OTHERED: Research Journal

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

RESEARCH JOURNAL

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Andreea Iliescu 245953

ADS 8 DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION Tutors Kamil Hilmi Dalkir Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli Rhiarna Dhaliwal

1|

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

2|

A digital territory for storytelling

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

3|

The household where the stories unfold

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CONTENTS STUDIO BRIEF INTRODUCTION PROJECT OVERVIEW CHAPTER I EUROPE’S MOST HATED/WELCOME NOWHERE Mid-term crit

CHAPTER II A MYSTERIOUS PEOPLE The Gypsy Patrin

Final Crit Term1

CHAPTER IV ACASA, MY HOME (2020) CHAPTER V OTHERED: A Palimpsest of Stories

Employed mediums Post-Production/ Curating Stories Object-Oriented Ontology Animism Narrative Structure Film scenes and their symbolism Interviews and Methodology Precedents Research Limitations Future applications and project relevance Conclusions

CHAPTER VI APPENDIX

The Tearoom by Robert Yang, Game analysis

Digital infrastructures and mesh systems of networks

4|

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

CHAPTER III ROMANI PEOPLE IN ROMANIA

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ADS8 will explore the potential architectural agency of digital environments and game engines along two avenues: the way in which the material infrastructure of gaming can be developed, explored and manipulated and/or the use of game engines and video games as testing grounds for the design of other worlds, institutions, forms of restitution and representation.

With an expansive understanding of design, our studio aims to challenge conventional architectural representation in exploring and developing the practice led by each and every student over the course of the academic year.

ADS8 will work with the students and with a cohort of interdisciplinary guests trying to investigate a number of questions: What is the potential of digital environments and how can they be developed with material, social, spatial, environmental, and political considerations in mind?

What role can architects play in these developments and what architecture, as a discipline, can critically learn from the gaming industry? What is the potential of game engines in relation to history, memory and trauma?

Can we develop projects and approaches that can affect the way in which games perform as a result of low and renewable energy systems?

We live in a world of complex digital networks and environments, but we have limited tools to build, control and ultimately access them. Our sensorial relationship to these worlds remains limited to the mediation of devices such as a mouse, screen, trackpad, controller, joystick and VR eyewear. This presents an interesting challenge to develop innovative ways through which we can expand our relationships to these domains. ADS8 will look how we can experience these digital worlds through the means of new formats of exhibitions, once again focusing on the physical /virtual, online / offline journey that is at core to our interests as a studio. [1] [1] ADS8 Data Matter(s): The Gaming Edition - extended studio brief

5|

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

STUDIO BRIEF

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

INTRODUCTION

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

If looked at historically, the Roma people in the context of Romania share violent histories of slavery, deportation, displacement and persecution. The point for departure for my research was the uninterrupted instutional erasure of their people as a result of the system in which I was brought up back home. Romani people, in effect stateless, marginalized at the outskirts of towns and cities, have been successfully denied space. As a result, I considered appropriate to provide a digital territory where their stories can be told. In an attempt to try and shift the perspective in which gadjo (non-Roma) see Roma people, “Othered” is aimed as a critique towards intolerance against the Roma in Romania.

At the beginning of the academic year I started to look into the ways in which the Roma are portrayed in the media, TV shows, cartoons and animations; the worldwide system does nothing but perpetuate their stigma, thus furthering their invisibility by presenting only the extreme ends of the spectrum: Roma as an underdeveloped people, often seen as thieves or beggars who are not integrated in society or, on the contrary, the wealthy people attempting to show off with their financial achievements, living in luxury palaces and engaging with illegal ways to make a living.

Having shaped this in conversation with people from the community, I chose to give a voice to the middle class Roma people, often scholars and academics, who work hard to gain respect in the Romanian society; following an interview I had with sociologist and associate professor Gelu Duminica (University of Bucharest, Department of Sociology) I concluded that in order to undo the stigma the middle class have to be brought to light. Often denied their ethnicity by non-Roma, who choose not to see the fact that they are part of the Roma community, I chose to focus on their stories and provide them with a space in which their personal stories can unfold.

6|

The deportation of Roma people to Transnistria during World War II http://www.partidaromilor.ro/deportarea-romilor-in-transnistria/

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

PROJECT OVERVIEW This year I have been using the worldbuilding potential of gaming environments to investigate questions of identity and displacement of the Roma community in Romania. My proposal is a film taking the form of a digital palimpsest of narratives where objects act as entry points into their life stories.

1 photogrammetry scans of the site

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

As a Romanian, I grew up in a country which has systematically denied the rights of the Roma, leading to an inability for them to write their own histories. Aware of my limited view as an outsider, I have developed a body of work by co-opting different voices, accounts and testimonies through an archive of oral histories with the aim to shift the perspective in which the Roma are perceived. Through this project, I claim that this type of storytelling can help alleviate their struggles by bringing to visibility their experiences.

“Othered” is set in the Vacaresti Delta, an urban nature reserve in Bucharest, focusing on the story of a Romani family who once inhabited this place until an urban regeneration plan in 2016, when they were evicted and forced to move into social housing, having to adapt to a life they did not know within the city.

The narrative structure uses a mixed-media approach: photogrammetry scans of the site (discussing the temporality of their environment), 3D animations of the family’s household (to give agency to seemingly inanimate objects of everyday use) and found video footage aimed at their physical portrayal and representation.

The agency I have as an architect lies in designing the digital space, where I have constructed and choreographed the intersection between the different testimonies and sequences of events, as well as my agency as a Romanian who found limitations in being raised under this system of perpetual erasure of their people.

2 3D models/animations of the Roma household

This research involves negotiation and contestation over the institutional erasure of the Roma community. It gives rise to their portrayal and claim around territoriality and land. Although depicted in the form of a walkthrough moving image piece, the proposal is an open-ended framework where I have tested a set of relations between objects and space. It aims to spark conversations rather than making a statement. Ultimately, the research argues that space is not innocent in the production of systemic inequality.

7|

3 found video footage

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

A PALIMPSEST OF STORIES

Pal-imp-sest: a parchment or tablet, reused after earlier writing has been erased.

Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.1 1 Oxford English Dictionary

8|

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest#/media/File:Codex_ephremi_(The_S.S._ Teacher's_Edition-The_Holy_Bible_-_Plate_XXIV).jpg

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

The following chapters illustrate research on how the media and nonRoma people perceive the Roma community; often caricaturised, they are considered to be thieves or beggars and are deemed uncapable to integrate in society. As a result, the idea of a palimpsest of stories and mediums emerged - in order to bring to light the idea of portraying the Roma community in a variety of different ways, as opposed to the unified caricaturised manner in which they are perceived from outside. Thus, I wanted to openly acknowledge my limited view as a non-Roma - the different mediums and aesthetics are a result of my struggle as an outsider, with the intention to try and shift the way in which they are represented.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Intolerance – institutional erasure, abjection, removal from society, but also substitute for systemic racism Nomadism - not by choice, but rather by circumstance; the state of being ‘othered’, marginalized, removed from visibility Paired together with the palimpsest, these terms aim to explain the direction of my project, acknowledging the limited view I have as an outsider.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/20/roma-african-americans-common-struggle

9|

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

For the purpose of this research I realized I have to be very careful with my choice of words; as a result, I have chosen to define a glossary of terms in order to tackle the issue and explain the aim of my project.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANTI-, noun

GYPSYISM, noun

an·​ti | \ ‘an-,ti , ‘an-te’ \ plural antis Definition of anti: one that is opposed to, against

gyp·​sy·​ism variants: or gipsyism \ -​seizem , -​ si,i-​ \ plural -s Definition of gypsyism : the life and ways of Gypsies

+

Antigypsyism is a historically constructed, persistent complex of customary racism against social groups identified under the stigma ‘gypsy’ or other related terms, and incorporates: 1.

2.

3. and

10 |

a homogenizing and essentializing perception and description of these groups; the attribution of specific characteristics to them; discriminating social structures and violent practices that emerge against that background, which have a degrading ostracizing effect and which reproduce structural disadvantages.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The starting point for my research was the definiton of “Anti-Gypsyism”:

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CHAPTER I

EUROPE’S MOST HATED WELCOME NOWHERE

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Mid-term crit

11 |

Roma people portrayed in the media

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

INTRODUCTION

?

Fig.1 Lack of territoriality

Every August Romania commemorates the Roma genocide, when former Prime Minister Marshall Ion Antonescu deported the Roma people to Transnistria (Fig.2)– where more than half died in that territory.

The Roma culture has a rich oral tradition, with an emphasis on family. In 1995 American sociologist and writer Isabel Fonseca published a book about the gypsies and their journey, titled “Bury me standing”.

Fonseca travelled for 4 years in Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula (most notably to Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and others), documenting the Roma people habits, listening to their oral histories and understanding the context of their community in order to make it accessible to the wider public.

12 |

Fig.2 Roma people deported during WW2

As a result, as a direction for my design research I considered appropriate the exploration of a digital territory, where I could make the stories and habits of the Roma well known and, consequently, address the issues that they are facing every day – either through objects (ethnography/ethnology) or sound (oral histories) or finally, as designing a fullyfledged digital ‘country’/’territory’, where they could be allowed to have the rights they lack in reality (their own institutions and homes, their own society functioning in order to benefit them).

Ref: Isabel Fonseca, Bury me standing: The gypsies and their journey Romani genocide, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Romani_genocide Ion Antonescu, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_ Antonescu

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Over the course of the first week I was struck by how to engage with a culture which is not mine in a meaningful way. I mentioned looking at the situation in Palestine, since Palestinians have become refugees in their own territory, being denied the rights they deserve in their land. At least, the UN recognizes the state of Palestine as a de jure state. But what about the people who have no territory of their own? (Fig 1)

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

THE ROMA CULTURE The Romani, also known as Roma, are an Indo-Aryan people, traditionally nomadic itinerants living mostly in Europe, and diaspora populations in the Americas.

Linguistic and genetic evidence suggest that the Romani as a people originated from the northern Indian subcontinent. They are dispersed, but their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Turkey, Spain and Southern France). The Romani arrived in Mid-West Asia and Europe around 1007.

Since the 19th century, some Romani have also migrated to the Americas.

There are an estimated one million Roma in the United States; and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the 19th century from Eastern Europe. Brazil also includes a notable Romani community descended from people deported by the Portuguese Empire during the Portuguese Inquisition.[66] In migrations since the late 19th century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada.

The Romani language is divided into several dialects which together have an estimated number of speakers of more than two million.The total number of Romani people is at least twice as high (several times as high according to high estimates). Many Romani are native speakers of the dominant language in their country of residence or of mixed languages combining the dominant language with a dialect of Romani; those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani.

The Roma people have a number of distinct populations, the largest being the Roma and the Iberian Calé or Caló, who reached Anatolia and the Balkans about the early 12th century, from a migration out of northwestern India beginning about 600 years earlier. They settled in the areas that are now Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Spain, by order of volume. From the Balkans, they migrated throughout Europe and, in the nineteenth and later centuries, to the Americas. The Romani population in the United States is estimated at more than one million. Brazil has the second largest Romani population in the Americas, estimated at approximately 800,000 by the 2011 census.

The Romani people are mainly called by non-Romani ethnic Brazilians as ciganos.

13 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The Romani are widely known in English by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies), which is considered by some Roma people to be pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity.

In the world, we Gypsies are the people of Rom – the first men.

We are the witnesses in the world.

We are the witnesses of what the ancients of our race have told us about what the world of the Roms was-that first world.

We are the witnesses of what our ancients have told us about the future of the world up to our time.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Most of them belong to the ethnic subgroup Calés (Kale), of the Iberian peninsula. Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazilian president during 1956–1961 term, was 50% Czech Romani by his mother’s bloodline; and Washington Luís, last president of the First Brazilian Republic (1926–1930 term), had Portuguese Kale ancestry.

As of the early 2000s, an estimated 3.8 to 9 million Romani people lived in Europe and Asia Minor. although some Romani organizations estimate numbers as high as 14 million. Significant Romani populations are found in the Balkan peninsula, in some Central European states, in Spain, France, Russia, and Ukraine. The total number of Romani living outside Europe are primarily in the Middle East and North Africa and in the Americas, and are estimated in total at more than two million. Some countries do not collect data by ethnicity.

The Romani people identify as distinct ethnicities based in part on territorial, cultural and dialectal differences, and self-designation.

CULTURE, HABITS AND TRADITIONS For centuries, stereotypes and prejudices have had a negative impact on the understanding of Roma culture, according to the Romani Project. Also, because the Roma people live scattered among other populations in many different regions, their ethnic culture has been influenced by interaction with the culture of their surrounding population. Nevertheless, there are some unique and special aspects to Romani culture.

SPIRITUAL BELIEFS The Roma do not follow a single faith; rather, they often adopt the predominant religion of the country where they are living, according to Open Society, and describe themselves as “many stars scattered in the sight of God.” Some Roma groups are Catholic, Muslim, Pentecostal, Protestant, Anglican or Baptist.

The Roma live by a complex set of rules that govern things such as cleanliness, purity, respect, honor and justice. These rules are referred to as what is “Rromano.” Rromano means to behave with dignity and respect as a Roma person, according to Open Society. “Rromanipé” is what the Roma refer to as their worldview.

14 |

Though the groups of Roma are varied, they all do speak one language, called Rromanës. Rromanës has roots in Sanskritic languages, and is related to Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Bengali, according to RSG. Some Romani words have been borrowed by English speakers, including “pal” (brother) and “lollipop” (from lolo-phabai-cosh, red apple on a stick).

HIERARCHY Traditionally, anywhere from 10 to several hundred extended families form bands, or kumpanias, which travel together in caravans. Smaller alliances, called vitsas, are formed within the bands and are made up of families who are brought together through common ancestry.

Each band is led by a voivode, who is elected for life. This person is their chieftain. A senior woman in the band, called a phuri dai, looks after the welfare of the group’s women and children. In some groups, the elders resolve conflicts and administer punishment, which is based upon the concept of honor. Punishment can mean a loss of reputation and at worst expulsion from the community, according to the RSG.

FAMILY STRUCTURE The Roma place great value on close family ties, according to the Rroma Foundation: “Rroma never had a country — neither a kingdom nor a republic — that is, never had an administration enforcing laws or edicts. For Rroma, the basic ‘unit’ is constituted by the family and the lineage.”

Communities typically involve members of the extended family living together. A typical household unit may include the head of the family and his wife, their married sons and daughters-in-law with their children, and unmarried young and adult children.

Advertisement Romani typically marry young — often in their teens — and many marriages are arranged. Weddings are typically very elaborate, involving very large and colorful dress for the bride and her many attendants. Though during the courtship phase, girls are encouraged to dress provocatively, sex is something that is not had until after marriage, according to The Learning Channel. Some groups have declared that no girl under 16 and no boy under 17 will be married, according to the BBC.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

There is no official or reliable count of the Romani populations worldwide.

Many Romani refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for fear of discrimination. Others are descendants of intermarriage with local populations and no longer identify only as Romani, or not at all.

LANGUAGE

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

HOSPITALITY Typically, the Roma love opulence. Romani culture emphasizes the display of wealth and prosperity, according to the Romani Project. Roma women tend to wear gold jewelry and headdresses decorated with coins. Homes will often have displays of religious icons, with fresh flowers and gold and silver ornaments. These displays are considered honorable and a token of good fortune.

Sharing one’s success is also considered honorable, and hosts will make a display of hospitality by offering food and gifts. Generosity is seen as an investment in the network of social relations that a family may need to rely on in troubled times.

THE ROMA TODAY

Today, most Roma have settled into houses and apartments and are not readily distinguishable. Because of continued discrimination, many do not publicly acknowledge their roots and only reveal themselves to other Roma.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

While there are still traveling bands, most use cars and RVs to move from place to place rather than the horses and wagons of the past.

