Friday, December 25, 2015

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] transformative critical making

Dear Yasminers,

Our apologies - the Yasmin site was down for a few days - but now
it is up again and we would like to re-invite you to the discussion on
transformative and critical making.

To post please send your text contribution (no images) to:
Yasmin discussions yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr.
You can port without subscription, however if you wish to
subscribe: http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Repeating our earlier invitation in case you did not receive it:

«Critical making » coined by Matt Ratto of the University of Toronto
links conceptual investigation and creative physical making.
Prof. Ratto agreed to introduce his concept of critical making
for this discussion. The House of Natural Fiber (HONF) organized
the Transformaking 2015 Summit (www.transformaking.org) in
September 2015 in Yogjakarta, Indonesia. The Summit including
thematically linked events brought together makers, scientists, hackers,
DIYers, researchers, artists, critics, designers and interdisciplinary
practitioners from various regions of the world. The constructive
discourse at the Transformaking2015 symposia prompted Colette Tron and
Nina Czegledy to propose this discussion on critical making, The exploration
of this concept and activities could be helping us to criticize the way we
make things, and what we make together.

We are eager to receive your comments and contributions to the discussion.

Happy New Year!

Nina Czegledy and Colette Tron, moderators

Respondents: Venzha Christ and Sharath Chandra


_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 24, 2015

[Yasmin_discussions] axiality

And speaking of axiality, would it be too much to wonder if
the feat of having a 150 ft-long booster traveling some 60
miles above the earth at some 10,000 miles per hour (don't
quote me on the figures) -- would it be too much to wonder
if the feat of having that booster reverse direction, return to
the vicinity of its launch pad, and land gently on its own
vertical axis might not represent an ideal emblem for a new
axial age? (And I will resist the temptation to mention that
this has occurred at a time of the time of the year when we
are most aware of the axis upon which our own planet
rotates!)

Regards,
G. W. (Glenn) Smith
www.space-machines.com

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

[Yasmin_discussions] Transformative and Critical Making

Subject: Transformative and Critical Making
Matt, and colleagues

Just to add some personal anecdotes re critical making

a) I was lucky to be in a secondary school that had a woodshop,machine shop,
electronics shop ( yeah this was 1964) and all the students took 'shop' - the
experience led not only to making great presents for my parents but we founded
the 'rocsoc' or rocketry club and we made small rocket parts and launched the
rocket from the school football field in keeping with the critical
making argument
this clearly 'empowered' me and let me to become an astronomical
instrument maker-
ironically the 'shop' classes were a residue from england's industrial
revolution
which let to development of apprentice programs in school contexts - i even got
to write computer programs on IBM puncards in 1967

it also was the case that my father had a worshop with machine tools at home
so i really grew up in a making culture ( i remember building wind
mills with my father

so whats new as emphasised by matt in his essay
<https://medium.com/genres-of-scholarly-knowledge-production/the-pathology-of-platforms-1dbd7e777674>https://medium.com/genres-of-scholarly-knowledge-production/the-pathology-of-platforms-1dbd7e777674

is the transformation due to open source open access and a whole
ecology of access outside
of formal instutions- and the whole range of new production tools from
3d p;rinting to digital media-
and the enabling of making collaborations in a variety of ways

matt argues :

Working against the instrumental or exhibitory impulse has meant that
these engagements have been purposefully liminal, frangible events
focused on process rather than product and with the main value accrued
by participants rather than observers.

I continue to believe in the value of a certain distance from the
dominant forms of science and art and the critical and creative
insights that can be generated by maintaining a kind of epistemic
freedom from the commitments described above.

in the whole art-science-technology discussion as i have pointed out
the force of the art/science/creativity/innovation/entrepreneurs/
jobs/employment discourse

at the Dec 2 meeting at the US national academy of science
http://malina.diatrope.com/2015/11/26/grand-challenge-for-science-and-engineering-self-knowledge-an-open-call-to-humanists/

tom rudin pointed out:
"In a critical reflection on world history, the German philosopher
Karl Jaspers observed how in the first millennium BCE, human cultures
in Asia and Europe independently underwent a profound transformation
that he named the Axial Age. Thinkers as diverse as Confucius, Laozi,
Buddha, Socrates, and the Hebrew prophets began to ask what it means
to be human. Humans no longer simply accepted whatever ways of life
they were born into; they began to subject their cultures to critical
assessment. Today we are entering a new Axial Age, one in which we no
longer simply accept the physical world into which we are born. But
engineering makes almost no effort to give engineers—or any of the
rest of us—the tools to reflect on themselves and their
world-transforming enterprise."

would it be too much to suggest that the 'critical making' movement is
part of the new Axial age

roger malina

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 14, 2015

Re: [Yasmin_discussions]  Transformative and Critical Making

Hello all,
About « critical making » into production processes and technological development, I think it can be considered as an ethical concept.
What are we making (together) ? is a question I would like to explore by many ways and fields : research, technology, ecomonmy, culture, environment, etc…
Critical making means that we have to make choices and take decisions making things and objects. We have to use our reason in front of physical and organical
materials. This is the link between concrete and abstract or conceptual R&D.
We have to think our practices.
And it means that we have to think our gestures, into the environment in which they happen and they place themselves, in term of time and space, their relation
with others, and their impact and consequence. This at a local and global levels. « Act in your place, think with the world » wrote the poet Edouard Glissant.
It is necessary to think an ecology of gestures. And an economy.
We also have to think gesture as vital experience for human kind, and as a part of its development and evolution, at individual and transindividual scale, at
historical and geological ones too (what is a gesture into the anthropocène ?). Experience of the existence, a so simple and so complex thing. Sensitive and
intelligible experience, as its perception and understanding.
Technology, in an anthropological point of view, are the « extensions of man », as said by Marshall McLuhan, the canadian media theorist.
It's necessary to understand and to design the technologies as extensions of human capacities, for making life livable on the planet, instead of amputation of
these ones.
It arises the question of who, and for doing what, in which way, invent and design the technologies. For which kind and forms of life ?
This is a question of culture, or civilization.
The considération of gesture, here, is proposed as the human intervention and action, into the production process. That means a recapacitation and the
desautomation. The gesture is the condition of capacity to judge and to decide, through its own knoledge and faculties, at the contrary of the loss of knowledge
described by the french philosopher Bernard Stiegler (The automatic society, 2015).
So into the free culture and maker movement, with free and open software and hardware, 3D printing and all the machines we can get easily, the reasons to
make and the ways to share should be submitted to critical making.
Or, as the example from Matt Ratto, what are the reasons to make a gun ?
And as said McLuhan, some tools are made without the possibilty to choose for good and bad use : a gun is made to kill.
Please, don't shoot the pianist ( from the title of a well known french film).
Colette Tron

