Collaborative Narrative Visions and the Manifesto Machine

Abstract

The mark of a successful academic conference is the sustained discussion and engagement that continues long after the closing session. For key event takeaways and action planning to have resonance, attendees need a means of amplifying and further edifying their shared ideas and sense of purpose. We present the Manifesto Machine, a collaborative writing environment for drafting and designing manifestos, and for encouraging active discussion and engagement around the topics that affect us. In this integrated demonstration, we position the Manifesto Machine as a thought probe for provoking critical self-reflection in the field of technology design, and for piecing together and making explicit a collaborative new vision of living and working together in the digital age.

Full text

Collaborative Narrative Visions and the
Manifesto Machine
Abstract
The mark of a successful academic conference is the
sustained discussion and engagement that continues
long after the closing session. For key event takeaways
and action planning to have resonance, attendees need
a means of amplifying and further edifying their shared
ideas and sense of purpose. We present the Manifesto
Machine, a collaborative writing environment for
drafting and designing manifestos, and for encouraging
active discussion and engagement around the topics
that affect us. In this integrated demonstration, we
position the Manifesto Machine as a thought probe for
provoking critical self-reflection in the field of
technology design, and for piecing together and making
explicit a collaborative new vision of living and working
together in the digital age.
Author Keywords
Collaborative and social computing; design activism;
design for engagement.
ACM Classification Keywords
• Human-centered computing~Collaborative
content creation • Social and professional
topics~Political speech
Introduction
In his Compositionist Manifesto, Latour argues that the
pursuit of progress and a common world begs a
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CSCW '18 Companion, November 3–7, 2018, Jersey City, NJ, USA
© 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6018-0/18/11.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3272973.3272999
Simone Ashby
Madeira-ITI, University of
Madeira, Funchal 9020-105,
Portugal
simone.ashby@m-iti.org
Julian Hanna
Madeira-ITI
Funchal 9020-105, Portugal
julian.hanna@m-iti.org
Sónia Matos
Madeira-ITI
Funchal 9020-105, Portugal
sonia.matos@ m-iti.org
Ricardo Rodrigues
Madeira-ITI, University of
Madeira
Funchal 9020-105, Portugal
ricardojoaofreitas@gmail.com
Figure 1: Latour's
Compositionist Manifesto
(2010).

repurposing of the manifesto as a "call to attention"
and narrative vision for confronting new prospects and
making manifest the search for universality [6].
Latour's compositionist framing stands in contrast with
the "violence and precision" [8] that characterize
avant-garde manifestos of the previous century.
Instead of bold rhetoric hastening us into the world of
the beyond, "so unrealistic, so utopian, so full of hype"
[6], Latour urges a slower, more careful stitching
together of truths in search of the Common.
Since 2010, the year Latour published his manifesto,
technological changes such as the rise of social media
have created new divisions and an increase in political
extremism and populist politics. At the same time, the
present decade has also seen the rise of #hashtag-
driven movements [3] including #BlackLivesMatter,
#MeToo, and #NeverAgain – movements that began in
the US but which have had global repercussions. Digital
activism has given new life to the manifesto, which
accommodates easily to online environments and their
demand for clear, concise, impactful expression. Recent
online manifestos announcing a variety of platforms
include #CampaignZero,1 #NeverAgain,2 #TimesUp,3
and even a French Anti-#MeToo campaign.4 ´
Despite Latour's pronouncement that its time "has long
passed" [6], the manifesto is reasserting itself in the
1 https://www.joincampaignzero.org/#vision
(commonly associated with #BlackLivesMatter)
2 https://www.theguardian.com/us-
news/commentisfree/2018/mar/23/parkland-students-
manifesto-americas-gun-laws
3 https://www.timesupnow.com/
4 https://www.worldcrunch.com/opinion-analysis/full-translation-
of-french-anti-metoo-manifesto-signed-by-catherine-deneuve
social and political mise-en-scène. In fact, the
manifesto in 2018 is closer to Latour’s Compositionist
Manifesto, with its emphasis on positive and
constructive change, than the author might have
anticipated. At their best, manifestos act as
advertisements for change; they build hope in an era of
hopelessness; they create networks of likeminded
activists, offering people a sense of community and
clarity of purpose.
From an HCI and technology design perspective, the
manifesto opens a window of opportunity into the
design of sociotechnical interventions that prompt
individuals towards modes of discussion, debate and
reflection [1, 2]. Thus we introduce the latest iteration
of the Manifesto Machine, a collaborative environment
for drafting and designing manifestos. We showcase
our recent efforts to create a collaborative online
environment that familiarizes people with manifesto
writing through template phrases drawn from current
and historical examples and bold graphic design
features. Finally, we position the Manifesto Machine as
a thought probe for engaging CSCW 2018 participants
in a manifesto writing challenge around new ways of
co-existing and thriving together in the digital age.
Manifesto Writing and Collaboration
Manifestos are often used to circumvent formal
processes and channels of governance, such as
parliamentary or legal systems, articulating grievances
while exposing broken promises, exclusions, and
deferrals (not unlike social media) [7]. In this sense
they resemble collaborative platforms and systems.
Increasingly, some academics seek not only to work
from the outside, studying collective action, but also to
Figure 2: Clickable
categories for the We The
Protesters (WTP) 10-point
Campaign Zero manifesto,
commonly associated with
#BlackLivesMatter (2015).

