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Revision as of 06:59, 15 July 2025
Image:David Bowie using the cut-up technique to write lyrics - from the documentary Cracked Actor(1975)
"Mankind is beginning to understand how to dismantle and reassemble the most complex and unpredictable of its machines: language."
Italo Calvino, Cybernetics and Ghosts (1967).
Alison Knowls' computer generated poem: "The House of Dust (1967) is not only a poem, it is in many ways also an interpretable score.", Maud Jacquin and Sébastien Pluot, House of Dust Journal (2019)
“If we find a monkey striking a typewriter apparently at random but in fact [it] is writing meaningful prose we shall look for restraints, either inside the monkey or inside the typewriter” Gregory Bateson, Cybernetic Explanation (1967).
Special Issue #28: Writing Machines–Protocols-Feedback
The project described here is a new iteration of a course first run in 2023 Radio Worm: Protocols for an Active Archive.
This iteration is called Writing Machines–Protocols-Feedback, and will run from September to December 2025.
The format will be a weekly live 2 hour radio program, and a “public moment” (tentatively planned for the end of November, 2025).
The course will be developed and run by tutors of XPUB, supported by WORM staff, and the content will be produced by XPUB1 students.
The idea is to produce and maintain a podcast feed of materials related to the program during the duration of the 3 months.
The format of the live event is described further below.
XPUB will be responsible for documenting activities related to the course, and in working with WORM for possible inclusion within their network (for instance working with Ash on materials that could be part of WORM’s Mixcloud channel).
The project will involve the assistance and cooperation of: Ash Kilmartin, Lukas Simonis, Lieuwe Zelle (Radio WORM), Michael Murtaugh (WDKA/XPUB), and XPUB prototyping + methods tutors.
Introduction to Special Issue #28: Writing Machines–Protocols–Feedback
Image:William Burroughs using the Cut-up technique
Since human beings developed the software of the alphabet, they have engineered a series of technologies to manage and enhance its power. These include storage and operating systems such as books and libraries, along with more recent (computerised) systems of information collation and dissemination.
In the twentieth century, the realisation that writing is a technology – as opposed to a "natural", direct conduit to the soul – came as a creative inspiration to many writers and artists.
- the Surrealists fashioned "exquisite corpses";
- the 'Pataphysicians channeled streams of consciousness;
- the Oulipo group used systems of restraint to open new channels of potential literature;
- the Fluxus group developed protocols for "happenings";
- John Cage established restraints for composition;
- the Scratch Orchestra co-wrote scores for group improvisation.
- William Burroughs used various techniques, including "cut-ups", to scramble the patterns of language that he believed programmed conformity. Sometimes Burroughs folded one text into another, sometimes he collaged the (then) new media of magnetic tape.
This all sounds liberating, but in the twenty-first century we have reason to be critical of how easily the creative potential of the software of the alphabet can be commodified and pre-programmed. As knowledge transfers to ever-larger datasets, and drops into the hands of a minority who own them, we must ask again: what is our stake in the software of the alphabet?
Where is our agency when human expression through writing is understood as a code managed by a series of protocols?
What is at stake when a large dataset can claim the space of "creativity"?
Can we, through learning about how the past has been structured, shape information technologies that serve our own desires and interests?
The outcomes of Special Issue #28 will include:
- a series of radio shows
- writing machines (protocols, codes, Frankenstein devices) which structure the weekly radio shows
- a library of such protocols and techniques will generate scripts...
- to be performed (live) together...
- creating and remixing existing material...
- and using the scripts as improvisational prompts
XPUB 2024-2026 Survival Guide
Pad of Pads
Wiki Page (same content, more permanent)
Pad for Writing Machine's reader: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Writing_Machines_reading_week_by_week
Calendars:XPUB 2024-2026
Weekly schedule
Monday from 10-11 a live radio program is produced by a rotating team of XPUB students together from the Radio WORM Studio.
From 11-12:00 time will be put aside to listen and reflect on the program.
In the afternoon
1) Steve Rushton opens with a mini-presentation which provides context and gives an overview of the texts and issues to be discussed that week; followed by
2) an open session, drawing on the texts we have read over the week; and lastly
3) building or designing "rapid prototype" writing machines based on the things we have been talking about.
