DIY Community Building Project

Things have been going to soykafs all around us for quite some time now: there is atomization, alienation, burnout, depression, nihilism, apathy, anxiety, corruption, exploitation, you name it - I'm positive you've read all the endless threads and seen all the depressing news discussing all this awfulness at exhaustive lengths, so I'm not looking for yet another pointless social science debate. Instead of going down that road I'd like to try and actually do something about it in practice, to combat some of these trends by being active at the local level, trying to foster a sense of group identity, effect positive change and, hopefully, eventually create a community that is strong, mentally healthy, and actualized in terms of human potential. Since my latest attempt at community-building failed miserably, I wanted to create this thread as a place to bounce ideas off of people in order to help bring this project into fruition. This will most likely be a +1 year endeavour, and I figured /diy/ is the place for it for two reasons: 1) we're here to walk the walk, not talk the walk, and 2) it is going to involve a lot of practical, even technical solutions. Before getting into any specifics later in the thread, here are some >inb4's to go along the way. 1. Yes, there is a "philosophy", ideals, and some ideology behind the project. 2. No, I'm not gonna get into these here unless prompted or when it is necessary to explain why x goes over y for the project, because I'm not here to proselytize to anyone or trying to influence you - rather I wanna focus on the doing part. 3. If it turns out the vision behind the project isn't to your liking, that's fine by me - you can take it as a social experiment or an intellectual challenge, since I can guarantee you it won't affect your life, and you will neither see or hear about any of it from anywhere apart from this lonely thread on lainchan. 4. Even though the project is created with a very specific location in mind, I'm open to other people of any kind working on their own similar community projects in here as well (I'm sure this thread is big enough to accommodate all of them - after all we share the same goal: getting people together). 5. It's not about money, power, sex, drugs, crimes, causing harm to people or anything petty like that: it's about bettering my surroundings, helping people out with something I think I could offer or do for them, and breathing air into the old idea of a community as well as working towards getting "social" back into "society", even if one infinitesimal step at a time. That's pretty much it. I'll kick this thread off by giving the broad strokes concerning the area I'm operating in, and share what I did for my most latest attempt, as well as some of the ideas behind it, in order to establish a little bit of context. I'm looking for suggestions on what I could do differently and new ideas by which to go about building a community.

>>13802 The Context: The place I'm currently residing is a small rural town of less than 4,000 people. It's in a rather awkward position between a few larger, growing cities, which is why the town is slowly dying out because all the young people are pulled away elsewhere to pursue education and work opportunities as well as modern, metropolitan (world) city culture, which is seen as exotic in comparison to the local rural life. The local area is very quiet, stale, uneventful, and rather boring, with meager work opportunities that mostly involve traditional/heavy industry, agriculture, and healthcare services, although the bare necessities are met: a mid-school, apothecarium, a shop, a library, and a church. To get to a bar, any kind of doctor, the movies, the police, or a museum that *isn't* about potato farming you'd need to drive 10-50 miles away. The town is located within a county that is weaker in higher education in comparison to rest of the country, happens to be part of the bible belt, and culturally retains its old, agrarian peasant roots. This is reflected in the daily life of the town, which, to paint a picture, is almost like the surface world in the Texhnolyze anime: at first glance it *looks* nice, but once you look closer you start to realize that what you're looking at is death. Whatever events and culture there is, it's either for the extremely young, the extremely old, or for the extremely religious - for all the rest that is between you'd have to drive for several miles out of town. The one even remotely interesting place is a recreational complex that has a hotel, a swimming pool, a karaoke floor, and a golf course, but, again, mostly it's old people who populate the place. This is also part of the reason why all the life and noise of the town comes from teenagers: they just drive around back and forth the town central, because there's literally nothing else to do or where to go when they aren't at home, hooked to their PCs, consoles, smart phones or just generally the Internet in one way or another. There are essentially no significant cultural landmarks or sacred places (apart from the grave yard - the church itself, although old, is just your plain, run of the mill wooden boxes like any other rural church) which couldn't be toppled over for the sake of building a supermarket or a highway that connect the other big cities. Similar to parts of the Rust Belt of the US, the average person is a well-off pensioner, there are lots of decrepit, rotting buildings left over from the industry flight of almost four decades past, and the best that the town politicians could do as a policy option is a managed decline on all fronts. The Last Attempt: Given all this, my attempt at community building was intended for the local youngsters and young adults: because there isn't much to do, one of the rare thrills available to people is admiring and exploring all those abandoned buildings. So, I figured I'd arrange some action for these rare explorers by clearing a room in one of those abandoned facilities as a free space where I arranged a small "messageboard" type of communication venue with an old-school typewriter that I had found from the premises and which I maintained to a working condition (pics related). My hope was that if I could make some sort of connection to the youngsters and young adults I might, eventually, shift the conversation to grander things, like arranging happenings (rituals), engaging them in intellectually stimulating conversations in order to (maybe) ignite a spark for curiosity and philosophical inquiry, and, well, literally any other activities we might think of in order to kill the boredom. The project has been up for about a month and during that time the place has been trashed and the furniture vandalized and broken into pieces like five times. On top of that, the quality of the messages has been... less than ideal. The last visitor had broken the typewriter, but only after writing a message calling me a glitterboy. Based on the broken window theory (ie, clearing places out and repairing stuff decreases crime/vandalism, because people intuit that their surroundings are being cared for, that the residents aren't ignored or being sidelined, as well as affirming the existence of "right" and "wrong" within the system they're part of), as well piggy banking on the assumption that people are dying of boredom (and therefore craving for anything 'out of the ordinary'), I though the project would have been safe to play itself out organically without interferance from vandals, but I guess I was proven wrong. Even if I could fix the typewriter, I don't think there's point in trying it this way for another time. To an extent, I get it: typewriters are clunky, overwhelming to use for the uninitiated, and, yes, really boring in comparison to computers, and I was intending on installing a retro PC in its place if and when the project got some steam, but now I'm sure it would just get trashed too. So, I guess it's time to get back to the drawing board. I've got this whole place cleared, but how to use it - if at all? What would be things that would make people excited and which they would appreciate enough to participate in? I'm also divided on whether to even bother trying to reach the kids; if they haven't got the patience and imagination to work out a typewriter or to entertain the notion of thinking as anything other than glitterboyry and work, then I imagine trying to appeal to them in any way whatsoever might be a lost cause. If you guys have any input, ideas or suggestions on where to go from here, I'm all ears (though, I've got some ideas of my own already, but I'll come back to these in a couple of days, once I've done the requisite ground work that I could show here).

>>13803 jammit, forgot the pics.

>>13803 >>13805 I'm sorry... I don't know why they refuse to be uploaded... but let's try this again.

Is the location part of your philosophy? It definitely sounds like a lost cause. Cool pictures though.

