CHT/TOTALISM.ORG "101"
2021-11-12 @ KUNSTHAL GENT
Table of Contents
¶!* Let's establish a common point of departure
Rather than "presenting the project":
let's establish a common ground,
in terms of the conditions we find ourselves & the world that surrounds us,
as we might see, mediated, in the present,
and interpolate, speculate, about the future.
_________
→ 🔗goals:
(1) Anti-Ecocide →:
🔗ecology
(2) Anti-Right→:
(=preserving status quo of privilege, exploitation, exclusion, subjugation)
→ 🔗postmarket (intro)
Rather than "presenting the project":
let's establish a common ground,
in terms of the conditions we find ourselves & the world that surrounds us,
as we might see, mediated, in the present,
and interpolate, speculate, about the future.
_________
→ 🔗goals:
(1) Anti-Ecocide →:
🔗ecology
(2) Anti-Right→:
(=preserving status quo of privilege, exploitation, exclusion, subjugation)
→ 🔗postmarket (intro)
¶!* But how? → CHT/TOTALISM as a mapping project
(the presentation) is a trip:
* the territory is vast
* all material is authored collectively: lots covered and published, lots yet unpublished, much more to do
* "new collectivity" (not "within the project") / "curatorial writing" / "documentarianism"
###LT: don't confuse practical explaining of how presentation will take place with already explaing CHT concepts ?
With comrades, we established:
1) some of the pathways
2) a "clearing" from where we all can organize to explore new ones.
3) tools to make new paths
(the presentation) is a trip:
* the territory is vast
* all material is authored collectively: lots covered and published, lots yet unpublished, much more to do
* "new collectivity" (not "within the project") / "curatorial writing" / "documentarianism"
With comrades, we established:
1) some of the pathways
2) a "clearing" from where we all can organize to explore new ones.
3) tools to make new paths
¶ ... by reading, referring to existing materials
"it is all already there"
Neither:
* preparing some "special" new materials
* some "particularly topical overview
(This is "self-canonization").
But a speedrun, to establish the shape of the compendium.
You can always read in-depth later & contact base for real work.
"it is all already there"
Neither:
* preparing some "special" new materials
* some "particularly topical overview
But a speedrun, to establish the shape of the compendium.
You can always read in-depth later & contact base for real work.
¶ ... non-linearly
Explaining this is 3D chess:
* fragments, hyperbole
* spiraling around the point
* pan in + pan out
* opened tabs
-
We will be, in parallel, creating a graph of texts, you'll be able to see there.
→ 🔗101-at-khg
Explaining this is 3D chess:
* fragments, hyperbole
* spiraling around the point
* pan in + pan out
* opened tabs
-
We will be, in parallel, creating a graph of texts, you'll be able to see there.
→ 🔗101-at-khg
¶ ... please interrupt; give signals if it's too fast, or slow; ask questions at any moment
(This ties to 🔗cues).
¶ ... we will hang out & give space for discussion at the end
You are also welcome to visit us in the studio at Kunsthal Gent:
until end of year, where we are residents of their 3-month development programme, which we entered October 1st.
Archive opening + coordination on November 12th
### check
<------------------------------------ (new) meta-pastiche / general outline ↑
You are also welcome to visit us in the studio at Kunsthal Gent:
until end of year, where we are residents of their 3-month development programme, which we entered October 1st.
Archive opening + coordination on November 12th
¶*** BLOCKS
aka OUTLINE / TOPICS / CAROUSEL / PUZZLES / BLOCKS / CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE (CYOA) / ###
aka OUTLINE / TOPICS / CAROUSEL / PUZZLES / BLOCKS / CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE (CYOA) / ###
¶* KHG residency intro
<<<L
"Kunsthal Hackbase
Starting October [throughout December] 2021, CHT/Totalism.org hackbase inhabits Kunsthal Gent, with a participation-focused public programme. With Labs, Inhabitation, Excursions, Happenings and a continous archive exhibit."
