okie dokie whoo wow I you cannot I so
first disappointment I don't have any
slides because because it is about
storytelling so you can give out this is
this is awful
can we just like have to step their the
light of the like to turn the lights off
in here really it's really better i feel
i feel so alienated from my audience i
just want to see them just like turn
turn the room lights on really ok
because this is really this is weird I
feel like an alien I'm like yeah that's
that's how I like it
ok so thank you so much for coming
just a quick question how many of you
people of whatever gender you prefer
being addressed with have been here two
years ago to see my ranting about
hackers
oh ok it worked
they come back it's Maya so a guy last
year called me the angry process of hope
and it can only be an Austrian yeah
because what austria provided the world
with his Hitler and myself here of
course here so so my name for all hot
out Bernie Thank you Thank You Brent
yeah absolutely are the main problem is
now and that's also a little bit about
storytelling is now the mad prophet is
now running for presidency so it's a
that's that's the problem of white angry
emails they do weird shit that doesn't
help anyone here
ok so for all of you here who don't know
me my name is your harness and my last
name is long and complicated its case
foot back and which means roughly
translated border for de so my name is
Johnny board of order in English and i'm
from Austria it's a small little country
in the middle of Europe known for music
and mass murder and it is a pleasure
being here again at hope and i want to
talk about storytelling for hackers
the actual title is what that fuck are
you talking about storytelling for
hackers just to put an emphasis on that
we need to do something here so
storytelling wise i am a very very happy
that I decided not to do the powerpoint
thing because i think what hackers are
people in the hacking community really
lack is a way of getting a message
across of getting the point across and
the cool and interesting thing about
storytelling is also a little bit my
personal story my personal story is i
was born in 1975 so I grew up in the
middle of nowhere in the Austrian
countryside and there was no one there
that was like me i was really strange
nerd before the term nerd arrived in
Austria and I tried to find other people
that I could talk to about all the stuff
that i wanted to talk about and i was
kinda like this like weird strange kind
of privileged white little fucker who
was looking for other privileged white
little fuckers to talk about and at one
point realizing that that's probably the
problem because my little fuckers always
try to find otherwise little fuckers and
which summarizes the hall hackerspaces
community in one point but the main
problem of the hacker spaces community
and the hacking community is that
hackers are very very exclusionist
although everyone says we are so its
conclusion is that was wonderful and we
welcome everyone into our midst and it
doesn't really work and one main problem
of that is because the way we tell our
stories the way in a certain way I i
hate PR terms a lot but the way we are
selling our revolution the way how we
sell our counter culture and our our
subversion is always in a completely
weird and skewed way that most of us
don't understand
our selves see growing up as a nerd i
was kinda like a shine personality but
what I learned is that there's only one
way of kind of like finding other people
is communicating with other people and
telling them what what I was about and
what I thought the world should be all
about of course in the mid-1980s i got
my first computer and my first modem and
i joined the BBS system and i found
other people there that I could
communicate with and the cool thing is
like what remains in my fragmented
memories from back then is the stories I
heard it was a really tight-knit
community to BBS systems and fighting
and all that kind of stuff but what
sticks still in my mind is like how i
was introduced how I got personal
messages from people running BBS or
other nerds in the community who kinda
like told me hey that's us and that's
how we work and do you want to
contribute to that in a meaningful way
or don't you
or do you have something that could help
our community in a way that would change
it to a better community and for me that
was really interesting so I also
remember it was the first time that I
got kinda like an online comic threat
mail but not the threat mail in a bad
way i got an email from another guy
because I was I was younger was like 13
or 14 is something like that and I said
something really obnoxious and stupid on
a message board in the final net and
that guy was really calling me and
saying like you can't do that shit like
just like behave in a certain way it was
good it was good that someone told me to
behave in a certain way it was something
like an etiquette but it didn't really
exist and i'm not a huge fan of Medicaid
in general because we need the million
gazillion etiquettes for all different
communities and all different scenes and
sub scenes but it was for me like a way
of learning to communicate
and listening to other people and in the
same time I was doing a lot of pen and
paper roll playing I'm not sure any pen
paper all players here who still do it
but still the point was i'm not i'm
still not really i mean i tried doing
