Promiscuous browser
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A promiscuous browser : curatorial proposal for a digital catalogue by AAM 00071.1
Zoumana Meïté, Martino Morandi
TL;DR: open the promiscuous browser
Before reading, open the promiscuous browser at http://tmp.constantvzw.org:6080/ first. In case it is unavailable, you can download the user script or a Firefox add-on in the annexes.
README
I--description+context
II--matrix-of-relations-translations+dimensions-trees-ecc
III--dom-classification+hyerarchies-and-rules-and-displaying
IIII--browser-in-browser-authority-security-access-materiality
+++++++annexes
I
Context
For the second edition of DiVersions, we experimented with browsing an online catalog that enacts and illustrates a dispute between two goddesses. The first one is Carmentis, the Roman goddess associated with technological innovation who also gave her name to the digital catalog of the MRAH Museum. The second is collection object AAM 00071.1 Tzitzimime (or Xochiquetzal), the Aztec goddess that every 52 years threatens the world with destruction, unless humans renew their knowledge during the New Fire Ceremony.
The text below can be read as a README or introduction to the Promiscuous browser, a proposal for approaching the Carmentis on-line catalogS differently. The browser enhances and explores the ambiguity of data structuring processes and questions the way versions and conflicts transpose the colonial history of the museum to digital infrastructures. A new fire ceremony/THE PROMISCUOUS BROWSER builds a cross-eyed relation between the narratives (of origin, authenticity, fathership, power demonstration...) embedded in the knowledge production model of the museum's database and catalog, and the informational structures of hypertext language and internet browsers.
Description
The Promiscuous browser is designed to give visitors an opportunity to sense the relations between the objects' specific stories and the categorical narratives they are set into. So far the access to the structure, and so on, to the catergories of the database is not permited, we take the graphic design of the page ( borders, list, margin, fonts, orientations,...) as a simulation of data structuring categories. (see part II)
Thanks to a script that modifies the document object model (DOM) and displays the page according to some rules we've set in a script, the promiscuous browser performs the assimilation of the metadata categories of the DOM with data-based categories. Hence, it destabilizes the normalized relation between collected object (data), collecting subproducts (metadata) and the hosting structure of the database, so that each object potentially takes hold of the whole catalog structure, according to its contents. Disregarding the security limitations of individualized browsers it, also opens up the knowledge process to a wild range of sensibilities, including several visitors finding each other on the very same page, sharing the same mouse. (more in part III)
In the promiscuous browser milieu, an object performs the display of the web page, re-structuring knowledge and stories in a graphical sense.
II
Object conditioning
_________________|_____________ Collections _______________________________________
| | | | | | |
america china | Egypt | margin (Collection) |
| | | _________________________________ |
| ( musical instruments ) | | | |
| | | | border (Classification) | |
| ________|________ Classification | | ___________________________ | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| archeology Hornsbostel-Sachs | | | padding (Object Name) | | |
| __________|__________ | | | _____________________ | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | content (Inv. Nr.) | | | |
|
______|___________________________________ Object names
| | | |
__|__ __|__ __|__ __|__
| | | | | | | |
__|__ | | | | | |
| |
|
It appears important to notice that the graphical display of the online catalog has some affinity with the graphical representation of categorical methods and rules (array, table, list, direction, hierarchy,...). There are proximities/affinities between the rules of the browser Document Object Model (DOM) and the ones of museal data structures. A script added to the browser emphasize the proximity of rulesets by processing the relations between the object's labels and DOM elements. In this way we would like to enable the visitor to sense the implications of categorical narratives for the knowlegde/story of the objects by modifiying the graphical representation of the catalog according to the object's characteristics.
