluctant to make as much effort.
Shortly after signing the Act, the trans-national Fish Plastic Education Association was founded and began recruiting maker all over the world. These makers put together a catalog of designs that could be made from the plastic in the oceans. The catalog was printed on recycled ocean plastic paper and posted in every body of water.
The orders division of the FPEA began taking orders right away and makers all over the world were put to work to fulfil these orders.
While the first edition of the order catalog contained designs for custom 3D printed prosthesis, sports equipment and educational games, it was soon updated with designs based on what the fish were actually ordering. More than 90% of all orders were for fashion items – clothing and accessories.
Among the first most popular rends were stripy tank tops and cuttlefish skirts crochet from plarn – a yarn made from discarded plastic bags. Especially in coastal regions with high fish populations the FPEA began recruiting large numbers of crochetteers to fulfil these orders.
Crochetteers, as they called themselves, established a whole new profession around the craft of crochet plarn fashion. Quickly moving on from stripy vests to high-tech wearables and PE-Textiles (Plastic Electronic Textiles).

Chapter 3: Crochetteering

Fish, it turned out, were much more tech-savvy than humans, within only a few years every fish in the ocean was a digital native. As a collective super-organism, fish were the first to adopt ocean-wide wearable technology which they used primarily for data collection. Just like everything else that they depended on in their lives, the data they collected, belonged to The Ocean. The Ocean accumulated this data and every fish had unrestricted access so that they could know the effects of their behaviour on their ecosystem.
Crochetteers were at the forefront of developing these underwater wearable technologies and the first makers to fully comply with the fish’s demand for a zero waste, fully circular innovation process. “Crochetteering” because the term used to describe this holistic techno-craft invention process that only considers solutions that solve for the Whole Earth Equation (WEE) with a time-factor of <5 years. This means that every design in the Ocean Plastic Design Catalog has it’s full life-cycle planned in ahead. Resources remain resources. Waste becomes obsolete.

Chapter 4: Fishy Factors

Crochetteering’s success relied on some fishy factors. These became more apparent, the harder humans tried (and failed) to replicate crochetteering’s success for themselves.
Most notable of these factors was the fish’s concept of “The Ocean” – their inability to perceive themselves as individual entities, separate from their habitat, and their inability to to comprehend the concept of waste – proved impossible for humans to replicate.
In attempts to attain such fish states of mind, humans tried many things. Some modified their genes, few went to live among them, many studid them intensely. But to this date human have not been successful in evolving their individuality back into a super-organismic state of mind.
With over 1/3 of the world’s human population now employed by the FPEA, global production of plastics has decreased by more than half, simply because makers are so busy making and remaking ocean plastic designs for fish that they don’t have time to make for humans.
While the majority of makers employed by the FPEA state they are happy living out their lives in service of the fish, there has recently been an increase in makers asking “What Next?” – must humans remain sub-servant to other life-forms in order to fulfil their role in the Whole Earth Equation?

Crochetteering – a tale of fishy innovation
A good-night story for Dinaconnaisseurs

Making Discussion comes from a desire to be able to use my hands to manipulate matter in order to engage in discussions. Not discussion about the form and function of what is being created, but philosophical, political discussions about abstract topics. In particular I was interested in real-time discussions/conversations that normally take place in spoken language, in shared physical space.

To create an opportunity to experiment with this format, I decided to try and design a kind of work outfit for the maker discussor. A shoulder bag intended to be worn as a regular bag, with pouches for foraging, hunting and gathering materials throughout the day. Similarly to how we pick up ideas, collect thoughts, take notes, this bag is a storage container for material ideas. When the maker discussor enters into a discussion, the bag can be transformed into a tool-apron, a work uniform, a discussion costume. The pouches containing the foraged materials are easily accessible and the rest of the apron contains a selection of tools that can be used for working these materials, manipulating them and producing discussion.

For (no)action(no)space I produced five of these uniforms to allow a group of people to hunt and gather material for ideas and then come together to make discussion.
In the nans space at Schloss Solitude people brought in materials to contribute to the discussion and we also collected materials from outside the Schloss. The Making Discussion was lead by a presentation/narrative, which provided content for the discussion, but also tried to lead the discussion into a making trance. Listening to the talk, handling the materials, concentrating on both making and understanding created the experience. The objects in the end didn’t really get to talk, and it was not clear to me if or how they should have a voice. This discussion was more about shared experience. I want to try it again.