→ https://kunsthal.gent/ontwikkeling/cht-totalism-org-hackbase
<<<D
→ 🔗@khg (part 3, "residency outline")
→ 🔗@khg-programme
###
"Kunsthal Hackbase
Starting October [throughout December] 2021, CHT/Totalism.org hackbase inhabits Kunsthal Gent, with a participation-focused public programme. With Labs, Inhabitation, Excursions, Happenings and a continous archive exhibit."
→ https://kunsthal.gent/ontwikkeling/cht-totalism-org-hackbase
→ 🔗@khg (part 3, "residency outline")
→ 🔗@khg-programme
¶* "Living archive" & Hypergallery
<<<L
"""As of 2021:
CHT/Totalism.org is an expanse of thousands of interlinked pieces of living written, intermedia & sensor documentation, software specs & code*, and infrastructure equipment, held together as a multi-faceted hypermedia & resource compendium, and affiliated with a growing number of fellow travellers."""
→ 🔗@khg
<<<D
🔗@khg— see "topicweave"
🔗graph-index
"""As of 2021:
CHT/Totalism.org is an expanse of thousands of interlinked pieces of living written, intermedia & sensor documentation, software specs & code*, and infrastructure equipment, held together as a multi-faceted hypermedia & resource compendium, and affiliated with a growing number of fellow travellers."""
→ 🔗@khg
🔗@khg— see "topicweave"
🔗graph-index
¶* Postpostmodernism
###L: move bellow the general intro, about "hackspaces"
* PPM as a extension of 🔗goals to the artistic realm
* "art sovereignity"
* PPM as a extension of 🔗goals to the artistic realm
* "art sovereignity"
¶!* Hackerspaces & Hackbases intro
<<<D:
"Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people share their interest in tinkering with technology, meet and work on their projects, and learn from each other."
https://hackerspaces.org/
woke:
* >1000 around the world → https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces
* common genome with squatting and radical left in 1990s scene
* 🔗real-hacks
!* hacking is a political expression of technical capacity (=in relation to others; to system at large):
contra vulgar design, industrial standards, IP, limitations, etc.
!* hacking is an abstract class (see Wark↓)
broke:
!* "hacking is playing with technology" (Anarcho-Libertarian Amerikana)
!* "let's call it making" (cooption/dilution)
!* "let's not talk about politics because it leads to conflict"
"Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people share their interest in tinkering with technology, meet and work on their projects, and learn from each other."
https://hackerspaces.org/
woke:
* >1000 around the world → https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces
* common genome with squatting and radical left in 1990s scene
* 🔗real-hacks
!* hacking is a political expression of technical capacity (=in relation to others; to system at large):
contra vulgar design, industrial standards, IP, limitations, etc.
!* hacking is an abstract class (see Wark↓)
broke:
!* "hacking is playing with technology" (Anarcho-Libertarian Amerikana)
!* "let's call it making" (cooption/dilution)
!* "let's not talk about politics because it leads to conflict"
¶ 2012 version
https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/Hackbases
"""
A Hackbase or Hackerbase is a Live-in Hackerspace - a hackerspace with a capacity for coliving.
There is a list of self-identified hackbases to be found online, and the idea is that they function as a network between which crew can travel.
CHT/Totalism.org. was the first hackbase, established in 2011.
https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/Hackbases
"""
A Hackbase or Hackerbase is a Live-in Hackerspace - a hackerspace with a capacity for coliving.
- everything you would expect from a hackerspace + place to stay (sleep, eat, ...)
- ... this includes being publicly accessible (via a clear and non-discriminatory process)
- able to host short or long-term stays
- residents cover their own costs (which are usually far less than "normal" lifestyles)
- extension on the practices of sharing already present in hackerspaces
- hosts hacker Residencies and Exchanges
There is a list of self-identified hackbases to be found online, and the idea is that they function as a network between which crew can travel.
CHT/Totalism.org. was the first hackbase, established in 2011.
