roelroscamabbing.nl - the premier resource for "roel roscam abbing" on the web!

Nobody's fault, everyone's problem?

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A talk for Fediday 2026 where I argue the community invest in researching sociotechnical threats emerging at the intersections of different interoperable systems. As issues stemming from software working as intended, they are nobody’s fault but in a federated system they become everyone’s problem.

How federated systems disappear

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Long-tail effects mean things become invisible, and it is hard to argue for that which does not seem to exist.

What is 'alternative' about alternative social media?

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Reviewing literature on alternative social media, we provide an overview of what scholars consider alternative, and reflect on what it means to study ASM

Let's talk Technology and Degrowth

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Technology has a prominent role in contemporary society and degrowth proposes a radical transformation of society. That raises questions. What are the degrowth movements’ views on technology?

about

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Roel Roscam Abbing (1990, NL) a practice-based researcher in arts and design. He has a highly collaborative practice and is interested in sociotechnical systems, DIY/DIWO, self-organization and alternative technological trajectories. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Interaction Design at Malmö University’s School of Arts and Communication (K3). There he researches alternative social media, on-line federation and community-owned digital infrastructure. He holds an MA Networked Media from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and a Fine Arts BA (Hon) from the Willem De Kooning Academy.

Postcards against Chat control

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The local hackerspace read that physical mail is more effective than digital mail for campaigning, so we tried it out.

Visualizing image compression

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Photograph of a beach that no longer exists shows an image of a beach near Barcelona which is now gone due to the effects of climate change. This post describes the sketching for Photograph in more detail.

On not scaling LURK

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

a tale of maintenance, federation, and governance

LURK in Artists Running Data Centers

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

the expression ARTIST RUN DATA CENTER (ARDC) refers to a server cluster that artists and collectives use as an experimental production space

solar powered website exhibited twice

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

solar.lowtechmagazine.com is exhibited in LACMA and Design Museum

Make Friends Not Art: Mapping Law Power and Participation

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper discusses how laws intended to protect derailed a participatory design project

Spheres of Identity

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On the topologies of digital identity systems and how thinking derived from topological determinism obscures how digital identity systems operate in practice.

Research Notes On Digital Identity

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Shared preliminary findings from Digital Identity research project at MetaGovernance seminar

Books from other libraries

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

a prototype to interconnect digital community libraries and their publications using existing standards

Back To The Future Of The Internet

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Fresh ideas from the Internet’s past against stale techological futures

Tool Shed: Borrowing, Maintaining, Shedding

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An evening of exchange at HNI from 19:00 - 21:00 as part of the Tool Shed fellowship

Shifting your research from X to Mastodon? Here’s what you need to know

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An informational opinion piece on research ethics on Mastodon / Fediverse

The Impromptu Museum(?) Of Obsolete(?) Devices

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Discussed the design behind solar.lowtechmagazine.com at an introductory event of Malmö Degrowth Studies group

Duurzaamheid en webdesign, hoe zit dat?

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Het energieverbruik van ICT is een complexe kwestie. Naast een sociaal en technisch vraagstuk is het ook een ontwerpvraagstuk. Hoe kan je de energievoetafdruk van je werk minimaliseren?

what does toot:indexable mean for academic research on the fediverse?

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Mastodon 4.2 introduced a general opt-in for indexing public posts. Is this the beginning of an opt-in mechanism for computational academic research?

Book: How to build a low-tech internet?

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Low-tech Magazine launched a thematic publication on digital technology

Log out_: A Glossary of Technological Resistance and Decentralization

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Our article on Decentralised Social Media republished as part of Log out_

Article about sustainability and webdesign for Dutch Designers Magazine

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I discuss the sustainability of ICT and what one can do within web design in an article for the magazine of the Professional Association for Dutch Designers

Rebuilding a solar powered website

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After five years of running it we rebuilt solar.lowtechmagazine.com to work with hugo.

Presentation at Critical Infrastructure Lab opening event

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In April 2023, the opening conference of the Critical Infastructure Lab took place at the UVA. The lab is focused on the study of media infrastructures and has three strands of research; geopolitics, standards, and environment. The conference contributions were also all grouped in to these strands and an additional Infrastructural Futures section. Unfortunately, I had to miss the first day. For the second day, I can say the CIL managed to bring together a remarkable network of practitioners and researchers, of which I highlight two keynote presentations that were particularly strong and timely.