(no)action(no)space

“Siting Around the Same ›Fire‹ in the Digital Age”
>> https://schloss-post.com/siting-around-fire-digital-age/

These are some of the questions that came up for me while planning, making and executing this project:
Can we make with materials as fast as our minds can think? If we have to slow the speed of discussion down to a “makeable” rate, does this change the nature of the discussion? Can we mix makers and talkers in discussion?
Materials are not as abstract, as language. How much influence does the material impose on the conversation?

Sunday December 11th 11-14:00 at (no)action(no)space in Schloss Solitude

Participants are invited to make discussion by building structures from a select palette of materials and tools. The topic for discussion will be introduced in the form of a lecture. The fact that the materials selected for this task reference values that resulted from Bruno Latour’s investigation into our modes of existence, might or might not be important. The tools will be selected for their ability to manipulate and join these materials in a variety of ways and could be unequally distributed among the participants. The discussion will last slightly longer than the lecture, and will end with tea and sweets. Come hungry.

Project page >> http://noactionnospace.org/
Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157675729952331

Poster:

Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157675729952331

Making-of: Making Discussion

The following entries are marked by date and trace the development of this project. Trying to collect sources of inspiration, communication and events that took place as this project took shape.

7/12/2016

Second Prototype – „let’s stay Mondrian inspired“

Searching the web for constructivist aprons, I come across the collection of Eldina Begic:
multi-pocket-apron >> http://shop.comradettes.com/product/multi-pocket-apron
manifesto >> http://www.comradettes.com/manifesto
>> http://designobserver.com/article.php?id=28348

6/12/2016

First Prototype

The lower part of the bag/apron contains pouches for gathering/gleaning materials as ideas, inspirations, input for discussing. The upper part of the tool apron contains the tools for discussing with.

Laura: „let’s stay Mondrian inspired“, “the white ground is crucial”…

This reminds me of my attempt (and failure) at making the PIFpack inspired by a similar order of lines and colored surfaces…

Constructivist inspired…

But also because order creates a freedom. Andrea Zittel’s organized, optimized, personal spaces and uniforms – where structure on the outside provides for freedom within.

Digital Publication

Notes from the meeting about the digital? publication to accompany (no)action(no)space…

6/12/2016

(foraged)materials(select)tools

instead of focusing on the selection of materials, i’m now more curating the selection of tools/processes for working with materials/matter.

The selection of materials&tools for the discussion toolkit is becoming more and more an e-textile/kit-of-no-parts toolkit. Through the combination of foraged materials with electrical circuit elements, it somehow proposes to explore making electronic circuits. Or maybe just circuits.

JB: I use this word (manifestation / erscheinung != representation / darstellung) with phenomenology in mind, especially embodiment* & collective embodied cognition/thinking
>> http://www.iep.utm.edu/husspemb/

“motility – make freely and responsively”

Making, the Integrated Circuit:

Gramophone and movies were merely the mechanization of speech and gesture. But the radio and TV were not just the electronification of speech and gesture but the electronification of the entire range of human personal expressiveness. With electronification the flow is taken out of the wire and into the vacuum tube circuit, which confers freedom and flexibility such as are in metaphor and in words themselves.” 1955
Edited by Eric McLuhan & Frank Zingrone “Essential McLuhan” Routledge 1997 ISBN 0-415-16245-9 page 273.

“the wheel
is an extension of the foot
the book
is an extension of the eye
clothing, an extension of the skin,
electric circuitry,
an extension of
the
central
nervous
system”
The Medium is The Massage, Marshall McLuhan p 31-40

Once the environment is conceived as mediated, it ceases to be a passive concept and becomes an active one, as Janine Marchessault has pointed out: “Nature in the new cosmic age of the integrated circuit is profoundly technological and technology is natural”
McLuhan in Space: A Cultural Geography by Richard Cavell