¶ !* As labour infrastructure
Answers need: sustenance, infrastructure, comrades, knowledge base
→ 🔗puzzles
→ 🔗why-how-what
→ 🔗what
→ 🔗tech-tree
"Labour ecology", "carrying capacity"; etc
→ 🔗web ("Dear Comrades")
Answers need: sustenance, infrastructure, comrades, knowledge base
→ 🔗puzzles
→ 🔗why-how-what
→ 🔗what
→ 🔗tech-tree
"Labour ecology", "carrying capacity"; etc
→ 🔗web ("Dear Comrades")
¶ .... "capitalizing" more openly on Wark's "hacker class"
Mckenzie Wark - "an abstract class that is yet to hack itself into manifest existance"
"people that produce abstractions - software developers, philosophers, artists"
contra "vectorialists"
http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warktext.html
"""
That which we create is mortgaged to others, and to the interests of others, to states and corporations who control the means for making worlds we alone discover. We do not own what we produce - it owns us.
03. And yet we don't quite know who we are. While we recognise our distinctive existence as a group, as programmers, as artists or writers or scientists or musicians, we rarely see these ways of representing ourselves as mere fragments of a class experience that is still struggling to express itself as itself, as expressions of the process of producing abstraction in the world. Geeks and freaks become what they are negatively, through their exclusion by others. Hackers are a class, but an abstract class, a class as yet to hack itself into manifest existence as itself.
"""
Mckenzie Wark - "an abstract class that is yet to hack itself into manifest existance"
"people that produce abstractions - software developers, philosophers, artists"
contra "vectorialists"
http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warktext.html
"""
That which we create is mortgaged to others, and to the interests of others, to states and corporations who control the means for making worlds we alone discover. We do not own what we produce - it owns us.
03. And yet we don't quite know who we are. While we recognise our distinctive existence as a group, as programmers, as artists or writers or scientists or musicians, we rarely see these ways of representing ourselves as mere fragments of a class experience that is still struggling to express itself as itself, as expressions of the process of producing abstraction in the world. Geeks and freaks become what they are negatively, through their exclusion by others. Hackers are a class, but an abstract class, a class as yet to hack itself into manifest existence as itself.
"""
¶!! * CHT: Why? How? What?
via:
→ 🔗cfp-newline
→ 🔗@khg
→ 🔗what
_____________
"""About CHT— General
CHT/Totalism.org, or shortly CHT, is an infrastructure research project in Canary Islands Spain.
It started in 2011 as the original hackbase; a coliving hacklab"
The base hosts ad hoc crew
and they use common-owned equipement
and coordinates by consensus-established protocols~
In CHT crew works to curate, develop, document & practice the transitional tactics, technologies, theory and arts, towards ending capitalism.
So how does that work, "what do we do?":
The project and its crews draw from dramaturgic logic, DIY technology and ecological embeddedness to install "nature infrastructural situations"
This means camps (with textile architecture, solar energy, lab equipment, bikes for expeditions, etc)
And their broader social and natural contexts / dynamics
The research and its outcomes are collaboratively publish[ed] on the homegrown hypermedia platform, “E2h”, that allows for cowritten etherpads to be transformed 2 hypermedia documents
[the idea is that] the documents allow for replicability. [of the hackbase pattern]
In this sense the base is a primer of a new institutional type (a prototype) rather then a destination.
They are sustainable experimental apparatuses, and must demonstrate increasing readiness for real-world transition
"""
_________________________
"Describe the practice"
🔗why-how-what
🔗what
🔗goals
🔗puzzles
🔗history
via:
→ 🔗cfp-newline
→ 🔗@khg
→ 🔗what
_____________
"""About CHT— General
CHT/Totalism.org, or shortly CHT, is an infrastructure research project in Canary Islands Spain.
It started in 2011 as the original hackbase; a coliving hacklab"
The base hosts ad hoc crew
and they use common-owned equipement
and coordinates by consensus-established protocols~
In CHT crew works to curate, develop, document & practice the transitional tactics, technologies, theory and arts, towards ending capitalism.