In my opinion, you should focus on not trying too hard. I like the typewriter messageboard a lot, and probably am your target demographic as someone who is interested in philosophy and discussing more serious topics, but your attempted community will not attract any decent people if it appears too serious. If I would come across a stack of paper where someone has written out elaborate and pretentious texts, I would also try to restore a healthy balance by infantile brewing soykaf and calling you a glitterboy. On the other hand, if all previous messages were low quality, I would try to add something more meaningful. Same way as I behave on imageboards, where a too serious tone hurts creativity and free expression. Of course I don't know what kind of messages you left there exactly, I'm just going off the impression I get from the text of your post. Not many people want to associate with someone who wants to start doing rituals with them.

>>13807 >Cool pictures though. Thanks :) >It definitely sounds like a lost cause. Yeah. But although it's tempting and there is a certain delight or comfort in succumbing to despair and hopelessness, I'm not gonna give up that easy. "Try again, fail again. Fail better", that's the game we're playing here. >Is the location part of your philosophy? Yes, there are a couple of ideas at play besides purely practical considerations and justifications. To get the boring ones out first: 1) the facility is one of the more recent estates that had been abandoned, which means it's still in an ok condition 2) it's located almost in the middle of the town, so no matter where you reside, the distance to travel there isn't too bad 3) it's close to me, which means logistics are manageable, and 4) it's also the biggest and prettiest locations out of all the other places, which means a lot more potential to do stuff (like that stage at the back of the room; the floorboard here looks amazing!). As for the more philosophical ideas, there are mainly two. The first one being more of a poetic one along the lines of "from the ashes/ruins of the old the seeds of new life begin to germinate" (which is basically applicable to any abandoned building). The second one in turn is more of an ethical/social one. Now matter how you look at it, our time is a time of surplus, opulence and over-production: it's cheaper to throw stuff away and buying new commodities instead of repurposing it or even collecting it for later reuse. So, all that stuff ends up just rotting and wasting away because nobody sees any use for it. That is why I've been developing a "decomposer ethos" where the basic principle is to break some of that dead matter down and repurpose it in such a manner that allows the liberation of resources and energy back into circulation for the local social body. It's why I've preferred an abandoned building for the location, why everything for the project (stuff you see in the pics) has been scavenged from the building and given a new purpose, and why the whole ensemble is a bit archaic (like the typewriter itself as an old medium: for someone who has lived his whole life surrounded by screens and computers I've found it refreshing and a novel stimulant to write stuff on an older typewriter (I own one myself and on occasion type something just for myself, so I've got a bit of experience prior to this project); it's a lot more involved, physical, and demands a quite a lot more of focus: every type pressing has to count, and there are no takesies-backsies (not really, anyway). Because of all that, the first time I tried typewriting I noticed it was almost an exhilarating experience, with the top of your fingers tingling because you'd have to actually hit the keys in order to produce a letter, the loudness of each keystroke ringing in your ears, and the singularity of mind you have to be in where you can't have any distractions. It all just came so beautifully together that now I associate the typewriter as a life-affirming device. So, the thinking was similar when I used it for the project here: scavenge the reusable, and then repurpose it by breathing new life into an old mode of communication (with a new twist) in order to discover something interesting and letting those blocked energies flow freely again.) >>13808 Overall, I agree with you. My reasoning was similar to yours: "if it's too serious and abstract you're just gonna get trolled and people lose interest, and if its too juvenile then it's just gonna make brewing soykaf the standard." That's why I wrote a bit of fun nonsense and a bit of pretentious stuff too, but I'll get to all that next. >In my opinion, you should focus on not trying too hard. >Of course I don't know what kind of messages you left there exactly, I'm just going off the impression I get from the text of your post. I don't think it's worth transcribing all of the text that was produced, but I'll give the short of it below: ----------------------- >Me: "This is a messageboard where you can type whatever comes to your mind. Mind the keys 'l', 'a' and 'm', for they can be kind of stiff." >somebody else: "lucas was here" >me: "lucas who?" >me: "a gull sat on a gull, as the salmon ate the other salmon" [it sounds a lot more random and fun in the original language, I'm afraid :/] >somebody else: "you are a glitterboy" >me: "the last visitor called me a glitterboy, which is rude. but even if I were a glitterboy, there's no need to inform me of that :((" [the reasoning behind here: try to push back against devolving the conversation to the level of name-calling, and making a joking, a bit self-deprecating reference to a widely known comedy classic movie, which is the latter part (again, hard to translate)] >me: "life is like a theater stage. We've all got our motivations, our superobjectives, which direct the course of our roles. If you haven't got your act together, you can practice it. Like today's audition runs, where one of the actors had only but a flimsy grasp on the motivations behind the character he's portraying, so did the act reflect this poor performance. In preparation for the next casting calls, it is strongly advised to do some character work and motivational investigations." [This is the pretentious stuff. Although the room is meant for the project, it serves a dual purpose, which is another video project of mine. Here I was referring to my last video shooting visit, which nobody visiting the room is currently aware of. Still, I thought I'd write something moderately insightful while hinting at other stuff that is happening right under their noses, so as to build up mystery, curiosity and intrigue and prompting people to ask "what is all this for?, who are you?, how do I get involved in all this?", which then would give me a reasons to direct the conversation to the grander stuff I mentioned earlier.] [random letter pressings where you can almost make out individual words, but which are then typed over as practice.] >somebody else: "hello to you who's living here" [I didn't have a chance to answer this one] >somebody else: "you are a fuarrrking nigger" [the last message before the typewriter got demolished] ----------------------- Maybe I could have written something better, but this is what I got this time around. >Not many people want to associate with someone who wants to start doing rituals with them. I get that. Though, I haven't used the word "ritual" explicitly at any point during the project, so I don't think that is the reason for the lackluster responses I've got. And maybe calling the happenings as "ritual" was the wrong choice of word. More accurately it's "magic circles" which I'm after, as defined by the cultural theorist Huizinga in his work Homo Ludens. There 'magic circles' are another word for "game world/play area" that separates the mundane life from the extraordinary life. And as I recall, he *does* address religious traditions and ceremonies as one type of 'magic circles'. So, in this sense, all rituals are a form of play or game.

>>13803 I think you should do more grand and cool projects by yourself. Setting a typewriter on a table in an abandoned building is something I could do this afternoon without any difficulty, therefore its uninteresting and unimpressive. Sweet office btw.

>>13813 >Sweet office btw. Heh. It would be if it weren't for all that asbestos lying around all over the place :S >I think you should do more grand and cool projects... Well, that is the idea :D >...by yourself Oh. Uh, I'm pretty much already there, albeit involuntarily: I don't like doing doing this all by myself. I'd rather work within a small group of like-minded, spirited people. Yet, the opposite is the case, brought about due to circumstances outlined above, although a small part of me refuses to share some of the work with others, because that might compromise the project - that, coupled with the fact that I haven't figured out everything, which means I can't guide, direct or tell others what to do and how, so I go about it alone out of necessity. >Setting a typewriter on a table... ...is uninteresting and unimpressive. You are completely right in that. But I do have to point out that the typewriter wasn't the "thing in itself" concerning the project. It was merely the first phase that would have served as a stepping stone to set the stage for things to slowly grow and gradually escalate to bigger, badder and crazier stuff, but because things went down as they did, I hardly even got started. Alas, what's done is done. I think that for the next attempt I would make heavy use of digital media, like qr codes, a website, and so on. That way, when the communication portal is just paint on a surface and a server tucked away behind the deepest recesses of a dank data center, the costs accrued by occasional acts of vandalism are at minimum and easy to maintain/repair (though, then we're dealing with another type of vandals who aren't confined by geography...). I just hate the idea on principle, because it relies on the source of most of our ailments and thereby works only to sustain and reproduce them...

