4 weeks in one — Code/unCode
Athens Report #8
It has been impossible to write anything remotely composed and analytical in the last weeks. Since the last post, that reported our CommonsFest experiences, I have been working on a millions things with yet unclear consequences.
I was summoned to Brussels to hold a workshop with Ileana and Panos from NetHood at the 2nd Internet Science Conference. It was interesting to see how shockingly original it appeared when we lead the engineers out in the streets as part of the Smart City project. From an artist’s point of view, it was nothing new — to observe how people interact in different public spaces, how the characteristics of the place enhance or interrupt social functions. However, in this particular context, inviting people to participate in a vaguely defined activity (observe the city) and deal with the uncertainty of outcome (let’s see what comes up) came across as a serious departure from the everyday of science and engineering. In the end, two main outcomes can be recorded:
- The random group of people who selected our workshop became a friendly, cosy sub-clan; the bond possibly created by the fact that their sole handle on the situation was that we were in it together. We went to sit and chat in a cafe together instead of returning to the conference halls.
- We also discovered a beautiful monastery 15 minutes walk away from the conference location. One of the participants (a businessman) was local; he took leadership and convinced us to follow him, sharing interesting anecdotal information about the locations we encountered: how the fish, although caught, are thrown back to the lake; how toxic the water is; a brief real estate history and prices in comparison with major European cities.
The goal of the collaboration with Nethood (among other organisations) is to develop offline network technology that enables and serves local communities — hybrid spaces in an urban context. The immediate and possibly applicable idea was the pop-up tour guide, where people who are familiar with a place can decide to offer tours through a wireless offline noticeboard. It is to be further continued — the next time (in July) we will include a half day hackathon to possibly prototype this or another idea.
Upon returning to Athens, I got involved with Jeff’s initiative, OneLoveKitchen, a newly formed collective kitchen with cooks from the African migrant wave. We organised 3 events to cook and sell their food — which turns out to be a lot harder than one would think. The cooks need to make money, but estimating numbers and finding strategies to ensure profit is a challenge. I have spent the last 3 weekends working with the inspiring, brilliant chefs from Senegal, Erithreia, Gambia and Nigeria, peeling vegetables, drawing up menus, debating prices.
The rest of my days were fully occupied by a yet another unMonastery book project that landed somewhat haphazardly and with very tight deadlines in my hands. Bembo and I had just been skype-ing about writing a follow-up book to the Book of Greater and Lesser Omissions, tentatively titled ”The Chronicles of the unRuly”, to be finished by roughly the end of this year, it would cover unMonastery post-Matera history from the time of LOTE4. I emailed Ben: was it possible to find funding for this — to which he responded that now that I am asking, there is a publication ‘we’ (he) promised to deliver by mid-June.
We shrewdly hijacked his commitment to publishing a series interviews he’d had with monks of the Trappist and Cistercian orders in the context of unMonastery work. It could deftly align with the extant material that was to be funnelled in the Chronicles text. I agreed to manage the project; a team of 4 unMonasterians (Luisa — graphic design, Kei — writing, Bembo — writing and editing, myself — writing, editing and managing the project) plus Claire, whose specialism is religion and who contributed short and succinct historical references to our wonderings on rules, communality, and other aspects of monastic life. We started to assemble the 60+ page long publication, soon to be released online as part of a series by HowToWorkTogether.org. With an eleven day deadline, it was a lot more stressful than I expected; all of us are in the habit of taking on more than is possible to deliver in a sane manner but still delivering it. Everyone worked remotely in different countries.
Chronicles of the unRuly Vol.1: Code/unCode — Tracing Monastic Traditions is now an impressive document that counterpoints the interviews with exploring established monastic traditions with the existential writings of the unMonastery Athens as it tries to define its code of conduct. Luisa is putting the final touches on the design. I am very happy with it all in all, and looking forward to writing the second volume.
The ongoing struggle to draw up a daily schedule for unMonastery Athens came to a resting point, in the sense that our Loomio vote is now closed, there was one against, one abstained, and 7 support vote. What it will mean in practice remains to be seen. At the moment we are in summer mode, everyone is dispersed, — I can tell for myself that I adhere to it, but it resembles greatly to my normal daily rhythm so no overt monkish self-discipline is required.
The bomb of the week was Jeff’s sudden resignation from unMonastery. It was not a huge surprise, and did not come as result of a personal or group conflict, more an inner evolution of Jeff’s ideas for the future. Despite of the slight pain (life without Jeff?), it is mostly inspiring to decide upon a path and just to take it. In the wake of the surprise email, Ben, who was visiting, Lauren and myself who are currently the only residents of unMonastery Athens, sat in a circle for hours discussing the ramifications and the possible advantages of this turn of events. The idea that this can be a good model for the very near future of the unMonastery came from Ben: that maybe breaking into smaller units, forming around similar ideas, expectations and rhythms, is the solution to quickly research the endless discussions around what is and what is not essential to an unMonastery by forming small rigorous test groups. With the looming unSummit at the end of September, which also marks the launch of the beta version of the BIOS toolkit, the quick and spontaneous formation of unMonastery Test Labs in different locations, with their own commitments, protocol, daily schedule and documentation, can be excellent accompanying material for workshops, discussions, and envisioning unMonastery futures.
It is hard to draw any conclusions from the various events of the last weeks. Maybe this report can be a testimonial to the richness, the challenges and the visceral satisfaction of working as an unMonk. A book, a plan, a cooperative kitchen, I wonder if it was possible to be more productive than that.