The project and its crews draw from dramaturgic logic, DIY technology and ecological embeddedness to install "nature infrastructural situations"
This means camps (with textile architecture, solar energy, lab equipment, bikes for expeditions, etc)
And their broader social and natural contexts / dynamics
The research and its outcomes are collaboratively publish[ed] on the homegrown hypermedia platform, “E2h”, that allows for cowritten etherpads to be transformed 2 hypermedia documents
[the idea is that] the documents allow for replicability. [of the hackbase pattern]
In this sense the base is a primer of a new institutional type (a prototype) rather then a destination.
They are sustainable experimental apparatuses, and must demonstrate increasing readiness for real-world transition
"""
_________________________
"Describe the practice"
🔗why-how-what
🔗what
🔗goals
🔗puzzles
🔗history
¶* "Totalism" ?
Totalism != totalitarianism
A dynamic towards a consistent and dynamic reconfiguration of knowledge
meaning:
it's a way of harvesting & building consensus with everything cultural and natural
it aims to be able to relate every perspective
epistemology and politics that spring out of the tool and the base
the epistemology of totalism needs a new tool
the idea of "totalism" is not to impose but to include:
but! not to succumb to optional engagement where it there neccessary must be one
(anti-postmodernism)
Totalism != totalitarianism
A dynamic towards a consistent and dynamic reconfiguration of knowledge
meaning:
it's a way of harvesting & building consensus with everything cultural and natural
it aims to be able to relate every perspective
epistemology and politics that spring out of the tool and the base
the epistemology of totalism needs a new tool
the idea of "totalism" is not to impose but to include:
but! not to succumb to optional engagement where it there neccessary must be one
(anti-postmodernism)
¶* middlemachine tool (ideation, execution, publication)
"building next generation media for both subjective & multitude"
also → 🔗representation.systems
"building next generation media for both subjective & multitude"
also → 🔗representation.systems
¶* Post-bourgeois (subsistence, economics, collaboration)
:
🔗coop
🔗postmarket
🔗comrade-license
🔗export
🔗extrabody
"""
Extra Body is a legal entity that supports post-capitalist practices in the cultural fields.
""""
:
🔗coop
🔗postmarket
🔗comrade-license
🔗export
🔗extrabody
"""
Extra Body is a legal entity that supports post-capitalist practices in the cultural fields.
""""
¶ About E2h & pad.land
"""Co-write Etherpads
and they are transformed 2
hypermedia documents
... To ...
Author all sorts of web documents, or use as a content management system for wiki-like sites.
E2h auto-generates HTMLs by transforming and styling Etherpads.
"""
→ 🔗E2H
→ https://pad.land / 🔗padland
"""Co-write Etherpads
and they are transformed 2
hypermedia documents
... To ...
Author all sorts of web documents, or use as a content management system for wiki-like sites.
E2h auto-generates HTMLs by transforming and styling Etherpads.
"""
→ 🔗E2H
→ https://pad.land / 🔗padland
¶ E2h history
(specifically, 🔗manual)
"histories of CHT, E2H/middlemachine, and Totalism are intertwingled"
(specifically, 🔗manual)
"histories of CHT, E2H/middlemachine, and Totalism are intertwingled"
¶ (intro to tactical & structural logic)
What is it? Why use it? How?
* there is a pad for everything
* a pod is a bunch of pads
* tools enable durational & expansive project scale:
via "order of magnitude easier to enter" with corresponding results
* "so, to enable new collectivity" (on the level of the medium)
__________
🔗pads-are-better
🔗ethering-why
🔗documentarianism
What is it? Why use it? How?
