# Sandpoints to debunk revisionist manipulations

Summary

Sandpoints is a publishing platform developed through rapid prototyping in the processes of collaborative writing projects such as PirateCare Syllabus, MachineLearning Curriculum or CampoSud SummerSchool.

It allows for the development of collective writing and publishing projects under the conditions of modest or no access (e.g. Rojava) or in the work of vulnerable groups who require that their content never be accessible online. The full editing in the offline environment, with the ability to synchronize later in a P2P network or with a central server, is an essential aspect for such a scenario. But, also, Sandpoints allows readers to easily copy onto a USB drive a single folder containing the entire publication with the PDF collection of all references. Both the publication and the collection can then be viewed with an Internet browser, without the need to install any additional software.

With the two experimental publications in this project, we intend to address the problems of contemporary reactionary politics and historiography. The fall of communism fomented, especially in East Europe, a surge of historical revisionism. Fueled by the EU declarations against "totalitarian regimes", the historical revisionists, Holocaust deniers, and neo-fascists started publishing their confabulations through institutional publishing pipelines. Consequently, their content has seeped into common works of reference such as Wikipedia, due to its formal criteria for citations from published sources. As a result, many East European Wikipedias have become hotbeds of alternative, reactionary historical narratives.

Using Sandpoints, two renowned historians will create experimental publications debunking revisionist manipulations. They will contextualise the chapters from revisionist books with chapters from non-revisionist books, intervene with the critical apparatus into the revisionist texts (footnotes, index...) and, by building a collection of references, provide access to the original archival sources. Such an intervention will address not only the problems of historical revisionism but also the shortcomings of historiographic methodology rooted in the regime of intellectual property that restricts access to many of the materials necessary for critical reading.

1. Applicant/s

The development of Sandpoints builds on the work, experience and workflows of Pirate Care project. Pirate Care is a transnational research project and a network of activists, scholars and practitioners who stand against the criminalization of solidarity & for a common care infrastructure.

Pirate Care reflects and brings together those care initiatives which are taking risks by operating in the narrow grey zones left open between different knowledges, institutions and laws, inviting all to participate in an exploration of the mutual implications of care and technology that dare questioning the ideology of private property, work and metrics.

Pirate Care is not formally an organization or institution through to be able to receive financial support or grants, but as Tomislav Medak and Marcell Mars, with Valeria Graziano the initiators of Pirate care, are coordinators in Multimedia Institute (MI2) in Zagreb, MI2 could provide the necessary administrative support.

Multimedia Institut (MI2) is a non-profit association working at the intersections of culture, arts, technology and activism. Since its early days it has organized around a multi-facetted community that weaves together interests in diverse cultural and social fields: 1) critically inflected digital arts, film, music and literature; 2) digital commons: free software, free culture and open access; 3) philosophy and theory; 4) cultural networking, advocacy and grass-root organizing; 5) protection of public domain and struggles for spatial justice.

2. Aims

Sandpoints publishing platform allows for content- **and** format-driven interventions.

With the two experimental publications in this project, we intend to address problems of contemporary reactionary politics and historiography.

Our Sandpoints project is envisioned as a homage to the underground communist publishing of the 1930s. They will contextualise the chapters from revisionist books with chapters from non-revisionist books, intervene with the critical apparatus into the revisionist texts (footnotes, index...) and, by building a collection of references, provide access to the original archival sources. Such an intervention will address not only the problems of historical revisionism but also the shortcomings of historiographic methodology rooted in the regime of intellectual property that restricts access to many of the materials necessary for critical reading.

Those projects debunk revisionism by:

- exceprting, highlighting & comparatively juxtaposing the revisionist and scientific, evidence-based content
- providing a free access to all of the relevant bibliography and archival sources
- performing an avant-garde gesture of intervening into the elements of critical apparatus (footnotes, index…)
- publishing and disseminating the outcome as hybrid form of
- web site
- USB thumbdrive ready to be used offline
- printed publication

Together with previous Sandpoints projects, such as *Dotawo - Journal of Nubian Studies*, those two experimental publications would reflect and inspire others by showing how experimental publishing together with civil disobedience in the field of knowledge production can challenge the problems of a system stuck in the fantasy of an author as individual genius justifying the global restrictive intellectual property regime for the profit and benefit of the corporate publishing and/or internet giants.