>>13828 >by yourself, I'm pretty much already there...involuntarily yeah sorry I get that this is about building the community to do bigger projects, my thought is more that if you can do something grand and inspiring, this is better recruitment material, if you can make someone go 'wow how did he do that' this is good. Typewriter in a room, not hard to imagine how he did that haha. Do you have a hackspace in your town ? or nearby in bigger town ? Could you start one ? Again, its good to do a few impressive things to get people intrigued imho, or at least have good tools

>>13802 >>13808 The problem here more is, and I mean it depends on the area, you do get ubrex nerds, but much of the time you're more likely to get crackheads and asshole kids. My friends and I would have fuarrrking loved discovering something like this, in fact I'd literally fantasize about this kind of situation, but I never did anything myself to fulfill it, I didn't believe it was possible; only the 'cool' kids in town might roam the town at night, drinking--the kind who're causing you trouble here--while we'd have a LAN and be posting on 4chan, our fingers grubby with corn chip dust. I also actually grew up in a town the same size as this, and reading your commentary on the place and demographics, I just think the kind of person you'd hope to come across this is like finding a needle in a haystack, unfortunately. Though it makes me sad typing this out...because you've done the thing I always dreamed of. Maybe there was a you in my town, yet I would never know, because I never believed enough to truly look. >>13813 This poster is also completely wrong. In a rural town of 4,000, something like this alone is more than enough when you don't believe there's many others like you. Perhaps if your goal is to convert the completely uninitiated, to convert the kind of person calling your names and destroying things, but I don't believe there's anything you could reasonably do in that department. Saying that this is something that you could do in an afternoon without difficulty misses the point--the point is you've done the thing at all, when no one else has. Maybe if you live in a big fuarrrking city with a university and underground clubs an' all this would seem more trite, I dunno. >>13828 I think for something like this to work better, the physical space portion perhaps needs to be both in a more inaccessible/ hard to find place, and then you combine that with the digital media/qr codes/website idea which then directs people to this place. Much less likely to have a crackhead/vandal go through the effort of deciphering that stuff (heck you could literally do some AR/puzzle stuff to get the coordinates) and then you can put up these leads in an area where someone more likely/'worthy' is going to spy it. A lamppost near a library, an electrical box outside a dairy. On my side of things, I've just come across your post while looking for discussions on things exactly of this nature. I now live in a town of 50,000 (not a dense one) which feels very large to me given where I grew up, but it's only made me realise how small that still really is. It's strange to me when I go for a walk at night, how often I am still the only person I ever see. I have grown tired of the internet as I've aged, tired of my only social life being with anonymous people online that have no affect on my own life, and given up on most of any of that save for occasionally returning to an imageboard like this or something. Last year someone started a community space that I've been increasingly participating in, and it still pains me how underutilized it is. I realise I can't just be a passive follower as I always have, because the other people like me are just that too; someone has to step up to enact the change they want to see in the world. I'm trying to think more on that, and would like to be more like yourself, but many wasted most my life thus far doing little more than wage slavery, drug abuse and nothing but video games and television have left me with not much to offer the world. There's been little spots of light since finding this place, but there's so much more potential. Will discuss more later, apologies for hurried and messy thoughts. Also I'm going to look into magic circles and Huizinga, sounds super interesting, I think a few of the people at this place would totally be into this; the problem is the events put on that I think are most interesting only get a handful of people still after a year now, we need to figure out how to expose this stuff more to those who would be interested, I don't think I'm that special and I know there must be more people in town looking for the same thing. We did just get some coverage in a local magazine at least lol but the space covers a broad spectrum of people and events from our more niche interests to community dance/sewing groups. Keep up the good work, mate. One must risk accusations of pretension when attempting to do anything at all, 'pretentious' or not, from those who get up to fuarrrk all.

>>13831 Tho this idea isn't entirely without fault; that is the thing, if you wanna get soykaf off the ground YOU have to be the one to put in a massive amount of effort/takes a lot to move people these days...I still think a typewriter in a room is more inspiring than you give it credit for though particularly for the 'right kind of person' who is going to be receptive at all to this whole concept anyway. But again maybe you live in a cool place where people are often putting typewriters in abandon buildings and tidying them up. I also think the more simple and understated nature of this is more mysterious and welcoming in a sense, I could also see going too hard as putting someone off, I'd be closer to thinking I wasn't 'worthy' or like this was too much for me. Hmm.

>>13832 I'm 1318, I live in a small town about the size of OP's and I feel like I see stuff on the level of 'a typewriter set out someplace' fairly often. It doesn't catch my interest because there's nothing to it. OK maybe I type some thing to you, what do I type ? Why ? Why do I care about this machine, or who you are, or anything ? Its just kinda, besides filling the time, there's no hook. Feels like the sort of thing a little old lady at the library would do to 'foster community' or something. Speaking for myself, I think I would, stumbling upon something like this, find it more interesting if there's some sort of hook. This is where the 'something legitimately impressive' or such comes in. If I'm curious about you, who did this or that project, and the only way I can see to talk to you is to type on the typewriter, then hell yeah I'm typing on that typewriter. Absent of that hook, its like you're just pasting your phone number outside. Who are you and why do I care ? There's a little novelty in being the sort of guy who posts his phone number on a wall, but not much.

>>13834 I see what you're saying, that's fair enough, your opinion about this obviously just makes me unnecessarily annoyed lol. This probably stems from my personal lack of connections with other people in real life; perhaps I haven't done as well as you in that regard. I mean sure you're right, it'd be better with more of a hook, improved, it's something OP could develop on further perhaps. I do remain a little perplexed at your way of thinking though, but I'm not sure what else to say as we would just respond to the situation so differently >OK maybe I type some thing to you, what do I type ? Why ? Why do I care about this machine, or who you are, or anything ? To me, from what was posted in the photo, that is the hook--hook enough :p Why would I care? Because people don't clear out abandoned buildings and put things in them lol (again, it sounds like where you're from, which is surely where I'm not, this isn't as novel). You're right though: I approach this the same way as you, but come across it completely inverse "why? what do i type? why? why do i care about this machine? who are you, or anything?" these are all great questions we've been prompted! The mystery beckons you! I care about this machine because it's a relic that shouldn't be in a place like this, you're right, what kind of person would do this? And why?? After countless hours spent inside, indoors, on a computer, this proposes something much more interesting; again, a personal thing I suppose, maybe you've experienced more life than I have too. And filling time? Yeah, that's what our lives are. "Filling time" with this is much more fulfilling than another night of Diablo 2 or brewing soykaf or jerking off :) >Feels like the sort of thing a little old lady at the library would do to 'foster community' or something. Maybe I should move to your country lol the little old ladies there sound much cooler than here. I would say this takes the simple 'posting your phone number on a wall' concept, which as you say has a little novelty, and does exactly what you want it too then! Elevates it to the next level, this is the hook you would be talking about. "Who are you and why do I care ?" I don't know! I want to find out! I want to find out more about the kind of person who would do this with their 'spare time'. So maybe this is more aimed at someone like me, and not someone like you, and that's also fine. Anyhow, I feel like we agree where we can and agree to a difference of opinion on the rest. I hope you have a good day.