For Virilio, when information becomes the “last dimension of space-time-matter”, and computer-generated virtuality is possible, the “far horizon” (beyond which the human eye could not see) becomes a “trans-apparent horizon” and the “mental image of far distances” yields to “instrumental imagery of a computer that can generate a virtual otherworld, thanks to the computing speed of its integrated circuits” (Virilio 1995:143). With increases in processing power and graphic frame rates, and the advent of portable, personal virtual-environment systems, Virilio observes a change in the speed of history: from long-term to short-tern to “real-term”.
Transforming McLuhan: Cultural, Critical, and Postmodern Perspectives by Paul Grossweiler

Feminists must, she proclaims, unite behind “an ironic dream of a common language for women in the integrated circuit.”
“A Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Haraway

6/12/2016

Definitions

Definitions taken from Wikipedia and Google:

Intercession

Intercession is the action of intervening on behalf of another.
Synonyms: mediation, intermediation, arbitration, conciliation, negotiation; intervention, involvement; pleading, petition, entreaty, agency; diplomacy

Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying to a deity on behalf of others. In Western Christianity, intercession forms a distinct form of prayer, alongside Adoration, Confession and Thanksgiving.

Transistor

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power.

Semiconductor

Semiconductor devices can display a range of useful properties such as passing current more easily in one direction than the other, showing variable resistance, and sensitivity to light or heat. Semiconductors can be used for amplification, switching, and energy conversion.

Energy Conversion

Energy transformation or energy conversion is the process of changing one form of energy to another form of energy. In physics, the term energy describes the capacity to produce certain changes within any system, without regard to limitations in transformation imposed.

Relay

A relay is an electrically operated switch. Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a separate low-power signal, or where several circuits must be controlled by one signal. The first relays were used in long distance telegraph circuits as amplifiers: they repeated the signal coming in from one circuit and re-transmitted it on another circuit. Relays were used extensively in telephone exchanges and early computers to perform logical operations.

4/12/2016

Hunted and Gathered

Materials & Tools spreadsheet >> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VRTYw3eqCRDKbbAfFCZhn_m_OTY8PnszMVn3z0qdlls/edit?usp=sharing

The materials can be hunted and gathered from anywhere at any time. While food shopping in the supermarket you could forage for items that inspire you to build. When visiting a friend, ask them to give you something to include in your materials library. On your walks, gather whatever sparks interest, and go hunting for what you want to have.

JB: Varda’s The Gleaners and I is notable in another regard, as well. In a film about gleaning, Varda recognizes that she is a gleaner. “I’m not poor, I have enough to eat,” says Varda, but she points to “another kind of gleaning, which is artistic gleaning. You pick ideas, you pick images, you pick emotions from other people, and then you make it into a film.”
>> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gleaners_and_I

Foraging pouch

Apron for tools
>> http://vintagecraftsandmore.com/tag/sew-apron/

Fire Hose shop apron
>> http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/product/shop-apron-improved-fire-hose-bib-apron-85021.aspx

Printed apron
>> http://www.stephaniewilkinson.co.uk/swapron.htm

Hunt & Gather Apron Bag by Natalie Purschwitz
>> http://canadiandesignresource.ca/fashiontextiles/apron-bag/

Thing to Thing Project >> http://canadiandesignresource.ca/exhibitions/thing-to-thing-project/

Unisex hairdresser belt tool bag / Hairdresser holster/ Hair stylist apron / Hairdresser gift
>> https://www.etsy.com/listing/128862205/unisex-hairdresser-
belt-tool-bag

Alibaba

Snap Bag
>> http://wuitoki.altervista.org/portfolio/snap-bag/

Apron Bag
>> http://wuitoki.altervista.org/portfolio/the-apron-bag/

Design-A-Bag Competition 2013 >> http://www.arsarpel.com/future-designers-awards/

AMUDO
A bag that can transform from a handbag to a backpack or sling bag.
>> http://www.coroflot.com/lkong/Amudo-State-changing-Bag

Apron Tool Bag
>> http://www.red-dot.sg/de/online-exhibition/concept/?code=829&y=2013&c=12&a=2?code=829&y=2013&c=12&a=2
This tool storage bag unzips into a work apron in which tools can be carried for convenient access during repair work.

