[Xmca-l] Re: Kukiya--kiya incident and question

[mike cole]

Thanks for the attached figures, Zaza. I am not sure I can tell contexts
from scaffolds. For the "distribution in Segment A" would it be correct to
read the graph as going:

context, theme, bids, scaffold?? Are what look like black lines radiating
out scaffolds?

I think that the sorts of project I mentioned, where the hi tech "gift"
that is offered to create a new kind of educational activity across
geographic locales turns out to be woefully inadequate and there is no
choice but to engage in kukiya-kiya fits with your suggestion:



*more deformalized variant of Making seems closer tokukiya-kiya to me. I
think the rougher the start materials, the less the materials suggest that
some outcomes are more "appropriate" than others, the more likely it is for
kukiya-kiya to emerge.*

Our work is all in what might be called deformalized settings, often with
totally inadequate resources, which is probably why the paper has a lot of
local relevance.

And the glossary was a treat!

mike
PS- I am not sure what the Russian term would be.... literally, rabotat
vokrug, but perhaps there is a special term for it.


On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 6:45 PM, Zaza Kabayadondo <
zaza.kabayadondo@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Mike and Alfredo,
>
> Thank you for your questions and for the very interesting connections
> you've drawn to examples of activity in your respective work places.
>
> *Comparisons between kukiya-kiya and Making (Maker movement)?*
> Prototyping is at the center of both. In both, the actor, has an idea of a
> desirable outcome but has to figure out a way to achieve it. The main
> difference for me is in the *how*. Making (Maker movement) may come with a
> prescribed set of tools (arduinos, breadboards, sensors, soldering irons,
> etc) - there is a kit that comes with the activity, around which all
> activity is orchestrated. In kukiya-kiya, there is no guarantee of
> resources. Of course you might have Making that emerges from found tools
> and resources (whatever is in the garage or classroom or studio), and in
> this regard, the more deformalized variant of Making seems closer to
> kukiya-kiya to me. I think the rougher the start materials, the less the
> materials suggest that some outcomes are more "appropriate" than others,
> the more likely it is for kukiya-kiya to emerge.
>
> I do think the concept is broad enough to point to a whole host of
> activities. And the language supports this. In Zimbabwe, kukiya-kiya, is
> interchangeable with other verbs kubata-bata, kujingiridza, kubhaizira etc.
>
> *Work-arounds and an emerging glossary*
> The word kukiya-kiya literally means "to lock and then unlock" - to
> describe how you might jangle an ill-fitting key in a lock to figure out
> how to unlock a jammed door. It can also be translated to "making do" and
> it is a metaphor for trying one way, then when that fails, trying other
> unprescribed ways to make something happen. I chose to use "work-around" as
> the translation of kukiya-kiya because there are verbs that have emerged in
> Shona to signify the kind of thinking. I am finding that many similar
> metaphors can be found in other languages. I've started constructing a
> glossary... here are some examples: [Please send in entries that you think
> fit]
>
>
> *Term* *Language* *Country*
> Tahmanut Hebrew Israel
> kukiya-kiya Shona Zimbabwe
> kubata-bata Shona Zimbabwe
> kujingiridza Shona Zimbabwe
> kubhaizira Shona Zimbabwe
> jugaad Hindi India
> jeitinho Portuguese Brazil
> bricolage French
> hack English
> side hustle English
> street smart English
> street wise English
> viveza criolla Spanish Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela
> malandragem Portuguese Brazil
> lei de Gérson Portuguese Brazil
> malicia indígena Spanish Colombia
> Bodge English
> Chindōgu Japanese
> Gung-ho ? China
> Redneck Technology English US
> Kludge (also kluge) English UK
> Système D French
> Trick 17 English Germany
> Trick 77 English Switzerland
> Trick 3  English Finland
> kikka kolmonen Finnish Finland
> se démerder French
> débrouillardise French
> se débrouiller French
>
> On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 4:18 PM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
> wrote:
>
> > Zaza, Mike, all,
> >
> > Mike comments raises in my a question that I already had while reading
> the
> > article, and which has to do with the analogies that have been here drawn
> > between kukiya-kiya in Zimbabwe, and the Maker movement that is becoming
> > commonplace in many Western countries, a "movement" the cultivation and
> > research around which there are increasing amounts of public money being
> > injected into (my department in Oslo, for example, has just now become
> > involved in a large European project about maker spaces). I was wondering
> > how much we are gaining by positively comparing both movements, and what
> we
> > may be loosing (that is, how these two different movements may actually
> be
> > very different historical movements). And so I was thinking that perhaps
> > the distinctions may become when the phenomena are approached as
> historical
> > materialist phenomena. Because one may easily see that, despite the
> > similarities being discussed in terms of "work around," kukiya-kiya and
> the
> > maker movement in the West are truly different things, albeit perhaps
