Monday, May 5

Naa had a school visit in the morning, which meant she had to be outside Sanomatalo at 9:00. This, in turn, meant that we both left the house at about 8:15 with Irma, who was starting her new (temporary) job today in the centre. We all drove to Puotila, left the car, and got the metro. I said goodbye at Sörnäinen, and they carried on.

I spent the morning in impromptu meetings, while trying to write an essay that never got completed. Among the meetings were a series of discussions to try to work out the practical details of the Omtänk programme. Where will the students meet, and who will tell them this? Tomas, Liisa and I came to some decisions, and Robert sent some mails to us. Then Tomas and I came to some different decisions, and it was time for lunch.

In the afternoon I looked through the CMS course notes, and at the work on Its Learning, and made final preparations for this week’s classes, which will conclude the course. Then Jutta and I chatted and we both left in different directions: she went to work on her car and I walked to Pixelache. We are gathered here today as part of the global Meet To Delete event. To quote Pixelache’s own site:

New Zealand based artist-hacker Julian Priest‘s latest project is an orbital artwork called The Weight of Information, based on a pico-satellite was originally scheduled for launch on March 30th, to orbit the Earth for 3 weeks before burning-up on re-entry. It was finally launched on April 18th.

Pixelversity 2014 celebrates and engages with this endeavour as part of its ‘infowork’ thematic. We will arrange one of the related ‘Meet to Delete’ events taking place during the pico-satellite’s orbit-time and so life-span, inviting a group of people together for a bonfire party to delete information in solidarity with the satellite. Julian Priest will provide satellite tracking through a simple website, and request a matchbox of ash as documentation (we must be careful not to create too much information).

Andrew, Antti, Sara and I have gathered some old Pixelache documents outside the office and solemnly light a miniature bonfire. Soon we will go back indoors and slowly delete some data from our laptops and tablets. Then Andrew will send a mail as documentation to Julian Priest and we will all go home.

Irma will explain about her new job, and the problems of perfume in the workplace. I will go for a walk. Everyone will go to bed.