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-> notes from the previous days and fragments from things to come, incorporated into a contemplative morning meditation

(pre-recorded meditation can be found at -> http://locust.fo.am/stone-meditation.mp3 )
Sound track - FoAM's Thalience Radio ( https://soundcloud.com/foam_earth/thalience-radio )

Morning: Lithic attunement session (FoAM)

Introduction
(pre-recorded intro can be found at -> http://locust.fo.am/alchorisma-foam-intro.mp3 )

Welcome to the lithic attunement session. In the next few hours we will work with rocks, stones and geomancy as an entry point to practices of attunement with beyond-human timescales. We'll explore how charismatic and algorithmic approaches might function, break down, or diverge from experiences at a human scale. Before we begin, we'd like to cover a few key aspects of the session, namely the practice of attunement and the interactions between humans and minerals in the context of digital technologies.

Attunement can be uderstood as a particular sensitivity characterised by a careful, receptive, open awareness.  It requires an active adjustment to entities or situations and assumes a willingness to be touched by external circumstances; to be lured, affected and changed by them. A deliberately hesitant engagement with other entities on their own terms, from quivering butterfly wings to earth-shattering volcanoes. Attuning relies on the human capacity to notice and participate in the asymmetrically reciprocal effects that occur in direct experiences in the world. A kind of "ecological intimacy".

Although attunement can be an innate ability for some people, it can also be developed, enhanced and refined through practice. In a state of attunement, the world can be experienced teeming with life. It's a mutualistic or symbiotic state of being, one that accepts human interdependence with the planet as a given. We are immersed and implicated.

Attunement practices are common in animist cultures, and can be found throughout human societies. There are some obvious resonances with current philosophical tendencies of speculative realism or the long winding trails of panpsychism. Yet attunement is a concept that is often difficult to grasp in words, especially words that make sense outside of philosophical, ritual, performative or meditative discourses. It can most definitely not be abstracted as a set of algorithms. Exactly this slippery quality of attunement is what makes it interesting for this work session. This morning we'll explore attuning to the lithic entities in our surroundings.

When we talk about stones and rock, we talk about the thin, solidified crust of minerals that are part of the ground of the planet. Some of them are formed from recycled bodies of plants, animals and insects; some are the Earth's volcanic and sedimentary regurgitations, others are as old as the planet and the stars that gave birth to it. While you might see yourself as a very different being from the stone in your hand, minerals circulate through your body, shape your bones and support your digestion. When you die, you will return to the mineral realm. The organic dissipated into the inorganic. On a geological timescale human bodies are as much in a state of transition as wind, weather or lava. Flowing and temporary. We endure continuous erosion and our inevitable entropy. Geology and biology, geology and technology, our inner and outer topographies are inextricably entangled.

Alchemists understood this entanglement as a working hypothesis. In alchemy states and shapes of matter can be transduced, transubstantiated. Consider the transformation of minerals into knowledge, the creation of the philosopher's stone or the long, careful series of transformations required to create a portable computer. The alchemical union between matter and spirit suggests different relationships between hardware and software, between man-made and earth-grown technologies. Enchanted mathematical models and operational algorithms are already mythic signifiers able to influence cultures. If we take alchemy as a serious proposition, what could become possible that isn't otherwise? In contrast to contemporary geo-engineering, which often sees itself as separate from the world, alchemy understands the world as a web of delicate connections and convoluted relationships. In an alchemical worldview, technology is less about control and more about negotiation. As much as we sense the presence of a stone, the stone might be subtly affected by our presence. Alchemical technologies are akin to the grains of sand gradually negotiating their place among their neighbours and over time fusing into rock. A solidified pattern of stone emerging from the noise of sand dunes.

According to Arabic geomancers, the masters of "science of the sand", patterns are already present in the noise, one just needs attune to their inherent dynamics. Geomancy is about reading the landscape, a kind of elemental scrying that suggests possibilities which are able to be influenced by the intentions of the practitioner. Geomancy does not offer solutions but propositions for possible future relationships between single human lives and an indifferent universe. An algorithmic pattern finding, a structured practice to focus intent and create meaning from the noise of matter.

