Mutirão da Gambiarra
From Bricowiki
Draft updated 03/12/2007
Mutirão da Gambiarra Felipe Fonseca +34 660 369 370 http://metareciclagem.org
I. Mutirão da Gambiarra
Mutirão da Gambiarra is a collaborative effort to collect, organise and publish the documentation generated in the five years of existence of the Brazilian MetaReciclagem network. Its main goal is to support the formation of an editorial group, provide the online tools for this group to work together and ellaborate an open source multimedia publication about MetaReciclagem.
+ MetaReciclagem
MetaReciclagem is an open network created in 2002 in Brazil. I has been the result of intensive exchange through the internet of over a hundred people from different sectors in a mailing list. At first a collective in São Paulo proposing the reuse of donated electronic equipment with free and open source software, soon MetaReciclagem turned into a network of multiple identities working towards the deconstruction of technology, taken in a broad sense, and its re-purposing and re-signification in different contexts aiming at social change. While opting not to follow the common path in Brazil - creating an NGO and earning lots of money from the government by repeating the same practices over and over again-, MetaReciclagem has established distributed and deep dialog with projects in the government and civil society, universities and businesses, proposing a participatory approach to collaborative exchange between people and institutions. Members of MetaReciclagem have been, in an emergent way, an important influence to plenty of Brazilian projects related to subjects such as digital inclusion and technological appropriation; free and open source software, knowledge and culture; media and technological education; open innovation networks and media arts; and many others. It has emerged as a typically Brazilian yet globally replicable way to think and do human-centered technology development, supporting ethical principles such as collaborative production and social uses of technology. After five years, the network has become a reference in technological appropriation in Brazil, counting hundreds of collaborators, as well as being used as key methodology for the elaboration and implementation of large-scale governmental projects such as the Pontos de Cultura, Casas Brasil and others. More than a technology project, it has aggregated educational perspective, artistic experimentation and the development of alternate economic cycles, having received honorary mentions on Prix Ars Electronica Digital Communities in 2006 and on APC Betinho Communications Prize in 2005, and being listed a finalist for the APC Chris Nicol FOSS prize in 2007.
+ Gambiarra
Gambiarra is a Brazilian definition for the informal deviation of technical knowledge. It is a widespread cultural practice, consisting of all kinds of improvised solutions for everyday problems with any available material. It is a first, personal drive to what MetaReciclagem has been doing: the will to creatively transform whatever we want to transform by exploring the indetermination of technology, here understood in a broad sense - computers, toothbrushes, axes, fireplaces, language. Gambiarra is less a solution than a process: in the boundary of "temporary" and "definitive" solutions, it is always about trying, observing, learning and trying again. That unstable condition, even is sometimes less effective, allows for a great deal of ad-hoc innovation. Bringing that understanding to the perspective of information technology and working with the ideas of free (livre) software, open hardware, open spectrum and open content, deeply involved with social contexts, has been proving a powerful way to intervene in some contexts in Brazil.
+ Mutirão
A mutirão is a tropicalized form of the multitude, requested whenever one needs help to accomplish goals bigger than her/his capacities permit: buildind a wall, cleaning a home, fixing street lamps or anything. Whatever the personal differences, people tend to see the Mutirão as a collective effort towards a greater good, that temporarily suspends tensions and puts people to work together. A Mutirão is usually non-hyerarchical and dynamic. Each one contributes with what s/he wants or can, and the result is often satisfatory. It can be seen as a very productive way for a community to accomplish common goals.
II. Methodology
+ Open source multimedia publication
The free software movement has been able to prove the viability of decentralized and emergent development of intellectual production. Hundreds of thousands of software programmers from all over the world are responsible for the development of a myriad of solutions for virtually every software need.
This way to create knowledge has been influencing other areas as well. Many experiences have been based upon the principles of free software. But most of them are limited to focus on the distribution of finished works, and not to the deep process of collaborative exchange that free software proposes. It's not only about allowing the free distribution, but also of creating effectively open and collaborative processes, supported by development communities.
