An Attempt at a timeline
Etherbox at Diversions worksession
December 2016: Over the years, Constant experimented with a local server and later a Raspberry Pi, as a temporary documentation space for collective work. The device is now called ‘The Etherbox’ and is a default participant of Constant worksessions and more. This feed proposes to read up on the history of Etherbox, and observe how some ideas can develop into projects and more ideas and more projects.
What’s the Matter with Cooperation
Buda, Kortrijk / April 2016
http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/news/whats-the-matter-with-cooperation
http://osp.kitchen/work/buda-wtmw-cooperation/
The art centre BUDA, located in the West Flemish city of Kortrijk, organised a three day festival around the question: ‘What’s the matter with cooperation’. OSP joined the festival to create in cooperation a publication, using the Ethertoff platform. OSP had setup a working station there. They projected the ethertoff install right next to where the lectures slides were projected, to lure attention to the tool and show there was activity there. As usual with Ethertoff, they designed live while the content was still being developed. “It’s great to have this self-contained unit, and not to be able to access the tools when you leave the space. Both for the notetakers and for us. It helps to combat a problem with the workflow: because it is a very free collaboration model, participants can always think: someone will do it later. Clear time constraints really help then. It also answers a question we always have after the event: who takes care of the website? We made it clear from the beginning that the tool would away at the end of the event with the unplugging of the Raspberry. What we did do, is create a HTML archive, next to the PDF—just like with the Relearn 2013 website.”
Machine Research
WTC25, Brussels / November 2016
http://www.aprja.net/machine-research/
Etherbox was used as a writing/reading space in Machine Research, a workshop with artists and Phd students. “The workshop aims to engage research and artistic practice that takes into account the new materialist conditions implied by nonhuman techno-ecologies including new ontologies of learning and intelligence (such as algorithmic learning), socio-economic organisation (such as blockchain), population management and tracking (such as datafied borders), autonomous or semi-autonomous systems (such as bots or drones) and other post-anthropocentric reconsiderations of agency, materiality and autonomy.”
Objects in Common
Medialab Prado, Madrid / March 2016
http://constantvzw.org/site/-Objets-en-Commun-.html
The TP/Link-Raspberry Pi construction that was used in previous worksessions, received the name “Etherbox” in the preparations for its journey to Madrid, where it was used to guide sessions, discuss in groups, document conversations and share all kind of scripts, images, videos and other files.
Promiscuous Pipelines
FoAM, Brussels / September 2015
During Promiscuous Pipelines, Michael Murtaugh and Christoph Haag worked together on an experiment using a makefile to generate a publication with material from the local server. The publication itself became a makefile: https://gitlab.com/fs/pppp
Relearn 2014
http://relearn.be/2014/
http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/index.php/Relearn-2014
An attempt of a social reading/writing space was developed as a part of Relearn 2014 in Brussels. The worry of having more than 30 people connecting to one single wifi-network, led to the concept of a Network with an Attitude.
What if we do not have anymore the internet as we know it? So, imagine. It is a beautiful week in the summer of the year 2084. The sun still shines and the stars do still sparkle. As Mr. Orwell predicted a dystopic world in 1984, a group of people in 2014 did predict another dystopia to be realized in 2084: the internet as we knew it, collapsed. But: “There is a life after Google & the Cloud!” Welcome to the Botnet and welcome to the year 2084. We communicate through IRC, a chatting program based on Written Speech. How are you doing? Are you already connected to the internet again? There are multiple servers around here that will bring you back in touch with your friends and the rest of the world.
https://gitlab.com/relearn/relearn2014/blob/master/botnet/README.html
Verbindingen/Jonctions 14: ‘Are You Being Served?’
Variable, Brussels / December 2013
http://vj14.constantvzw.org/
The last edition of Verbindingen/Jonctions, a series of meeting days organised by Constant, was is dedicated to a feminist review of mesh- cloud- autonomous- and D.I.Y. servers. On the program was ao a workshop on Boxes-Doosjes-Boîtes and one entire day for a Feminist Server Summit. Dedicated notetakers were live documenting the event using the etherpad software installed on the Constant server. After the event, a booksprint was organised in collaboration with OSP and their Ethertoff software. This led to the carefully crafted publication Are You being Served?
Ethertoff
http://osp.kitchen/tools/ethertoff/
Ethertoff is a simple collaborative web platform, much resembling a wiki but featuring realtime editing thanks to Etherpad. Its output is constructed with equal love for print and web.
Just a question: I thought it was ethertopff and not ethertoff but I don’t remember why. What is the actual name?
Well someone misspelled ethertopdf as ethertopf which sounds like römertopf and than somebody else understood ethertoff like chokotoff and chokotoff being Bruxellois I thought it might be the best of all these references
Ethertoff has been initially developed for the OSP 2013 Relearn Summerschool.
