do
cps (86/60/2)
d9 $ midicmd "midiClock*48" # s "midi"
generateMelodicSeed = slow 4
$ linger 0.5
$ repeatCycles 3
-- $ palindrome \n
$ (+ (slow (irand (4)+1) (sometimes (inversion) (run (irand (4)+1)))))
$ slow ((irand 3) + 1)
$ e ("x"<~>(irand 8)) 8
$ "x*16"<~>(irand 5)
scalePattern = slow 16 ""
d4
-- $ rev \n
$ note
((scaleP scalePattern
-- $ off 4 ((+ 2 ).slow 2) \n
-- $ off 1 (inversion.slow 2) \n
$(rotR 1.5 )
$(+ slow 8 "x" <~> generateMelodicSeed)
-- $ inversion \n
$ generateMelodicSeed
))#s "[pe-gtr:12,midi]" #gain 1.2 #orbit 3 #midichan 4
Generative Justice
A term coined by Ron Eglash to describe a kind of economic ecology that does not alienate or extract value. Similar to the concept of a circular economy. However, Generative Justice is more holistic, including cultural and social value in its circulation.
For all three categories (labor value, ecological value, and expressive value) we can define generative justice as follows:
The universal right to generate unalienated value and directly participate in its benefits; the rights of value generators to create their own conditions of production; and the rights of communities of value generation to nurture self-sustaining paths for its circulation.- Ron Eglash, generativejustice.org
notes on algorithmic pattern talk (with Alex McLean)
- "Innocence" among researchers... "since we are simulating cultural patterns for science not for profit we don't need to ask permission"
- platforms extract cultural knowledge without consent... often for profit (advertising)
- Eglash's culturally situated design tools take a different approach
- asks permission...
- seeks to see the pattern from the situated, local point of view
- accepts education (which is broader than the pattern and may include local ecology)
- seeks to loop value back into the community, running workshops, financial support
- we need to redefine algorithm... and algorithm is like a recipe in the sense that it describes information relationships over time (including human and non-human actors)...
- we can distinguish extractive (one-way relationships) vs. Generative (multi-way relationships)
- Example extractive: bitcoin extracts what should be public good to convert it to private wealth
- Example of generative: Navajo weavers and their patterns... a local
economy of weavers exchanging patterns... the inverse-aliasing patterns
are related to the high diversity of plants where the sheep are
herded... the sheep eat all the plants and move the seeds to the
coral.... its a relational economy of giving back
- high entropy and low entropy parts... Represented in the jagged lines
- produces un-alienated value
- our minds are colonized... we don't see that we how extractive our
economies are...
- we are extracting ecological value
- we are extracting social value
- we are extracting labor value
- Is it all capitalism's fault... sort of... but state-run bureaucratic "communism" was just as extractive... "read their textbooks"
- Indigenous communities are better examples on non-extractive economies
- people are jerks everywhere... Indigenous cultures have creates systems for preventing "jerkiness"
- we have trouble recognizing Indigenous algorithms
- CSDT: after making sure they are accessible they have put them online and provided ways for the young people in these communities to create new algorithms...
- Anishinabe woodworkers... Bezier curves inspired by the way wood bends... Bezier expropriated the value and took credit... the Anishinabe credited the wood "the wood taught us"
- Capitalism has come up with a way to make the extraction invisible... the Indigenous tradition do the opposite... you spend 4 hours plaiting someones hair to show the labor value
- ways to authenticate the labor value...
- Eglash's grad student made an AI algorithm to tell the difference between fake and real kente cloth... AND link the person who is buying the cloth from the person who made the cloth... Artisans can be paid for workshops ... and artisans economy. africanfuturist.org
navajo weaving geometry
navajo idea: inverse aliasing on lines (emphasizing jaggedness)
non-euclidean 30 degree grids
grown to dislike the word holism and its synonyms (eg. Entanglement)... Everything is entangled ... bitcoin is entangled but in a destructive way... If you characterize these generative algorithms as high entropy you miss the point... it can also lead to appeals to naturalism... this can be dangerous... eg. "only certain kinds o sexuality are natural"... he prefers discussing the modulation between high and low entropy
modulations in entropy... we need to be able to grap this with simple terms... but it can't stop there... it then needs to be qualified/complexified
Anishinabe bead patterns... Multiple species on the same vine... a form of resistance against cultural suppression... a belief that all these plants are connected (and indeed they are... calorie sharing...)... a pharmacopoeia
McLean: "a heritage practice is always innovating because everything made is unique... Infinite possibilities... even though we think about them as something that needs to be preserved"
reparations (generative)
- "I don't spend a lot of time talking about critique"... Reparations requires it... lots of people who are better at this kind of critique and are making it...
- however, what form should reparations take? cultural similarity between Black and Indigenous communities... a vested interest in repairing the world... for example, if reparations are to come in the form of land we should recognize that the land was stolen in the first place...
scale
- students will say, Dr. Eglash you are doing it wrong.. you are working with local artisans but so small... you need to do generative justice at scale... change the world like elon musk or mark zuk... ect...
- Ford had a good thing going until he tried to scale it... thats when it became disastrous...
- you have to start small and make sure that what you are doing is not destructive and THEN grow
a note on david graeber
- legal barriers to get a communal car for a commune. the state demands that someone owns it... lol
- there is legal work to do to allow for shared ownership/authorship for example
a question about value
- these communities already have value... how do you make it fungible? this is interesting...
a note about choice
- when using CSDT... the people in the community must be able to choose which tools they use, what changes they make
- this is part of decolonization