3. Relation to FundAction

We believe that Sandpoints publishing platform, once sustainable, could (also) support publishing efforts of the FundAction network and platforms — if not as a publishing platform of choice than at least as an example, illustration and inspiration how experimental publishing can be done today.

4. Systemic change approach

The aims of Sandpoints platforms are to explore the possibilities of bringing together different roles and specific (division of) labor in a collective process of writing and publishing.

The Sandpoints platform allows for better presence and articulation of the collective nature of the knowledge production, its maintenance and publishing. It supports a playful coexistence of diverse roles, usually hidden and surpressed under the domination of "the author", such as librarian, editor, proof-reader, photographer, programmer, designer...

The presently dominant understanding of the authorship relies on a fantasy of an individual genius struggling with the rest of an unjust world. Too often, the conceptual critique of that only adds plural to the singular author, so that, then, we call it: co-authorship. We don't think that the concept of the co-authorship in any way unsettles the systemic problems generated by the global restrictive intellectual property regime that finds its justification in the same fantasy.

Access to the Internet and to knowledge made available through the internet are a political issue. Sandpoints allows for the development of collective writing and publishing projects under the conditions of modest or no access or in the work of vulnerable groups who require that their content never be accessible online. The full editing in the offline environment, with the ability to synchronize later in a P2P network or with a central server, is an essential aspect for such a scenario. But, also, Sandpoints allows readers to easily copy onto a USB drive a single folder containing the entire publication with the PDF collection of all references.. Both the publication and the collection can then be viewed with an Internet browser, without the need to install any additional software.

6. Project budget

(How much money do you need, and what for, and when? What is your timeline, do you have any flexibility, etc.?, 150 words max).

We need in total 20.000€.

Two historians would each get 2000€ for their work on the publications. (TOTAL: 4.000€)
The project would be disseminated as a printed publication and USB thumbdrive ready to be used offline. (TOTAL: 4.000€)

Sandpoints platform needs further software development to improve and/or stablize the initial setup, offline editing and the new layout scheme. Designer: 2.000€. Software development: 10.000€.

Timeline:

Jan-April - software development (initial setup, offline editing, new layout scheme)
May-Sep - historians work and interventations (software development in support of the work of historians)
Oct-Nov - printing and USB thumbdrives preparation (software development in support of printing and copying)
Dec - dissemination and promotion

7. Available resources

The only financial support for the software development of Sandpoints was so far received through occasional gigs that our main developer Marcell Mars got during the Pirate Care project lifespan. The development could be estimated to amount to a year of full-time development (stretching over the last two years). A lot of the development happens **during** the collective writing retreats through observation, interaction and active discussion with everyone involved.

Sandpoints has been chosen as a development and publishing platform by the European Forum for Advanced Practices. A consortium of Concordia University’s Global Emergent Media Lab, Basel Art and Design Academy’s Critical Media Lab, University of Malta and the African Media Association on Malta will use the platform to create their *Media, Migration & Governance: Advanced Practices* syllabus
and prepare for their Summer School in 2021.

At this moment it is unknown if the consortium will be able to support the development of Sandpoints in any substantive way outside of the schedules planned for the summer school.

8. Communication & Dissemination

The project will be made available first and foremost online. Publications, together with USB thumbdrives, will be printed in 500 copies, and disseminated through conventional book distribution channels. We will organize workshops, presentations and debates as part of the promotion of the outcomes of the project.

9. 2-Steps Renew Process

We didn't receive any comments but having all of the drafts visible together with their comments helped us to write our own application. We appreciate the process.

Gotovo! Fala buraz! -- NP, idem dalje gledati mr. robota

:)