Toward a Minor Tech:FeministServers - Revision history

Mara at 12:13, 18 May 2023

2023-05-18T12:13:43Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:13, 18 May 2023
Line 17:		Line 17:
	The affective infrastructure set up through and alongside our servers is precarious and volunteer-based, with sysadmin contribution depending on our availability and capacity. For the longest time the expenses for material and maintenance were covered through income from events, donations and from the members' own financial contributions. This changed when we decided to seek out funding for the realization of a feminist video streaming platform in 2021. Awarded with the "A Fair New Idea" (AFNI) grant, we started to install, configure and customize a self-hosted instance of the free and open source peertube software. Peertube forms part of a bigger environment of federated social media called the ‘Fediverse’. It is maintained by the French Framasoft initiative and it’s freely available for installation and configuration. To make it habitable and suited to our needs and desires we conducted a "digital maquillage" workshop to create a more queerfriendly interface,<ref>https://www.npmjs.com/package/peertube-theme-maquillaje</ref> and defined a set of shared guidelines and terms of use.<ref>https://tube.systerserver.net/about/instance</ref> With our platform<ref>https://tube.systerserver.net/</ref> the feminist servers opened their affective infrastructure to seek out critical connections with other feminists and collectives by organizing an open call for artistic online residencies. During these residencies, we entered in exchange with the technopolitical desires and needs of different modes of inhabitating our feminist video platform. Together with the video practitioners of Broken House,<ref>https://tube.systerserver.net/a/broken_house/video-channels</ref> a community tool for a sexpositive collective, we realized an unlisted and invite-only 24-hours streaming event. Another residency with the design research collective for disability justice, MELT<ref>https://www.meltionary.com/</ref> ended up including sign language alongside different sets of subtitulation in their videos. Trust and openness regarding resonating political projectories, close communication as well as a shared language and attitude towards intersectional matters of accessiblities and vulnerabilities made space for the realization of different artistic visions. The collaborations also produced points of tension regarding the aspirations to trans and disability justice in relation to server accessibility - not only from a technical perspective, but also in terms of bodies' needs and rights.		The affective infrastructure set up through and alongside our servers is precarious and volunteer-based, with sysadmin contribution depending on our availability and capacity. For the longest time the expenses for material and maintenance were covered through income from events, donations and from the members' own financial contributions. This changed when we decided to seek out funding for the realization of a feminist video streaming platform in 2021. Awarded with the "A Fair New Idea" (AFNI) grant, we started to install, configure and customize a self-hosted instance of the free and open source peertube software. Peertube forms part of a bigger environment of federated social media called the ‘Fediverse’. It is maintained by the French Framasoft initiative and it’s freely available for installation and configuration. To make it habitable and suited to our needs and desires we conducted a "digital maquillage" workshop to create a more queerfriendly interface,<ref>https://www.npmjs.com/package/peertube-theme-maquillaje</ref> and defined a set of shared guidelines and terms of use.<ref>https://tube.systerserver.net/about/instance</ref> With our platform<ref>https://tube.systerserver.net/</ref> the feminist servers opened their affective infrastructure to seek out critical connections with other feminists and collectives by organizing an open call for artistic online residencies. During these residencies, we entered in exchange with the technopolitical desires and needs of different modes of inhabitating our feminist video platform. Together with the video practitioners of Broken House,<ref>https://tube.systerserver.net/a/broken_house/video-channels</ref> a community tool for a sexpositive collective, we realized an unlisted and invite-only 24-hours streaming event. Another residency with the design research collective for disability justice, MELT<ref>https://www.meltionary.com/</ref> ended up including sign language alongside different sets of subtitulation in their videos. Trust and openness regarding resonating political projectories, close communication as well as a shared language and attitude towards intersectional matters of accessiblities and vulnerabilities made space for the realization of different artistic visions. The collaborations also produced points of tension regarding the aspirations to trans and disability justice in relation to server accessibility - not only from a technical perspective, but also in terms of bodies' needs and rights.