1923 Flapper Era Aprons Dust Caps Sewing Reference Book DIY Prohibition Clothing

Skirt Aprons

Gathering apron
>> https://www.vermontapron.com/garden-aprons

Berry picking apron pattern
>> http://sewinghappyplace.blogspot.de/2011/09/berry-picking-apron-tutorial-from-1944.html

Kneeling apron pattern
>> http://sewinghappyplace.blogspot.de/2011/09/be-kind-to-your-knees-kneeling.html

Harvesting bags

2/12/2016

An Inquiry into Tastes

As part of our third White Dinner party, I tried an experiment to get myself more familiar with the 15 modes of existence, and to discuss the idea the inquiry into these modes and their crossings.

I bought a selection of foods from Lidl, making the selection based on the idea of creating sweets. But as soon as we started tasting them in combination it became apparent that it was not going to be about building/constructing sweets, but about describing taste/texture combinations.

Each food was put into a white paper box with the mode description glued to the bottom.

Adding cooked pasta to help make combinations. Not sure this really went anywhere.

3/12/2016

Selecting Materials and Tools

Originally I imagined the selection of materials and tools for the tool kit it to have nothing to do with e-textiles, but now I find myself coming back to these materials because they so nicely allow for a cohort of raw(ish) fibers co-existing with man-made power structures.

Materials

The materials should be abundant resources, although maybe some materials could have scarcity as a property? Is it scarce in the sense of hard to get, or scarce in the sense of unsustainable? And then by abundant do I mean easy to find, or sustainable? The selection of materials should pay attention to sustainability and communicate this property of the materials as part of the kit.
The combination of materials should allow for quick and accessible making of structures/artifacts/mechanisms/circuits so that one can quickly “sketch” an idea. Quickly build an idea. A prototype. But the materials should also provide enough possibilities for endless exploration/expression. Should these materials not be all the materials? Why have a selection?

The selection of materials is made while foraging. What you find, determines what you discuss.

Notes:
– thread/sewing/tension/structures/models/sculptures…
– common/everyday/natural/materials…

Tools

Similarly can the toolkit contain any tool you want? Is the toolkit fixed? Maybe not to the exact tool, but certain tool properties which could be as broad as: additive, subtractive, manipulative…? No, the tool-kit should remain flexible, expanding to the abilities of the maker/wearer. The uniform provides a platform for making discussion, not the selection of materials and tools to discuss with, these are the choice of the maker.

2/12/2016

A Lecture on Intercessors

JB will give his lecture on intercessors – people, artefacts & machines that help us access to otherwise separated plans/dimensions.

Previously his talk titled “Morphogenesis Of The Outside” was followed by “a hands-on workshop with philosophers, dancers and artists discussing about self-reference, ontological bootstrap and high-order feedback while tinkering with electronic textile musical machines.”

Morphogenesis Of The Outside >> https://github.com/jeanbaptiste/paf/blob/master/summer2015/talk/moto.pdf
Oscillator / Resonance / Feedback Circuit Workshop >> https://github.com/jeanbaptiste/paf/blob/master/summer2015/workshop/README.md

He is also thinking about:
“material thinking” (pensée matérielle) which explores embodiment and hands-on practices as a mode of intellectual investigation.
“material ways of thinking” are a *very rich complement* to more abstract and rhetoric based argumentative settings.

11/2016

A first draft of the project description…

I find myself in the blurry midst of these two topics:
– documenting process in real-time
– physical making as a means of communication/discussion

And yesterday came to this rather simplistic proposition:
Latour defines 15 modes of existence (I am just at the beginning of understanding their definitions and crossings). Can these modes be translated into a selection of materials and accompanied by a set of tools, to provide a toolkit for further inquiry?

JB’s response: “in the same vein that a “reading group” triggers a discussion, a “making group” could do the same. but what do we make? … a miniature model / a mock-up / a demo”

A second draft…

I propose a “making discussion”. Making involves materials and tools, so I will put together a set of materials and tools. One representative material for each defined mode of existence. These materials should be abundant resources – drinking straws, napkins, leaves, string, hair, paperclips, paper, bottle tops, elastic bands, pins, gum, coins, magnets…
Tools would be chosen for the ability to modify and work these materials into combined structures.
I imagine a uniform or costume for the “inquirer into our modes of existence”. The uniform contains the tools (similar to a tool belt), and provides space for collecting and organizing the materials. And if not a uniform, then a portable tool-kit. I will make multiples of this uniform/tool-kit and participants will each wear/use one during the making discussion.