> Message du 09/12/15 à 17h20
> De : czegledy@interlog.com
> A : "YASMIN DISCUSSIONS"
> Copie à : "Matt Ratto"
> Objet : [Yasmin_discussions]  Transformative and Critical Making
>
> From Matt Ratto on critical thinking and physical making:
>
> Over the last few years, the long-standing 'firewall' between critical thinking
> and physical making has been toppling, in no small part due to scholars '
> and practitioners in design, the digital humanities, artistic
> practice, engineering,
> and other areas who have developed specific modes of material/conceptual
> engagement. While most critical work often remains focused on linguistic
> processes and outputs, "critical making" (broadly construed) is more and
> more finding a place within pedagogical and research-oriented contexts.
> Obviously, this work ties into and participates to greater or lesser degrees
> with the practices of enthusiast 'maker' communities, professional design
> contexts, new forms of value-focused engineering pedagogies, and artistic
> practice.
>
> What connects the diversity of the communities involved and the values
> espoused, is some interest in the 'critical', whether that means
> interventionist
> in the old liberatory and Marxist Frankfurt School sense, reflective regarding
> the environmental and social outcomes of modern industrial production, or
> insight-generating related to other tropes and forms of material engagements.
> My own particular interest has been methodological, working out to what
> degree material engagements give us new modes for exploring the
> entanglements of the material and the semiotic and the way power in society
> relates to the specific forms these entanglements take. But I very much think
> that the time is ripe for a more general conversation to be had regarding the
> ways in which critical forms of making fit and do not fit into
> standard institutional
> and disciplinary contexts, whether those of engineering, art, design, or other
> fields. In particular, it seems important to call attention to
> contradictory value
> assumptions associated with these contexts, including differing concepts of
> instrumental logic, novelty, aesthetic sophistication, and the like.
>
> Working in more substantive interdisciplinary ways requires closer attention
> to the often naturalized ways in which we establish what counts as 'critical'.
> My hope is that the Yasmin conversation can start such a conversation. As
> a small contribution to this, here is a link to a short piece I
> published on Medium:
>
> https://medium.com/genres-of-scholarly-
knowledge-production/the-pathology-of-platforms-1dbd7e777674

>
>
>
>
>
> Matt Ratto is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information at the
> University of Toronto and directs the Semaphore Research cluster on
> Inclusive Design, Mobile and Pervasive Computing and, as part of Semaphore,
> the Critical Making lab. His work explores the intersections between digital
> technologies and the human life world, with a particular focus on new
> developments that trouble the divide between online and offline modes of
> production. His research also addresses pervasive and ubiquitous technologies
> including wearable computing and the Internet of Things. He coined the term
> 'critical making" in 2007 to describe work that combines humanities insights
> and engineering practices, and has published extensively on this concept.
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the
fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the
unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>

___________________________________________________________
Mode, hifi, maison,… J'achète malin. Je compare les prix avec Voila.fr http://shopping.voila.fr/

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Re: [Yasmin_discussions]  Transformative and Critical Making

Dear all,
Considering the current transformations due the digital and its developments, and with the alternatives generated by open source devices and open and shared
culture and knowledge, my position as a critic (into the field of arts) is in the idea to observe the making and to understand and to modelize new models of
production, into local as well as global scale.
It could be possible to lean on some concrete examples in artistic, cultural and social experiences, and also on theories that interpret making into a set
constituent of an epochal production. And thus « to claim some modes to fit out », up to a sentence by the french philosopher Bernard Stiegler (in « About
symbolic poverty II, Galilée Publisher, 2005).

The critical making summit Transformaking has been a place for experimentation, observation, propositions, and maybe prototype (and later to modelize) some
ways to figure poetics and politics of arts of making and arts of living into the digital environment. That means for new ways of life.
So we should use « critical making » as a form of critic, linking practices and thought, and establishing the neccessity to debate, test, rethink, models and
proptotypes, but also as a politic, in the way it also means : important and vital décisions for production process.

I have written a report on the summit in Jogjakarta into the Makery review, called For a great transformation, related to the book of Karl Polany:
http://www.makery.info/2015/09/29/pour-une-grande-transformation-par-colette-tron/?lang=en

Colette Tron

> Message du 07/12/15 à 17h09
> De : czegledy@interlog.com
> A : "YASMIN DISCUSSIONS"
> Copie à : "Sharath chandra" , "venzha christ"
> Objet : [Yasmin_discussions]  Transformative and Critical Making
>
> Dear Yasminers,
>
> We would like to start a discussion on Transformative and
> Critical Making
>
> «Critical making» -a term coined by Matt Ratto of the University
> of Toronto- links conceptual investigation and creative physical making.
> Critical Making is based on the potential applications of open source
> software and hardware as well as the investigation and use of new
> technologies. Prof. Ratto agreed to introduce his concept of critical
> making for this discussion.
>
> The House of Natural Fiber (HONF) concentrates on principles of
> critique and innovation towards the development of art, science, and
> technology for society since 1999. After « Prototype 2014 », HONF
> and partners organized the Transformaking 2015 Summit
> (www.transformaking.org) in September in Yogjakarta, Indonesia.
> The Summit including thematically linked events brought together
> makers, scientists, hackers, DIYers, researchers, artists, critics,
> designers and interdisciplinary practitioners from various regions of
> the world.The initial objectives centered on the development and future
> of maker culture: "The maker movement, as well as the culture associated
> with it, offers alternative solutions, in a practical way and with citizen
> involvement, where sociopolitical institutions fail. But confronted with
> an industrial scale in the current economic system, the risk of
> commercialization remains. A critical attitude is essential to investigate
> a true transformation of production: Transformaking." The constructive
> discourse at the Transformaking2015 symposia prompted us to propose
> this discussion on various aspects of critical making, The exploration
> of this concept and activities could be helping us to criticize the way
> we make things, and what we make together. All the participants of
> Transformaking2015 are invited as well as Yasminers on this list
> to contribute to the discussion.
>
> Collette Tron and Nina Czegledy
>
>
> The moderators:
> Collette Tron and Nina Czegledy
>
> colette tron is a french art critic and art director based in marseille.
> directing the organization Alphabetville (www.alphabetville.org),
> she is trying to articulate new art practices, particularly in the digital,
> with conceptual and theoretical perspectives. feeling close to
> "critical making" approach, colette tron is involved with honf in
> Transformaking.
>
> Nina Czegledy artist, curator, educator collaborates internationally
> on art& science& technology projects. She has exhibited and
> published widely won awards for her artwork and has initiated, lead
> and participated in forums and festivals worldwide. Nina is a Research
> Fellow at the Semaphore Research cluster the Critical Making lab,
> University of Toronto.
>
>
> The respondents:
> Venzha Christ (HONF and Sharath Chandra Ram
>
> Venzha Christ prolific artist, initiator, and leader in media and
> art and science research founded the House of Natural Fiber,
> (HONF) a new media art laboratory' www.natural-fiber.com in
> 1999 with the aim to combine education, art and technology with
> local communities. HONF produced several special projects in
> media art, including public art installations, technology research,
> education, mediart art festivals at home and internationally in
> addition to the annual Cellsbutton series of festivals.
>
> Sharath Chandra Ram, a graduate of University of Edinburgh
> specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Virtual
> Environments. His research interests lie in the intersection of law,
> technology and society with a focus on Open Education (Open
> Science and Open Hardware), Open Spectrum, Citizen Science,
> ICT4D and Intellectual Property. A licensed amateur radio broadcaster
> he is actively interested in communication policy research, radio
> astronomy as a transmission artist. He installed his work in several
> national & international avenues. An international partner and
> co-organizer of the International Summit on Critical and Transformative
> Making he actively works with local open source and research
> community at the Centre for Internet and Society and organizes the
> annual NASA International Open Data Challenge. At Srishti Sharath
> he teaches a variety of programs..
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the
fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the
unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>

