#1 Challenging the norm of over-dimensioned working software

Heavy and complex softwares

Creative practices are heavily impacted by the choice of tools. The Adobe suite, in particular, is considered to be THE standard for professional integration in all areas of design and visual creation. Adobe is expected to have more than 32 million subscribers by 2025, not counting all the unofficial users of pirated versions. A thorough knowledge of the Adobe suite is therefore considered essential.
However, as well as being a service to be hired and not a tool to be bought, Adobe, like most creative software, requires regular updates. These updates expand the software, but without really optimising it. As a result, it becomes increasingly heavy. They require ever more powerful hardware.

The impact of hardwares' obscolescence

70% of digital emissions come from the production of devices. The average life of a device can be 10 to 20 years. Yet we only use them between 3 and 5 years. In fact, pushed by the obsolescence of machines in the face of ever heavier software, we are left with no choice but to change hardware to keep up with the rapid pace of software development.

What makes these tools so successful is their almost infinite range of creative features. However, for the majority of designers, the use of complex properties remains exceptional. And is not part of everyday use. So why should we continue to require over-dimensioned software on all our personal machines?

Are there more sober alternatives available? By resizing our tools to make our equipment last longer, lighten our minds and regain control over our work tools?

who?

This extra documentation is meant for former participants who feels like hosting a similar workshop in their community. All advices, tips and feedbacks gathered from the testing period are given here. This documentation does not need to be followed as so, it must be seen as a support.
Every files needed can be found in the workshop section on the website.

where?

An art and design school can be an ideal place to make it happen. Especially among first years. Nowadays, every creatives work with a computer, even if it is only for archiving and communicating. Challenging the standartised tools that are tought in the schools can be beneficial, to let them realise the freedom they have in the digital tool they use.
It can also works very well within an Alumni Community, or creatives collectives.

notes

#2 Getting to know the computer

The computer as an electronic machine

However, as we seek to re-appropriate our tools, it is important to look at the inner workings of the computer, which are often deliberately concealed. Behind the polished interface of the latest Windows or MacOS, the same almost mechanical system is at work. Each user input is translated several times until it becomes machine language (or binary language: 0001001). The device's electronic components are then activated (CPU, motherhead, etc) to send us the desired output in the other direction! There's nothing magical about this, and it's still the same binary language already used on the first computers!

The role of interfaces

There is nothing surprising about the public's perception of an immaterial and ‘magical’ digital world. The internal activity of our machines, such as these repeated translations, are not visible and our interfaces are careful not to reveal them to us. Interfaces are now designed to be part of the digital black box concept.
The concept of the black box means representing a system without considering its inner workings. A black box can therefore only be understood and interpreted in terms of incoming and outgoing interactions. The internal workings of a black box cannot be known. The software mentioned above, as much as the latest Mac or iPhone, illustrate this concept well. Their surface or interface is designed for a specific use, but does not allow access to their mechanism.

#3 Towards a creative, sustainable digital practice

Decentralising our pratices

The solution does not only lay in radicalism by choosing another new tool, but considering them as a diverse collection, that can be activated depending on the outcome. By getting a better understanding of the machine, and opening the field of its possibilities, it is easier to make conscious choices. Because at the end, the issue is to choose the right working tool by taking into account: the personal and project's needs, the capabilities of the computer and the tool's ecological impact. This enhances creativity by challenging us to stay active towards the interfaces. A lot of freedom and fun to gain !

Conviviality

Ivan Illitch describes a convivial society as ‘a society that gives men the possibility of exercising the most autonomous and creative action, with the help of tools that are less controllable by others." The majority of the content for this collection has been taken from YouTube and web tutorials, responses and discussions on forums. It all comes from user's experiences. By moving away from standard models, creatives need to get into the communs and help each other. A beautiful example can be seen in the Free softwares community, wher the tools are created by the users for the users, collectively.

Designing a workshop

That's why all these tools need to be activated and used around a workshop. The workshop must be sufficiently documented to be passed on and reactivated elsewhere in another environment. Digital autonomy must be gained by exchanging and sharing experience.

in practice

#2 getting to know your computer

All these components are a part of your computers but they probably vary from others in capacities, power and ressources. It might be interesting to know what you are working with, especilly when downloading softwares or libraries. It enables you to knpw what is possible and where are the limits.
How to know more about your hardware ?

On Mac

Apple menu > System Settings > click General (you might need to scrool down)

On Windows

Settings > System > click on About (you might need to scrool down)

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to fill in

your personal computer ID card

#3 a survival guide for old hardwares

Devices' impacts on the Planet

The digital sector represents 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2025, 2 times Canada's carbon footprint. And 70-80% of the emissions come from the fabrication of the devices (tablets, computers, phone, etc). The last percentages are 16% from data centers (data storage for internet, personal use, ai, etc), and 5% from networks (connection, transport, infrastructures, etc).*

Altough a hardware can last over 20years, an average lifespan of a computer is 3 to 5 years. And this is mainly due to the evolution of softwares, which becomes heavier after each updates. They require stronger and more powerful hardwares. Users are left with no choices than adapting their machine, to the softwares, which has a massive impact.