Our intention for this session is to explore different modes of engagement with the lithic, from experiential and associative, to abstract and analytical. The emphasis here is on the practice itself rather than achieving a specific goal. Practice is about directly experiencing something and reflecting on the experience in order to refine the practice, then repeating the process. Since we'll have limted time today, we can only skim the surface of these practices, but hopefully provide enough of a taste for you to take them further. 

From a practical perspective, this morning will consist of a series of short exercises. We will provide step-by-step instructions and will be online to assist if you have any questions. We'd like you to begin with a psychogeological meander through the city, guided by patterns in, on and of stones. We suggest that you do this practice individually and in silence. You will get a chance to share your experiences and insights with others once you return. We will explore your individual associations, collective impressions and emerging alchorismatic processes. We will end the morning with a session for collective feedback. In the mean time, if you have any questions, comments or feedback for us, please put them on the etherpad.


Psychogeological meander (duration ~30-45 minutes)
(page one of the file at -> http://locust.fo.am/instructions-psychogeology.pdf )

A psychogeological meander guided by patterns in/on/of stones. 

We assume you all know about psychogeography - exploration of urban environments that emphasize "drifting", whereby you observe the effects of the geographical environment you're passing through on your emotions and behaviours. We invite you to do something similar, but focus specifically on the stones and rocks you encounter. 

We suggest that you conduct this exercise individually and in silence. Spend some time exploring the city by following patterns in stones, bricks, rocks that draw your attention. Do not attempt to interpret them. Simply listen and observe what you're noticing. if you want you can record it, for example as a note, a drawing, a photo or a sound file. Move on when your attention is pulled towards another charismatic stone or geological pattern.

One by one leave the room.  On your way out take a notebook and/or a digital recording device (camera, sound recorder, etc...). 

Aim to be back in half an hour. 


Collective work session (duration ~1.5-2h hours)
(page 2-6 of the file at -> http://locust.fo.am/instructions-psychogeology.pdf )

1. Share what you have individually uncovered in the city. What did you experience? What did you notice? What does the city look like from the perspective of geological patterns? What algorithms could produce these patterns? 

how does it feel to be broken?
to be moulded?
to be round?
to be backed?
to be industrial?
to ly down?
to be carved?
to be pushed?
to be in a border?
to be the border?
to have a hole?
to be one of many?
to be made into?
to be among others?
close to another material?
to be erected?
to be square?
how does it feel to be of stone?
to be a stone?
to be stony? (Annie)

2. Collectively create an impression of the city from a lithic perspective, based on your associative memories. This could be a story, map, lapidarium and/or divination system for generative pattern recognition, for example. 

3. Are there any algorithms that you could abstract from this work? Describe one of these algorithms as succinctly as possible. For example, as a list of instructions, a set of constraints, a grammar, a group of operations or transformations. 
from a lithic perspective

/*we did'nt take into account 
the possiblity that the stone may want something bad for her, of for the world. 
Stone is wise, but we can also misreed her ? 
Put a squirrel in our algorithm ? 
or StoneHenge*/

Variable : 
   one stone, associated with a type
   dictionnary of actions, and the type of stone that can have this action
   
   int i=0
   
   1 look at the stone

2 guess what she wants
 
 3  i=i+1
4 -  check if what she want is in the list and compatible with her type
 
 
 5 - if yes, do the action, then end. 


nice !
: )


Second group axel
6 operation, that are not straighforward, as possible function
bluring : debinnarisition bluring the oposition and erosion process
taming
mixing
sustaining
refecting
renewing

variable operated on 
can be applied to both human and stones alike
order this function ? are they looking at one another ? 
feed back loop between stones and human, weather
(i'm inventing right now)


third group ;
groupe / comon path of the group
what was guiding us ?  (living beeing ? pattern of the path ? light ? borders)
petrified hedgehog, banishing entrance.. 
algorithme as exploring, 
what is the stoping point ? 
repeat ... any numbers of time

fourth / arthur 
diferent processing that give the stone is shape time scale of the processing
surfacing, femke binder, mortar, how you make the stone as a human ? 
very loaded words
positif and negative space

what are the input and the output, how this operation switch ? 

input / output / operation, how does the operation change the input into output ? 
our observation change the way we can talk about the stone, the surface is a surface only from outside of the stone. 
just a begining :)

5th isabella
regend water protocole, with a map
seting up a protocole for sensing the stone of the citie : (walk, let the stone massage you feet, ... ) 
a group action / a methode of exploring the surrundings.






