User:Youjung/SI28: On Writing Machines

This is an archival page for the Special Issue #28. Writing Machines–Protocols–Feedback.

Radio Shows

First Broadcast: Radio Ghost

Date: October 6th

Bart, Ema, Youjung

• Radio Show Documentation

• Shownotes

Spam e-mail recipes

For the first radio show, I made a spam e-mail recipe using Nick Montfort's Python code for The House of Dust and Through the Park. I have been developing poem generators since the workshop in Brussels. With the draft that I had, I borrowed ideas from Nick Montfort and Lillian-yvonne Bertram. Their work uses randomness but also has context and meaning in the output. I read Output and Travesty Generator to get some ideas for the Python code.

The input text is as important as the code itself. I thought using spam e-mails would be fun. Spam e-mails are usually not interesting; they are filled with flashy words to seduce readers to open the mail. But ironically, these phrases echo meaninglessly in our inboxes. The majority of them are directly moved to the trash. It would be fun to break these e-mails down into phrases and words and cook them like fried rice.

I enjoyed working with the text "Tips from ABN AMRO". They really did a great job on the opening statement, trying to lure expats/students into insurance, talking about the Dutch customs. Reordering them made it nonsensical, but at the same time, it made sense. I found myself trying to add humor to it. I hope it was humorous for the audience...

Original Text
Are you getting used to the Dutch and their ways?
Like cycling against the traffic, celebrating St Nicholas,
and eating a buttered slice of bread with chocolate sprinkles?
Still, some Dutch customs can be very useful,
and one of these is being insured against all manner of risks.

Cooked Text
Dear Client,
Are you getting used to cross the road without looking?
Still, Dutch customs can be useful, faced by a hefty bill.
It's normal to eating a buttered slice of bread with chocolate sprinkles for your home.
You can insure yourself for causing a cyclist to have a nasty fall under one roof Get properly damage something
Kind regards,
Tanja Bom Head of Customer Communications ABN AMRO

Message from the Radio Ghost

For the final writing machine, we wanted the inputs from our audiences. We aimed to actively engage with them. In order to lower the barrier of participation we asked questions that are simple to answer. These inputs were then put into our final writing machine. For this machine, I brought elements and keywords from each other's machines. Name that starts with an "A", spam e-mail titles, lyrics from a happy song etc. Then put them into a loose structure, then we read the result of the writing machine. Each person will read one word and phrase.

from random import choice, sample 
title = [
"I’d like to inspire potential entrepreneurs",
"who lack the funds but are willing to put in the time, effort and creativity",
"to build a successful business.",
"The same internet for less money",
]
name = [
"April",
"Arend",
"Anna",
"Amanda",
]
place = [
"in my room, in bed",
"in the train",
"in my room on the couch",
]
sadSong = [
"A handshake of carbon monoxide ",
"It's just another day, and it's not over till it's over. ",
"I fall into a black hole in my head ",
"Reach into the darkness for what's left ",
"I'm fighting the gravity ",
]
happySong = [
"Nal Miwo hajima ",
"In der niederlande sagt man: 'Ik maak korte metten'",
"Sai la scritta che hai scritto, sai, mi piace assai",
"Sai, quel tuo corpicino che guardava me"
]

name1, name2, name3, name4, name5 = sample(name, 5)
place1, place2, place3, place4, place5 = sample(place, 5)
title1, title2, title3 = sample(title, 3)
happySong1, happySong2, happySong3 = sample(happySong, 3)
sadSong1, sadSong2, sadSong3 = sample(sadSong, 3)

title1_words = title1.split()
title1_short = " ".join(title1_words[:5])

title2_words = title2.split()
title2_short = " ".join(title2_words[-5:])

message = f"""
{name1} ★ {place1} ★
Happily sings ★ ♫ {sadSong1} ♫

Sobbing ★ {name2} ★ {place2} ★
cries ★ ♫ {happySong1}♫ 

{name3} ★ writes ★ "{title1_short}" 
{name1} ★ replies ★ "{title2_short}" 

{name4} ★ and ★ {name5} ★ {place4} ★
♫ {happySong3} ♫ ★
♫ {sadSong3} ♫ ★

See you ★ {place5} ★
yours sincerely...
"""

print(message)

Looking Back

Preparing for the show, we had 3 meetings, one after class and two online. We thought of doing a collective writing machine, but in the end, we did our own separate machines. Everyone had different interests, and we didn't have enough time to fuse our machines together. But a lot of ideas emerged during the rehearsal, an online meeting the night before the broadcast, like the tone of the show and ghost interrupting us. We measured the time for the introduction to see if we can make it on time. I wrote my script for my session and prepared things to discuss during Bart and Ema's session.