While there is not a physical country affiliated with the Romani people, the International Romani Union was officially established in 1977. In 2000, The 5th World Romany Congress in 2000 officially declared Romani a nonterritorial nation.

During the Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015), 12 European countries made a commitment to eliminate discrimination against the Roma. The effort focused on education, employment, health and housing, as well as core issues of poverty, discrimination, and gender mainstreaming.

However, according to the RSG, despite the initiative, Roma continue to face widespread discrimination.

The Unknown Holocaust: Nazi Persecution of the Roma During the Shoah

According to a report by the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, “there is a shameful lack of implementation concerning the human rights of Roma … In many countries hate speech, harassment and violence against Roma are commonplace.”

April 8 is International Day of the Roma, a day to raise awareness of the issues facing the Roma community and celebrate the Romani culture.

15 |

Ref. Roma Culture: Customs, Traditions & Beliefs, Alina Bradford https://www.livescience.com/64171-roma-culture.html

mainly illiterate because they have been denied basic rights

habits, oral histories

Ref: Isabel Fonseca, Bury me standing: The gypsies and their journey nomads, travelling in caravans for centuries

16 |

Roma children living in poverty

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

GYPSIES IN POP-CULTURE/ (MIS)REPRESENTED? Historically, Roma women have constituted men’s fantasies, often being sexualized because of their portrayal as exotic and strange. Many believe them to be involved in dark magic, and, as a consequence, it is often thought that they can deceive the mind of non-roma and roma men alike. After all, who wouldn’t be mesmerized by Disney’s Esmeralda, the charming and kind-hearted gypsy girl from the Hunchback of Notre Dame?

ROMA CULTURE

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Portrayal of the gypsies in the media

GYPSIES. Travellers. Nomads. These are only some of the pejorative nicknames which the media uses to call the Roma community. Originally descended from India, as a people, Roma have never had a country of their own, and to this day injure systematic persecution

by European regimes. But why exactly are they so hated across Europe and the world?

Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat

A culture which is mainly illiterate, the Roma are born into a world of hardship – men are forced into work from a very young age, while women are meant to take care of the household and raise the children. Due to the social stigma they carry they are often denied jobs and, as such, turn to stealing or begging. There is a constant perpetuation of this vicious circle, as countries feed the systemic racism against the Roma while themselves as a community don’t make huge efforts to integrate either.

17 |

Esmeralda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Often portrayed as mysterious and atypical, the Roma have a rich and fascinating culture of music, language and dance. Many genres around the world emerged from traditional gypsy music – i.e. the Gypsy Kings – a group of Andalusian flamenco, salsa and pop musicians from France.

In 2006 actor Sacha Baron Cohen travelled to the Romanian village of Glod to shoot some scenes for his famous mockumentary BORAT. He filmed the Roma community and labelled them insulting words such as rapists (for men) and prostitutes in the case of women. He told them he would pay them some money to appear on camera, but ended up

deceiving them, not paying them a cent, even though his film made millions of dollars.

Furious, the villagers went to court to sue the actor, but failed lamentably as they didn’t actually make it to the United States as nobody card to get an US Entry visa for them.

Ref: The Struggle for Survival of the Roma People: Europe’s Most Hated, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ALdlphTYdi4&t=133s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney animation film When Borat came to town, 2008 film Romani people in fiction, https://en.wikipedia.org/

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Kalbelia or Kabeliya is a local dance from the area, performed by the tribe of the same name.

The dance is an integral part of their culture and performed by men and women.

The Kalbelia tribe moved frequently from one place to another in ancient times. Their traditional occupation is catching snakes and trading snake venom. Hence, the dance movements and the costumes of their community bear a resemblance to that of the serpents. They live a nomadic life and belong to the scheduled tribes.

THE COBRA GYPSIES/ KALBELIYA

Since the enactment of the Wildlife Act of 1972, the Kalbelias have been pushed out of their traditional profession of snake handling. Now performing arts are a major source of income for them and these have received widespread recognition within and outside India. Performance opportunities are sporadic, so members of the community work in the fields, or graze cattle to sustain themselves.

Across the globe, there are many different types of Roma communities, distinct in their dialect, habits and history. A fascinating culture, the Cobra gypsies or Kalbeliya are a community who live in the desert of Rajasthan, at the border between India and Pakistan. French filmmaker and musician Rafael Treza travelled to the area and made a documentary about the Cobra gypsies.

Cobra gypsies, Raphael Treza

References:

Cobra gypsies, Raphael Treza archive

18 |

Cobra gypsies, Raphael Treza archive

Raphael Treza, The cobra gypsies documentary https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=aNUYGRn3W9Q&t=84s Kalbelia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalbelia

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Raphael Treza, French film-maker

Traditionally, Kalbelia men carried cobras in cane baskets from door to door in villages while their women sang and danced and begged for alms.

They revere the cobra and advocate the nonkilling of the reptile. In the villages, if a snake inadvertently entered a home, a Kalbelia would be summoned to catch the serpent and to take it away without killing it. Kalbelias have traditionally been a fringe group in society living in spaces outside the village where they reside in makeshift camps called deras. The Kalbelias move their deras from one place to another in a circuitous route repeated over time. Over the generations, the Kalbelias acquired a unique understanding of the local flora and fauna, and are aware of herbal remedies for various diseases which is an alternative source of income for them.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANTI-ROMANI RACISM IN POP-CULTURE/THE SIMS

THE SIMS 3 - THE GYPSY WAGON

The Sims has a long history of anti-Romani racism which is incredibly prevalent in the first 3 games, but is seemingly not being included in the fourth game.

The Gypsy wagon is a rabbit hole included in the Sims 3 Supernatural, where you can have your fortune told (which of course requires you to pay more and more money to get a satisfactory result). Alternatively, you could enter the Fortune Teller career which is split between two branches which are “mystic” and “scam artist”, both of these based on incredibly racist stereotypes about Roma.

The Sims is a fantastic example of how anti-Romani racism is way more accepted by people than racism towards other ethnic groups. Usage of slurs and stereotypes like this would simply not be accepted if directed at any other group of people.

I will be going over each of the first games and how they perpetuate anti-Romani racism.

THE SIMS

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

The first example which comes to mind is from the first game the Gypsy clerks Rossar and Yuri who are included in the pack “Makin’ Magic” who work selling goods in Magic Town. This example is not as extreme as the later games but very much still racist and worth including when talking about anti-Romani racism in The Sims games.

THE SIMS 2 - THE GYPSY MATCHMAKER

19 |

Lakshmi Wilson is a “gypsy matchmaker” that is included in “The Sims 2: Nightlife”; depicted as very greedy, she will scam you if she gets the chance. She will attempt to help you find a date, but - if dissatisifed with the amount you choose to pay her - she will purposely set you up with a bad date. She will also sell you love potion and a cure for vampirism.

Ref: https://www.instagram.com/romaniuprising/?hl=ro

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Film stills from mini-documentary ‘Europe’s Most Hated/ Welcome Nowhere’ - short compilation by Andreea Iliescu

please see fulll film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y3euSd0Ai4

20 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

21 |

How to engage with their culture in a critical way?

UNDOING THE STIGMA How can I tell their stories through the digital realm?

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

FOR WHO

How can digital environments tackle issues of underrepresentation, displacement and belonging?

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CHAPTER II

A MYSTERIOUS PEOPLE

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The Gypsy Patrin

Photographs, Iain McKell

THE NEW GYPSIES

The new gypsies are a nomadic hippie community whose lifestyle emerged when Margaret Thathcher was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Originally people who wanted to flee the 9-5 work lifestyle, they engaged with nomadism as a form of escapism. Their style borrows elements from the gypsy culture, mixed with a hippie-punk fashion. Photographer Iain McKell travelled alongside this community and documented their way of life, clothing and travelled with them for months in order to publish his highly acclaimed book The New Gypsies.

22 |

Ref: Iain McKell - The New Gypsies

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

THE MONITORING GROUP - Tackling Racism since 1981 The Monitoring Group was established in Southall (West London) in the 1980’s, by community campaigners and lawyers who wished to challenge the growth of racism in the locality. They are one of the most established anti-racist grassroots groups in Britain, and over the past 40 years, we have helped thousands of people through casework, campaigns and research.

The Monitoring Group’s values are around – Empowerment, challenging racism, monitoring police misconduct and collaboration with victims and communities.

TMG aims are: a. To promote good race relations; b. To advance race relations by means of education and awareness raising; and c. To relieve the needs of those who are distressed or suffering violence or harassment. for further reference please visit - http://www.tmg-uk.org/

TMG is the leading exponent of family led empowerment and justice campaigns in the UK. Over the past 25 years they have many led campaigns to help families including those of Kuldip Singh Sekon, Ricky Reel, Micheal Menson, Stephen Lawrence, Zahid Mubarek and Victoria Climbie.

Some of these cases led to Public Judicial Inquiries and consequent changes in legislation, social policies and practices. Since the London Bombings we have worked with victim families of the carnage as well as Black Minority and Ethnic and Muslim groups and individuals affected by indiscriminate state-led policies in London, Midlands and the North.

The Monitoring Group currently receives over 1,000 calls annually on its Help Line from people suffering racial violence, religious hatred, sexual violence and state neglect or misconduct. A key reason for the group’s sustainability is the involvement of “victims” in its management, staff and volunteering structures. It has successfully developed many innovative projects serving “hard to reach communities” such as young people in Yorkshire, the traveller and gypsy communities in Lincolnshire, victim of racial violence in rural environment, the refugee and migrant communities in the South West and the Black & Ethnic Minority communities across the UK.

23 |

TMG usesmany innovative and pluralist formats to challenge discrimination and violence including art, culture, drama, poetry, photography, prose, and interactive web and IT tools.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

A key reason for the group’s sustainability is the involvement of “survivors/victims” in its management, staff and volunteering structures.

Now more than ever we need to raise funds to sustain and continue the invaluable work we do within the community and further afield.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

official socia media posts of The Monitoring Group

24 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

THE PATRIN PROJECT

Heritage is a powerful tool. It is something that gives a sense of place and identity and helps to inform us about who we are and how a region has developed over time. One writer described the process of recording your heritage as ‘place making in a place-less time’. (Robbins 1991) it is a process which has historically been difficult for the Gypsy community because their nomadic lifestyle, combined with official discrimination has meant accurate government historical archives have not been wholly reliable. The Gypsy communities themselves, being for the most part illiterate, afforded little value to the paper and ink, they passed their history on by word of mouth. This oral tradition means that very little written work exists.

These factors have been compounded by the widespread prejudice the communities face, causing many of the local Gypsy community to choose to remain largely invisible.

For a long time the heritage industry had a class and ethnic bias, over the past thirty years, this has began to change. The publication of academic writing (Vikram 1986, Fryer 1984, Gilroy 1987) has helped to develop the multicultural heritage of Britain. Alongside this, art groups such as the New Art Exchange in Nottingham, have developed projects which explore the connections between the stories of the past and present, often showing the relationship between Britain and its colonial past.

The Gypsy community have often evaded these developments. It is a defined ethnic community, yet has little relationship to colonialism. Gypsies have been present in the UK since the 1500′s, yet this presence is largely undocumented and unrecognized.

The East Midlands is home to three of the largest Gypsy groups in the country, and these groups have played an important role in the history of the Gypsy community as a whole. This project aims to give a voice to the Gypsy people so that they can record their heritage, and challenge the perceptions of the settled community. Perceptions which have been largely surrounded by myths, stereotypes and prejudice.

As modern Britain evaluates consumerism, environmentalism, assimilation, family values and identity. There is much in the heritage of the Gypsy community that will be of value to the wider community, and we have tried to reflect these themes in our work.

The project has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (East Midlands), and consists of this website, a book that will be published in June 2013, and a touring exhibition. for further reference please visit -http://www.patrin.org.uk/

25 |

Heritage is a powerful tool. It is something that gives a sense of place and identity and helps to inform us about who we are and how a region has developed over time. One writer described the process of recording your heritage as ‘place making in a place-less time’.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

While researching I came across The Monitoring Group’s project on the Gypsies - the Patrin Project. The following information is from the official page of TMG:

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Gypsy communities in the Midlands, The Monitoring Group

26 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

THE GYPSY PATRIN

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The Romanies have other ways of expressing themselves, apart from their language. There is the patrin (often written “patteran” in English).

The word in Romany means a “leaf” (of a tree), but from that it has come to mean also their secret code of marks or signs by which they communicate with one another visually. These marks consist of all kinds of oddments – leaves, branches, grass, rags of different colour – simple things that are easily available on the move. They also use signs which can be drawn or carved on a piece of wood, a tree or gate.

Crossroads are favourite spots for leaving all these marks.

Traditional form of Gypsy Patrin

Romanies can express all sorts of ideas by means of the patrin. In some countries the forms of expression are very simple; in others they can be quite complex. Meaning and importance often depend on who places the patrin; a mark is left to indicate the chief or head of the group which wishes to convey the message. If it is addressed to some particular group, it will have the sign of that group or tribe.

27 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

A CONTEMPORARY FORM OF PATRIN The recent emergence of GPS technology and websites such as GoogleMaps and flikr now enable people across the globe to share photos on maps, thereby helping us see how we are part of the global community.

AIMS 1. To bring the many positive aspects of cultural history of the Gypsy community in Eastern Europe to a wide audience ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

3. To impart digital media skills to participants in order to allow them to take control of their own representation 4. To train participants to research archive, museum and library collections and to make relevant material accessible to a greater audience 5. To create a web-hub where members of the Gypsy community can create an online meeting point that includes images, sounds and maps of their lives at the present time, as well as archival material The overall aim of this project is to work with nomadic Romany communities in Eastern Europe/ Romania to create a contemporary form of patrin. Photography, sound art and these new mapping technologies will be used to develop signposts showing Romany life over a period of time, highlighting how it is a living culture, an ethnic culture embedded in the fabric of the nation state. The aim is to preserve the heritage of gypsy communities in Eastern Europe, at this pivotal moment in time, when they are disappearing due to urbanization.

28 |

Ref: http://www.tmg-uk.org/tmg-arts/patrin-gypsy-project/ http://www.patrin.org.uk/ A mysterious people: an introduction to gypsies, Charles Duff

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

2. To enable members of the Eastern Europe Gypsy community to create a lasting heritage for their traditional way of life that is rapidly disappearing, in order to inform and be enjoyed by future generations

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CHAPTER III

ROMA PEOPLE IN THE ROMANIAN CONTEXT

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Final Crit Term 1

“You didn’t have to be Romanian to wonder; was there something about the Gypsies themselves that made them so wildly and universally unpopular? Apart from their shared identity as Gypsies, the victims of these attacks had little in common: they were from rich families and from poor ones; they were country-folk and city-dwellers, criminals as well as obvious scapegoats; they were children, adults and old people. None of the victims was a “traditional” nomadic Gypsy; most had been sedentary for centuries, and some were assimilated to the degree that they no longer knew Romani. Was it their reputations as thieves and cheats?

But even an ethnic breakdown recently undertaken by the Ministry of the Interior attributed only 11 percent of crime in Romania – all of it petty crime – to the Gypsies,who constitute 11 percent of the population. So what was it about the Gypsies? And what was it about the Romanians?”

- Isabel Fonseca, Bury me Standing

29 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

INTRO

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The arrival of the Gypsies in Romania can be traced back to the 14th century. They were divided in 2 categories – on the one hand, the ones which were mainly settled, working in agriculture and crafts such as metalwork and, on the other, the nomadic ones, who did not own land and in consequence, were living on the road in caravans.