[[ we will drop this exercise, due to time delay -> 4. Exchange algorithms between the groups. How might your story/system/map/etc change if another group's algorithms are incorporated?]]


Feedback session (duration 20~30 minutes)
[[we shortened the feedback session and conducted it over lunch, where we invited the participants to share the outcomes of the last exercise and reflect on the morning...]]

What was easy to describe as algorithms? 
What fell outside of the algorithmic approach? 
What effect did applying another group's algorithm have on you? 
What is a lithic perspective? 
What might be appropriate to explore from the lithic perspective?


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

participants' notes....


A lapidarium, all the possible actions that can happen to stones
Passive-active constellations

Trying to make a 'stone' from a piece of paper

Is the stone only passive? Only existing?

What is it made of?
Ask: What does she want?
A list of what can happen to it?

Can the wanted action be added to the list?

if not more than 3 options, "stay as you are"

wisdom of stones is an externality to the algorithm, our understanding of stones too...

----------------------

Diversity of experiences. Operations that stones do (to complement the many things that people do to stones)

blurring -- de-binarizing operation; making binaries disappear. Erosion process
taming -- leads to mix + blur, a feedback loop. Coming out of it through erosion!
mixing
sustaining
reflecting
renewing

What variables? 
humans - stones (the algo goes both ways)

interdependencies? loops?

sustain function as a condition.

externality - outside of the stone-human system; some subjectivity disappears in the process...

----------------------

Map that superimposes individual experiences...

"What was guiding us?"
- living beings and their communication with stone
- light
- patterns
- borders, stones invading other stoney areas.

Border as a common -- petrified hedgehog, vanishing entrance, ...!

go outside
look for a lithic border
see what it touches
following its border

...
repeat any number or times until ... what makes us stop?

--------

we put stone in the middle
try to explain which operations can be created
what are input/output?
- erosion
- corrosion
- chemical reaction
- expansion
- imagination
- projection

an algorithm that puts attention to flipping of input and output directions

http://etherbox.constantvzw.org/pad/p/thatisnotwhatnaturedoes

---------

"regenwater algorithm"

weathering of stones
stones massaging feet

a staircase going deep under the ground ...
the sound of gravel

"teamspirit. I smile"

Algo and generation of a pathway.
How a method for exploring surroundings could appear/be done.

----------

Participant list: http://etherbox.constantvzw.org/pad/p/participants
Can you add your name and a few links?

----------

Alchorisma alludes to the relationships between algorithms, charisma, rhythm, alchemy and karma. Alchorisma is a Constant worksession which looks at integrating cosmogenetic views with the charisma surrounding technology. We look at ways to infect existing algorithmic models with positions that acknowledge the importance of co-existence with non-human entities.
http://constantvzw.org/site/Open-Call-Alchorisma.html

Suspicion about the colonisation drive of technology. Be aware when using tech with other-than-human entities, exploitation even more dangerous. We need to be careful with words.

Personal methodology of talking with algorithms. To open the process, as an invitation (not mandatory).

Neural network logics, a different basis. Hybridisation built in.

semantic + semiotics, ontologies

cqrrelations and cqllisions!

Two projects and their notation, logic.
1. http://rybn.org/ANTI/ADMXI
2. golem

Challenging neo-classical economic dogmas
Algorithmic taxonomy

Not just conceptual, but also operative models. To influence trade with other logics. Geomancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomancy
Need to create documentation first. "The market is a very esoteric world"

Ask artist to make a proposition based on documentation (papers & other artworks), available on website .

