TIMELINE of desiring access

Why would we want to have a server in the first place?

Our desire to have access to a server, and running it, is bound to observations of what digital infrastructure is doing to our lives. Servers occupy such a major place in the way we communicate that we feel it is important to be involved in their organisation. Maybe 'Having' is a weird word to use here, because our goal is not to own, but to be able to experiment hands-on with access, organisation and what that means.

A major concern of being responsable for the infrastructure is maintenance. If a server is selfhosted, it comes with problems that you need to deal with yourself. How to embrace this work of caring instead of seeing it as something undesirable that is outsourced? In our case the question is pending and quite unresolved. But collective projects such as for example the Systerserver or ATNOFS, and other feminist server projects provide super nice example material to work with.

This project is embedded in an institutional context of an art school. Discuss a school server as an accessible space for learning is a long work, from which we gain insights and understanding. We connect to projects that came before, and leave traces for others to continue with. Why not install a server next to the one of the school that is easier to experiment with then the school server? It is what many have done and we did in the end, but it is also somehow admiting the failure of help create a more open digital school infrastructure. We feel that failing us better then not trying.

Our project aligns with other initiatives that have been developed in KASK; here's some of them in a short Timeline of the desire to have access to a server:

2017 -> -> ongoing Open Design Course

Open Design Course started from the desire to create possibilities for people without the appropriate papers to study art and design inside of KASK. 'Open' here means a lot more then having access, or working with open source tools, but that is definitely also part of the project. ODC has their own serverspace, on which they tried different things. Yunohost has been installed, Nextcloud, wiki's and for this project, we used ODC etherpads to make notes for this project.

2019 FLOSSKASK

This was a short project to test F/LOSS free software tools for artistic use through workshop settings with students. The aim was to discuss the considerable amounts of money that schools pay for licensed software for platforms such as Academic Software and study how open and more sustainable software practices could be prioritised inside of art education.

2020 Reclaiming Digital Infrastructures

When Covid hit us, our school and others made a huge push towards proprietory platforms. Something not everyone was happy with. Many teachers moved their compulsory online classes away from the hard-to-avoid school Teams and looked for other tools. What we learn and how we learn are closely related. It is important to be able to read and understand the digital tools that we use and allow artistic knowledge to play a role in this. Reclaiming Digital Infrastructures took KASKs digital infrastructure as a starting point for close-reading sessions. This infrastructure is both technical and ethical, legal and speculative, economic and political. https://www.books.constantvzw.org/home/RDI

2021 - 2022 Ethics and Aesthetics of an open server

This project is investigating how ethical and aesthetical aspects of network infrastructures are interlinked. How are code, spinning discs and cables part of artistic works and the personal politics of each artists practice?

This project was intended to run in parallel with the physical installment of open source tools on the KASK server that would be open for students to use. This however did not go through. Instead, server set up became part of this project. Together with the person who is responsible for the KASK website, we started out looking into what it would mean to have access to the server of KASK. We went through a process together, trying options, thinking of possibilities and finaly settling for a server that is independent from the KASK server.

Here's a small overview of considerations fluctations and meaningful moments:

March 2021

Peter asked Amalia if she would be willing to install some tools on the server of KASK; It was mid-corona, and we wanted to have an opportunity to not have to use Teams + proprietory tools to work with students. We had the idea to install BigBlueButton on the server of KASK. (email 'webtools') Open Design Course already used Nextcloud etc. and Yunohost. We thought KASK could replicate the set up of ODC and then invite users school wide to use it, extended with BBB and other tools. And to offer ODC to use it as well.

We choose Yunohost because you can install many tools yourselfs, which would fit the idea of a distributed management. For a price indication the company Combell was contacted because they already host the schools website, and it sounded more mangable to centralise contracts and contacts. For Yunohost, or BigBlueButton, we would need a dedicated server, or use Open Stack.

Also, a dedicated server would be practical because serverwide access and softwares on the KASK server could effect the main website. Which would limit the 'experimental' element of having access and control. The dedicated server was expensive and needed momey.

April 2021

The idea came that it would be great to parallel this technical installment with a visual / artistic trajectory, that would investigate theory and artist practices around the use of networks. We applied for a Kortlopend Onderzoeksproject within KASK: and proposed a research that investigate 'ethics and aesthetics of an open server'. This is opened up through a series of seminars.

June/ July 2021

Application approved! Research and seminars go through. Happy Days. The proposal for buying the serverspace was in the meantime prepared to be discussed with the school. First a well deserved holiday.

August / September 2021

Back at work, Amalia contacted Combell and they send a price indication for the dedicated server. The budget is discussed between the communication department, IT and the financial direction. The opinion is that if teachers find it important to have an open server, then education should pay for it, and it is not seen as belonging to the infrastructure the school provides for. The departments of Fine arts and Design are sympethatic to the idea, and costs for webspace can be discussed. Design puts as a condition that minimal two other departments join, Fine arts would like to see a guarentee that the servers stays up for several years. But we can't have budget for someone working on the installation. It seems to complicated. Also we will risk to become 'server providers' of these departments. Therefore we shift to another modus: We prioritise working with a small self hosted local server on a raspberry-pi, and will explore renting a Virtual Private Server, independent from the KASK server. We are somewhat disspointed that this means the project is no longer supported by KASK as an institute, but it becomes an initiative that is carried by individuals.

December 1,2,3 2021

We organised a small server workshop with students. The idea of Keep Calm and host yourself is to start from scratch and look into how to set up a small sever on a raspberry pi. The description of the workshop is on this page:
http://213.108.105.149/workshop.html

January/ February 2022

Installed the VPS at Greenhost. Greenhost was recommended as a hosting service for its good balance between ecological footprint, service and the technical requirements we needed, within the budget that we had available. This virtual server allows root access and we can install and change everything ourselves. It is not a dedicated server and we don't have the capacity to do a Yunohost or BBB installation. But that is fine in our new understanding of the project.

Februari -> March 2022

We start the series of seminars. See documentation on this page: http://213.108.105.149/seminars.html With guest talks by Martino Morandi, ooooo, Joana Moll we explore many aspects that shape our ethical and aesthetical understanding of networks. The seminar programme is on this pad:
https://pad.constantvzw.org/p/openserver

June 2022

The Hum website takes shape. When you read this, you are on: http://213.108.105.149/ Remember the IP address and you know where we are.

Future moments

There are ideas coming from this project that we think are interesting to persue. These can be suggestions that you could work on. Or if you have any opportunity to engage in this or you have compatible ideas, we love to hear them.

During the seminars and the workshop, the desire was expressed to start a voluntary regular meeting between students, teachers, staff to experiment with technology. In the regular courses there is no space for self learning or discovery. This could involve setting up DIY workshops, exchanges, install parties etc.

Hum (our nickname for the server http://213.108.105.149/) could become an Artist in Residence Html Space. We imagine one artist would receive the keys to the house (aka: the root login to the server) to do a project for a certain duration, for example three months. Fully experimental. Using the space for what it is and can be. This would end with a presentation and a reset to default of the webspace. Cleaned up and ready for a next occupation.

Also interesting would be to build small local project digital art spaces from a raspberry pi that can be accessed only locally through wifi. The same event logic could apply: celebrate every now and then a new project by coming together. The above are perfectly combinable and would be loose ways to bring attention to experimental server usage within the frame of an art education.