Hi all!
Kevin Gotkin
Just wanted to send a quick note introducing myself. My name is Kevin
Gotkin, I'm a first year PhD student at the Annenberg School for
Communication at Penn. I'm still getting used to Philly and my
(horribly imbalanced) school-life ratio here, but I came across your
group and want to get involved!
I'm not a programmer myself (or if I am, the "hello world" command is
my best shot), but my research revolves around the culture and
politics of hacking. I think about things like craft, creativity, and
beauty in programming and try to locate hacking as an artistic,
personal practice. I'm about to start a project on hacker ritual
(arguing against the tabloid sense of hacking as a transgressive, lone
wolf activity). I'm interested in the way that hacking can be thought
of as transcendence in perhaps the same way that we think about other
kinds of rituals.
If that all sounds hokey and annoying, I'm sorry. I'm also just
interested in getting out of my apartment more, so I'd love to pop
into your Tuesday night meetings. I probably won't be the best
technical collaborator, but I was thinking maybe I can help film some
of the events/meetings for promos and documentation for you guys, if
that's something that would be helpful. I can grab some cameras from
my school and I'm working on my Final Cut Pro skills, so I might be of
help in that way.
Anyway, just wanted to say hey!
-Kevin
Stephanie Alarcon
Thanks for getting in touch. You're more than welcome to stop by on
Tuesday and check out our organizing process. Although most of us
probably think of ourselves as having a hacker mentality in the sense of
pulling things apart to see how they tick, our work tends to revolve
around activities and education, and helping other people feel empowered
to level up their tinkerer instincts. If you watched us for a while you
might find that a salient ritual is that of discussing, how can we get
more people interested in stuff they imagine to be beyond their grasp?
How can we help artists push their boundaries?
I think we'd love to have more documentation of stuff we do, especially
film, but don't feel pressured to have something to offer. Just come on
by and see what we're up to.
Steph
Georgia
I second what Stephanie said. I look forward to seeing you on a
Tuesday night when you can make it out to the space.
Best,
Georgia