|
|
|
| |
"A" "B" "...Tzitzimime" "..." "C" "D" "..." "E" Titles | | | | |title | |Inventory Nr. | |on display| | | | |
| | | | | | |______| | | |__________| | | | |
| | | | | |___________| |_______________| | | |
| | | | |______________| |__________________| | |
'A1' 'AAM00071.1' 'A3' 'B1' 'B5' 'C6' 'D7' Inventory Nrs | | ______ | | __________ | |
*. *. .* | | |owners| | | |Depository| | |
*. *. .* | | |______| | | |__________| | |
*. *. .* | |________________| |_____________________| |
{...} {MRAH} {...} {...} Owners |__________________| |________________________|
| \
| \
'A1'=0 'AAM00071.1'=1 'A3'=1 'B1'=0 'C5'=1 '6'=0 '7'=1 On display(=0/1) | \
| \
| \
X['A1','B1',...] MRAH['AAM00071.1','A3','B5',...] Y['C6','D7',...] Depository | |
| |
Property conditioning (object refinement)
( Different forms of ordering coexist in the catalog with their own rationality and contradictions... Some of them refine the object at the level of collection and classification and others refer to object properties. )
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
| ( Dating, culture, place, object name, material and technique define | | | |
| another way of organizing the collection apart from classification...) | | | |
| | | | Inventory Number |
| | | | |
| Dating /A-Z//0-9/ > > > | > | > > > |''''|''''|''''|''''|''''|
| | | | [ ] |
| Culture /A-Z/ > > > | > | > > > |''''''''''''''''''''''''|
| | | | ^ |
| | (Dimensions | |
| | adds some extensive properties of the object
| | | |
| | Dimensions /0-9/ |''''|''''|''''|''''|''''|
| | | x y |
| | | |
| Creator /A-Z/ | > > > |''''''''''''''''''''''''|
| | | |
____africa | | | |
/ /_ | | | |
/ _________ /_ ____ | | |
/ / /_ /____ | |
/_______america __/ /___mexico___/_____ | |
/ \__North america ____/ \____________________________________________________|__ El zapotal(vercruz) |
Place /A-Z/__/ \___ \ _ \______ | |
\ _______ \_ | |
\________asia ______/ _________________ | |
\ \____________/ | |
\ \ \_______________ | |
\ \_______________ ______ | |
/ | |
____material____/ | |
/ \____________________________________|___ terracotta |
Mat x Tech /A-Z/___________/ | |
\ ________ | |
\____technique____/ ______________________________|___ molding |
\____/ | |
\ \__ | |
\____ | |
III
To distribute the stories from a catalog is not only matter of literary writing.
You can find some 'human' readable descriptions sometimes...
But the traces of the stories in the collection are scattered in the details-inputs of database tables, formulated, AND FORMATED into labels and values.
The main way to output a story is based on a picture... and a few words. By lists, inside tables, within pages...
We shall notice that those few words and their table-oriented displays refer to standard forms of labelling that we implicitly know.
Date. Place. Owner. Name. Dimension... similar to an ID card...
Imagination is meant to work through this categorization towards the pages, within the tables, among the lists of words...
This type of display, seemingly data-based and scientifically constructed, comes with its own type of story telling.
This story telling makes sense for us and builds upon discrete measures and classification systems to tell us about the objects' stories.
An embedded narrative corresponding to the scale of values that the western imaginary has in its experience.
The storytelling/display proposes a rationality which is limited to 'civilized/civic' affinities and the interoperability of standards.
Nevertheless, it "makes sense" - it structures sense - despite of the arbitrary aspect of the relations which were socially and politically settled as rational.
The object-centered catalog expands and entangles the different sets of arbitrary connections at work in our browser, arbitrarily connecting two different forms of classification and data structure.
We share our own rationality-narrative to build sense from the relations that are promiscuous in the frameworks of the catalog display,
promiscuous but not reciprocating... Not yet._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
|
| A piece of the museum takes hold of the catalog by ruling the DOM/css elements of the webpage according to its classical properties
| #_INVENTORY NUMBER : The object gives to the page background a specific color corresponding to its number, influencing the following collection objects
| _____________________________________________________________________________________
| | _______________________________________________________________________________
| | |"_TITLE : If the object has one, this should be displayed instead of the page title. Otherwise the title will display its inventory number.
| | | _________________
| | | |*_The picture | {_COLLECTION : All the items will be displayed
| | b | |replace the logo | in such context during a timesetting relative to
| | o | |to confirm that | one holding item.
| | r | |the piece is | [_ OBJECT NAME : Representation of the godess Xochiquetzal or of a Tzitzimime
| m | d | |holding._________| !_DATING : The duration of the script's effects is a sensible projection
| a | e | of the role of the date in the evaluation of an object.