___________________________________________________________
Mode, hifi, maison,… J'achète malin. Je compare les prix avec Voila.fr http://shopping.voila.fr/

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 7, 2015

[Yasmin_discussions] Transformative and Critical Making

From Matt Ratto on critical thinking and physical making:

Over the last few years, the long-standing 'firewall' between critical thinking
and physical making has been toppling, in no small part due to scholars '
and practitioners in design, the digital humanities, artistic
practice, engineering,
and other areas who have developed specific modes of material/conceptual
engagement. While most critical work often remains focused on linguistic
processes and outputs, "critical making" (broadly construed) is more and
more finding a place within pedagogical and research-oriented contexts.
Obviously, this work ties into and participates to greater or lesser degrees
with the practices of enthusiast 'maker' communities, professional design
contexts, new forms of value-focused engineering pedagogies, and artistic
practice.

What connects the diversity of the communities involved and the values
espoused, is some interest in the 'critical', whether that means
interventionist
in the old liberatory and Marxist Frankfurt School sense, reflective regarding
the environmental and social outcomes of modern industrial production, or
insight-generating related to other tropes and forms of material engagements.
My own particular interest has been methodological, working out to what
degree material engagements give us new modes for exploring the
entanglements of the material and the semiotic and the way power in society
relates to the specific forms these entanglements take. But I very much think
that the time is ripe for a more general conversation to be had regarding the
ways in which critical forms of making fit and do not fit into
standard institutional
and disciplinary contexts, whether those of engineering, art, design, or other
fields. In particular, it seems important to call attention to
contradictory value
assumptions associated with these contexts, including differing concepts of
instrumental logic, novelty, aesthetic sophistication, and the like.

Working in more substantive interdisciplinary ways requires closer attention
to the often naturalized ways in which we establish what counts as 'critical'.
My hope is that the Yasmin conversation can start such a conversation. As
a small contribution to this, here is a link to a short piece I
published on Medium:

<https://medium.com/genres-of-scholarly-knowledge-production/the-pathology-of-platforms-1dbd7e777674>https://medium.com/genres-of-scholarly-knowledge-production/the-pathology-of-platforms-1dbd7e777674





Matt Ratto is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information at the
University of Toronto and directs the Semaphore Research cluster on
Inclusive Design, Mobile and Pervasive Computing and, as part of Semaphore,
the Critical Making lab. His work explores the intersections between digital
technologies and the human life world, with a particular focus on new
developments that trouble the divide between online and offline modes of
production. His research also addresses pervasive and ubiquitous technologies
including wearable computing and the Internet of Things. He coined the term
'critical making" in 2007 to describe work that combines humanities insights
and engineering practices, and has published extensively on this concept.
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

[Yasmin_discussions] Transformative and Critical Making

Dear Yasminers:


Introductory statement from
Sharath Chandra Ram respondent to the Transformative and Critical Making.


Today's share-alike network culture has blurred the lines of
intellectual property and authorship, and has become the site of
symbiotic and parasitic practices of re-appropriation that include
online as well as offline interventions such as crowd-sourced making
and hacking. An important goal of 'transformative making' in my view,
is to see if and how an inclusive and trans-disciplinary model of
networked making at the grassroots - a confluence of
citizens,tinkerers and hackers, artists , designers and researchers
can work in tandem with legal scholars and policy makers to develop
and publish solutions that may actually see the light of the day by
bridging the gap between policy recommendation and implementation.


nc.
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

[Yasmin_discussions] Transformative and Critical Making

Dear Yasminers:


Introduction statement and information on Venzha's and HONF activities from
Venzha Christ respondent to the Transformative and Critical Making.


"Of late there is been a lot of academic research going on to study the nature,
intent and multiple values represented in the global 'maker culture'. To me
the most interesting instances are hyperlocal activities of making that address
the need of it's immediate community. How can such examples and mechanisms
be collated, understood and re-applied to address newer contexts and global
grass root issues, with a view of transforming the future here and now- this is
one of the main objectives of Transformaking"
- Venzha

Venzha Christ / Director of HONF Foundation - Activities:
Focused on new media art since 1999, Venzha founded HONF', Yogyakarta
new media art laboratory' (since 2011 HONF Foundation) a space to
share and grow ideas in the field of media art and wider society,
including artists, creative practitioners, scientist, hackers,
activist, and the public in an exploratory and responsive dialogue to
fuse of education, art and technology with local communities without
cultural limitation. Venzha is a producer and organizer of many
projects such as public art installation, media performance, media
art festival, technology research, videowork festival, workshops and
discussions on media + science + technology, DIY gathering,
electronic and media culture movement, etc. Founder of the v.u.f.o.c
an extraterrestrial study center, EFP platform,
Micronation/Macronation project, and Electrocore sound + research
project, HONFablab, Transformaking, etc. HONF with the community
presented media art projects in many places locally and
internationally.The goal of the Education Focus Program (EFP) is to
build connections and interactions between local/creative communities
and make a connection between universities/laboratories. Venzha on
behalf of HONF tries to focus interest and analysis of
interdisciplinary production and theory, in Indonesia Venzha is also
an initiator and artistic director also CELLSBUTTON (Yogyakarta
International Media Art Festival) since 2007, and a new platform for
OPEN CULTURE and CRITICAL MAKING (2014), and TRANSFORMAKING (2015) -
both produced and organized by HONF Foundation every year
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

[Yasmin_discussions] Transformative and Critical Making

Dear Yasminers,

We would like to start a discussion on Transformative and
Critical Making

«Critical making» -a term coined by Matt Ratto of the University
of Toronto- links conceptual investigation and creative physical making.
Critical Making is based on the potential applications of open source
software and hardware as well as the investigation and use of new
technologies. Prof. Ratto agreed to introduce his concept of critical
making for this discussion.