Infrastructuring alternatives: Mastodon, the Fediverse and beyond

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The workshop introduces the question of alternative social media and how a software like Mastodon, based on its federated topology, allows for different relationships between user communities and their infrastructures.

A Traversal Network Of Feminist Servers: LURK

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

a collaborative project formed around intersectional, feminist, ecological servers whose communities travelled between each other in 2022

Glossary Entry: Decentralised Social Media

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An entry in Internet Policy Review’s Glossary of decentralised technologies

Toolmaking for a Human-Sized Agriculture

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This workshop focuses on the relationship between tool design, the human body and the land.

Towards A Minor Tech

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Following a process of open exchanges and a three-day research workshop in London, this publication brings together researchers who address the problems of technological scale.

contact

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

hmu @ ☞ roel at roelroscamabbing dot nl for mail ☞ blabla at roelof dot info for xmpp ☞ rra at post.lurk.org for fediverse, click here ☞ rscmbbng at twitter dot com for tweets

On Cultivating the Installable Base

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper argues that technically-inclined PD practices that wish ”to matter” are well predisposed to significantly contribute to public repositories of computational alternatives.

Feature in Degrowth & Strategy

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The solar powered webiste is discussed in Degrowth & Strategy

Konfluks

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

a tool that brings together small and dispersed streams of web content from different applications and websites together in a single large stream.

How To Run A Small Social Network With Your Friends

Fri, 13 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A workshop on organizing and maintaining a Mastodon server

interview in Disegno #30

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The work on solar.lowtechmagazine.com, and the opinions of yours truly, were featured in “The Biggest Machine On Earth”. In this article in Disengo Journal, Oli Stratford explores the material side of the internet, carbon footprints and lean web design. You can get the journal here: https://disegnojournal.com/shop/p/disegno30 Or read the article on Oli’s Website

feature in CAPS LOCK

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

CAPS LOCK by Ruben Pater is a book that explores the ways in which (graphic) design is interwoven with capitalism and the ways that designers attempt to resist that. The book does so by giving the reader a rich overview of cases, designed objects, imagery and examples of work by different designers and studios. Some of the work as part of R&D was also included on page 380. Additionally, there is a reference to the Seven Theses On The Fediverse and the Becoming of Floss.

One click install to autonomy?

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Very scientific graph of fleeting interest in alternatives infrastructural practices by cultural practitioners and institutions vs ongoing groundwork done by subcultural practices On the 30th of June and 1st of July 2021 Aymeric Mansoux and me presented a talk and workshop for Screenwalks on practices of setting up and maintaining alternative computational infrastructures. Screenwalks is a programme of Fotomuseum Winterthur, The Photographers’ Gallery and the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image.

Semipad, a calibre-web mod for collaborative annotations

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article describes how to modify calibre-web to allow for collaborative annotations on publications

Computing Within Limits 2021 Paper Presentation

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

On the 14th of june I presented ‘This is a solar-powered website, which means it sometimes goes offline’: a design inquiry into degrowth and ICT at Computing Within Limits. LIMITS is a yearly workshop concerning the role of computing in human societies affected by real-world limits. Planetary, ecological, social and otherwise. tl;dr In ‘This is a solar-powered website, which means it sometimes goes offline’ I reflect on the design process of solar.

Talk for Digital Solidarity Networks

Thu, 27 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What are lessons learned from alternative, decentralised or federated infrastructures?

Creating portable digital libraries by embedding metadata

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

screenshot of the calibre interface Tools like Calibre make it possible to organize digital publications into meaningful collections by adding a wealth of metadata to files. This makes it possible to organize and search publications according to theme, publisher, authors, year and more. There is also a ‘description’ field which allow for comments of different kinds, such as an abstract of the publication, or personal notes on its (ir)relevance. A well-tended collection which has been thoughtfully annotated can become a valuable research tool for individual or collective researchers.

