In this glossary we have collected words/phrases which somehow connected us to the Special Issue #28 topic, namely: Writing machines, Protocols, Feedback. The glossary served as the content for our collective performance in the last Radio Show #8.
Absurdity
When the vast systems produced by technology exceed human understanding, sensation, and control, meaning does not disappear—it persists in a form that can no longer be digested.
Absurdity does not arise from malfunction, but from the system’s very state of “normal operation.”
The shadows cast beneath all colossal machines built by technology are absurdity itself; and every small shadow thrown by a screw, a gear, or a mechanical angle becomes the environment in which it grows.
Absurdity is not a sudden catastrophe, but a byproduct quietly generated by systems in continuous operation.
In this sense, absurdity is not error, but excess; not failure, but precision; not chaos, but a hollow space produced by over-functioning.
Entry by: Kiki
Song: The Sun Also Rises - Joe Hisaishi
Assemblages
Assemblage of words, meanings, methods, tools, and people. We were/are a wonderful and fun assemblage.
Entry by: Youjung
Song: Trout from Ipanema – Bernie Krause
Beat Generation
The Beat Generation refers to a movement in American literature that emerged in the 1950s – the core group consisting of authors Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs. Central elements of Beat culture include the rejection of materialism and conventional narrative values, explicit depictions of human existence, the search for spirituality, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation. The soundtrack of the Beat Generation was modern jazz, in particular the energetic sound of bebop and hard bop.
Entry by: Lea
Song: The Drum Thunder Suite – Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers
Cognitive Assemblages
Distribution of cognition and agency: Neither humans nor technical systems are solely in charge. Both are “cognizers” that interpret and act on information, with agency distributed across the system. A system where human and technical actors, like humans, algorithms, and sensors, work together, distributing cognition and agency across the network, which is characterized by the circulation of information through human and technical cognizers that drop in and out of the network in shifting configurations that enable interpretations and meanings to emerge, circulate, interact and disseminate.
Entry by: Ema
Song: Constant Motion – Dream Theatre
Drifting
We are like the drifting pros on Mount Akina in Initial D, full of motion and imagination, engaging in decentralized, fluid creation, with everyone choosing the medium they prefer.
Entry by: Soda
Song: Initial D - Deja Vu – Super Eurobeat - Dave Rodgers
Marginalia
A form of annotation that highlights the centre at the margins, making text dialectical. A Brazilian radical art movement started in late 60s as a response to the military dictatorship by publishing subversive acts that challenged conservative values.
Entry by: Luca
Song: Monólogo ao Pé do Ouvido / Banditismo Por uma Questão de Classe - Chico Science & Nação Zumbi
Media-Specific Analysis
A theory we learned about through Katherine Hayles’ Post-Print. It has made me consider more deeply how the medium, the ‘materiality’ of a text plays a role in how it circulates and is received. It clicked for me especially to treat the networked nature of digital or technologically produced text as the ‘starting point’ so to say, instead of thinking about a text as being the thing that I see when I see it in front of me as I read it first.
Entry by: Robin
Song: Komptromat – Kompromat
Meta
There is a unique beauty in everything that is meta. Thinking about thinking, machines that relate to other machines, writing about writing, and infinite combinations of intricate relationships and rabbit holes. Beyond this Special Issue, XPUB itself embodies the concept of metaness in the most wonderful way, flirting with the risk of being self-referential, but always fostering meaningful, compelling stimuli and inspiration.
Entry by: Tommi
Song: Gli occhi del cuore – Elio e le Storie Tese, from Boris’ soundtrack.
The concept of Meta
has nothing to do with the company that adopted this term as its name, butchering its gorgeous and interesting meaning.
This entry was initially written for the Special Issue 28’s Glossary, yet it continued to come back during Tommi’s research and practice, and they are interested in diving deeper 👀
Oddkin
We require each other in unexpected collaborations and combinations, including not only humans but also non-humans. Coined by Donna Haraway.
Entry by: Barbara
Song: De Grens Tussen Ons - Droom Dit
Pragmatics
Paul Grice put down the basis of Pragmatics in linguistic philosophy to think about communication in broader terms other than Semantics. His theory of implicatures is about communication as an investigative process for relevancies is tied to the context where the communication happens in. Pragmatics proves that language on its own is limiting, through the means of mind reading abilities and the common understanding of how things work in reality.
Entry by: Valentin
Song: Poision Lips – Vitalic
Superfluous
Unnecessary, especially through being more than enough. Superfluous content and links which flash around our brain. Superfluous tools which are created to smoothen and speed up automation.
Entry by: Daan
Song: Constant - Xanopticon
The Proust Effect
The Proust effect is the spontaneous, vivid reliving of a past memory, triggered by a sensory experience like smell or taste.
Entry by: Sibyl
Song: 每次你走的時分 — my little airport
Writing
Tulips in bloom Clara born to war’s dark loom Hiding with whispers Under the floor Hunger and hope They rationed more Amsterdam wept But she survived A child of shadows Kept alive…
Entry by: Phillip
