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Linked to 15 items

from: Small, Clumsy, and Intimate Devices for Awkward Hybrid Settings (report)

Small Clumsy Intimate Devices for Awkward Hybrid Setting was lead by Chae and Erica, two Exerimental Publishing Masters (XPUB) students from the Piet Zwart Institute. This workshop asked how we can bring back intimacy and modes of togetherness when hybrid media interputs. We started off by dividing roles to read the script of the workshop. Clumsily, we were reading as narrators, announcers, quotes, and facilitators while canonic elevator music was playing in the background. From the quotes we heard about how the awkwardness of a hybrid setting reveals humanness. Talking all at once due to latency, speaking while muted, or unmuting in a loud environment without being unaware of it—all of this bring the actual person behind the screen, instead of all the buttons and interfaces, into the limelight. mood
from: Small, Clumsy, and Intimate Devices for Awkward Hybrid Settings (report)
from: Small, Clumsy, and Intimate Devices for Awkward Hybrid Settings (report)

After sharing our uncomfortable online experiences, we dived into the tactical part of the workshop — making intimate devices for a hybrid setting. With March snow steadily falling, we switched from the semi-distracting elevator music to a recommendation from the etherpad chat: the very best of Klaus Wunderlich. Chae demonstrated a prototype of glasses she made with window blinds attached to the frame. While wearing them, you can decide to open or close your blinds to light up a conversation. More kindred devices were laid out for us as inspiration, from curtains for your laptop camera, to analogue loading contraptions which you power yourself. Next to them, a wide array of gadgets and materials for building our own intimate devices. With zigzag scissors, decorative flower stickers and a little whimsy, we crafted filters and devices to test and share in a zoom call. As one could expect of a setting that embraces technological awkwardness, someone forgot to mute, and a dizzying cacophony of voices echoed throughout. mood
from: From Tactics to Strategies (report)

A lot of humour is invoked to partly dispel the weight of responsibilities that comes with Aymeric’s presentation. Community servers becomes a “dinosaur story”: “why did they disappear? they were so powerful!” says Aymeric to a laughing audience. However “there are many obvious reasons as to why they are hard to maintain…”mood
from: From Tactics to Strategies (report)

So it is all too often tempting to go on “the cloud”. quote“The cloud is only present, dominates the internet, and people don’t know what to do about it. How to drop it back to the ground? The cloud is out of reach, or seemingly unreachable”. Lukas has just played a 2 minutes hilarious video of someone shouting at a cloud, trying to make it magically disappear in front of him – repeating frantically and in different tones (in case one of them has more effect on the cloud) “kleee disappear! Kleeee disappear! Kleee disappear!”mood
from: From Tactics to Strategies (report)

As we move on to the third intervention of the session, and as we get emotionally drained by these different displays of our collective disempowerment by Big Tech or the socio-economic situation, nothing could be timelier than Nick Briz’ presentation on “the tactical misuse of online platforms”. Eventhough it must be noted that he appears to us through Microsoft Teams, which makes the audience giggle, especially as he struggles to share his screen.reflection mood
from: From Tactics to Strategies (report)

It is a nice feeling for the audience to have these very practical, small - though not insignificant - perspectives to tactically misuse Big Tech right now. These “little hacks” are accessible enough to everyone to “mess with, hack, play” the constraining surveillance code of the Silicon Valley’s giants. They go “from simple to proficient hacks”, some that any user can do. mood
from: From Tactics to Strategies (report)

We finally arrive at the last session of the day, by Donatella Della Ratta, on tactical video archives. As she plays an amateur video of what seems to be a conference in Syria, in the early 2010s and during the insurrection, we get the feeling that we are getting back to “dark academia.” The speaker in the video explains how “YouTube is a necessary tool to reach international media.” mood
from: From Tactics to Strategies (report)

But no, this won’t be a boringly academic presentation to end the day. As the sound of the man’s speech fades, and an ambient music makes its appearance in frantic rhythm, evoking the battlefield and its harshness, Donatella starts her own narration in such a way that, despite being the end of the day, it catches everybody’s attention by surprise.mood
from: Trends and Aesthetics: The TikTok Limbo (report)

We are seated facing a stage at SPUI25, an open space on the ground floor that is filled with natural light coming from the windows that face into a lively town square. It is cold and misty outside but the space feels bright. There is a podium as well as a table and chairs set up for the round table discussion that will conclude the panel. After a compelling lecture given by Joana Moll which successfully set the tone of the day, the audience seems engaged as we all shift our attention to Dunja Nešović and she introduces the panel she curated: Trends, Tactics and Aesthetics: the TikTok Limbo. mood
from: Trends and Aesthetics: The TikTok Limbo (report)

When Tina mentions the trending song that emerged on the app during the early days of confinement #boredinthehouse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBsPE6yHH9c), the audience laughs in recognition. Trends such as Bored in the House, where creators lip sync along to the Curtis Roach song, gave us a glimpse into the ways the confinement would inspire users to share in and combat a collective boredom using TikTok. mood interesting-practice
from: Trends and Aesthetics: The TikTok Limbo (report)

She begins by sharing the definition of a subculture in the context of her research, “a group of users that both possess and express a certain interest and ideas that in some way are not mainstream or are counter hegemonic.” She gives the example of the trend #cottagecore which elicits nods and chuckles from the audience. interesting-practice mood The cottagecore trend with its slow living, back to the earth aesthetic, possesses a lot of potential for quite obvious anti-capitalism. On the surface it rejects toxic productivity and attempts to rethink our relationship to labour. It encourages those witnessing it to slow down, reconsider and take up non-digital hobbies. It is a reframing of domestic labour and illustrates a way to function outside of the capitalist and patriarchal structure. Although it began as a seemingly inclusive and progressive space there is a very clear overlap with the tradwife movement which has ties to right wing extremist spaces online (https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ak8p8/online-rise-of-trad-ideology). interesting-practice This rethinking of domestic labour then becomes the idea that unpaid, unrecognized domestic labour should be expected from women. These very different sets of beliefs fall under an eerily similar aesthetic which creates a dangerous ambiguity in aesthetics online. reflection
from: Trends and Aesthetics: The TikTok Limbo (report)

Jordi’s presentation starts with a classic technological mishap followed by the audience’s knowing chuckles. The screen of his presentation is purple and it shouldn’t be. Once that has been sorted out he introduces himself. mood
from: Trends and Aesthetics: The TikTok Limbo (report)

The round table starts off with some technical problems with the mics, which again elicits knowing chuckles from the audience. mood Dunja, Tina, Jordi and Agnieszka sit around a table facing the audience. Dunja wants to explore the potential for tacticality with TikTok and the notion of dual tacticality. She notes how boredom is appropriated and exploited by TikTok and there is a need from the users to employ media tactics. Platform intervention that are steering ideologies and dual tactics that generate in the platform environment. She asks question“how are users are being invited to employ platforms to convey certain political or social action while also having to fight this platform giant that has its own interests in the matter?”
from: Trends and Aesthetics: The TikTok Limbo (report)

moodJordi says he is interested in the topic of boredom and platforms taking advantage of boredom. He bring up the classic internet insult of telling someone to go outside and touch grass which elicits laughter from the audience. He doesn’t think that TikToks are just boredom killers, they have the potential to be so much more. Looking back on the history of cinema, it used to be considered a waste of time, going to the movies to kill boredom. Now we regard it as a good and productive thing to do, it doesn’t have the same negative implications. We can “modify the parameters of what is expected of us to do with these platforms” by resignifying, reinterpreting and rethinking the gestures that are expected. reflection