feature in Redirecting Networks

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Spread of Neural Magazine showing some of the work that is part of R&D Projects part of R&D were featured in Neural #65, a special issue edited by Rachel O’Dwyer. Get it here: http://neural.it/issues/neural-65-redirecting-networks/

participation in Transmediale 2020

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Photo during talk Seven Theses On the Fediverse Photo by Adam Berry (CC BY-SA 4.0) As part of Transmediale 2020: End-To-End I’ve participated in a talk, a panel and three workshops. a talk The talk was a high-speed 20 minute executive summary of Seven Theses on the Fediverse and the Becoming of F/LOSS. This was part of the panel session Deplatformization and the Ethics of Exclusion. a panel Exchange #4: Deplatformization and the Ethics of Exclusion Roel Roscam Abbing, Marie-Luise Angerer, Johanna Bruckner, Rachel O’Dwyer, Eva Haifa Giraud, Kei Kreutler, Aymeric Mansoux

Seven Theses On The Fediverse And The Becoming Of Floss

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Cover of The Eternal Network Together with Aymeric Mansoux I co-authored an essay that looks at the interrelation between Free/Libre Open Source Software(F/LOSS) and the Fediverse, an alternative social media network. Through seven different theses, the essay explores how this latest federated social network challenges both the established forms of production and governance in F/LOSS software, as well as the governance of social media platforms. Table of Contents: Meet the Fediverse The Fediverse as the Transition from Meme Wars to Network Wars The Fediverse as an Ongoing Critique of Openness The Fediverse as a Site for Online Agonistic Pluralism The Fediverse as a Shift from a Technical to a Social Understanding of Privacy The Fediverse as a Way Out of Data Sharecropping and Free Labor The Fediverse as the Rise of a New Kind of Usership The Fediverse as the End of Free/Libre and Open Source Software as We Know It Download the essay on Monoskop.

POST Design Festival

Sat, 19 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

https://postdesignfestival.org/speaker/low-tech-magazine Low-tech Magazine questions the blind belief in technological progress, and talks about the potential of past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society. Interesting possibilities arise when you combine old technology with new knowledge and new materials, or when you apply old concepts and traditional knowledge to modern technology. Low-tech Magazine was founded in November 2007 and has since 2018 also been available on a solar-powered server, and since 2019 also in printed matter (no internet connection or power source required for reading).

Networks of One's Own Issue 2

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A periodic para-nodal publication documenting networks of practices, tools and experiences that is itself collectively written within a network

Person With Ball ⛹

Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Tracing the genealogy of a single emoji from map historic map icon, to ethnicized and gendered representation

The Social In The Media

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Varia at ODD, photo by Florian Cramer In June 2019 I joined a delegation of Varia to Bucharest Romania to meet and exchange with ODD and present our (Varia) media & software ecosystem during a presentation. A detailed write up can be found on the Varia website: https://varia.zone/en/the-social-in-the-media.html

Networks With An Attitude

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Networks do not tell all stories equally. Networks, like all entities with stories, tell most readily those stories in whose reflection they see themselves. Eleanor Saitta, 2012

solar. lowtechmagazine .com in the media

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

List of media and projects referencing solar.lowtechmagazine.com In English: “Can the Internet Survive Climate Change?”, Kevin Lozano, The New Republic, 2019 “The future of web design is less, not more”, Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, Fastcompany, September 10, 2018. “Imagining a Solar-Powered Internet: Kris De Decker Low<–Tech Magazine”, Jasio Stefanski, The Gradient, Walker Art Magazine, November 21, 2018. “How to Build a Low-Tech Website”, Roman Zolotarev, Hacker News, 2018. “Low-Tech Magazine switches to a low-tech, low carbon website”, Lloyd Alter, Treehugger, September 26, 2018.

The Network We (De)served

Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

From January to April 2019 on behalf of Varia, Manetta Berends and me taught a thematic course at the Experimental Publishing Master’s programme at the Piet Zwart Institute. Responding to new developments in federated social media and the trimester sought to understand what on-line federation is and how novel forms of publishing could be imagined in that environment. Consequently the trimester was centered around practices of self-hosting, the history and practice of computer networking, feminist servers, diy chatbots as publication tools, shared on-line spaces and hybrid publishing practices.

Infrastructour for Automated Landscapes

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Lecture on the energy and data infrastructure in Eemshaven for a group of architecture researchers

solar. lowtechmagazine .com

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A redesign of Low-Tech Magazine blog to imagine what a ‘Low-Tech Website’ could be. The site runs on off-grid solar power and the website can go off-line after a few days of bad weather. Rather than overprovisioning resources to always be online, the design challenges the concept of ‘server uptime’. To reduce the power consumption the static website uses very minimal hardware and likewise the design had to be extremely light, with the advantage that now it supports very old devices and very slow networks.