Tuesday = Prototyping with Manetta and/or Joseph [...] material which can feedback into the Monday Special Issue sessions and the Wednesday Methods sessions
Wednesday = Methods with Steve and/or Lidia [...] material that can feedback into the Monday Special Issue sessions and the Tuesday Prototyping sessions.
Weeks 0-4: Alphabet as software
WEEK 0
XPUB1: SI #28 – Week 0
Monday 15 September
10 - 13: Meet at WORM Boomgaardstraat 71 📍
14-17: Afternoon session (in the Aquarium WH.4.115 ✅)
Image: Living Brain, Marvel Comics (1964). See also The Living Brain by cybernetician W. Grey Walters (Second edition, 1963)
14-15:Steve Rushton will introduce the project
+ introduction to The Writing Machine Reader. Here is a list of texts
The Bootleg Library shelf for The Writing Machines Reader is here: https://hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary/shelf/111
+ introduction to protocols
+ Adjective, Noun, Verb, adverb = making writing machines
15-16:Thematic: The alphabet is software.
Three useful concepts: "uncreative writing"; "cognitive assemblages" and “technotexts”.
In Uncreative Writing, Managing Language in the Digital Age (2011), Kenneth Goldsmith writes:
“The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” [...] "faced with an unprecedented amount of available text, the problem is not needing to write more of it; instead, we must learn to negotiate the vast quantity that exists.”
In Postprint (2021) – Introducing Postprint, N. Katherine Hayles discusses the concept of "cognitive assemblages", which are "the complex, distributed networks of humans, technology, and environments that collectively perform cognitive functions."
In Writing Machines (2002) Technotexts and Media Specific Analysis – N. Katherine Hayles introduces the concept of “technotext,”, which is: “a literary work that reflects within itself the technological conditions of its composition and production.”
In this session we will draw of historical examples from The Oulipo Group, William Burroughs and Brion Gysin's cut-up works along with examples from Lillian-Yvonne Bertram and Nick Montford's – Output – an Anthology of Computer Generated Text 1953-2023 (2024). We will discuss how these works relate to the idea of humans and machines writing together within "cognitive assemblages" and to what degree these examples represent "technotexts".
16-17: making writing machines
See whole SI # 28 program here:https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Writing_Machines%E2%80%93Protocols%E2%80%93Feedback
Tuesday * September
Prototyping introduction, with Manetta & Joseph: setting up your sandbox
Notebook/wiki pages: Sandbox & HTML + CSS
OuNuPo (2019): https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/OuNuPo
Wednesday * September
Methods with Lidia and Steve
Methods of collective annotation; protocols
Check out Category:Protocol
XPUB1: SI #28 - Week 1 in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
Roles
- producer / host: Luca
- host: Robin
- host: Valentin
- host: Lea
At 9:30 Ash will be ready to meet Luca, Robin, Valentin and Lea at Worm for a pre-broadcast technical run through.
Monday 22 September
- 10:00 - 11:00: Radio Broadcast #01 Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio at 9:30, the others at school (aquarium) to listen at 10:00
- 11:15 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session. What is a Writing Machine?
Reflecting on N. Katherine Hayles (Postprint and Writing Machines), and Kenneth Goldsmith's In Uncreative Writing, Managing Language in the Digital Age (2011) Introduction + Lillian-Yvonne Bertram and Nick Montford (Output)
Steve will talk about the "great divide" between literacy and orality, with reference to: Michael E. Hobart & Zachary S. Schiffman – Information Ages, Literacy, Numeracy and the Computer Revolution (2000) and Steve's Mash-up of texts, A Writing Machine for 22-09-25.
We will also take a dip into Nature Study Notes by Scratch Orchestra (1969).
They provide an excellent model for collective protocols (writing machines).
Time will be put aside to make new writing machines.
XPUB1: SI #28 – Week 2 in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
Monday 29 September
Roles
Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio by 9:15 to meet Marco
- producer / interface: Daan
- host: Tommi
- host: Kiki
- host: Barbara
- observer: Ema
The rest of us will meet at school (aquarium) to listen to...
