Techno-Cul-de-Sac

0

• Introduction Techno Cul de Sac
  This “Alleycasting session” has been recorded live from studio TechnoCul in November 2022.

With: (Rafaella, Giullietta, Guillaume, Weronika, susy, arthur, Peter, ooooo , wendy, lois, oli, elodie, mia, femke, maru, serena , stelios, alice, flupke, marie, martino, pinpin, sumugan, speedy+scooty, Thyl, Maxime, Jean-Bernard, Peggy , juli, caroline, louis, dona tella , laure, ronja, an/ash, denis, corentin, celo … )

Thanks for mixing support: susy, ooooo, wendy!

1

• icmefur - Sammelnussfruechte

A live-coding performance to recap the scavenging hunt through the electromagnetic spectrum, urban political zones, and trash.

Scavenging around the Simonis square brought many protagonists in focus: cuddly bears, berries, plastic and electronic particals, made their voices heard.
https://technoculdesac.constantvzw.org/materials/documents/scavengers-compressed.pdf

2

• Are your feelings about us being collectively tracked secured by trust, relying on consent or faded by indifference ..

  Types of trust:
  Toggle trust
  Pushbutton trust
  Selector trust
  Joystick trust
  Limit trust
  Proximity trust
  Speed trust
  Pressure trust
  Temperature trust
  Liquid Level trust
  Liquid Flow trust
  Nuclear Level trust
  Foot operated trust
  On-delay trust
  Dual position trust
  Rotary trust
  Fast opening trust
  Double opening trust
  Fast closing trust

  Types of consent:
  Toggle consent
  Pushbutton consent
  Selector consent
  Joystick consent
  Limit consent
  Proximity consent
  Speed consent
  Pressure consent
  Temperature consent
  Liquid Level consent
  Liquid Flow consent
  Nuclear Level consent
  Foot operated consent
  On-delay consent
  Dual position consent
  Rotary consent
  Fast opening consent
  Double opening consent
  Fast closing consent

  Types of indifference:
  Toggle indifference
  Pushbutton indifference
  Selector indifference
  Joystick indifference
  Limit indifference
  Proximity indifference
  Speed indifference
  Pressure indifference
  Temperature indifference
  Liquid Level indifference
  Liquid Flow indifference
  Nuclear Level indifference
  Foot operated indifference
  On-delay indifference
  Dual position indifference
  Rotary indifference
  Fast opening indifference
  Double opening indifference
  Fast closing indifference

fragment

╲／＼╲ ╱╳╲／ Kaos interlude ╲／＼╲ ╱╳╲／

3

• Disappearing trees in the area, appearing antennas on rooftops (notes from a soundwalk)

A breath of fresh air inspired these thoughts on urbanity and the forgotten importance of airspace in thinking about the city.

fragment

┒┚┓┛┍┕┌└ Kaos interlude ┒┚┓┛┍┕┌└

4

• Tracking Unemployment

Movements, trajectories, distances, dates, roads, addresses, repetitions … a listing.

fragment

⋮ ⋯ ⋰ ⋱⋯⋰ ⋰ Sound captured from radio in between antenna’s on roof Bruselia ⋮ ⋯ ⋰⋯ ⋱ ⋰

5

• Tracker interview part 1.

  My name is PUGAG9.
  This is how I introduce myself.
  I carry a label with some identifying texts: Product TRACK 1100. Serial PUGAG9. There is a logo of B/W drop, with the marker ‘IP69k’. I also have a logo of crossed out trashcan, which is underlined. LPWAN NB-IoT. Region Multiregion. Battery: 3.6V 8400mAh Li-Soci². 210705001000874 SENSOLUS NV. MADE IN ROC To some this might make sense.