How to start a “making discussion”? Can the materials inform the content of the discussion? We could build structures that house our existence. Miniature world models. Homes. Can we talk while we make? Contradictions are a natural starting points for discussion.

Who will participate in the making discussion? Skilled makers, manipulators of material. Is there an audience?

Documentation? Real-time photo documentation via wifi directly from the camera. A camera should be integrated into each uniform – too much for this time. Maybe a central camera mounted above. A designated photo reporter?

Links and quotes:

JB’s slidedeck as a proposal to create a research lab in an art school context:
>> http://web.media.mit.edu/~labrune/talks/fablab-perspectives-l.pdf

Froebel’s Gifts:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froebel_gifts

Frei Otto’s “Thinking by Modeling” exhibition at ZKM
>> http://zkm.de/en/event/2016/11/frei-otto-thinking-by-modeling

“Leibniz was interested in facilitations of thought processes by technical means and offered the procedure enabling inventors to achieve this objective: Formalisation enables the mechanisation of calculation.”
(http://dreher.netzliteratur.net/4_Medienkunst_Kybernetike.html)

“a transport without transformation”
(http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/328)

11/2016

Starting to read Donna Haraway’s “Staying with the Trouble”.

Donna Haraway, “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble”, 5/9/14 from AURA on Vimeo.

10/2016

I forget why, but in looking for information about the book “Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schzophrenia”, I came across these drawings by Marc Ngui. He writes they are methodical interpretations of the first two chapters of the book. These are visualizations of theories and concepts using markers and paper. How could something like it be done in three-dimensional, material form?

>> http://www.bumblenut.com/drawing/art/plateaus/

A while later I see that Haus der Kulturen der Welt is organizing a discussion series titled “Dictionary of Now”. They use an image by Nikolaus Gansterer titled “Theory Casing IV (of the Middle of the Moment)”, 2013.

Dictionary of Now >> https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2015/woerterbuch_der_gegenwart/woerterbuch_der_gegenwart_start.php
Nikolaus Gansterer >> http://www.gansterer.org/

The original piece by Nikolaus Gansterer does not include the annotating text. I wonder if the text is the written interpretation of the content of the form. The content the form wants to express. His project pages says “Proxemics is the study of how individuals behave in space in terms of proximity-distance. It specifies the distances that people maintain from one another in different situations, thereby communicating with one another non-verbally.”

8/2016

On the Symposionista blog I discover Latour’s video “An Inquiry Into Modes Of Existence”.

For the last half year I have been attempting to read Bruno Latour’s book “We Have Never Been Modern”. Only slowly grasping the idea that after realizing we can not distinguish our time by thinking of ourselves as modern, because what we think of as modernity is not what we are, we are lacking a value system. To (re)create or begin to define our value system, we must first reset.

The video leads me to the digital platform of An Inquiry into Modes of Existence:
>> http://modesofexistence.org/

And the recent ZKM exhibition “GLOBALE: Reset Modernity!”
>> http://zkm.de/en/event/2016/04/globale-reset-modernity
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STn9DLHtoBA

And the book cover:

And to think about how I could add to this discussion through making physical artifacts. The visual representations of modes on the book cover, and the arrangement of their crossings in the triangular chart make these value entities appear tangible. If they were really tangible, what translations could be added to their discussion?

9/2016

This picture taken of an elastic band lying in a puddle on the ground, reminded me of a segmented chart. It captures both separation and overlap of objects, contents, ideas. A random shape by a specific material. Trying to create order, by just lying on the ground.

Tracing the shape and separating the segments to become entities of their own. The overlap can be assigned to part of each segment or remain a segment on it’s own.

The overlap must expand to grow beyond itself.

9/2016

An exercise in adding metadata to images…
I read about DiEM 25
>> http://nala.io/~s/_site/
>> http://diem25.org/

21/8/2016

Symposionista >> http://symposionista.tumblr.com/
Expose >> https://github.com/Jack000/Expose/issues
Symposionista + Expose >> http://nala.io/symposion/

Symposion: group of people come together and each of the person propose a talk but first they would drink, eat, and talk, it is open, no agenda only a conversation space to express thoughts, an incubator to initiate further thoughts.