- 10:00 - 11:00: Radio Broadcast #02
- 11:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session -
Image: Raymond Queneau’s A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems (diagram, 1961)
"One must first admit that language may be treated as an object in itself, considered in its materiality, and thus freed from its subservience to its significatory obligation." – Marcel Benabou, Rule and Constraint
Reading and Writing Oulipo
In which we look at the literary experiments of the OuliPo Group (Ouvroir de las Litterature Potentieelle), including:
Harry Mathews – Liminal Poem to Martin Gardner (c1960s)
Michael Winkler – Where Signs Resemble Thoughts (c1960s)
Raymond Queneau – A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems (1961) Here is one attempt at an online version: https://www.bullfrog117.com/school/one-hundred-thousand-billion-poems.php
Raymond Queneau –A Story as You Like It (1967) (HTML approximation here: https://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/queneau_9.html)
Paul Fournel – The Theatre Tree: A Combinatory Play
Marcel Benabou – Rule of Constraint (c. 1984)
Georges Perec – The Art of Asking your Boss for a Raise
Constraints: what and why?
Pad for Radio show 2: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/secondRadio_show
XPUB1: SI #28 – Week 3 in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
Roles
Radio Broadcast #03
Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, 9.15 to meet Marco.
Bring headphones and jack (if possible).
- producer: Ema
- moderator: Youjung
- secretary: Bart
- observer: Sibyl
Monday 6 October
- 10:00 - 11:00: Radio Broadcast #03
If you are not broadcasting, we meet at school (aquarium) to listen - 11:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- Pad https://pad.xpub.nl/p/ThirdRadioShow
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 15:00: Steve talks about beats, Burroughs and 1960s media activism
“When you cut into the present, the future leaks out.” William S. Burroughs
Steve's notes on the 'cut-up' novels: Borroughs'NovaNotes
Today, we examine the cut-up techniques of Burroughs & Gysin, informed by the following texts:
Brion Gysin – Cut-Up Self-Explained (1970)
William Burroughs – The Cut-Up Methods of Brion Gysin
Oliver Harris – Introduction to William Burroughs’ Nova Express (1964) (2013)
William Burroughs - Nova Express (extract) (1964)
William Burroughs – The Electronic Revolution (c.1970)
William Burroughs - The Invisible Generation (c.1961-63)
William Burroughs - TIME (1964)
We will concentrate on William Burroughs as 1960s tactical media activist, and how he and his collaborators used the media of text, tape and film.
If you are interested, there is also material to watch and listen to by Burroughs and Gysin on this pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Cut_up_pad
15:00 BREAK
15:15 build on the Directory of Protocols you have developed - individually or in groups.
16:30 discuss outcomes
17:00 FIN
XPUB1: SI #28 – week 4 in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
NO RADIO WORM THIS WEEK
10:00-17;00 - Pause for iterative feedback and reflection.The group spend Monday 13 Oct (when there is no broadcast) making and experimenting with (writing machine) scripts; making recordings, discussing strategy for the coming broadcasts and for the event in November, reading, adding to the Writing Machine Directory &c.
14:00 -14:30 Xpub1, brief group meeting for 'temperature test' with Michael
Steve will be open for one-to-one or small group discussions:
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/strevemeets
Editing Calendars:XPUB/XPUB Calendar/27-10-2025 -Event 1
XPUB1: SI #28 – week 4 in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
NO RADIO WORM THIS WEEK
10:00-17;00 - Pause for iterative feedback and reflection.The group spend Monday 13 Oct (when there is no broadcast) making and experimenting with (writing machine) scripts; making recordings, discussing strategy for the coming broadcasts and for the event in November, reading, adding to the Writing Machine Directory &c.
