Venture Fiction Enterprises in the Field of Polysingularity Dmitry Paranyushkin
This is a catalogue of venture fiction enterprises in the field of polysingularity, co-established and co-operated by Dmitry Paranyushkin. Venture fiction is a practice of creating enterprises in order to communicate ideas and not the other way round. Each enterprise proposes its own system of perception with multiple solutions. It is not there to make a statement or to generate profit. It is there to propose its own world, behavior, and episteme. It forms a network with the rest of what’s considered to be real in order to inscribe itself into the everyday. The resulting structure can solidify in the shape of social practices, media resources, software, performance, products, services, publications, sonic and visual artefacts. Why is it called venture fiction and what does it have to do with enterprise? It is a venture because it accepts the high risk of failure but hopes for the high gain. It is a fiction because parts of it are never real: imagination and the impossible is what motivates it to evolve and transcend limitations. It is an enterprise because it seeks to become real and tangible through translating itself into the business practices and embracing the interface of money as one of the most efficient mediums to conduct transactions between fiction and reality. Polysingularity is condition where multiple distinct centers of activity can retain their specificity and yet interact on the global level to produce a common expression. This is how human brain and body work naturally: you may be reading and understanding this text while at the same time being aware of the place you’re at, and also your heart is beating right now and you’re breathing. All this is happening at the same time with the fullest commitment and yet your awareness can shift at any moment to any of these processes, focus on them and even alter them. Venture fiction in the field of polysingularity works in a similar way: several enterprises function independently from one another and develop in their own distinct ways. Yet, they operate through and within a common medium (body-environment), which enables them to influence and interact with one another. The practice of polysingularity has two aspects: the aesthetical one and the conceptual one. Aesthetically there is always some sort of multiplicity present in the practice. The basic element of multiplicity is a single relationship between any two elements. Thus, there is always the presence of “the other”, a one-on-one relationship as the building block of the multiplicity that is being explored. For instance, the audience and the subject, the question and the answer, the human and the machine, the bodies and architecture, a person and another person. It is through this network of individual relationships that polysingularity practitioner seeks to create and explore the resulting multiplicity. This multiplicity may have many different underlying processes, functions and emergent properties, which may be exposed. The conceptual aspect of polysingularity is very closely related to the aesthetic one. Instead of simply exploring the different meanings and interpretations produced by that multiplicity, one can build in a certain narrative or other constraints into the structure, in order to prioritize – at least temporarily - some meanings over the others. These priorities should also be constantly shifted from one set of meanings to another, because the practice of polysingulrity is polysingular in itself. The resulting expression does not just carry equal possibilities, rather it’s an invitation on a journey through them. In the end, everyone makes what they want from the experience but it is in this multiplicity of responses that polysingularity exposes itself to the fullest extent. By the way, can you draw? Best regards, Dmitry Paranyushkin www.deemeetree.com +49 15 777 8650 77 3 November 2012 3 Am Flutgraben, 12435, Berlin, Germany
In plain English. Polysingularity is a practice of shifting through different meanings, committing to each of them fully at every moment of time. This can be understood like this, but also – if you consider Don Quixote or The Little Prince (and really, take a moment and think about it) – like that... or – if you recall the way Nabokov writes about a lorry and the sign on its side (zoom in) that makes a dishonest attempt to leap into the third dimension through laterally shading the blue letters with the black paint (zoom out: back to the lorry) – like that. But in the end, at this very moment, it’s like this, even though we know it could be in many different other ways (and this awareness changes everything). One of the agencies to express polysingularity is venture fiction – a risky enterprise that seeks to inscribe phantasy into the everyday. Unlike venture capitalism that prioritizes financial gain, venture fiction prioritizes subjective cultural value of the endeavour. Therefore, its first and foremost objective is to communicate something that is important, whatever it is at this very moment of time for this very person.
Network of Contents Average path: Average degree: Network diameter: Graph density: Clustering:
1.7 4.9 3.0 0.4 0.7
Radical embodied polysingularity practice.
Curatorial platform for eventbased activities.
