Collective Glossary 2021

A compiled collective glossary of terms, methods, and ways of working that together embody the individual, collective, and crossover forms of research and practice that lay the foundations for SoC 2021.

atender a los llamados - respond to the callings

The act of getting yourself lost in possible relations, spectrums, and calls. The possibility to take a stroll in yourself to listen to what inner cravings, unanswered questions, and interests drive your curiosity. Listen, map, and respond to these calls.

Impasse

Impasse refers to the feeling of being stuck in a dead end street. A feeling of not moving forward or backward, emotional situations that often originate in social inequality, marginalization. This assumed starting point give emergence to questions in queer theory and politics and the various practices in which these questions are addressed.⁰

The Palimpsest

‘A document that has been written on and erased over and over again; and it is the business of the field archaeologist to decipher it. The features concerned are of course the roads and field boundaries, the woods, the farms and other habitations, and all the other products of human labour; these are the letters and words inscribed on the land. But it is not easy to read them because, whereas the vellum document was seldom wiped clean more than once or twice, the land has been subjected to continual change throughout the ages.’⁰

Participation

One cannot define what it is, but can experience it in many ways - and that's what's so special about it.

Protocol

The word protocol originates from the ancient Greek prōtokollon, from prōtos "first" and kolla "glue". It was originally the first sheet of a papyrus roll displaying its date of manufacture. The word ended up being used to hint at the whole document. In the 19th century it was used to refer to the etiquette observed by the Head of State in France. Thus it became a word that indicates an abstract code of conduct, a set of rules.

A protocol can be a pre-existing agreement that guides the way people behave and relate to each other. It can be explicit and flexible. In computer science, for example, it is a set of rules and a language that defines the way information is exchanged between devices. A protocol can exist in the material form of a document, such as a script to be performed, or a document describing rules of engagement.

In architectural theory, Keller Easterling describes a protocol as “any means of formatting and instructing an environment with an organisational procedure that can imply a set of constraints governing timing, organisation, interactivity.” ⁰Departing from this frame, Aristide Antonas and Thanos Zartaloudis argue that even if a protocol consists of a closed set of replicable rules, it is admittedly understood as fabricated and therefore ductile: it can be challenged and modified. They continue by stating that “a protocol’s frame is then characterised by an unconditional acceptance of performing in common without, however, requiring essential belonging.” ⁰Their following point is that as every action in life is scripted in a protocol, being aware of the protocol makes it possible to perceive the script as an empty recipient of new and different performances.⁰

As such, one could argue that the specific protocols of silence and speech that belong to different social contexts, fall within the category of “hegemonic practices.” In the words of Chantal Mouffe, these are “the practices of articulation through which a given order is created and the meaning of social institutions is fixed. According to this approach, every order is the temporary and precarious articulation of contingent practices. Things could always be otherwise.” As such, one could argue that the specific protocols of silence and speech that belong to different social contexts, fall within the category of “hegemonic practices.” In the words of Chantal Mouffe, these are “⁰the practices of articulation through which a given order is created and the meaning of social institutions is fixed. According to this approach, every order is the temporary and precarious articulation of contingent practices. Things could always be otherwise.”⁰