On the day of the show, time passed extremely quickly. When I was talking about my writing machine, my face was burning. And during discussion my brain went blank. Furthermore, I was the moderator who was responsible for tracking time but I miscalculated and cut my session too soon. But maybe thanks to that, everything was on time. I gave signals to others when they had 5, 3, and 1 minutes left. In the end we had some time left, where we had to fill with awkward moments of silence.

When preparing for the show, I felt guilty of presenting something that is not refined to a broad audience. It was my big moment of "making things public". It's a nerve wracking experience but in the end I found myself enjoying being on live and speaking on the microphone.

Second Broadcast: Cyber Feminism

Date: November 17th

Barbara, Sibyl, Youjung

• Radio Show Documentation
• Shownotes

What does feminism mean to me?

Barbara, Sibyl and Youjung during the radio show

Personally, feminism is a difficult topic to talk about. Even though I believe it is important part of my life, I fear of talking about it. And as it was getting closer to the deadline of the special issue event, I was feeling pressured. Not being able to do a deep research on it and talking publicly on the radio was terrifying. Then why did I sign up for this? Because it is important for me.

For me feminism helped me break free from the expectation as a female. I've always thought I'm not feminine enough. People gave me unwanted feedback on my boyish appearance, that I have to meet the "market's needs" in order to date someone. Learning about feminism helped me break free from this notion. But as I started working in bureaucratic work environment, I witnessed the gender inequality was deeply rooted. I kind of gave up on fighting or even thinking about my rights. I was just exhausted from work and slowly detached from it. However, I always felt uncomfortable and disoriented. Feminism was always at the back of my head.

Protesting for Yoon's Impeachment and Cyborg Manifesto

Last year in South Korea, president Yoon declared martial law and tried to dictate the government. Soldiers kicked into the parliament breaking windows pushing parliament members. Helicopters were buzzing on top of Seoul. And people were so confused of what was happening. Since South Korea went through the history of dictatorship and military regime, a lot of people were in fear. People rushed into the streets to fight back and what was noticeable was that a lot of the protesters were mostly women in their 20~30s. This was due to Yoon's anti-feminist stance and political tactics of creating gender conflict. And these women gathered through X where discourse on feminism and K-pop fandom culture takes place. This was the point where I saw the connection to Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto.

In Cyborg Manifesto, cyborgs are not just human with machine as body parts. It is a blurred boundaries of technology/machine, male/female and race, it is embracing the fluidity. "Cyborgs are ether". We become cyborgs not only through machinery but also through networked being. During this protest, cyborgs gathered with glowing plastic wands in hand, singing k-pop together. We made protests into concerts and a warm place of connection even though it was during freezing winter season. Resistance was playful yet powerful. And after months of protesting and endless waiting Yoon was finally impeached.

Looking Back

Before the radio show, I was very nervous. But after finishing the show I felt liberated. I was afraid of saying something wrong, but there's no write or wrong. It is what I think and it is not bad to ramble about it. Also I felt good about sharing my insecurity and talking about it. I should deep dive into Donna Haraway's text during the winter break. Good to be back in touch with feminism again!

On Writing Machines

Cooking Spam E-mails

a small that displays random e-mail every 10 seconds.

On Monday 13th of October, I worked on changing my python code to a web format. Maybe I'm copying Nick Montfort too much, but Steve said it is ok to do so. I struggled to find ways to display python on a chrome browser. I found pyscript, but it didn't work. Later I found out that it wasn't as simple as I thought. Javascript and Python are two very different language. Michael advised that if I wanted to focus on a more visual side, I can focus on Javascript. After some trial and errors, I just used Python to Javascript converter. It might not be the most elegant way but it works.

I used the recipe for cooking the e-mail from ABN AMRO and made a small website! You can check it here. It was fun to get my hands dirty with coding and visuals after all those readings and discussion.

A story in a story in a story

Barbara, Kiki, Youjung

• Project Documentation – most of my thoughts and processes are archived in this page
• Etherpad

Testing with the pen plotter machine

Work!

Test prints

Live event at WORM UBIK

19th of November, 15:30 - 20:00

We set up the event from 10am. Thanks to worm the preparation was smooth. We brought a monitor, keyboard, pen plotter and some cables from our studio. Decorated our area with plotted results of the play test. During the setting up process, I was quite stressed and nervous. With Barbara and Kiki we fine tuned the terminal message and the set up of our desk. Before opening of the event, Marco did a final play test of our game. Marco seemed to be quite fascinated!