National habitat resuscitation project.
The online mnemonic network for the exchange of knowledge.
The online nonlinear reading machine.
A breathing and drumming practice with Stefan Mark Faerber. A study of affective persistence in relation to space and time.
Exploratorium of intersubjective relations with Diego Agullo. Contemplation of death, influence and technology.
Pluto remains a planet campaign.
Henotheistic discursive fashion project.
Interviews with artificial artificial intelligence.
A practice of suspense in perception and meaning.
██████████ ███ █ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███ █ ███ ██ █ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██ █ ███ ██ ███ ██ ████ ████ ██ ██ █ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ █ █ █ ████ ██ ███ ██ ██ ██ █ █ █ █ █████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ██████ █████ █████ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ██ █ █ ████ ██ ██ █ ███ ██ ███ ████ █ █ ███ ████ █ █ █████ █ ███████ ████ █ █ ███ █ █ █ ████ ███ █ ████ █ ████ ████ ███ ███ █ █ █ ████ █████ █ ████ ████ ███ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ███ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ████████ █████ ██████ ███ █ ████ █ █ ███ █████ █ █████ ██████ ███ █ █ ███ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████
Polysingularity The term “polysingularity” has originally been used mainly by Russian mathematicians to describe a special class of integral equations with multiple simultaneous solutions (Simonenko, 1965; Boikov, 2000; Gabdulkhaev, 2005). Integral equations, to put it simply, are used to discover the processes (or causes, rules, and motives) that underlie a certain behavior that can be observed. They are the reverse of differential equations (dx/dt so much loved by Deleuze) that are used to discover how a certain already known process behaves over time. Polysingularity is the condition where several distinct sets of interacting processes may lead to the same behavior or phenomena. That’s why we refer to it as a study of co-isolated multiplicities that nevertheless retain their singularity. In other words, we don’t look at a phenomenon trying to understand how it works. Instead, we look at and study all the different contexts that are creating the conditions for the phenomenon to emerge. It’s not about why you love, but what else happens while you love. It ‘s not about finding the structure, it’s about complete and total engagement with each singularity not losing the multiplicity out of sight. Such approach allows us to go one step beyond the contingency and equalized distancing that any speculative postpractice necessarily produces for the sake of its own safety. Instead, we jump into the abyss of the unknown and indefinable with the renewed fervor even if we know that at the very end we might fall down (although in this case we hope to bounce back sideways up). Polysingularity is relayed through a regular practice, workshops, lectures, internet, visual and sonic materials, Polysingularity Letters journal, daily experiments and scientific research. by Dmitry Paranyushkin 1981-present www.polysingularity.com
Nodus Labs Nodus Labs is a creative bureau that researches cognition, communication and social phenomena through the framework of complexity theory and network science. Established by Dmitry Paranyushkin in 2009, Nodus Labs is an associate member of Gephi Consortium (www.gephi.org), homeschooling association Education Otherwise, and Association PAF. Nodus Labs conducts scientific research and experimental study of cognitive and social phenomena. The results are freely available online and through various publications and books. One other important aspect of Nodus Labs’ work is to develop the software based on its research in order to provide concrete tools to solve practical problems. During the last years the bureau created ThisIsLike online mnemonic network (www.thisislike.com) used by thousands people to retain and share their knowledge, as well as the first non-linear reading tool and online text network visualization software Textexture (www.textexture.com). Apart from its research and software development practice, Nodus Labs also provides educational services, workshops and seminars. Some of the recent involvements included A PASS (www.apass.be), re:publica conference (www.re-publica.de), betahaus seminars (www.betahaus.de), TEDx Berlin, as well as private consulting services for media and internet companies interested to use the framework of network analysis in their work. by Dmitry Paranyushkin 2007-present www.noduslabs.com