>>13831 >If you can make someone go 'wow how did he do that' this is good. Typewriter in a room, not hard to imagine how he did that haha. True :D Well, I think I do have something cooking up that probably fits the bill and might make people turn their heads and go "ooh" (even if, I feel, outright "wow" expressions are still out of my reach). >hackspaces No, I think hacklabs and hackspaces are a bit too nerdy, intellectual, and "innovator/early-adopter-orientated" for our little town, if we go by Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations typifications. All opportunities for young adults are out of town, which is where all these sort of places are also located (and where the innovator types also aggregate). The closest one is an hour's drive away. ...I mean, it's not *too* bad, but apart from the painters'/artists' workspace, 3D printer, cnc laser cutter, hot presser for fabrics, and the actual people with hacklab type of experience, I don't think it really justifies the travel distance. Anything else that might involve tools to work on wood, metal, computers, small electronics, and extremely rudimentary tailoring tasks, I've got it covered (as well as some of the people/businesses with experience on that sort of work). As for starting one of my own, I feel that falls out of the realm of my qualifications (I know a thing or two about most of these areas of expertise, but not to the extent or the degree (in terms of skill) that I could lead a hacklab), even if the skewed demographics of the town weren't a factor. pic related: the fungi philosophy reigns supreme

>>13836 wel u cud cree8 ur ohn haxpace wer u m8k a difrent culter mayb buht stil hav tuls n stuf

>>13834 Hook? In a sense, making a circle of neurosloppers who slop music OR some guys who work with vehicles like some 1950s bikers... that would make sense. Not to mention one can make a nice bike and slap a "computer on chip" to it as a small infotainment device

>>13833 >maybe you live in a cool place where people are often putting typewriters in abandon buildings and tidying them up Well, no, they don’t really do that :D To be honest, I don’t think it’s completely unsalvageable. A few days ago I actually saw a video clip on instagram where a group of teenagers were hanging around in the space I had cleared and playing with the typewriter (too bad the typewriter’s still broken). So it seems there is just a little bit of interest in the project. If I were to try it again, it’d be rather easy to acquire another typewriter, since they are cheap (some people give them up for free from what I’ve seen on online marketplaces, and I could even put mine up there, but this time restrict its access there to designated time periods in order to reduce the risk of it getting trashed), and maybe I could spice it up by adding some sort of dramatic lighting and sounds that are connected to motion sensors, so that, when someone steps into the room, a spotlight lights the typewriter, or maybe a nightlamp, accompanied by either a warm folk-ish music, something nostalgic or something eerie (eg. See attachments). The only issues are 1) buying the ink ribbon for the typewriter, which is somewhat pricey (all the ones I’ve been using are pretty much dried up, so I think that may have played a part in the last incident, in case they got frustrated by the writing, but this is just me speculating), and 2) setting up all this electronics in a way that they won’t get trashed or stolen. >>13832 Fortunately, we haven’t got any crackheads in our little town (or, at least they aren’t homeless, so you won’t be seeing them on the streets or squatting in abandoned buildings ready to shank you if you come across them; plenty of ”professional drunkards” though who, thankfully, prefer to drink alone in their homes, so they aren’t causing problems to anyone. That leaves us with those asshole kids to deal with). Anyway, yes, I recognize the paradox of my project as well as the broad clique-formation to nerds and ”tough guys” that has become (almost arche)typical to our modern time. In terms of ultimate aims, the ideal would be to somehow combine these two traits or types of people into one either by ”nerdifying” the cool, tough types or to toughen up the nerdy types, so as to cultivate smart, but capable individuals who can’t be intimidated. I believe there are ways to go about doing both, but it becomes rather difficult to do anything if the underlying issue of being unable to reach those people in the first place is left unsolved (as you implied, nerds are receptive to intellectualism, but would prefer a LAN party to trespassing in abandoned buildings, whereas to the ”cool kids” seeking out such thrills comes naturally, but then they aren’t receptive to anything intellectual). So, the solution to the predicament seems somewhat obvious: broaden my area of influence from the sweet office space out into the streets. I’ve been hinting at the next plan throughout this thread, so I’ll reveal some of it below. But I thank you for the kind, but somber words, nonetheless; at least I know there would have been some people out there who would have appreciated the typewriter installation (it almost makes me think that I ought to shift my target audience to lainons on lainchan :P). >I have grown tired of the internet as I've aged, tired of my only social life being with anonymous people online that have no affect on my own life, and given up on most of any of that save for occasionally returning to an image board like this or something. Last year someone started a community space that I've been increasingly participating in, and it still pains me how underutilized it is. This is exactly the kind of thing I want to address with my project. And I have a reason to believe that we’re going to see a massive pendulum swing within our societies from this hyper-individualist hedonism back towards the idea of (let’s call it ”sensible”) communal life – even though the very idea of a community has mostly likely been changed for good, thanks to globalist consumerism, the internet and relativization of cultural values, among other things. Still, there are hints of this ”re-emerging community life” development already happening here and there, though, it might still be decades from now before they really start to flare up and begin to make an impact in any recognizable capacity. People are craving for communities and IRL connection really badly, and deep down we all know that we can’t go on like this, even though we all know what the causes of our alienation and isolation are. It’s just that most of people aren’t willing to (or capable of) do anything about it, as you yourself realized in your experiences with the community space you were talking about - on that note, although it’s regrettable to see a low attendance in community spaces, it isn’t all that strange, considering how roughly 90% of people fall into the category of a ”follower”, leaving 10% of people to do most of the hard work in order to build something that stands out of what is currently considered the norm, so it is to be expected. So, while we’re very much dealing with forces larger than us as single people, trying to effect change still has to begin from ourselves as individuals. >I'm trying to think more on that, and would like to be more like yourself  We’re more alike than you might think. I’m very much in the exact same situation as you: I’ve wasted most of my life in front of screens, instead of working on things that mattered. And I imagine most people suffer from the exact same ailment: mindless consumption has been made too easy for us to do instead of anything else worthwhile and important that demands effort, and it’s gonna require us to reacquaint ourselves with dealing with hardships and outright toil in order to even begin to wrap ourselves with thinking about the important stuff. Even the very idea of being part of a community is insofar alien concept to what these days is considered ”normal” that now we’re at a point where we’re going to have to re-learn something so fundamental a skill as how to live with other people, which is due to communities becoming voluntary associations, as opposed to a necessity like it used to be in times immemorial. What I’m meaning to say is that, even though you might think you haven’t got anything to contribute, I think you’re still way ahead of the game here: while other people are still unaware of the importance and significance of communities, deluding themselves that they can be content and happy living alone as long as they’ve got a netflix subscription and a pet dog to keep them company, you yourself have already reached that understanding, which means you can start to do something about it and maybe even prevent someone else from wasting their time and ending up full of regrets themselves. >We did just get some coverage in a local magazine at least lol but the space covers a broad spectrum of people and events from our more niche interests to community dance/sewing groups.   I think it’s cool you guys have got a functioning community like that with events and hobby groups going on! I mean, it’s a lot more than I currently have, so I might be a bit envious of you rn :v >Keep up the good work, mate. One must risk accusations of pretension when attempting to do anything at all, 'pretentious' or not, from those who get up to fuarrrk all.  You too, lainon! The accusations do not really sway me, because I know the project is about something much bigger than me, my musings and my need to be acknowledged as some serious, original intellectual. I know better than that. Anyway, hope to see more of you here, and you’re more than welcome to share stuff concerning your community space here.