Ever since their arrival on Romanian territory, the Gypsies have been despised and discriminated. They are associated up to this day with offensive words such as “filthy” or “lazy”. The word itself “gypsy” (tigan) literally means “untouchable, pagan”.

30 |

SLAVERY The longest slavery known to man was the one which gypsies suffered in Romania, for almost 500 years.

The slaves were owned by the boyars, the Christian Orthodox monasteries, or the state. Initially, they were used only as smiths, gold panners and as agricultural workers, but when the principalities became more urbanized, increasingly more of them were used as domestic workers.

But hey, slavery and nomadism don’t go very well hand in hand, right? Essentially, an enslaved gypsy could only roam a very limited territory, only for work purposes, when and if their master would grant them permission.

The abolition of slavery was carried out following a campaign by young revolutionaries who embraced the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment, in 1856.

However, their history of stigma did not end there – WW2 was the peak of the Romany genocide , when more than 25.000 gypsies were deported to Transnistria (nowadays’ Republic of Moldova), where more than half died in that territory due to the inhumane conditions in which they were held. Romany history is not properly acknowledged in Romanian elementary education.

In no history manual up to this day will you find much information about the Romany Holocaust. When the nation-state was formed, the minorities were completely excluded from the bigger picture.

In the 1970s began the process of urbanization of the Gypsies, with less and less Romany people living nomadic lives. The ones who remained nomadic were doing it only for economic purposes, with sociologists calling this process “seasonal migration”. Ultimately, after the fall of communism in ’89 they were granted old heritage buildings by the state, where the majority still live up to this day.

Nowadays, even though Romanian people would not admit racism, their attitude towards the Roma shows differently. Gypsies get rejected from jobs and hence, find it difficult to integrate into the wider community. In consequence, many Romany people are forced to hide their ethnicity, constantly living in fear of systematic oppression. (VIDEO TESTIMONY) In more compact and poor communities, they are marginalized, being relocated to the outskirts of towns and cities. As a result, there is a constant perpetuation of prejudice which generates a vicious circle of institutionalized racism.

Many of them are not even aware of their lack of rights (due to the fact that they do not have access to education) and, as such, live passively, solely as a tolerated community.

TERRITORIALITY

Similarly to other communities, Romany people are subject to social class. Usually, the ones who are born into a poor family live in inhumane conditions, most of the time unsanitary, where there is a lack of space due to the fact that traditionally they are used to having large families. In Romania, the government doesn’t do much to help, and the Roma who do not own land, are subject to social housing, limited as it is, and often distributed upon availability. The available housing is usually located in old heritage buildings, which in Bucharest are often semi-derelict. As a consequence, the ones who are not granted housing are forced into squatting. When caught by the police, they get evicted, being forced to search for a new place. (photos) Romany children are more prone to developing diseases, not being well fed and not having access to sanitation. This vicious circle of placelessness forces them to be on the move, always in search for a new home – with authorities not too bothered with their situation.

However, their question of hypervisibility in Romanian media has a dichotomy to it – on the one hand, they are portrayed as thieves and beggars, living off social aid, and, on the other – they are illustrated as wealthy people living in big mansions, usually attempting to show-off their wealth. Both these images are detrimental to their process of integration into the wider community and consequently, affect the way their ethnicity is viewed by non-Romany people.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

GYPSIES. TRAVELLERS. NOMADS. These are only some of the pejorative nicknames which the media uses to call the Roma community. Originally descended from India, as a people, Roma have never had a country of their own, and to this day injure systematic persecution by European regimes. But why exactly are they so hated across Europe and the world?

My interest in this topic was sparked by the exotic and romanticized portrayal of the nomadic gypsy communities, stemming from their relation to territoriality (or lack thereof).

However, my findings made me question whether nomadism is a choice or rather – a circumstance.

Let us turn to Eastern Europe, more specifically to Romania and try to understand the perpetuation of the systematic racism there, since the story isn’t quite as the media portrays it.

THE VICIOUS CIRCLE

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

PROJECT AIMS

How can this question of invisibility be tackled in relation to a digital environment? I aim to speculate a future Let us turn to this question of invisibility of the middle class in which they would have access to technology and Romany – when encountered with them, people do not propose a digital territory where their personal stories recognize their ethnicity, with the preconception that it’s could be told. As an aspiration for my project, I seek to impossible to be a hard-working gypsy. As such, for the future, make a claim around their claim for territory – *not only in empowering the poor and middle class Roma people will be its literal meaning, but rather a claim around their visibility beneficial for Romania’s economy, particularly since statistics show that by the year 2050 they will constitute 40% of Romania’s or lack thereof. population *Romania is slowly becoming a de-populated country, This process of de-humanization of the Roma community has stopped Romanians and people worldwide from with the majority of its inhabitants going abroad for work and/or seeing them for who they actually are – people, with realeducation. life stories and basic needs, such as shelter, education and healthcare.

Could this digital territory be seen as a tool for empowerment, allowing them to take control of their representation? The purpose is to have a didactic tool for non-Romany people to be educated in regards to their rich culture; but ultimately aimed to be designed for them, by them, with their own testimonies around their cultural practices.

31 |

CONCLUSION Will the Gypsies wind up in ghettos, in reservations where, like an endangered species, they can wander and reproduce while putting on displays of folklore for others? Or will their organizations enable them to preserve the flexibility that has protected their independence so far? It will probably not be too long before we can tell whether the twilight of the Gypsies is leading to a new dawn or to a long dark night.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

As victims of homelessness, they are deprived of basic rights such as access to water, sanitation and education and in consequence, are not visible for who they are as people. The perpetuation of social stigma deprives them from developing a healthy lifestyle, where they can integrate and start to give back to the community. Since the year 2000 many organizations who fight for their rights have risen – however, this is a long term fight.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Film stills from mini-documentary ADS 8 Data Matter(s) The Gaming Edition_Roma People Research Sequel Final Crit’ - short compilation by Andreea Iliescu

please see fulll film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ4ogRn8RXA&ab_channel=AndreeaIliescu

32 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CHAPTER IV

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

ACASA, MY HOME (2020)

Radu Ciorniciuc’s heartbreaking debut is a thoughtful study of gentrification, seen through the eyes of a family trying to adapt to the new life they never asked for.

33 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

FILM PLOT/STORYLINE In the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta, nine children and their parents lived in perfect harmony with nature for 20 years until they are chased out and forced to adapt to life in the big city.

“Acasa” or “My Home” as translated in the title of Radu Ciorniciuc’s documentary is a very special film that accompanies for four years a social program related to an unusual family. Gelu Enache and his wife had settled with their nine children in the the area, closed and abandoned area for over two decades, of the Vacaresti Park, also called the Bucharest Delta. In the park where nature had gradually regained its rights by creating a unique natural ecosystem within the metropolis populated by over two million inhabitants, the Enache family lived outside urban civilization, in harmony with nature, but without social, health or education services for their children. When the Vacaresti Park came to the attention of the authorities, the family was displaced and became the subject of social assistance - a traumatic change for adults and children who had not known another way of life, but also a potential chance for future social integration. “Acasa” is an involved documentary and a documentary about involvement.

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The ecological implications are not lacking, although they are not the main theme of the film. For many inhabitants of Bucharest, the existence of an original ecosystem so close to the center of the Romanian capital was a surprise. Its introduction in the tourist circuit was traumatic not only for the Enache family but for the whole natural environment, and the success of this urban integration will be appreciated only over the years, if the fauna and flora of the area will be protected from the influences of the metropolis and of its inhabitants. Issues related to racial discrimination and the methods of integration as a solution to eliminate social disabilities are not ignored, but they are not the focus. The Romanian audiences probably know most of the issues, the international public might miss many nuances.

“Acasa” is a powerful film whose impact is mainly due to the sincerity, empathy and lack of prejudice with which the problems of social and personal integration of the Enache family are addressed. It would be interesting to follow the evolution of the heroes over the years. Director Radu Ciorniciuc did not deny in the discussion - webinar that was occasioned by the film at the DOCAVIV festival a possible continuation.

To follow, like any other creations coming from this interesting Romanian journalist and film director. film stills from ‘Acasa, My home’

34 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

Radu Ciorniciuc, who is an investigative journalist, worked with the assistance programs, but at the same time managed to gain the trust of the family, which made him a participant and allowed him to accompany and document in the film the transformations and crises they went through. Implicitly, important topics such as ecology, urban progress and their impact on people’s lives are addressed. His cinematic style combines well-filmed reporting (the urban landscape take filmed from a drone that locates the park and its surroundings is memorable) with social investigation. Humor is not missing like in the scenes where we witness the visits of Prince Charles or of the then Prime Minister in the park, but it looks like what primarily characterizes Ciorniciuc’s film is empathy for the destinies of the film’s heroes. It is remarkable how he managed to gain their trust and make from purely documentary materials a more coherent narrative and a more exciting film than many fiction feature films.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

THE DELTA BETWEEN THE BLOCKS

A QUESTION OF IDENTITY

A tall bearded man dragged his legs with burning scars on a path shaded by reeds and flowering thorns. He was bare-chested and carrying a lame T-shirt over his tattooed knife on his right shoulder.

Above the eyes he held in the ground, under the skin of his forehead, he had a round growth the size of a walnut. Everything around him was calm. It’s always The place was called Groapa Vacaresti. For 27 years, nature has been like this in this big, green area. But Gica Enache transformed the pit made by Ceausescu among the blocks of was agitated and seemed to be repeating a longflats in Berceni into the largest urban nature reserve in continen- THE ENACHE FAMILY learned speech. tal Europe. Home to dozens of species of animals, reptiles, birds A few dozen meters from it, a lot of people were and rare plants. stirring on a cement dam. Gica stopped and looked But the ecosystem in the pit was not just populated by at them for a long time. Although he was at home, he animals. People left society abandoned in all sorts of turned his back on people as if he was ashamed to makeshift homes. Nineteen years ago, a father and a be seen naked. He quickly pulled on his T-shirt and mother also built a shelter there, a hut of a few square headed for the crowd. meters, with walls made of rags and plastic sheets. They Gica had known for several years that this day in had nine children, whom they raised in isolation from the June 2016 was coming, but it was as if she did not city. Protected by the dam and reeds, the children grew up expect such great agitation. Several headlamp Jeeps in harmony with nature. Their playgrounds were in reeds had just parked in front of him; Dozens of reporters and lakes, and their comrades were snakes, frogs, birds, and fish. The only moments when they became vulnerable and cameras gathered around the cars. From the Jeeps, a few malachis came down to their suits and were when they stepped over the dam, in the world of sunglasses. Behind them, the Prime Minister and the concrete.

Minister of Environment, surrounded by reporters, Several nature photographers discovered the pit and shook hands with the people in the neighborhood. promoted it for the extraordinary ecosystem. In time, the As we promised, we clean and with volunteers in the authorities recognized the need to protect him by law. The protected area Vacaresti says the woman. I started a rubbish thrown by the people around, on the surrounding few weeks ago. 2,200 cubic meters of garbage were dikes, had to disappear, and the fauna and flora had to be studied by biologists and guarded by poachers and fires. In collected with excavators, with large equipment!

Among the dozens of television cameras, Gica stood 2016, Groapa Vacaresti became a place protected by law. motionless. All he could see were his lost eyes and They called it the Vacaresti Natural Park.

Delta Vacaresti, view towards Asmita Gardens The father, mother and nine children had to leave the place his sunburned baldness. He looked intently at the politicians and frowned at every sentence he heard. they called home for 19 years. That was their big problem He seemed to want to ask the ministers questions in 2016, when I met them. I intended to do a report about too, but every time he prepared to say something, he the Vacaresti Natural Park and what happens to the last withdrew with a sigh and a murmur from his lips. family that still lived in this urban Delta.

The Minister of Environment said about Vacaresti Since then, together with the children raised in the Park that from now on it will be guarded to keep wilderness of the park, I have documented the stages away the poachers and arsonists who have been of their transition to a life in the so-called civilized world: moving to the city, enrolling in school, but also transforming destroying this area in recent years. And, she added, we are working on the other steps to formally the pit into a nature reserve. Our initial attempt to make administer the Park. I am very happy, especially a documentary turned today into a humanitarian project, meant to develop and apply a method of social intervention. since we have the Prime Minister with us. Dozens of 35 | cameras and microphones turned to the PM. The initial report turned into the basis for a feature film.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

In 1988, Nicolae Ceausescu decided to build one of the largest accumulation lakes in Bucharest in the Vacaresti neighborhood.

Until the Revolution, he only managed to build the fencing dam.

The works did not continue, the state abandoned the construction site, and the people in the neighborhood started throwing their garbage there.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Gica Enache, in his improvised household in the middle of Vacaresti Natural Park, with two of his children

36 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

A QUESTION OF IDENTITY(continued) He said that he was also happy that after four years of work and bureaucracy, the decision was made, on paper, that this abandoned area should no longer be a landfill. For several weeks, it has been clearly and officially written that Vacaresti is an Urban Natural Park. The largest in the European Union. He continues to explain to people what the protection that this place has received is like: a management plan will be established, you are no longer allowed to build anything here. No grills, no other things that endanger what nature has built over the last 27 years.

With slow steps and his hands behind his back, Gica followed the procession. He set his eyes on the Minister of the Environment and walked towards her until he caught her at a moment when he stopped filling the bag to catch his breath.

Madam Minister, don’t be upset, I’m Gica from Lake Vacaresti says the bearded man before taking the minister’s hand to kiss her regularly. She smiles awkwardly and nods politely.

Gica tells him that he has been living here for 18 years and that, as long as he stays in the pit, this area will be safe. I am the first Romanian to discover the otter, here in Vacaresti, he says. And more species that have been photographed by people who have equipment. I took them and showed them everything!

A TV reporter puts her microphone between them: What will happen to the people who live like Mr. Gica lives here? The minister turns her back. I very much hope that those who will take over the area will work with them, especially since they know the land so well, it’s a shame. Gica completes it: If he destroyed this area, I would die too!

This area, as you look at the clouds in Bucharest, is a big green spot. It is strangled by a dripping concrete rope with tree crowns and piles of garbage. Above the spot, flocks of wild ducks search their nests through tufts of reeds.

37 |

For decades, people in blocks of flats have been throwing everything they no longer need through houses on the edge of the green paradise: pieces of brick walls, garbage, furniture, animal shells. It looks like some radioactive villages around Chernobyl, only there aren’t that many shards of glass on the ground either. When the sun goes down, the dam glitters like a bracelet adorned with precious stones. It’s torn and tied back with knots of piles of dirt.

Here, the earth has always been green and swampy.

There was also a monastery built in the area around 1700, which the Russian occupation army turned into a prison immediately after the 1848 Revolution. The penitentiary functioned until the early 1970s, when the Shah of Iran convinced Ceausescu that it would be beautiful. to turn the building into a museum of religious art. However, after the great earthquake of 1977, the restoration works of the monastery stopped, and the building and the rest of the surrounding households were demolished. Until 1988, when Ceausescu started to arrange the Vacaresti Reservoir. But the dictator did not finish building the lake, and the abandoned pond came to life and turned into a delta.

When she came to this pond, Gica Enache was 33 years old. He had just been fired from the Danubiana tire factory in Popesti-Leordeni.He worked as a chemical operator laboratory. He was hired immediately after finishing high school in his native village, Heresti, a few tens of minutes from Bucharest. It was the pride of the Heavy Tires section, where rubber wheels were made for industrial machines. Of the 12 years he worked there, seven boxed at the factory’s sports club.

During the communist era, every respectable factory in the country had a sports club. Competitions were organized annually between them. Gica was tall, well-tied, and he was said to beat harder than a loom. He walked all over the country to competitions. He received a lot of money, it was the most beautiful period of his life.