Transnomia The meaning of the word “Transnomia� relates to the condition marked by value instability, which arises during transition between the different, often contradicting systems of beliefs. Transnomia Foundation was established to explore this condition and to redefine the relationship we have to those critical transitionary states. In Transnomia Foundation we develop the discourse and practices that help one give into the Transnomic state. We help create the conditions for the emergence of pre-dispositional attitude that makes one agile in chaos, that enables one to make sudden leaps and embrace sudden changes. We operate a world-wide de-centralized support network where members are invited to share their experiences of asymptotic suspension and floating signification under our strict supervision. We also provide Transnomia-certified Meta Stable (TM) products and services in order to generate income for our for-profit venture. Meta-Stable seal is only given out to the highest quality products that allow for Transnomic use that are personally tested by us. In order to promote Transnomia, we do live presentations mainly in the arts, business and conference contexts, such as PAF (Performing Arts Forum), St Louis Church, Impulstanz, Tanztage, Tanznacht, Tanzabend, Sophiensaele, Kunstfabrik, TAMTAMTAM, Apple, Gasag, and Vattenfall. by Dmitry Paranyushkin and Diego Agullo 2010-present www.transnomia.com
Interviews with Artificial Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) Recommender systems – the basic building block of any internet service today – determine the news we see, the posts we read, the products we buy, the music we listen to. Most of the time the algorithm behind those systems evaluates what it already knows about us in order to recommend something we might be interested in. In order to study this emerging form of consciousness I decided to have an interaction with it in the form of an interview. On the left-hand side you see a photo I sent to Amazon’s recommender system. On the right-hand side you see the response I got. The Amazon recommender system works through the Amazon’s iPhone app. Their Memo service lets you make a picture note of whatever items you find in your surrounding. It then uses artificial intelligence to match your note to the most appropriate product on Amazon’s site, which you can buy. Normally used to make photos of books you may need in order to find them online, it can also be used for things that surround you. If artificial intelligence doesn’t match the product, the request is sent to Amazon’s online marketplace MechanicalTurk. There each request can be processed for a few cents by a nameless worker (most likely from India or China). Amazon calls this infrastructure “artificial artificial intelligence”, referring to the real machine called Mechanical Turk built in the 19th century as a chess computer, which in fact had a real human inside. So when the real artificial intelligence fails in matching a photo to a product, a real person makes a match for you, effectively functioning as a replacement for artificial intelligence. Our interaction with the machine and the nameless workforce behind it is documented in chronological order. Presented as a durational installation, a 45-minute long lecture-demonstration, and as a book (available through Amazon, Motto Distribution and BBooks). by Dmitry Paranyushkin 2010-present www.iaaibook.com
The Humping Pact The Humping Pact is a suspended act of meditation on the nature of dissemination, the will to conquer, and the illusions of grandeur. We approach these subjects with the action that can be both offensive and affectionate. Using only two bodies multiplied across various landscapes, we attempt to create an aesthetic meditation on t he human desire to believe in the futile and to conceive the impossible. Our coming together is a tribute to dysfunctional spaces that still emanate creative potential. We build an intimate and personal relationship with space and its architecture, being loyal to its demands and dedicated within our efforts. We want to release the tensions present within the structures that we encounter and channel them through the convulsed human body. The Humping Pact operates on the basis of missions: thematic threads unified by a common condition or location. Thanks to the community of our supporters, we travel around the world to find the locations that used to have or still have a lot of unrealized potential. We then bring our two bodies in relation to each sensitive spot on those beautiful artefacts of human persistence and attempt to release their potential through a mix of affective physicality and contemporary technology. The project has been presented through a variety of media: in short film format (Oberhausen Film Festival), as video installation (Beursschowburg, PACT Zollverein, Arsenal, Kunsthal Charlottenborg), viral campaign (> 500000 views on Vimeo), live performances, lectures and workshops, internet videos, media interventions (Copenhagen mission), and photo prints. by Dmitry Paranyushkin and Diego Agullo 2010-present www.humpingpact.com
