Vessels for family storytelling

Meghna Mahadevan

My class project was to build a family archive. I am often discussing with my family the need for progress. They often push me, reminding me where they came from and how difficult life was without your basic needs met. My father (left) grew up with a well in his home. He bathed daily in the river photographed behind him. My mother (right) grew up with access to well water (when there was water in the well). They have both acutely experienced water scarcity.

I wanted to work on this project as an exploration of progress that is necessary, but also could be done in different ways. Ways to progress and also move backward. What does it mean that we are facing water scarcity now? What future has our progress created for us?

Can we filled the water jug with these stories and this wisdom until it overflows?

Last year, I helped my mother and her sisters clean out my grandparents flat in chennai. One of the main gifts my grandparents left in terms of inheritance were steel and brass containers in which they would store water. These were earned from a lot of hard work and were coveted possesions…. that none of the four children living in the United States had much use for, nor gumption to bring across seas.

I have a penchant for bringing home oddly shaped packages across seas. I brought home a kodam.

A kodam is a container used to pitch and store water (from the well or whatever source there is). Steel kodams were usually used to store cooking water.

I liked the idea that this item felt a bit useless in our current context, and I wanted to take this item and give it another use.

I wanted to connect an ultrasonic speaker to the kodam. This ultrasonic sensor would then be connected to the raspberry pi. Anytime the sensor detects water, it will send a signal to the raspberry pi, which will send a message to the usb connected speakers to start playing a story of my family related to life without consistently running water.

I asked my family many questions about water. Questions like…

• How did your family access water as you were growing up? What about families poorer and richer than you?

• How did your parents access water as they grew up?

• What will it be like for you if there ceases to be running water in America? What do you think Americans will struggle with?

It was interesting to hear in detail about their experience without consistently running water. It was important to me tease out what types of privileges we had and didn’t have and bring nuance to the immigrant, village experience. I wanted to also understand the experience of those poorer and richer than us, and what the range of experience was.

A major conversation point between my parents became a reminiscing of the positive and beautiful aspects of the ways their village would come together and knit their community in the face of resource scarcity. One person’s problem was everyone’s problem. Everyone faced challenges together and never turned away. This sense of village and community has been deeply lost in the society we live in today, where we prioritize each person harvesting an abundance, rather than a shared abundance of resources for all.

It always seems easier than reality…. Find details and links on how this actually went below…

A process….

1. Install Yunohost and get setup
   …where are the data centers in atlanta?

2. Update python

3. Researching parts

4. Collecting Stories

5. How can I get a python interface ? (looked into vim, numpy, jupyterlab, raspbian, etc.) 1 Realized my version is too old >D wtf is pip3

6. Installing Jupyter Notebook (do i really need to do this every tym???)

7. Creating a headless jupyter setup

8. Explaining this project to my family, my partner, a friend

9. Connection! http://localhost:8080/notebooks/classproject.ipynb

10. Using rp.gpio and sensors 1

11. How to use audio with raspberry pi 1 2 (usb particularly)

12. How to add files to the raspberry pi

13. Backing up my raspberry pi…. but did i break it in the process :’) 2

14. Trying a different way of using python 2

15. Writing my code, I <3 python

This is how far i got before I broke the SD card :) It was a hard and long process…. and a harsh learning…….

Ughhhhh >’(

Secrets to working on a server:

1. Lots and lots of snacks

2. Recruiting sister with more experience to help, entice with lots and lots of snacks *major shoutout to my sister!!!

3. a positive attitude

4. Try stuff, break things

5. Everything, everything dies

6. Knowing how to look stuff up is the key to everything, that and compatibility

7. Maintain a positive attitude

8. Everything ends

9. Everything is reborn, try again

Shoutout to my first project plan…. Which really sparked a lot of thought and a lot of question in me. This wasn’t the right environment to work on this project, but trust me- it’s cooking!

SUPPORT STOP COP CITY VIA ATLSOLIDARITY.ORG

POETIC COMPUTATION
*What does it mean to use code I don’t understand
there’s a poem here….

something about using without knowing, taking, deriving, and replicating

not fully understanding the mechanics nor the author,

but hoping it will solve whatever glitch i am battling in this moment.

for how could I understand the power of code I don’t understand?

*An ©️ode to the SpeakerpHat <3

there are some things that are meant to be

and some things that are destined to be, unfulfilled desires

still create connection.

one day, a girl named annie from portland will ask me in an icebreaker in a zoom room,

“please share your pronouns and what your spirit microchip is!”

your name will burn on my lips…

i never knew i could feel so connected to a microchip

that dared to be out of stock!

def our(fries):
wings = fries + "Friezzzz"
return wings

print(our("anything that goes in our "))