14:00 -14:30 Xpub1, brief group meeting for 'temperature test' with Michael
Steve will be open for one-to-one or small group discussions:
https://pad.xpub.nl/p/strevemeets
XPUB1: SI #28 – week 6 in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
Roles
- Producer: Robin
- Hosts: Daan,Tommi, Luca, Lea, Ema
Monday 3 November
- 10:00 - 11:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 11:15 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 15:00: This afternoon we will look at some “open ended media systems” from the 1960s and early 1970s, including House of Dust; Ant Farm and Radical Software
We will be looking at:
Alison Knowles – House of Dust (1967) – on line version– https://nickm.com/memslam/the_house_of_dust.html
Intro to Alison Knowles' House of Dust (for context): https://fonderiedarling.org/depliant%20house%20of%20dust%20complet%20EN.pdf
Maud Jacquin and Sébastien Pluot – House of Dust Journal (2016)
https://monoskop.org/images/1/15/Knowles_Alison_The_House_of_Dust_Research_Journal_2016.pdf
Here is an example of output generated by Alison Knowles’ House of Dust (1967)
"A HOUSE OF WOOD
UNDER WATER
USING NATURAL LIGHT
INHABITED BY FRIENDS
A HOUSE OF LEAVES
IN A METROPOLIS
USING ALL AVAILABLE LIGHTING
INHABITED BY ALL RACES OF MAN REPRESENTED WEARING PREDOMINANTLY RED CLOTHING
A HOUSE OF ROOTS
IN AN OVERPOPULATED AREA
USING ELECTRICITY
INHABITED BY HORSES AND BIRDS…
A HOUSE OF WOOD
IN A METROPOLIS
USING ELECTRICITY
INHABITED BY FRIENDS AND ENEMIES"
Steve will talk briefly about the links between cybernetics, the Fluxus art movement and (media) ecology pioneers Ant Farm and Radical Software.
Steve's Notes on those issues here: Steve's Notes 3-11-25
- 15:15-17:00 work on writing machines and/or annotations; preparation for the Worm event, A Mazing Machines.
XPUB1: SI #28 – week 7 in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
Hosts: Valentin, Daan, Lea and Ema
Observer: Youjung
Today's pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/RadioShow6
10:00 - 11:00: Radio Broadcast. Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
11:30: Broadcast debrief / discussion / sketch out plan for next 4 weeks/ overview event/ overview website = review output and research/ set group and individual outcomes for the end of the day
13:00: LUNCH
14:00: Work on Worm event.
Individual and small group sessions Manetta (who will continue working on preparation for next week's event in prototyping, on Tuesday).
Manetta
14:00 Valentin
14:30 Lea
15:00: Barbara
15:30 break
16:00 soda
16:30-17:00 Tommi
Steve will be around for informal chats about the Worm event; reading and writing on Writing Machines &c.
Note: Steve has uploaded the notes from last week and added a little about a feedback machine called, the Homeostat (a 'do-nothing' machine). This makes a link between the "media ecology" of groups like Radical Software and more general ecological issues which became increasingly vital since the 1960s.
Steve's notes on media ecology, cybernetics and the 60s counterculture: Steve's Notes 3-11-25
XPUB1: SI #28 – week 8
in the Aquarium WH.4.115✅
Roles
Producer:
Hosts: Barbara, Youjung, Sibyl
Today's pad: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/RadioShow7
10:00 - 11:00: Radio Broadcast. listen
Whole group meet in bar to listen in and then at
11:00 -11:45 view Ubik
11:45 head back to Xpub HQ to work on projects (as per last week)
13:00: LUNCH
14:00-17:00: Work on Worm event.
FALL BREAK
WEEK 8
Roles
- Producer
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * November
- 10:00 - 11:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session:
Discussing: John Markoff, What the Doremouse Said, How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (2005);
Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron The Californian Ideology (1995): https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/californian-ideology;
John C. Lily, M.D. The Human Biocomputer (1974)
Dr. Gordon Pask & Susan Curran, Maverick Machines, from Microman, Computers and the Evolution of Consciousness (1982), extract.