groups again like two or three years ago
but I stopped doing it but the cool
thing about role-playing is and doing it
with your friends is you learned is like
really interesting skill of telling a
story listening to a story reacting to
the story and it's a discourse it's a
dialogue and of course most of that this
course is about killing works or
something like that so it's kinda like a
low-level this course but in a certain
way I spilled water on this thing here
so okay i'll put it up there so
role-playing gave me a tool so to speak
of Catholic emphasizing and trying and
writing down stories and trying to find
what's the what's the essence of the
story and what do you really want to
communicate and at one point when I was
like 15 16 17
that's what I'm still known for is I
found that like an art technology
philosophy group called monochrome and
I'm still part of it and the basic idea
of monochrome still nowadays is finding
the perfect weapon of mass distribution
of an idea so sometimes it could be a
musical sometimes it could be a computer
program or robots sometimes it could be
on a computer game or a novel or at
piece of street theater it does not
matter what medium you use you always
are telling a story and the story is the
key and the essence of what you doing
especially as myself in a political
activist way because the main problem
nowadays is nobody wants to listen
anymore because everyone things like
they already know everything anyways so
how can you reach people out there how
can you spread virally information
now can you tell stories to an audience
that doesn't want to listen to you
anymore so political work and for me
hacking is political work doesn't work
in the same way as in the seventies or
in the eighties you can't go onto the
street and distribute leaflets and say
here's a leaf let read it and not go
form a union that doesn't work like that
anymore by the way I mean the whole
system changed we are near liberal is
now we're in a society of control in a
disciplinary society anymore so a lot of
things have changed in the last 30 and
40 years and of course also subcultures
change over time because new technology
new media whatever is there also changes
our behavior and changes the way that we
should react to behavior that we don't
like to disagree with on a political
level so in a certain way i would say
that a political activism nineties and
political storytelling should be more
like a virus or should be more like an
elaborate prank or pranks of sub Frank's
of sub pranks then like a five second
message that can end up on CNN because
if it ends up on CNN
it's wasted anyways so it's not so so
most of the prank a prankster as I know
when most of the political activists
including them the anonymous fuckers
they're always reaching for this like
strange nineteen seventies goal of of
the mass audience so we need to
propagate our ID and we have to change
the world and blah blah blah and all
that stuff is even propagated by
storytelling in the mainstream media
like I mean I have to say I like too
serious but not because of the case of
the key story I like mr. robot but I
don't like what mr. robot is telling mr.
robot is probably hacking wise and
infosec wise and counterculture wise the
worst thing you can watch because
nothing in this thing
Shh
works it's a has a really strange
let's call it hecka martyr vibe and at
the same time it's also selling the
point that of course like all hackers
are strange freaks with murder multiple
personalities and all have stories like
I like bad copies of fight club and I
know where so I get the point i get the
story that has been told in mr. robot it
is the story of a really interesting
clever troubled individual and how he
interacts with the world but on a
political level nothing that mr. robot
is telling is in any way a new adequate
or does anything to make the world
better
of course it's an entertainment product
and we can discuss a lot about how
entertainment should be you should not
be but they're single episode of Star
Trek next generation who are almost like
a hammer in your face with philosophy
I've been star trek for me is a good
example for like nerd storytelling
because star trek is almost like like
philosophy for dummies and it's fun
watching it because they're taking one
ethical problem or upon political
problem a really small one and combine
it and encapsulated into one story in 45
minutes with a couple of really rated
relatable characters and then they tell
it to you and you actually learn
something from that I don't get me
started about JJ Abrams and all that
stuff that's going on right now but a
star trek for me is a good example
especially next generation of how you
can do something like a subversive thing
namely teaching people something on a
mainstream mass media level another
example because I've been discussions
like this all the time because most of
the time i take apart films about
hacking I take part films about a
subversion because I was trying to find
out why it doesn't work out why does it
bother me I mean of course i know we
live in a capitalist system and it's all
entertainment products and people are
trying to to make
money with it that's for sure yeah but
still there glimpses out there were
something really wonderful happens that
within that system and within the studio
system in Hollywood dirty production
whatever it is something magic happens
