Grapevine
This page will hold G(l)oss(ary)ips shared during the XPUB 2026 SI29: Gossiping at the Intersection of Crafts and Resistances.
Single-A
In the game industry, the more “A”s in the labelling of a game, the greater the size of the company, corporation, or conglomerate behind it.
“AA” or Double-A games are mid-market video games that typically have some type of professional development though typically outside of the large first-party studios of the major developers; these may be from larger teams of indie developers or from smaller non-indie studios. Double-A studios tend to range from 50 to 100 people in size.[1]
“AAA”, also known as triple-A, is a term used to classify video games produced or distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of games.[1]
Starting in 2020 leading up to the launch of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, two studios started using the term AAAA (Quadruple-A) to describe upcoming games in development.[1]
Let us foster an economy and an environment in which game development is single-A: both top quality and completely independent!
This entry was inspired by Tommi’s “mock” interview to Barbs.
Accelerationism
Speeding up the spreading of gossip, especially if venomous, to accelerate the collapse of hierarchical, unequal, unfair systems.
Negative connotations of gossiping can be weaponized against the very information infrastructure that discriminates it.
Aesthetics (in a political sense)
the semblance of fixity relies on constant repetition > Judith Butler User:Robin:Robin'spersonalreader > Jaques Ranciere
Ambiguous
Not having one particular meaning but a more different sometiomes opposing understanding of a word, happening, situation. A synonym would be something like debatable, or ambivalent, or undecided. Having different feelings about it, sentences that start as: on one hand, … on the other hand. or on one side… on the otherside.
Some keywords associated with: altough, however, on one hand, undecided, ambivalent debatable, confusing.
Backronym
occurs in: the etymology and usage section of the Wikipedia article about Rapping
Backronym is a blend of “back” and “acronym”. It describes an existing word that is treated as an acronym and expands its letters into the words of a phrase, even though this phrase does not represent the etymology of the word.
The claim that rap is an acronym for Rhythm And Poetry is a backronym. Similarly, Extraterrestrial Publishing is a backronym for XPUB!
Brittle
occurs in: Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle, p. 8
Brittle is a synonym for fragile. It is often used to describe something—a material object such as a vase or a tooth, or a concept such as friendship or language—(being on the verge of) breaking, and doing so without prior stress or stretching. In my mind it therefore has a mostly negative connotation.
Interestingly, the authors of Keywords for Radicals use the word in a positive way. Language is especially brittle in “periods of change” (cf. Introduction to Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Raymond Williams), and this is an opportunity to reflect on understandings and contradictions of words, and to mold language into new and possibly better forms.
For context, this is the full quote by Williams from the introduction to Keywords:
When a particular history is completed, we can all be clear and relaxed about it. But literature, aesthetic, representative, empirical, unconscious, liberal: these and many other words which seem to me to raise problems will, in the right circles, seem mere transparencies, their correct use a matter only of education. Or class, democracy, equality, evolution, materialism: these we know we must argue about, but we can assign particular uses to sects, and call all sects but our own sectarian. Language depends, it can be said, on this kind of confidence, but in any major language, and especially in periods of change, a necessary confidence and concern for clarity can quickly become brittle, if the questions involved are not faced.
Cancel
How does the definition of “cancelling” and “deleting” change in a distributed, decentralized, nonhierarchical knowledge infrastructure?
For example, in peer-to-peer protocols the most that can be done is requesting to delete something from a node/peer, but there can be no way to ensure that any cached version of that something is still stored.
Especially to counter authoritarianism, this becomes a powerful resistance to censorship, as it becomes virtually impossible to erase all sources of some specific information.
In VCSs like git, removing something from a repository means adding a removal operation, yet the file is (almost) irreversibly engraved in the history of the repository, thus impossible to erase.
Capricious
caprious
Chatter
occurs in: Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle, p. 9
Chatter is mentioned in Keywords for Radicals as a form of horizontal communication among workers (manifested in countless calls or in a never-ending stream of messages). The authors state that the service-orientated economy of today revolves mostly—if not entirely (see Paolo Virno)—around communicative work. Later in the text (p. 20), they use chatter in a sense more close to a definition by the book: talking idly and on trivial subjects. Can then be concluded that modern labour is babbling and therefore is obsolete?:)
Chatter can include gossip.
Cipayo
Early Meanings
Coming from the persian word Sipâhi, it meant a soldier. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sipâhi where elite members with land possesions, tracing parallels to the figure of the knight in Feudal Europe.