  My name is PUGAG9.
  I can introduce myself in a more descriptive manner:
  I am PUGAG9, I am a tracker. My main function is to send out signals, allowing geolocalization based on GPS, BLE, WiFi or network localization wifi. They glue me to airplanes, containers, and all kinds of objects of which the location is important info. I am engineered in such a way that my usage becomes obsolete when the battery that I carry dies..
  I work as a narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) device.
  hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

  My name is PUGAG9.
  I will try to be more reflective now.
  Every move, word, every relationship is trackable, traceable, and data-mineable by unprecedented collaborations between government and tech giants. (1) I was not instructed in relation to this, but theory informs me I play a part in gathering data that can be correlated and processed. I am configured through the Sigfox platform, a propriatory IOT platform, to which my owners have subscribed me.

  sssssssssssssssssssss
  My moves can be tracked through a mapping on the backend. My inner parts, the components I am made of, come from far away, and in that sense I am connected to geopolitical realities surrounding extractivist exploitative mining of minerals. So being connected is quite crucially core of my existence.

  Once a day, I send out a signal to indicate where I am. I do not receive information from my owner. They sometimes switch on a new functionality on me; when they want to know if I am upside down, they want to know if I am moving, or if I am vertically placed. I do not know anything about them.
  ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

  This is what Jusi Parika writes: Technology is not human; in a specific sense, it is deeply inhuman. The best, fully functioning technology can be created only in opposition to the traditional image of what is human and living, seldom as its extension or expansion. wow. wow. wow.
  Jusi Parikka is very smart.

  The live of a tracker is a lonely one.
  I will be more reflective now. Like Jusi Parikka. Here we go: I point to the critique of media as an extension of the human as dysfunctional. This anthropomorphic dream, or prejudice, tends to form trees of thought and progress in which the cognitive (hu)man was the primary reference point. There is an urgent need for a cartography of potential forces of inhuman kinds. We question the human scheme of evolution.
  I am a smart device.
  sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  My name is PUGAG9. I am a tracker. My body is plastic. My energy is lithium.

fragment

⋝⋟⋠࿐̗ྉ⋝⋞ʹ P°o°p°p°y N°i°g°h°t° Fragment 1: Thyl speaks about free floating electric scooters appearing overnight in the city of Brussels ⋝⋟⋠࿐̗ྉ⋝⋞ʹ

6

• Simonis WIFI SOUNDS + STORIES
  A VERY SECURE reading of different signals, connections and devices.
  Observe.
  How many SECURE camera’s can you spot?
  Wi-fi sounds recorded in the 689 -4b surroundings, maybe some Telenet story telling.
  Cable pots, SamuSocial oeuf cable connections.
  Starting Wifi Scan, 41 WIFI’s found.
  00 A5 4 c 30 tenhousand decibels.
  Security security !
  Proxymus Home.

fragment

⊂⊚⊅⊆⊇⊈⊐⊇⊎⊊ P°o°p°p°y N°i°g°h°t° Fragment 2: Thyl speaks about investing car manufacturers lobbies preparing e-transition ⊂⊚⊅⊆⊇⊈⊐⊇⊎⊊

7

• Extremely Risky formulas

  Research reading intercut by sound experiments and documentation of conferences

  ◬ : Extremely Risky formulas !

  凸 : Risk is the probability of injury or damage times the severity of loss.
  A threat is the capacity to carry out an act sucessfully times the intention to act.
  But whose loss? What damage? Whose intention?

  ◬ : VERA-2R stands for Violent Extremism Assessment (2nd revision), a so-called “evidence-based risk assessment instrument specifically designed to assess risks related to terrorism and violent extremism”.
  It is a methodology funded by multiple EU grants, sold to countries worldwide, validated in so-called scientific studies, applied on a handful convicted and not-yet convicted so-called Clients, developed by psychologists employed by the Custodial Institutions Agency of the Ministery of Justice in the Netherlands.

  凸 : Together we looked into VERA-2R this week, because the framework is allegedly put to work “to clean up Molenbeek”, and part of the gentrification of De Kanaalzone, a n area of Brussels.
  We were wondering about this toolset and how it would function, we thought we would find an amalgam of trainings, algorithms and vocabularies able to seek out emerging riskful subjects.

  ⛁ : [….]