Ethertoff is structured as a wiki where each page constitutes an Etherpad. The pad is available to logged in users (‘write-mode’). The text of the pad is available to everyone (‘read-mode’). Ethertoff is a shell for an Etherpad installation hosted on the same domain. This integration is based on Sofian Benaissa’s bridge between Django and Etherpad, originally created for THINK WE MUST/CON-VOCATION a performance during Promiscuous Infrastructures entrelacées, an exhibition by the collective Artivistic at SKOL.
Social WritingEcriture SocialeSociaal Schrijven
Or how a local server has been developed over the years into a temporary space for collective writing, reading and publishing.
Etherbox as 1st edition of Networks of One’s Own
Series Networks of One’s Own
Create your own Etherbox, downloadable image
Etherbox code repository
http://gitlab.constantvzw.org/aa/etherbox
An Attempt at a timeline
Etherbox at the Technogalactic Software Observatory
June 2017: The Etherbox has become a fantastic full-on live publishing machine, generating pdfs based on markdown and a make-file and Michael Murtaugh’s install file
http://observatory.constantvzw.org/etherdump/etherboxmanual.html
http://observatory.constantvzw.org/etherdump/etherbox.html
Etherbox, the iteration during TGSO
Situated Publishing: Writing with and for machines
February 2017: In the framework of Transmediale, Michael Murtaugh, Sarah Garcin and An Mertens presented how publishing activities – collective writing, editing and lay-out – lead to a pdf or a printed brochure as a reminder that digital creation can also exist without the cloud.
http://www.constantvzw.org/site/Situated-Publishing-writing-with-and-for-Machines.html
Etherbox at Diversions worksession
December 2016: Over the years, Constant experimented with a local server and later a Raspberry Pi, as a temporary documentation space for collective work. The device is now called ‘The Etherbox’ and is a default participant of Constant worksessions and more. This feed proposes to read up on the history of Etherbox, and observe how some ideas can develop into projects and more ideas and more projects.
Terms of use for Etherbox, developed during Diversions worksession
http://etherdump.constantvzw.org/p/etherbox_termsofuse_draft.diff.html
What’s the Matter with Cooperation
Buda, Kortrijk / April 2016
http://ospublish.constantvzw.org/blog/news/whats-the-matter-with-cooperation
http://osp.kitchen/work/buda-wtmw-cooperation/
The art centre BUDA, located in the West Flemish city of Kortrijk, organised a three day festival around the question: ‘What’s the matter with cooperation’. OSP joined the festival to create in cooperation a publication, using the Ethertoff platform. OSP had setup a working station there. They projected the ethertoff install right next to where the lectures slides were projected, to lure attention to the tool and show there was activity there. As usual with Ethertoff, they designed live while the content was still being developed. “It’s great to have this self-contained unit, and not to be able to access the tools when you leave the space. Both for the notetakers and for us. It helps to combat a problem with the workflow: because it is a very free collaboration model, participants can always think: someone will do it later. Clear time constraints really help then. It also answers a question we always have after the event: who takes care of the website? We made it clear from the beginning that the tool would away at the end of the event with the unplugging of the Raspberry. What we did do, is create a HTML archive, next to the PDF—just like with the Relearn 2013 website.”
Machine Research
WTC25, Brussels / November 2016
http://www.aprja.net/machine-research/
Etherbox was used as a writing/reading space in Machine Research, a workshop with artists and Phd students. “The workshop aims to engage research and artistic practice that takes into account the new materialist conditions implied by nonhuman techno-ecologies including new ontologies of learning and intelligence (such as algorithmic learning), socio-economic organisation (such as blockchain), population management and tracking (such as datafied borders), autonomous or semi-autonomous systems (such as bots or drones) and other post-anthropocentric reconsiderations of agency, materiality and autonomy.”
Interview with Etherbox
This interview with the Etherbox was published in Machine Research, a peer reviewed newspaper, Volume 6.
http://etherdump.constantvzw.org/p/machineresearch.interviewwithetherbox.diff.htm
Zine Camp 2016
WORM, Rotterdam / October 2016
https://zinecamp2016.hotglue.me/workshops
Community Memories by Experimental Publishing Masters, Piet Zwart Institute
Objects in Common
Medialab Prado, Madrid / March 2016
http://constantvzw.org/site/-Objets-en-Commun-.html
The TP/Link-Raspberry Pi construction that was used in previous worksessions, received the name “Etherbox” in the preparations for its journey to Madrid, where it was used to guide sessions, discuss in groups, document conversations and share all kind of scripts, images, videos and other files.
