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20200212

Work on diy orthopedics continues. I’ve made six custom insoles and arch supports using different types of silicones and agitated the solidifying processes using cornstarch (50g silicone / 15g starch). I’ve also added acrylic paint to the wet silicone to match the casts with my shoe colors for a professional look. The moulding process is relatively simple: I place wet silicone on a insole, wrap it in clingfilm and step on it. I started with cheap chemicals for testing and accustoming my feet to the change. The latest versions have been made using silicone intended for aquariums (which doesn’t have anti-mold agents that might cause allergies) and they feel fit for permanent use.

Using self-made insoles feels weird. I can notice my posture changing. I’m not sure if they help with my plantar fasciitis aches but it’s too early to tell. My feet need to adapt, my tendons and joints need to change their shape. This is a slow bodybuilding exercise and I’m a little bit spooked by the process. Artificial limbs, cybernetics and prosthetics were a popular theme in contemporary dance a while back… I think that this cultural interest and aesthetic has prompted my experiments with diy orthopedics. My aim is to restore my ability to work with crafts (as intensively as I used to) but once I’ve accomplished this I might attempt to develop my body to achieve more interesting effects.

Don’t get me wrong, not aching while working is dope but enabling a non-human style walk using custom prosthetics is the mothershit (My take a proposition by Onyx Ashanti). Diy orthopedics give me weird-sad-hope #☭

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20200110

Valtasuhteet piiloutuvat Designmuseon näyttelyyn [Power relations hidden in a Design museum exhibition] (2020) Mari Vaara. The article is also available as a podcast which is nice. The text is a very harsh critique of the Secret Universe -exhibition and work of acclaimed designers Aamu Song & Johan Olin. Vaara introduces the concept of Mechanistic Cosmology, credited to Tim Ingold, which explains processes were thinking and doing are separated to advance modernism. She also identifies an interesting phenomenon “Handcraft Fetishization” (I should explore this more). She reminds readers that the entire concept of “handcrafts” is defined by its relationship to modern production methods. I think this is true: Crafts are not against Industrial methods, they coexist and many times are the same.

Vaara questions why the artists don’t call the craftspeople whom they collaborated with “workers” (käsityöläinen), they call them “craftmasters”. “Who gets to name, whom?” she asks. The relationships between the designers and the craftspeople they have commissioned work from is not transparent: “How is the money divided between them?” she asks. I think she is right, the agency of the craftspeople involved has been reduced to highlight the inventiveness of the designers. Also, defining people who make objects with their hands as “craftspeople” is a problematic. Particularly in the global context: In Finland I can choose to work with wood outside the industrial complex but my decision to work this way is backed by our local industrial grid.

I think Vaara’s critique is coarse. My interpretation is that the work of Song & Olin is not harmful because their work addresses crafts from a remote angle. A craftperson working to sell their stuff and labor is likely not affected by the exhibition or by Song & Olin in any way which would hinder they livelihood. I don’t think the museum exhibition has any relevance to craftspeople in Finland. The harmfulness of the modenist attitudes Vaara identified is a relevant observation.

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20200204

Telecommunications Reclaimed (2019) Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay & Félix Tréguer. A book on community networks. I read the history part and some shorter interviews/reflections. Unfortunately it reads as a tactical project publication, made more for the sake of having a publication for a project, then an effort to advocate a cause.

Aruna D’Souzas talk (2020) for the Creative Time Summit X is great! She problematises empathy as a strategy for political resistance and argues that institutions created the need for racism: “Slavery was not the product but the origin of racism “. Hence changing attitudes cannot undo structures. She also identifies how empathy is utilized to validate the global-wests efforts in assuming control over others (which is something we’ve explored trough Trans-Horse). She then takes a critical view on artworks which seek to “give voice to marginalized communities” and argues that in many cases these kinds of artworks expose individuals in the same ways as dehumanizing institutions (such as border control) do.

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20200202

When will mining the moon replace mining the earth? When it is cheaper to mine the moon then the earth. The operation will start right after earth has been depleted. #☭

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20200130

What an exiting day. I got a Mazizone installation running on my Raspi3+! I can now host a local access etherpad service, open a file sharing box or a wordpress installation (among other things). Here is a short explanation why these kinds of “Digital Sovereignty” projects are important. (The project also has a faint link to urban farming, as one partner for the project has been Prinzessinnengarten) Feels great and only took 10 hours of manic computer work to figure out. I’m preparing to share my Trans-Siberian Railway sound collection using a Mazizone which is specifically set up for the Alkovi space at Hämeenkatu. Here is are my notes on getting the system running for this setup.

  1. Etcher > mazizone-v3.1.1.img (or 2020XXXX_alkovi-mazizone.dmg)
  2. SD card to RPi3+, boot and wait for ssid: mazizone
  3. Setup (Set location: lat, lon 60.187174, 24.953562) and change password
  4. Expand Storage > Reboot
  5. Browser to local.mazizone.eu:4567/admin > Disable unused apps
  6. Set USB1 wifi dongle (panda06) for “Internet connection” and set “Internet Network Mode” to “online”
  7. ssh pi@10.0.0.1. Change password using raspi-config and sudo apt update > sudo apt full-upgrade and reboot
  8. Setup DS3231 clock for stability. Sudo apt-get install i2c-tools, set locale using raspi-config and configure module using ssh. Guidelines for battery setup (in short supply it 3,3v).
  9. Applications > WordPress > Set up WP (don’t mess with the URL settings in WP)
  10. Change WIFI ssid: Alkovi (no password) and reconnect
  11. Change Portal Domain “in-various-stages-of-ruins.eu”
  12. Assign WordPress as “homepage” and set bigger upload file-size via Admin > Settings > Apache max file size: 500M
  13. Don’t change WordPress url (Test if changing step 8 order would help in clean urls for wp. Edit: no effect, see: Changing domain for wordpress not possible.)
  14. Update WordPress and themes, make them pretty (one page for sound, one page for info) and upload Trans-Siberian railway sound collection.
  15. Setup cron for daily reboot cycle:  sudo nano /etc/cron.d/alkovirebootcycle > 15 2 * * * root /sbin/shutdown -r now
  16. Add > dtoverlay=pi3-act-led,gpio=19 to /boot/config.txt to allow sd-card activity to be shown on an external red-led (protected with 470Ω resistor for good measure).
  17. Make duplicate of the SD card as backup.
  18. Test everything, break everything and re-do everything.

Later: External shutdown button (python?), how can I get it to “sms report home” (will old Huawei E1550 I’ve stashed work out of the box or should I configure it somehow?). experiment with PiFmRds(?) and enjoy.