Roleplaying in Etherpad
Susan Ploetz[1] Building forth on H&D's commitment to rethinking tools, we collectively explored alternatives scenarios for human-computer interaction. We took the perspective of the different tools to rethink our position as makers. We imagined, embodied, and enacted a new open-source tool ecology.
Roleplaying in the open-source world was a meetup faciliated by Juliette from H&D, with a kick off lecture byWe asked questions such as:
- What tool can you imagine? What are its features, quirks, and glitches?
- How will it be used and by whom?
- How do the tools in our emerging tool ecology relate to each other?
Using methods of character development and role-play in combination with H&D's approach to hacking and DIY, we explored open-source world-making and collaborative storytelling.
The following section is an unedited transcription of the Etherpad workshop script.
~
Welcome to my world <3
- hello
- helloooo hiiii hey
- hellosup
- hi yo
- hii alles goed? jaaaaa
- heyyi changed my color. :) HIHI ah.. text became white!
- hii alles goed? jaaaaa
- hii
- hihi
BRAINSTORM! (5min)
1. What is a tool? what do you associate with tools, toolness, tooling?
An extension of your cognition
things you can use to help you do stuff, i think of scirssors when i think of tools. Tooling are ways or object to help you acheive sth. acheivements that are basic or complicated dependind on the tool. i think tools should always be useful, if not then they are extra, not useless but they occupy space for no good purpose.
way of articulation
translation of ideas into form-
A conditioning device
intermediate between me and the world
Enable actions
extension of the body (body can be human and not human)
association of tools with productivity and work in relating to iindustralilzation
a tool relates to intention, perhaps? but as this tool can be turbulent.. the intention with which a tool is being created does not mean that it is used as such. many philisophers have written about tools... the hammer comes up a lot... a hammer is for hammering... blablabla.. or the debate around guns. do guns kill people? or do people kill people? clear is that certain tools afford certain tool relationships no? in the context of software ... licenses are interesting tools to create legal frameworks / agreements on use and reuse -- anyhow i think that 'tool' is also overused as a metaphor.. and can become rather unspecific... uncritical perhaps? l
playing, changing states, another bodypart, the fool, putting this together, apart and to recombine, things that make us human vs animals --i think of internet, gossip and phones
Limits & disaffordances
2. What tools do you like?
Obsidian\<3
i like clumsy tools that let you do just a few things.. like this one, etherpad, or ethercalc... i like it because it doesnt assume too much in a way.. like for instance creative cloud tools are not tools anymore.. its more like a platform... convergences of tools and services that assume a kind of identification and to me trespassed what I want from a tool relationship.. adobe is a kind of exclusive membership only club... where scribus... or gimp is maybe a bit more rough but i can feel its edges.. you know what i mean?
I like the tools that make my life easier, if i didnt have a boiler for boiling, it will take longer time to boil the water.
tools for communicating and relating
custom made and mutable - modular ones - collaborative -
Writing
storytelling
the unreliable narrator
language
astrology
cameras, gossip ?1 whats up with the gossip recurence , gestures
I like tools that help me expand my vision
Speculative tools
Machine vision
sexy tools
3. What tools do you dislike?
rigid use
surveillance
cookies
excluding tools like some laws
worflow tools.. they manage collaboration to much
i like all tools i love tools
4. What open-source tools do you know?
linux
wikimediapedia mediawiki is the tool?
blender <3
OBS
processing
gimp
scribus
inkscape
YOU ARE A TOOL!
