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.
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 Golbalisation' - Gayatri Spivak
"pray to be haunted by the project of the original" !! more details coming soon :)
Organised by: Julia Bavyka
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 Introduction to Peer-to-Peer Sharing
More information coming soon.