PPPrototypes workshop @ Césure

On January 20 and 21, 2024, a PPPrototypes workshop was held at Césure, in Paris, France. This event gathered around forty people who came from France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

Video documentation of the workshop

Invitation email

In early November 2023, an invitation to a PPPrototypes workshop started circulating. Here is what the email said:

Hello!
We're contacting you to invite you to the next PPPrototypes workshop, organized by PrePostPrint. It will take place at Césure (Censier, Paris) on Saturday January 20 and Sunday January 21, 2024. We're imagining it as a convivial get-together where we can discuss our current projects over two days. It's a chance to meet up, discuss our tools and work on our projects with each other's eyes and support. There's no fixed program, so we'll adapt to the mood of the moment.
This event is not a training course. (But it's full of other things!!) The idea is that there will be mini-presentations, work sessions, more or less spontaneous mini-trainings, and mutual support. We imagined that this moment would enable us to move forward together on our respective projects, while being able to share them with the people who would be there :)
So come along with your projects, your desires, your ideas. If you don't have any of that, don't worry. Come with your curiosity and we'll let you contribute documentation, code snippets, and we're sure there'll be people who need a hand on their own projects!
Just a few loose ideas :

present a tool

make a collaborative edition, a zine, an exquisite corpse

sort through your computer

write something

share files on USB sticks and resources

Take a moment to work together on something.

comment on your scripts and other little tricks with a view to sharing them

add things to the PPP "Resources" page

contribute to other people's projects during this friendly time

...

Where do we sleep? For those of you not from Paris, we can try to find you accommodation. If you're a Parisian and want to host people, let us know and we'll put you in touch so that supply meets demand!
What's for dinner? There'll be a communal potluck, and we'll cook together at lunchtime (and it's also possible to cook together in the evenings). We have access to a kitchen, we'll be able to make coffee, etc. We're not planning anything special for Sunday evening, but on Saturday we'll be able to stay the night at Césure, which will be great fun, you'll see :)
What do we have to do if we wanna come? All you have to do is let us know. We have a room reserved for us, but it has a capacity of 39 people, so that's our limit in terms of the number of participants. With this in mind, if you'd like to invite someone, please ask us beforehand, so we can make sure there won't be any problem space-wise on the big day.
Do we need to bring anything? Not much. If you can bring your favorite mug, it'll save us a lot of washing up. We'll also need extension cords and power strips, but if a few people bring them, we'll be fine :). USB sticks are handy, but computers are almost indispensable in this case. If you like thermal printers or DIY plotters, bring them along too :)))
Where, when? Location: Césure (3rd floor, in the Las Vergnas room) - 13 Rue Santeuil, 75005 Paris Dates: Weekend of Saturday January 20 and Sunday January 21, 2024 Schedules: From 9:30 am on both days, we'll welcome you with coffee, have lunch together and stay at Césure in the evenings.
With all this, we can't wait for 2024.
See you soon!
Julie & Yann

Structure

The discussions and the program were free, but four tools were proposed to help people navigate among the numerous projects, desires and group chats:

PPProposals: a panel on which anyone could formulate a proposition to the other participants, whether it was a workshop proposition, a subject to discuss, some skills that they can provide to help somebody, etc.
PPPreguntas: another panel, this time to provide the opposite of the PPProposals—a place to share a question, a wish, or a need, that you would like to share with the participants in order to get their feedback or their reactions.
PPPartage: a series of tables where people could display the stuff (mostly prints) that they brought and that they wanted the other participants to have a look at. By default, the items the participants put on the table were for consultation purposes only, but it was also possible to opt out of the consultation-only mode to turn it into a giveaway :)
PPPresentations: for the two days, at 12pm, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm, five slots were made available for a series of 5-minute presentation. The clock was loosely looked at, people could take the time to showcase a tool, a publication, present what they wanted to do or what they did during the time they spent here.