Colonial Meanings
In occupied India under British Rule, the word Sepoy was firstly employed to Muslim or Hindu soldiers without formal training. in the 18th century, the word settled its meaning to determine indigenous soldiers employed by the occupying force. It is estimated that nearly 96% of British Easy India Company was composed by Sepoys. There were also Sepoys employed by French, Spanish and Portuguese colonial forces.
Contemporary Meanings
In the aftermath of the kidnapping of Venezuelan Ex-president Nicolás Maduro, it was reported in several media channels that the Venezuelan Diaspora was celebrating the fall of the dictator and thanking the invasion of their own country by US Army forces. Certain comments on social media channels called this portion of the population Cipayos.
In a latin american neo-colonial context, Cipayo took the connotation of someone whose political inclinations support foreign countries in detriment of national interests. It is used as a derrogatory term - although not ethnical - in response to latinos supporting US-american and European imperialist policies. It is a synonym of "boot-licker", or "vendepatria" (country-seller, in spanish).
Curiosity
In methods class, we conducted interviews with each other in other in groups of three.
In the interviews Sibyl, Youjung and Lea did, the term curiosity came up a lot. While all three of us are struggling to see a perspective of scale in our practice, we are very motivated to stay curious. Having many different influences—that can be personal topics of interests, or other people and communities—is crucial to "growing" our practices and stay engaged in what we are working on.
Curiosity is very strong (almost magical) and is a driving factor in a lot of the things we are doing daily. Even though it is difficult and time consuming, Youjung is leaning how to code—because she is curious!
Curiosity connects strongly to childhood. Playing around and experimenting (as a child does when it learns to get around in this world) is useful in doing research and art. When you're growing older it becomes harder to stay curious but it is still of big value.
- strong motivation
- happy vs comfortable
Dichotomy
As a logical manoeuvrer which splits into two categories that are mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive. For instance the kingdom of plants are not the same as the kingdom of animals, mushrooms, or the eukaryotes but these different categories together exhausts the category of all living beings. However this is not a classic dichotomy because it is split into 5 categories therefore it would be something like a pentachotomy.
Dichotomy of Digital Commons
A more XPUB related example that came up recently about the F/LOSS movement and its embeddedness in capitalist economy. On hand there are creative groups who believe in the values of sharing, studying, modifying software source code and through the circulation of source code there is added value. On the other hand when commercial market adopts these values with the undeniable goal to extract those added values and put software on the market as quickly as possible, these values cease into becoming a business strategy and not a collaborative effort to create. This is a sketch for the dichotomy of digital commons.
Soource: Digital Collective Ownership
"Yin and Yang" as a dichotomy：A shorthand explanation often describes yin and yang as woman and man, and all the other dualistic pairs, as mentioned in Jacques Lacan’s seminars: je ne parle pas du Yin et du Yang, comme tout le monde vous savez cela : le mâle et le femelle.
Although Mladen Dolar, quoted earlier, deems Chinese to be incomprehensible, he nevertheless spends a long paragraph explaining yin-yang as two (and only two) poles of masculine and feminine.
He concludes there is a “strong thesis” in the “Taoist” symbol: “there is a relation. There is a sexual relation. Every relation is sexual.”
The short capitulation “yin and yang” or more “yin-yang” written together, showing an unconventional order of words, perhaps already hints at something different: the masculine habit of appearing first is at least reversed on the lexical level. Since one would never say yang-yin or yang and yin, one might at least pause for a moment before rushing into turning yin-yang into another symbol of the myth of a crosscultural, universal, and ahistorical patriarchy.
Efficacy VS Efficiency
Not to be mistaken for efficiency. Efficacy means being able to produce the desired result. While efficiency means producing with the least waste of time. Two terms I'm completely incapable of.
Elitist
“Elitist” is probably the most abused word in the women’s liberation movement. It is used as frequently, and for the same reasons, as “pinko” was used in the fifties. It is rarely used correctly. Within the movement it commonly refers to individuals, though the personal characteristics and activities of those to whom it is directed may differ widely: An individual, as an individual can never be an elitist, because the only proper application of the term “elite” is to groups. Any individual, regardless of how well-known that person may be, can never be an elite.
- Jo Freeman, The Tyranny of Structurelessness
"..thus, there must not be any great problem with capitalist elites, political elites or international elites, unless there really are groups of friends involved “who also happen [my emphasis] to participate in the same political activities.” And this stupidity was written by a then future political scientist! Talk about blowing “smokescreens” to hide hegemony!"
- Jason McQuinn, A Review of The “Tyranny of Structurelessness”: An organizationalist repudiation of anarchism
Cultural Hegemony
There is an interesting connection between elitism, as Jo Freeman interprets it, and cultural hegemony as theorized by Antonio Gramsci.
How intentional or how spontaneous is the formation of such groups? Cultural hegemony is based on the accruing and gatekeeping of cultural and social awareness by an elitist few.
Cultural hegemony is only one of the representations and enactions of hegemony enforced by elites who take advantage of their position of power to perpetuate and reinforce the security of their position.
Grapevine
When you hear something through informal exchange, such as gossip, you 'heard it on the grapevine'. The word stems from black communities during the time of slavery in the US, an:
"illicit 'grapevine telegraph'—a network spreading news and correspondence between enslaved communities maintained by mobile bondpeople. Through this system of communication, enslaved men exchanged subversive ideas as well as daily news". (Lussana, 2016)
The first recorded use is from April 17, 1852:
"The following important dispatch was recived [sic] by the ‘Grape Vine’ telegraph—It came to hand just in time for this week’s ‘issoo,’ and the attentive ‘operator’ at Tiffin city has our thanks for his invaluable favor.” (O’Conner and Kellerman)
This statement is followed by an anonymous, satirical letter to the editor, "full of outlandish misinformation about an election for township offices". (O’Conner and Kellerman) From then on, the grapevine cut ties with its revolutionary origins and started to symbolise unreliable and informally shared information.
The Motown song 'I heard it through the grapevine' by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, uses the word as a central motif, symbolizing the spread of information and secrets within a community. In the case of the song, the information is heartbreaking.
At XPUB the expression is interpreted in a visual way, as people overhearing and discussing things because they are in close proximity to each other, like in a vineyard. (de Haan and Arrrigoni, 2026).
References Lussana, S. A. (2016). Enslaved Men, the Grapevine Telegraph, and the Underground Railroad', My Brother Slaves: "Friendship, Masculinity, and Resistance in the Antebellum South" (Lexington, KY, 2016; online edn, Kentucky Scholarship Online, 22 Sept. 2016), https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813166940.003.0006
O’Conner, P. and Kellerman, S. (2018). Roots of the grapevine. Grammarphobia. Available at: https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2018/05/grapevine-2.html
de Haan, R. and Arrigoni E. (2026). Personal communication.
Hegemony
Appeared in The Tyranny of Structurelessness in FORMAL AND INFORMAL STRUCTURES.
This hegemony can be so easily established because the idea of "structurelessness" does not prevent the formation of informal structures, only formal ones.
Hegemony is the political, economic, and military predominance of one state over other states, either regional or global.
Cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who shape the culture of that society so that the worldview of the ruling class becomes the accepted cultural norm. As the universal dominant ideology, the ruling-class worldview misrepresents the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, and that it perpetuates social conditions that benefit every social class, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
When the social control is carried out by another society, it is known as cultural imperialism.
Difference between Hegemony and Imperialism Hegemony is more commonly used when it exerts overwhelming economic, military, and cultural influence. Iimperialism emphasizes visible direct domination and expansion such as territorial occupation or colonial rule.
Hip
occurs in: The Tyranny of Structurelessness, p. 5
What is hip is constantly changing. Sometimes it might be hip to say hip, and sometimes not.
Jo Freeman claims that “being 'hip'”, but “not being too 'hip'” is one criterion of many to effectively participate in political movement groups.
The term was recorded already in the early 1900s, and by the 1940s, it had become a common slang word in the American jazz scene. The etymology of the word is unknown. Theories include that it is derived from the west African Wolof language word hepicat, which means “one who has his eyes open”; or that the origins go back to—socially influential, or hip—opium users that would lay on their hips while smoking. Both claims sound far-fetched, but entertaining still.
You went an' found you a guru
In an effort to find you a new you
And maybe even raise your conscious level
While you're striving to find the right road
There's one thing you should know
What's hip today, might become passé
(Tower Of Power, 1973)
References
Freeman, J. (1972). The Tyranny of Structurelessness. The Second Wave vol. 2, no. 1. Available at: https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm
Fisher, M. (2009). Capitalist Realism. London: Zero Books.
