Constant Collaboration GuidelinesConstant orientations pour collaborationConstant richtlijnen voor samenwerking

This is the seventh version of Constant Collaboration Guidelines (19/10/2023). These guidelines will be used and discussed in different environments, situations and constellations. We will then update them for the next worksession, October 2023. Please leave your comments and questions (anonymous or not)hier/ici/here.

Commitment

Constant is a non-profit, artist-run organisation based in Brussels since 1997 and active in-between art, media and technology. Constant develops, investigates and experiments. Constant departs from feminisms, copyleft, Free/Libre + Open Source Software and works on those vectors through an intersectional perspective. More about Constant

Constant is committed to environments where possible futures, complex collectivities and desired technologies can be experimented. The spaces that we initiate are therefore explicitly opposed to sexism, racism, queer antagonism, ableism and other kinds of oppression. Our positioning is one of risk-taking and trial and error in which rigour and critique meet with humour, insecurity, tension, ambiguity and mistakes. Fearless, brave environments empower radical complexity.

Departing from feminisms means for Constant to be attentive to the sometimes generative, often oppressive arrangements of power, privilege and difference. We understand these arrangements to be related to gender and always to intersect with issues of for example class, race and ability. Finding ways to come to terms with the long colonial history of computation, the way technology impacts ecology, and the relations between them, deserves our ongoing attention.

Constant attempts to operate from inclusivity rather than exclusivity. We want our work to take very different human beings and their own universes into account but also to include historical and future other-than-human agents. This means to keep challenging our assumptions and to welcome being challenged about ways we might be able to address the intersections of privilege, power, history, culture, inequality, pain, and injustice.

The past years have confirmed that governmental laws/regulations/measures have often been out of sync with actual needs… so be ready to re-discuss collectively how to relate to these, we encourage to proactively express discomfort / sense it with the others around you.

Constant supports Free Culture because it is a way to acknowledge that culture is a collective effort that deserves to be shared. There is no tabula rasa, no original author; there is a geneology and a web of references though. When it comes to technology, we think Free Software can make a difference because we are invited to consider, interrogate and discuss the technical details of software and hardware, or when we want to engage with its concepts, politics and histories. Over the last years, we have come to the realisation that being affirmative of Free Culture has to come with more critical considerations. We want to take into account the links of Open Access ideology to colonial extractivism which can obstruct the imagination of complexity and porosity. In addition we want to take into account the rights to opacity in access and transmission of knowledge, especially in regard to marginalized communities. As a result, Constant and our allies have written a license which tries to address these considerations. We are experimenting with this license and now distribute all Constant’s work under the Collective Conditions for (Re)use license.

This is the seventh version of the commitment after its first publication in October 2019. The Constant Collaboration Guidelines are an active articulation that stays open to corrections and modifications throughout time and throughout welcome modulations in Constant’s constellation.

Collaboration Guidelines

We wrote a short and a long version of the guidelines. We invite you to read both carefully.

These guidelines relate to public and non-public activities that Constant organises. They can be short term or quasi permanent, ranging from drinks in the office to small events in our workspace, on-line meetings or multi-day worksessions, which is the most common occasion for these guidelines to appear.

Worksessions are intensive transdisciplinary situations to which participants from all over the world contribute. Because of the intensity of exchanges and interactions during worksessions, there can be moments of disagreement and discomfort. These moments need to be acknowledged and discussed, within your own limits. More about worksessions

Even if some of the below guidelines sound obvious, we have experienced that being together can be complicated. We have written these guidelines to think of ways to be together comfortably and attentively. Furthermore, by addressing the guidelines as part of each worksession, we hope to create dynamic ways to keep training our abilities to expand and strenghten braver spaces. The guidelines are meant to create potentiality for all, and sometimes this is done by restricting the space taken by some.