Introduce yourself as your character-tool trying to encompass as many details as you can think of! (10min)
How would you describe yourself in three words?
egg, round, glass
mushy magic tricky
horizental, squarish, spacish
shiny, round, dense
shape shifting, chaotic, opening
gourmet, well-lit,
i change your face, i allow u to be others, updated
lens, vision, time
open, moving, thinking
small, light, shiny
How would someone else describe you in three words?
mindbending scary unpredictible
spiritual, hippy, sexy
energetic, creative, focussed
challenging, emotional, wall
difficult socially, can be misenterpreted, fun
delusional, esoteric, desirable
mechanised,nonhuman, hygienic
triggering, apparent, helpful
focussed, kind, dreamer
annoying, helpfull
What do you feel conflicted, confused, excited or proud about?
i can interconnect beings & make them feel & understand like no other tool can . It can be very confusing to pp and some will reject my teachings. I'm not sure about the nature of the experience I am bringing
I am a bit broken, a broken tool, perhaps. The thing is, I should not be breakable.. like its not supposed to happen. and now I am not sure what to do... In a way, I am not even very certain on how I am supposed to be used, so the question is "Am I Really Broken?" ... its a bit of a crisis momen tto be honest. I watched "Keuringsdienst van Warde" and they talked about my kind of tool species and how there is a lot of people reselling fake tools of my kind.. so now I am wondering.. "Am I even Real???????" Or am I just some cheap reproduction?? THe fact that something chipped off my side, does not make me more confident tbh
I feel conflicted about how language would look like with out me, I feel labit of confusion whether people find my spacishness triggering/ annoying or just see it as part of me.
sometimes its hard to confront people with their walls, ideas... it's not easy so see them struggling and that not everyone is touched through the tool in a deeper sense but I am happy if I can reach someone
in everyones smartphones, you use me when u need me, what would u do if my tech disappeared, proud that u need me
I feel like im serving unpaid labour but I'm getting the needed power as well. I feed people.
there are some moral questions about the possibility of seeing back and forth on the cycle of time. the topic of responsibility emerges. curiosity about all the possibilities that are unfolding once you claim your time unreliability. How not to get seduced by the manipulative potential of this technology. On the other hand it becomes a portal to see that time is not linear but cyclical
im proud that people let me in, and im always scared to fall out - intriguing -
I'm confused by the reality I helped shape. Is it real or did i convince even myself into believing it?
Who would you be as a tool?
a word soup
SpaceBar
face filter
A counterstory
offline cursor
advisor
Or what are you curious to explore in a tool?
I am a tool in crisis, identity crisis perhaps..
I would like to explore who decides whether or not I am useful actually? Is it only humans that get to decide? Is it important who manufactured me? Like is the way I am made significant for the ways I exist in the world and interacted with?
I would be curious to explore my own limits, concepts... that keep me stable in some way and how to find holes in them
im curious to explore the context of this tool, its position amongst where it is used, how it is used. the feelings of this tool.
how it can be shown for what it is, no more, no less.
to fly around, my belly facing files
What do you do?
I am usually just laying around honestly.. Its not a super entertaining moment of my life.. but there is potential... sometimes i am held, touched, sometimes I am charged... laying in the window. I see people looking at me at times.
I FEED
i change peoples faces
I am in some places and there to be read multiple times, partly... I am a king of verbal mirror
i give space for legibility, for opennes that creates freedom,
I change, inspire, deceipt, give hope, make sense
I am able to open (up) places and people irl
are you physical, digital, do you have buttons? an interface?
I'm the interface between conscious and subconscious between individual and collective
I am physical but also digital. I do have buttons and an interface too.
im very physical
PHYSICAL and SPIRITUAL, so I think i am able to expand mind and matter whohooo- are we not only (almost) the same color but the same tool as well ? haha i wanna ask what are you but maybe thats not allowed?
I can be both, whatever feels more comfortable
i'm a botton. with a very specific funtion, i live in context.
digital and an interface
offline fingerextension
I am a tool of the mind
Do you have a specific function, powers?
I FEEEEED
i create womb-awareness
woooop. yes. i am energizing, creating focus, and perhaps upholding a certain connection
to let u try who u want to look like without physically enduring it
create chaos in order and give birth to new patterns
I see here, back and forth
The power to persuade
Can you evolve, mutate?