>>13884 I don't know why I'm constantly running into errors whenever I try to upload files here... but let's try this again.

>>13885 >>13884 okay... that's only the first one out of the three attachments for ambient music... I wanna try addressing the point of contention between ( >>13813 >>13834 ) and ( >>13832 >>13835 ) regarding the value and (information theoretically speaking) ”surprisingness” of the typewriter installation for the purpose of creating/propping up a community in a rural setting, I have to say that I appreciate both the criticism as well as the compliment, that I see both points of view, and agree with both. Before I elaborate on this, I want to make it clear that although I wish this thread to have a positive, constructive atmosphere, I do not intend on dismissing or discouraging criticisms wherever they are due, because only that way will progress be made. From my experience it is indeed the case that in rural settings all you need to do to stand out in a town this small is to just do anything that can be considered ”extra”, that is, anything else besides securing the bare necessities of modern life (ie. work, shop, jog, own a phone, be hooked to the internet 24/7, and maintain your car). Like, if I were to go sit up on the public bench and set up a chess board at the town square, I think I’d be getting a lot of stares and heads turned, even though I know for a fact that it’s not really that big of a deal. So, in that sense, I’m with >>13832 in that it *should* be ”unique and exotic enough of a happening” to garner attention in an environment that is inherently poor in information, and thus a decent place to start building a community. One caveat worth pointing out here is that, despite inherently poor in information and meager in events, there’s always TV and Internet to compensate for this information scarcity, as well as to compete with all irl activities, like this project of mine. That levels the ”surprisingness” of all information somewhat, if they are exposed to exotic informational content. Or, at least, that’s how I’m thinking about all this. On the other hand, I do understand that there are many kinds of towns out in the world with their own unique, distinct cultures, so I can’t dismiss the possibility of this particular type or sort of installation(s) or projects being somewhat common an occurrence in small rural town ”out there” as >>13834 pointed out. So, either my town is the outlier in what the average small town looks like in terms of recreational activities, interesting stuff to stumble upon, and other kinds of art projects to admire and take part in, or his is. To figure out which is the case, I’d be more than interested to hear about his town, in case you’re willing to share about it here. As for the point about missing a hook for the project, in >>13828 I expressed that I thought he was right in regards to the typewriter stunt being rather unimpressive, even a bit boring. I mean, I can put myself in the shoes of an average kid and see the situation for what it is: as >>13834 so aptly put it, it *does* come across as the sort of thing a little old lady at the library would do to foster community or something (even if we know old library ladies typically aren’t known for pulling off this sort of stuff). And yes, that’s the sort of responses I’ve so far got from some of the visitors – ”okay” and ”whatever”, which are things you might say to the old little library lady when she’s telling you to behave. In a word, it’s missing something that would make it meaningful to the visitors. Even though the idea is almost exactly the same as the idea of a imageboard called ”Lainchan”, everyone visiting here has got at least a reason to be here: being interested in SEL to some degree, or wanting to be affiliated with the kind of sub-culture the show and its fandom appears to represent. So, I think what >>13832 said about adding an AR or a puzzle aspect to it might do the trick and answer >>13834’s point about making it more interesting with a hook. The ARG route is actually something I’ve been thinking of setting up for the project, though, I’m still unsure when it comes to the details. But the overall picture would be something like this: setting up 12-13 stencil painted QR-codes all over the town, each of which would take you to an image like pic related, with a link to my website where I’m espousing my ideas in the guise of a character I’m currently still working on (hopefully soon I’ll have a test clip to show here). There could also be some sort of piece of a code within the qr code (alongside the website link) for coordinates that will lead people to a location like the room where I had set up the typewriter, or someplace elsewhere (still unsure where if not there). If you guys have any pre-existing examples for some sweet ARGs to give, I’d be more than grateful and happy to dive into those, seeing as I’ve never had the opportunity to arrange, let alone take part in one. I think there is a lot that could go wrong and ruin the experience if done half-assed.

>>13884 >>13885 still missing attachments, but I give up... the second one was Pathologic 2's Rust and Blood ost <https://youtu.be/dR9y4uE0DnI?si=ZxfdX8Ayx9QcFrHt> and the third one was supposed to be The Caretaker's Libet's Delay <https://youtu.be/ax294Sq5phc?si=YD6dwcGTP9aEwPbL> for the ambient music.

You should build a cult and have them do a lot of inbreeding, that way you can grow your community.

>>13890 heh. that was a good one.

>>13886 Will reply fully when able but I had to tell you that I met up with the guys tonight and told them a bit about your project because one of them is working on something that felt like it would slot into what you have now perfectly, right next to the typewriter—it's a rotary phone (he's got at least eight lol) with some soykaf shoved in there (my knowledge is so limited to them) that allows you to feed audio through the receiver when you dial it. For example, it was first used for this art project where you'd call a number and you'd hear a voice on the other end asking for you to confess your sins (the idea is when you have all this guilt built up it prevents you from making positive change, it was some environmental piece lol). It's now being repurposed for a sort of adventure game for the exhibition thing we're putting on, it'll start you on the quest and give you further clues when you go out and find the numbers you need to dial around town. But they said it would also totally be possible to use it to make a call over WiFi....I'm sure you can just imagine how you might use such a thing in your space :) The only tricky thing about the guts of it looked like, well he was trying to explain to me how the old receivers worked and it's a bit more complicated but looked like he just had some additional wires to convert the signal into something that the raspberry pi or whatever micro controller was in there could read. Anyway, if you get your hands on an old rotary phone and can't figure it out let me know and I'll ask him more how he's done it. Talk more later, night mate. Imagine you come across a rotary phone in the middle of the room of an abandoned building, dial a number scrawled on the wall, and hear some crackly, ominous voice on the other end, espousing some creed, or there's another number and a voice reads out the address you're at then asks you to please hold and it starts playing a Caretaker track, there's all sorts you could do :p