> > outcomes of the same economical system. Thus, Zaza's discussion on
> > disinheritance, which makes all the sense in the context of "the role
> > international development schemes and humanitarian aid efforts play in
> > destabilising African economies" (p. 172). Obviously, the same discussion
> > does not seem to fit the Maker movement, the origin of which may indeed
> > relate to an over-production and devaluation of otherwise expensive and
> > resource-demanding technologies, as well as of an emergent network of
> > literate actors using new media to spread practices and ideas, to
> disagree
> > with established orders, etc... These two movements seem extremely
> > different to me.
> >
> > But, of course, at the level of imagination, at the level of opening new
> > ways of perceiving and conceiving reality, both practices seem to have
> lots
> > in common. I think it is to this level that many of the questions I find
> > emerging in Mike's as well as in our previous discussion posts. I wonder
> > what the author and other xmca'ers think about this
> > differences/similarities.
> >
> > Alfredo
> > ________________________________________
> > From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> > on behalf of mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> > Sent: 10 October 2016 01:56
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l]  Kukiya--kiya incident and question
> >
> > Zaza et al -
> >
> > As good luck would have it, this discussion has started just as a junior
> > colleague is starting to start to write up a project in which he was
> > seeking to implement a prototype activity
> > using complex modern digital equipment. The project involved UCSD
> > undergrads and kids in a far off neighborhood making a complex Xmas
> display
> > using arduinos and gingerbread, among other things. On any session, half
> > the undergrads were learning at UCSD and half were with the kids and the
> > "expert" on arduinos and making odd displays (fancy electronic hats to
> wear
> > to the open day at our local race track). We wanted both to create a
> > prototype distribute educational/communication system and to contrast
> > learning in situ with learning via the video/audio feed.
> >
> > Everything that could go wrong went wrong, but in the end, all of the
> kids
> > and students were enthusiastic about the experience and the darned
> display
> > sort of worked. The focus of my work with the class this was a part of
> was
> > to tell them that the class was a gold mine of experience and information
> > on how to engage in creating work arounds. But we never theorized the
> idea
> > ( somehow is seems that creating activities does not count in the maker
> > movement as much as creating gizmos). It seems we were too busy creating
> > work arounds to stop and theorize about the mess we had gotten ourselves
> > into. Now your paper has provided a strong rationale for prototyping,
> > design, that emphasizes ideas I associate with the chat tradition. And of
> > course it is an indigenous category for the people among whom you worked.
> >
> > As a result of the discussion, I looked up "work around' on google
> scholar.
> > The emphasis there is on modern societies where, relatively speaking,
> there
> > are lots of resources. But as you point out, the special interest in your
> > case does not imply that the concept only applies there, but "even in the
> > make movement in the US."  In a way, that tom hanks film about the guy
> > stranded on Mars seems a relevant case.
> >
> > I also think your emphasis at the beginning and in your examples in the
> > following is important:
> >
> > The prototype not only choreographs what the team members are doing, but
> > also makes
> > different future uses imaginable. The prototype amplifies tensions in the
> > team and puts on display how an emergent tool, the bottle-feeding device,
> > comes to be loaded with “previous patterns of reasoning” [and cognitive
> > residue-mc](Pea, 1953, p. 53).
> >
> > This was certainly true in the local case as well.
> >
> > In moving ahead to develop our own ideas, it would be helpful to get more
> > clarity about your Figures 2 & 3, the radiating sequences of bids,
> > themes,contexts, and scaffolds. The print is so small that I cannot
> > decipher the diagrams. I would really like to get clearer on how you
> > categorized the talk in the session starting with Esther, but am having
> > trouble connecting text and diagram. Maybe its only my aging eyesight,
> but
> > this may be a problem for others as well. Could you perhaps post a note
> > about the two diagrams and how you move from transcript to diagram?
> >
> > mike
> >
> > PS-- I encountered an unusual kukiya-kiya on Friday. I asked an
> > administrator about an account I wanted to get updated on. In order to
> get
> > that information, she had to log onto one of (obviously many) web pages
> in
> > the university. As soon as she figured out where to get the information,
> > she turned to a roledex on her desk next to her keyboard. "It has all the
> > passwords" she said, adding, "I know you aren't supposed to write them
> > down, but....."
> > This seems like a kukiya-kiya work-around arising from encryption
> concerns
> > that overload the system and force the use of a backup that is considered
> > risky and incorrect. But it works and no one is telling.
> >
>



-- 

It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an object
that creates history. Ernst Boesch