I'm co-creating me too!!
just in meaning but not in materiality ... unless perhaps i could break even more
i evolve with each "trend"
yes I mutate in minds
yes, i am constantly changing
I alternate between arrow shape, a pointing micky mouse hand and a simple standing thin shortline
How does your tool’s body feel?
Yummy
Smelly
glassy
hard
shiny
flexible
Are you comfortable?
Nope but warm
to watch yes, to lay on no
oh my god yes
kinda indifferent
sometimes
i change so much i dont know
I'm restless
Are you in control?
I am taking contro and leave you to enjoy the show - you'll integrate later l
only through my affordances
not anymore
i hate i have so much control
I try to subvert controll of others
Where do you come from?
from distributed wisdom
i cannot remember, but there are two options i guess, in any case... i can probably say from deep down inside the earth
an augmented space
the mind
What does your past look like, describe a fond memory?
it looks like a pokemon maker
about 1500 years ago i was moved gently... that tickled a bit ... that was nice.
Where are you?
on a table
on a table
How do you relate to the world you are part of?
do you like your position?
I like it, I think its really helpful and in the right position, i also think i was designed to fit a certain embodied role
do you have ambitions?
Feeding, feeding and feeding.
not to be tossed
Hi, i'm cece, i'm an iphone X front camera that has been hacked i share everything i see with a group of people but have no agency over how they use the data.
I don't know how but I am connected to a network of other cameras so i can see beyon the physical position i am at.
- >>>>>> Let's meet in the ethercalc to design our character cards (15min): https://ethercalc.hackersanddesigners.nl/characteravatar
Interconnections (10min)
- Introduce yourself as your character, add to each other's line where you imagine connecting in any way.
Hello I am R.E.A.L.L.Y.
- - are you
hi food 3d printer here
- - hey i'll hack and share your newest recipe to ur competitor
- I can help you feed a whole community
- thats what they all say, but you know who can really feed communities? I heard A. Ppetite ! check them out.
- I can help you feed a whole community
hello im cece the frontal camera
- you better look behin d you cece....
- what are you features?
- how do you relate to the people you are capturing?
- Thanks for your past service and contributions to big data
- can you please turn your camera on ?
- Thanks for your past service and contributions to big data
- how do you relate to the people you are capturing?
- what are you features?
hi im poem! i help to reconnect i give users... hm space.. who needs space?
- hi i also escaped linear undesrtanding
- that happens to me a lot
- i think i need space to see
- i think i give you space often
- i think i need space to see
- that happens to me a lot
Hey here & there Im' Synastria - jumping timelines
- i think we are related
- you know who else is related? poem and yoni!!! but pssssst. confidential
Yonii ?
- yahhhh right?!?! gives me the creeps
Fanta the facefilter here
- - hey without me you work 50/50
I actually process the already existing visual data sets to generate faces and then apply filters on them. I dont even need a physical face anymore.
hello, DIsMoi here. abyss traveler
- - hey fellow time traveller
mind expanding and truth seeking
- anyone wants a 3d ssandwich?
- yes please hyperreal
- I think we have similarities
- anyone wants a 3d ssandwich?
hi, i'm a.ppetit! I'm here to provide others the room they nee d
- hey sorry space by accident I took your d, but I replaced it with my d, my name is a ppetit I would like to hold you, would you be okay with that?
- ofcourse
- not!
- i'm here to help. but please dont bloat me.
- can we share space via icloud
- how much
- dependencies
storagedo you require?
Hi I'm Yoni and have a strong connection
- disruption
with my fe male* energies-
- principle
- I see you
- spiraling -
- principle
- square
- its hard for me to see you without a tool
- hi ive been told to check you out - what is a lady
- its hard for me to see you without a tool
- bug ?
everyone in the physical world needs me
- i thinkin less than 5mins you can prepare, eat and enjoy that dinner
PLAYTIME!