POSSIBLE OUTCOME: A multi person, multi format, multi layered, multi platform ESSAY (essay means attempt, trial, infinite, polyperspective, collaboratively curated, subjective research, participant-dependant narrative)

MEETING PLACES: BodenSee, Brussels, Nantes, Athens, Stuttgart, Paris, PAF…

photos >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/albums/72157660506310992
video >> https://vimeo.com/162536324

human controller costumes:

MAKING-OF:

aesthetic explorations with conductive fabrics:

introduction to textile sensors:

learning to prototype and code:

controlling a robot with textile sensors:

workers pushing button to work

abandoned workstation – the workers have revolted!

R&D – research and development

behind the scenes

press from each team

Weaving rugs from scrap fabrics has tradition in Austria and they are known as Fleckerlteppiche or Alpenperser. The Alpenperser 2000 is woven from blends of conductive and non-conductive scrap fabrics. So as not to waste the electrical capabilities of these high-tech scraps, the rug is constructed to recycle the electrical functionality of the original fabrics to create an array of textile sensors. The rag rugs of our future will be floor-bound computer interfaces.

Links:
>> 2015 E-Textile Summercamp Swatch Exchange
>> www.kobakant.at="" diy="" ?p="5519"">Fleckerlteppich Sensor

The Schmiedeperser is a full-size carpet version of the Alpenperser 2000 technique. It was woven during the 2015 Schmiede festival in Hallein/Austria with the help of Irene Posch and Costas Bisas, from the scrap fabrics contributions in the form of old cloths from all the Smiths. Thank you!

Fleckerlteppich Tradition

The book “Traditionelles Handwerk – Lebendige Volkskunst” writes about the tradition of Fleckerlteppiche in Austria:
“Neben verschiedensten Geweben und Mustern für Bekleidung (werden auch Bodenbeläge und Wandbehänge angefertigt. So wurden ähnlich den “Defreggerdecken” Osttirols noch vor einem Jahrzehnt im Flachgau Teppiche geschaffen mit einem Schußgarn das aus feinen Tierhaaren mit Mischwolle ersponnen wurde. Dagegen schneiden die Frauen zur Erzeugung von “Fleckerlteppichen” alte Textilien und Stoffreste, “Fleckel” eben, schräg zur Webrichtung in regelmäßige Streifen und nähten sie aneinander- Während für die Kette starke Garne Verwendung finden, wickelt der Weber jene schmalen Bänder als Schuß entweder wie normal auf die Spule im Schiffchen (153), oder er hat sie auf einem Flachholz mit ausgenommenen Enden (Filetnadel) aufgespannt (164). Wie volkstümlich diese Handarbeit ist, erkennt man daran, daß sich im Gegensatz zur allgemeinen Weberei bei dieser Tätigkeit nicht nur Männer, sondern gleichermaßen Frauen wie Kinder finden, die etwa das “Rosengang-Muster” (165 links) geschickt anfertigen; auch sind kleinformatige Tischwebstühle dafür geeignet (166). Bei der Fertigstellung dieses “Alpenpersers” werden noch das Kettgarn zu Fransenbüscheln geknüpft und die abstehenden Schußenden abgeschnitten (164). Muster ergeben sich durch verschiedenartige Verkettungen von Kette und Schuß. Je komplizierter dabei ein Motiv ist, desto mehr Schäfte benötigt man.”
(p93-95, Hanak, Elfriede/Martischnig, Michael. Salzburg. Traditionelles Handwerk. Lebendige Volkskunst. Wien, Schroll 1981., 1981.)