The idea of an open source publication comes, in that sense, to propose more than mere spread of knowledge, but fundamentally the adoption of collaborative principles for the whole process of production – publishing the sources, raw materials, interviews, references, articles, the creation of a collaborative editorial community and collective decision-making.
+ Online collaboration
For the development of the open source multimedia publication Mutirão da Gambiarra, a collaborative production methodology is to be used: establishing an editorial group following the release of an open call, using collaborative online tools for an ongoing level of exchange and open the process of ellaborating the publication to contributions and comments of any interested parties. The online environment will be built with the free content management system Drupal, and any improvements are to be published back to its community.
The URL http://mutirao.metareciclagem.org will host all the documentation generated, as well as a meta-narrative that comprising of technical issues, application of collaborative methodology and findings during the process.
III. Investigation areas
1. MetaReciclagem history
From a computer recycling project developed by a couple members of a mailing list to an open network of hundreds influencing large-scale projects, cooperating in international level and developing a wide understanding about technological appropriation, the MetaReciclagem network has a great deal of stories, currently spread in the internet or yet untold. Put together, those stories can compose an evolutive view on the way it was formed and transformed over time, and provide insights about how can networks remain dynamic and creative after scaling up.
2. Practical theory of practice and otherwise
All the process of establishing MetaReciclagem has been carried out in a collaborative fashion, making use of a great deal of conversations between the so-called pragmatic and those with a more theoretical background. In that sense, it is filled with many different conceptual and symbolic references, either explicit or hidden. At least two master degree theses have been elaborated using MetaReciclagem as theme or reference, and others are on their way. During 2006, a series of both presential and online talks and conversations denominated Diálogos na Casinha have brought different theoretical approaches to MetaReciclagem and generated a great deal of documentation. The idea is to explore and try to find correlations of different conceptual frameworks into MetaReciclagem practices.
3. Metamitogenesis
If for some time MetaReciclagem has tried to define itself as a movement that wanted to demystify technology, today there is the understanding of the myth as fundamental in instinctive social learning, forging of group identity and proposing of cultural immanence. Today MetaReciclagem is no longer trying only to break the myths created by the industry of information technology, but also to use their parts as resource for the creation of new myths that can help on building social configurations that are human, open and collaborative. Intertwined with the more objective daily practice of MetaReciclagem, new rituals are being proposed, as can be seen in the video depicting a collective electric shock practice or short technomagic fiction stories published in MetaReciclagem weblogs or mailing list.
IV. Potential contributors and available resources
MetaReciclagem has had a great number of collaborators, as well as a huge volume of documentation and analysis since its inception. Below is a preliminary and incomplete list of potential collaborators and available documentation.
Miguel Caetano, portuguese researcher, has developed his master degree thesis analysing MetaReciclagem in the light of definitions of tactical media. Hernani Dimantas, one of the founders of MetaReciclagem, has written his master's dissertation with the theme Linkania – Digital multitudes. Dalton Martins was the first metarecycler. He has coordinated the lab with Agente Cidadão and the project in Parque Escola. He has a lot of stories to tell. Daniel Pádua is a network artisan who has first seen MetaReciclagem as an open network instead of a group. Adriana Veloso was one of the people who made MetaReciclagem go beyond the technology and develop on its political nature. Elenara Iabel keeps saying she is not a metarecycler, what is obviously not true. Ricardo Ruiz and Tatiana Wells, who live today in Pipa, have created the first MetaReciclagem laboratory outside São Paulo. Marcelo Braz got closer to MetaReciclagem while studying communitary education. Paulo Bicarato, journalist, follows MetaReciclagem for ages, and has stories to tell. Glauco Paiva, artista, is a mute speaker. Aoife Giles, irish photographer, spent almost two years in Brazil and had the opportunity to document a lot of MetaReciclagem workshops. Glerm Soares has shown there are no limits to symbolic deconstruction. Guilherme Maranhão is a re-photographer. Rafael Evangelista is a journalist, responsible for the Wiki coverage of the World Social Forum. Marcelo Estraviz inspired the creation of MetaReciclagem with his critical view on "digital inclusion". Patricia Cornils is a journalist. She used to write for A Rede magazine, including a couple of articles about MetaReciclagem. Henrique Mazetti is working on his Masters thesis on MetaReciclagem and other activist groups. Luis Carlos Pinto is developing his Doctorate research on media activism in Brazil.