His father lived in Frumusani, a few houses away from Niculina’s family, the girl the boxer wanted as his wife.

Gica often came there, especially hanging girls. He had long black hair, a straight beard, and a short leather jacket. It looked like in the movies with the bad guys.

It’s just that the girls in the village knew he was a bully.

He also hooked up with Niculina’s cousin and, while he was with her, he kept her in a constant fight. Gica did not like disobedient women; that’s why Niculina was stained.

He wooed her until she agreed to marry him. Her parents didn’t even want to hear about this seven-year-old tramp, but in the end, they let it go. Niculina was 17 years old; she could decide for herself. She had already learned that if you didn’t give the man a reason to beat you, you could live in peace. He would feed Gica, wash his clothes and prepare them for work. And she enjoyed the peace, though she did not always escape his blows.

After the fall of communism, Gica was expelled from the tire factory, but he had a living. He had a lot of money, a large household with his relatives from Heresti: cows, pigs, sheep, birds of all kinds. He stayed there for five years with Niculina. Until their first child, Corina, was born. And Gica, due to a beating, went to jail.

When he left, half a year later, he went home to his family and did not recognize the place. His uncle had sold everything, and he drove Niculina and Corina away from their relatives in Frumusani. Gica moved in with them. While they were there, for a year, they were constantly arguing over money with Niculina’s people.

Until Gica got upset and went with his little girl to the Vacaresti pond. Niculina did not want to stay in the barracks, but not far from the child and the man. So they decided together that they would live in Vacaresti for a year, maximum two. Until they get to their feet.

Gica had known about this place since she was a child and came with her friends from the village to steal fruit.

The area was famous in Bucharest for its fruit and vegetable gardens. But in 1999, when they moved, there was none of that. Only grass, reeds, garbage, five or six trees and about 60-70 Turkish gypsies and spoilers settled in barracks built by them. Most of them lived on iron recycling and they also taught Gica a trade.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The circle of reporters turned into an Indian line. The ministers put on rubber gloves, took their plastic bags and went to collect the garbage from the pit newly protected by law. Along with them, a few dozen volunteers.

All around, a pitch-dense anthill: hundreds of communist blocks, dilapidated factories, crowded boulevards. They all try to get over the nature stain, but are kept away from the concrete dam. All that passes is the hot noises of the city and the garbage.

They were used to the police, who came to tear down their barracks. So they started building them from modules, to make it easier for them to reassemble them after they were put down by the legislators. One module was made of thick poles, tied together with wire, in the form of bars. With six modules covered with layers of blankets, carpets and linoleum, a hut was built. Many times, when they heard that he was coming to tear them down, they dismantled their houses themselves. It didn’t take them more than half an hour to take them down and put them back in place, but only after the whites left.

It was full of life around Gica’s house. In seven years of rummaging through metals, he has made a serious household.

He had a garden with vegetables, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, partridges, pigeons and had four children during all this time. He did well until 2006, when a law was passed that ruined him. They forbade him to drive around the city and he could not continue to make money from iron.

He had long since given up on moving to a normal house in the city. All the frosty winters in which he trembled with the children and his wife under the covers made him realize that he can survive here without problems. He felt strong and enjoyed life outside the law. Niculina couldn’t persuade him to leave, and for the children this life was the only one they knew. And, anyway, no one listened to them if they complained.

After the Revolution, only the cement-mixed dam mixed with iron and concrete and many cast-iron construction machinery buried in the ground remained in the pit. It was gold for Gica.

When he didn’t slam into the dam slabs to get to the iron, he dug the ground for the cast iron. Then he drove them to the collection center. He earned enough to keep his new house standing, built according to the instructions of neighbors with more illegal living.

38 |

They were used to the police, who came to tear down their barracks. So they started building them from modules, to make it easier for them to reassemble them after they were put down by the legislators. One module was made of thick poles, tied together with wire, in the form of bars. With six modules covered with layers of blankets, carpets and linoleum, a hut was built. Many times, when they heard that he was coming to tear them down, they dismantled their houses themselves. It didn’t take them more than half an hour to take them down and put them back in place, but only after the whites left. It was full of life around Gica’s house. In seven years of rummaging through metals, he has made a serious household. He had a garden with vegetables, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, partridges, pigeons and had four children during all this time. He did well until 2006, when a law was passed that ruined him. They forbade him to drive around the city and he could not continue to make money from iron.

He had long since given up on moving to a normal house in the city. All the frosty winters in which he trembled with the children and his wife under the covers made him realize that he can survive here without problems. He felt strong and enjoyed life outside the law.

Niculina couldn’t persuade him to leave, and for the children this life was the only one they knew. And, anyway, no one listened to them if they complained.

Gica sold his horse and cart and began rummaging through the ponds in the pit for fish. He fed his family with fishing and poaching after he gave up iron. Everyone in the Berceni neighborhood now knew him by the name of Gica Pescarul. He was an ace at catching fish; he had learned as a child. When he was four, his family abandoned him to his grandparents. Little Gica spent the whole day in nature, with the animals from the household or with the fishing team from the village.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

After the Revolution, only the cement-mixed dam mixed with iron and concrete and many cast-iron construction machinery buried in the ground remained in the pit. It was gold for Gica.

When he didn’t slam into the dam slabs to get to the iron, he dug the ground for the cast iron. Then he drove them to the collection center. He earned enough to keep his new house standing, built according to the instructions of neighbors with more illegal living.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

He liked fish, the water of Arges and, when he was not sent by fishermen for cigarettes and brandy, he fished with them.

With the net, the fishing rod, the bare hands. At the age of ten, he already knew how to catch fish like the best in the village.

Gica has a network of clients in the neighborhood. He sold in blocks of flats, in the market and in front of the church. Unlike the other poachers, who sold fish in bags, he gave them to the bucket. He put the big fish on the surface and the small ones on the bottom. The man who came to buy thought that the whole bucket was full of big and beautiful fish and took them all at once, he could not choose. Gica lived as best she could.

In 2012, Gica and Niculina had nine children and two granddaughters from his first daughter. His yard without fences was now beaten by the souls of five girls and six boys. From his eldest daughter to her youngest daughters: Corina, Georgiana, Vali, Rica, Marcel, Gigel, Cezar, Nicusor, Luciana, Zâna and Duca. He had taught the boys to fish and hunt birds, and the girls spent more time with Niculina and the barracks. The boys set traps in the grass for pigeons and pheasants, and the girls made ciulamaua, Gica’s favorite food.

As the years passed, the pit began to look more like an exotic delta. The vegetation developed to the point where all kinds of birds began to come from the warm countries. Herons, egrets, cormorants, wild ducks and, with them, all kinds of nature enthusiasts. Among them was Helmut Ignat, a photographer who had developed a passion for nature in the pit. He had learned of this place from the editor-in-chief of National Geographic Romania.

During a photo tour, Helmut saw Gica’s boys setting traps for the pigeons. He went to argue with them and told the children to take him to their father.

39 |

They were walking on the lake, and Gica showed the photographer where the birds’ nests, snakes, turtles, foxes, otters are… Otters in Vacaresti Lake !? Helmut was speechless. Otters are extremely shy animals and very rarely reach cities, even harder in the middle of Bucharest. If Helmut and his colleagues in the magazine could prove the presence of the otter with photos, it would have been confirmed that this is a pollution-free ecosystem with rich food resources for the birds and animals in it.

They got to work. Helmut hired Gica, illegally, to help him with the documentation. He gave her money for every day’s work. He brought her infrared cameras, which automatically took pictures when they detected movement. Every night, Gica would put the devices in the pond, on the islands, in the reeds. He placed the bait of fish in front of them and waited. Before he knew which were the best places to catch otters, he came across hundreds of pictures of dogs, foxes and cats stuffing themselves with bait. Then they caught the otter. He was staring at the lens!

In 2012, Helmut showed him photos of the editor-inchief of National Geographic and together they made a report about the discoveries in the pit. They gave it the title Delta between the blocks, put it on the cover and that’s how the place’s name has remained since then.

Their report was very successful. Reports followed on all national televisions and radios, all kinds of biology researchers began to come there.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The waters of Vacaresti were full of pike and crucians and there was no one to guard them at that time. Through Berceni there was a band of about ten poachers, all drunk, who fished there. Gica befriended them, but also their vice. When they were not together in the pond, they warmed up at his shack. I drink the brandy with the jar.

She wanted to tell him that it was not good to let her children hunt in such a beautiful and fragile place. This is how Helmut met Gica Pescarul, and their meeting would radically change both the life of the Vacaresti pit and that of Gica.

At first, Gica was reluctant with the cameras. He knew that if his children appeared in the press, Child Protection would come and put them in the state dormitory. They had no identity documents, and Gica was not going to do them. He told Helmut nothing about the riches in the pond, though he knew the place as if it were his own. She wanted to get rid of him quickly. So the photographer put his trust in the building. She visited him often, bringing food, drink, cigarettes, children’s things. In the end, he convinced Gica to be his guide, to show him what this miracle hides at all.

They spent a lot of time together. Gica had a boat made of planks and tin, and Helmut had an inflatable one.

They were walking on the lake, and Gica showed the photographer where the birds’ nests, snakes, turtles, foxes, otters are… Otters in Vacaresti Lake !? Helmut was speechless. Otters are extremely shy animals and very rarely reach cities, even harder in the middle of Bucharest. If Helmut and his colleagues in the magazine could prove the presence of the otter with photos, it would have been confirmed that this is a pollution-free ecosystem with rich food resources for the birds and animals in it.

Gica became the guide for journalists and biologists who came to document life in the Delta between the blocks.

She was doing well; he received tips from everyone.

He had befriended and talked to many nature lovers, and with each passing day he saw that he also received respect for the knowledge he had about the pit, not just money. He had become an exotic character in the press.

Then, in 2013, came the greatest misfortune of his life.

His brothers-in-law had built a hut near his household.

They dealt with scrap metal and plastic bottles and were away from home most of the day. Even on Christmas Eve, their five children were alone in the house when a fire broke out in the metal boiler that heated the hut.

The journalists who passed by wrote not only about nature, but also about Gica, Robinson Crusoe from Vacaresti, the man with many children, who lives in isolation and in harmony with nature. He told everyone that this place was the living room of his soul.

Gica heard the children screaming and went to get them out of the house. They were stuck. He kicked the door open and went into the flames after them. She managed to have four children. Florina, an eight-monthold girl, could not be saved. The nylon tracksuit on Gica was already mixed with pieces of meat on his hands and feet. He could barely move. They came to the rescue and took him to the emergency room.

Gica liked this change of social aura and had left it softer with poaching. He had begun to want this area of ​​his to be protected. Don’t let real sharks come, like in other green places, build restaurants and clubs and destroy nature. The former poacher now had a new dream. The nature enthusiasts who kept coming to him convinced him that he would be suitable to become the ranger of the Delta. He knew all the routes, fishing places, methods and hours when poachers came to the pond. In addition, he thought that the state would build him a house there; as do all rangers in nature reserves.

While Gica was in the hospital, there was a monster scandal next to his barracks. The whole press wrote about his heroic deed. The City Hall came and took all the children to the dormitory. They had learned of a fire in the press and thought they would be put in a bad light if they were allowed to live there. They put the children in vans and took them to a placement center. Niculina and Corina also moved there with their children.

Gica lasted in the hospital for four days. He could no longer stay there while his children were held captive in the state.

Besides, without him there, Delta was in danger. He came out 12 days earlier, even though he was bandaged like a mummy. He had severe burns to his hands, feet and face. It was destroyed. It has begged the municipality, made scandal about where girls and boys were kept him, and he called all new friends journalists and environmental activists and made hell in four has removed children from the home.

In order to be able to take them back, he made them birth certificates, baptized them at church and moved them, in the eyes of the state, to a house rented with money from Helmut. The house was close to the Delta, but they could not stay there. What to do in that place crowded with fences and neighbors who thought they were many and noisy? They only went there when they found out that a check was coming from the Police or Child Protection. Otherwise, in the Delta, in freedom, in the place where they were born.

The fire that took Gica out of the children did not only leave him with scars and severe leg pain. His wounds became infected because he did not stay in the hospital to heal and all this suffering left him with diabetes. But the worst thing about his mood was when he found out that because of the burns, he could no longer have children.

He was more of a housewife, he couldn’t walk all over the pond like he used to when he was healthy. He was down to earth. His joy was that he was still working with the National Geographic photographer.

Helmut, together with other nature enthusiasts, has meanwhile established the Vacaresti Natural Park Association. They began to take serious steps to obtain the legal status of nature reserve for the Delta. They partnered with scientific research centers and universities in the country and abroad, held public events to promote the place, brought celebrities and politicians there.

40 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Gica helped them on the field. In the four years that the Association has struggled to turn the pit into a Natural Reserve, the former poacher has shaken hands with all environment ministers and mayors since then. They also gave him a big boat to take biologists and tourists through the pond. These things have kept his morale alive so far. And the dream that one day, when this place of his will officially become a Natural Park, he will be the ranger who will keep the poachers and the rest of the destroyers away.

It’s just that now the lake is protected by law, and he and his children live here illegally. No one will agree to let them live crammed into their little shack without water and electricity. Nor should the Association build them a new home. Inside a nature reserve it is impossible to get a building permit for such a thing.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

In 2016, the Vacaresti pit officially became the Vacaresti Natural Park. Gica began to wonder if she could still live in the place she had called home for 18 years. Helmut and the other people from the Association have promised him that they will take care of him, they will not let him stay on the streets with the children. But Gica was more concerned with living here and his dream of being a ranger. This pond was all he knew. His identity was closely tied to this place. It was Gica Pescarul from Lake Vacaresti!

After talking to the Minister of Environment, Gica also went to the people from the Association to ask him what will happen to him and his family. Upside down, under the shade of a young walnut tree, he stood in front of two men dressed in khaki clothes. Gica, you have to find a house here in the area, a real house, they told him.

You can work, but what will the children do? Children have to go to school, do their homework, integrate them into a system…

Gica shrugged. He had no idea how things were going in the system in this country, nor how it was with the bureaucracy. The only system he knew was the ecosystem. And the ecosystem was here, in the puddle. Where does he get his money from? What will he do after he demolishes his barracks?

This area will be destroyed without him here!

CONCLUSION I have chosen this site because it carries deep traces of Romania’s communist past. After the fall of the Communist Regime in 1989, the country was a massive void, living in a state of suspension. In an attempt to reset the system, politicians and people in charge didn’t address issues such as poverty and homelessness, especially after Romania’s long history of enslavement of the Roma. As a result, this family, albeit an isolated case, and the strong relationship which it had to the site, are an indirect portrayal of many things which are inherently wrong with my country and, therefore, form part of the overarching system which I am critiquing in my film.

interview and photographs taken from DoR (Decat o Revista publication) https://www.dor.ro/acasa-delta-vacaresti/, translated by Andreea Iliescu

41 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

URBAN CONTEXT

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Urban development of the city of Bucharest - systematization plan, 1931

42 |

Bucharest city map, Grigore Cerchez plan

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

43 |

Delta Vacaresti plan, showing dam, routes and swamp

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

2 1. C.E.T. Sud, industrial area

1

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

2. Asmita Gardens residences

3 3. makeshift homes and tents set up by travellers

4

4. reeds and lakes on site

44 |

Delta Vacaresti plan - the nature reserve

5 5. the concrete fencing dam surrounding the site

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

site photographs, taken by Andreea Iliescu

45 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CHAPTER V

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

OTHERED: A Palimpsest of Stories

46 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

EMPLOYED MEDIUMS

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

PHOTOGRAMMETRY

Photogrammetry walkthrough of the site; to see the full process of documenting the site please take a look at the Booklet of Photogrammetry document

47 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Digitising the site through photogrammetry

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena. I chose this methodology because it is imprecise: my interest is to depict the unclear relationship that Roma people have to the land by being displaced and removed from society.