[book reference Vilem Flusser] Vampyroteuthis infernalis http://www.rybn.org/ANTI/ADMXI/documentation/ADMXI/I._FABULATORY_EPISTEMOLOGY/VAMPYROTHEUTIS_INFERNALIS/Vilem_Flusser_Louis_Bec_-_Vampyroteuthis_Infernalis.pdf
Louis Bec, a fabulatory

Going through Femto-black-pool project http://www.rybn.org/ANTI/ADMXI/documentation/index.php?ln=en&id=2

After documentation, setting up a taxonomy as a milieu. Flowcharts as non-neutral zone to meet between RYBN and invited artist. Using different on-line platforms to share processes, code (github , gitlab ...) .
Start of implementation moment . RYBN has an account to allow artist access to financial data. Simulated, but live connected/updated.
A development server, API (interface to the data) and then "we open the market for them".

Performance graph. 

* GPS-mantic
by Martin Howse
Divination system and Geomantic rules. 
based on geographic landscape
ex throwing rocks & looking at rhythms
ex different numbers correspond to different angels/symbols you interpret
It has old roots.
throw 6 stones and his corresponds to a catalog of figures. You need to observe and spot the pattern.
How to transpose this into a computational environment?
made tracking system for 4 different sattelites, based on their positions he interprets
It is a way to somehow open up an algorithm to other logics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowchart#Building_blocks

catalog of c q rrespondence between companies & 5 elements (earth, water, fire) to decide which trades to buy/sell


* Psychic Monitoring
GCP
Global Conscious Project : http://noosphere.princeton.edu/
university project, 
detect strange behaviour and buy/sell on google
buying and selling on g$$gle is changing the constellation of planets. dual influence.

"which one of these is most efficient"? "it depends on what you mean by efficient". (and it is not easy to compare anyhow!)
Labomedia worked on one that has the goal to take down the market...

Harmony
died, tried to go out of system
Brandon Howell: trying to spot patterns, like what a tophit would sound like (based on topcharts musics?) . If detected he will buy.
Experimental psychology, like supermarket music (and research on what music makes people buy most).
It bought too much.

As marketholder thay have to define rules to collaborate together

Project two: Data Ghosts, showing it for the sourcecode. http://www.rybn.org/dataghost/5/
Execution not without risk for the machine

Golem a ssum es : 
- every computational technology is kabbilistic in essence -> Numbers can influence the world
ref. Norbert Wiener + Golem
Numbers are not innocent; it is a certain tradition. Working through Gemalia. It is apolyptic. 
How to transform computational language through th ese rules from the book . A lot of 'daemons' are always at work, even if a machine does not 'do' anything.

Creating language that acts upon the machine
catalog of correspondance

Every character has an association with a number. 
any log can trigger any program due to this association
all files of computer have digital values, they can also be called by combinations of numbers
A shell interface, combinatory shell scripting program
after millions of operations it starts to destroy parts of the computer
-> tried to make it burn/melt computer due to over activity
needed to remove limits, sensitivities. Overclocking. 

A possible method! Bugs and errors can reveal ghosts
linked to EVP, Friedrich Jorgenson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon
If you push a system to its limits, artefacts might be interpreted/interpretable. Jorgenson sees it as a bridge, not a direct connection.
mostly triggered by errors of the system
-> what can we trigger to put system to its limits?

"it actually looks square, but it is not so much"

AAI Chess = Artificial Artificial Intelligence Chess
Artificial Intelligence Checkboard
diagram shows semantic they use to describe their own projects
http://www.rybn.org/human_computers/artworks.php

flowcharts to both design systems and to analyse them
see also: Algoffshore
http://www.rybn.org/thegreatoffshore/index.php?ln=fr&r=2.ALGOFFSHORES

"it looks logical, but you can fill it with illogical elements"
can have infinite loops, different behaviours
they use these diagrams in: algorithmic design workshops
people redo all operations of Perceptron, most simple neural network to go reduce all operations to the smallest possible elements. Reductionist logic at work.
exercise takes 2 hs

Introduction to NN
What NN can do: 
- to classify (like OCR, facial recognition, ... )
- to predict (make proposals for other books to buy on platform )
To predict you need to categorize. Categorization need, impulse, as a norm?

LAYERS
input layer / hidden layer (with " neurons " where everything is computed) / output layer
you have to (at)tune neural networks, or train them
depending on how many samples you have got, you need to train it

2 parameters:
1. wingspan of bird 
2. colour of flying object
with these 2 parameters it can make classification between duck/goose

input (wingspan, color) enters in layer 1:  
this gives you a prediction (it is probably a bird, and it might be a duck or a goose)
this is the 1st round

you have to find the weight based on 2 parameters (ie how important the parameter is for the prediction: many brown flying objects, not many with a wide wingspan?)
at first round, these weights are taken randomly
it checks against result: 
    if ok (it says duck, it is a duck) , nothing is done
    if it does not match the outcome ( it says duck, but it is a goose ), it recalculates the weights

designer/programmer/human indicates the 'true target' (what is a duck, what is a goose)
ex. 1m + 0.01 colour = "duck"

Perceptron is in binary mode: "right" or "wrong"
you calculate difference between true target & predicted target: y - y' (1-0 = 1 ; 0-0 = 0)
you recalculate the weight when result of this is anything else than "0"

Now on to dog or cat:
    using convolutional NN
    analysing different parts of the picture (or data?), the picture is a matrix
First , you " get " a new picture with all different shapes represented (tree / mountain) so you can separate foreground/ background
Then: reduce resolution of this picture
picture of 16 x 16 ps = 256 entry points
layer 1 = 32 neurons, each neuron is filter, you analyse small part of picture
layer 2 = 64 neurons, new representation of picture

"the deeper you go into the neurons, the more information you get about the whole picture"

output is picture with very low resolution
this representation is telling you what you find in picture
16 pixels of ultimate defining animalness, so that afterwards you can make a decision fast (cat or dog)

"using NN, there is no rules"
"you tune to find good architecture"

It is difficult to track what is happening in these layers?
Yes.
possible in convolutional nn

elements that make decision possible whether it is a cat/dog
when afterwards I would like to ask, is this animal/airplane, I get in trouble?
-> if you have different targets, you have to train as many targets you have
there is a formatting of the process

You cannot ask "what is this" without training it on the world
https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2016/02/14/12/duck-rabbit.png

you 'put' line that defines difference between ducks & goose in 2-dimensional representation (because 2 parameters)
'loss function' 
'optimizer' - re-calculating weights

going through trial and error
time, CPU's, type of NN, all influence the training of the model

"neurons" look-alike "nature"
Changes passing from layer to layer. Filters evolve over time.
How can you get to weights without a training set

Modulating images ... to find the "core" like a "genetic code"
(assuming that "core" is essentially in the smallest part)

could you structure this differently? What would it mean to go through difference?

[BREAK]

set up a collective notation system
- training of the trees
- methods, tools and experiences of/for tuning / attuning
- what can be an algorithm, what can be NN 
-> seen as architectures, comes also back in the patents (see reader)
- common vocabulary (like the lists of operations for example? yes, and also functions, arrows/directions, transformations ). And of terms we would like to replace. Neuron, your ... (tree, stone, ...)
- forest as something we can 'manage' , categorize, organise, divide, know
- when many become one and one become many
- a list of questions/problems to work on: 

twist algorithmic thinking with other input
ex.: ideas on optimization, f.ex. in reader very present in " technical " parts and never in other chapters < economy vocabulary
what is algorithm as architecture if we erase (or change) idea of optimization or the need to be 'operational'/solution? Proposal to replace 'solution' by 'proposal'

human beings are part of algorithms as being objectized/transformed into object, e ng i neer put outside of architecture
cf patents in the reader p 62
-> be careful not to objectify what we put inside architecture
-> how can we place designer of system inside?
-> going towards absurdity, non-performance, ...?

(maybe mishearing, but liking this: "an active notation changes the world")
systems that exist: relation of mushroom & tree
focus on small examples -> try to draw -> extract vocabulary that we can put in common

http://rybn.org:9001/p/alchorisma [pwd protected now?]

From the Alchorisma call:
"our intention is to collectively compose an algorithmic structure in which these beyond-human models can be combined into a generative ecosystem of sorts; an interconnecting tissue or algorithmic social space. A place where we could collaborate with spirits, stones, trees or any other entities that might join the collective process throughout the week. During the work session we will stretch our imagination to jointly develop prototypes, models and concepts of alchorisms – charismatic algorithms."

[maybe this collective notation system is some kind of involving API for an alchorismic (?) structure?]

create different tools (like stone s) that can be used to imagine an experimental syntax .

Exercise example: how to make a system where two systems interact/connect/negotiate/... How would that work?

[WORK GROUP MOMENT]

First group ; 
Stone, spirit + mushroom
3 elements
relations they have
proposal: mushroom s are catalyser in keeping system alive
or stone decomposes, mushroom infiltration
timeframe is key. Stone becoming organic, depending on scale
question about intentionality and spirit. "as if the tree knew it needs more minerals, it connects to the mushroom ..."
are spirits matter (material?) as well, gas (or less?)
intention + matter: NN as blackbox. How do they manage their objectives?
re-doing the world?
methodology: how did you draw it?
mushroom in center in beginning, became triangle in order to connect them
Describing drawings: speaking about earth, layers. Drawing distinctions between earth and sediment, black box (trials and errors)
earth is medium, mushrooms being connected and being a medium, idem for stones (?)
"intending to believe in spirits"
[add link to drawing image here]

group 2
link color Red with Decomposing leaf 
http://etherbox.constantvzw.org/pad/p/sheep+grass
what goes inside 'red', what goes inside 'leaf'
receptors, what is percieved as red by the human eyes ? 
one is abstraction & other a physical thing, can only be linked via human eyes
is there relation possible outside of human eye - what would that be?
-> figure of the 'receptor': what would it be if it could be changed by actor observation / if it was not part of human system
receptor as connector between 2 systems (abstract & concrete /material )

Group 3
Sharing experiences with stones / trees / spirits
more related to "our" relations to the entities , more than between the entities.
4 different operations, blackboxes for now . Overlaps and connections.
what wo uld be input/output of these operations?

1. Opening myself, transforming myself. 
2. if we look at the environnement (many differents things.. ) what is in between ?  searching for the in between . This operation was active in the discussion.
3. mapping subjectivity: taste / touch / smell, how does that make a 'me', create 'identity'
4. (now for some heidegger) on subjectivity n things interconnection. 
the 4 operations make a loop that does not very well!!
[image of the loop goes here]

G roup 4
Doing the opposite: starting from an anectdote
two systems, weather and time /a plan ('planning')
The moment that the weather decided that we would all stand under the trees (next to the tree that Isabelle met).
Depending on perspective, you see potential or catastrophe. An agile moving collective, in training. And it was optimised: if not, train would have been missed.
Method: anecdotic mapping, travel journal. Memory.
method for making the spirits laugh = making a plan
travel diary. field notes. vespaaaa
Thinking in terms of input and output:
    I = plan, experience (there was a possibility for rain)
    O = collective intelligence

Group 5
Challenging the algo : 
asking the algo: "is it (the tree) dead or alive "
specific about the tree
how would you tell?
level of determination, what criteria ?
train algorithm by performing a ritual that invoke a spirit
a catalyst to detect a spirit (has spirit = alive)
chamanic deadend : everything has spirit
chamanic escape operations :
    
yes its alive, 
dead = false (nothing is really dead)

currently developing a proposal for an add-on:
thinking about 5 elements, how much water, how much earth ...
would determine the 'weight' of the spirit (how much of spirit is there, what kind of spirit)
subversive algo rithm 
only signify amount of spirit that is in

----------

Remember: stay careful with the systems you imagine/build!

friday = séance