Networks of One's Own Issue 1

Sat, 08 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I was invited by Constant VZW to help document the “etherbox” and its legacy of shared experimental network and publishing practices. This resulted in both a Raspberry Pi image for Etherbox and a manual for that image (included in the image) which not only talks about the how but also the whys, whos, whens and wheres of etherbox and interrelated practices. You can read “Networks Of One’s Own” here: https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/etherbox/manual.html

The Ecosystem is Moving

Sun, 10 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Documentation for a worksession with Daniel Gultsch on Conversations

the map is not the network - the network is the territory

Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to the internet, geoip won’t help us really understand where we are, or help us understand where in the diagram of the power relations we are.

Libre Graphics Meeting 2018

Tue, 01 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

overview of the presentation The Libre Graphics Meeting (LGM) is an annual international convention for the discussion of F/LOSS used with graphics. After having participated once in 2016 I felt it was time to take part again, as I am getting more involved with floss, design and education. The fact that it took place in Seville, Spain was no downside either! LGM18 took place in the faculty of communications of the University of Seville and in a collective space called Tramallol.

Welcome To The � Federation

Sun, 01 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome To The � Federation was a research project that sought to understand how knowledge and skills from communities in the arts and design can contribute to the creation of alternative digital ecosystems based on open standards and federation. Of specific interest were those software projects whose activities have reinvigorated interest for their underlying protocols, in part by their focusing on design, language and user experience (UX), projects such as Converstations, Mastodon and PeerTube.

Cantenna Crafting Workshop @ MU Eindhoven

Mon, 23 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

On the 27th and 28th of October Dennis de Bel and me organized a cantenna crafting workshop. Some introductory antenna theory Some introductory antenna theory, followed by design and building. Building Straightening a solid-core wire with a battery drill Protip: One can straighten solid-core wire by putting it in a battery drill and gently twisting it while pulling on the other end. It will get a bit shorter and thicker in the process though.

Pretty Fly exhibited at Materialising The Internet

Fri, 06 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Pretty Fly For A Wi-Fi was exhibited at the exhibition “Materialising the Internet” in MU Eindhoven. Here is a report on the show at https://we-make-money-not-art.com/how-artists-and-designers-are-materialising-the-internet/ The internet is everywhere. Set free from the websites and the screens, it now penetrates our thoughts and our bodies and everything around us. Each day, the digital and physical become more integrated – but how does this effect our experience and how do we express the new, augmented reality?

Relearn 2017

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A summer school with as many students as teachers, this time in Rotterdam

spacekeet

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The spacekeet (“space shack”, in Dutch, pronounced something like “space kate”) was a mobile DIY satellite ground station located on the campus of the Utrecht Science Park. Between May and June 2017 the spacekeet functioned as a drop-in satellite ground station which hosted a programme of workshops, lectures and satellite observations. It became a place on campus where amateurs, hobbyists, students and professionals met around the study of satellites. a tracing of one of the amateur satellite stations The keet was built with assistance from the Werkgroep Kunstmanen.

Modifying The Universal

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A close reading of the process of implementing emoji modifiers in 2015, published in Data Browser 6

net-o-nets.py in Machine Research

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

a simple example of the short diversions one can take from the uniformed experience of internetworked telecommunications, to remind ourselves of the material conditions and the power relations that are implicated in each and every use of the Internet.

Pipeworks

Fri, 20 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A pair of sketches made during research which I like too much to hide away

Deathscape As A Livelihood Photographic Exhibition

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Exibition of photoreportages made during a anthropologic fieldwork in Lima

Radio Spectrum Scanning workshop at KiK

Sat, 05 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

a two-day intensive workshop at KiK to introduce and open up a relatively new set of open-source tools; SDR (Software defined radio) to new audiences.

The Largest Experiment In Anarchy We Never Had

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A practical workshop reflecting on the relation between the infrastructure, the protocols and the narratives of the internet.