Step 1 - Taking photographs on site

Step 2 - Generating Agisoft Metahape point cloud

48 |

Step 3 - Generating Agisoft Metahape dense cloud

Step 4 - Generating Agisoft Metahape 3D Model - (Work in Progress)

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Step 5 - Building the digitised version of the site in the game engine

49 |

- (Work in Progress)

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

3D ANIMATIONS

Materiality and aesthetics - Rendering in the game engine

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

In order to be able to fully give agency to the objects, I conducted a series of experiments with renders into the digital realm; thus, materiality and textures become very important in the way I tell the story. Consequently, the fragmented view that others have of the Roma made me think of a palimpsest of aesthetics in order to be able to portray their stories in a variety of different ways in my final moving image piece, as opposed to the media, which illustrates them in a unified, caricaturised manner.

Screenshot from the game engine 1 - the Roma household

50 |

Screenshot from the game engine 2 - testing aesthetics and materiality

- (Work in Progress)

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Developing aesthetics and modelling the Roma family’s household (WIP Show)

51 |

- (Work in Progress)

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Developing aesthetics and modelling the Roma family’s household (WIP Show)

52 |

- (Work in Progress)

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Developing aesthetics and modelling the Roma family’s household (WIP Show)

53 |

- (Work in Progress)

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Developing aesthetics and modelling the Roma family’s household (Final Crit T2)

54 |

- (Work in Progress)

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Developing aesthetics and modelling the Roma family’s household (Final Crit T2)

55 |

- (Work in Progress)

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Developing aesthetics and modelling the Roma family’s household (Final Crit T2)

56 |

- (Work in Progress)

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Post production - curating stories

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

The three-channel video alternates between photogrammetry models of the site, found footage of the Roma community and the digitised version of their objects. The scenes are interconnected through a series of relationships I have developed in order for the complementary digitised version to illustrate a different view into the story. Over the next two months, the film will be spatialized into the models of the site to create an immersive experience, depicting Roma cultural practices (i.e. food and family dinners, language and music etc) ultimately aiming to engage a multitude of senses.

N.B. This tryptich arrangement was doing disservice to my narrative and storytelling, as it was limiting me to work through associations between the three different channels. As such, I decided to move away from this and employ the idea of the palimpsest with overlaid footage, photogrammetry and animations instead.

Film stills from ‘OTHERED’ - for full film please see https://vimeo.com/user49479603

57 |

- (Work in Progress)

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

OBJECT-ORIENTED ONTOLOGY In metaphysics, object-oriented ontology is a 21st-century Heidegger-influenced school of thought that rejects the privileging of human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects.

It is the study of existence with respect to things: it argues that we can better understand our world and ourselves by examining the objects in the world without placing them in the context of the people who made them.

The question of empathy emerges in my research: how can an inanimate object manifest an ability to understand and share the feelings of another? The overarching concept of the project is to spatialize the agency of objects and personal posessions; through them, I am discussing the stories of displacement, identity and belonging of the Roma community.

With this understanding, any “thing” is an object, whether living, nonliving, artificial, or conceptual—an everything-plus-the-kitchen sink approach that gives rise to a near-comical overabundance of lists in OOO writings. In his critical review of the philosophy in Artforum, the Princeton professor Andrew Cole somewhat mockingly describes the theory to encompass “aardvarks, baseball, and galaxies; or grilled cheeses, commandos, and Lake Michigan.”

For OOO, your skin cells are objects, and so are you, and so is the population of the nation you live in, and so is the very idea of a nation.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Objects have power. The things we surround ourselves with are living, breathing memories. As such, the aim of my project is to give agency to inanimate objects, utilising them as witnesses of events, tensions in the family or, on the contrary, of beautiful, human moments.

In short, OOO (and its intertwined companion Speculative Realism) is dedicated to exploring the reality, agency, and “private lives” of nonhuman (and nonliving) entities—all of which it considers "objects"—coupled with a rejection of anthropocentric ways of thinking about and acting in the world. One of the movement’s founders, American University in Cairo philosophy professor Graham Harman, defined these objects in ArtReviewas “unified realities—physical or otherwise—that cannot be reduced either downwards to their pieces or upwards to their effects.”

The crucial point here is that, in contrast to the dominant strains of 20th-century phenomenology that claim things are only real insofar as they are sensible to a human subject, OOO asserts a radical and imaginative realism that not only claims that things do exist beyond the purview of human conception, but that this existence (defined by Harman as “nothing other than [the] confrontation of an experiencing real object with a sensual one”) is almost entirely inaccessible to our understanding.

It's a brand of materialism that goes hand in hand with what you might call posthumanist egalitarianism, or panpsychism: none of the things you can name can be thought of as intrinsically less real, vital, or important than any other—an ecological viewpoint of existence that rejects any idea of human specialness as simple arrogance. As Harman writes, “The world is not the world as manifest to humans; to think a reality beyond our thinking is not nonsense, but obligatory.”

Pierre Huyghe's Zoodrama (2010)

58 |

This idea is closely linked to the OOO rejection of “correlationism,” or the habit we humans have of thinking about things only in terms of the effects they have on us. For OOO adherents, this is a tragically limited worldview that at best precludes our ability to imagine the multiverse of beings, and at worst leads directly to the wanton environmental degradation we witness today. The world according to OOO is one full of beings acting on one another according to their own goals and caprices, motivations that cannot be kenned by others.

References Dylan Kerr, What Is Object-Oriented Ontology? A Quick-and-Dirty Guide to the Philosophical Movement Sweeping the Art World, Artspace https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_ features/the_big_idea/a-guide-to-object-orientedontology-art-53690 [accessed 4th May 2021] Object-Oriented Ontology, Wikipediia < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_ ontology> [accessed 4th May 2021]

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANIMISM Other-than-human things_____Other-than-human objects Human Human object? (dead body? Inanimate to its human reality but considerably if all the objects are things then all the objects are seen through animism, so dead body is still animated?)

Journal #36 - July 2012 e-flux, Anselm Franke

I should begin by mentioning the degree to which animism has continued to pose, despite all attempts at scientific explanation, a serious riddle to Western epistemologies, and also a provocation to our embodied everyday perception and rationality. That inanimate objects and things act, that they have designs on us, and that we are interpellated by them, is a quotidian(daily) reality that we all implicitly accept—just as we accept, and indeed are animated by, the very milieus and contexts in which weoperate.

That inanimate objects and things act, that they have designs on us, and that we are interpellated by them, is a quotidian reality that we all implicitly accept—just as we accept, and indeed are animated by, the very milieus and contexts in which we operate. But to acknowledge, articulate, and conceptualize this fact is apparently a wholly different issue, which is problematic on all levels. The provocation embedded in the notion of animism is that it demands us to confront just that. Imagining animism therefore takes on the shape of the extreme, such that animism assumes the form of a caricature-version of the reality we normally take for granted: If things become active, alive, or even person-like, where does this leave actual humans?

Freudian sensation of the “uncanny,” in which something is either more alive than it should be, or exposed as “merely” mechanical.

In both cases, we reassert the “proper” boundary between self and world. The question of animation—what is endowed with life, the soul, and agency—seems inevitably and immediately to call for distinctions and boundaries: between animate and inanimate matter, primitive and civilized, subjective perception and objective qualities, the colloquial perception of the real and the merely fictive

59 |

…we assume that the question is one of determining the “correct ” distinction between life and nonlife, self and world.

In our everyday perception, there is nothing that we identify more readily as fictional and as make-believe. And the project does not issue such a demand, nor does it devote itself, in a fashionable way, to the hidden life of images and things.

“There is no being-in-communication that is not also a form of animation, even if this is a negative animation, the absence of a certain sovereignty and agency, as in the case of “objectification” or “reification.”

What is at stake in putting those grounds at our disposal? At stake is the question of whether we are able to step outside the matrix of modern dichotomies—not by abandoning them, but by regaining our capacity to act on them, and to transform what presents itself to us as “given” reality.

Animism then becomes the point of departure, the most common thing in the world—a world in which there is nothing outside of the relations that constitute it. Where there is communication, there is animation. Animation is always a form of entanglement with an environment and with otherness.”

NTERPELLATION

… A negative horizon is a horizon that one leaves behind: hence to become modern, we have to cease being animists. We must leave behind a projected animist past, always in danger of returning.

In Marxist theory, interpellation is an important concept regarding the notion of ideology. It is as associated in particular with the work of French philosopher Louis Althusser.[1] According to Althusser, every society is made up of ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) and repressive state apparatuses.

(RSAs) which are instrumental to constant reproduction of the relations to production of that given society. While ISAs belong to the private domain and refer to private institutions (family, church but also the media and politics), the RSA is one public institution (police/military) controlled by the government.

Consequently, ‘interpellation’ describes the process by which ideology, embodied in major social and political institutions (ISAs and RSAs), constitutes the very nature of individual subjects’ identities through the process of “hailing ” them in social interactions.

Althusser ’s thought has made significant contributions to other French philosophers,[2] notably Derrida, Kristeva, Barthes, Foucault, Deleuze, and Badiou…If things become active, alive, or even person-like, where does this leave actual humans? Animism in this sense is greeted by the Western mindset as the threat that we must exchange positions, for now we can only imagine ourselves as annulled, in the role of the inert, passive stuff that was previously the thing-like “matter ” out there. …(animism project) seeks to bypass the choice altogether and treat animism not as a matter of belief, but rather as a boundarymaking practice. Hence, the project refrains from postulating a life of things or images, not because this would go too far, but because it would not go far enough. The Animism project was built upon the conviction that what must be mobilized are the very grounds on which such distinctions are made.

Furthermore, “animism” was the name given to the vanishing point situated on this meridian line at the horizon. Within a pictorial plane organized according to the central perspective, the vanishing point is the central spot on which the entire projective construction depends, but it ultimately is also the spot where all the lines that open up the space in the first place, and hence all its differences, conflate and fall into one.

Hence animism was always imagined in terms of the absence of those distinctions on which modernity rests—for instance, as a “state of nature” in which there is no difference between the interior and the exterior world, between culture and nature, or between natural things and social signs. The vanishing point is also a tilting image, a negative, upside-down mirror that shows the nonself as a projection of self—as in the image of animism as a “natural condition” in opposition to “modern civilization.” The upside-down mirror-screen is an instrument of an imaginary appropriation of otherness conceived in one’s own image.

Ref. Anselm franke (animism) https://www.e-flux.com/journal/36/61258/animismnotes-on-an-exhibition/

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Far from being a matter of abstract considerations, this is a battleground at the frontier of colonial modernity, and in the context of contemporary politics and aesthetics, it concerns the urgent question of the transformability and negotiability of ontologies, where claims to reality and the ordering of the social world are at stake. On this battleground, the problem of animation was given the name “animism” by nineteenth century anthropologists aspiring to see their work incorporated into the ranks of science.

or imaginary, and last but not least, between interior self and exterior world.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE “Othered” is a Palimpsest of different stories. The story is the one of the Enache family, living in the Vacaresti Delta; it acts as a canvas, onto which I have weaved in testimonies from the interviews I have conducted myself. At the beginning of the design process, the aim was to expand and nuance the conversation based on this particular Roma family. Later on, it became something more: enhancing the voices of the middle class Roma to bring them to light in order to undo the stigma.

The three mediums complement one another: the footage, aimed at the Roma community’s physical portrayal and representation, allows me to show how the objects were used and to speak about life conditions; the footage scenes act as flashbacks to portray what life was like when the Roma people were still living on site (PAST TENSE). The 3D reconstructed animations are allowing me to give agency to seemingly inanimate objects of everyday use, which preserve their memory and are imprinted with their presence, even though the family does not live there anymore. (A CONTINUOUS PRESENT IN THE DIGITAL REALM) PRESENT PHOTOGRAMMETRY

3D PRESENT ANIMATIONS

3D ANIMATIONS PRESENT

VIDEO FOOTAGE

PAST (FLASHBACKS)

VIDEO FOOTAGE PAST The two timelines (yellow, purple) move between different scales: the fragmented photogrammetry scans of the site illustrate the unclear and non-linear relationship that Roma have had to land ever since their arrival in Romania, before suffering violent histories of slavery and persecution for 500 years. In essence, it is the claim around the Roma people’s claim for land, territory and visibility, while the 3D reconstructed animations of the household are illustrated hyperrealistically in order to truly be able to give agency to the family’s objects which are deeply laden with their life stories. For the aesthetic choices of the animations, I have gone against photographs and video footage. The Palimpsest represents the struggle I have as an outsider to place them; it is an active acknowledgement of my own process of learning.

PHOTOGRAMMETRY PHOTOGRAMMETRY 3D 3DANIMATIONS ANIMATIONS VIDEO VIDEO FOOTAGE FOOTAGE

60 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

PHOTOGRAMMETRY PRESENT

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

We can all relate to food and dining practices, but not everyone can relate to this particular scene when the Enache family had to go fishing in the lake in the Vacaresti Delta. This scene suggests site specificity - the fact that living in nature allows the family to locally source their food, thus having a healthier lifestyle than people who reside in the city. I came across an interview when the father, Gica Enache, openly declared that the way in which he managed to survive for more than 16 years in the delta was by collecting scrap metal for sale and fishing. What is more, there is a very moving testimony I found when Gica said that “this delta is both the kitchen and the living room of his soul”. He then said that, were he to leave this place, he would get sick. Thus, this first object scene is already hinting towards the event of their eviction from the site. What is more, through this scene I am illustrating their life conditions - one plate, nine children. The youngest son asks the elderly not to eat everything and leave something for him, too.

61 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

FILM SCENES AND THEIR SYMBOLISM FOOD AND SITE-SPECIFICITY

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

WEDDING AND FAMILY UNION

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

“The framed wedding portrait is a feature of almost every East or Central European household – rich or poor, gypsy or gadje. The faces of the newly joined, just smaller than life size, stare straight and solemnly out of the frame. The black-and-white busts (they are just heads and chests, never bodies) are usually rouged and browned by hand, and they seem always to be hung strangely high up, a foot below the ceiling and leaning out from the wall, as if the couple is not there to be seen but rather to observe, as if the only guardian over a couple, now a family, is its hopeful first idea of itself.“ - Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing

62 |

This scene highlights the complexities and contradictions between the older and newer Roma generations. In traditional Romani families, wedding is a very important aspect, since family union is often celebrated. The testimony juxtaposed in this scene is from Raisa Mihai, who declared that she often feels judged by her relatives because she chose to continue her education instead of getting married and settling down. Thus, there is a contradiction between the younger generation, who is trying to escape traditions by attempting to enter a different world, and their wider relatives. Sometimes, respecting traditions and making a change, for instance building a career, cannot be done at the same time in traditional Romani families. This generates arguments among children and parents, the latter expecting to see their children settled down, particularly women.

The family portrait sits in its golden frame above the room, as if the family members are observing the space, scrutinizing the surroundings in detail. This has been put together under the cinematic technique of suture, often employed by Tarkovsky and other well-regarded filmmakers: through a shotreverse-shot, the audience is hemmed into the cinematic space, as if assisting the dialogue between different characters or, in my case, between the different elements - the portrait and the living space of the shack. The intention was to have the camera zoom into their faces, which almost look at the space in judgement, then back into the space, back again into the portrait and a final shot - where the camera pans around the room, as if the faces had been personified, almost getting out of the frame to absorb the space in all its entirety. The song in this scene is Suita Maskarada by Romanian fiddler band Taraf de Haidouks - a song that they often played at weddings in the ‘90s’.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

The technique of suture employed in Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’; a shot-reverse-shot is a helpful device for the director to anchor the audience into cinematic space and time.

