FRONTYARD Summer School

Frontyard as a school.

What kind of school? Well, definitely not a private school, or one with any form of certification, that is for sure. More the kind of school which is asking - what is a school, what can a school be. Asking the very question of what it means to learn and teach together - from each other.

In many ways FY is already an informal school - a space for teaching, learning, thinking, making and sharing knowledge. The FYSS is simply an experiment in temporarily changing the cadence and timings of what already happens at FY. What happens when we concentrate?

Attending

All the sessions are at Frontyard, 228 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204.

Most sessions are open to everyone, so feel free to show up and spread the word :) A few sessions have limited spaces, and require an RSVP.

RSVPs will be managed by the organiser of the sessions, so contact them using details below, or through the Frontyard Slack chat room.

Session organisers should make it clear that their session requires an RSVP by adding something like "(RSVP required)" to the title, or "(fully booked)" if the session is full.

What would you like to learn? What would you like to share?

Below is a list of topics that people have said they'd like to learn/share. You can edit that list directly, or if you're not a wiki user, submit ideas using our online form.

Topic ideas, loose list, please add more :)

• Alternative housing models for Sydney
• cooperatives
• renters rights
• investigating local development
• peer to peer alternatives

• Read 'Cruel Optimism' by Lauren Berlant together.
• Read 'No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison' by Behrouz Boochani together.

How to's

• using decentralised web tools (maybe specific one, or specific scenario?)
• privacy tools, password managers
• web scraping
• working with data, spreadsheets
• bulk cooking
• low energy/cost ways to keep your apartment/room/house cool in summer/heat waves

Sessions / Schedule, November 2018

This is a working draft schedule for FFYS 2018.

There are the possibility of 3 sessions per day for the two weeks of the Summer School.

Mornings: 9am - 1pm

Afternoons: 2 - 5pm

Evenings: 6pm - late

We are booking 1 class per block, but classes do not need to take up the entire time of the block. Classes can take as much or as little time as they need. I class may take up more than one block and could extend over several days. These blocks of time are purely intended to avoid conflicts.

Monday, 19th Nov

Morning and Afternoon Sessions: Open to proposal

6pm - 7:30pm - What is Web Scraping? How does it work? When is it useful? An open presentation and discussion

Organiser: Luke Bacon

Web scraping is a really handy way to collect lots of data off the web. Ever need to check the same website again and again to check if something’s changed? Need to collect lots of ephemeral documents? Want to create a little software to do that manual, repetitive labour so you can do something more interesting? Web scraping can help. Web scraping is the basis of most activist software projects and plays an increasingly important role in activism as more government information goes online.

This is an open presentation to explain what web scraping is, when it's useful and when it's not.

This presentation is for activists, designers, researchers, artists and anyone who works with information online, and will be followed by a hands on workshop on Tuesday for those who want to learn the practice themselves. Even if that's not for you, it's great to know what's possible so that you can collaborate with someone who does want to do some scraping in the future.

Luke has done lots of web scraping, to collect development applications from councils, find out who's profiting from WestConnex, collect and archive pollution monitoring data, and more.

Tuesday, 20th Nov

Morning and Afternoon Sessions: Open to proposal

5pm - 8:30pm - Hands on introduction to web scraping workshop (fully booked)

Organiser: Luke Bacon

Following Monday night’s presentation, this workshop is for those who'd like to learn how to write a web scraper themselves. It's a great introduction to programming, so if you've interested in learning some

You will write your own web scraper using the Ruby programming language, to collect data from the web.

This workshop is limited to 8 spots, please RSVP to Luke Bacon at luke@equivalentideas.com , or on the Frontyard Slack.

What to bring: a laptop, note book, something to snack on.

Notes:

• Step by step tutorial to set up your laptop and write a scraper https://www.openaustraliafoundation.org.au/2015/10/13/ruby-web-scraping-tutorial-on-morph-io-part-1/
• Helpful resources for web scraping in Ruby https://gist.github.com/equivalentideas/670481f8b4b2d892e1a6

Wednesday, 21st Nov

Morning, Afternoon Sessions: Open to proposal

6pm - late - Ignoramus Anonymous

Ignoramus Anonymous is a support group for the ignorant (i.e. for anyone and everyone). The hour-long meeting is a space to ask questions, without necessarily looking for answers to them. It is a space to talk about your ignorance and receive support from one another present, with a form of pedagogy taking place in this support. You are welcome to bring something to discuss, but feel no obligation.

RSVP not necessary, but for more information email: malcolm.whittaker@gmail.com

Thursday, 22nd Nov

Morning, Afternoon Sessions: Open to proposal

6pm - late - Reading Group + Potluck Dinner: Lauren Berlant Cruel Optimism

A night of collectively reading Berlant's Cruel Optimism.

No need to have read the text before the night. We will be reading the text together, with open space for conversation as we progress through the text.

Bring along some food to share.

Friday, 23rd Nov

Morning, Afternoon, Evening Sessions: Open to proposal

Saturday, 24th Nov

9am -1pm DIY Radio transmission 1

Organiser: Sally Schessell; Teacher: Sophea Lerner

FULL (still a couple of places in week 2)

Part 1: Building a mini FM transmitter

Part 2: Audio streaming and internet radio

"The material of radio is the network, not the sound" --Gregory Whitehead

These workshops will introduce you to building your own networks for radio-making.

Practical skills for DIY creative transmission practices will be shared in these workshops along with a brief overview of the history and context of these tools. There will be some reading and materials to view in advance of each workshop and preference will be given to participants committing to both parts 1 & 2. There will be a modest cost associated with materials for part 1 (around $10, tbc). Software for part 2 will be advised in advance and will free and open source. Prior experience of soldering and electronics, whilst helpful, is not necessary; we will start from scratch. Participants are encouraged to bring lunch to share after the workshops and invited to informally discuss their own transmission projects over food.

