Card Game Tryout #3 at PAF

Continuing the discussion from Card Game:

Sunday, May 5th, 2019, we’re at PAF in the media space to perform our third card game tryout, using the projector and the tools… Seven people are present in the room. @natacha introduces the game…

Draw #1

  1. Player one draws a question card: Do you sometimes feel alone, lost in information sphere, when sharing social concern or engaging in critical thinking?
  2. Player two describes an example: I’m sharing a concern about a political announcement on ̷̑͜F̸͛̿͜á̴̜͍k̶̡̺̃̈́e̵̲̬̎b̶̹̄̏o̵̖̾͘o̶͘ͅz̴͉̺̈́̀ and receive no feedback except likes.
  3. Player three draws a tactics card: (immediacy) Examine how the relation is mediated and by whom.

Discussion

Immediacy is here understood from a double approach, as a sensation, a modality of relation in time and movement and as a modality of communication that affects interpersonal relations.

  • the immediate experience would be to be there (in a demonstration)
  • you would share your experience with a small number of your friends, but ̷̑͜F̸͛̿͜á̴̜͍k̶̡̺̃̈́e̵̲̬̎b̶̹̄̏o̵̖̾͘o̶͘ͅz̴͉̺̈́̀ is “selling” a large reach.
  • you cannot put the smell of tear gas in a tweet
  • what is an ‘immediate audience’?
    • it’s not an audience, it’s an answer – but it is just a ‘like’.
  • going back to the tactics: examine who is mediating? What would be another mediation for “Gilets Jaunes” than ̷̑͜F̸͛̿͜á̴̜͍k̶̡̺̃̈́e̵̲̬̎b̶̹̄̏o̵̖̾͘o̶͘ͅz̴͉̺̈́̀?
  • I have no ̷̑͜F̸͛̿͜á̴̜͍k̶̡̺̃̈́e̵̲̬̎b̶̹̄̏o̵̖̾͘o̶͘ͅz̴͉̺̈́̀, no social media…
    • ̵̲̌̚W̵̢͒ȏ̸̧o̷̺͋t̶͍͒̌z̴͚̹̒̀U̷̼͌p̷̣͛p̷̹͑?
    • Yes
    • Do you know who owns ̵̲̌̚W̵̢͒ȏ̸̧o̷̺͋t̶͍͒̌z̴͚̹̒̀U̷̼͌p̷̣͛p̷̹͑?
    • That would be… ̷̑͜F̸͛̿͜á̴̜͍k̶̡̺̃̈́e̵̲̬̎b̶̹̄̏o̵̖̾͘o̶͘ͅz̴͉̺̈́̀?
  • So, an alternative for Gilets Jaunes? E.g., Nuit Debout… Gathering regularly at some specific place.
    • How do you know?
    • Through friends…
    • Do they use ̷̑͜F̸͛̿͜á̴̜͍k̶̡̺̃̈́e̵̲̬̎b̶̹̄̏o̵̖̾͘o̶͘ͅz̴͉̺̈́̀?
    • Yes.
  • Signs of recognition, regularity, meetings in the flesh.

Wrap Up

Le Grand Débat vs. Le Vrai Débat are made by the same lobbyist company.

  • LGD : questions are orientated, everyone is the same (or so they say)
  • LVD : free form
    Hashtag Astroturfing (fake grassroots movement organized by the spin doctors)

We have a strong free software community in F̷̪̤̋ṟ̵͙̾͗a̷̛̩̎n̴͙͙̿́c̸̙͙̈e̵̪͒, and a large popular movement, but they did not connect! As long as someone offers you to take care of the tech infra “for free”, it’s done, people will use it and do not question it. The spin doctors were very quick to occupy the digital space to capture the debate.

You can only fight or like on ̷̑͜F̸͛̿͜á̴̜͍k̶̡̺̃̈́e̵̲̬̎b̶̹̄̏o̵̖̾͘o̶͘ͅz̴͉̺̈́̀, there’s no space for discussion. We did not address the question of isolation and lack of response. You only post to create resonance, but you’re only a dot. There’s no organisational capacity to it.

A federated network of locally organized platforms might be more legit…

Draw 2

  • Q: How do you use surveillance systems?
  • Ex: Facebook is a surveillance system
  • T: (transduction) Start from the center. Seize the emerging dimensions that are bringing resolution.

Discussion

  • Voyeurism is surveillance, there is a sense of control, your friends are under control…

  • It animates me: yes! Something’s happening, we’re so many…

  • “I have nothing to hide” so surveillance provides safety. E.g., if I go hiking, I know “they” have my phone in case something happens to me, “they know where I am.”

  • Using Google Search, we know we’re billions, we appear to be lost in the mass, contrary to other smaller systems that force the reflection on intimacy.

  • In modernity, we are individuals, we exist without our links, contrary to a holistic society where we’re defined by our relations;

  • maybe the dream of the Internet was already a neoliberal one – a psychopathic one :wink:

  • there’s a false sense of intimacy (“oh, you’re a friend of Martha!”)

  • invisibility is absolute power: Facebook’s grab is that it allows you to see without being seen; if you don’t have a social media account, you have something to hide: you have to be visible to exist in democracy.

  • social media loggorhea substitutes to the actual relationship. The sense of belonging is intermediated.

Linking Concepts

Transduction <-> Immediacy?

  • Google gives you the possibility not to choose: it’s a subversion of freedom.
  • Physicality of the scroll-and-punch. Emergence of the physiscal in computing was the discourse accompanying the apparition of tactile screens.
  • Only 5% of your followers receive your posts… It’s not an echo chamber anymore, it’s solitary confinement. Consequence: it does not allow you to organize.
  • From a resistance perspective against capitalism, organization must happen somewhere else.
  • Safety and infrastructure taken care of by dedicated and invisibilized people (sysadmins). In large corporations, teams relay each other, but in smaller structures, it’s often a personal responsibility.