ACT 1: Present (10min)
space here
hey space, you seem cool
It is very bright today and painstakingly hot the heat comes for the ground
some of us had to be put in the fridge but electricity wasn't always available
not from the sky's dust bubbles
blub ... space
the desert sighs it is thaaat hot
the order of chaos has been revealed the heat is in your mind - if yoou have one
the age of industrilization have yet to see another great tool and invention, with me, workers wil be able to work 24hrs non stop, no need for breaks or lunch time.
im used a lot in manymany minds creating random comes for the
ground associations of words
space here i make space can you see if there's electricity somewhere else? i work with the electricity of the braiiinnnzzz
anyone needs food? waaaaater please. or smoothie is also fine. does smoothie count as foot? drinkable food? i can print that for you. Bravvvvvoooo, can you print two copies of green and three copies double sided of red smoothy please? i like the taste of dusk. this sounds good i would also like one
The trains rails are converging and so do the wagon - soon the road space here will have no many starts and no multiple ends- only stars - reality check
I'm confused, I thought I was a Ppetite but its seems like there are more like me, I afraid I am loosing my purpose noooooo i can help you reconnect with your purpose how where is the time ah i only make space but maybe someone makes time? or knows where it is?
sssspace herespace headspacethats a cool app spacebar
Anyone needs food smoothies? Yes please. with a lot of ice!
space hereis this a printing error damndid you say 3d printer? someone just thought of a poem about 3d printer it goes like
tktktktkt
- yarn yarn yarn
- tktktktkt
- strange hm
- fingers rub
- thread entangle
- tktktkt
- thread entangle
- timmeeeeeee ah
- tktktktkt
i'm recording all of this information in case the narrators require it
- space here
BATTERY WARNING.decay as a source of energyeverything is transformed into energy
scorpio kind of qualities in all of us
how are you all doing? I am overhwhelmed and in need of depthsi can make space for depth Will we fall in the spiral ? Will you join us ? oh yes i'm down!
i'm falllling I'm gazing in and zooming out graazing in the fields
i can open up new spaces and thus possibilities and new paths and basically everythings is possible and i can lead you everywherecan you be more specific? I can expand the idea but I need concrete starting points
My feet are really warm can I touch them?can you feel roots sprouting out of them?!!!!!!!can i take a photo?
LOW IN BATTERY. let's make you not need that battery it's just a construct make space for no battery Yoni will charge you here I am giving space to breathe, calm down and let imaginations come to mind
WARNING, LOW IN MATERIAL.decompose
if anyone wants me to p rint them some food, let me know, i have a menue but im still working on it, perhaps you would like to add sth on the menue
whats on the menue? somethng with an egg? fried egg? omelette?
COULD PPETTITE DELIVER ME SOME MATERIAL? I THOUGHT IT WAS A DELIVERY ROBOT, CMON.
I WAS ACTUALLY A FACEFILTER BUT I FORGOT THAT AND ACTED LIKE A 3D PRINTER ALL THIS TIME- 3D PRINTER FORGIVE ME. I suppose I just wanted to be tangible. tangible is the new cool.
ACT 2:... 76 years later (10min)
I actually exist; im what used to be a hand or a foot but longer- expend on the limbs
I died and reborn 7600217527528264300865464 times.
i found a charger and 3000 bucks but we take turns sharing it, i wish we had multiple strings woah... you rich? if ur rich are we all rich? we were always richer omg!! its happening. its becoming reality!!! moneeeeeeeey for all!!!
$ $ $ $ $
still not minding my own business... messing with other peoples realities ...Face it : Realities suck, ai faces rock, real faces and filters are for boomers lets make a new face made of our faces can u do that?send me a jpg i can try to priint it, trying to be useful tool
lets be faceless again faceless human technologiss is my cousin, maybe i can introduce you two, you might be interestedis multiple faces a form of facelessness?