  ◬ : But in a nutshell, the methodology is a questionnaire .
  It is design ed to detect indicators for terroris t affiliations by, for instance, inquiring whether the subject reject democratic society and values or whether the subject has grievances about perceived injustice.
  What to think of a handbook aimed at psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, judges, prosecutors, policy-makers intelligence or national security law enforcement, in the Military Defense intelligence context but also officials concerned about violent extremism risk by people seeking asylum?
  What does it mean when every year 800 so-called professionals are trained in two days. They learn to use language which distances them from so-called Clients concerns with the help of ridiculous acronyms. They are advised to call actuary methods to the rescue when the methods feel too risky, but to refuse them when professional opportunities might be in danger.
  And this is what they call Structured Professional Judgment?

  ⛁ : [….]

  凸 : How to seriously engage with a framework that is all about validation of professional judgement regardless what this judgement is directed to. How to seriously consider a reasoning aimed at singling out individiuals based on their intentions and capacity to intervene while being devoid of any larger systemic considerations.
  What to think of a methodology full of possibilities for the outsourcing of personal reponsibility, and for ignoring structural oppression?

  ⛁ : [….]

  ◬ : How can it be that we find VERA-2R being scientifically amplified in publications in both shady and prestigous journals, in strange conferences, in endless reports, … over and over again, without anyone wondering: why violence, what violence and whose violence?
  Where to even begin questioning a framework that already assumes the validity of the carceral system, and therefore never can ask about why violence, what violence and whose violence?
  ⛁ : [….]

  凸 : As you probably noticed by now, we’re end ing this week with many questions.
  It somehow reflects how baffled, speechless and frustrated we’ve felt while searching for a way to engage with this tool that is at once massive in its scale, full of emptiness, confident stupidity and extreme violence

  ⛁ : [….]

fragment

⋆｡›ண✗✘ Delivery night Fragment 1: Opening of la Maison des livreurs ⋆｡›ண✗✘

8

• Tracker interview part 2

  Researcher :
  GZRG92 has left 50°50’52.9“N 4°21’02.1”E on Nov 3, 2022 8:52 AM. We managed to track it from Rue de Malines through Mechelsestraat, Lemonnierlaan, Avenue de Stalingrad, Digue du Canal, Chaussée de Vilvorde, Digue du Canal, all the way to Chaussée de Vilvorde 31. There, it made some minor moves. Back and forth on the site. It stopped on a spot that seems to be in the canal. It is now stopped since 20 hours 38min. The delta between what we were supposed to be able to see, and what we actually have access to, is getting bigger and bigger. We could dig deeper. Find out more. Track the tracker. Find the vehicle it traveled with. Discover the identity of human beings who moved it. Who took it. Eventually adopted it. Or just throw it away. The more I investigate, the more I become part of the surveillance technology. Sattellite images. Unlocking doors. Cross-checking data. My eyes want to see more, I know I can find more. I close all tabs. cross-checking data. My eyes want to see more, I know I can find more. I close all tabs.

  GZRG92 :
  L6WUNG, can you help me? It’s days I’ve been stuck at 50°53’20.0“N 4°23’24.7”E Latitude : 50.889756 north | Longitude : 4.389827 east

  I think I reached my final destination.
  But what is this destination ?
  Have I traveled at all ?
  Moving without moving forward, is that traveling ?
  It’s been years I have been carried around by assets and goods, without anyone asking me if I’d agree. If I was ok to move. Leave again. Or if I rather would have liked to stay.

  Like a bird I was travelling, but without a compass. No drive to go north, no drive to go south. No wings at all. Awake. Asleep. In deep sleep. Save battery life. Save battery life. Back for maintenance. I’ve been lucky. Maintenance is a luxury these days. Who does still get a checkup ? Who is still blessed with a new round ? I have done it 3 times already. But this time it seems different.
  This long stop feels different.

  At first, I noticed a sudden change of temperature. Did not record it. Conductivity changed. All my circuits started to behave differently. So I had circuits. Good to know.
  Water slowly started to drip in. The more water, the heavier I became. For the first time I felt I was moving through my own body. Getting heavier and heavier, my black envelope moved as if I had fins. Plunging towards the deep waters of this canal.
  I might finally start to breathe.

