Title: Double publication launch: Learning How to Walk While Catwalking and Vernaculars come to matter
Date: 2021-12-17
Category: event
Tags: launch
Slug: double-launch-si16-and-vernaculars-come-to-matter
lang: en
event_start: 2021-12-17 13:00
event_end: 2021-12-17 20:30
featured_image: /images/VLTK-cover-final-500px.jpg
summary: The Master Experimental Publishing (XPUB) at the Piet Zwart Institute and Varia are delighted to invite you to this double launch of the publications *Learning How to Walk While Catwalking* and *Vernaculars come to matter* on Friday the 17th of December.
status: draft
The Master Experimental Publishing (XPUB) at the Piet Zwart Institute and Varia are delighted to invite you to this double launch of the publications *Learning How to Walk While Catwalking* and *Vernaculars come to matter*.
The starting point for these publications is the project *VLTK*, a Vernacular Language Toolkit in the making by Cristina Cochior, Manetta Berends and Julie Boschat-Thorez. During XPUB's trimester project, the Special Issue 16, Cristina Cochior has channeled VLTK research threads as a guest tutor.
Program for Friday 17 December 2021
13:00-17:00 CET (on location & online launch)
**Learning How to Walk while Catwalking**
19:00-20:30 CET (online launch)
**Vernaculars come to matter**
## Learning How to Walk while Catwalking (on location & online launch)
**Date**: Friday, 17th of December 2021
**Time**: 13:00-17:00
**Location online**:
**Location in person**: Varia (Gouwstraat 3, Rotterdam)
XPUB welcomes you to the Special Issue 16 on vernacular language processing: *Learning How to Walk while Catwalking*. Our Special Issue is a toolkit to mess around with language. We want to legitimize failures and amatorial practices by proposing a more vernacular understanding of language through these tools.
We decided to release the Special Issue 16 toolkit in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface). APIs organise and serve data on the Internet; what is not always evident is that they facilitate exchange of information following mainly commercial purposes. However, our API is an attempt at a more critical and vernacular (personal) approach to such model of distribution.
Do you want to **have a drink and talk with us**? We will be outside Varia from 13.00 to 17.00, where there will be a window display, showcasing videos, live-printing and other features of our vernacular toolkit, as well as a drink generator at the door... Wear winter clothes!
Would you rather **try-out the toolkit online**? No problem! From 13.00 to 17.00, the website of our Special Issue 16 will go on EVENT-MODE: special content will be available ON-THAT-DAY-ONLY giving you more insight on our process. You are welcome to navigate our tools from wherever you are in the Whole Wide World.
From 16:00 to 17:00, there will be an **online chat** where you can ask us questions.
**Schedule**:
13:00-17:00 \[online\]\[in person @ Varia\] EVENT-MODE
16:00-17:00 \[online\] Q&A with XPUB
This Special Issue was created by Gersande Schellinx, Mitsa (Dimitra Chaida), Erica Gargaglione, Kamo (Francesco Luzzana), Chaeyoung Kim, Emma Prato, Myriam Schöb, Supisara Burapachaisri, Jian Haake, Ål Nik (Alexandra Nikolova), Kimberley Cosmilla, Carmen Gray in collaboration with Experimental Publishing (XPUB) staff.
**Important**: Due to the current Covid-19 regulations, XPUB and Varia cannot welcome the visitors inside, but are happy to meet with them at safe distance on the streets and share a drink. Hand sanitizer will be made available on site. Please be mindful of your well-being and others' and stay home if you are sick or present one or more of the corona symptoms. We kindly ask you to show a valid proof of vaccination, or recovery at the entrance, in accordance with the COVID-19 regulations of the Dutch government.
## Vernaculars come to matter (online launch)
**Date**: Friday, 17th of December 2021
**Time**: 19:00-20:30 CET
**Location**:
What is the role of the vernacular in language and technology? We invite you to join us online for the launch of Vernaculars come to matter which brings together a range of stories and practices that address this question. It is made in the context of the project VLTK, a Vernacular Language Toolkit in the making.
In this publication, the vernacular appears in the counterdictionaries and formatterings of language; as a plurivocal remix bringing together recycled skills, diskarte practices, and humble templates; at eye level in the reverse diasporic circulation of Dutch-Turkish street typography; as an ongoing struggle with bureaucratic rigidity while transitioning gender or name; as a way to navigate the Leftove.rs archive of MayDay Rooms, where the ephemera of radical, anti-oppressive, and working class movements requires a very particular attention; or in the attitudes of photo editing software, such as ImageMagick, manifested as software culture.
Vernaculars come to matter is edited by Cristina Cochior, Julie Boschat-Thorez, and Manetta Berends with contributions from Cengiz Mengüç, Clara Balaguer, Michael Murtaugh, Ren Loren Britton, and Rosemary Grennan. During this launch, the contributors will introduce their work and talk about different forms of vernacular culture.
This is the first publication of the *everyday-technology-press*, a new publishing initiative of Varia.
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This publication has been supported by the *Creative Industries Fund NL*.