* there is a pad for everything
* a pod is a bunch of pads
* tools enable durational & expansive project scale:
via "order of magnitude easier to enter" with corresponding results
* "so, to enable new collectivity" (on the level of the medium)
__________
🔗pads-are-better
🔗ethering-why
🔗documentarianism
¶ Authoring document types
* protocols, tactics, patterns
* systematics, studies, descriptives
* indexes
* todos/project orga
* notes
* ###
* protocols, tactics, patterns
* systematics, studies, descriptives
* indexes
* todos/project orga
* notes
* ###
¶ 100 basic computing tips
→ 🔗workflow-basics
→ 🔗laptop
→ 🔗workflow-basics
→ 🔗laptop
- ctrl+f = find
- ctrl+pg up/pg down = move between tabs
- ctrl+shift+pg up/pg down = move tabs around
- to come to the moment for writing:
- ctrl +f + "new))"
- [!] = importance
¶ 101 basic writing practice
* headering ........ B+U
* subheadering ........ " "+B+U"
* overheadering ....... "***+B+U"
* titled forks ......... "<-------------------- (new) bla bla"
* main fork ......... "<------------------------ ((new))"
* internal links "🔗E2H"
* internal links to other pods Wikipedia🔗Rotterdam
* headering ........ B+U
* subheadering ........ " "+B+U"
* overheadering ....... "***+B+U"
* titled forks ......... "<-------------------- (new) bla bla"
* main fork ......... "<------------------------ ((new))"
* internal links "🔗E2H"
* internal links to other pods Wikipedia🔗Rotterdam
¶ 102 effective use
"Effective use patterns for the Etherpad+E2H collaborative system."
→ 🔗ethering
* make indexes !
* do proper folding (headering) !
### [!→]
"Effective use patterns for the Etherpad+E2H collaborative system."
→ 🔗ethering
* make indexes !
* do proper folding (headering) !
¶ 103 content development
103.1 formal content marks
STUB→ PRE-DRAFT → DRAFT → DRAFT+ → DRAFT++ → RFC
103.2 (informal) levels of pad writing
### [!!→] ETHERING -- (levels of pad writing)
LEVEL 1: MANIC WRITING
LEVEL 2: IMPOSING FORM
LEVEL 3: NOT BEING BOUND BY THE FORM, STILL FREE (ECHO OF 1)
LEVEL 4: RE-FOLDING (ECHO OF 2)
103.1 formal content marks
STUB→ PRE-DRAFT → DRAFT → DRAFT+ → DRAFT++ → RFC
103.2 (informal) levels of pad writing
LEVEL 1: MANIC WRITING
LEVEL 2: IMPOSING FORM
LEVEL 3: NOT BEING BOUND BY THE FORM, STILL FREE (ECHO OF 1)
LEVEL 4: RE-FOLDING (ECHO OF 2)
¶ 105 collaborative & editorial culture
###[!!] CLEANUP
"""
pollitics of collectivity, adopting tools
tools that don't live up to their potential
you need a facilitator/caretaker/catalyst/editor (?)
you need to have a functional group
some people are more skilled in certain aspects than others
reliable tools, keeping it running
taking a leadership role, taking care of the people, people need to trust that person
"nuclear democracy"
the website is always open for edits, but people don't vandalize it
editorial work // indexing choices - done by editor or collectively determined?
everybody can be the editor
reviews: going through the pads, making collaborative decisions
pads are easier to use than wikis
appropriate technology
https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia
is expertise a thing? mastery?
yes.
generalists
knowing how to apply your capacity > mastery
keeping goals in mind
"""
more:
* we offered some "professional" help
* we would like to expand this labour, see it both as neccessary for self-organization & as a viable future profession
"""
pollitics of collectivity, adopting tools
tools that don't live up to their potential
you need a facilitator/caretaker/catalyst/editor (?)
you need to have a functional group
some people are more skilled in certain aspects than others
reliable tools, keeping it running
taking a leadership role, taking care of the people, people need to trust that person
"nuclear democracy"
the website is always open for edits, but people don't vandalize it
editorial work // indexing choices - done by editor or collectively determined?
everybody can be the editor
reviews: going through the pads, making collaborative decisions
pads are easier to use than wikis
appropriate technology
https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia
is expertise a thing? mastery?
yes.
generalists
knowing how to apply your capacity > mastery
keeping goals in mind
"""
more:
* we offered some "professional" help
* we would like to expand this labour, see it both as neccessary for self-organization & as a viable future profession
¶* "New collectivity" (descriptive/prescriptive)
###L: move up, under intro part (after "what are hackbases")
Community = whimsical
Infrastructure = counter-whimsical
Wiki = curatorial + descriptive
??? = curatorial + prescriptive
Sensible prescription will depend on local context, personal context (current standpoint, ability, etc).