On 15:30, people started arriving at the event. Barbara's sister was our first guest. I sat next to her and watched her play the game, all three of us were anxious to see our first player interact with the game. She said it is mesmerizing to see the pen plotter draw complex items. During the event we've received positive feedbacks. From what I've observed, players reacted the most when they collected the first item. Sending signal to the machine and seeing it draw. Anticipating to see the result of the machine movement. Though we could spot popular routes. It was fun to explain to people the background of this project and how it works. And observe how players interact.

Beginning of the semester Steve asked me what kind of art I liked. I couldn't come up with an answer and tears welled up. I didn't know what I liked and here I am far away from home. I managed to tell him that I liked something interactive and playful. And this project seems to be close to that.

Interface of A story in a story in a story

Plotting in progress

Amazine Making

8th of December

Publication Workflow

I worked on the Master CSS layout. Barbara documented the guideline. Tommi helped with revising the code and proof reading. Lea worked on compiling all the pdfs bringing the content coherent. Kiki and Robin worked on the cover design and binding. And also with the help of others ... We are such a dream team. I can't believe we made this publication in just 2 weeks. But time is definitely limiting. Next time we need to plan this in advance along with the public event. It was a challenging teamwork but we somehow made it happen. I wonder how we will organize the while special issue next year.

watching Tommi edit my messy code

binding in progress

special issue 28!

Preparation Team Work for SI 28

SI28: Design Team

Barbara, Kiki, Sibyl, Youjung

• Design team pad
• Used graphviz to create a graphics for the poster

251020 Draft for poster using graphviz

251023 Draft for poster using graphviz

SI28: Web Development Team

Lea, Robin, Tommi, Youjung

• Web dev team pad
• Worked on the main page of the website
• A_Mazing Machine_s

Challenge1: Making an interactive diagram

The main challenge was to create graphics on the poster into interactive SVG components instead of images. First, I tried to draw each line and arrow shape finding the X,Y coordinates. It took me 2 hours to draw some lines. There must be a better way! After some frantic googling, I found a Javascript library called LeaderLine which automatically connects html class with customizable leader lines. And it was very intuitive and simple to use. With that, I could easily make the graphics into interactive SVG files.

Now I have to

• adding interaction/motion to the design (figure out how to make it more intuitive)
• syncing the final design
• make the graphic responsive according to the screen size

Challenge2: Merge conflict

Git merge conflict happened. Kind of lost a lot of things that I've been working on last week.

• fix the interaction errors in Javascript
• work on responsive size for the mobile page > update leader line size and coordinate according to the window size break point
• fix errors with leader line

I'm still working on the website...

Reflection on Teamwork

10th of December, last day!

• SI28 debrief pad

Personal Reflections

• Divided team, scattered documentation Our classmates were super organized. Instantly we divided into teams and worked on separate tasks. It is indeed an efficient way to get things done but also it's a very linear and corporate way of team work. It was difficult to grasp what each team were doing also the document and informations were scattered all over Zulip, signal and wiki. I wonder what would be an alternative way of team building. Transparency of documentation and process of each team would be necessary.
• Endless group discussion Group discussion is fun but at the same time it is quite energy consuming. Each person have different opinions and it's difficult to find a consensus where everyone is happy. The process of choosing the title for SI28 would be a good example. Is following the majority always the right way? It's difficult. At one point I was tired of discussion and compromised. But later I wasn't happy with the process and regretted that I did not speak up. Next time I shall address immediately.
• Imbalance of knowledge and workload The person with more technological/technical knowledge would determine the process and handle majority of the job. And this brings imbalance and excludes some people during the working process. This was observed not only in the web dev team but also during the zine making process. I believe people are here to learn new language, and interested in demystifying technology. But we weren't able to share our knowledge due to the limit of time. Also, although we made an effort to make a clear documentation of the process, some people were overwhelmed to read through them. To improve this, allocating time to explain this process step by step would be necessary. Graphic designer has a lot of work to do, but it is difficult to divide that labor as the graphic design needs to be coherent.
• Coherency vs Anarchy Having "Machines" in every title, unifying the layout of each page... I think not everything has to be polished and coherent. We should embrace that we are unlearning things. How can we balance having a united thought but at the same time respecting diverse opinion and thoughts. It is difficult to bring thoughts together.