From top to bottom: Stalker and his Wife having a conversation before him departing on his expedition Professor in the Sand Room or the Meat-Grinder The Wife delivering her final speech before the ending of the film

63 |

Ref. https://midnightsciencefictionfeature.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/in-the-zone-adialogue-between-excess-suture-and-tarkovskys-stalker-1979/

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

“We want separate schools, our own languages taught in these schools, and our own villages. We must build houses for our people, new houses in new neighbourhoods, not mixed in with people with whom we cannot get along.We must have our own homes for our own way of life. One day we will have our own country – Romanistan. Now we don’t even have our own places. To have a home, to have a house is, after all, more important even than to have a country.”

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

I asked if there wasn’t a greater danger of creating an even bigger Gypsy ghetto. “The greater danger”, he replied,”is to disappear.”

“Gypsies dropped out of school for the same reason that most people drop out of school. They failed at it. And they failed because the language used in school was not the language most of them spoke at home. No special language provisions were made for them (as they were for the Hungarian and German minorities). So they lost their language, or their chances, or more usually, they lost both.”

- Isabel Fonseca, Bury me Standing

64 |

Georgiana Ionita, whose testimony I overlapped with these visuals, explicitly says that she experienced discrimination for the first time in her fifth grade, when her form teacher asked the class whether there were any Roma ethnics. I then came across this news report from OltTV Slatina, mentioning that the number of Romani children who go to school every year is decreasing considerably. Although the Roma are an acknowledged minority in Romania, these discriminatory practices are frequent, for the system does nothing to support them as a minority being in school - on the one hand, on the notion of language (because only a few small villages where the Roma community is predominant teach Romani language) and, on the other, that they do not provide resources for them to learn Romanian as people with a different native language. Also, there are many cases of racially divided classrooms across the country: many newspaper articles stated that Roma children have a separate entrance/exit from Romanians.

Furthermore, I was moved to hear that Georgiana does not speak Romani language because her family did not want to teach her in order to protect her, as they expected she would suffer episodes of discrimination based on her ethnicity. In my research, I came across many official documents from associations who fight for Roma rights discussing the issue of education for Romani children, as well as the problem of racial segregation in school. The critique is aimed at the Ministry of Education, who doesn’t include Roma history and the Romani Holocaust in the history curriculum; thus, many people, Romani and Romanians alike, are unaware of the centuries of oppresion which the nation state has done to the Roma.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

(Left) Equal access to high quality education for Romani people - Official research document in three parts: analysing the current education system (taken in 2007), proposing solutions and implementing them in stages (Right) This article from 2014 titled “The only school in Romania teaching Romani language is located in Timis County.” It highlights the many accomplishments that Roma children have, since they are taught all subjects in their native Romani - they go to Olympiads, publish essays and are well-prepared to pick careers for the future. They are also taught Romanian, but as a second language - the school has been reported for this particular reason.

The native language of the Roma defines their culture. Without an inability to learn, speak and transmit it further, there is a chance it becomes extinct, for statistics show that nowadays only a few Romani natives in Romania speak Romani. As a result, this is probably the biggest issue which needs to be tackled in the system. VICE made a documentary where they are pairing up with Google Translate to help record Romani translations from other languages and vice versa. The reason which triggered this initiative was the fact that Roma people are invisibile even to the most powerful search engine in the world.

65 |

For full video please access The Internet Learns Romani https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=UgUJ1jvDJGk&t=27s

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

“Back home, the remaining boria feigned indifference and quietly got on with their chores. Dritta was gone, and Viollca and Nuzi, next in line, would soon move into their considerably bigger quarters. But even they were subdued: the courtyard was going to be a much quieter place. Bexhet was withdrawn as well, polishing his sparkling bicycle. He took extravagant care of his bicycle, and Nuzi dreamed like all young men of a fast car, of any car.”

“All about him in the city streets he sees the frightening shadows of internal exiles, irreconcilable, nonparticipating, eroded by hatred.”

- Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing Police brutality and violence against the Roma are common in Romania. After reading the quote above from ‘Bury me standing’, I watched this scene which Radu Ciorniciuc stitched into his documentary from a different source. Essentially, this is the only scene which is shot on a phone and not on a professional camera, creating a feeling of anxiety. Rica, the youngest of the Enache children and Vali, the eldest, go to Cismigiu Park to play near the lake. They had a go at fishing and whilst doing so, they were seen by a group of police officers on patrol. They came over and cornered Rica: while one officer was holding him, the other punched him in the liver. The wider group was just sitting around, assisting to the scene without intervening. In the documentary, the boy had ridden on his bike to the park before this whole situation took place. In my film the bike acts as a witness, standing in stillness, as the sound of the moving wheels contributes to this moment of tension. The shadows of the policeman who punches the child and himself are registered into the digital environment as traces of violence which are usually left by police brutality.

66 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

THE BICYCLE AND POLICE VIOLENCE

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

“Our lessons were difficult not only because we had no common linguistic ground but because so much about me was plain alien to her: if you can’t understand actions, the chances are you won’t understand speech. I was continually shocked by the isolation my strangeness implied, and touched by the protective gestures it inspired. Once, I crouched at a boiling kettle, poised to pour water over a teabag. Dritta lunged for it, yanking the rectangular pouch out by its tail. “It will get wet!” she scolded, patting the bag dry in the folds of her skirt.

She had never seen a teabag and had kindly been trying to rescue something that she imagined was—what?— perhaps a perfuming sachet or bouquet garni (though it is hard to imagine such fragrant ephemera making their way to inner Albania).”

- Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing The boiling teapot has a double connotation in my film: on the one hand, it speaks about cultural heritage and Roma castes such as blacksmithery, ironmongery, coppersmithery etc. The testimony from Nicu Dumitru, which is overlaid with the photogrammetric landscape before this scene, states that this cultural heritage is very important for him, even though he doesn’t practice the craft nowadays. This speaks about Roma people’s jobs during their enslavement by the monastery or the state in Romania. What is more, this scene precedes the police violence of the kid in the park; thus, the teapot is under pressure whilst there is a riot in the city demanding that Romanians respect Roma rights and stop discriminating. Interestingly enough, Nicu Dumitru, the person I have interviewed myself is also the director of Aresel Association, an apolitical organisation trying to combat anti-Romani racism in Romania. The camera movement in this scene is called a Dolly Zoom and is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic scene in Vertigo; it is usually employed to increase tension in a scene, seen as one of cinema’s most powerful moments of visual storytelling.

67 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

THE TEAPOT UNDER PRESSURE AND A DEMONSTRATION IN THE CITY

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

INTERVIEWS AND METHODOLOGY

“As an architect, we often draw the outline or the contour of buildings, then we divide them internally; we work from the outside-in. The process of incarceration makes one experience and measures architecture from the inside-out. I remember former prisoners speaking about the actual pattern of stones within a terrazzo tile. From there they were able to determine the dimension of this floor tile, and from the floor tile, by counting how many there are, the size of the cell. Then, they may try to understand how many cells there are in a corridor by measuring the distance of shouts, the footsteps they hear, or echoes. Once you start drawing the plan from the inside-out, you never really stop. You certainly don’t stop at the edge of the building. You start thinking, how far away are you from where you were arrested, or from your family? How far are you from a border, and in case of a war, from the forces that may come to liberate you? You build the world around the detail you experience, and this allows you to position yourself within that world and orient yourself.”

Eyal Weizman, The Architecture of Memory https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/confinement/357171/the-architecture-of-memory/

68 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

For the methodology of the interviews I have conducted, I followed a thread of people who recommended further contacts and bibliography. I was interested to speak mainly to middle class Roma people, often scholars and academics to shed a light onto their stories, since the media only shows the extreme ends of the spectrum: the very poor or the very wealthy, with their associated stigma.

The first person I spoke to was Oana Dorobantu, a Kalderash Roma woman from Southern Romania. Oana (she/they) is a queer Roma activist based in Germany; her practice involves writing, visual arts and public speaking, with an academic background in Gender Studies. She is very popular on social media, touching upon questions of systematic racism, ethnicity and identity in Romania and worldwide. Oana is often invited to speak at formal and informal events,from Youtube vlogging to Harvard conferences. She rose to prominence when some of her written texts were published in a book on Romanian racism which she co-edited with academic Carmen Gheorghe: Problema Romaneasca - O analiza a rasismului romanesc (The Romanian Issue: an analysis of Romanian racism).

Oana Dorobantu in an interview with vlogger Silviu Faiar; in her background Oana has the Roma queer flag, which is strongly linked to her identity.

Oana was the first person I contacted. In hindsight, I was quite naive in the way I conducted the interview. I sent her a list of bulletpoints and specific questions in advance, as she could only give me 30 minutes of her time and I wanted the conversation to be as productive as possible. We spoke about the institutional racism in Romania, her academic background in Germany and gave me some extremely useful lessons in the way I tackle these sensitive topics for a wider audience. Nothing from this interview made its way into my final output, mainly because she did not allow me to record the interview; however, the conversation with her has shaped the way in which I conducted the following interviews, thus placing an emphasis on how to clarify my train of thought. Back when I interviewed Oana (it was late October 2020), I was investigating nomadism in Romania, trying to understand whether it is a practice which happens by choice or rather by circumstance.

69 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

I was pleasantly surprised to see what a strong community they have and how much they recommend one another according to their area of expertise.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

The second interview I conducted was with sociologist and associate professor Gelu Duminica (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology).

Gelu is a widely acclaimed Roma scholar, often invited to speak at conferences and TV shows in Romania. He worked, studied and travelled to the United States, France, Germany and other parts of continental Europe. He is the director of Agentia Impreuna, a community oriented enterprise whose main aim is to empower young Romani people to build meaningful careers and continue their education despite the stigma which is associated to them. Born in Galati, Gelu is the first educated person of a working class Roma family. He struggled a lot with his identity and had to overcome episodes of racism in the education system before rising to prominence in Romania. He is very approachable and kind, extremely keen to help people and share his experience in order to undo the stigma which Roma people face in the Romanian system. This was probably the most enriching interview I had: Gelu spoke to me about Romani history: from slavery and the Holocaust to what can be done in the education system so that people stop judging Roma ethnics based on the colour of their skin. The most valuable testimony he gave me was his parents’ experience of not being aware about slavery, since his family understood slavery solely as work for the boyars during WW1. His declaration was integrated in my final output towards the end, where I discuss the fact that Romanians do not know about Roma history. Gelu’s long term solution to combat racism is to provide high quality education to both Roma and non-Roma.

70 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Gelu at 5 years old and his father, personal archive https://www.vice.com/ro/article/wxenpm/copilaria-lui-gelu-duminica

71 |

Gelu at ‘Garantat 100%’ TV show, interviewed by Catalin Stefanescu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dDboiwFbz0

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

I came across B.I. (interviewee wishes to remain anonymous) on an instagram page who promotes young Roma people. I was moved by the testimony he gave there about feeling like an outsider in his own community. B. left his home country to study in the UK at Oxford University. After graduating he emigrated to Germany, where he works in Public Policy. I approached him on facebook and he was kind enough to meet up with me for an interview via Zoom. The conversation was very productive: generally, the guidelines I followed were based on the testimony he gave on The Future is Roma instagram page. He told me about his family background, language issues, as well as building a community abroad. He also shared some stories about some personal objects he carries with him around, such as the Roma flag and a poster of a Fox. B. is also passionate about rare stones. In his free time, he enjoys travelling, listening to hip hop and reading. At the end of the interview, he was kind enough to tell me that his door is always open, should I need to have any further questions. What is more, he agreed to put me in contact with fellow Roma friends of his to arrange further interviews.

72 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

73 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Nicu Dumitru is a Roma activist. In my Term1 research video, I used some found footage where he was giving an interview to a British newsreporter about being a Roma in Romania. I then reached out to him to arrange a personal interview. Nicu studied Political Sciences at the University of Bucharest. He travelled to Italy and other European countries to work before moving back to Romania to start the Aresel Platform: a civic initiative in the year 2018, in response to the 30 years of ignoring, racism, poor participation and political representation of Romanian Roma citizens. So far, their actions have received the support of over 60,000 people, becoming the largest proactive Roma community.

Aresel is a politically unrelated platform, the objective of which is to combat racism and social, political and economic inequalities between Roma and the rest of the population.

The Aresel platform supports the participation and public involvement of Roma communities throughout the country. The mission of Aresel is to encourage and support the involvement and public participation of Roma. They call on the decency authorities in relations with Roma and public policies to improve the situation of Roma communities.

Nicu spoke to me about Roma history, the Holocaust, slavery, as well as different castes among Roma communities: blacksmiths, coppersmiths, fiddlers etc. His cultural legacy is blacksmithery, hence the iron teapot in my film which is followed by his testimony about practising the craft. The protest with which I have juxtaposed the teapot boiling under pressure is an Aresel protest against Romani racism and discrimination; the footage was found on the Aresel Platform website.

74 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Nicu Dumitru giving an interview in The Struggle for Survival of the Roma People: Europe’s Most Hated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALdlphTYdi4&list=PL2gVFp_ AUNFsy0VOCjhYBCo8hahMt7oWS&index=22&t=133s

75 |

The Aresel Platform website, intro page https://aresel.ro/en/

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Gelu Duminica organized a podcast called ‘So Keres?’ (Romani, ‘How are you?’) in the spring of 2021. I followed the thread of episodes and contacted people who were invited to speak on the podcast. The launching episode was featuring an interview with Georgiana Ionita, a Sociology student at the University of Bucharest and a student of Gelu’s. In the interview she was talking about identity, displacement and belonging, giving context to what it means to be a Roma ethnic in the Romanian system. The episode was launched on 8th April, which is the International Day of Roma ethnics. I contacted her on facebook to organize a personal interview based on the testimonies she gave on Gelu’s podcast. Georgiana gave me some valuable insights into what it feels like to be a Roma woman, trying to go against the stereotypes about family, early marriage and building a career. She shared some stories about personal objects, her family background and her hobbies and interests. Georgiana is also a colleague and collaborator of Gelu Duminica at Agentia Impreuna. Together they research and promote good quality education and opportunities for Roma ethnics. A valuable testimony that I included from Georgiana in my final output was a story from when she started school in fifth grade and was asked by her form teacher if she was of Romani ethnicity. I spoke to her about statistics on racially segregated classes in Romanian schools, as well as the fact that she always felt like an outsider in her community because her parents didn’t want to teach her Romani language in order to protect her.

76 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Georgiana Ionita on So Keres podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnkfacBg44&t=176s

77 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Raisa Mihai is an actress and singer of Romani ethnicity who is currently studying her undergraduate at the Romanian Conservatory. I found out about her on a VICE documentary ‘The Internet Learns Romani’, where she was giving a testimony about Romani language and the fact that it is not taught in any of the schools in Romania. What is more, VICE paired with Google Translate to help record Romani translations to other languages and vice versa. The short documentary tackles issues of racism, displacement and inequality in the Romanian job market, where Roma people are often denied job offers based on their ethnicity. I thus got in contact to Raisa to schedule an interview and she was very warm and welcoming. She spoke to me about her family, her background in music, future career aspirations and some contradictions between her views and the ones of her older relatives, who are often concerned that she is not married at twenty-three years old. I was moved by her testimony saying that it is often difficult for her to identify as Roma, since she doesn’t follow the traditions of the older generations in her family. It was very important to me to emphasize Roma women in my final output, since the experience of being part of this community as a female poses more challenges than being a male. Raisa has a classic guitar called ‘Black Rose’, which she takes with her whenever she has concerts abroad (pre-pandemic). She is hopeful that life will go back to normal so that she can reappear on stage.

