{"id":2182,"date":"2013-05-29T13:29:41","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T11:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/museo.freaknet.org\/?p=2182"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:40:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:40:59","slug":"nostra-installazione-al-festival-pixelache-2013-finlandia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museo.freaknet.org\/en\/nostra-installazione-al-festival-pixelache-2013-finlandia\/","title":{"rendered":"Our participation at Pixelache 2013 Festival, Finland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Pixelache Festival 2013<\/a>, held this year in Helsinki, Finland, had a\u00a0dedicated section<\/a>\u00a0for the international Bricolabs<\/a>\u00a0group, to wich we adhere from many years as\u00a0ex Poetry Hacklab<\/a> (now officially Poetry Bricolab). Into the collective Bricolab Mailing List there was a call to create an artistic installation about bricolabs.<\/p>\n

While in Montalbano Elicona, where some time ago we were \u00a0partner<\/a>\u00a0and guests at the \u00a0Trasformatorio<\/a>\u00a0artistic event, I discussed this with Jerneja Rebernak, proposing this idea: to write a software that read the entire Bricolabs mailing list archive since 2006, extract 3 random groups of words from different messages and compose them together \u00a0to form a random “haiku”. Moreover, my idea was also to copy this entire archive in four ancient magnetic tapes recovered at our Computer Museum and to create an installation with them.<\/p>\n

My coding skills are not so high today: i’m almost a PDP-11 and old computer dinosaur<\/a>\u00a0, and was also natural to involve all Freaknet \/ Poetry Bricolab \/ Museo dell’Informatica Funzionante group in this work… so was born \u00a0the Python code that you can download at the end of this article.<\/p>\n

To start this haiku program we need something simple to use: so I got back \u00a0my GNU\/Linux Dyne:Bolic Distro creation Howto<\/a>, and I create a Mini Live Debian Distro, that start in text-only mode on every computer from an USB pendrive, lauching haikus on the console screen.<\/p>\n

Haikus won’t be saved; they come on screen, stay a while, and disappear.<\/p>\n

Software was written by Nino “Nignux” Giudice, with some minor tweaks and bugfixing by Sebastiano “Geenna” Gennarini, Daniele “Eriol” Tricoli and “Steppenwolf” plus many hints from all of our group.<\/p>\n

Moreover, during the Bricolabs conference held in Helsinki, a video made by us describing our work at the Museum was screened. The conference video can be seen at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What follow is the abstract \u00a0we wrote to present our work at the Festival, links to download the code (that can read every archive in Mailbox format) and some pictures of our installation in Helsinki.<\/p>\n

We want thank a lot Jerneja Rebernak, Felipe Fonseca, John Hopkins and all the Bricos over there, for their big efforts in the fantastic Bricolabs work done at Pixelache 2013!<\/p>\n

Brico Haiku Installation, \u00a0Abstract<\/strong>
\nby Gabriele “asbesto” Zaverio and the <\/strong>
\nFreaknet \/ Poetry Bricolab<\/strong>
\nfor Pixelache, Finland, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the year 2006 Bricolabs exists as a south-to-south network\u00a0connecting researchers, poets and pioneers active investigating the\u00a0new loop of open content, software and hardware for community\u00a0applications.<\/p>\n

Besides on-site happenings, Bricolabs consisted of an\u00a0on-line discussion space focused on bringing people together with new\u00a0technologies and distributed connectivity, unlike the dominant focus\u00a0of the IT industry on security, surveillance and on the monopoly of\u00a0information and infrastructures.<\/p>\n

This art installation is dedicated to the Bricolabs network and its\u00a0brulicating flow of ideas. A generative language software written in\u00a0Python formulates “haikus”(*) based on the archive of on-line\u00a0discussions; each haiku will be printed on the screen for a short\u00a0time, then the next will follow. Haikus are not saved, they just come\u00a0and go away.<\/p>\n

Four old computer tapes from our Computer Museum are there,\u00a0containing a partial backup copy of the mailing list (because\u00a0the ml is in progress, right now!), meant to be stored\u00a0somewhere, in a safe place, hidden for the future, as a picture\u00a0of the bricolist today.<\/p>\n

We like to conclude this little introduction with the definition of\u00a0Haiku by Jack Kerouac, which we wish to expand to every language, not\u00a0only “American”:<\/p>\n

” […] The Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined to seventeen\u00a0syllables but since the language structure is different I don’t\u00a0think American Haikus (short three-line poems intended to be\u00a0completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry about\u00a0syllables because American speech is something again…\u00a0bursting to pop.<\/em>
\n Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic\u00a0trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and\u00a0graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Click on this link<\/a> to download the bricohaiku source code.<\/p>\n