Cycle 3 Altar

Generative Process(es) for a Practice Space

In the attached zip file you will find 8 audio files. Each one is a generative process (though one of them combines two processes into one sequence).

The sequence of the files is ... well ... also a sequence :) Skipping forward will not make much sense as the later processes address things that come up in the earlier processes = the earlier processes set the ground for the later processes.

I am curious how this meets you all :) As you ingest it please consider it from different perspectives:

1. As an example/practice of "generative process"

2. As an experiment in using generative process(es) as a way to describe software

3. As an offering for collaboration in cycle 3

4. The actual image that these generative processes evoke in you

As agreed ... I offer this in a sacrificial spirit :)

Wow @Ronen Hirsch , I went through the sequence and I love it. So much WISDOM captured there. I need to "let the generative process work" for a few days before bringing more feedback and sharing reflections regarding the different perspectives you mentioned. It felt much less abstract than the previous one. In my particular case, I see that I could contribute to develop/enrich it in cycle 3, though I have not envisioned yet how that communal work should be done.
I am curious to know in what extent our previous cycles helped to shape it. That could be a nice talk in a future sync gathering.

Thank you @Ronen Hirsch for offering this! I just finished listening through it. I enjoyed the experience and it definitely ignited a desire to come to an agreement around framing our next cycle!

Would you be willing to share the written text as well? If so, I may be interested in trying a "remix" of the score :)

The written text is not a "written text." It is made up of small pieces organized within the collective-one application. I look forward to bringing you all into the collective-one space but that requires some intentional coordination (and it may turn out to be a good place for you to "remix"). Until then there is a read-only public link where you can access "the text":

http://www.collectiveone.org/#/section/ac1342e2-76af-1d0b-8176-b50c3e80002b

and I am attaching a markdown text dump which I am not sure is very useful since it loses the structure.

Thanks!! I'll hold off until I learn more about collective one and what's possible there. fwiw what I meant by "written text" was whatever it was you were reading off of when you were recording the audio ... more like a musical score than a poem or novel I guess? :)

I was reading what I had written ... as is. I think (hope) it comes off as it does because it is written in unfolding generative steps.

The link above (to collectiveone) will take you to "the text" as you heard it. You may need to reload it a few times it if doesn't load the first time ... it is there!

Impressions

Thanks for these fine offerings @Ronen Hirsch - beautiful design work you've articulated on these recordings.
1) as an example of a generative process it feels pretty whole to me.
2) as an experiment in describing software; I think its far more grounding than most other attempts I've come across which often feel neurotic and heavily invested in a particular narrative.
3) It feels like a warm and welcoming offering for cycle three. I'm encouraged by the clear directionality.
4) A martial arts studio, where you often sit and watch the first lesson. And a motion arts space (e.g. circus arts) where the environment is often casual, welcoming and playful.

Having only checked into this space now, I find it quite synchronistic that I was writing a similar in my own practice space :p Your articulation is much cleaner with a better end result I must say, which speaks to my own process needing refinement. Looking forward to more practice in that regard!

Reflections

Foundations
• This seems like a set of "we" statements offered in good faith. The content of these sit unusually well with me and articulate values that I can resonate with.

Structure
• The passages between spaces seem analogous to communicative bandwidth. Each space a domain with passages representing 'cross-domain' translation. Some passages might be wide open, while others more narrow and esoteric depending how much specialisation s required to grasp the context.

Practice space
• This feels like a welcoming place, with a well designed onboarding process. A space that enfolds you into itself. A moving set of minimal options relevant to the context your embedded in.

Activities guide
• Uncommon sense. This feels like an articulation of what implicitly emerges in a space regardless of what we think should happen in one. I like this social poetry. (note for @Toni Blanco: pricing guide non existent so opportunity to eventually expand and enrich that branch).

Participate
• Indicate interest signal could also have conditions. "I'm interested in attending this IF ... people/price/dates etc.". While price/dates could possibly be articulated in the activities guide people attending probably won't be. Hence some values should be dynamic, while others should be constant.

• The dimensions of immersion in a given theory/practice via interest/practice groups seem on point to me too.

Interest signalling
• Keeping a signalling vocabulary seems both common and novel. Threshold settings for vulnerability and signal decay also seem like pretty fresh parameters. Some spaces have them to very limited degrees but expanding on how to attune them would be a worthy addition to the web.

1. As an example/practice of "generative process"

I realized that a generative process has to be specific enough to make available the essential building blocks, vague enough to let room for imagination. This process was generative that the previous one. Also the audio format works really well, like it did with the Japanese Tea House example.

2. As an experiment in using generative process(es) as a way to describe software

Not an expert myself on software architecture and engineering, but looks to me like a great starting point for generating use cases, jouney maps, list of requirements, etc. and let the process happen.

3. As an offering for collaboration in cycle 3

Is an excellent contribution because is generative (see 1.), reduces complexity from previous cycle and points to more possible concrete outcomes.

4. The actual image that these generative processes evoke in you

I actually imagined a "minimal viable" version of it with our current tools in which tjust the four of us interacted. Silly image, but fun.

Thanks so much, @Ronen Hirsch , looking forward to diving into the files :-)

Thank you all for ingesting this material. Your comments have led to a sense of vitality in me. These are some things that are alive in me:

1. A question that I've asked before wants to be asked again: do you still feel this is a good investment of your (personal) and our (collective) time and attention? Can you see/imagine/feel something that is needed (in the world you witness and partake in) and that it may viable to create it? To be clear: I do, but I do not feel I have enough contact with the world to assess this reliably.

2. Some details that came up in your comments (eg: @Alex Rodriguez remixing / @Josh Fairhead pricing) are great materials to work with. However I am holding off on relating to them because they are "in cycle" material ... and we are not there yet. I do wonder if you can see/feel how the existing generative process can become a canvas/scaffolding for placing and developing more ideas WITHIN an existing wholeness?

3. Your response has provoked in me a generative description (which I have not yet given attention to or placed into writing) for a digital tool that would make it possible to fluidly create and collaborate on such generative descriptions.

4. This raised another question: how do you feel about making cycle3 about HOW we would approach working on such a generative process? To be clear, this implies that though we would work on this generative process, our focus would be on what is required for this work to be fluid, pleasant, enlivening, and beautiful? This may (likely?) lead to a new generative-process - a description of the above-mentioned digital tool.

5. I feel inclined to share this with a friend who is involved in Buiding Beauty. BB is a program for architects that is based on Alexander's work. This year they launched a "Beautiful Software" initiative and I wonder if there is a bridge to build there to other people there who may wish to play along in actually building said tool.

Last, but not least, informed by all this, and more, I have a wish to see you all. I want to give time for some more async with your responses/reflections ... but a wish to gather is already alive in me ... wondering about next week (Feb 25th) during sandbox time.