So the most sustainable move, we can integrate in our practice is the make last long our hardwares.

#2 types of languages

A programming language is a way for users and developers to give instructions to the computer. It is based on a set of rules, syntax and words. The instructions, written in the programming language can make the computer perform tasks like changing an image size, scrapping content from a webpage, etc.

High-level language (HLL) : are human-readable languages based on English syntaxes. They simplify coding by hiding complex hardwares details. Developers can focus on logic and functionnality. It becomes easier to develop and debug complex code. HLL languages examples : Javascript, C++, Python, etc.

Assembly language is a low-level programming language that helps to communicate directly with computer hardware. It uses mnemonics✶ to represent the operations that a processor has to do. Which is an intermediate language between high-level languages like C++ and the binary language. It uses hexadecimal and binary values, and it is readable by humans. The computer requires an assembler to translate the Assembly language to machine level language.

Machine language is a low-level programming language that is understood by computers. Machine language is made up of binary bits 0 and 1. Machine language is also known as machine codes or object code. As machine language consists of only 0 and 1, it is difficult to understand its raw form. Machine language cannot be understood by humans. The CPU processes this machine code as input. It is the only language the computer hardware can understand.✶✶

01001101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01110101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110111 00101101 01101100 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101101 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01110101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00101110 Machine 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01110101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100100 01100101 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01110100 01110011 00100000 00110000 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 00110001 00101110 00100000 01001101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01110101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110011 01101111 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101111 01100010 01101010 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 00101110 00100000 01000001 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01110101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110011 01101001 01110011 01110100 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 00110000 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 00110001 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100110 01100110 01101001 01100011 01110101 01101100 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01110100 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100001 01110111 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01101101 00101110 00100000 01001101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01110101 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01101111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110011 00101110 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000011 01010000 01010101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110000 01110101 01110100 00101110 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 language 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110010 01100100 01110111 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100100 00101110

notes

#1 about the virtual terminal

The  terminal is the primary software which gives access to the Operating System of the computer. It is a very direct way to connect to the power and core of the hardware. It takes input, pass them on to the shell, and receives the outputs back to display them on its interface.

It is based on a command-line interface (CLI), which requires from users to know the commands.

As scary as it can look, once its language learned, the terminal becomes the most powerful tool for :

• managing files,
• converting documents,
• controlling system processes, or
• downloading packages.

#2 packages installations

Packages are a collection of code and programs ressources, that can be invoked by a command to execute a specific action. Some are a part of the initial OS and others can be downloaded by the users for specific tasks.They can be installed directly from the terminal or downloaded online.

Packages call packages. It means that each new tool installed often required previous packages, called dependancies, to run properly. We'll look here at the main packages to install, to start.

As you see along this zines, each OS requires a different behavior. The methodology stays the same, but the packages and the name of the commands will change.

We will download :

1. A general package manager
2. The python library
3. ImageMagick : a free and open-source cross-platform software suite for displaying, creating, converting, modifying, and editing images.

/!\ if an error occurs, the terminal gives precious indications about what went wrong and how to fix it !

#3 images-editing

One of the most complete and efficient tool for images-editing is the package imagemagick. The instructions to install it are in the previous pages.

As a command-line tool, fo each actions executed we need to to know the specific command and its variations. The official website imagemagick.org is a great reference.

in practice

To edit an image, we always need to be in its directory. But how does a command work ?

magick original-image.jpg -command new-image.jpg

magick : calls the package
original-image.jpg : call the file you want to change (sometimes we'll need it in png)
-"command" : type here the name of the command and its variations
new-image.jpg : type in a new image name, to create a new one

To print the image type

2printer.exe -src "2output.jpg" -prn "Canon LBP2900"

in pratice

Applied examples

Resizing the image : a usefull for a lightweight web integration

Threshold effect : the image has to be converted in .jpg first

Brightness and constrast

bonus - for mac only

#4 ascii converter

Ascii converter is a command-line tool that converts images into ascii art and prints them out onto the terminal.

It can be downloaded via Homebrew for Mac, or following these instructions for Windows.

Mac

brew install TheZoraiz/ascii-image-converter/ascii-image-converter

Windows

We'll need to download the file online. And then follow the set of instructions here https://github.com/TheZoraiz/ascii-image-converter?tab=readme-ov-file#windows

Ascii technic exists because old computers didn't have enough graphical power to display images, as we can today. Pixels are very heavy, compared to text-characters, which have been chosen as a lightweight alternative. This quality gives them a bit of a revival today : they can be a great help in website eco-conception.

in practice

Applied examples

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mediamonster@netre 
          

#5 archiving the work

To mark everyone's entrance in the noob community, it is better that every participant can archive their achievements digitally and on paper.

• select 2 outcomes .png or .jpg that have been realised during the workshop : images modified, edited, screenshots from the terminal, etc.
• name them like this : date + title (or name of techniques used) + your name

DD-MM-YY_title_your-name.jpg

• A usb stick is dedicated to collect them
• Connect to the printer and print one of them twice : one for you, one for the Noob's archive

notes

->In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist conceived the World Wide Web. The static informations were displayed in html, which made it easy for developers to write scripts that could extract data programmatically. But the evolution of the web with dynamic websites challenged the traditional scraping techniques. Expensive dedicated software has been developed, now pushed further for the building of machine-learning training datasets.

In its essence web scraping is illegal. But no regulations are binding; results of court cases have proved that web scraping legacy is a case-by-case matter. Web scraping often involves screen-scraping, which is the collection of pre-rendered information from the front end. This activity won't affect a website's technical angle. Plus, data scraped this way are often unprotected, and anyone can collect them.
So for an individual practice, space still exists for a bit of scrapping.

in pratice

extract a summary

/!\ an internet connection is required

1. Extract the summary of a wikipedia web page

- Open a terminal window

- Open a python window by typing (depending of the version installed)

python OR python3

- Call the wikipedia package

import wikipedia

- Press enter, and ask for the summary

print(wikipedia.summary("piracy"))

Here it is ! A full summary of the webpage is displayed !

"Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, and vessels used for piracy are called pirate ships. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilisations. [...]"

-> It mainly gives the first sentences of the webpage.

2. Select the number of sentences to make it shorter :

print(wikipedia.summary("piracy", sentences=2))

"Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, and vessels used for piracy are called pirate ships."

in practice

browse pages from a keyword

Keywords, like "piracy", can refer to many pages. By asking the summary, the library decides to display the most obvious one. But, we can first search the different pages in which our keyword is mentionned, to then focus on the one we are interesting in.

1. List of results by keywords :

result = wikipedia.search("piracy")
print(result)

['Piracy', 'Copyright infringement', 'Piracy off the coast of Somalia', 'Online piracy', 'Golden Age of Piracy', 'Piracy in the Caribbean', 'Piracy in the 21st century', 'Anti-piracy', 'Pirate (disambiguation)', '1680s in piracy']

The results are displayed in a list []. Each results is indexed by a number, starting from 0.
result[0] : "Piracy"
result[1] : "Copyright infringement"
result[7] : "Anti-piracy"

2. Summary of a result : let's use the commands seen previously to display the result of 'Online Privacy' :

print(wikipedia.summary(result[3], sentences=4))

"Online piracy or software piracy is the practice of downloading and distributing copyrighted works digitally without permission, such as music, movies or software.
== History ==
Nathan Fisk traces the origins of modern online piracy back to similar problems posed by the advent of the printing press. Quoting from legal standards in MGM Studios, Inc. v."

into practice - beginner

#2 text-editing

Once this text is copied, let's try to edit it in a poster ! For this, open a new terminal window and type :

1. Install dependancies

pip install asciiwriter

pip install argparse

2. Download the script

- Get on becomingnoob.com

- Open the door, and click on "workshop", download the document called "text_lines.py"

- Place it in your desktop, then type

cd Desktop

3. Run the command

- To achieve the following effect, run this command

python text_lines.py "Becoming A Noob"

The result should be displayed in the terminal !

4. Adapt the variables

- Download a text editor : Visual Studio Code or Sublime text

- Open "text_lines.py" in the text editor

- Play with the width, height and amplitudes of the outcome line 13 and 20 !

into practice - advanced

#3 text-editing

Another technic to edit the text extracted previously would be to integrate it as an ascii Image. For this, open a new terminal window and type :

1. Install dependancies

pip install pillow

pip install reportlab

pip install argparse

2. Download the script

- Get on becomingnoob.com

- Open the door, and click on "workshop", download the document called "ascii_art.py"

- Place it in a new folder in your desktop called "Ascii-test", then type

cd Desktop\Ascii-test

- Add the image you want to work with in the folder

- Add a .txt file with the text you want to work with in folder

3. Run the command

- To achieve the following effect, run this command

python ascii_art_printer.py 3.jpg .\webscraping.txt --width 50

The result is displayed in the terminal. You can also print it directly on the default printer :

python ascii_art_printer.py 3.jpg .\webscraping.txt --width 50 --print

Vim a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is very useful to write and modify codes or texts in every text format possible (.html, .txt, .py, .css, etc).

Its text-based interface refers to the terminal's, and Vim can be opened directly from it as well. It makes it easier to naviguate from one and another. It is based on the same principle : the user can activate a multitude of commands, but they have to be known. They are no buttons for anything, everything happens from the keyboard.

Install VIM

->On windows, vim must be installed and opened as an application. Check the Vim website (vim.org/download.php) to follow the instructions.

-> On mac just run : brew install vim

in practice

Because of the text-based interface, it is very easy to feel lost in vim the first time using it. In fact it requires to already know a few commands to be able to do a simple text-editing. That's why "vimtutor" has been developped. It is openable directly from the terminal typing :vimtutor

#5 archiving the work

To mark everyone's entrance in the noob community, it is better that every participant can archive their achievements digitally and on paper.

• select 2 outcomes .png or .jpg that have been realised during the workshop : images modified, edited, screenshots from the terminal, etc.
• name them like this : date + title (or name of technique used) + your name

DD-MM-YY_title_your-name.jpg

• A usb stick is dedicated to collect them
• Connect to the printer and print one of them twice : one for you, one for the Noob's archive