>>13925 >the rotary phone thing-y The first time I read your post yesterday I got really excited for this. Absolutely brilliant an idea! And coincidentally enough, I've got just the thing, and it's even the right color :D (pic related) But despite the awesomness of the idea, I think I'll have to postpone its pursuit for the moment, since there are just too many things to tackle first: insulating the room so that moisture and wind can't get inside to blow the asbestos into the air, doing the wiring for the lights and audio and figuring out a possible security camera setup to protect the valuable electronics, and so on. But definitely something I'm interested in and excited for, and hopefully get to look into in the near future! >Will reply fully when able No rush. Take as long as you need. I myself have had a little bit of progress here and a few delays there when it comes to taking the next steps for the project. I was planning on establishing a wireless bridge between my home and the abandoned building in order to avoid paying monthly fees, but the geometry just doesn't work, so a cellular modem it is. While I was last time there to survey the geography for the wireless bridge, I picked two of the central radio system's boxes off of the wall from the large hall and a set of smaller stereos with their own amp that were just lying on the floor with the amp's casing stamped to pieces, all in perfect working condition when I took them home to test them (pic related). Next I need to go test how are the acoustics in the hall of the facility with this somewhat puny audio setup of mine, but that might be next week's job (we'll see). Also, while I was there last time, I stumbled upon this... toilet art installation, I think you can call it (pic related)? It was somewhat creepy to come across in the middle of the night. Maybe a bit too random for my taste, but it does merit exploration as a concept.

>>13928 The toilet "art" installation got flagged and deleted by, what I suspect to be, lainchan's internal anti-gore bots, and although it looks really gore-y, it's not gore but some kind of plastic foam. Despite that it looks super messed up and freaky, which is why I hid the image. Still, it's not what it looks like, so I hope it's okay to put a temporary link to the image here for people to evaluate the merits of doing similar kinds of eerie and/or disturbing installations for the sake of evoking feelings shock and disgust, and maybe that way building intrigue and mystery that would eventually lead to things better suited for building a community. https://storage.to/tblfK8rAC

consider art. paint directly on the abandoned walls of this abandoned space. make something that looks cool. don't be afraid to start crappy in some soykafty distant part of town if you're a bad artist. git gud over time and then paint the better spaces. you will surely get bored teens and young adults interested. maybe make your works of art have some interesting meaning. talk about those meanings. maybe write messages on the walls, like make it a literal physical message board. if you're worried about the cost of that, then wake up: shoplifting is easy. grab a buddy. someone you trust. someone who you know is chill. wear nondescript clothes. go to one of the cities, find a store that sells spraypaint, find a store that sells paint markers. your buddy drives. park in an ordinary spot. your buddy waits in the car. you go in. don't worry about cameras, just keep your head down they won't see your face. grab a basket. or a cart if you can look natural enough. you are a normal shopper. choose your paints. choose your items you wish to acquire. do everything a normal shopper would. except checkout. skip that step. calmly walk out of the store. there is literally 10 seconds when you might look like anything other than an ordinary shopper. with the advent of self checkouts and pay-per-bag bullshit it's perfectly normal that you have stuff that isn't bagged up. if you've made it outside and there's no fuss, you are back to being an ordinary shopper. calmly get to your car, load up like any other shopper. get in the car. drive away. ezpz. if there's a fuss and you have to split. DO NOT go back to your car. try to get away with the goods. if you can't get away with the goods, try to get away WITHOUT the goods. don't be an idiot, don't get caught. run away and hide somewhere off the store's property. wait for things to cool off. tell your friend where you are. call or text your friend and tell them you need to be picked up. (you're using secure channels with your friends by default, right?) your friend this entire time has looked like an ordinary shopper's ordinary friend waiting for their friend to come out of their store. now they're an ordinary shopper's ordinary car leaving the store. give yourselves time to chill out. sometime later (maybe on another day), somewhere else try again. and again, don't be a fuarrrking idiot. be smart about this soykaf. this is crime. but like you're already doing crime trespassing in an abandoned building, tho shoplifting is probably more of a crime. just be careful, buddy

I've been meaning to make an update on the progress I have so far made on the project, but I've been having a few more delays. That, and so far I have not had nothing much of substance to share here, so I've been keeping it to myself. Anyway, last time, although I had said I'd be checking how the acoustics were in the room, I ended up deciding against that, since recently I've noticed a rather sudden spike in unexpected guests around the premises. And because of that, I've felt that the facility is too hot atm for me to proceed with any sort of tests, so I've been postponing all things related to physically visiting the place. In the meantime I've been focusing on the software and a little bit of hardware on the side: installing dietpi on my rock64, setting up a tailscale-mediated 4G cellular module for the remote "outpost" (let's call it, shall we?), remote SSH connecting into the device from my pc, figuring out the pin layout, soldering the bass to the amps I had found earlier (pic related), vibecoding a python script that would trigger my lights, audio (ffmpeg playing tracks along the lines of >>13885 >>13889 ), relays for toggling power on for the lights and stereos, a Telegram warning to my phone whenver the sensors got triggered as well as a one-way voice message sending/playing script that allows me to record voice messages and send them via Telegram to be played from rock64's stereos, and a noir camera recording activated via PIR motion sensors, all of which basically serves as my anti-vandal countermeasure for the ensuing art installation, with the one restriction here being that I haven't got a live camera feed, but have to make do with a thumbnail of the room whenever the sensors get triggered in assessing the situation)(all pic related: from left to right: a regular socket, a relay-mediated socket, said relays, and my rock64, upon which I've attached the 4G module). That reminds me, and pardon me for my lenght-y tangent, but I've been considering Otto Fassel, specifically the song Schöner Gigolo (<https://youtu.be/lUm06kOffwQ?si=O3RPXw1LShoGbYWj>) as an alternative to The Caretaker, because I think it works better as a means of subtle critique on our overall cultural situation, even if that is at the expense of the decadent/demented ambience of Caretaker: if in the ~1920's-1930's some people were still lamenting the loss of the the aristocratic and the chivalrous - symbolized by the old European dynastic families of Romanov, Hohenzollern, and Habsburg - as well as the effacing of all the last remaining vestiges of true nobility in continental Europe, then, in the modern times, the problem is sort of compounded by the fact that we've got absolutely no kind of institutional/authoritative substrata present within Western societies that we could look up and aspire to (to be absolutely clear, I hold no sympathies towards the dynastic monarchical rule of people had to suffer a mere hundred or so years ago, and sure, people these days idolize and hold in great esteem any number of writers, scientists, bloggers, politicians, youtubers, influencers, journalists, "thought leaders", artists, cultists, and so on, which isn't too different from those times, but in the end no amount of such people can fill the vacuum or discharge the crippling, yet ever deepening nihilism of Western societies, since the issue is more of an institutional/philosophical nature, rather than an issue of wealth, know-how, willpower, means, or, to an extent, even of character (that is to say, there is no unifying vision, direction, a code of ethics, a philosophical framework, let alone a sense of purpose towards which we, as a society, would/should be heading towards, - which is very much unlike our Ancient counterparts of ages past, who, to embellish it a bit, did nothing *but* vex over purposes, and seeking to align their whole lives in accordance to these higher ideals - but rather in their stead a patchwork of interest groups that try to rig the game in their own favor just in order to get a bit ahead of others without much regard for the good of the whole, which is why everything is slowly, but surely disintegrating all around us, leaving most of us stranded and isolated within the comfortable private universes we build around ourselves, deprived of concrete life, and sustenance), which is why, taken together, one could argue we're culturally, or perhaps outright "spiritually" worse off than even the "Lost Generation" of 1920's, for we're more akin to Nietzsche's last men who do not know the earning for something higher, and who do not wish to aspire to something greater, in contrast to the Lost Generation, who, at the very least, knew of the higher, and got a taste of it (despite as a mere shadow projected by the "great historical figures", before losing it, but I digress...)). >>14142 Yes, these few months I've often considered covering the back wall of the stage with a piece of some sort, but I don't think I could do anything beyond a simple stencils at the moment (the thought had occurred to me of painting the logo seen in OP attachment, which I think could be cool to see against a black background). I've done a couple of simple and maybe somewhat banal graffiti before, some 10 years ago now (pic related), but since then I haven't done much that involved hardly even a paint brush, so I would have a lot of catching up to do if I were to go down that road. Dunno, I'll keep it circling in my head for now as I've been doing for these couple months already. As for the remainder of your post, I appreciate the advice. Clearly you've dedicated more than a few thoughts on how to go about shoplifting without getting caught, which is a great deal more than I ever have. Fortunately so far I haven't had the need to resort to criminal activities - apart from the trespassing, obviously. That being said, I don't regard all crimes as morally reprehensible, since there are plenty of dumb rules and asinine laws that only benefit a minority at the expense of the majority. But as you yourself already urged me, I try to adhere to reason and erring on the side of caution the best I can, only swaying from it out of necessity, be it due to principle or material reasons. Anyway, I thank you for your concern, lainon. now, for the moment of truth, let's see if image uploading goes without a hitch this time around, though, I highly doubt it...