| r | r | @_PLACE : ...
| g | | &_MATERIAL : But there is more, the material property of the hosting
| i | | object processes some layout rules in their hierarchy relation,
| n | | according to the depth of the hosting object's material classification.
| | |
| |
| | %_DIMENSIONS : the measuring values are used to assign the layout rules...
| |
| | materials transformations for holders:
| |
| | animal = writing-mode [ 'horizontal-tb', 'vertical-rl', 'vertical-lr', 'sideways-rl', 'sideways-lr'] [ depth of lieu ]
| | |
| | | stone = [ height ]
| | | |
| | V V
| | +----------------------+<---stone = [ width ]
| | | |
| | T<--->E<--->X<--->T === vegetal = letter-spacing [ width/100 ] em|
| | | + |
| | E + \ |
| | | + \ |
| | X + \ | | |
| | | \ \ |<-border->|<-margin->|~[ depth of lieu ] = unidentified
| | T \ \ |
| | +---------------------+ \ | | |
| | | | \ | \|
| | | +------\----------|----* <----- metal = rotate [ diam || depth ] deg
| | | \ |+
| | | \ + |
| | | + |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | | ^
| | +---------------------+ < processed = translate [ width ] |
| | V |
| | processed = translate [ height ] |
| | |
| |
<-------------+ <-- earth = scale [ height/width ]
materials tranformation by the following objects, in the form of css filters:
animal = sepia
vegetal = opacity
metal = invert
earth = brightness
stone = hue-rotate
unidentified = blur
processed = contrast
on display= show all hidden elements
telling it in otherwise
The material
transformations
...
...should..........................................labels (material, place)..........................the...........................................
..........amalgamate........................some...........roots................................of..........class.DOM/css.............................
......................the.............of...........................to...................boxes........................inheritence./hierarchy..
............................depth......................................the...........................
..|....Hence.................................................|.............concentric................................................
.|.............This model: ......................................|
| A UL Parent |
| ................................................ |
| D | | B |
| | E UL Parent rules | |
| | _______________________________________ | |
| | H | | F | |
| | | a LI child | | |
| | | | | |
| | | _______________________________ | | |
| | | d | | b | | |
| | | | e LI sibling | | | |
| | | | inherit Parent rules | | | |
| | | | h 1st element of list f | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | g | | | |
| | | | |____________________________| | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | |_______________________________ | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | d e LI sibling | | | |
| | | inherit Parent rules | | | |
| | | h 2nd element of list f | | | ...become this :
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------|------------------------------------+
Top Metal > | |
_________________________|______________ |
-------------\---------\-------\----- --------------/------------+ |
\ /\ \ /\/ | |
Node Alloy > \/\ / /\ \ / \ | |
/ \ / \ | |
-------\---\--------------------------/-----/--+ | |
\ \ /\/ /\/ | | Parent |
\ /\ / \ / \ | | | Metal > Alloy > Copper Alloy > Brass
subNode Cooper Alloy> \/ \ / / / / | | | body > div > span > a
/ \ / / / / | | |
+------\----------/-----+ / | +child | |
| | | | end \/\ /\/ | / | | |
|--left--|--left--|--left--|-- / \ / \ | / | | |
| margin | border | padding| / / /\/ | | | depth of place , material
| | | | \ / / |\ +grand | | |
| \ |/ child | | |
| / | | |
| +so on /| | |
+-----------------------+ | |
^ ^ ^
left left inner edge right inner edge right
outer outer
edge grand child & sibling edge
---------------
child
---------------
parent
--------------- <-- bottom of the box
IIII
Security
and authority
strictly regulate
the access to data structures
such as catalogs and databases and to the
online interfaces that expose those structures to visitors.
