Content-form:Domingos500
This workshop is convened around a carefully maintained set of networking and publishing infrastructures. Participating in the workshop we gain a privileged access to these tools, services and system memory.[^1]
Working experimentally with technologies in this way invites the possibility of a Luddite refusal of technologies harmful to commonality.[^2] Considering the field of publishing specifically there are further parallels to be drawn. The Luddites used threatening letters to spread their message through newspapers along with the performance of legalese attempting to argue in the same logic of their oppressors.[^3] More generally, the Luddite example is productive for imagining strategies of sabotage and refusal.
Activating imagination draws in other possibilities. Salomé Voegelin, quoting David Graeber, locates “imagination as a force implicated in the constitution of the real that is portrayed not as a fact but as a ‘passage’” (Voegelin, 2019, p.31) For Voegelin this is useful as a method for understanding and exploring the political possibilities of sound. Computer networks are performed along similar passages of protocol; fleeting handshakes, and the exchange of packets through electromagnetic signals sent at 2.4 GHz.[^4] In this transmission it is vulnerable to the environment and the existence of other transmissions, causing interference.[^5]
Inviting a space for imagination and active participation in these networks, I have programmed several Wi-Fi enabled microcontrollers.[^6][^7] These will act as shadow networks to the primary server. It is intended as a provocation, to augment our interactions with the server and the collective writing processes. It can hold other interactions that distort the nested protocols.
Ostensibly the microcontroller will run a programme that allows users to connect and post messages. Several initial prompts for consideration during participation in the network follow:
- Admission: Joining the network is based on a shared knowledge. Anyone can induct new members. The use of the space follows locally agreed and moderated customs.
- Interference: The presence of the microcontroller adds potential for interference with other local networks and devices.
- Ephemerality: Accessing this shadow network usually forces a user to disconnect from other networks. If the microcontroller is reset or encounters an error, the message log is not saved. “The moment of disconnectivity is the moment when protocol most forcefully displays its political character.” (Thacker, 2004, xvi) The use of the microcontroller increases the likelihood of it failing.[^7] It is brittle and limited, requiring a different kind of engagement.[^8]
- Publication: The HTML code that is displayed by the microcontroller is coded within the program that manages all the server functions. It is stored messily as variables, to be called upon and modified as needed. “Creating and declaring a variable is not only a programming issue, hardware is also involved in space allocation for data storage. As such, software and hardware are inseparable.” (Soon and Cox, 2020, p62).[^8]
- Carrier Waves: Beyond the explicitly programmed capabilities, the microcontroller offers a vector through which other data can be passed.
[[link to microcontroller code #1]]
[[link to microcontroller code #2]]
[[image of d1 mini]]
Footnotes
[^1]: “ServPub is an experimental platform for research and practice on experimental and computational publishing, to reflect collectively on affective infrastructures, minor tech and autonomous networks within, and beyond, institutional constraints. …Participating communities/institutions include CSNI at LSBU, Creative Computing Institute at UAL, SHAPE at Aarhus University, In-grid, Systerserver, and Varia.” (SerPub)
[^2]: “The writer professes a hope that ‘The House of Commons passes an Act to put down all Machinery hurtful to Commonality, and repeal that to hang Frame Breakers.'” (Binfield, p57)
[^3]: “In probably the best example of such validation, the frame- work knitters or stockingers, who launched the Luddite protests in Nottingham in 1811, justified their actions by referring to their own originary or constitutive charter, the 1663 Charter of the Company of Framework Knitters.” (Binfield, p.22)
[^4]: “protocological analysis must focus on the possible and the impossible.” (Galloway, p53)
[^5]: Bandwidth table, and note (In wireless communication the bandwidth refers to 20MHz sectors of frequency. Devices can usually be configured to work within a different sector within the range, if needed, to evade interference. This adaptability is limited by law, the protocol standards and the specific architecture of the antenna. The table below is copied from the ESP8266 documentation. (Espressif, 2017)
| Channel No. | Frequency (MHz) | Channel No. | Frequency (MHz) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2412 | 8 | 2447 |
| 2 | 2417 | 9 | 2452 |
| 3 | 2422 | 10 | 2457 |
| 4 | 2427 | 11 | 2462 |
| 5 | 2432 | 12 | 2467 |
| 6 | 2437 | 13 | 2472 |
| 7 | 2442 | 14 | 2484 |
[^6]: The microcontrollers I am using are based on the Wemos D1 Mini development board. These make use of the ESP8266 Espressif microchip. I have programmed them using the Arduino IDE.
- “Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software." (Arduino, 2018) Arduino is a popular choice for hobbyists to experiment with electronics, often utilising sensors and other components. The IDE is based on the experimental coding IDE Processing, whilst the programming language was based on Wiring (which was also based on Processing)
- Espressif is a Chinese semiconductor producer. They are described as a world leading AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) company. By late 2023 they had shipped over 1 billion chips.(Espressif, 2023) They are well known for their ESP range of chips which feature networking components such as WiFi. Their devices are designed to work with Espressif's own open-source SDKs as well as other alternatives, such as Arduino.
[^7]: These microcontrollers are commonly used by artists, experimentally exploiting the networking capabilities. For example, see: Iffy Books (Pocket Wifi Portal Zine, 2022) based on work by Dennis De Bel and Meltronica & MerrittSoft. They are also used extensively in conventional ways as building blocks of networks.
Bibliography
Arduino (2018) What is Arduino? Available from: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Introduction.
Binfield, K. (2004) Writings of the luddites. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Cox, G. and Soon, W. (2020) Aesthetic Programming. London: Open Humanities Press.
Espressif Leads the IoT Chip Market with Over 1 Billion Shipments Worldwide | Espressif Systems [no date]. Available from: https://www.espressif.com/en/news/1_Billion_Chip_Sales [Accessed 4 January 2024].
Galloway, A. R. (2004) Protocol. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Lachney, M. and Dotson, T. C. (2018) Epistemological Luddism: Reinvigorating a Concept for Action in 21st Century Sociotechnical Struggles, Social Epistemology, 32 (4), pp. 228–240.
Luddite Letter (1812) Leicester Journal, 12 June, p. 3.
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ServPub Homepage (2024). Available from: https://servpub.net/ [Accessed 4 January 2024].
Thacker, E. (2004) Introduction to: Protocol. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Voegelin, S. (2019) The Political Possibility of Sound. London: Bloomsbury Academic.