and a one example and I think you
completely blew me down now but I like
Titanic know what I know anyone seen
titanic who has not seen Titanic
ok so Titanic is like big blockbuster
movie from the late nineteen nineties
and it's about the Titanic and it's a
big ship and it drowns with lots of
people on it but that the end there's a
lot of like mice in it as we say in
German is lots of like love and love are
and in a certain way in the energy of
course it's clear who dies in the end
it's the the working-class guy dies of
course yeah yeah yeah sure but the cool
thing about Titanic is and only realized
that way later is that Jim Cameron is
actually not only telling a story like a
big love story but he's telling a really
interesting clever story about class
warfare and class struggle in the early
20th century and there's not another
single movie that does it as well as
this film of course it's at points a
little bit too much but I mean it's a
Hollywood blockbuster and the same time
it's a holiday blockbuster where I go
out of it and I kind of learned
something about how society was
structured in the early 20th century and
to a certain degree heights structure
today but we can't forget about that
because things look a little bit more
nice holidays but then again you get
reminded that are black people on the
street to get shot just because you're
black and then you go fuck nothing
actually happens nothing gets better
no it's not sure that nothing gets
better but we need to remind people in
an emotional and interesting way
that we need to change things and how
can you can wait that idea of that
something needs to be changed it needs
to become wait on an emotional level and
the cool thing about storytelling is
that story is an emotional machine a
movie is a good example of storytelling
is a highly crafted emotional machine if
it works of course there are many
emotional machines out there who don't
work at all
that's what we call a bad movie but if a
movie works you sit in there you're
immersed into an experienced an
emotional experience and you let
yourself go through the stages of the
emotion and in the end you walk out of
the cinema and have a good feeling about
something and you also probably
hopefully learned something of course
you have to encapsulate the message that
you want to portray so let's see that
the political idea that you want to
portray the political idea in Titanic
would be for example the whole story
about class warfare etc but you need
other little motors in that engine that
makes it easier for the audience to get
into that and of course there are many
many filmmakers there are many novice
there are many writers out there who
have completely different views on that
I mean I'm talking from a perspective of
like critique of political messages how
can we still use the media and some
interesting meaningful way to can weigh
a story another a interesting example is
because when people ask me what do you
think is the best a movie about hacking
and of course i know i like war games i
grew up with war games it's it's it's a
great wonderful film of course it's a
white dude and he's just like kind of
like stupid female and ah but still it
was nineteen eighty three or four so it
was a different time and I know it was
not a different time it's just like see
him now but a really good feeling about
hacking i think is instead
action and I'm not sure that inception
is a good movie at all but if it's a
good movie it's a movie about hacking
because the cool thing about inception
is like that visualizes entering a
system in a really interesting way I
think of course it's a cross-over of
kinda like virtual reality / dreamscape
/ whatever / whatever / whatever but the
cool thing is that i had discussions
with people after seeing inception and
one person that's how I actually came up
with that idea is he said it is really
interesting how they portray dreams as
like something hidden as something
locked away as something that you have
to get a lot of energy to get into it's
almost like breaking into your dream and
they do it with technology at it's like
interesting little machines in the area
and didn't really talk about that but it
is true and beer breaking into a system
and sometimes within the system into the
next system and the systems have
different mechanics and of course they
portrayed at with different physics and
things aren't but still I like it a lot
because it's something on a mainstream
level it is something that portrays
something like systems within systems
and I mean for us it's all an easy thing
I mean doing many people who are really
clever hopefully including myself and
and we know that on a certain level to
deal with metal structures but then you
cannot like four forgive it for granted
that people out there who go shop at
Walmart and then go and see a movie I
have ever thought about metal structures
or systems within systems or something
like that no no there is the wonderful
thing about storytelling is like that
you can wait complex ideas and they
might not even be on an intellectual
level but they might capture something
that gives people and out view like a
new idea of having like experience
something in a story in a book in the
film wherever it is that they have not
experienced before
that's why I think of course it is
important to tell people just like read
a book yeah of course yeah but I mean