These #individual visitor #179.36.154.1 #102.16.954.1 #183.16.258.1
limitations |text = browser | A modification of Il solo modo di aver Il n'est possible de
were | | how those structures un'esperienza diver- changer l'expérience
an | | are experienced is sa di queste struttu de la structure que
inspiration | | only possible in re é per mezzo di un depuis son propre
to | | one's own individual browser individuale, navigateur
spin |__________________| browser, individuel,
around
the
authority #172.18.269.1 #179.16.154.1 #172.16.954.1 #172.16.254.1
issue, A modification of A modification of A modification of A modification of
by how those structures how those structures how those structures how those structures
interfacing are experienced is are experienced is are experienced is are experienced is
a only possible in only possible in only possible in only possible in
browser one's own individual one's own individual one's own individual one's own individual
that browser, browser, browser, browser,
would
allow
us #172.16.254.1 #172.10.254.1 #132.16.254.1 #172.16.785.1
to A modification of A modification of A modification of A modification of
modify how those structures how those entities how those structures how those structures
one's are experienced is are sensed is are experienced is are experienced is
encounter only possible in only visible in only possible in only possible in
with one's own each own personal one's own individual one's own individual
the individual browser, browser, browser,
catalog, brow
and -ser
to #172.16.214.1 #172.13.224.1 #172.16.254.1
share A modification of |A modification of |
that ... |how those structures|
browser with others promiscuously. |are experienced is |
/ |only possible in |
/ |one's own individual|
/ |browser, another tec|hnology
? ? / who|se development is in|fluenced
/ #... | by the issue o|f
? / #172.10.254.1 | security. |
.....? / . . |____________________|
/
====================================== /
HOUSED || / ....#By accessing the url
IN || / . .
01010101011100011110001111 | and | /...............................................#one has access
01110011111000010101000011 || ....? ....? / . .
00111000 || /.....................#to the screen and mouse
THIS EXPOSED 01111000 A | | / .
COMMON BROWSER IS 00110 | accessing | /...............................#... .
HOSTED 0 || / #172.13.224.1
IN A MINIATURE COMPUTER 10 0 1 00111000111110000111001010|via the internet(@ http://tmp.constantvzw.org:6080/ )
( A RASPBERRY PI) 111000 || ....? \....................#... #...
00111000111111000110110011 || \ .
PLASTIC | from | \...........#of that miniature computer,
|| \ .
TUPPERWARE | different | places...?? \......................................................#172.16.254.1
===================================== \ .
? ? \ #effectively ending up
\
? \
\.... using a...
#myIndividualBrowser______
| |
| #AAM0071.1Browser |
| | # | |
| |#me # | |
| | # # | |
| | # | |
| | # # | |
| |-within-_______| |
| |
|______________a-browser, potentially in company of others...#...#...#...#...#...
Annexes
Additional files
A Firefox Add-On
A tamper-monkey script
Metadata subproducts
|
Dating ('AAM00071.1') Culture Creator
AD ^ A _ | _ _ | _
/|\ _ | _ _ | _
_ | _ _ | _> Golf coast >________ _ | _
_ | _ _ | _ | _'AAM00039.257' _ | _
_ | _AD 900 _ | _ | _'AAM00071.1' _ | _
_ | _ _ | _ _ | _
_ | _AD 600 _ | _ _ | _
_ | _ _ | _ _ | _> xxxxxxx>_____________
_ | _ _ | _ _ | _ | _ 'xxxx'
_ | _ _ | _ _ | _ | _ 'xxxx'
_ | _ _ | _ _ | _ | _ 'xxxx'
_ | _ _ | _ _ | _ | _ 'xxxx'
_ | _ Z _ | _ Z _ | _ | _...
BC
Place
N
| Y | |
______________|______________ | |
| | | W______|______E
historical geographical references | |
| _____________|_____________ | |
| | | | | | | |S
| africa | asia | oceania |
| america europe |
| __|______ |
| | | |____________________
| 'AAM0071.1' X
|
______________|______________________________________
| | | | | | | | |
africa | europe| roman empire | soviet Union | Unknown
| | | |
Asia precolombian russian empire Uncertain
|____
|
'AAM00071.1'
Mat X Tech Dimensions
| Y |
______________|______________ | Z
| | | /
material technique | /
______|______ _______|_______ | /
| | | ____|____ | /
| | | | | | /
____|____ ____|____ | | /
| | | | __> molding | /
| | | | / |/____________________
| / X
| /
terra cotta >________________________________/