Interaction
From Soda's interview
Investigatory is not one method but and attitude towards reasearch. Can stem from one word or a text, event, a memory, or anything that triggers curiousity and associationS to the topic of the research. It is not exactly a set steps to follow but more of an exploration of possible meaningS, possibiliteS, directionS, conclusionS even. It is tough a step back from THE dictionary definition of a word/expression which allows for discoveries by folowing clues, threads, traces. It is indeed that feeling of discovering something which the researcher/ interpreter of the traces could not foreseen in the beginning of the investigatory process. It is highly biased by the investigators previously adopted pattern recognition.
Materialize
1. Become actual fact; happen, appear or be present when expected.
2. (of a ghost, spirit, or similar entity) appear in bodily form. represent or cause to appear in bodily or physical form.
Language helps us to materialize ideas and thoughts. Once you address a lingering thought in mind the idea becomes tangible almost becomes a truth. When gossiping, something you say out loud becomes apparent and loud. It becomes difficult to erase it from your mind.
Pedagogy
The more technology becomes cryptic, seamless and alienating, the more pedagogy becomes a radical skill. Pedagogy skills aren't technical but social or cultural, it's another muscle to train to slowly bridge the gaps between our feelings of empowerment or alienations toward tech. Explaining what we know in simple way, or making space for other's concerns, can be really difficult. Anyone in HowSpot can exercice their abilities in collective learning.
- Doriane on the HowSpot website.
The word "pedagogy" originated from the Greek words for "boy" + "leader", literally translating to "a man having oversight of a child", which is a now-obsolete meaning.
The term's definition is often contested. Some define it as "The science of teaching", approaching it from an academic point of view. Others see it more as "The art or craft of teaching", which I think fits Doriane's interpretation better.
Pinko
A derrogatory term to define someone who is mildly left-wing, socialist or communist.
To differentiate from someone who is a left-extremist or radical, which would signify a saturated red in the political (color) spectrum. A pinko would sit in a pastel-like pink, a washed out red tone.
[Elitist]... is used as frequently, and for the same reasons, as "pinko" was used in the fifties. - THE TYRANNY of STRUCTURELESSNESS, by Jo Freeman
Polysemic
occurs in: Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle, p. 18
The term polysemy comes from Ancient Greek: polys meaning “many” and sema meaning “sign”. An expression, for example a word, a phrase or a symbol, of polysemic character has several distinct but related meanings, and is therefore ambiguous.
In Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Raymond Williams states that “[…] questions are not only about meaning; in most cases, inevitably, they are about meanings.” He goes on to explain that when writing a dictionary entry, the meaning of a word is usually strongly tied to a specific place and time. However, with words, especially those that describe ideas or values, we usually encounter a complexity of meanings that includes changes over time. In this sense, most words are polysemic and difficulties arise when one tries to squeeze them into a single definition.
Ironically, the first thing I did for this glossary entry was to write a definition. When I first read the word polysemic, I did not know the meaning and had to look up a definition myself to make sense of it. Looking back now—I could have translated it had I given it little more thought.
Practice
practice:
1st sense: personal artistic practice
practice, as opposed to theoretical practice. 'embodiment', action, doing in the moment. vs. putting into practice, taking a theory and applying it. in the sense of a profession, a collection of activities that together should give some answer to the question 'what do you do?'
practice, as verb: repeating a task to get better at it.
To practice is putting things into action by a constant trial-and-error method. practice is something that executes overtime. it is not a one time only shot. in the context of the tiranny of structurlessness the author underlines how pratice is mostly a lacking factor. Freeman suggested 7 points to form principles that are essential to democratic structuring and are also politically effective. it can being regognized as putting things into practice but for some of them i won't say so! we can discuss on em. Practice makes perfect. it makes sense but it doesnt only mean repeating one exercise several times, it also hint that people would smmarize the experience in these practice. In the context of the article, I feel the examples provided for “practice” are insufficient and not precise to support the author's argument. Practice is something that people do but not only what people do but in what context they do. Where, when and how? Book : Publishing as Artistic Practice https://www.are.na/block/24649567
is talking a practice? to put things in practice repetition +3 context +3
repetition over time, but in two senses: one as development of a skill. is grocery shopping a practice? A routine to sustain myself developing a skilll m has to put energy in it, intentional practicing ruynning ,
requires effort, something intentional actively
Proselytize
Converting someone to a specific group. Mostly to religious groups, but can also be to a political group. Can be seen as a synonym to coerce. It derives from the Greek word prosélytos meaning 'newcomer' Commonly it's done in public space, maybe with cardboard banners or by handing out pamphlets or books. In some countries it's illegal to proselytize.