>>14156 heh. what did i tell you? missing the first image. I just can't seem to get this uploading stuff working properly, can I? ugh anyway, the amp + bass from >>13928 secured in one place

Been a while, and the thread is due for an update on the project's current progress. Over the last month or so I haven't made any big, earth-shattering strides. But now all those little steps are adding up, and we're now only a couple steps away from launching the art project, but I'll get to that soon. Can't recall exact dates anymore, so I'll recount the steps in the form of phases (see: pics above). Phase A was just me trying out how the connection between the cellular module and my main pc held up. Also tested how long the power bank lasted for the SBC. Pretty nicely for both, in fact. Phase B involved me remounting the missing stereos (see here, pic related >>14157) back on to the walls. Not much else that day, because they were a bitch to reattach, since I had used too much force last time I had de-attached them. Phase C, which took the longest, involved installing PIR sensors for the surveillance camera. First I had to figure out a semi-covert places for the sensors, and once I found them, I had to do some modifications for fitting them. I repurposed defunct fire alarms to serve as my sensors. Next I had to do the wiring, which, along some ~10-20 meter distance, were littered with constant and incessant contact issues, for which I had to run back and forth the hall, hence the time delay. Who could've known repurposing pre-existing wirings without a map would end up being so tedious? heh Anyway, once I managed to figure that out, I soon took a rapid pace in installments, which brings up to phase D: testing PIR sensors, cellular module and audio all together. I also tested a smaller power bank (at this early into the project I don't want to risk the larger power bank getting demolished or stolen, since it's a solar-power compatible, and overall a lot more valuable). In phase E I installed a noir camera, and did some preparations for when I'm going to install a spotlight. In phase F I tried the relay board from >>14156 within the whole setup I had thus far established earlier. There were some hiccups there... a loose wire that I couldn't find until the very next day. Phases G and H are basically the same thing from yesterday. A few weeks before I had intended on hiding the rock64 SBC, the battery and the cellular module within the electrical panel seen in phase D's image, but there ended up being too many limitations to this, so I had to figure out a new place for everything. So, I did some more wiring and finally tested the whole system live. For the near future, there are now a few things left to do: figure out a place for the spotlight, do the wiring for it, endarken/insulate the hall room (although I was supposed to begin tackling it all the way in June (>>13928), the place was too frequently visited by disturbing forces for anything like that, plus I wanted to set up the camera first in order to guard that nobody would break the panels I'd be installing to cover the broken windows, so I did all this first), iron out some kinks in my setup (for instance, I've noticed just now that one of the sensors is probably too sensitive or in a bad spot, since it keeps triggering by itself, in addition to which I'm having some issues with the camera: the camera seems to work just fine whenever I bring it home and test in isolation, but after I reconnect it to my rock64 with all the sensors, relays, cellular module and power bank, it suddenly runs into constant errors and refuses to recording anything. I'm still not 100% sure on what the problem is, but I'm starting to lean on the possibility that the rock64 is just too weak to power/use all at the same time, which is why I'm considering either switching to raspberry or buying an externally power supplied hub for all these devices. But for now, I'm gonna try running this thing over night without the cellular module to see if the rock64 really just can't handle all those devices, meaning I won't know whether something has been stolen or broken until after I visit the place next time tomorrow). Either way, during the past week I've had fun thinking about ways to expand and build on this project once it's finished, as well as learning stuff about physical security and some new ways to frame and conceive my efforts here. Maybe I'll share these here at a later date. In the mean time, if anyone is interested, the code for this project is up on github to check it out though, I doubt there's much to see, since it's AI generated slop (https://github.com/Viator-Fleischer/Achtunger). Anyway, it's an awesome feeling to finally see concretely how my project has slowly taken shape and become more concrete. Also looking forward to begin working on the next project(s).