how can you convey people reading a book
and so that's my whole idea of like the
weapons of mass distribution of an idea
is like sometimes you have to make it
easy for people you have to to get
people already don't think that they
might be educated where they might get
something that they that hear that
you're not expecting and that could be
of course a prank on the street or
street theatre is something so there's
this like great wall by Chairman Mao's
I'm not the fan of Chairman ma huh
Chairman Mao at one point said that
Mickey Mouse like Disney is a
sugar-coated bullet it it's like and of
course is referring to like cultural
imperialism and how and how Disney makes
it easier for you to swallow reactionary
agenda and digest it because most of the
Disney films out there are portraying
enormously reactionary story storylines
about princesses and there but people
feel entertained about the day they like
it and the cool thing about being
influenced by something that emotionally
touches you is you don't even realize
what's going on you don't even realize
that you have been infiltrated by an
idea and I think we should use that core
ideal dislike core essence of like
trying to be in the way that we convey
our stories in a more emotional and
interesting way
so what i wrote this little a pamphlet I
wrote about the talk today is for fucks
sakes hackers are bad storytellers
misunderstood by the media and not even
talking about the mainstream press
ripped apart by their own peers often in
comprehensive and boring why the story
is that i think that we have to step
back i know it's really important to
have inside the fights about what
fucking linux distribution you
but that's not the point it is not the
point of course it's the point i know
that we all like that we all have our
insider debates about this linux
whatever our or like being a Star Trek
or Star Wars thing I know we all like
that we're all nerds
I get it okay but at one point you have
to step out of this you have to embrace
people if you can't scare them away by
saying like oh I don't like the joke on
your shirt because that is not a joke
about the right linux distribution I
don't like you know i mean if you can't
even like have a conversation like like
adult people had a conversation and a
hacker conference where should we get
with our ideas of a political movement
and I'm not getting his debate of a
political movement in a sense of like I
know we have many many people down there
we have people who would consider
themselves like anarchists for most of
them are actually batarians but our left
is whatever is here but I mean that is
not the point I'm making here i'm not
doing a political speech in a way of
like that i don't want to induction
eight you with new Marxism or something
like that but consider that you have an
agenda and I think you all have an
agenda
there's something that you want to
change about the world because that's
why people do hacking and that's why
people come to a conference is to meet
appear to meet community to exchange to
learn something yeah even if its
watching another two hours of Rambam
yeah so round been uh you're coming here
because you want to do something and you
can only do something really is if you
think about how you can you communicate
what you are doing to other people and
I'm even talking about stuff like does
your mother understand what you're doing
and is I know it's like it's the worst
question i can ask here but that's the
point i mean we have the problem of that
or i select if annoyance that Trump and
that stuff has happened
anywhere but the problem is that
politics Nadi's works only on an
emotional level
it only works for based you can you can
you can get into like with a Republican
into a debate and I'm trying to time I
like trolling Republicans especially as
an Austrian leftist I like to do that
yeah because most of the time I'm just
having a conversation with them and at
one point their conversation completely
or their reactions disintegrate and they
switch into this mode of like who and
and it's not that they're doing this but
but they get paralyzed at one point they
get paralyzed because they don't want to
talk anymore it's almost like they're
shutting off and you can only get beyond
that point if they're certain degree you
embrace them and if you think how
they're thinking talked to them on their
level think how their internal story
works and only if you understand their
internal story you can them introduce
them to your internal story its of
course that this whole bullshit about
the clash of civilizations and blah blah
blah all that stuff here
yeah I mean we have that clash of
civilizations between people all the
time I have an idea of the world
let's see its new Marxist and you an
idea of the world and that's an excuse
to whatever it is here that stuff is not
that far apart to certain degrees but
you can only really understand the other
person and it's almost like
therapeutical of remark i'm doing here
attacking someone never changes anyone
attacking just causes the root problem
of like a system shutting down and you
just that's not what you want to do I
mean the basic idea of social
engineering is like being friendly so
and a certain degree storytelling is
also social engineering and if you want
to be a master
of that craft of course you have to
practice a lot and I like to do that i