The House of Natural Fiber (HONF) concentrates on principles of
critique and innovation towards the development of art, science, and
technology for society since 1999. After « Prototype 2014 », HONF
and partners organized the Transformaking 2015 Summit
(www.transformaking.org) in September in Yogjakarta, Indonesia.
The Summit including thematically linked events brought together
makers, scientists, hackers, DIYers, researchers, artists, critics,
designers and interdisciplinary practitioners from various regions of
the world.The initial objectives centered on the development and future
of maker culture: "The maker movement, as well as the culture associated
with it, offers alternative solutions, in a practical way and with citizen
involvement, where sociopolitical institutions fail. But confronted with
an industrial scale in the current economic system, the risk of
commercialization remains. A critical attitude is essential to investigate
a true transformation of production: Transformaking." The constructive
discourse at the Transformaking2015 symposia prompted us to propose
this discussion on various aspects of critical making, The exploration
of this concept and activities could be helping us to criticize the way
we make things, and what we make together. All the participants of
Transformaking2015 are invited as well as Yasminers on this list
to contribute to the discussion.

Collette Tron and Nina Czegledy


The moderators:
Collette Tron and Nina Czegledy

colette tron is a french art critic and art director based in marseille.
directing the organization Alphabetville (www.alphabetville.org),
she is trying to articulate new art practices, particularly in the digital,
with conceptual and theoretical perspectives. feeling close to
"critical making" approach, colette tron is involved with honf in
Transformaking.

Nina Czegledy artist, curator, educator collaborates internationally
on art& science& technology projects. She has exhibited and
published widely won awards for her artwork and has initiated, lead
and participated in forums and festivals worldwide. Nina is a Research
Fellow at the Semaphore Research cluster the Critical Making lab,
University of Toronto.


The respondents:
Venzha Christ (HONF and Sharath Chandra Ram

Venzha Christ prolific artist, initiator, and leader in media and
art and science research founded the House of Natural Fiber,
(HONF) a new media art laboratory' www.natural-fiber.com in
1999 with the aim to combine education, art and technology with
local communities. HONF produced several special projects in
media art, including public art installations, technology research,
education, mediart art festivals at home and internationally in
addition to the annual Cellsbutton series of festivals.

Sharath Chandra Ram, a graduate of University of Edinburgh
specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Virtual
Environments. His research interests lie in the intersection of law,
technology and society with a focus on Open Education (Open
Science and Open Hardware), Open Spectrum, Citizen Science,
ICT4D and Intellectual Property. A licensed amateur radio broadcaster
he is actively interested in communication policy research, radio
astronomy as a transmission artist. He installed his work in several
national & international avenues. An international partner and
co-organizer of the International Summit on Critical and Transformative
Making he actively works with local open source and research
community at the Centre for Internet and Society and organizes the
annual NASA International Open Data Challenge. At Srishti Sharath
he teaches a variety of programs..






_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] One-Sided STEAM Argument

John:
Some thoughts below...

> On Dec 2, 2015, at 7:42 PM, John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net> wrote:
>
> Hallo Paul -- some musings...
>
>> Since STEAM is on the table of discussion, this may be relevant - just posted it:
>>
>> http://creative-automata.com/2015/11/29/why-the-steam-argument-is-one-sided/
>
> I got to your presentation on "System modeling at the Art Museum" which I thought was an effective approach. (Wouldn't it be 'systems' though, plural?)

Yes.

>
> [a link to your presentation: http://tinyurl.com/qhugz7j]
>
> The list of questions about the Incan tunic appear to address the wider problem of ignorance surrounding the provenance of 'technological' artifacts. Winding back the artifact to its material genesis can be combined with an exploration into the conceptual genesis of its design, its purpose, the creative impulse that sparked it. There is still the difficulty of the segue to more esoteric/indeterminate questions, but I think the process has to start somewhere, and your list of questions seems to open such a discursive space.
>
> I have attempted such in my art/technology workshops (for engineering, art, and design students) -- not overtly invoking systems thinking, as that in itself is another challenging intellectual concept -- but, for example, simply connecting things in a framework of 'product' (specific material manifestation), 'process' (actions, flows embedded in a wider field), and 'praxis' (a/the holistic expression of lived presence).
>
> With my background in hard science, I do take every opportunity presented to engage non-science folks with scientific principles -- for example, when working with http://ecosa.org students, when delving into water catchment landscaping -- speaking about (and experimenting with) basic fluid dynamics. So few of my art students had any clue as to extremely basic physical laws coming from mechanical physics, or earth (geophysical) systems.
>
> The applied examination of praxis attempts to look at the embedded complexity of individual and collection human presence which often defies the all-too-often invoked references that tend to box us in here -- STEM, STEAM, etc, etc. Every individual, in deep relation to the social, has a multi-dimensional relationship with the world, often despite(!) their 'formal education'. By facilitating a discursive space where the fruits of this idiosyncratic experience can surface, the disciplinary boundaries may more easily be erased. (Although this outcome is generally *not* the goal of any STEM/STEAM programs, as erasure is still too much a challenge/risk to the existing inertia of social institutions.)
>
> As an alumni of Mitcham's school, graduating some decades back, the educational indoctrination into engineering generally proceeded as the solution to all the world's problems via highly-paid jobs upon graduation. (We were required only four one-semester humanities elective courses, as they were clearly extraneous to saving the world with technology!!). Of course no engineering education looks like that now, but myopic human hubris does maintain a steady and tenacious presence in most engineering (and design!) programs.

For engineering, it isn't clear where the changes can evolve — probably at the Federal level and down. Engineering
programs are notable for having few electives, but this may also be institution dependent. My undergrad was in mathematics,
and being within the liberal arts, that subject allowed me plenty of time to take art, philosophy, and art history classes.

-p

>
> From that rather extreme initial education, lacking any critical reflection, I have come to have a much broader perspective (thanks to the influence of many folks, living and dead, and transdisciplinary/transcultural life-experience). I no longer consider myself an engineer, nor scientist, though I maintain a somewhat bifurcated sense of interacting with the world (analytical versus intuitive perhaps?). I do recall an influential professor of mine, George Keller, a principle figure globally in electromagnetic geophysics, saying in the field one day "If you really want to know what is below the surface of the earth, you have to do this," as he squatted down and laid his palm on the ground...
>
> huh? where's the data? This expression completely perplexed me, though I was intrigued by his work in groundwater hydrology *and* dowsing...
>
> Ultimately, I look at technology (and humans) as being (merely!) another expression of life on the planet: where that Life alters the (energy) flows around it simply because of its presence. Of course there are questions that fall under concepts of altruism, intention, scale, and so on, but these all rest on the basic condition of Life altering the wider system around it. And, with humans, no reason for hubris, as we more often than not have *no* clue as to the gap between the material intentions of our engineering and the cumulative effects of those imposed changes to wider (Gaia) flows, anyway.
>
> Engineering, specifically, does raise the question of material scale -- how the particular form of Life, humans, have wrought their organism-specific alterations. Perhaps this is the source of that hubris -- (Donna Haraway touches on the hubris in her talk "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble") -- the globe-girdling flux of human presence. However, in the larger picture, humans are a transitory upstart presence, and only one manifestation of life on the planet. As with others, we evolved, found energy, waxed in numbers, and, when the 'easy' energy sources are gone, will wane in numbers.
>
> Anyway, thanks for that posting...
>
> Cheers,
> JH
>
>
>
> --
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
> grounded on a granite batholith
> twitter: @neoscenes
> http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/


_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] One-Sided STEAM Argument

Hallo Paul -- some musings...