Pluto Bleibt. For many years we’d thought that Pluto was a planet and then we have been told it was not. It’s time to reclaim Pluto. Just because it is not the dominant gravitational body in its orbit doesn’t mean it cannot be called a planet. Pluto’s specificity is what sets it apart and defines the multiplicity it belongs to. Without Pluto there are no planets, no Solar System, no Earth, no Humans. We want Pluto back. Now. We want to believe that Pluto exists, even if the common sense and science are telling us otherwise. This battle is more than just a battle for Pluto. It’s a battle for a planet. It’s a battle for our right to believe in the futile. We need to act together. Pluto Bleibt is a protest movement and an “occupy” campaign in the name of everything that has to remain: the knowledge that is not true anymore, the technology that is obsolete, the ideas that don’t captivate anymore, the architecture that is not functional. Operating as a global network it uses ad-hoc guerilla tactics, interventions and marketing ploys to disseminate its message. by Dmitry Paranyushkin 2011 www.plutobleibt.com
Dmitriego Paragullo Dimitriego Paragullo is a compound of Dmitry Paranyushkin and Diego Agull贸, the co-isolated bubble family of transcendental cells ascending from the common history of work and friendship practice. The first encounter happened in Berlin in 2007 but the two instances did not really merge until December 2009, when the actual fusion was protracted. Realizing their ideas through the medium of moving image (The Humping Pact, Politics), photography, live performance (I Would Never, Assymptotic Fugues) and various educational initiatives in the field of venture fiction (Transnomia, On Discord), Paragullo presented their work at venues, festivals and conferences across the world: Sophiensaele, PACT Zollverein, Arsenal, Oberhausen Film Festival, TEDx, Beursschouwburg, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, BRUT, betahaus, re:publica. Combining both air and water in its work, Dimitriego Paragullo does not belong to either male or female. Rather it positions itself in the volatile ground between sexes, opinions, matters, and meanings. It is interested in exploring asymptotic motion: always approaching but never penetrating the surface of the other. In other words, the path of the heart full of belief and commitment, escaping unnecessary complications that rarely, but surely happen upon landing. For example, look how many accidents happen to civilian airplanes when they are just about to land on an airstrip etc. by Dmitry Paranyushkin and Diego Agullo 2009-present www.paragullo.com
Talmulde A breathing and drumming practice together with Stefan Mark Faerber. Inspired by the chaotic motion inherent in nature and human body we explore non-equilibrium patterns of stability in sound and motion. Realized as a live durational performance and through occasionally released edited sound material. by Dmitry Paranyushkin and Stefan Mark Faerber 2012-present talmulde.bandcamp.com
Black Orthodox Black Orthodox is a henotheistic discursive fashion project. Unlike standard fashion houses that iterate a certain DNA in seasonal cycles producing new objects two times a year, Black Orthodox reiterates the only one object, which is its symbol and logo, and produces different contexts for it. Started as intuitively carved DIY shape reminiscent of the letter T (and the letter Az of the ancient Slavic alphabet, which means “I�) in its first reincarnation for SS2011 season, Black Orthodox evolved into acrylic glass jewelry for AW2011 season incorporating archefossil discourse within its advertisement materials. It has then reiterated as a temporary tattoo in 3 sizes for SS2012 season, followed by the release of an open-source vector shape on Github (online source code repository) under creative commons license open to manipulation, transformation and free distribution for AW2012 season. The image above is from AW2011 collection. by Dmitry Paranyushkin 2010-present www.blackorthodox.com
This Is Like This Is Like is the online mnemonic network that helps retain and share knowledge. Created by Nodus Labs in 2007 it is open for everyone to use on www.thisislike.com The basic premise of ThisIsLike is the associative thinking and priming – an implicit memory effect where exposure to one stimulus elicits another. Think of the color “blue” and immediately different associations come to mind: the sky, the sea, maybe a certain mood or some kind of calmness. ThisIsLike allows one to notate all these associations through the network interface, in order to see the multiplicity these relations construct. The resulting interactive graphs (MindPlayerTM) can then be used to quickly access one’s memory, to retrieve related concepts, or to share a certain collection of inter-related ideas with others. ThisIsLike can be used as a research tool to notate related ideas and citations (e.g. Deleuze wrote about rhizome, which is like network that is related to multiplicity, which Badiou wrote about, etc.), as well as also record how various scenes are connected to one another (e.g. if you like Hebbel Am Ufer in Berlin, you will probably like PS122 in New York, where Reggie Watts performed who collaborated with Yes Men, etc.) The main difference of ThisIsLike from semantic search engines is that it does not use algorithms and recommender systems to find connections between entries. Instead, the users have to make these connections themselves, making it into some sort of Wikipedia of relations where subjective knowledge is prioritized over automated connections, ontologies, and profit-driven algorithms. by Dmitry Paranyushkin 2007-present www.thisislike.com