like to go into bars and just like chat
with people and tell them stories
sometimes i make up completely with
stories i have 13 facebook accounts i'm
one of my facebook accounts is like a 16
year old white Aryan supremacist
daughter from Montana and and and and of
course not and not even my dear wife
Anna who is in the audience who really
took my real last name i can still can't
believe that also she does know who that
character is because i'm kind of want to
keep them apart in a way that I don't
want anyone interfering with that
character because if I have one like
from someone who should not be in her
Posse then if completely destroys that
little narration that i was creating so
storytelling is not only about writing
it fell out or something like that
it's also creating a character for
example on facebook and playing it and
trying to think like how.what problem
there's a 16 or 15 year old white Aryan
supremacy in the middle of nowhere and
parts of Montana half and what music you
see and is she upset about that Prussian
blue are now hippies and and that kind
of stuff you know like I'm trying to
play with that and I think that playing
playing with characters storytelling is
always about characters is trying to be
another person and trying to be another
person at least in your mind is also
step in understanding other people
better i think of course it's also
important about how what works
you use and there's like 11 old joke I'm
always making is the main problem of
global warming is that global warming
sounds too nice that the storytelling
problem if you call that global warming
people think it's nice tour group likes
it cold no its global global is a nice
term warm is a nice term it's nice yeah
and of course i mean we're talking about
like ninety percent of the population
who are not scientists are not
interested anything they just heard here
at term and the person who came up with
that idea of calling a global warming
should be shot because it really i think
caused massive problems for decades to
come
another think they should have called it
something like atmosphere cancer and we
wouldn't have a problem in the global
debates anymore but that's another
example of storytelling like even the
words is a story and you and you send it
on the way and then it gets its own
wings and destroys things that or for
example the whole privacy debate about
other people reading your emails and
stuff like that I think people by
hearing email have the strange
conception of that email is like male
and male is protected you know you
cannot open your mail you it's a it's
illegal that you open your mail you know
for another person you open the mail if
you would have called it and a postcard
from the beginning people would use
email probably in a different way
because they know oh it's a postcard
it's open
I should probably not right all the
stuff in in my email but I mean they're
probably many many many examples about
that kind of stuff so if you're doing a
starter for something like that and if
you want to call it a certain way
think twice how you call it started but
because a name is something that is
enormously fast getting viral and
getting its own life and and even like
putting a name in the world should be
debated at least with your friends or
something that before doing that so Neil
deGrasse Tyson had this fun fun tweet
that and found two days ago and he says
it's almost like like a neil degrasse
tyson has this like really interesting
gospel vibe sometimes now he's like this
like I tell you and he said something
like may your signal behind and your
noise below
and that's that's it to the point your
signal in storytelling should be high
it should be shouldn't be blatant it
shouldn't be you should write like in
page to that the person dies in page on
page seven no of course not but
emphasizing on the key elements of your
story and what you want to convey is not
actually a bad thing for years and years
I refused to read Stephen King because i
thought like a Stephen King that's like
people read that in no in the bathroom
was something like that and at one point
I read Stephen King novel and I got it I
understand why people like reading
Stephen King because he's a masterful
storyteller and he is really emphasizing
on although it could be like a 1500 page
novel you never lose sight over what's
really really important in the story and
only you lose sight if he deliberately
wants you to lose sight of that and
that's a strategy of course of course
you can create something that is working
with illusion that is working with
deception but that deception only works
if it's embedded into a bigger framework
of the story we have a lot of problems
in the hackerspace hackerspaces and a
hacker community and many of them
it's one of my favorite topics is this
whole strange idea of like why are we
all creating hecka martyrs why is this
are so important why Snowden so
important so important why is fucking
jacob appelbaum so important and I don't
take the fucking literally sorry
the problem is is that that's the wrong
idea of storytelling storytelling is
should be not about heroes and heroines
that the hero narrative is destructive
the hero narrative is the wrong way to
go the hero narrative is telling people
and perpetuating the idea that
exceptional people will save us
no exceptional people will never save us
not Elon Musk no one know they have