About the teacher: Sophea has 30 years experience as a creative broadcaster, technical producer and teacher of audio production, sonic arts and transmission practices. She has worked for pirate, community and public stations and pioneered distributed, participatory, open content radio that combined digital and analogue networks.

Sunday, 25th Nov

Morning & Evening Sessions: Open to proposal

2pm - 5pm - Sunday afternoon chess

Casual games of chess on a Sunday. Nothing more, nothing less. If you have never played - come and learn how.

RSVPs not necessary.

Monday, 26th Nov

Morning & Afternoon Sessions: Open to proposal

6:30pm - 8pm - Reading group - The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study

Discussion on chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Bring snacks and stories.

Text is available free as a PDF here - http://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/undercommons-web.pdf

Tuesday, 27th Nov

10am - 12:30pm - How to investigate local development, companies and landholders with Wendy Bacon

Learn how to investigate and report on development and construction.

Organised by Wendy Bacon, activist, investigative journalist, long time journalism educator.

Afternoon: Open to proposal

6:30pm - 8:30pm - How to investigate local development, companies and landholders with Wendy Bacon

Learn how to investigate and report on development and construction.

Organised by Wendy Bacon, activist, investigative journalist, long time journalism educator.

Wednesday, 28th Nov

Morning, Afternoon: Open to proposal

6:20pm - late - Reading group 'Translating into English' from 'An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalisation' - Gayatri Spivak

Reading and discussing Gayatri Spivak’s text ’Translating into English’. 

We will go in and out of Spivak’s text and into practice, with Beth Sometimes and Julia Bavyka speaking about their related projects - such as the collaborative project Apmere angkentye-kenhe that Beth is involved with in Alice Springs, and Julia’s Language School proposal.

The text will be used as a starting point to talk about language work and translation. It was published in Spivak’s book "An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalisation” (2012).

For a PDF of the text email: bavyka.julia@gmail.com

This will be a relaxed discussion with an improvised dinner. Bring along some food to share.

Organisers: Julia Bavyka and Beth Sometimes

Thursday, 29th Nov

Morning, Afternoon, Evening Sessions: Open to proposal

Friday, 30th Nov

10am – 12pm WAGE COMMONING

A group discussion and shared reading list around wage commoning.

At Frontyard, we’ve been loosely talking about setting up a workers co-operative. Most often co-ops are based on a ‘profit share’ methodology, but that places it inside the capitalist model, in that it determines that one of the things to be produced is ‘profit’.

Let’s decide and talk together about an alternative model of ‘wage commoning’, where wages are pooled and redistributed, without requiring the necessary production of ‘surplus’.

Some starting thoughts:

It is through (re)production in common that communities of producers decide for themselves the norms, values and measures of things.

The “working class” is divided in a wage hierarchy and no ideological call for unity will ever bring the different segments to work together in the direction of a radical transformation of their production in common beyond capital, and therefore beyond their hierarchy.

Help me start a reading list in the lead-up to this session. (link to be added to a Google Doc).

Organised by Connie Anthes.

Afternoon, Evening Sessions: Open to proposal

Saturday, 1st Dec

9am -1pm DIY Radio transmission 2

Sign-up: https://goo.gl/forms/iyKlr0P017xRRn6X2

Organiser: Sally Schessell; Teacher: Sophea Lerner

Sign-up: see week 1

Part 1: Building a mini FM transmitter

Part 2: Audio streaming and internet radio

"The material of radio is the network, not the sound" --Gregory Whitehead

These workshops will introduce you to building your own networks for radio-making.

Practical skills for DIY creative transmission practices will be shared in these workshops along with a brief overview of the history and context of these tools. There will be some reading and materials to view in advance of each workshop and preference will be given to participants committing to both parts 1 & 2. There will be a modest cost associated with materials for part 1 (around $10, tbc). Software for part 2 will be advised in advance and will free and open source. Prior experience of soldering and electronics, whilst helpful, is not necessary; we will start from scratch. Participants are encouraged to bring lunch to share after the workshops and invited to informally discuss their own transmission projects over food.

About the teacher: Sophea has 30 years experience as a creative broadcaster, technical producer and teacher of audio production, sonic arts and transmission practices. She has worked for pirate, community and public stations and pioneered distributed, participatory, open content radio that combined digital and analogue networks.

3pm - 5pm An annotated bibliography

A book browsing session live annotated by Benjamin Forster and Melissa Ratliff 

Sharing a collection of books and journal articles in our possession on topics of alternative education, radical pedagogy, artist-run art schools and contemporary art schools.

Evening Sessions: Open to proposal

Sunday, 2nd Dec

Morning, Evening Sessions: Open to proposal

2pm - 6pm Alternatives, Maybes, A Peer to Peer Web Workshop with Benjamin Forster

This workshop will be a practical introduction to Beaker Browser. Beaker Browser is a new web browser for the peer to peer (P2P) web - think Chrome or Safari but for the P2P web. Are you asking yourself, "What is the P2P web"? This workshop will answer that question - but maybe its an escape from the capitalist fuck trap which is google/amazon/facebook.

This workshop is for anyone interested in publishing on the web (including writers, visual artists, musicians, sound artists, bloggers, or anyone on social media).

Bring along your computer. You will learn how to install and use Beaker Browser to create and share content. Together we will build a small temporary P2P network at FY, sharing content between ourselves in constellations. We will also learn how to connect our private networks, with each other and the mainstream internet.

Spaces limited.

RSVP to benjamin@emptybook.net

Reflection / Critique

What worked? What didn't? How might this change in the next iteration?