For this, it needs new media enabling new infrastructures.
_________
material & immaterial infrastructure
why infrastructure instead of community
give concrete example of the "media" enabling new infra
Trucko as media
how this research, labour & knowledge collections enable replicability
"blueprint", manual, (via) protocols, etc
Community = whimsical
Infrastructure = counter-whimsical
Wiki = curatorial + descriptive
??? = curatorial + prescriptive
Sensible prescription will depend on local context, personal context (current standpoint, ability, etc).
For this, it needs new media enabling new infrastructures.
_________
¶* Totalist protocols (pcontra "community")
#postcommunity
→ 🔗protocols
ties to:
* dramaturgy
* "scenario making" to find common sollutions
* comrades > friends
* counter whimsical relationships
###L: [!] move closer to "new collectivity"
→ 🔗protocols
ties to:
* dramaturgy
* "scenario making" to find common sollutions
* comrades > friends
* counter whimsical relationships
¶* Metrics: Life representation (and quantification of progress/success)
1) material commons infrastructure
2) progress of knowledge commons
1) material commons infrastructure
2) progress of knowledge commons
¶* CHT@10 years : Future prospects
* Abstract: Strategems
* CHT as "Experimental tactical platform"
→ 🔗future
* Abstract: Strategems
* CHT as "Experimental tactical platform"
→ 🔗future
¶* DP personally ("How did I start doing this")
### #genealogy [!!→] ........... ties to #WITBD [!!→]
¶* Participative: Surveys, Triage, Templates
* 🔗channel (with introduction)
* 🔗template-financials
* 🔗planning
* 🔗triage
* #CBR
* 🔗others
* 🔗channel (with introduction)
* 🔗template-financials
* 🔗planning
* 🔗triage
* #CBR
* 🔗others
¶* Asymetric warfare: Post-"open", Post-"free"
Why our software & lots of writing is not "CC" / "FLOSS"?
In an asymetric situation, different terms of engagement apply
you do not "share" the few advantages you might have
→ 🔗comrade-license
Why our software & lots of writing is not "CC" / "FLOSS"?
In an asymetric situation, different terms of engagement apply
you do not "share" the few advantages you might have
→ 🔗comrade-license
¶* Hackbases in cities; Totalist City
* Anti-design ("producing capitalist objects")
* proletarian object
* bauhaus vs brands
* ###
¶ Fields, What Is To Be Done
### "involve!"
🔗fields
🔗projects
🔗prescriptions
[###::survey] [!!] release
<-------------------- (new) BLOCKS ↑
🔗fields
🔗projects
🔗prescriptions
¶* Infrastructure— inhabitation
🔗architecture
🔗hacking-housing
🔗hacking-housing-pad
also: 🔗solar, 🔗water, etc
🔗architecture
🔗hacking-housing
🔗hacking-housing-pad
also: 🔗solar, 🔗water, etc
¶* "Now happening"
→ https://kunsthal.totalism.org (CHT8-A)
→ https://next.totalism.org (CHT8-B) → 2022
→ https://kunsthal.totalism.org (CHT8-A)
→ https://next.totalism.org (CHT8-B) → 2022
¶* (Previous presentations)
* So, how about hackbases?
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULoxJpeN2zM
* Lightning talk @Hackerspace Gent sept 2021
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-UYSFev5D8&t=17s
* So, how about hackbases?
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULoxJpeN2zM
* Lightning talk @Hackerspace Gent sept 2021
→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-UYSFev5D8&t=17s