their own agendas but it's certainly not
saving people you know and if you create
a storyline and the media likes that and
I don't know why the hacker communities
although jump on that bandwagon all the
time so yes of course there is a person
like Snowden I like Snowden did good
things but we should talk about what
Snowden revealed and not about
emphasizing on Snowden all the times
know then at this point is actually
unimportant and the more you focus on
him the more you focus on the more you
focus on a pond whoever it is you create
is like strange toxic minor characters
who end up doing what the fuck i don't
know and i think parts of that parts of
that dilemma that massage is now facing
is part of the importance that massage
God and that trajectory that it created
this trajectory of like people suddenly
can you cannot cope with their own Idol
Dom they cannot cope with that kind of
attention they get and actually
shouldn't I think it's totally important
to talk about the basic ideas but not
all the time about one person another
person another person and understands I
mean I'm standing up here because I
applied for the slot and I got the slot
and of course you're sitting down there
and you're listening to me and of course
you could spit that argument right back
at me and say like hey you're standing
on stage
you're talking you're your own little
Idol now and you're all talking to us
and you all use your authority of like
having a microphone and you don't have
the microphone yes of course understand
i mean speaking or or using your
specific privileges in a certain way is
one point
another point is if suddenly a whole
agenda a whole idea of political
movement is hijacked by certain people
and sometimes those people even want
that but they get too much attention and
if you want to really be drawn into a
story
think about what you really want to hear
so do you really want to hear another
story about someone who is amazingly
clever and did this and that and blah
blah
or do you want to hear something about
let's say another idea so I'm just like
playing with like the hero narrative vs
for example the underdog narrative
course the underdog narrative is the
basic core narrative of I guess the
hacker spaces and hacker community
because we all people nobody really
understands what we're doing girl nerds
what is what is it that we have to do to
finally reach your audience what we are
that we finally are being recognized
that we finally can break through we're
not being the underdogs anymore so the
underdog narrative like the hero
narrative is also the wrong approach
because it is kinda like the valuing
what you are if you're really on the dog
had most of the time people who use that
narrative for themselves are not even on
the dogs
the main problem of nerd culture
nowadays is that nerd culture is not an
underground culture anymore it was maybe
an underground culture in the seventies
and eighties but not even then because
nerd culture was always based on
technology and technology is a privilege
because not everyone can afford
technology i was a very privileged kid
because my dad could afford to buy me a
computer and then
I could get and more them and experience
certain things that I was experiencing
but of course that was a very privileged
position I was in and if you
yes I do actually there's a driven term
for that I don't know it's getting it
it's what Hydra footnote phobia my god
so so so Trump is suffering from what
ok ok no but the story is like because I
spilled my water and I usually drink a
lot of talking for the main the main
problem is like if you talk a lot when
you get that stuff and in German there's
a term for that it's called our it's
called the lavish mites which is
literally translated something like
talking large so i think you should use
that term often in in in in in in the US
the lavish mites the talking large ok so
narratology i mentioned that in my in my
introduction online narratology is a
really interesting scientific thank you
so much and sub-genre of structural is
thinking I'm not a big person within the
structure is thinking like I consider
myself more like him
the structuralist approach because i
like my French philosophers and stuff
like that but the idea of neurology is
that there are certain ways of telling
stories that are kinda interesting soup
to observe in different cultures and
different zones on the planet and for
example the whole idea of the human
arity for the hero's journey that
Campbell kinda like analyzed in the 20th
century is one of these things
I think that most of that stuff is
actually bullshit and I think we need a
new approach to narratology because
narratology towels as stuff like there
is a right way of telling telling a film
or telling a book and you know all this
stuff about like the three-act movie and
stuff like that
I think that nowadays with new media
with new ways of storytelling this is
not necessarily true anymore and I think
if you for example learning to screen
right there are certain structures you
use there's this one book it's called
safe the cat has anyone heard about
safety cat
yeah save the cat is almost like a
formulaic approach to how to write a
movie and if you are watching movie
night is like a mainstream blockbuster
movie you can immediately if you have
read that book or if you have read like
a two-page summary of safety catch you
can immediately pinpoint ok i it's it's