Collaboration Guidelines - Short Version

Collaborators with and within Constant take the following into account:

  • Refusing and deconstructing sexism, racism, queer antagonism, ableism, ageism and other kinds of oppression.
  • Leaving physical, emotional and conceptual room for other people.
  • Respecting other beings, present or not, human or not.
  • Caring for physical and digital environments.
  • Making an effort not to speak for others or interrupt.
  • Try to not be solely guided by your preconceptions.
  • Taking time to actually listen.
  • Asking before assuming.
  • Welcoming multiple processes of (un)learning. The exchange of information, experience and knowledge comes in many forms.
  • Accepting differences. Appreciating divergence in pace, points of view, backgrounds, references, needs and limits.
  • Recognizing that words and ways of speaking impact people in various ways.
  • Caring for language gaps. This is a multi-lingual environment.
  • Using Free, Libre and Open Source software whenever possible.
  • Asking for explicit consent before sharing photographs or recordings on proprietary social networks.
  • The default license for all material and documentation generated during the worksession is the Collective Conditions for re-Use,CC4r.
  • Knowing that taking all of the above into account is sometimes easier said than done.

Collaboration Guidelines - Long version

Constant activities are moments of exchange, in which different generous practices develop. Giving, receiving, taking and caring are understood as reciprocal actions. Each time we will make time and space for these guidelines. Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Refusing and deconstructing sexism, racism, queer antagonism, ableism, ageism and other kinds of oppression.
  • Leaving physical, emotional and conceptual room for other people. We respect the emotional and physical limits of people around us. This means we change our behaviour if someone signals to not be at ease with our behaviour, whatever our intentions.
  • Respecting other beings, present or not, human or not. We try to respect the dignity, experiences, and perspectives of those that are implicated by the work we do. It is very possible that those affected are not in the room with us.
  • Caring for your physical and digital environment. We pay attention to the people, facilities, infrastructures and objects brought together and treat them with the necessary care.
  • Avoiding to speak for others. Make space, instead of intruding or imposing yourself. We are solidary with others, but we take care that they can speak for themselves. Finishing other peoples’ sentences is almost always meant as a sign of support, but it is actually not helpful, unless it is asked for.
  • Try to not be solely guided by your preconceptions. Collective work is exciting, challenging, de-centering, alienating and triggering. We each do what we need to do to navigate our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. If we are feeling a bit too dis-oriented or judgmental, we might leave the room for a while, but we will try to come back.
  • Taking time to actually listen.
  • Asking before assuming. For example what someone’s preferred pronoun is, if they want to be touched, whether they know anything about a subject. If we are unsure, we ask for clarity. We also understand that not all questions are OK, or need answering.
  • Welcoming multiple processes of (un)learning. The exchange of information, experiences and knowledge comes in many forms. We pay attention to the way different types of expertise are valued, specifically when it comes to technology. We know that often, the arrangement of expertise re-enforces existing power relations (e.g., teacher-student hierarchy; privileges carried by whiteness, socio-economic/class, gender, heterosexuality …; communication or language skills; mental or physical ability; seniority as a participant, etc.). We try to avoid *splaining, techno-solutionism … and other forms of normative behaviour.
  • Accepting differences. Appreciating divergence in pace, points of view, backgrounds, references, needs and limits. We are here because we value occasions to engage with other perspectives. This might mean to try out different content, and also different methods of sharing. It sometimes means requesting dignity/respect/consideration for those who are not here.
  • Recognizing that words and ways of speaking impact people in various ways. What you are saying is differently understood by each person. Our listening is conditioned differently, socially, linguistically, emotionally. That why it is good to assume that what you intended to say might not be understood exactly as such.
  • Caring for language gaps. This is a multi-lingual environment. We try to remember that we are in Brussels, a multi-lingual city that is officially operating with two languages (French and Dutch), but in practice communicates in many more tongues. Even if we make use of English as a lingua franca, we all bring different languages and vocabularies so we understand that everyone experiences very different levels of comfort while speaking and writing. Native English speakers must understand that their own ease in expressing themselves (particularly in terms of specialized vocabulary and speed) might provoke unease for non-native speakers.
  • Using Free, Libre and Open Source software whenever possible. We understand that Constant is committed to Free / Libre and Open Source Software, and we make an effort to use F/LOSS tools as much as possible. If we notice a companion struggle with yet un-known tools and procedures, we make an effort to help out.
  • Asking for explicit consent before sharing photographs or recordings on proprietary social networks. As part of a shared documentation effort, pictures, audio and video will be recorded during worksessions and other collective situations. Until we have found a better solution, we will practice delayed publishing, and allow participants time to decide before sharing materials on-line.
  • The default license for all material and documentation is the Collective Conditions for (Re)use (CC4r). For collaborative work such as worksessions, auto-documentation and a generous exchange of ideas and knowledge is key. For this reason, we acknowledge that the default license for shared work, notes, prototypes, sketches generated in the context of the worksession is the CC4r. If we need an exception to this rule, we take responsibility to inform other participants about it.
  • Knowing that taking all of the above into account is sometimes easier said than done. When anyone breaks these guidelines, we work to not take it personally. We all have been conditioned into systems of oppression and we are unlearning; this makes us uncomfortable and we try not to expect neat, tidy solutions.

