notes on the making of https://parallelparasite.apass.be
an inconclusive report on the technical and epistemological assumptions that was made in the making of “Parallel Parasite : Timeline Repository”
Sina Seifee
8.April 2019
_video tutorial for the editors, how to use the interface: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjEcO1QDXyAEfS8i67bY0ko1_qYDoX7Yy
_links to this document:
about:
“Parallel Parasite” was a month residency, at ZSenne ArtLab, produced by A.PASS RESEARCH CENTER 18/II, curated by Lilia Mestre (https://apass.be/my-case/?user=11)
the website is made by Sina Seifee (https://apass.be/my-case/?user=69)
the video material was recorded and prepared for publication by Steven Jouwersma (https://apass.be/blockboard/my-case/?user=8) and Christian Hansen
for more information go to: https://parallelparasite.apass.be/#about
technical infrastructure:
the website is registered under a sub-domain of https://apass.be/ (a.pass - Posthogeschool voor Podiumkunsten vzw / advanced performance and scenography studies)
the back-end is programmed with PHP, on the Wordpress interface.
the rest of the interface is handled with AJAX to perform the asynchronous application of the “inputs” into the timeline of the video.
the video is 23h:38m:22s in total length, and is cut in four parts.
- on the first level the back-end uses IFRAME youtube API to handle the playback of the videos. the youtube API was used because of:
- laziness of the programmer
- youtube’s efficiency at handling large size and lengthy video files
- on the second level, if the first fails, the back-end uses HTML video interface to handle the playback, using mp4 files from the server of apass.be
programmer’s assumptions:
the web-interface parallelparasite is a discursive apparatus, in the sense of:
- demanding (from the editors) and producing (for the visitors) discrete objects to correspond our latent analysis and memories (of the event that it tries to report) into the format of digital database (http://ajayeb.net/?q=database)
- by making the video dimmed or darker in the background, and privileging the textual commentary in the foreground, the interface produces a scenography of looking-back (into the events of the Zsenne gallery), in which an implicit current viewer find themselves in a scene where “text” is closer to them than “image.” two implication of this “scene” is that:
- using an epistemology (a theory of what is relevant knowledge according to a well-positioned knower) that corresponds to a.pass critical stance, an “attitude” (http://ajayeb.net/?q=attitude%2Bknowledge) that does not necessarily aligns with the “attitude” (desires and intentions) of the contributors that are represented in the video. in this sense the parallelparasite interface is participating in an attitude that foregrounds:
- find and call attention to (the geopolitical, epistemological, ethicall) differences of the contexts of research
- find and call attention to the state of crisis (a point at which a property or phenomenon suffers an abrupt change)
- find and call attention to that which is vital or urgently needed (according to an observer)
- find and call attention to situate one less-autistic self
- that means: ‘you’ have to make the connections, in a world that is having debates and discursive encounters around your themes. you are *in conversation*, responding, quoting, tuning
- find and call attention to the people who are doing the work
- these are mostly human agents enmeshed with nonhumans, machines, infrastructures, interfaces, dream-scapes, embodiments, ethics, stories, and ideologies
interface terminology:
terms used in the making of the parallelparasite’s title: “Parallel Parasite : Timeline Repository”
- “timeline” in order not to conceal the linearity of the video-site
- the timeline was first called "string", a term that would more focus on the illustration of the little lines that get attached to the big timeline, like an instrument that is played, as a lightweight cord, tightly stretched, sequentially ordered, a collection of objects threaded on a single strand, a one-dimensional inflexible loop, an opened necklace
- “repository” (later “deposit” and then changed back to “repository”,) suggesting the sedimentation process. and that there is force or implant when one presses “enter” to write in the timeline. not concealing that there is something put firmly somewhere, that things are not free-floating
- “ : ” using the colon punctuation to attach what we do now to what was done before
- “parallel parasite” the original title of the program that was publicly communicated for the Zsenne gallery in Brussels
the input text-area:
these inputs are visible only to the editors (and not the visitors) of the website for the period of editing, and they will be disabled after finishing the writing process, by the end of July 2019.
the input areas are hypertextual (equipped to translate text to anchor links, and image URLs into embedded images in the HTML format).
history and the explanation of the terms used as the “placeholder” in the text fields:
- relating to the technical and informational aspect of what is seen or heard in the video
- they can have a duration (more than 8 minutes that is assigned to every item on the timeline by default)
- to add chapters
- to add cited objects
- non-reflective labeling
- non-persistent identifier
- towards a more subjective instance of distancing (the viewer from the object of the video)
- mark an affective object, by virtue of its *location* and the *timing* of its appearance
- adverbial qualifier (something that typically expresses non-essential content)
- presumptive synonyms
- presumptive: a kind of discourtesy in the form of an act of presuming
- synonym: a technique of division and clarification, by making awareness of two genres of signifying:
- denotational صريح (object to which the name applies)
- connotational ضمنى (many attributes implied by the same name)
- an *abstract substance* that you find in the *string*
- intended to lend a host of sensory qualities to the *string* (the timeline/video)
- or to disturb it
- give an incite: incentive for action (not yet insight) گستاخ، جسور، فرضى
- incitive, inferential, discourteous synonymous manner of finding
- to create a context (or decontextualize) for one’s own commentary
- add web-address URL link to the timeline, and contextualize
- external linking content-reference
- extend citation network, invent a citational reader
- occasion of additive referring
- “img...”
- upload an image on the timeline
- a technique of superimposition
- the image will appear on the left
- any image URL link in any of the input sections will show in the left
- “notes, commentar, critique, questions, symptoms, answers, openings, translations, trans-valuations, reading beside/with/against the grain, analytical afterlife of the event...”
- towards a reparatively positioned non-autistic reader who tries to recognize the fragments and part-objects she encounters or creates
- occasion for becoming accountable for the viewer's reflective readings
- “comment, explain, complain...” (this text field appears only when an element is selected)
- comment: a monogamous relation to a term, making alliances with it
- explain: to take something’s seriousness
- complain: a form of protest (not yet critique)
the timeline:
the corresponding visual representation of the input’s diagrammatic indications (was conceived initially to mimic a rotating clock's hands):
_|_ (titling...) duration adjustable
_/_ (reactions...) 8.333 minutes appearance on the timeline
_\_ (frame referencing...) 8.333 minutes appearance on the timeline
ˉ/ˉ (image superimposition...) 8.333 minutes appearance on the timeline
ˉ|ˉ (commentars...) duration adjustable
ˉ\ˉ (comments on items) duration inherited from the parent item
they will appear on the timeline marking the input category:
snapshots of the interface:
the image that appears in the case of sharing the website’s URL in the so-called social media:
link: https://parallelparasite.apass.be/backimage01.jpg
from top-left to right-bottom:
- plastic fluid
- fountain made by Steven Jouwersma
- European romanticism and history
- one of the reading sessions with Erin Manning and Brian Massumi
- wooden bear holding a pipe
- event of eyeball exploding in landscape