78 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

The Internet Learns Romani, Raisa Mihai giving a testimony on the Roma Holocaust, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgUJ1jvDJGk&t=31s

79 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

John Gerrard’s practice of juxtapositions and scalar frictions between different mediums on site

Forensic Oceanography project - filling in the gaps with reconstructed video and imagery

80 |

FLEE - an animation film using found footage and other mixed media to construct the narrative

Christopher Nolan’s non-linear narrative and storytelling

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

PRECEDENTS

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS The main limitation in my research was the fact that I do not belong to the Roma community. Thus, I had to give careful consideration to the gaze which was being exercised and the types of assumptions I was making as an outsider. It was quite a difficult issue to tackle, as this was the first time I have ever engaged with such a sensitive topic.

This project is a conscious acknowledgement of the process of my own learning.I realized that the only way to go about the process was to be aware of the limitations and use them in an open manner to develop my narrative structure.

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

If I were to change something in the way I have spatialized these stories, it would probably be the level of agency given to Radu Ciorniciuc’s documentary film ‘Acasa/My Home’. I problematize the fact that he is also an outsider, but at the same time I have to acknowledge that underrepresented communities do not have resources to document themselves. Hence, I believe it was better to use this film as a source of information rather than have myself make assumptions about the things I do not know, as this was the biggest challenge in my project.

As a result, I have brought in multiple stories, accounts and perspectives from the community, which were mainly overlaid onto the photogrammetry scans of the site.

I am also aware that this may seem like I am universalizing Roma communities onto this particular case of the nomadic family living in nature. However, in all the conversations I have had with the Roma there was a tone of oppression and abjection which was present throughout; this particular Roma family is the epitome of otherness and removal from society. Finally, the rich history of the site, deeply laden with communist traces, echoes many aspects which are inherently wrong with my country and, therefore, with the system that I am critiquing: the police department, the education system, the infrastructure etc. Until these aspects do not get resolved, issues such as racism and institional oppression won’t be addressed as urgent matters; for all these issues derive from one another and are interconnected.

81 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

Having shaped this in conversation with people from the community, I believe the main way I have addressed the issue was the attempt to decolonize the gadjo/ nonRoma narrator and enhance the voices of the unheard rather than have myself speak on their behalf.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

FUTURE APPLICATIONS PROJECT RELEVANCE

Ultimately, I see this project as an open-ended process where I have tested a series of relations between some objects, which are more or less important to the Roma community. I am hoping that, by providing this framework, the research can continue growing and developing as a network of relationships, finally creating a digital archive of personal stories related to objects and space.

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

What is more, ‘Othered’ could have a more useful purpose in providing evidence of discriminatory practices against the Roma and could be used, for instance, by Roma activist groups and associations such as Aresel, who fight against antiRomani racism in Romania and Eastern Europe. Through this research, I aim to help alleviate some of the struggles the Roma community experiences.

Finally, I hope that this research can be expanded on for a variety of different applications in the future for both Romani and non-Romani people: on the one hand, as a tool to educate non-Roma people against racism and discrimination and, on the other, as a tool for liberation of the Roma.

82 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

As such, I believe it can be used in a variety of different ways: one option could be a partnership with ERIAC (European Roma Institute of Arts and Culture), who mainly addresses non-Roma people to shed a light onto Roma arts and culture.

ERIAC has sponsored an initiative called ROMAMOMA: A Roma Transnational Museum. As a result, I can imagine my walkthrough film being played in a museum which mainly speaks about Roma struggles, but also craft, arts and culture.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CONCLUSIONS

After speaking to sociologists and anthropologists, I reached the conclusion that only with good quality education and through empowering middle class Roma can the stigma be undone on the longer run. This project has been a starting point in developing a practice for underrepresented communities. Through this research I contest the institutional erasure of the Roma community in Romania, hoping that by providing a framework of relations between everyday objects and space I can attempt to shift the perspective in which the Roma are perceived, ultimately arguing that space is not innocent in the production of systemic inequality. I claim that this type of storytelling can help alleviate their struggles by bringing to visibility their experiences.

I plan to continue to expand my learnings about their community and shed a light on their stories through my digital design practice. I hope to continue researching and exploring the background I have as a Romanian - understanding my cultural context in relation to the sociology, politics and investigate how I could give back to underrepresented communities back home through my artistic practice. Ultimately, I have learned more than ever how conditioned I am to think in a certain way and that, in order to be able to fight this condition I have to be aware of the enemy within. This project has certainly given me a framework to test these limitations.

83 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Having been brought up in a country where the system did nothing but further the invisibility of Romani communities, I am pleased to have brought the conversation to the digital environment. At the beginning of the academic year, I set out on this path because I was interested to find out more about nomadic practices of Roma people, since they have never had a country or a territory of their own. In my research process I started to question my findings: whether nomadism was actually a choice or, rather, a circumstance. Looking at my final output, I see it as an open-ended process where I have tested a framework of relations between objects and space to tell their stories into the digital realm.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CHAPTER V

The following pages represent research which has been conducted, but no longer used in the final output.

However, it has influenced the way I approached the project in direct or indirect ways.

84 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

APPENDIX

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

THE TEAROOM - the gay-cruising game challenging industry norms -

by ROBERT YANG

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

GAME ANALYSIS

85 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

the following content includes inappropriate language and visual material and as a result it is intended for mature audiences only

86 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

WARNING

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

OVERVIEW Tiny gloryholes, a strong grunge aesthetic and country music in the background. That is the way Robert Yang portrays cruising public bathrooms for anonymous sex. The game is a historical public restroom simulator about anxiety, police surveillance, and performing fellatio on other men’s ‘guns’ while, ultimately, trying to have fun without getting caught by undercover police. Your goal is to engage in sexual acts with other men, but before that, you must wait for someone to enter, and then engage in a ritual that involves repeated periods of prolonged eye contact, all the while keeping a look out for the police.

ARTIST/DESIGNER Robert Yang is an academic, artist, and indie video game developer, whose work often explores gay subculture and the boundary between video game and art. His projects include Borges adaptation Intimate, Infinite and The Tearoom.

‘The tearoom’ action takes place in a public men’s restroom in Mansfield, Ohio and is inspired by some real-life footage from 1982, where policemen set up hidden cameras to record consensual sexual activity between men. William E Jones, an artist born in Ohio the same year, later found the footage online, edited out a voiceover that he described as “as illiterate and hateful a text as I have ever heard committed to film”, and released the result in 2007 as a “found footage” documentary called Tearoom (US slang for a public bathroom in which men meet to have anonymous sex/ British English version of the term is ‘cottage’).

Grunge bathroom design. Photograph: Robert Yang

CONCEPT AND DESIGN Yang declared the layout of the bathroom is based partly on diagrams from his observation reports. And while he wanted the game to be about gay history, he also wanted it to speak to how video games think of sex and violence.

In The Tearoom, Robert Yang replicates the logic of the pointless expensive video game bathroom. He gratuitously covers every surface with high resolution physically-based materials, applies layers of dirt and grunge decals, lightmaps the room at a high luxel density, and incorporates unique period details like vintage light switches and old faucets.

The stealth indie game set entirely in a urinal … The Tearoom. Photograph: Robert Yang

87 |

Layout design. Photograph and sketch: Robert Yang

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

CONCEPT AND DESIGN (continued) He allows the player to freely urinate as much as they like. However, the urine does pool rather unrealistically, to exaggerate the complexity of his flushing simulation.

Gun changes materiality when NPC is satisfied.

Player using the urinal: Photograph:Robert Yang

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Just as video game bathrooms don’t serve any crucial gameplay purpose, Yang’s urination system serves no real gameplay purpose. This pointlessness evokes the logic of cruising the tearoom for sex: you aren’t there to pee, but rather you’re there to pretend to pee. The bathroom and the pee are a pretext to provide plausible deniability, and “immerse” tearoom players together.

Then finally, when shared sexual consent is established though repeated eye contact, gestures, and pregnant pauses, the NPC will walk over and the player will automatically get down on their knees to orally service the NPC. This is the part of the game when you s*ck-off a gun as quickly as possible, departing from Humphreys’ 1970 sociological study. Yang’s design emerged from a difficult problem: how do you give first person fellatio in a game?

As an experienced real-life practitioner, it is his opinion that video games can’t do this justice because a blurry appendage thrusting toward you, clipping through the camera, is not erotic, and such a literal approach would’ve been inscrutable and disappointing. Instead, he wanted a bit more fantasy, to show the excitement and pleasure and why these men would seek each other out in a public bathroom.

Player making eye-contact with NPC. Photograph: Robert Yang Inside the magic membrane of the tearoom, there were big risks to propositioning the wrong guy for sex, whether he’s totally unwitting or actively hostile. It was very important to figure out who thought it was just a bathroom vs. who knew it was a tearoom. To help players see each other, tearooms evolved a complex ritual / “handshake” of certain stances and eye contact and “showing hard” over time, allowing players to wordlessly “seal the contract” (sexual consent) quickly and effectively.

88 |

In Yang’s game, he mimicks this same look-based ritual for the first phase of every encounter. To establish shared sexual interest, the player and NPC must repeatedly make eye contact. If the player is slow, the NPC coughs to try to get the player’s attention; if the player never reciprocates the gaze, then the NPC eventually leaves. Some NPCs are totally oblivious bystanders who will leave right after they pee, while some timid NPCs scare easily from forceful eye contact.

Player performing a fellatio on the NPC. Photograph: Robert Yang

CENSORSHIP

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS

In the game, you service a fellow gun owner’s “gun” from the side, thus maintaining a clear readable silhouette. If the gun is flaccid, you’re clearly not doing enough, but if it’s twitching upward then you know it likes it. All of Yang’s games were banned by Twitch, so he wanted to replace male genitalia with the only thing the game industry cannot ban – the gun.

As a designer, Robert Yang is mostly interested in sociopolitical implications. The game industry is a huge driver of gun culture, pushing specific gun brands and gunmetal shader aesthetics. He wanted to compare these gun politics of visibility to bathroom politics of visibility.Historically, policemen have been the number one enemy of gay/ trans/LGBT/queer communities, so he wanted to recreate virtually the thrill of hiding and not being found by the cops.

“What if this gun is my penis” is a pretty obvious metaphor, but it helped Yang ensure a variety of shapes to orally service. You could say gun culture is somewhat bodypositive - there is relatively little size-shaming around unique pistol designs (e.g. a Mauser C96) or unique concepts (e.g. the trendy “Obrez”), a gun can be “cool” for a myriad of reasons. More importantly, guns help Yang escalate his resistance against Twitch’s draconian game-banning policies because guns are clearly not penises - however, if they still ban his game, then it will be the first time in history that

Collecting up to 8 guns as ‘tropheys’. Photograph: Robert Yang

Male genitalia is replaced with a gun for censorship. Photograph: Robert Yang

Thus, each NPC in this game has a 23% chance of being an undercover cop.‘I like the gesture of imbuing politics within the game code itself, and I like how it plays out in the game balance: 23% chance sometimes feels a bit too frequent in the game... as it should.’ Yang said.

When the game code spawns a cop, that guy’s personality is set to 100% horniness. He will quickly enter sex with you with minimal eye contact or ritual. He wants to trap you. Yang hopes that some players notice that cops are always horny, and begin to grow suspicious of horny noncops as well. “Should you be worried if someone seems too friendly, too eager? Will they report you, are they a cop?

This is how surveillance destroys trust between people.”

Cops also have other “tells”: they are never nervous and they will never look behind their backs. Also, outside the window, a shadowy cop car will slowly roll-up and watch you. If you manage to notice these cues early on, then you should probably ignore the cop until he leaves. But if you don’t catch any of those tells, and obliviously complete the eye contact stage only to realize everything too late, then your only choice is to quit the game.

89 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

NPC making eye-contact with player - 1. Photograph: Robert Yang

DESIGN PARTICULARITIES BLADDERS / URINE: because of all the different combinations and modularity (4 different NPC types, with 8 different guns, and 1 player) the urine system has a strange structure - every urinal is in charge of peeing into itself. A urinal does not care who is telling it to pee into itself, it could be the player or an NPC, using any kind of gun.

Bathroom urinals. Photograph: Robert Yang

NPC making eye-contact with player - 3. Photograph: Robert Yang

STALLS: “I originally had a mechanic where you could run into a stall and hide whenever you wanted, or dudes would walk in while you were still sitting in the stall. It generated really cool moments where you could look though the gaps in the stall partitions and see a guy walking in. Unfortunately, it confused a lot of playtesters, who either didn’t understand that the stall was a sort of “trophy room” where you see your gun collection, or they expected too much and hoped the guy would come into the stall with them. Because I’m only one developer and this project was already taking way too long, I had to limit my gameplay to just fellatio in front of the urinal, but I prefer that focus and vulnerability.”, said Yang.

Bathroom urinals. Photograph: Robert Yang

90 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

NPC making eye-contact with player - 2. Photograph: Robert Yang

MUSIC: four tracks by The Lonesome Billies. In general, Yang had trouble finding a country band that wanted to be associated with his weird gay sex games (which felt annoying and borderline homophobic to him), so he was thankful that this band agreed for him to use their music.

“I feel that country music is pretty underrepresented in video games, and I thought they were a good fit because they evoke a sort of Merle Haggard / Johnny Cash “outlaw country” 1970s honky tonk sound that has some rural working class roots (unlike 2015-era “bro country”) while also feeling a little pop and punk. I guess it gives this a vaguely “Brokeback” vibe or something.”, he declared.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANACHRONISM: “while I like stressing how historical this game is, there’s also some places where I really just didn’t care about historical consistency... the 2000s-era modern police car, the eclectic choice of guns (I didn’t even know they made AK-12s!), the modern surveillance camera revealed at the end. If I had to discern some meaning from it, I’d say I wanted to emphasize how a lot of the forces of control and violence from 1962 are still at work, and now they’re maybe even stronger in 2017.”, says Yang.

“If you see cops, leave the game” warning. Photograph: Robert Yang

BIBLIOGRAPHY ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

https://radiatoryang.itch.io/the-tearoom https://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2017/06/the-tearoom-as-record-of-risky-business.html artist’s manifesto https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/11/the-tearoom-game-gay-cruising-1960sindustry-norms-robert-yang Caught by the cops - Game over. Photograph: Robert Yang

CONCLUSIONS The field of gaming mirrors and often amplifies the same racial, gender and environmental biases we suffer in real life. Consequently, the games we design reflect the shifting socio-political conditions of our times: from the lack of female characters, to their stereotypical representation, the extreme violence of combat platforms to surveillance to the hypermilitization of fictional virtual cities. Games act as echo chambers of real-world issues. As a result, the methodologies and ideologies which originate from gaming are becoming increasingly influential in the way our lives are governed. [1] Application to own project: The analysis of ‘The Tearoom’ and its socio-political implications made me consider how I could address the social biases and stigma which are attributed to Romani people in Romania. As such, the design of a digital territory for storytelling seemed appropriate as a research topic.

[1] ADS8 Data Matter(s): The Gaming Edition - extended studio brief

91 |

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/robert-yang-the-tearoom-interview

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ARTICLES

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES AND MESH SYSTEMS OF NETWORKS

92 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

INTRODUCTION

The Digital Infrastructure sector contributed £33bn to the UK economy in 2017 (1.8% of GVA), up by a third since 2010.

A core contributor to connected growth in local areas, direct benefits from improved digital connectivity include large increases in download speeds leading to more productive economic activity. It is estimated that by subsidising upgraded infrastructure in certain postcodes £9bn of turnover was added to firms in those postcodes.Government has set targets for nationwide full fibre coverage by 2033 and for the majority of the population to be covered by a 5G signal by 2027.