> Since STEAM is on the table of discussion, this may be relevant - just posted it:
>
> http://creative-automata.com/2015/11/29/why-the-steam-argument-is-one-sided/

I got to your presentation on "System modeling at the Art Museum" which I
thought was an effective approach. (Wouldn't it be 'systems' though, plural?)

[a link to your presentation: http://tinyurl.com/qhugz7j]

The list of questions about the Incan tunic appear to address the wider problem
of ignorance surrounding the provenance of 'technological' artifacts. Winding
back the artifact to its material genesis can be combined with an exploration
into the conceptual genesis of its design, its purpose, the creative impulse
that sparked it. There is still the difficulty of the segue to more
esoteric/indeterminate questions, but I think the process has to start
somewhere, and your list of questions seems to open such a discursive space.

I have attempted such in my art/technology workshops (for engineering, art, and
design students) -- not overtly invoking systems thinking, as that in itself is
another challenging intellectual concept -- but, for example, simply connecting
things in a framework of 'product' (specific material manifestation), 'process'
(actions, flows embedded in a wider field), and 'praxis' (a/the holistic
expression of lived presence).

With my background in hard science, I do take every opportunity presented to
engage non-science folks with scientific principles -- for example, when working
with http://ecosa.org students, when delving into water catchment landscaping --
speaking about (and experimenting with) basic fluid dynamics. So few of my art
students had any clue as to extremely basic physical laws coming from mechanical
physics, or earth (geophysical) systems.

The applied examination of praxis attempts to look at the embedded complexity of
individual and collection human presence which often defies the all-too-often
invoked references that tend to box us in here -- STEM, STEAM, etc, etc. Every
individual, in deep relation to the social, has a multi-dimensional relationship
with the world, often despite(!) their 'formal education'. By facilitating a
discursive space where the fruits of this idiosyncratic experience can surface,
the disciplinary boundaries may more easily be erased. (Although this outcome is
generally *not* the goal of any STEM/STEAM programs, as erasure is still too
much a challenge/risk to the existing inertia of social institutions.)

As an alumni of Mitcham's school, graduating some decades back, the educational
indoctrination into engineering generally proceeded as the solution to all the
world's problems via highly-paid jobs upon graduation. (We were required only
four one-semester humanities elective courses, as they were clearly extraneous
to saving the world with technology!!). Of course no engineering education looks
like that now, but myopic human hubris does maintain a steady and tenacious
presence in most engineering (and design!) programs.

From that rather extreme initial education, lacking any critical reflection, I
have come to have a much broader perspective (thanks to the influence of many
folks, living and dead, and transdisciplinary/transcultural life-experience). I
no longer consider myself an engineer, nor scientist, though I maintain a
somewhat bifurcated sense of interacting with the world (analytical versus
intuitive perhaps?). I do recall an influential professor of mine, George
Keller, a principle figure globally in electromagnetic geophysics, saying in the
field one day "If you really want to know what is below the surface of the
earth, you have to do this," as he squatted down and laid his palm on the ground...

huh? where's the data? This expression completely perplexed me, though I was
intrigued by his work in groundwater hydrology *and* dowsing...

Ultimately, I look at technology (and humans) as being (merely!) another
expression of life on the planet: where that Life alters the (energy) flows
around it simply because of its presence. Of course there are questions that
fall under concepts of altruism, intention, scale, and so on, but these all rest
on the basic condition of Life altering the wider system around it. And, with
humans, no reason for hubris, as we more often than not have *no* clue as to the
gap between the material intentions of our engineering and the cumulative
effects of those imposed changes to wider (Gaia) flows, anyway.

Engineering, specifically, does raise the question of material scale -- how the
particular form of Life, humans, have wrought their organism-specific
alterations. Perhaps this is the source of that hubris -- (Donna Haraway touches
on the hubris in her talk "Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with
the Trouble") -- the globe-girdling flux of human presence. However, in the
larger picture, humans are a transitory upstart presence, and only one
manifestation of life on the planet. As with others, we evolved, found energy,
waxed in numbers, and, when the 'easy' energy sources are gone, will wane in
numbers.

Anyway, thanks for that posting...

Cheers,
JH



--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Monday, November 30, 2015

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] next move

Thank you very much for your thoughts and references I think the comment is
very interesting but specially appealing, meaning it has made me think
about the issue in a slightly different way...
It would seem to me both art and science might share a bit of colonial
spirit, I would say, in an organic form of speaking. Both are by definition
alien to nature itself, if we consider nature whatever alien to the human
being, as I would frame it if we use the very europcentric 19th century
history as reference point but also the very global/universocentric 21st as
current date for the discussion. I don't mean that's necessariously bad, I
would say indeed is good for science for art and for ourselves (public and
transducers in between) to practice recognition and acceptation.
On the other hand, one would say Beauty can be intrinsic to nature but we
can also point out its deeply related to art (both as motive and target)
but I would say also to science (both as motive (to understand) and target
(beautiful explanations as resolution to technical misterys)). Beauty both
in caos and order has moved humans to create art from the very begining,
beauty understood as anything caughting our eye and so our questions is
also in the very reason of science...
As for the "external world" I agree very much with what I think to
understand you express. Only I would say, and I think thats a mistake both
science and art have recently committed repeatedly, we are not able to
control it. I would say both A&S are impregnated by that present you
describe, maybe we are able to see it already, might be we'll realize in
some years time but anycase it is there by definition. As alien languages
to "Nature" our beloved AS are, they are, on the other hand, deeply related
to human "nature" which we should recognize is a fundamental part of the
first one ("Nature"). That's how our very artificial languages feed in
their origin with which they appear to fight often but is the only reason
for their true importance, to be a very powerful trans-temporo-spacial
communication tool. That's how I would accept years of going through, back
and for, similar topics and discussions, as "voyeurs" of that phenomenon we
can be a vital piece of it by the only effort of "being", participating,
taking place, arguing, cause the "importance" of the facts, events, pieces
or discoveries is long too far of our capacity but is in ourselves at the
same time.

Sorry about the disgression on a point you might have discussed before.
Sorry for my english.
Thank you because by appointing an "external" enemy you made me find so
many things A and S share.