Rap
occurs in: The Tyranny of Structurelessness, p. 1 (“structureless rap group”)
Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that rap was used to refer to talking in a stylistic manner in the early 1970s: "I was born in '72 ... back then what rapping meant, basically, was you trying to convey something—you're trying to convince somebody. That's what rapping is, it's in the way you talk."
[lazily copied from Wikipedia: Rapping]
Struggle / trouble
Lol, I seem to have mixed-up two terms.. well, anyway, maybe they're sysonyms: struggle / trouble. An attitude towards word usage and meaning / embodied practice. It has something to do with accepting that language is not a means to describe reality, but also actively produces it. Rejecting a fixity in reality, or seeing it as a pre-given. Understanding that reality is made through practice, action, embodiment, repetition. I guess the struggle is, then, to be aware / play around with how that active production is done. And finding ways to re-establish it over and over again.
Swindler (Charlatan)
Found in Keywords for Radicals: Introduction on page 3. Also referred to as 'charlatan'. A term used to characterize someone who tricks people for own financial gain or status. A person being dishonest to their own advantage. I'm thinking of real estate owners/agents, banks covering up investments, big tech progression facades. Presenting a tasty reality which is far from truth. Though my examples given before are much framed, I think every branch of work or community can have their own swindlers. A colleague, in a big artistic institution, opened up in a political discussion after the big PVV win that it might be the end for us artists. That we're often referred to by the far-right as losers, fakers, people who only talk and have no actual skillset, charlatans.
Other funny related words provided by dictionary.cambridge.org which I thought we're worth mentioning:
air guitar
phoney baloney
“star” system
· "star"/"spokespeople"
"The public is conditioned to look for spokespeople."
The development of social media has, to a certain extent, cemented the 'star' system. People are eager to categorise themselves into a group and then swiftly rally behind a spokesperson.
·"system"/"community"/"group"
Taking the well-known story of “Alice in Wonderland” as the starting point, Iskra Geshoska terms the "labyrinth with no way out" as a metaphor for the confrontational relationship between an increasingly self-serving and individualized neoliberal system and the declining collective community. Facing the difficulties of contemporary social life and productions, Geshoska’s challenging yet unapologetic text calls upon us to re-examine and learn a lesson from the crucial thoughts behind Democratic Socialism, in order to seek possible resolutions for our dilemma.
At present, we live in cruel times in which market parameters are also applied to practices of ontological exchange—of identities, thoughts, and feelings. The psycho-dynamics of this exchange determine the paths our lives take. And this journey goes by extremely fast. This speediness produces an even bigger emptiness, where we are losing exactly what we are trying to exchange. Enticed by the mystery of new individualisms, we have tripped and fallen down a rabbit hole. At this moment, a collective, or if you wish, cloned, Alice rules the roost. She is endlessly reflected in microscopic prisms that she hopes will clearly reveal all aspects of her journey. Hers is a quest to make distinctions between communities and mobs, between critical and creative resistance to the silently, democratically, and consensually accepted suppressive concepts of social order. She still proceeds, intent on creating maps of specific trajectories that will lead to a common space. Alice’s journey this time is not in Wonderland, but in the land where our longing and our bodies are thrown on the garbage heap of economic and political violence. Alice finds herself in the infinity of emptiness, in a hall of mirrors showing crooked images of reality instead of what she’d wished to see. In these reflections, reality is simulated through a false overcrowding of activities, actions, products, “projects,” “works”—all sorts of engaged acceleration. And the rabbit is always late and never manages to get to the most important tea party. And he is confused because the celebration is still going on, but without him. Fear has become the only consistent thing that can retrieve and construct the stories we tell about our wholeness, about the justification of our existence here and now—our avowals that we are not virtual, that our lives are not phantasms, that we are not writing them out by following certain commands. And nothing but the fear of our own impermanence feels more fitting to provoke our reflections on community. Nothing is more disturbing than the entropy of the idea that the community is property jointly owned by the subjects that join in it.
Eric Hobsbawm noted: “Never was the word ‘community’ used more indiscriminately and emptily than in the decades when communities in the sociological sense became hard to find in real life.” He proceeds to say that people look for groups to belong to, temporarily or permanently, in a world in which everything else moves and shifts and nothing else is certain. And at the very moment when the community collapses, identity is invented. The community is a home that, for the majority of people, is just a fairy tale rather than the reality of their personal experience.
The Collective Alice, or, on Fear, Death, Multitudes, and Pain [Iskra Geshoska]
Gossip
<what's new :)>