	After the funded period of the AFNI project, questions regarding the continuation of the platform and its maintenance as well as longterm availability were at stake. While the response from our communities was positive throughout, keeping the platform up to date seemed like a self-exploitative and unsustainable scenario. Thus instead of taking up more and more responsibility as a 'single point of service' and adopting the naturalized logic of 'scaling it up', we decided to explore different paths which led to a new project: 360 degrees of proximities. Through the financial support of Stimulerings Fonds, starting out 2023, this project centers around the idea to empower other feminist and queer communities around us to host their own feminist video platforms. It entails processes of collective learning and knowledge transmission which aim to accommodate a network of small scale nodes (peertube instances), who eventually become interconnected affective infrastructures in themselves. This practice of feminist networking intersects with the principle of federation, which is common in the realm of FLOSS [Free/Libre Open Source Software] communities. Federation is a concept that derives from a political theory of networks in which power, resources and responsibilities are shared between all actors thus circumventing the centralization of authority.<ref>Mansoux, Aymeric and Roscam Abbing, Roel: "Seven Theses on the Fediverse and the Becoming of FLOSS."In: The Eternal Network: The Ends and Becomings of Network Culture / [ed] Kristoffer Gansing; Inga Luchs, Institute for Network Cultures and Transmediale , 2020, p. 124-140</ref> But in spite of a power-distributing approach, the reality of FOSS communities tends to be male dominated, oftentimes enabling illusions of meritocracy and excluding others by gating technical know-how and expertise. This goes diametrical to our understanding of feminist technologies and the building of networks of trust and solidarity. Using our privileges to the empowerment of others and valuing the importance of both online as well as physical meetings we therefore pursue a feminist approach to the concept of federation: The building of networks of solidarity and trust.		After the funded period of the AFNI project, questions regarding the continuation of the platform and its maintenance as well as longterm availability were at stake. While the response from our communities was positive throughout, keeping the platform up to date seemed like a self-exploitative and unsustainable scenario. Thus instead of taking up more and more responsibility as a 'single point of service' and adopting the naturalized logic of 'scaling it up', we decided to explore different paths which led to a new project: 360 degrees of proximities. Through the financial support of Stimulerings Fonds, starting out 2023, this project centers around the idea to empower other feminist and queer communities around us to host their own feminist video platforms. It entails processes of collective learning and knowledge transmission which aim to accommodate a network of small scale nodes (peertube instances), who eventually become interconnected affective infrastructures in themselves. This practice of feminist networking intersects with the principle of federation, which is common in the realm of FLOSS [Free/Libre Open Source Software] communities. Federation is a concept that derives from a political theory of networks in which power, resources and responsibilities are shared between all actors thus circumventing the centralization of authority.<ref>Mansoux, Aymeric and Roscam Abbing, Roel: "Seven Theses on the Fediverse and the Becoming of FLOSS."In: The Eternal Network: The Ends and Becomings of Network Culture / [ed] Kristoffer Gansing; Inga Luchs, Institute for Network Cultures and Transmediale , 2020, p. 124-140</ref> But in spite of a power-distributing approach, the reality of FOSS communities tends to be cis-male dominated, oftentimes enabling illusions of meritocracy and excluding others by gating technical know-how and expertise. This goes diametrical to our understanding of feminist technologies and the building of networks of trust and solidarity. Using our privileges to the empowerment of others and valuing the importance of both online as well as physical meetings we therefore pursue a feminist approach to the concept of federation: The building of networks of solidarity and trust.

	Based on and firmly situated within our feminist servers, we hope that our feminist video platform continues to support us and our communities as an affective infrastructure as we keep on carefully choosing what kinds of relations and alliances we’d like to strengthen.		Based on and firmly situated within our feminist servers, we hope that our feminist video platform continues to support us and our communities as an affective infrastructure as we keep on carefully choosing what kinds of relations and alliances we’d like to strengthen.

Mara: references title added

2023-02-25T09:08:36Z

references title added

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:08, 25 February 2023
Line 29:		Line 29:

	vo ezn - sound && infrastructure artist, https://ezn.leverburns.blue/		vo ezn - sound && infrastructure artist, https://ezn.leverburns.blue/


			'''References'''

Mara: spacing

2023-02-25T09:07:39Z

spacing

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:07, 25 February 2023
Line 24:		Line 24:
	Mara Karagianni [they/them] - artist, software developer, sysadmin, https://psaroskalazines.gr/, https://mara.multiplace.org/		Mara Karagianni [they/them] - artist, software developer, sysadmin, https://psaroskalazines.gr/, https://mara.multiplace.org/

	ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation https://www.ooooo.be/		ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation, https://www.ooooo.be/

	nate wessalowski [they/them] - PhD student at Münster University, Germany		nate wessalowski [they/them] - PhD student at Münster University, Germany

Mara: authors info fixed/added active links

2023-02-25T09:06:43Z

authors info fixed/added active links

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:06, 25 February 2023
Line 22:		Line 22:

	===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====		===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====
	Mara Karagianni [they/them] - artist, software developer, sysadmin, psaroskalazines.gr mara.multiplace.org		Mara Karagianni [they/them] - artist, software developer, sysadmin, https://psaroskalazines.gr/, https://mara.multiplace.org/

	ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation ~~<nowiki>~~https://www.ooooo.be</~~nowiki>~~		ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation https://www.ooooo.be/

	nate wessalowski [they/them] - PhD student at Münster University, Germany		nate wessalowski [they/them] - PhD student at Münster University, Germany

	vo ezn		vo ezn - sound && infrastructure artist, https://ezn.leverburns.blue/

Mara: /* Authors /// names [in randomized order] */

2023-01-18T22:05:28Z

Authors /// names [in randomized order]

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:05, 18 January 2023
Line 22:		Line 22:

	===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====		===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====
	Mara Karagianni [they/them] - artist, software developer, sysadmin, psaroskalazines.~~org~~ mara.multiplace.org		Mara Karagianni [they/them] - artist, software developer, sysadmin, psaroskalazines.gr mara.multiplace.org

	ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation <nowiki>https://www.ooooo.be</nowiki>		ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation <nowiki>https://www.ooooo.be</nowiki>

RRA at 16:01, 18 January 2023

2023-01-18T16:01:24Z

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 == Inhabiting affective infrastructures: How not to scale a feminist video platform ==
 ''<nowiki/>'We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it's never a question of 'critical mass'. It's always about critical connections.'''
@@ Line 25: / Line 28: @@
 nate wessalowski [they/them] - PhD student at Münster University, Germany
-vo ezn<!-- -------------------------------------------------------------------
+vo ezn

Mara: /* Authors /// names [in randomized order] */

2023-01-17T16:22:09Z

Authors /// names [in randomized order]

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:22, 17 January 2023
Line 19:		Line 19:

	===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====		===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====
	Mara Karagianni [they/them] -		Mara Karagianni [they/them] - artist, software developer, sysadmin, psaroskalazines.org mara.multiplace.org

	ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation <nowiki>https://www.ooooo.be</nowiki>		ooooo [we] - Transuniversal constellation <nowiki>https://www.ooooo.be</nowiki>

NWess at 12:00, 15 January 2023

2023-01-15T12:00:58Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:00, 15 January 2023
Line 25:		Line 25:
	nate wessalowski [they/them] - PhD student at Münster University, Germany		nate wessalowski [they/them] - PhD student at Münster University, Germany

	vo.ezn<!-- -------------------------------------------------------------------		vo ezn<!-- -------------------------------------------------------------------
	--------------------------peer-annotations------------------------------		--------------------------peer-annotations------------------------------

NWess: /* Inhabiting affective infrastructures: How not to scale a feminist video platform */

2023-01-11T09:45:48Z

Inhabiting affective infrastructures: How not to scale a feminist video platform

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:45, 11 January 2023
Line 16:		Line 16:
	After the funded period of the AFNI project, questions regarding the continuation of the platform and its maintenance as well as longterm availability were at stake. While the response from our communities was positive throughout, keeping the platform up to date seemed like a self-exploitative and unsustainable scenario. Thus instead of taking up more and more responsibility as a 'single point of service' and adopting the naturalized logic of 'scaling it up', we decided to explore different paths which led to a new project: 360 degrees of proximities. Through the financial support of Stimulerings Fonds, starting out 2023, this project centers around the idea to empower other feminist and queer communities around us to host their own feminist video platforms. It entails processes of collective learning and knowledge transmission which aim to accommodate a network of small scale nodes (peertube instances), who eventually become interconnected affective infrastructures in themselves. This practice of feminist networking intersects with the principle of federation, which is common in the realm of FLOSS [Free/Libre Open Source Software] communities. Federation is a concept that derives from a political theory of networks in which power, resources and responsibilities are shared between all actors thus circumventing the centralization of authority.<ref>Mansoux, Aymeric and Roscam Abbing, Roel: "Seven Theses on the Fediverse and the Becoming of FLOSS."In: The Eternal Network: The Ends and Becomings of Network Culture / [ed] Kristoffer Gansing; Inga Luchs, Institute for Network Cultures and Transmediale , 2020, p. 124-140</ref> But in spite of a power-distributing approach, the reality of FOSS communities tends to be male dominated, oftentimes enabling illusions of meritocracy and excluding others by gating technical know-how and expertise. This goes diametrical to our understanding of feminist technologies and the building of networks of trust and solidarity. Using our privileges to the empowerment of others and valuing the importance of both online as well as physical meetings we therefore pursue a feminist approach to the concept of federation: The building of networks of solidarity and trust.		After the funded period of the AFNI project, questions regarding the continuation of the platform and its maintenance as well as longterm availability were at stake. While the response from our communities was positive throughout, keeping the platform up to date seemed like a self-exploitative and unsustainable scenario. Thus instead of taking up more and more responsibility as a 'single point of service' and adopting the naturalized logic of 'scaling it up', we decided to explore different paths which led to a new project: 360 degrees of proximities. Through the financial support of Stimulerings Fonds, starting out 2023, this project centers around the idea to empower other feminist and queer communities around us to host their own feminist video platforms. It entails processes of collective learning and knowledge transmission which aim to accommodate a network of small scale nodes (peertube instances), who eventually become interconnected affective infrastructures in themselves. This practice of feminist networking intersects with the principle of federation, which is common in the realm of FLOSS [Free/Libre Open Source Software] communities. Federation is a concept that derives from a political theory of networks in which power, resources and responsibilities are shared between all actors thus circumventing the centralization of authority.<ref>Mansoux, Aymeric and Roscam Abbing, Roel: "Seven Theses on the Fediverse and the Becoming of FLOSS."In: The Eternal Network: The Ends and Becomings of Network Culture / [ed] Kristoffer Gansing; Inga Luchs, Institute for Network Cultures and Transmediale , 2020, p. 124-140</ref> But in spite of a power-distributing approach, the reality of FOSS communities tends to be male dominated, oftentimes enabling illusions of meritocracy and excluding others by gating technical know-how and expertise. This goes diametrical to our understanding of feminist technologies and the building of networks of trust and solidarity. Using our privileges to the empowerment of others and valuing the importance of both online as well as physical meetings we therefore pursue a feminist approach to the concept of federation: The building of networks of solidarity and trust.

	Based on and firmly situated within our feminist servers, we hope that our feminist video platform continues to support us and our communities as an affective infrastructure as we keep on carefully choosing what kinds of relations and alliances we’d like to strengthen.		Based on and firmly situated within our feminist servers, we hope that our feminist video platform continues to support us and our communities as an affective infrastructure as we keep on carefully choosing what kinds of relations and alliances we’d like to strengthen.

	===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====		===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====

NWess: /* Inhabiting affective infrastructures: How not to scale a feminist video platform */

2023-01-05T11:03:26Z

Inhabiting affective infrastructures: How not to scale a feminist video platform

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:03, 5 January 2023
Line 18:		Line 18:
	Based on and firmly situated within our feminist servers, we hope that our feminist video platform continues to support us and our communities as an affective infrastructure as we keep on carefully choosing what kinds of relations and alliances we’d like to strengthen.		Based on and firmly situated within our feminist servers, we hope that our feminist video platform continues to support us and our communities as an affective infrastructure as we keep on carefully choosing what kinds of relations and alliances we’d like to strengthen.

	Authors /// names [in randomized order]		===== '''Authors /// names [in randomized order]''' =====

	Mara Karagianni [they/them] -		Mara Karagianni [they/them] -