Regards

Jc

---
----


2015-11-30 18:40 GMT+01:00 <kkursk@yahoo.com>:

> Paris 30 November 2015
> Dear Roger,
> I Trust all is well, and I thank you for your protean activity in Yasmin
> and around. Allow me to share a few thoughts with you that I have been
> chewing over the past few months and in particular after an interesting
> meeting in la Laboral in Gijon on the occasion of the opening of Materia
> Prima (
> http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/exposiciones/materia-prima?set_language=en
> )
> In a nutshell the point is that, after following and participating for a
> number of years in the discussions in yasmin and many other fora that you
> know well and animate with great style and generosity, I have developed a
> few impressions:
> One is that the same arguments and ideas are repeated again and again in
> slightly modified formats, without much condensation, hypothesis testing,
> synthesis or advancement , in a sense rather perpetuating and enforcing the
> dichotomy A/S, as opposed to dis-inventing it and working towards a world
> where creative thinking (and creative thinkers, intellectuals if you want)
> cooperate and discuss to address, analyze in an active, astute, critical
> and intelligent manner the vast, social, political and environmental
> problems all societies are confronted with today.
> These problems are complicated and are seen differently form different
> positions in society and in different places in the world. The discussions
> (ie in Gijon a few weeks ago, etc) give the impression or are based on the
> shared assumption, that the A/S debate is eternal and universal, grouping
> all people in two internally homogenous groups: As and Ss, and an external
> population composed eventually of all non A and non S who are not
> considered. This configuration makes this environment progressively more
> autistic to the outside world where As and Ss and everybody else are
> fighting for their lives in a world progressively more violent, unfair and
> polluted that is at the same time endowed today with unbelievable
> competences, tools and power to face these problems in a cooperative and
> effective manner or, alternatively to amplify them.
> One line that might help us disentangle this in a logical way is the
> consideration that the A/S dichotomy has a history and an origin in a given
> period of time say 17 century and geographical location say Europe, it is
> there and then that this cognitive structure was put in place, propagated
> and perpetuated since, in parallel, simultaneously and organically together
> with the colonial effort and the domination and eventual destruction of any
> external agent.
> The A/S dichotomy is one central element of the us/them dichotomy at the
> base of hegemonic colonial domination, in consequence integrating these
> elements in a coherent critical analysis might help in moving on to a new
> set of practices and problems.
> I was reading this morning the paper of Koen Vermeir (Historicizing
> Culture,A Revaluation of Early Modern Science and Culture) a chapter for in
> a book in press (K. Chemla and Evelyn Fox-Keller (eds) 2016.Cultures
> without culturalism) preparing for a seminar at SAW (
> http://sawerc.hypotheses.org) next Thursday under the title Rethinking
> Practices and Cultures in the history of science, I thought the paper was
> quite consistent with the argument above and might be useful to work on it,
> and it contains a number of interesting references that might help us in
> working out operative proposals. I think you will find it interesting
> All the best, cordiallyr
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the
> page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and
> password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter
> your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on
> the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest
> Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to
> http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

[Yasmin_discussions] next move

Paris 30 November 2015
Dear Roger, 
I Trust all is well, and I thank you for your protean activity in Yasmin and around. Allow me to share a few thoughts with you that I have been chewing over the past few months and in particular after an interesting meeting in la Laboral in Gijon on the occasion of the opening of Materia Prima (http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/exposiciones/materia-prima?set_language=en)
In a nutshell the point is that, after following and participating for a number of years in the discussions in yasmin and many other fora that you know well and animate with great style and generosity, I have developed a few impressions:
One is that the same arguments and ideas are repeated again and again in slightly modified formats, without much condensation, hypothesis testing, synthesis or advancement , in a sense rather perpetuating and enforcing the dichotomy A/S, as opposed to dis-inventing it and working towards a world where creative thinking (and creative thinkers, intellectuals if you want) cooperate and discuss  to address, analyze in an active, astute, critical and intelligent manner the vast, social, political and environmental problems all societies are confronted with today. 
These problems are complicated and are seen differently form different positions in society and in different places in the world. The discussions (ie in Gijon a few weeks ago, etc) give the impression or are based on the shared assumption, that the A/S debate is eternal and universal, grouping all people in two internally homogenous groups: As and Ss, and an external population composed eventually of all non A and non S who are not considered. This configuration makes this environment progressively more autistic to the outside world where As and Ss and everybody else are fighting for their lives in a world progressively more violent, unfair and polluted that is at the same time endowed today with unbelievable competences, tools and power to face  these problems in a cooperative and effective manner or, alternatively to amplify them. 
One line that might help us disentangle this in a logical way is the consideration that the A/S dichotomy has a history and an origin in a given period of time say 17 century and geographical location say Europe, it is there and then that this cognitive structure was put in place, propagated and perpetuated since, in parallel, simultaneously and organically together with the colonial effort and the domination and eventual destruction of any external agent.
The A/S dichotomy is one central element of the us/them dichotomy at the base of hegemonic colonial  domination,  in consequence integrating these elements in a coherent critical analysis might help in moving on to a new set of practices and problems.
I was reading this morning the paper of Koen Vermeir (Historicizing Culture,A Revaluation of Early Modern Science and Culture) a chapter for in a book in press (K. Chemla and Evelyn Fox-Keller (eds) 2016.Cultures without culturalism)  preparing for a seminar at SAW (http://sawerc.hypotheses.org) next Thursday under the title Rethinking Practices and Cultures in the history of science, I thought the paper was quite consistent with the argument above and might be useful to work on it, and it contains a number of interesting references that might help us in working out operative proposals. I think you will find it interesting
All the best, cordiallyr

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Sunday, November 29, 2015

[Yasmin_discussions] STEM. STEAM...STEAMS

Greg Paul Sheila

I think we need to advocate that there are multiple reasons for advocating
STEM to STEAM- and avoid oversimplifying- and that indeed we
want, in some cases not all, art and design better integrated into STEM
activities and also STEM better integrated into some not all
Art/Design/Humanities
programs

in a recent discussion with a journalist- the question was posed ' what jobs
are people trained in STEAM approaches being hired"

robert root bernstein replied : I'd say the question is misleading.
The purpose of STEM to STEAM is not to create some new hybrid
specialty, but to improve performance and creative ability in all of
the professions impacted by the integration.

I begged to differ- that the jobs argument is valid- but that we need
to buy into a rich variety of modivations

in the National Academy meeting in washington on next tuesday the
question is framed as:

· The value of incorporating curricula and experiences in the
humanities—including history, literature, language, philosophy,
religion, and the arts—into college and university STEM education and
workforce training programs, to understand whether and how these
experiences:...

· The value of incorporating more STEM curricula and experiences
into the academic programs of students who are majoring in the
humanities and related disciplines to understand whether and how the
career readiness of these students can be enhanced by exposing them to
deeper knowledge of science, engineering, medicine and technology...