Tuesday * November
Prototyping, with Manetta
Wednesday * November
Methods with Lídia
WEEK 10
Roles
- Producer(s)
- Host
- Host
- Host
Monday * November
- 10:00 - 12:00: Radio Broadcast Those with assigned roles at Radio WORM Studio, the others at school (aquarium) to listen
- 12:30 - 13:00: Broadcast debrief / discussion
- 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break
- 14:00 - 17:00: Afternoon session: Marloes de Valk, Soft Technology and Appropriate Technology (2025)
Tuesday * November
Prototyping,* Joseph /Manetta
Wednesday * NOVERMBER
Methods with Lidia
Next Week's Reading
WEEK 11
prepare for final presentation
- 10:00 - 17:00: TBD
Tuesday * November
Prototyping, with Manetta /Joseph
Wednesday * November
Methods with Lídia
WEEK 12
prepare for final presentation
- 10:00 - 17:00: TBD
Monday 25 November
Tuesday * November
WEEK 12
https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Week_11_Radio_Show_-_SE25_Event_ReMix%27d
Monday * December
prepare for final presentation
- 10:00 - 17:00: TBD
Tuesday * December
Prototyping, with Manetta
Wednesday * December
Methods with Lídia
WEEK 13
Final Broadcast Week - Launch final iteration of publication
Tuesday * December
Prototyping, with Manetta / Joseph
References from last year
notes by steve for WMPF Steve's notes on week 0
From last year the Protocol Category, with specific Decision Making protocols such as All voices heard and Voting by show of hands
Specific attention to Licenses, Open licenses, and Open licenses session that was the basis of a zine.
Nature Study Notes, and Portland Pattern Repository ... parallels.
Exemplary webpages that document the history of a project while also creating a web-page based (re)performance tool:
- BBC Radiophonic workshop + Delia Derbyshire
- MOD/S3M/XM Module Player for Web Audio and code chiptune2.js
- Some Assembly Required
- Radio Aporee
- Janek Schaefer: Custom players, his soundartresources
- Generative Music (players) Throbbing Gristle / Buddha Machine? Pirate Radio History [Media Fragments]* (https://www.w3.org/TR/media-frags/ The Deep, Rivers Solomon + Clipping (Hybrid Pub)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_(novella)
- Platoniq Burnstation
- Distributed Proofreaders and the podcast recording -- interview with An?
- Botopera
Licenses
Laurence Rassel Show http://www.ultrared.org/publicrecord/archive/2-01/2-01-014/2-01-014.html
Partners
XPUB is the 2 years Master program in Experimental Publishing at the Willem de Kooning Academy, part of the Hogeschool Rotterdam (http://xpub.nl). XPUB focuses on the acts of making things public and creating publics in the age of post-digital networks.
Radio WORM (https://radio.worm.org) is an online radio platform at the heart of WORM Rotterdam. Their studio hosts audio production of all descriptions (sound art, experimental music, interviews, mixes, informal reporting and in-depth talk-based series), with over 80 resident shows as well as a shifting schedule of one-off events, mini-series and special guests.
WORM Pirate Bay (http://thepiratebay.worm.org/) is a physical archive and working facility at WORM comprising DVDs, VHS tapes, zines, books, CDs, board games and other remnants from WORM’s production history. WPB is about unconventional knowledge sharing and artistic production that might not be valued by traditional understandings of high art.
The project will involve the assistance and cooperation of: Ash Kilmartin, Lukas Simonis, Lieuwe Zelle (Radio WORM), Ari Ralph (Worm Pirate Bay), and Florian Cramer, Michael Murtaugh (WDKA/XPUB), and XPUB prototyping + methods tutors.
PUBLIC EVENT
Public event at WORM (TBC)
Support
The project has received funding from [...]
documentation (template)
PLEASE use the following template in a Wiki page about your project for the Special Issue 25 event.
==Title of the project==
==Short description== (the one asked by PR)
==Cookbook== (how, steps of the making) with pictures
==Refs and resources== (external links)
==Additional info== (optional)
==Event Rider==
===Items===
- Item [ ]
===Space===
- X x Xm
- Internet/Power/etc
===Time===
- Async/ 1 hour slot/etc
A NOTE FROM THE LOGISTICS TEAM:
Resources needed: on your wiki project page, let us know if you need power, lighting and internet for your installation. It would also be appreciated if you could provide a list of other equipment needed (example: table, lamps, chairs, etc…). Also leave a not if you have any equipment that is on the list.
Event timings: for the jam session and text-to-speech to text to music, think about a potential timing for your event. The rest of the artworks/ installations will be working throughout the entire event. You can also list down this info on the wiki project page.
Space requirements (floorplan): on Monday, we will discuss the floorpan together, but during the weekend- you can think about how much space you would need during the event.
Project pages:
! After the event: please add pictures of the finished piece in the space ! PAD: https://pad.xpub.nl/p/Protocols-Feedback-WritingMachinesPrototyp%26Methods