Promiscuous Pipelines
FoAM, Brussels / September 2015
During Promiscuous Pipelines, Michael Murtaugh and Christoph Haag worked together on an experiment using a makefile to generate a publication with material from the local server. The publication itself became a makefile: https://gitlab.com/fs/pppp
Relearn 2015
Zinneke, Brussels / August 2015
http://relearn.be/2015/
http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/var/resizes/Relearn-2015/P1016767.JPG?m=1454588516
http://www.constantvzw.org/site/Relearn-2015-2342.html
Relearn 2015 took place around a network with an attitude (see quote below). This network came about out of conversations between a diverse group of organisers that, in some form or another, had been working around collaborative digital environments, opening up technology for understanding and networks as an artistic medium.
At the end of the event the network set up allowed for a live publication documenting the whole event: https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/pages/relearn2015.pdf
Close-reading Kenneth Goldsmith’s Uncreative Writing
Aleppo, Brussels / June 2015
http://constantvzw.org/site/Close-reading-Kenneth-Goldsmith-s-Uncreative-Writing.html
A residency of 3 days, with the idea to create a space for presentation, exchange, discussion on new ways of reading and writing. One of the threads, Book as a network, led by Catherine Lenoble and Michael Murtaugh, was the idea of using a local server as a space for collective reading and writing. A first publication was done afterwards with a lot of manual work: https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/pages/LOGBOOK_uncreative_writing.pdf
Cqrrelations
deBuren, Brussels / January 2015
Publication: http://www.cqrrelations.constantvzw.org/0x0/
Cqrrelations was a worksession held in January 2015 related to (big) data politics and practices.
Relearn 2014
http://relearn.be/2014/
http://gallery3.constantvzw.org/index.php/Relearn-2014
An attempt of a social reading/writing space was developed as a part of Relearn 2014 in Brussels. The worry of having more than 30 people connecting to one single wifi-network, led to the concept of a Network with an Attitude.
What if we do not have anymore the internet as we know it? So, imagine. It is a beautiful week in the summer of the year 2084. The sun still shines and the stars do still sparkle. As Mr. Orwell predicted a dystopic world in 1984, a group of people in 2014 did predict another dystopia to be realized in 2084: the internet as we knew it, collapsed. But: “There is a life after Google & the Cloud!” Welcome to the Botnet and welcome to the year 2084. We communicate through IRC, a chatting program based on Written Speech. How are you doing? Are you already connected to the internet again? There are multiple servers around here that will bring you back in touch with your friends and the rest of the world.
https://gitlab.com/relearn/relearn2014/blob/master/botnet/README.html
Verbindingen/Jonctions 14: ‘Are You Being Served?’
Variable, Brussels / December 2013
http://vj14.constantvzw.org/
The last edition of Verbindingen/Jonctions, a series of meeting days organised by Constant, was is dedicated to a feminist review of mesh- cloud- autonomous- and D.I.Y. servers. On the program was ao a workshop on Boxes-Doosjes-Boîtes and one entire day for a Feminist Server Summit. Dedicated notetakers were live documenting the event using the etherpad software installed on the Constant server. After the event, a booksprint was organised in collaboration with OSP and their Ethertoff software. This led to the carefully crafted publication Are You being Served?
Bibliotecha
IMPAKT, Utrecht / November 2013
http://bibliotecha.info/ http://oyoana.com/bibliotecha
Bibliotecha proposes an alternative model of distribution of digital texts that allows specific communities to form and share their own collections. The project was born during the Free Libraries for Every Soul Hackathon in Utrecht, as part of the Impakt Festival 2013.
Ethertoff
http://osp.kitchen/tools/ethertoff/
Ethertoff is a simple collaborative web platform, much resembling a wiki but featuring realtime editing thanks to Etherpad. Its output is constructed with equal love for print and web.
Just a question: I thought it was ethertopff and not ethertoff but I don’t remember why. What is the actual name?
Well someone misspelled ethertopdf as ethertopf which sounds like römertopf and than somebody else understood ethertoff like chokotoff and chokotoff being Bruxellois I thought it might be the best of all these references
Ethertoff has been initially developed for the OSP 2013 Relearn Summerschool.
Ethertoff is structured as a wiki where each page constitutes an Etherpad. The pad is available to logged in users (‘write-mode’). The text of the pad is available to everyone (‘read-mode’). Ethertoff is a shell for an Etherpad installation hosted on the same domain. This integration is based on Sofian Benaissa’s bridge between Django and Etherpad, originally created for THINK WE MUST/CON-VOCATION a performance during Promiscuous Infrastructures entrelacées, an exhibition by the collective Artivistic at SKOL.
Relearn 2013
https://constantvzw.org/site/RELEARN-Libre-Graphics-Summer.html
http://relearn.be/2013/
The first edition of the Relearn summer school that questioned education, summer schools and our relation with our tools. It was organised by Open Source Publishing. The website for this edition was made and edited by participants during the event and built with Ethertoff.
Active Archives
Ongoing research on how to activate archives.
https://constantvzw.org/site/-Active-Archives,110-.html
http://activearchives.org
http://activearchives.org/wiki/A_Social_Shell_%26_Mesh_Cookbooks