Another update. I've been running the system now for a couple of days (the surveillance system, that is). At first there were a ton of false alarms with the PIR sensors (not to mention a setback I suffered because of a microSD card failure), but after some tweaking and covering the broken windows I managed to cut them down to about 1-5 from ~40 per day. So far it has helped me in preventing those asshole kids from breaking things up and messing the place up a couple times already. How? I just drive there if I see people acting like monkeys and angrily storm the place in order to scare them off. So far they've just run away, but I believe that is merely thanks to their ignorance of the actual matter of facts: they think I'm the owner so a few curses and shouts is all it has taken to drive 'em away. In the long run this won't be sustainable - too many encounters and sooner or later one or two will become familiar with me to such an extent that their natural curiosity or even fool-hardy bravery (or maybe even their developing bs detectors) will compel them to see what happens if they stand their ground. At that point I can only bluff and pretend to be the owner and threaten them with calling the cops and other such legal measures. After that I'm going to be out of tricks and won't be able to stop them, since, for one, I can't snitch to the actual owners because, apparently, from what I've heard, there have been multiple other such previous instances where local residents have confronted the vandals even with cops being present, but due to the current owners' unwillingness (or rather outright indifference) to press charges the vandals have been getting scot free without any repercussions for their acts of anarchy, and secondly since technically I'm as much of an interloper as they are, ultimately, I've got no choice but to share the space with them - and you know what they say about a "thieves' guild": there is no honor among them. So, I gotta figure some plan B's and C's to make me prepared for those possible scenarios. >Related to above topic, I'm open to suggestions. I've got some ideas that involve them camera recording material, but there are too many uncertainties involved, and I'd rather have something akin to a silver bullet. Anyway, still in the process of endarkening the room. Ideally I'd like for it to be pitch black in day time, but I suppose that's unrealistic. I guess we'll see. But this phase has revealed a glaring issue in my code: I hadn't considered night-time camera settings, which is why night recordings have been capturing just blank nothingness. For the last few days I've just been running image gain and exposure_time experiments and thinking about the appropriate video image resolution ('yknow, power frugality considerations for a remote art/surveillance system)(pic related). Still missing the spotlight as well as a proper place for the solar panel I intend to panel my art installation with. It doesn't help either that I've had to wait over a month for the extension power cable to said solar panel. In the meantime I noticed I had underestimated the distance between the safe-room where I'm keeping my CBS (and where I'll be storing my power bank) and the nearest most suitable mounting location for the solar panel, which means I'll have to make my own wiring solutions... yet again. I'm fairly sure this thread has turned into my very own blog with a readership of one (me), so I'll just write some of my quasi-"philosophical" musings here regarding the project to which I've alluded in my previous post >>14224, in order to free up my working memory for other things. I believe that in the coming decades large swaths of common people (that is, "we", the people slightly below the average person collectively) are going to have to acquaint ourselves more intimately with three things: decay, rot and hollowness. As I've previously brought up over the course of this thread, abandoned buildings, facilities and crumbling infrastructure are a rather common occurrence in some rural or otherwise neglected parts in Western countries. In the natural world such a decay is an integral part of the ecosystem, whereas in human-made artificial environments decay is somehow "out of place": it doesn't fit into our notions of what is deemed as "natural", or even acceptable within humanity, modern life, or a civilized society. Rot and decay of buildings and institutions is mostly net negative to a city as a whole (and its people), especially once the looters have gotten away with the copper pipes and any other valuables. But after that everything about the abandoned and ruined buildings is a mere burden: it's costly to tear them down, usually an ugly eye sore to a neighbourhood, a hassle to clean and empty it of its movable or the property left behind, and generally speaking what's left behind is mostly useless anyway in terms of monetary gain (like, how are going to sell someone a moldy chair?). If we want to do a comparative overview of the whole situation, clearly what we're missing are the nature-equivalent decomposer organisms (like mushrooms). Who's breaking down unwanted and decaying things and releasing all that stored energy back into circulation to the benefit of the whole social body in our societies? Unless you count the people who're melting used metals and selling used clothes, practically no one (oh, except for those people living in impoverish countries that work in places like the ship graveyards of India), especially as far as buildings go - everything else's left to entropy. So, what about me? Well, I'd like to fashion myself, or, rather, my role here as one such decomposer: taking over the bodies of other organisms that have fallen on the forest floor. Visually this process has been made rather apparent by my unintentional color choice regarding the project's apparatuses: everything in the room is clinical white that is contrasted by my black wires and devices. It's almost like cancer shaping the living fabric around it in its own image and to serve its own purposes. Yes, a rather banal observation, since we've been reshaping our surroundings to our liking for thousands of years now. The difference, of course, is that there are less and less virgin-landscapes that aren't already shaped by human hands or where at least *some* infrastructure isn't already present, meaning we're going to have to accommodate ourselves to these pre-existing artifacts and structures and make do with what others have left us when all resources have been spent and there's no space left for something new to create, which, again, isn't a novel concept: every other post-apocalyptic, sci-fi and cyberpunk movie, book or game has already explored most of this through and through. I think it's interesting to think how our lives are going to change drastically from the current consumerist order of things if certain trends keep constant (like, with the solarpunk, degrowth, communal ecovillages, and all these other hippie-y phenomenons, it's essentially all springing forth from the same source as my "decomposer ethos" that I've been outlining and practicing so far: the negation of unbridled consumerism and financial gain-only incentives; the world just seems a bigger place when you can't (or won't) put a dollar on every single thing you come across). In case you read this far, I have to tell you that there was no real point to this wall of text. Just a momentary train of thought as I'm wondering stuff aloud.

>>14255 why the fuarkk did you install a surveillance cam. it's not very lainpilled

>>14256 >it's not very lainpilled Yeah, I guess not. But it's rather annoying to pick up after some assholes make a mess or destroy something you've actually had to work on. At least now I know who to hunt down the next time they break the panels I paid and installed to cover the broken windows. But if you've got any other options on how to fight against human-caused entropy (aka asshole vandals) let me know, I'd be more than happy to try to implement it, since my power supply solution for the camera is kinda iffy.

how do you determine whether someones going to break the typewriter or write with it

>>14264 Ultimately, I can't determine that until they do break it (and that goes for everything else that is breakable in the room). But, from the video material I have gathered and the few physical encounters I have had with some of the people who've visited the place thus far, I'm pretty sure I can recognize the troublemakers now based on looks only (it's your obnoxious stereotypical high school tough guy who drives a moped, experiments with cigarettes, wears a hoodie, drinks energy drinks and generally speaking thinks culture and books are for f*ggots). I will also be eyeing for 3-5 person groups specifically, since, as the saying goes "stupidity condenses in a crowd", and from my experience the ones who've been breaking and messing the place so far have been there in such group sizes, so that's one more red flag I know to look for. Either way, I kind of expect that the type writer (or the rotary phone or even a retro PC is something I'm honestly considering to try for the next time) is going to be destroyed, and, to a degree, I don't mind (after all, nothing that has been destroyed has been mine to begin with). But once I get my hands on the frisbeen*gger who keeps doing pic related (this must be the fifth time now), I'm going to strangulate him. I dedicate the whole surveillance system solely to his capture. >>14255 Having thought this "silver bullet" option more, I think I have to concede that there isn't a one. Sure, I *could* try to arrange some trouble for the kids by going on local Facebook groups, release the footage and try to contact their parents, but there's no guarantee the parents are going to give two soykafs, and won't do anything about it. All the cards I've got in my hands is to just keep the bluff going and in the meantime try to bring the project into completion with haste before anything else gets destroyed before the installation is even properly set up. After it's been concluded I can try doing the QR thing-y I've talked about before in here >>13886, if it turns out this ain't having the kind of effect I had hoped for. progress: about 70% of the room is now dark, and I've acquired long enough wire for the solar panel. I'll try to fit the solar panel system tomorrow or the very next day after. Also, got my spotlight, and I'm now in the process of figuring out the wiring and placing of it.

have you considered that the real art installation is happening all around you, without you even recognizing it

>>14266 yes I have. Its a dance of entropy and negentropy, of order and chaos. It's the Hero's journey: facing adversity and seeing if the strife will make or break the Hero. It's also the glee of destruction and the monotony and pain of creation. Sure, I play with these sorts of thought schemes as I'm mopping the floor and screwing the movables back together. But once I've had my fun with these thoughts I snap back to reality of having to waste my time on cleaning after other people instead of working on the thing itself, which I find interesting and excited about.