>> http://www.zvab.com/Salzburg-Traditionelles-Handwerk-lebendige-Volkskunst-Martischnig/215081315/buch

Alpenperser 2000 Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157654191467786

Schmiedeperser Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157656705013223

Fleckerlteppich Sensor Flickr set >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157652016311535

Performance

Video

Collaborative work

Front and Back

Close-ups of process

Installation

It Works was created during the E-Textiles Summer Camp in collaboration with Isabel Cabral, Meg Grant, Marjan Kooroshnia and Mili Tharakan

Team members: Yi-Chun Lu (Sasha), Cetus, Kao Chieh, Ming-Chun Liu, Cheng Ru Li (Kim), Lisa Hsieh, Jen Hisn Ying, Sarah Hirschman, Ho Kwan Yip (Mavis) and Hannah Perner-Wilson

ICEBREAKERS – Connecting the Masses in Transit

Icebreaking interventions on Taiwan’s MRT public transit system. Every day Taipei’s MRT mass transit system transports one million passengers (40% of the population), but despite boasting 94% customer satisfaction (compared to San Francisco 65%, Chicago 80%) the routine act of being transported from A to B is perceived by many to be lost time, a hole in their day. The Icebreakers believe this absence presents a unique opportunity for social activism on the most basic scale. The Icebreakers believe in the positive benefits of breaking the social ice that exists within the public space of mass transit.

Project website >> http://scumiticebreakers.wordpress.com/

The MRT Brown Line is a unique platform within the overall Taipei transit system. Narrower cars, above-ground travel, and a variety of program destinations mean that the Brown Line attracts a wide section of the community, and contains it more compactly than on any other line. This is an ideal site for public activism to promote interactions of any type.

Icebreaking agents are activists. They are upset with the lack of interaction happening on the MRT and take initiative by creating, installing and hacking the space in order to facilitate communication among the masses. We distribute our endeavors via how-to instructions that detail how to make, install and administer these interventions.

Three example installations demonstrate various levels of intervention. All of them aim to break the ice within the MRT. Ideally, interventions are located such that they will be encountered in routine acts of holding on to the handles and poles already present in the MRT, on the windows, and on the ceiling, where the eyes might wander in an attempt to avoid direct eye contact in a crowded car.

Beginner: Hand Puppets

This project is suitable for beginner Icebreakers. It involves buying puppets and modifying them to fit the handles of the MRT car.
The project situates itself in the realm of intervention, offering a quick and easy way for anybody wishing to break the ice to act. Existing puppets are simply modified to fit the handles within the MRT car. few or almost all handles may be covered. The intention behind this project is to offer passengers an avatar through which to engage in interactions with fellow passengers. Drawing upon the power of dress-up and theatre to bring people out of their usual set characters, this project offers them an alternative persona through which to ‘break the ice.’ This project also subtly plays on the fact that in the digital age, we all have our online screen names through which we fluently interact with strangers almost every day on the internet.

Intermediate: Piano Pole

This project is for intermediate Icebreakers. It involves hacking a toy piano and sewing a textile electronic interface that can be attached to the poles within the MRT car.
Installed by wrapping it around the poles within the MRT, this textile musical installation occupies space intended for holding tight. Standing passengers need a place to hold on, and might first experience this installation by accident. Once encountered, they can then decide whether to engage further in the musical experience. The choice to map a very concrete musical score to the pole creates not only the initial shock effect of accidentally triggering a first note, but also offers the opportunity of playing with it as an instrument. Unlike a game there is no concrete goal, but there is a wrong and a right way to play a song and this can create a certain incentive to continue playing beyond the initial surprise of discovery.

Expert: Give Me A Hand

This project is for expert icebreakers. It involves programming interactive animations that can be displayed on the MRT LED screens (currently being proposed to the MRT for advertising purposes) and promote interaction among and between passengers. These interactive animations will not be triggered unless five or more handles in any one carriage are being held.
Occupying the ceiling space of the car, this project situates itself where one usually focuses in a crowded car to avoid direct eye contact. This installation makes way for a range of different applications that, in the context of icebreaking, aim at connecting individuals. The handles in the subway car act as collective input devices.

Workshop documentation

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 8

This work was created in collaboration with Yi-Chun Lu (Sasha), Cetus, Kao Chieh, Ming-Chun Liu, Cheng Ru Li (Kim), Lisa Hsieh, Jen Hisn Ying, Sarah Hirschman and Ho Kwan Yip (Mavis)

Project page >> Massage me
KOBAKANT project page >> Massage me

How to Massage me video

This work is a KOBAKANT collaboration with Mika Satomi.