45 minutes in the second break
oh that is the the dark night of the
soul I get it you have the dark night of
the soul area and they are really using
that almost frame on the frame in in
mainstream movies that's why you go and
see a movie and use strangely always
have the feeling that you're watching
the same movie again and again and again
and that's because they use of course I
mean there's a difference between a
horror movie and around commerce
something like that but from the from
the emotional arc that they are using in
those films
that's pretty much like save the cat
right there the book is by the way
called safe the cats because one of the
tricks of this like screen writing tutor
is that you have to make a character in
the beginning of the film you have to
make the character sympathetic so you'd
like the audience has to like a
character and one trick for example
could be that although that is not
really important for the storyline the
person the main character could at one
point in the first 10 minutes
patek at and suddenly the audience knows
all that
person is that person is petting a cat
and they're using a like ideas like that
to trick you into that that's why i was
referring to the whole thing of like the
emotional machine but I mean I'm still
completely true about that i think that
movies are emotional machines i think
that movies are constructed and all the
books are very much constructed but i
think there is majorly that way more
leeway there is made worth name way more
things they can actually do and and try
out with it and of course and that's
when talking to you and not other people
and other conventions is I think that we
have together as a community talk about
what's important that we want to convey
in the hacker spaces on hacker community
so first of all we have to find
interesting narration and we have to
find interesting things about our
community centers hackerspaces
makerspaces really want to call them
because most of the time the problem of
a hackerspace is the problem that it's
sold with the completely different with
a completely wrong and a a and not
correct way
so how can you bring people into
hackerspaces the main problem is people
get interactive spaces and if don't feel
at home and it don't feel at home
because they are not part of the
community anymore and the community is I
have to remind you is also a way of
telling a story together we're telling a
story about what we think that we are
and what we think that we should be and
if that story is 35 year old white dad's
want to hang out with their six-year-old
boy kids and and tinker around that's a
completely different story about the
space than telling a story about the
space that is from its core idea
completely different that is from its
core idea more subversive or it is not
as defined or not as family-friendly
whatever
I mean the term family-friendly by
itself is so weird what does that mean
what-what is a family a family itself is
a narration that we are being presented
with and that narration of course and i
even agree with some of that but it's
part of a cultural grammar that we're
just accepting the cultural grammar is
like the normative way of things is that
stuff that's happening all the time are
getting denser and denser and denser and
harder and harder to change because
people are used to certain ways of doing
things and the more people do that the
more people think that's normal and
suddenly we have the cultural grammar of
a space or the cultural grammar office
society and we have to change that
grammar and calling that cultural
grammar is not my idea but that's a
post-structuralist idea from the
nineteen seventies and the idea is that
pretty much society in itself is a text
and I know that sounds really weird for
people who don't read a lot of
philosophy and really you don't have to
the idea that we can rewrite society
almost like a cold but also like a poem
or like a story is something that people
forget because society is not as rigid
and not as strict as we think society is
more like a jellyfish and and because so
many people believe that it's a
jellyfish it certainly is a jellyfish
and suddenly it's just like concrete
jellyfish but no no it's not
we we we have to accept that power is
not ultimate there is always an end to
power there's an end to the power of
Trump there's an end to the power of
myself there's an end to the power of
whatever it is and the way to talk about
that kind of stuff and the way to use in
a certain way cold be legal code beads
beads are like something like
creativecommons i would say is an
interesting example of trying to change
society with playing with legal codes
trying to change society with other
chords technological codes that would
call them is another story are trying to
change society with narrative coats or
or selling stories in different ways
another way but I think they're all
interrelated and it's a way to let's say
find the perfect thing that you want to
work on and i'm pretty sure like
everyone in here has a different agenda
because you just have different
interests but that interest that that
you really want to get forward I don't
really believe in a soul or something
like that but something that you really
want to put your heart in your soul in
here try to find out what that is then
try to find out why that is because it's
your own story it's a it's the stuff
