Thread by @everestpipkin

okay so last week i posted a rundown of my intro class from the fall semester (thread here- >

https://twitter.com/everestpipkin/status/1207502480042536960

), but now i want to get into my advanced elective, Data Gardens.

~

the class syllabus / website: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/
student work: everestpipkin.github.io/emsII/students…

Data Gardens was the first class i've designed from the ground up, where the skillsets and tools and metrics of success were all up to me, rather than required by the department. this was both a total gift and a real challenge! teaching is no joke

i wanted to put together a course about all the fiddly edges of being an artist on the internet- the weird personal stories subsumed in our protocols, technologies, and data, their moral and political and ethical centers, and how those technologies intersect with personhood

i also wanted to cover some hard skills so that we weren't always speaking in the abstract. a lot of my students had some experience with code, but everyone was coming into the course with different technical skills, and i wanted to make sure that we evened out a bit

because of this wide scope, when i was designing this course i just sat down and wrote what down what moves me about being on the internet, freely, for a while. this class was basically pulled from these notes -> docs.google.com/document/d/1vZ…

i want to say up front that i got so so lucky with my students, who were amazing artists and thoughtful participants to the last.

seriously, look at the work they made through the semester! wtf everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

we began the semester by covering the structural basics of computers: filesystems, data organization, early and weird operating systems, the development of the desktop and the GUI. we talked about binary code and switches, logic gates, CPUs, and abstraction and high level code.

(a lot of my Trouble with computers in 2019 is that they can feel so distant from touch, like the core of them is fundamentally out of reach for a non-engineer. actually understanding what a logic gate /is/ and how they /work/ helps alleviate some of this imo)

we covered Xerox PARC and the mother of all demos and early designs for computer mice and dynabooks and all those egalitarian-if-flawed visions for what a computer could be and do before they even really were.

we learned about the terminal and console, and spent some time making work in our filesystems, examining the way that computers serve us as people as extensions of our bodies and memories.

(quickstart terminal guide: docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…)

i asked folks to think about their file system through the lens of a memory palace, the memorization technique where one spatializes reminders in a constructed physical space. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of…)

they stored "memories" in folders, then memorized a path to retrieve them

(this project directly inspired by @rottytooth's folders, @melanieh0ff 's folder poetry, Ortiel’s Nested, and especially all the amazing folks I got to work with on the Institute for Desktop Archeology who changed my vision of folders forever)

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff here are a few memory palaces

everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

these are really just the bones though- they were performed in front of the class by their makers

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff after this, we covered how machines actually talk to one another, early internet culture, TCP/IP, FTP, and other protocols, the invention of the browser, and all the weird legalities of the internet, from ICANN to servers and search engines

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff we also talked about the military and governmental roles in early computation and internet infrastructure and their radical histories, both utopian ideals and military roots that still have some echoes today.

(link to some notes -> docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…)

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff we did a quickstart into markup, html + css for those that hadn't used them before, and also talked quite a bit about early internet culture and the homemade web / web 1.0, and the trajectory that got us to now

(more notes! docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…)

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff (the reading up till now: Alan Kay, American Artist, @ftrain on tilde.club, Emily Badger on Geocities, Dmytri Kleiner's The Telekommunist Manifesto, Paul Baran, Craig Hickman on Kidpix, @tchoi8, specific links to materials all in the syllabus)

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 having spent the first few weeks on internet histories up through web 1.0, we then cast forward a bit into sci-fi speculation and fantasy in general- around AI and chatbots, faked technologies of intelligence where there is truly just another person behind a screen

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 we watched a lot of movie clips, talked about golems and the mechanical turk, and the wider history and fiction of semi-automatons, fake machines, and where humanity always seems to leak in.

lecture notes - > docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 we talked about mechanical turk and wizard of oz prototyping and how "data is just people" sometimes means "data is just one person online right now actually"

we completed some microworkers tasks

here are a million links about this: docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 as our second project, i asked students to 'perform as AI' in some context, making work that pretended to be created via machine. here are a few i especially liked:

> github.com/everestpipkin/…

> everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

>

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 also shoutout to the little cardboard robot that did not like being flipped upside down by rosa kurtz. images can't capture its cute and grumpy affect

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 (the readings: @AdrianChen on Horse_ebooks, @oliviasolon on pseudo-AI, @ellenhuet on humans behind chatbots, @laurenleemack's LAUREN, Darick Chamberlin's Cigarette Boy, Mezangelle, @s_schmieg, @UriBram)

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 @AdrianChen @oliviasolon @ellenhuet @laurenleemack @s_schmieg @UriBram after this we went into some skill building, with a particular focus on working with text. we covered generative text techniques (link-> docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…), the computational poets, ngrams, markov chains, and string manipulation in javascript ..

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 @AdrianChen @oliviasolon @ellenhuet @laurenleemack @s_schmieg @UriBram as well as plaintext, unicode, regex, emoji, and histories of text encoding.

(my! notes! docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…)

these are the good notes imo

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 @AdrianChen @oliviasolon @ellenhuet @laurenleemack @s_schmieg @UriBram all the student work for this unit is linked on their website in the ascii tree ~~ everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

they are honestly all pretty good, but here are a few:

a tictactoe game that makes a poem: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

a pdf of cropped messages: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 @AdrianChen @oliviasolon @ellenhuet @laurenleemack @s_schmieg @UriBram poems generated from the corpus of susan sontag: github.com/everestpipkin/…

describing drawing an l-system tree like you were bob ross: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

fill letters with specific shapes: github.com/everestpipkin/…

summarize a website into poetry: github.com/everestpipkin/…

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 @AdrianChen @oliviasolon @ellenhuet @laurenleemack @s_schmieg @UriBram (we read @aparrish on Word Breakers, Ferdinand de Saussure, John Morris's How to Write Poems With a Computer, A Taxonomy of Generative Poetry Techniques, & looked at everyone on this shortened timeline of generative text projects: docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…)

@rottytooth @melanieh0ff @ftrain @tchoi8 @AdrianChen @oliviasolon @ellenhuet @laurenleemack @s_schmieg @UriBram @aparrish with those textual techniques, we widened our net to work with APIs and webscraping and JSON.

we got into the ethics of data collection, best practices (if there are any lol), and questions of engineering real opportunities for consent into online space

we reoriented towards people, bodies, and intimacy in the dataset. we talked about how people intersect with data technology and how these spaces of surveillance, power, and financial incentive touch our bodies.

(we read: @thistimeitsmimi, Os Keyes, @the_jennitaur, @jamesbridle, @shannonmattern, @zephoria, @katecrawford, @tylerwalicek & looked at @penelopeumbrico, @annaridler, @pippinbarr, @tinysubversions, @ragzouken, @sam_lavigne, @M_PF Tyler Coburn, and @aanand)

we also played data bingo / guess who!

https://twitter.com/everestpipkin/status/1184186307444199424

i asked students to create a project that either used an API at cross-purposes to its original intent, or scrape data that didn't already exist in a dataset.

here are a few:

>

https://twitter.com/crabbage_/status/1190790979709755392

>

https://twitter.com/PereBite/status/1194827334630682624

>github.com/everestpipkin/…

>everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

from the dataset we widened into the data center, the network, the world at large. we talked about how digital information is stored physically, what the network is shaped like, how much energy it consumes, the weight of machinery and cabling and the physically of access

we visited the on-campus data center at CMU and got a p wild infrastructure tour. CMU was on ARPAnet so there is very old internet history there. they also answered all sorts of questions abt specifics, like their backups, their provider connections, etc. thanks pete + daryl!

it was strange and useful to be in an environment so made for machines, especially after all of our conversations about where people and bodies fit into datasets.

here are some notes & links -> docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

(we read @kashhill, @lifewinning + Nicole Starosielski.)

from here we moved into possible futures and work of the present, with minimal computing, slow internet, and offline and alternative internets. asking - how can we alter our own interactions with computers and the internet to produce a more sustainable relationship with machines?

we talked about cooperative networks and networks in space and pigeon nets and low tech websites and packet radio and el paquete and all sorts of other stuff

here are my lecture notes -- > docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

we then considered the software side of this impulse, with things like scuttlebutt and collapseOS and the fediverse and activitypub and dat. we talked about the "bad landlord problem" of the internet (which i still need to write properly about)

notes - > docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

after this, we had a very practical day about the darknet and deepweb.

we covered steps to be secure and anonymous online.

a how to guide? kind of:

docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

we also played lots of weird airdrop games while talking about local and decentralized and physical networks!

https://twitter.com/everestpipkin/status/1194315364668190720

from all of these conversations, i asked my students to produce a "fantasy network". these were GREAT. lots of powerpoints about ant protocols and stuff

> image cryptography thru animals: github.com/everestpipkin/…

> communication post quantum supremacy: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

finally, right before the thanksgiving break, we spent a little time with glitch - the history and aesthetics and ethical drive of glitch, as well as a bunch of weird artist's tools

my notes & artist links -> docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

up to this we'd really talked about data in a datapoints sense, but of course its all just numbers under the hood- and the malleability of filetypes and information is one of its most interesting elements imo

glitch tool links -> docs.google.com/document/d/e/2…

we then spent the last week posted up evenings in @creativeinquiry working on final projects and eating snacks. the final projects were open and they are all great, like seriously all of them. check the student work website for em all (everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…) ...

@creativeinquiry BUT, here are a selection:

Dark Patterns Game: github.com/everestpipkin/…

Data Short Stories: github.com/everestpipkin/…

Swimming in a Sea Of Excess (on Susan Sontag): github.com/everestpipkin/…

Topsoil: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

and -

@creativeinquiry Randomized Breakup Advice the Movie: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

Two from @crabbage_ , MLdraw and Internet Postcards: github.com/everestpipkin/…

CFA Vision Lab Performance: everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…

Leave a Letter: github.com/everestpipkin/…

(+ one from @perebite that is still secret)

@creativeinquiry @crabbage_ @PereBite getting to put this class together with these students was just remarkable, i am so grateful for the opportunity to work with all of them as artists and to clarify my own thinking on this field. its been a total joy

here are some folks whose syllabi i read lots of times while trying to learn how to teach - thank you : @aparrish @golan @shannonmattern @tchoi8 @sfpc @laurenleemack @soulellis @ChrisVVarren @irl @dantaeyoung @frnsys chris novello

(hoping to do the same for someone else someday)

OH MY GOD i just realized at the end of the thread that the student work link on here goes to my other class smdh

Data Gardens Student Work is here -> everestpipkin.github.io/datagardens/st…