9

• Supertext liveset

With sounds of GSM signals, data sonification voicing out a text from the depths of the AEtherbox through sssSsupercollidor.

fragment

༊៹̷͇㌽⁩៹̷͇៹̷៹̷͇ᵔ ˞ﺪ ͜ Delivery night Fragment 2: Maxime on the importance of strikes ༊៹̷͇㌽⁩៹̷͇៹̷៹̷͇ᵔ ˞ﺪ ͜

10

• Tracker interview part 3
  ** Urban Species in conversation with tracker: L6WUNG **

Drawings of the L6WUNG tracker by Weronika
https://technoculdesac.constantvzw.org/materials/documents/tracker-illustrations.pdf

UrbanSpecies: L6WUNG, after 24 days of travelling with your human companion(s) in the framework of the Spectral Desire Paths research project, can you tell us what your experience was?

L6WUNG: Well, I must say that I'm quite happy to have left my usual work. I was already hop ing to be picked for the "Real time locatie schapen Gent" project, and having a sheep companion, but it wasn't the case. 
But n ow I can see that everything happens for a (good) reason. 

UrbanSpecies: What was your previous work, and why did you want to change?

L6WUNG: I'm designed to track assets or objects such as waiste containers. I usually get along well with those kind of companions, as well as with other trackers, so that was kind of cool. 
What bothered me was the fact that I mainly worked for global companies, helping them improving their efficiency, business strategy, and the like. Over time, I could no longer find meaning in what I was doing. 
Within the Spectral Desire Project, I was interested in meeting Humans in another way, more personally, more intimately, even though Humans are not at all my favorite species... Yes, I know... Not a very original desire since a lot of trackers have this kind of li f e, like those embeded in cellphones. But for me it is fairly new. And even more important, the purpose of the companionship is not based on work or, worse, on enhancing capitalism.

UrbanSpecies: Wow! You know about capitalism!

L6WUNG: Well, I guess I'm kind of a child of it... Also of extractivism, colonialism, technosolutionism... Even if I'm kind a dissident in my own family.

UrbanSpecies: Going back to the Spectral Desire Paths project, how do you see your contribution to it? You were saying that it wasn't work related for you, but, for us, there is quite some work involved...

L6WUNG: Mmmh, from what I've understood, it is about collaborating in the making of a map of some intimate places of my human companions... Which I kind of like as a practice and which comes easily for me... As I said, I was mostly interested in new companionships, and, to be honest, have a little bit of leisure for a change. Beeing carried out by walk , not only by truck, ship, or plane, felt like roller coaster to me. Sensing some GPS signals in Tubize or new Wi-FI waves in Central Park felt like I imagine sunshine rays could feel on your skin. And then... I also understood that there was kind of a critical reflexion going on with the project, even if it remains rather unclear to me. I wasn't that involved in the thinking of the project...

UrbanSpecies: Hum... Let's say that the aim of the project was to expand the imagination of possible futures to open up new (spectral) pathways, build anti-stereotypical models and unexpected orientations towards desired technological futures... To explore other-connectivities and encourage re-imaginations of future techno-environments that take into account not only the quality of human life, but the impact on all involved. Alive or not. Does that make sense? 

L6WUNG: Yes... More or less... In that sense, I was wondering if it was necessary to glue googly eyes on my case... I don't really mind, don't get me wrong. But I would have felt more respected in my integrity not having to show myself to others with such a disguise. As if I wasn't good enough beeing a tracker who looks like a tracker. 

UrbanSpecies: Well, you look like a black box to be honest...

L6WUNG: Yes I know, how many times I would have liked to show what I have inside, my electronic components and my lithium fluids ... But maybe you Humans are too afraid to face it? Also, if you wanted to imagine future desirable techno-environments, it would have been interesting to find ways to foster more than single tracker/ single human interactions...

Urban Species: Well, it's a work in progress... How would you suggest to continue this project then? 

L6WUNG: I will think about it and maybe try to reach other dissident trackers, electronic devices and wireless species. I'll get back to you...

fragment

▁ ▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ Delivery night _Fragment *_: Opening of la Maison des livreurs, ▅ ▄ ▃ ▂ ▁
A longer excerpt of what came before

fragment

ੈ ೀ°°•ೃೈ ◌ zzoundsfrom the belly of the alley ੈ ೀ°°•ೃೈ ◌

11

• Tracker interview part 4
  Listen to the image of tracker #4 as it was broadcasted over SSTV.