work with (and from within) social movements. The
manifesto, in contrast to the traditional academic
paper, serves this purpose. It may be viewed as a
gathering point, a collective canvas that crosses sectors
and borders to promote positive collective action and
resistance by prying open discursive and imaginative
spaces and forcing new ideas into the public view. As
Garnet Hertz states in his Disobedient
Electronics manifesto: "If we are living in a post-truth
time, we should focus on trying to make progressive
arguments and facts more legible and engaging to a
wide and diverse audience" [4].
In their argument for platform cooperativism, scholars
and activists Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider posit
that the source of platform capitalism's power is the
culture or ecosystem built up by its corporations: "the
festivals, the meetups, the memes, the manifestos—
that share norms for what kinds of practices are
expected and celebrated" [10]. Redefining and
changing norms requires cultivation of an alternative
discursive ecosystem to that of platform capitalism,
which includes writing new manifestos. Scholz’s essay-
manifesto "Platform Cooperativism vs. the Sharing
Economy" includes steps to action and manifesto-like
declarations such as: "There isn’t just one inevitable
future of work. Let us apply the power of our
technological imagination to practice forms of
cooperation and collaboration" [9]. The alternative to
an unacceptable status quo and the formation "Let us
…" are both classic hallmarks of the manifesto.
Another recent example is MIT Media Lab Director
Joichi Ito’s "Resisting Reduction" manifesto, which uses
the form as a "seed essay" for gathering commentary
[5]. New iterations have since been published that
incorporate feedback. Collaborative writing and
transparency are two of the manifesto’s best features –
as is the use of provocation, gentle in this case, for
starting (or continuing) a conversation.
The Manifesto Machine
The Manifesto Machine is a creative and collaborative
environment that gives likeminded individuals the tools
and inspiration to draft, design, and disseminate
coherent and persuasive manifestos. We want to
empower artists, activists and scholars to overcome
barriers to participation (shyness, lack of knowledge,
sense of authority) and discover the freedom-within-
constraints that manifesto writing offers. Ultimately, we
aim to deliver an end-to-end experience for learning
about the manifesto form, browsing contemporary and
historical examples, and offering a virtual space for
designing and disseminating collaborative manifestos.
In the current iteration of the Manifesto Machine (Figs.
4, 5), phrases often used in manifestos appear in
searchable drop-down lists, arranged by rhetorical
category on the left of the canvas. The user can drag
and drop text elements onto the canvas and position
them as desired. Users can also free-type in the
canvas, using sliders to choose from a curated selection
of open-source fonts, and control size, leading,
tracking, and kerning. There are additional options to
randomly select, or reverse, complementary color
schemes (with aesthetic choices extending to the entire
interface, including control panels, to minimize
distraction), and to save and share manifestos.
So far, we have worked with two different groups to
explore manifesto writing: the first was part of a
collaborative economy training school in November
Figure 3: Snapshot from
Garnet Hertz's 'Disobedient
Electronics' manifesto at
http://www.disobedientelec
tronics.com/.
Figure 4: The Manifesto
Machine collaborative
writing environment.

2017; more recently, we hosted a workshop in April
2018 involving university Design students. Both
interventions resulted in insights - such as connecting
users to their emotions, making visual impact, and the
potential of the Manifesto Machine as an educational
tool - that have informed or reinforced the design.
Integrated Demo Challenge and Conclusion
Manifestos are a form of public writing. They should be
open, accessible, and collaborative – speaking clearly
and generating discussion and debate. Thus, the aim of
our demonstration and CSCW Manifesto Challenge is to
explore manifesto writing with conference attendees
around living and working together in the digital age.
The Manifesto Machine, as it currently exists, offers
opportunities for engaging conference goers with the
aim of producing constructive interventions along the
lines of Latour's Compositionist Manifesto and Ito's
seed essay strategy.
The purpose of the demo is twofold: to gather data for
further study; and to encourage attendees to articulate
their ideas and document persuasive arguments while
the conference is live, as well as providing a discursive
space for making these statements visible beyond the
life of the conference. Participants will be invited to
experiment with the Manifesto Machine and compose
short, provocative texts with bold visual appeal around
the given topic. After saving their manifesto,
participants can tweet the image via the Manifesto
Machine Twitter account (@ManifestoMachi1) or from
their own user account, with the conference hashtag
and #CSCW2018ManifestoChallenge. The resulting
effect will be a cumulative string of bold declarations
arising from and reflecting conference discussions.
References
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Retrieved June 15, 2018 from
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Figure 5: Manifesto
Machine drop-down lists,
canvas, and controls.
Figure 6: Manifesto
generated at the
Collaborative Economy
Training School writing
workshop, Funchal,
Portugal.