Textexture Henri Bergson once said that time prevents everything from being given at once. What would happen to a text if it happened at once? What would it look like and how would it feel like? Using text network analysis as a methodology to convert text into visual image, as well as open-source Gephi platform, I developed Textexture software (www.textexture.com), which is an online tool for nonlinear reading. Anyone can upload any text and it’s represented as a network, where the clusters of meaning circulation detected within the text are made more visible along with the words, which are the most influential to the text’s original narrative. Such visualization can then be used to quickly get the most subjectively relevant summary from texts and compare them on the structural level. The resulting images of text are obtained through a combination of software, iterative algorithms (which follow the same rule, but lead to a different result each time they are implemented), fuzzy logic, trial and error, as well as intuition and magic. When one abstracts from scientific analysis and interpretation, the structure of these text graphs can be seen as a way to observe the inner (subjective) structure of a text and to imagine it as a bundle of creative energy, which carries a certain kind of transformative power in its own very specific way that is also very subjective to every person who comes in contact with it. by Dmitry Paranyushkin 2010-present www.textexture.com and textatlas.tumblr.com
Way to Russia Way to Russia is a natural habitat resuscitation project created and developed to communicate the identity of a country in a polysingular way. Using a combination of thoroughly researched material and optimistic speculations about the possible future, Way to Russia provides information about Russia for travelers and those who are interested to know more about the country. At the same time, Way to Russia also attempts to be the kind of media that creates expectations of what is not yet there but could have been (political and social sci-fi), in order to affect the landscape of the country through the perception and expectations of newcomers. Established in 2001, www.waytorussia.net is now the most popular independent online travel guide to Russia read by more than 1.5 Mln people every year. It is recommended by Lonely Planet, The Guardian, BBC and others. by Dmitry Paranyushkin, Danil Perushev and Celine Smith 2001-present www.waytorussia.net
PLAYBerlin PLAYBerlin is a curatorial platform for event-based activities, conceived as a way to infuse more movement and play into the city’s environment. PLAYBerlin’s operation is very much event-based, improvised, and anti-nostalgic. There is an intention to bring different scenes together, but to not associate to any of them fully. Instead, PLAYBerlin invites people to collaboratively create situations where something new and different takes shape of an inspiring event, an improvised opportunity to be playful and disassociate from any fixed image or scene. It’s not about preparation or prior knowledge, but more about the skill to be playful, to be open to change and movement. In order to realize this agenda PLAYBerlin operates through the following formats: www.playberlin.com website and other internet networks, TAMTAMTAM events, PLAYBerlin live shows, and artist support, promotion and consulting services. by Dmitry Paranyushkin and Johannes Wengel 2008-present www.playberlin.com
A Minute of Silence A Minute of Silence is a meditative contemplation on the nature of knowledge, media, technology and death. Software and mediated content have a life of their own even after the creator is long gone. Interactive algorithms embedded into the software and mediated content proliferated through networks instantly across the globe engage the audiences in ways much more influential than the mediums that had been used before, such as image (painting, photography) or text. Death is not something that can stop this process, on the contrary, it may even trigger the distribution machine to work more intensively and disseminate the message of the deceased with the renewed fervor. The question is what happens to that message, whether it continues to evolve or instead gets stuck in its own mirrored abstractions. And how can one ensure that a certain impetus towards evolution and even a healthy dose of selfdestruction is embedded into the algorithms, technologies and legal codes that govern dissemination of knowledge. by Dmitry Paranyushkin 2011 www.aminuteofsilence.net