Full Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) will deliver futureproof, reliable, gigabit-capable connections. These will support greater productivity and economic benefits,underpinning growth sectors such as creative industries and tourism, and helping to reduce inequalities between and within regions.

Good quality broadband and mobile coverage 93 | has become a modern necessity, both at home and work.

AGREEING OBJECTIVES

DCMS’s Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) (2018) sets out our roadmap to achieve the government’s digital connectivity targets, chiefly by encouraging commercial investment across the UK and creating the conditions to support deployment.It found c.10% of BASELINE UK premises are unlikely to benefit There are several areas to consider as part of developing an evidence from commercial investment without some base and strategy. Following £1.7bn investment of public money from form of additional funding. Government government and local authorities into the BDUK Superfast programme, is committed to an ‘outside-in’ approach superfast (>24Mbps) broadband coverage is at 95% of the UK, according to ensure these harder to reach areas to the latest Connected Nations 2018 report from Ofcom, with Fibre to the are addressed at the same pace as the Cabinet (FTTC) the most widely used technology. Full fibre, or Fibre to rest of the country. On mobile, the FTIR the Premise coverage is currently at 6.20% across the UK.43 The BDUK concluded that 5G offers potential new Superfast programme is continuing to roll out and has turned its focus to revenue opportunities for existing carriers full fibre, with other government interventions including the Local Full Fibre and opens up opportunities for new players Networks and Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme designed to deliver to enter the UK mobile market. New full fibre and stimulate commercial investment. The Connected Nations players could provide tailored 2018 report can help places quantify the state of local coverage, while solutions to connectivity challenges and Thinkbroadband has detailed maps illustrating local coverage, which can be both browsed by area and searched by postcode. The Universal Service help unlock the full potential of 5G. The FTIR recommends policies that maintain Obligation is currently being implemented by Ofcom. It is expected to allow the benefits of competition between consumers with connectivity below 10Mbps to be able to request a USO the mobile network operators, while connection subject to conditions, from the beginning of 2020, funded via an industry cost-sharing mechanism. Government is working to ensure that encouraging new solutions.

95% of the UK has good coverage by 2022. Government wants the UK to be The FTIR also focuses on the growing a world leader in 5G, and for the majority of the population to have access to convergence between fixed and mobile a 5G signal by 2027. Mobile network operators are preparing for the launch markets. Delivering the high speed and high capacity capabilities of 5G will require of commercial 5G services, with initial launch cities and investment plans dense fibre networks, and in some places identified and first commercial deployments expected in the second half of 5G could provide a more cost-effective 2019. way of providing ultra-fast connectivity to homes and businesses. When developing a strategy for digital infrastructure within a local area, recommendations for LIS objectives include: • Supporting commercial deployment by reducing barriers for industry providers, and proactively using existing powers to promote commercial provision.

• Publicly funding gigabit-capable interventions targeted at non-commercial areas (the ‘final 10%’) that are unlikely to receive commercial investment.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Digital infrastructure comprises the physical resources that are necessary to enable the use of data, computerised devices, methods, systems and processes.

Digital infrastructure has become indispensable to the functioning of society and the quality of life of its citizens.It underpins the digital, cultural and social infrastructures to develop places where people want to live, work and visit.

Over the next few decades our digital networks will be the enabling infrastructure that drives economic growth and productivity.

A range of evidence shows direct benefits from improved digital connectivity, including large increases in download speeds leading to more productive economic activity.42 Wider potential impacts are in areas such as remote healthcare, education, travel and transport, and wellbeing, including loneliness. Gigabitcapable technology will ensure future opportunities in these areas, plus technologies such as AI or the Internet of Things, will be available to everyone in every region.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

• Encouraging consumer take-up of broadband services in order for users to realise the benefits, and to support greater commercial investment.

• Ensuring any publicly funded interventions are sufficiently futureproofed, and reflect the growing convergence between fixed and mobile networks.

• Encouraging consumer take-up of broadband services in order for users to realise the benefits, and to support greater commercial investment.

94 |

Public funding will be dependent on local areas having a clear plan to reduce and remove barriers to deployment and adopting best practice. You should work with providers to support commercial deployment of both broadband networks and mobile coverage infrastructure (in terms of conventional macro-level mast deployment and smallcell deployment at street-level): • The Digital Connectivity Portal provides guidance for local authorities and network operators on effective policies and processes to facilitate deployment of broadband and mobile networks.

• Introduction to Community-led schemes provides guidance on options.

Public models for deployment of fixed broadband include: • BDUK Superfast programme: rolling out superfast broadband across the UK via local body delivery partners.

• Local Full Fibre Networks challenge fund: models including Public Sector Anchor Tenancy / Building Upgrade / Asset Reuse.

• Local Full Fibre Networks Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

• Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme: trialling a public building hub model with rural specific vouchers to deliver gigabit connectivity to rural areas in the ‘final 10%’

Identifying the location of areas within the noncommercial ‘final 10%’ will become clearer with further roll out in the coming years. Currently, premises without access to superfast broadband are considered more than likely to be within the ‘final 10%’. It is recommended that any public investment be initially targeted at areas and premises with subsuperfast speeds. Fixed broadband policies are strongly encouraged to align with government policy to deliver gigabit capable networks. While publicly funded interventions should be targeted at the noncommercial ‘final 10%’, they should align with areas and premises currently targeted by other public programmes to avoid overbuild (e.g. DEFRA’s Rural Broadband Infrastructure Scheme which funds Local Authorities to deliver superfast broadband to rural businesses and communities). Interventions to consider include encouraging planning authorities to adopt de minimis provisions with regard to small-cell mobile infrastructure, and working with Mobile Network Operators to proactively identify possible sites for infrastructure deployment / improvement.

MONITORING PROGRESS Projects should assess reducing the digital divide between communities, as well as benefits to the economy and the public sector. The Ofcom connected nations report should be referred to in order to monitor geographical coverage of fixed and mobile infrastructure, which are likely to be important outcomes for any digital infrastructure programme outlined by a LIS. Monitoring of interventions should also focus on the connection between the policy outputs (i.e. FTTP coverage) and specific economic outcomes, such as the effect on local firm performance and productivity. Monitoring should also consider value for money. The Superfast Broadband evaluation provides an example of how these outcomes are monitored at a local level. This will provide you with ideas of how to evaluate your interventions in the digital infrastructure space and highlights the tangible economic and wellbeing benefits that increased connectivity brings to communities.

Ref: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/808987/ Sector_Specific_Guidance__Digital_Infrastructure.pdf

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

These objectives should be made Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time-limited according to local conditions and ambitions.

DESIGNING INTERVENTIONS

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

HOW DOES THE INTERNET WORK?

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

For most of us, the internet is virtual, made of Instagram posts, emails and YouTube videos. And, access to the vital utility isn’t guaranteed across the world. Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram wants to know: What is the internet actually made of? And, how does it work? Answering that question involves discovering how internet cables are laid in the sea, if 5G is really the future, and how balloons in the stratosphere are helping people connect.

Ref: How Does the Internet Work? - Glad You Asked S1, Vox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNQsmPf24go

95 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

HISTORY OF THE INTERNET The history of the Internet has its origin in the efforts to build and interconnect computer networks that arose from research and development in the United States and involved international collaboration, particularly with researchers in the United Kingdom and France.

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

Computer science was an emerging discipline in the late 1950s that began to consider time-sharing between computer users, and later, the possibility of achieving this over wide area networks. Independently, Paul Baran proposed a distributed network based on data in message blocks in the early 1960s and Donald Davies conceived of packet switching in 1965 at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the UK, and proposed building a national commercial data network.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense awarded contracts in 1969 for the development of the ARPANET project, directed by Robert Taylor and managed by Lawrence Roberts. ARPANET adopted the packet switching technology proposed by Davies and Baran,underpinned by mathematical work in the early 1970s by Leonard Kleinrock at UCLA. The network was built by Bolt, Beranek, and Newman.

Early packet switching networks such as the NPL network, ARPANET, Merit Network, and CYCLADES researched and provided data networking in the early 1970s. ARPA projects and international working groups led to the development of protocols for internetworking, in which multiple separate networks could be joined into a network of networks, which produced various standards. Bob Kahn, at ARPA, and Vint Cerf, at Stanford University, published research in 1974 that evolved into the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), the two protocols of the Internet protocol suite. The design included concepts from the French CYCLADES project directed by Louis Pouzin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

96 |

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

97 |

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

https://www.submarinecablemap.com/

98 |

MESH NETWORKING A mesh network (or simply meshnet) is a local network topology in which the infrastructure nodes (i.e. bridges, switches, and other infrastructure devices) connect directly, dynamically and non-hierarchically to as many other nodes as possible and cooperate with one another to efficiently route data from/to clients. This lack of dependency on one node allows for every node to participate in the relay of information. Mesh networks dynamically self-organize and self-configure, which can reduce installation overhead. The ability to selfconfigure enables dynamic distribution of workloads, particularly in the event a few nodes should fail. This in turn contributes to fault-tolerance and reduced maintenance costs.

Mesh topology may be contrasted with conventional star/ tree local network topologies in which the bridges/switches are directly linked to only a small subset of other bridges/ switches, and the links between these infrastructure neighbours are hierarchical. While star-and-tree topologies are very well established, highly standardized and vendorneutral, vendors of mesh network devices have not yet all agreed on common standards, and interoperability between devices from different vendors is not yet assured.

99 |

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

BASIC PRINCIPLES

A mesh network whose nodes are all connected to each other is a fully connected network. Fully connected wired networks have the advantages of security and reliability: problems in a cable affect only the two nodes attached to it. However, in such networks, the number of cables, and therefore the cost, goes up rapidly as the number of nodes increases.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Mesh networks can relay messages using either a flooding technique or a routing technique. With routing, the message is propagated along a path by hopping from node to node until it reaches its destination. To ensure that all its paths are available, the network must allow for continuous connections and must reconfigure itself around broken paths, using self-healing algorithms such as Shortest Path Bridging. Self-healing allows a routingbased network to operate when a node breaks down or when a connection becomes unreliable. As a result, the network is typically quite reliable, as there is often more than one path between a source and a destination in the network. Although mostly used in wireless situations, this concept can also apply to wired networks and to software interaction.

WIRELESS MESH - Development history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

100 |

Wireless mesh radio networks were originally developed for military applications, such that every node could dynamically serve as a router for every other node. In that way, even in the event of a failure of some nodes, the remaining nodes could continue to communicate with each other, and, if necessary, serve as uplinks for the other nodes.

Early wireless mesh network nodes had a single half-duplex radio that, at any one instant, could either transmit or receive, but not both at the same time. This was accompanied by the development of shared mesh networks. This was subsequently superseded by more complex radio hardware that could receive packets from an upstream node and transmit packets to a downstream node simultaneously (on a different frequency or a different CDMA channel).

This allowed the development of switched mesh networks. As the size, cost, and power requirements of radios declined further, nodes could be cost-effectively equipped with multiple radios. This, in turn, permitted each radio to handle a different function, for instance, one radio for client access, and another for backhaul services.

Work in this field has been aided by the use of game theory methods to analyze strategies for the allocation of resources and routing of packets.

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

TERMINOLOGY The dark web has often been conflated with the deep web, the parts of the web not indexed (searchable) by search engines. The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, but requires custom software in order to access its content. This confusion dates back to at least 2009.

Since then, especially in reporting on Silk Road, the two terms have often been conflated, despite recommendations that they should be distinguished.

THE DARK WEB The dark web is a type of mesh network and it uses the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets: overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private straphanger networks can communicate and conduct business anonymously without divulging identifying information, such as a user's location.The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, the part of the Web not indexed by web search engines, although sometimes the term deep web is mistakenly used to refer specifically to the dark web.

The darknets which constitute the dark web include small, friend-to-friend peerto-peer networks, as well as large, popular networks such as Tor, Freenet, I2P, and Riffle operated by public organizations and individuals.[6] Users of the dark web refer to the regular web as Clearnet due to its unencrypted nature. The Tor dark web or onionland uses the traffic anonymization technique of onion routing under the network's top-level domain suffix .onion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_web

101 |

Darknet websites are accessible only through networks such as Tor ("The Onion Routing" project) and I2P ("Invisible Internet Project").Tor browser and Tor-accessible sites are widely used among the darknet users and can be identified by the domain ".onion". While Tor focuses on providing anonymous access to the Internet, I2P specializes in allowing anonymous hosting of websites.Identities and locations of darknet users stay anonymous and cannot be tracked due to the layered encryption system. The darknet encryption technology routes users' data through a large number of intermediate servers, which protects the users' identity and guarantees anonymity. The transmitted information can be decrypted only by a subsequent node in the scheme, which leads to the exit node. The complicated system makes it almost impossible to reproduce the node path and decrypt the information layer by layer. Due to the high level of encryption, websites are not able to track geolocation and IP of their users, and users are not able to get this information about the host. Thus, communication between darknet users is highly encrypted allowing users to talk, blog, and share files confidentially.

The darknet is also used for illegal activity such as illegal trade, forums, and media exchange for pedophiles and terrorists. At the same time traditional websites have created alternative accessibility for the Tor browser in efforts to connect with their users. ProPublica, for example, launched a new version of its website available exclusively to Tor users.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DEFINITION

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

102 |

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER VISIT THE DARK WEB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OKtcGEEtf4&abchannel=TheInfographicsShow

103 |

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

Print Bennett, Jane, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, Duke University Press, 2004.

Clebert, Jean-Paul, The Gypsies, Penguin Random House, 1961.

Daston, Lorraine, Things that Talk: Object Lessons from Art and Science, Zone Books, Brooklyn, New York, 2004.

Duff, Charles, A Mysterious People: An introduction to the gypsies of all Countries, 1965.

Fanon, Franz, White Skin Black Masks, Grove Press, 1967.

Fonseca, Isabel, Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey, Penguin Random House LLC., 1995.

Gheorghe, Carmen & Dorobantu, Oana, “Romanian Problem: An Analysis of Romanian Racism” (Hecate Publishing House, 2019).

McKell, Iain, The New Gypsies, Prestel Publishing, 2011.

Tamen, Miguel, Friends of Interpretable Objects, President and Fellows of Harvard College, United States of America, 2001.

Non-print

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

Academic Journals EUFRA, A Persisting Concern: Anti-Gypsyism as a barrier to Roma inclusion.

Fremlova, Lucie, Non-Romani Researcher and Positionality and Reflexivity: Queer(ing) One’s Own Privilege.

Journal of the European Roma Rights Centre, Roma Rights.

Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Anna, Challenging Anti-Gypsyism in Academia: The Role of Romani Scholars.

Nicholae, Valeriu, Towards a Definition of Anti-Gypsyism.

Filmography Tarkovsky, Andrei, Stalker, dir. 1976.

Aronofsky, Darren, Pi, dir. 1988 Marker, Chris, The Jetty (La Jettee), 1962.

Nolan, Christopher, Tenet, dir. 2020.

Nolan, Christopher, Following, dir. 1988.

Tarkovsky, Andrei, Stalker, dir. 1976.

ADS8 Workshops

104 |

Campagna, Federico, WORLDS. Bucknell, Alice, Speculative Worldbuilding.

Jaar, Nicholas, Sound Design.

Westcott, James, Narrative and Storyworld Building.

Rapp, Davide, VR in Fiction.

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

AnimismEpisode 1: A Report on Migrating Souls in Museums and Moving Pictures. https://animism.e-flux.com/episode1/ Franke, Anselm, Animism: Notes on an Exhibition. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/36/61258/animism-notes-on-an-exhibition/

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

105 |

A place where life unfolded

ANDREEA ILIESCU | 245953

ADS8 | RESEARCH JOURNAL

DATA MATTER(S): THE GAMING EDITION

106 |

...And now?