[Noisebridge-discuss] think bigger

immonad immonad at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 5 20:23:42 UTC 2014


I could imagine a visiting family with kids walking in...

-------- Original message --------
From: Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd at gmail.com> 
Date:04/05/2014  12:49 PM  (GMT-08:00) 
To: Jeffrey Carl Faden <jeffreyatw at gmail.com> 
Cc: NoiseBridge Discuss <noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net> 
Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] think bigger 

A lot of things could be prefaced with that.

Then you shouldn't be surprised if people stop turning up to the space.

Sheesh... :-)



-a


On 5 April 2014 11:18, Jeffrey Carl Faden <jeffreyatw at gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems like this would be allowed at Noisebridge with proper notice:
>
> "When you are working on a sex- or porn-related project at Noisebridge, or
> are running such an event or presentation, provide reasonable notice and
> warning to allow others the opportunity to opt out if they wish. With this --
> as anything else -- each person has a responsibility to be considerate of the
> comfort levels of others. Discussions, projects, and events of this nature
> should strive to exist in a culture of respect and consent."
>
> But yeah, someone feeling uncomfortable about a live sex-toy display would
> certainly be able to say "please don't do that".
>
> Jeffrey
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 10:49 AM, Hannah Grimm <dharlette at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Things that would ensure I would never, ever, return to Noisebridge if I
>> were to see them there:
>>
>> "people getting fucked on a table by a dildo"
>>
>> Praveen, this is not as simple as an issue of "inclusion" and a happy
>> little collective.  The truth of the matter is that when you include some
>> people, you cause others to feel threatened & unsafe and thereby exclude
>> them.  People who are high at Noisebridge tend to cross boundaries, and one
>> of those boundaries is often the bodily autonomy of women at the space.  San
>> Francisco is full of places where people can go to see folks screw in
>> public, Noisebridge does not need to be one of them.  If you want to display
>> your bondage technology, go to Wicked Grounds!  If you want to get high in
>> public, go to Dolores Park!  The place full of collectively owned powertools
>> is not the correct venue for those activities.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 7:17 AM, Al Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Your forgot "dropping acid at the space" and "condoning others to do the
>>> same" on that list, Praveen.
>>>
>>> While everyone else talks about problems in the space and practical ways
>>> to solve these problems, you'd rather steer the conversation away from that
>>> and towards the problems of the world. WE CAN SOLVE BOTH AT THE SAME TIME.
>>> Not using Noisebridge as a homeless shelter doesn't mean we must give up
>>> fighting gentrification. In fact, Noisebridge could be even more effective
>>> at solving those problems if it didn't drive people away with its reputation
>>> as a filthy, rodent-infested space where you can buy meth and the people who
>>> steal from you aren't banned.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 7:33 PM, Praveen Sinha <dmhomee at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The idea of noisebridge as an entity being constrained by leases and
>>>> zoning laws is one that is frequently bandied about.
>>>>
>>>> Indeed, in some amount of time, our lease will be up for re-negotiation,
>>>> at which point we may have to make our own hard decisions of whether we can
>>>> afford a rent increase, or be zoned for the next block of luxury housing in
>>>> the mission.
>>>>
>>>> To me, a community is much more powerful than mere contracts or money -
>>>> in fact, it is the community itself that defines both of these things.  To
>>>> me, a community (and movements in general) is most powerful when everyone
>>>> has an ability to participate.  A lot of my off-time work is trying to deal
>>>> with circumstances of  people on the margins of participation:  often times
>>>> people who have lived their whole lives with a world that expects to
>>>> apologize for they are.  I'll write more on that later.  We are all
>>>> experiencing the first hand pains and momentous task of forming and growing
>>>> a community.
>>>>
>>>> We have options to take on both our lease and our zoning.  It would
>>>> require landlord buy-in, and it would require pulling connections inside the
>>>> city:  both of these are doable - as an example, many of you may know my
>>>> housing collective has been working with the San Francisco Land Trust  (
>>>> http://www.sfclt.org/ ) to save our house from getting converted into a
>>>> condoplex (and I highly encourage other people living in large collectives
>>>> to look into this).
>>>>
>>>> We in the tech community in the bay area are blessed with a lot of
>>>> political power and influence: and this doesn't just mean twitter or google.
>>>> Not only do we have observers from around the world, but we have observers
>>>> and friends in city hall watching from a distance.  As chaotic and
>>>> disenfranchised we may think of ourselves, in reality we all wield a
>>>> tremendous amount of influence as noisebridgers:  we just don't know it yet
>>>> (and this pattern of internalized political disenfranchisement is common not
>>>> just amongst nerds but across many communities).
>>>>
>>>> So what does all of this have to do with our tiny collective?  Our
>>>> kitchen issues?  Our disorganized circuit equipment?  In the span that I've
>>>> been at noisebridge, I've seen and participated in:  people adding new
>>>> senses in their bodies, people writing the next generation machine
>>>> recognition software, people making next generation low cost printable
>>>> circuits, people making at home gene amplification technology, people grow
>>>> mushrooms on a wall, people getting fucked on a table by a dildo and spanked
>>>> by bondage clowns, having knock down intersectional fights of race and
>>>> gender,  being  a technological staging ground for the occupy protests,
>>>> having our hacker home double up as a shelter for years at a time and still
>>>> function.   We are creating and challenging the bounds of what can be done
>>>> and is possible and not just technologically but socially.
>>>>
>>>> In that, I submit that our pains have not to do with mismanagment, but
>>>> that we need to grow into our next phase for an even larger and more dynamic
>>>> community:  I don't know what it's going to look like or what the outcome
>>>> will be, but as everyone is shuffling about in this latest re-org, I think
>>>> it's important to think bigger and more radical and more creative and more
>>>> inclusive.  As a hackerspace, we can go in directions no other space or
>>>> collective on the planet is capable of at the moment.  Keep it mind as we
>>>> fight our battles, whatever side of drama you wind up on.
>>>>
>>>> Love,
>>>> Praveen
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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