· The benefits of creating opportunities and incentives for
incorporating the humanities into public policy deliberations around
the most compelling STEM issues of our day, such as global
stewardship, health care for our youngest and oldest citizens, and
gene editing.

(for the full statement see:
http://malina.diatrope.com/2015/11/26/grand-challenge-for-science-and-engineering-self-knowledge-an-open-call-to-humanists/
)

and insists on a call for a new humanism"

But it is a third, less instrumental justification for the humanities
in engineering education that will be most important for successfully
engaging the ultimate Grand Challenge of self-knowledge, that is, of
thinking reflectively and critically about the kind of world we wish
to design, construct, and inhabit in and through our technologies.

this is the concern about 'instrumental arguemnts' such as innovation
and entrepreneurship, attracting more people into STEM careers etc,
which should not occlude totally the fundamental reason why the
current disciplinary approaches are often lacking

but as i continue to say, lets not overgeneralise- there are very good
reasons to have narrow disciplinary experts for many many of the
problems that need to be solved

let me re iterate the invitation to all YASMINERS to tell us whats on
their mind- that has increased in importance over the past five years-
we will integrate these into the meetings over the next few months of
the SEAD network


roger malina

On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 4:12 PM, Greg Giannis <Greg.Giannis@vu.edu.au> wrote:
> Hi Paul
> Thanks for highlighting this. I am researching the teaching of code & hardware skills to artists and most of the literature around STEAM is as you say, very lopsided, harnessing the arts to get better engagement in STEM. But what about harnessing STEM creative types?
>
> Greg
>
>> On 30 Nov 2015, at 7:23 am, "Paul Fishwick" <metaphorz@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Since STEAM is on the table of discussion, this may be relevant - just posted it:
>>
>> http://creative-automata.com/2015/11/29/why-the-steam-argument-is-one-sided/


Full steam ahead. Or should I say STEAM ahead? STEM stands forScience,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and has been a driving force
initiated by the National Science Foundation to focus education policy
within technical areas and their associated disciplines. More
recently, the letter "A" has been added to create a new movement
called STEAM. The "A" stands for the arts, and according to a leading
site devoted to STEAM, STEM + Art = STEAM. Since I spend much of my
time thinking about the interconnections between STEM and the Arts, I
welcome the STEAM movement. And yet, I have deep concerns about the
movement's three published policy goals stated on the STEAM site: (1)
transform research policy to place Art + Design at the center of STEM;
(2) encourage integration of Art + Design in K–20 education; and (3)
influence employers to hire artists and designers to drive innovation.
These are worthwhile goals, but notice how all three goals seem to be
about getting STEM-oriented folks to hire artists and designers, and
placing art & design at the middle of STEM? Let's flip this. What
about having STEM at the center of Art and Design? I am not suggesting
doing away with the three STEAM goals, but I am recommending some sort
of balance by extending or broadening these goals; the current ones
are lopsided. I strongly advocate new ways of starting with design and
the arts, and then surfacing STEM concepts from within art and design.
For the STEM subset of computing, this advocacy resulted in the
aesthetic computingmovement. Recently, this approach has taken root in
learning systems thinking in the art museum. I am not the first to
suggest this if we consider the larger literature base of blending
STEM with the Arts. Take Martin Kemp's book The Science of Art where
he explores mathematics and optics via art. Also, the MIT Press
Leonardo journals edited by Roger Malina has extensive historical
coverage of intersections of STEM and the arts. Leonardo was founded
in 1968, and so its publications contain a treasure trove of
knowledge, suggesting new ways to get to the heart of STEAM. To
advocates of STEAM, my suggestion is to rethink of STEAM as two-way
traffic: two steam locomotives, two tracks, perhaps with some switches
here and there.
>>
>>
>> Paul Fishwick, PhD
>> Chair, ACM SIGSIM
>> Distinguished University Chair of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication
>> Professor of Computer Science
>> Director, Creative Automata Laboratory
>> The University of Texas at Dallas
>> Arts & Technology
>> 800 West Campbell Road, AT10
>> Richardson, TX 75080-3021
>> Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick
>> Blog 1: creative-automata.com
>> Blog 2: modelingforeveryone.com
>> LinkedIn: metaphorz
>> Twitter: @representationz
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Nov 29, 2015, at 10:12 AM, roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>> yasminers
>>> from sheila pinkel in california
>>> roger malina
>>>
>>> STEM, STEAM, STEAMS
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> By Sheila Pinkel, September 2015
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Due to poor U.S. student performance in the sciences, in 2006 the STEM
>>> concept for enhancing education in science, technology, engineering
>>> and mathematics was introduced in classrooms. (1). Beginning in 2012
>>> educators in Massachusetts, New Mexico and Rhode Island started
>>> experimenting with STEAM, adding art to the educational model. The
>>> chief objectives of the STEAM movement, according to RISD, were to
>>> "transform research policy to place art and design at the center of
>>> STEM" and "influence employers to hire artists and designers to drive
>>> innovation." Educators also said they wished to see art and design
>>> take a more central role in education, from kindergarten through
>>> college. (2)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I applaud these initiatives to enhance interdisciplinary learning.
>>> However, there is an important component still missing. Society, or
>>> STEAMS, needs to be added to create a complete educational model in
>>> which the history and social implications of science, social science
>>> and art are considered as well.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Historically there are very famous examples of the importance of
>>> understanding the social implications of scientific research. For
>>> instance, Leo Szilard, the first physicist to conceive of a chain
>>> reaction that could become an atomic bomb, in 1939 authored with
>>> Albert Einstein a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt expressing
>>> his concern about Germany making an a-bomb first. However, once the
>>> Manhattan Project had produced one, in the spring of1945 Szilard
>>> became concerned about consequences of using the a-bomb before an
>>> international control agreement had been discussed with the Soviets.
>>> After WWII Szilard founded the Council for a Livable World because he
>>> understood the importance of creating dialogue about the developments
>>> in science, especially as they relate to issues of war and peace.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Today it is important to consider the social implications of a
>>> worldview that has shifted from the domain of religion and philosophy
>>> to the sciences. Changing cosmological paradigms on the part of
>>> physicists because of rapidly changing knowledge about the macrocosm
>>> and microcosm in the universe has resulted in a master narrative about
>>> cosmological origins that is in constant flux. However, there is
>>> little commentary about this shifting construct of 'truth' and its
>>> affect on our lives and culture. As a result, when I asked may people
>>> about their thoughts about finally being able to 'see' the Higgs
>>> Boson, they said that it didn't matter to them because it has no
>>> impact on their lives.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In colleges and universities, the fragmented nature of an educational
>>> system in which the implications of economic paradigms or views of
>>> history are considered separately from the arts and sciences has led
>>> to a lack of dialogue about these inter relationships. Thus, often the
>>> human and social implications of the direction of research or works
>>> produced are absent and there is not a conceptual container to
>>> facilitate these discussions.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Some educational institutions have added social and/or
>>> multidimensional courses to their curriculum. For instance, Pitzer
>>> College, Claremont, CA., requires all students to spend a semester
>>> living and/or working with a local community to better understand the
>>> realities and dilemmas confronting the people in that community. Bryn
>>> Mar College, PA, offers three courses in one semester in which the
>>> same fifteen students look at a subject from various perspectives all
>>> semester. In the fall of 2015 the same students studied issues of
>>> incarceration in three classes, taught by a political science
>>> professor, social science professor, English professor and art
>>> professor.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> By adding 'society' to STEM and STEAM, the terrain for social,
>>> political, economic and/or historic discourse is available for an
>>> added dimension of dialogue and understanding to take place.
>>> Questioning the social implications of what we do can create clarity
>>> and help guide our life choices.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> (1) "Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
>>> Education: Background, Federal Policy and Legislative Action" (2008),
>>> Jeffrey J. Kuenzi, Congressional Research Service Reports, Paper 35,
>>> http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/crsdocs
>>>
>>> (2) "Gaining STEAM: Teaching Science though Art", US News NEWS: Eliza
>>> Krigman, Feb. 13, 2014.
>