Harassment is unacceptable and will not be tolerated during any Constant event, meeting or gathering. This goes for all online, collective or one-on-one communications. Harassment is what people experience it to be. It doesn’t matter how the person harassing intended their action, important is how it was experienced. We understand that it is important to make explicit what counts as harrassment, but we are not used to this language. We have for now used quotes from guidelines and codes of conduct that we have been informed by.

Harassment includes:

  • trolling, i.e. sustained disruption of conversations, talks or other events. [1]
  • nonconsensual photography or recording including logging online activity for harassment purposes. [2]
  • gratuitous or off-topic use of nudity and/or sexual images in public spaces (including presentation slides). [1]
  • deliberate intimidation, stalking or following. [1]
  • nonconsensual physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like “hug” or “backrub”) without consent or after a request to stop. [2]
  • patterns of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others. [2]
  • unwelcome sexual attention. [3]
  • microaggressions, i.e. small, subtle actions that marginalize people. [1]
  • comments that reinforce systemic oppression related to gender, gender identity and expression, trans status, sexual orientation, dis-ability, mental illness, neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion (or lack thereof), technical choices, lack of technical knowledge, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. [2]
  • unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment. [2]
  • deliberate misgendering. [2]
  • deliberate use of “dead” or rejected names. [2]
  • incitement and threats of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm. [2]
  • continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease. [3]
  • deliberate “outing” of any private aspect of a person’s identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse. [3]
  • publication of private communication without consent. [2]
  • knowingly making false claims about a person. [2]

[1] https://queer-code.org/coc
[2] https://www.freebsd.org/internal/code-of-conduct.html
[3] https://radix.one/en/code-of-conduct

Flagging incidents and dealing with problems

We take collective responsability to respond to transgressions, and try to avoid focusing on judging and being or feeling judged.

Does the situation require immediate intervention or not?

Immediate intervention (help is needed now!)
If we are feeling unsafe or seeing someone who seems in distress, we can immediately find the Constant members who will introduce themselves as the organisers of the worksessions. They will do their best to help, or to find the correct assistance if relevant/necessary.

Non-immediate intervention (a situation that requires more time)
Other violations need to be considered and consulted upon with more people or in a more measured way. For example: If someone experiences an ongoing pattern of harrassment; if an unacceptable behavious is witnessed; if somebody keeps “accidentally” using discriminatory language, after being asked to stop.
If we feel comfortable or able, we discuss the issues with the involved parties before consulting an organiser. We prefer to constructively resolve disagreements together and work to right the wrong, when it is possible and safe to do so. However, if the problems still persist, find a Constant member who will do their best to unlock the situation. It is also possible to contact us afterwards to signal us what had happened if acting in the moment does not feel right/safe. Send an email to: beep@constantvzw.org A Constant team member who is not in the organisational team will recieve your email. Information will be handled with sensitivity.

If we run into conflict with one of these guidelines, or when we see that others are flagging our behavior: