Masters in public
Why in public??? How in public???
working with the garage door up - Andy Matuschak
- see meta-thesis for preliminary notes on format
- see thesis key concepts and adjacent for a dump of all vaguely-connected topics
Research Title/Question
Section titled “Research Title/Question”Resistive fragment assemblages: How do decentralised web technologies better enable collectivist para-archives?
Aim 1: Define, identify, and “buttress in literature” collectivist para-archives, resistive fragment assemblages and decentralised web technologies
Aim 2: Survey how centralised systems shape/hinder collectivist para-archives and/or how the limitations are circumvented
Aim 3: Describe how collectivist para-archives thrive from distinct system architectures
Objectives
Section titled “Objectives”developed in conjunction with my thesis supervisor, indicators of success
Obj 0: Characterise and defend choice of platforms to study Obj 0.1 Tumblr cultures Obj 0.2 Pinterest Obj 0.3 Are.na meta-structure
Obj 1: Collect data from Pinterest and Are.na and make them “analyzable” Obj 1.0 collectivist Pinterest boards Obj 1.1 collectivist Are.na channels Obj 1.2 Are.na meta-blocks
Obj 2: Find a way to analyse them Obj 2.0 Describe methodology Obj 2.1 Carry out analysis Obj 2.2 Explicitly reflect on methodology and practices
Obj 3: Develop a feature-set/preliminary systems design that describes how each element enables the building of collectivist counter-publics
Obj 4: Find out how this can be achieved textually/post-textually Obj 4.0 Describe and defend this methodology Obj 4.1 Set up a mechanism to publish connected notes Obj 4.2 Defend ethical choices
some of the initiating questions
Section titled “some of the initiating questions”a) how does Tumblr enable pluriversal knowledge to be built from fragments? b) how is Pinterest used for future-building, how is this hindered by platform intent? c) which features and mechanisms of Are.na encourage and discourage its founding tenets? d) how do users of Tumblr, Pinterest and Are.na form intent-to-action pipelines through connecting narratives of past, present and future? e) what foundational features of web 1.0 and early social web could help to re-establish hyper-connectivity and interoperability in the current internet landscape? f) can existing protocols (eg Solid) enhance data autonomy and privacy in linked bookmarking through fine-grained control? g) how does my own historical information practise narrate the path to pluriversal, hyperconnected data access?
combining - the affordances of - Tumblr (source culture, threading, assemblage) - Pinterest (multi-purpose and general use assemblage, nice to use) - into the model of - Are.na (connected knowledge, nice to use) - using the tech from - ActivityPods - Solid Pods (privacy-first data storage) - ActivityPub (Fediverse protocol) - dokieli(?) (decentralized authoring on Solid)
Impetus
Section titled “Impetus”The impetus for much of this thesis is in my own ‘everyday’. I’m a thinker first and foremost, but since my teenage years I’ve existed mostly in a state of brain fog as a result of a long-term medical condition affecting my thinking, concentration and memory. I was also diagnosed with autism at the age of 20, meaning I’d spent my formative years with frequently recurring states of alienation and rigorous introspection. Growing understanding of my own positionality and cognitive mechanisms led me increasingly both to collectivist political models and to ‘tools for thought’ (or mnemotechnologies) as assistive tech, used for processing and storing information that helps me to understand my position in larger social systems.
Popular framings of ‘tools for thought’ (Iverson, cited by Matuschak and Nielsen, 2019) or the ‘personal knowledge management’ (PKM) space online are twisted by cognitive capitalism, with a focus on production and an ambiguously maximal use of time. These framings are both antithetical to my personal ethics and incompatible with my lived existence. Having found use of these tools and techniques for augmenting my memory and extending my capacity for self-actualisation I’m drawn instead to the metaphor of a second brain or augmented memory, in line with xenofeminism and Haraway’s notion of the cyborg.