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] One-Sided STEAM Argument

Hi Paul
Thanks for highlighting this. I am researching the teaching of code & hardware skills to artists and most of the literature around STEAM is as you say, very lopsided, harnessing the arts to get better engagement in STEM. But what about harnessing STEM creative types?

Greg

> On 30 Nov 2015, at 7:23 am, "Paul Fishwick" <metaphorz@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Since STEAM is on the table of discussion, this may be relevant - just posted it:
>
> http://creative-automata.com/2015/11/29/why-the-steam-argument-is-one-sided/
>
>
> Paul Fishwick, PhD
> Chair, ACM SIGSIM
> Distinguished University Chair of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication
> Professor of Computer Science
> Director, Creative Automata Laboratory
> The University of Texas at Dallas
> Arts & Technology
> 800 West Campbell Road, AT10
> Richardson, TX 75080-3021
> Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick
> Blog 1: creative-automata.com
> Blog 2: modelingforeveryone.com
> LinkedIn: metaphorz
> Twitter: @representationz
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> On Nov 29, 2015, at 10:12 AM, roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>>
>> yasminers
>> from sheila pinkel in california
>> roger malina
>>
>> STEM, STEAM, STEAMS
>>
>>
>>
>> By Sheila Pinkel, September 2015
>>
>>
>>
>> Due to poor U.S. student performance in the sciences, in 2006 the STEM
>> concept for enhancing education in science, technology, engineering
>> and mathematics was introduced in classrooms. (1). Beginning in 2012
>> educators in Massachusetts, New Mexico and Rhode Island started
>> experimenting with STEAM, adding art to the educational model. The
>> chief objectives of the STEAM movement, according to RISD, were to
>> "transform research policy to place art and design at the center of
>> STEM" and "influence employers to hire artists and designers to drive
>> innovation." Educators also said they wished to see art and design
>> take a more central role in education, from kindergarten through
>> college. (2)
>>
>>
>>
>> I applaud these initiatives to enhance interdisciplinary learning.
>> However, there is an important component still missing. Society, or
>> STEAMS, needs to be added to create a complete educational model in
>> which the history and social implications of science, social science
>> and art are considered as well.
>>
>>
>>
>> Historically there are very famous examples of the importance of
>> understanding the social implications of scientific research. For
>> instance, Leo Szilard, the first physicist to conceive of a chain
>> reaction that could become an atomic bomb, in 1939 authored with
>> Albert Einstein a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt expressing
>> his concern about Germany making an a-bomb first. However, once the
>> Manhattan Project had produced one, in the spring of1945 Szilard
>> became concerned about consequences of using the a-bomb before an
>> international control agreement had been discussed with the Soviets.
>> After WWII Szilard founded the Council for a Livable World because he
>> understood the importance of creating dialogue about the developments
>> in science, especially as they relate to issues of war and peace.
>>
>>
>>
>> Today it is important to consider the social implications of a
>> worldview that has shifted from the domain of religion and philosophy
>> to the sciences. Changing cosmological paradigms on the part of
>> physicists because of rapidly changing knowledge about the macrocosm
>> and microcosm in the universe has resulted in a master narrative about
>> cosmological origins that is in constant flux. However, there is
>> little commentary about this shifting construct of 'truth' and its
>> affect on our lives and culture. As a result, when I asked may people
>> about their thoughts about finally being able to 'see' the Higgs
>> Boson, they said that it didn't matter to them because it has no
>> impact on their lives.
>>
>>
>>
>> In colleges and universities, the fragmented nature of an educational
>> system in which the implications of economic paradigms or views of
>> history are considered separately from the arts and sciences has led
>> to a lack of dialogue about these inter relationships. Thus, often the
>> human and social implications of the direction of research or works
>> produced are absent and there is not a conceptual container to
>> facilitate these discussions.
>>
>>
>>
>> Some educational institutions have added social and/or
>> multidimensional courses to their curriculum. For instance, Pitzer
>> College, Claremont, CA., requires all students to spend a semester
>> living and/or working with a local community to better understand the
>> realities and dilemmas confronting the people in that community. Bryn
>> Mar College, PA, offers three courses in one semester in which the
>> same fifteen students look at a subject from various perspectives all
>> semester. In the fall of 2015 the same students studied issues of
>> incarceration in three classes, taught by a political science
>> professor, social science professor, English professor and art
>> professor.
>>
>>
>>
>> By adding 'society' to STEM and STEAM, the terrain for social,
>> political, economic and/or historic discourse is available for an
>> added dimension of dialogue and understanding to take place.
>> Questioning the social implications of what we do can create clarity
>> and help guide our life choices.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> (1) "Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
>> Education: Background, Federal Policy and Legislative Action" (2008),
>> Jeffrey J. Kuenzi, Congressional Research Service Reports, Paper 35,
>> http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/crsdocs
>>
>> (2) "Gaining STEAM: Teaching Science though Art", US News NEWS: Eliza
>> Krigman, Feb. 13, 2014.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>
>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>
>> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
>> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
>> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>
> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>
> SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
> TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
> If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/
This email, including any attachment, is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. It is confidential and may contain personal information or be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient any use, disclosure, reproduction or storage of it is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, please advise the sender via return email and delete it from your system immediately. Victoria University does not warrant that this email is free from viruses or defects and accepts no liability for any damage caused by such viruses or defects.

_______________________________________________
Yasmin_discussions mailing list
Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions

Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

SBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to subscribe to. In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address, name, and password in the fields found further down the page.
HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
If you prefer to read the posts on a blog go to http://yasminlist.blogspot.com/