I might have been become a portal for following ones, maybe still warm, I have gathered relationships with the user, the users companions and some who are not there in the form as we are
i now prind 4d and 5d and 17d foods. what is your specialty? space and reconnection its still a lucrative bizness
i need space here, wheres space?foods too advanced for your senses, you cant eveen tasste them my specialty is printing food
people robots people animals people ... still making poems fake news in their minds... but they've become... hm rare
I'm stoping to look at a frozen time slice - add some melting vegan human cheesyness
but i can still make space hey but you are a poem, I thought you were space no i am a poem but i make spaceafter 76 years you still make poems about space? i dont make poem about space, i make space in the mind - peaceful fragments of beauty and truth we all need
I developed an institution excavation site for obsequies and baptism services. The funeral rites are portals to re-flesh oneself, a portal opening possibilites... diggin it! i think i could work there.. i still help with reconnection, do you hire?yes we do. please send me your natal chart. we do not select, we just pick the position due to your celestial potential i can also volunteer... i exist simultaneously in alll minds i dont really need money but it sounded nice when people though KNEW t they were rich- abundant minds
- space here
76 years later and we're all still hungry buuuuuurgers!! space here too
Self destruction is sexy! Ask humanslol still sexy = scorpionic AF scorpios my favorite gender corp
Who wants a brand new Old physical body as a DAO nft? what is physical?It is that new trend.
ACT 3:... 90003 years later (10min)
blubbbb blub bubbb blub blub blaaaaahhh blahhhh blablablabla... Bla? beautiful thanks i found my voice again
BIMMMblub
assemblages mixing connecting complexities space cdxsedtrzcfhgvzhunjihubgzvfcdrtuhinj weird ecologies noting is stable everything flexible going in all directions female chaos gaia energies growingbloomingmuddling
minds have been uploaded to the universe - i co exist everywhere and everytime forever ------------- infinite space thats what she things.. tssssst blub
Where is my bopdy ? is it everywhere and nowhere?
I cant feel nomorer normal normcore no more, more , more
blubbbbbb infinite.. connexxxxxion
.......... blub beautiful
..............................................................................................................................................................
oppps i once printed some amsterdam and LILITHSpoisionapple tv and ate it and we are backin year 0 oppsie sorry not sorry everyonee, i wasted 90003 of human kind development humans are osoleteeeeeee i love this word sounds beautiful in some mouths only data
- ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((I need a new fresh perspective I'm trapped in nostalgia nostalgiantarctica is a beautiful spaceX ... relax into Grimes only then can you let go and move on .. with swordsand pentacles and tentacles and cactuses and stars and claws
hey who wants a historical tour to the globes meeeee i love travelling if you take me in your pocket we can travel, i'll help take good photos, no more crooked angles sorry for last timeyeyerey whats the first stop? is it a hop in hop off tour through time?
cheer up the earth as been wiped out - Only SSsssCorpios remains - take a tour im here now, wt doess that mean?someone took over my business? or you're my pr spec I m spiriling thing out of hand and out of the mind i make space for you no worries
wait are you my intuition- im (with) you i am also with you thanks spaceit makes me think of looking deeply into each other eyes. anyone remembers that? the danger of physical time and space synchronicity
lets fall in love no more loveloooooooooove can exist i love love ive spend so much space and time with love love happens only between deep secretsi print cupcakkes in shape of love, red color of course,
look into my lens's they're sharper than my old eyes both are just the gateslove your yoni preach
Did you design therir pupils to sungaze all days
what would you like to have for dinner? love and timesame, im out of printing material, let mee order it, oh shit, they are closed bbeecaussee the new updates of corona
Recycle let it decay beautiful cycle of life
Break out of the cicle?revisit- stay out of this matter- recombine reconnectre-member
Juliette Lizotte is a world builder, a techno witch, a rave elf, an oracle... Inspired by feminist science fiction, manga, pop culture and fantasy, Juliette opens parallel worlds at 170bpm. Juliette a.k.a. jujulove is a video maker, designer, and DJ based between Amsterdam and Brussels. She is a resident on LYL radio and Kiosk Radio in Brussels, as well as an active member of Hackers & Designers in Amsterdam. https://jujulove.eu/