that you make up we are like humans are
three things where sexual species we are
tool using species and that we are
storytelling species and that's pretty
much it
the way how we present ourselves that
the way that I present myself to other
people is through verbal communication
and text communication that's how i %
what I think my story is to other people
and connected to their story and
understanding and hacking what you think
you are yourself is a first step i think
in the in the right direction of
understanding how other stories work and
why other stories are so strange for you
and why you don't get other people and
why would but try it i think it's a it's
interesting fun mind games
yeah i think i have like another five
minutes i did a lot of talking
any questions yep thank you hopefully
we talked about the hero narrative yeah
i think one of the reasons it's so
successful and I don't read Campbell's
book but I've heard him talk about it is
that the viewer or the reader you know
it comes up in Star Wars matrix talk in
you know on and on and on and other
cultures to is that we identify with the
hero
yeah so the question is how do you have
and it's very powerful way you know you
kind of you kind of insert yourself as
the hero as you're reading the story or
as you're watching a story but I think
there's a difference between the hero
narrative of that that person is the one
person who generates the change and
saves the planet speaking the Indian in
this incident in such a way to put in
such way up there is a difference
between being the hero of the story and
being the protagonist of the story you
can be the protagonist of the story and
the people the readers are identifying
with you but you can be a complete
fuckup that never goes anywhere that
doesn't change anything but that could
be an interesting that could be that the
thing that you want to convey there's a
like one of my favorite science fiction
authors Ian banks whose sadly died like
two or three years ago yeah and like one
interesting tricky does in his first
science-fiction novel consider flavors
is that he is creating an anarchist
utopian society called the culture and
he's selling the culture to the reader
by picking at protagonist that hates
that culture that protagonist of that
story is attacking that culture wants to
destroy it and is completely against it
and he uses that trick of having the
protagonist being against the thing that
the author as a political view is
actually trying to convey so the author
wants the culture to be the thing that
you like at the end of the story and of
the book and you like it but the
protagonist hates it but you can still
play with that stuff
ya think ya
right hi I'm so first of all hope has
already added a lot of work to my
vocabulary but lavish minds of my
absolute favorites
oh so thank you interesting things that
I your German is soon and I introduce
you to lavish my yes
oh Jesus thank you but my real question
is I that I think our main communication
problem is that we try to occur to
explain abstract things to a world that
cares about human beings in their
relationships and I think that's where
the hero narrative and the Underdark
narrative came in to come in so you've
got something abstract you sort of a
graph the hero narrative on it as a
kludge and your bet it'll work somehow
you have better ideas
ok so one point is there is a German
you're preparing your back foot behind
anyone who does not know bright but
break is a pretty cool guy that every
time so that are branched said a
wonderful thing in the nineteen thirties
an image of a group plants so group was
one of the the fuckers behind the Second
World War because they were like defense
contractors as would say nowadays and
they they were supporting Hitler because
they were thinking of would be
beneficial for them so but here but
group was one of these defense
contractors so and and better break said
an image of the crop plants does not
explain how the company of group is
actually working so of course you have
always have to take something as
abstract as worker degradation or
something like that or or that the
problems of of the working class
whatever it is it's all incredibly
abstract problems here and you have to
find something in there
22 so you have to do the cool thing
about stories you can take an enormously
abstract situation and make an
interesting narrative out of that I mean
a good example is like Tron I mean
TransCanada abstracts you know of course
it's a hero narrative as a as a senior
we can change that but i think that
especially if you're talking about
science if you're talking about about
technological problems about hacking
problems they're so clever ways to to
deal with that it's just like it it
takes more thinking because it's really
something that is very specific about
what you want to talk i mean i don't
know if you want to portray a ruby on
rails is something that is actually
worth learning I don't know how to do
that rushed but I think it's very it's
every problem has a solution i'm almost
sure about that has a story that is some
somewhere you have to find it it also
depends on what you want to convey
really it's a if the abstraction problem
is i think the least problem of
storytelling i think i think it is
yeah right thank you enough sorry if I
could help anymore
autumn not i'm very sorry but if you
want we can chat outside a little bit