Available resources Diálogos na Casinha – Talk with Çtalker. Theme: Semiotic machines. Diálogos na Casinha – Talk with Luiz Algarra. Theme: informal learning. Diálogos na Casinha – Talk with Thiago Novaes. Theme: Simondon, Gilbert. Diálogos na Casinha – Talk with Marcus Bastos. Theme: Does the way of access lead to the palace of wisdom? Diálogos na Casinha – Debate, moderated by Sergio Amadeu, part of the virtual desconference on digital diversity. Teoria, Cadê? - Submidiatico booklet about the first panel on Submidialogia conference, Campinas, 2005. Dozens of Mini-DV tapes with MetaReciclagem meetings on Agente Cidadão and the Olido gallery's mezzanin.
VI. Background
In 2007, the MetaReciclagem project celebrates five years as an open network of innovation regarding social technology. Since its inception, dozens of projects have been ellaborated and developed with the perspective of technological deconstruction as a methodology for the creation of symbolic spaces, critical technological education and infrastructure appropriation. The MetaReciclagem network has allowed the emergence of action groups, influenced projects both on the third sector and governmental area, enabled international exchange and has consolidated as an autonomous space for critical reflection and tactical action for technological appropriation. Beyond all that, it has established the fundaments of an open and self-organised group that proposes a tipically brazilian way to understand and use technology, an actualization of the week of modern art's anthropophagy with the hacker movement, of tropicalism with free software, what in Brazil can be called Mutirão da Gambiarra, only possible because of its nature as autonomous rhizome, infiltrating in different power structures and bringing them to dialog as nodes in an open network.
The evolutionary and maturation processes of MetaReciclagem started with a group of people in São Paulo who proposed the re-use of second-hand computers, with the objective of creating informational spaces in communities which did not have yet access to that kind of infrastructure. Based on the perspective of technological de-construction to create inclusive processes, not limited to offer only access, but also foster the forging of networks of social mobilization and distributed learning. Over time, MetaReciclagem could no longer (or did not want to) be understood only under the generic and opportunist definition of digital inclusion, and its members started to look for more ellaborate levels of critical action and the understanding of technology as social phenomena. Concepts such as collaboration, collective knowledge production, re-signification of technology and critical appropriation became the fundaments for other levels of experimentation and creativity. MetaReciclagem has transformed the way of defining itself plenty of times, and that is one of the factors that allows it to survive scale and still be creative and productive.
Proponent Felipe Fonseca is a freelance researcher and articulator of projects in the fields of collaborative production, alternate media, free and open source software, and critical appropriation of technology. He has been one of the coordinators of the Cultura Digital program carried out by the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, that has brought the concepts and practice of multimedia production with free software to a network of hundreds of Pontos de Cultura (grassroots cultural centers) throughout the country. Felipe has participated as a speaker in international conferences such as (un)Common Ground and Pedagogical Fautlines (Amsterdam 2007), Shift (Lisbon 2006), Wizards of OS (Berlin 2006), iSummit (Rio 2006), Incommunicado (Amsterdam 2005), Alternative Law Forum (Bangalore 2004), Fisl (Porto Alegre 2004), Next 5 Minutes (Amsterdam 2003) and File (São Paulo 2003). He has been a fellow of the Waag-Sarai platform in 2004. Felipe is one of the creators of the MetaReciclagem network and a member of the advisory board for DesCentro.