Unicode comment in Immaterial Labor Union

Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

image from TR52 The comment on Unicode’s Technical Report 52, which was the result of a workshop in Arhus with Femke Snelting and Peggy Pierrot got republished in the 7th Immaterial Labor Union Zine. The Immaterial Labor Union, initiated by Lídia Pereira, is a decentralized labour union which occupies the space of the “social factory”: GAFA. Each edition of the Zine helps to deconstruct what it means to equate social media with labor.

The Studpid Network That We Know And Love

Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This text is an offshoot of a period of research on an obsolete network protocol, X.25, which was taken as a technical object of comparison to study the ways in which contemporary Internetworking works. Being informed by particular hands-on experiences with protocols, it is written as an accompanying text for a small practical exercise. Legacy In the early days of internetworking, before the establishment of the Internet Protocol suite (TCP/IP) as the global undisputed standard, different protocols were developed in competition with one another.

A(n) (im)practical introduction to Hertzian space

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

RF workshop at de Waag during HDSA 2016

Unicode Poster

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A script that generates all Unicode code points and prints them to stdout. Can be used to generate HTML pages which can be printed out into posters. This work was made as part of Modifiying The Universal a workshop and presentation by Femke Snelting, Peggy Pierrot & Roel Roscam Abbing during *.exe (ver0.2) at Malmö University. April 2016. See the full code here: https://github.com/rscmbbng/unicode_poster

Bibliotecha @ Dan D

Thu, 09 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Exhibition at a design festival in Zagreb, Croatia

Using a 1970s Teletype Model 43 with a 2016 Gnu/Linux OS

Sat, 14 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

test

distribusi

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

quickly build websites by throwing files in folders, take two

Tales From The Vapour Trail

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

An semi-naive business trip to manufacture an impossible phone in China becomes an exploration of material culture and informal tech economies.

Software As A Critique Discussion

Sun, 14 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

On the 14th of February 2016 I partook in the discussion Software as a Critique organized by the good folks at laglab.org. The discussion in particular was about the practice of critique of software through software and its related production sites. Our contribution was on the universalism of Unicode and our attempt to critique it through its discussion list and request for comments procedure, as described in Modifying The Universal.

Transmediale 2016

Sat, 06 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

packet radio setup Together with Dennis de Bel I was invited to join the Off The Cloud Zone, a gathering of practicioners and researesearchers engaged with different networks during Transmediale 2016. For this event we sat joined a panel and organised another Packet Radio Workshop like the one at Radnets 2015. The choice to go “off the cloud” stems from current disillusionment with networked connectivity, reaching instead for the potential of emerging user-owned and user-controlled infrastructures.

R&D: a low-end rich media publication

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Part showcase, part recipebook, this publication is a blog-like overview of works by Dennis de Bel and Roel Roscam Abbing. In the almost 200 pages of R&D: a low-end rich media publication their prototypes, try-outs and designs, which they created during a two year collaboration, make a playful case to rethink and reconsider media and communications technologies. Swiping through its pages you can find designs for DIY smartphones, a guide on making internet connections via a walkie-talkie and experiments in feline filesharing.

Double-Irish-Dutch Sandwich

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A simple recipe to make your own Double-Irish-Dutch Sandwich, a yummy Dutch accounting classic!

Infrastructours invitation

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A guided bustour of internet infrastructure in Eemshaven

Oh Really? Messing Around With Packet Radio

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

a zine on how to make internet connections with walkie-talkies

Giant Corn Brew

Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

an attempt to brew something using a corn variety cultivated for its size not its flavour

Packet Radio at Radical Networks

Sun, 25 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

a practical workshop on doing TCP/IP over UHF and what those acronyms mean

Relearn 2015

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

a summerschool with as many teachers as participants

Interview by Michael Dieter for Fiber festival

Wed, 06 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

in the context of workshop that never happened, Dennis and me got interviewed about our radio experiments

Infrastructours

Sat, 04 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Invitation for the Infrastructour INFRASTRUCTOURS was a guided bus tour to internet infrastructure in the north of the Netherlands. In September 2014 Google announced that it would extend its cloud by building a new data center in the Eemshaven in Groningen. This was the occasion to organize an Internet Infrastructour, a guided bus tour of the physical side of the cloud that took place on the 13th of December 2015.

Pretty Fly For A Wi-fi

Sat, 21 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Pretty Fly For A Wifi revisits the histories, origins and uses of self-made Wi-fi antennas. The project was about rebuilding, testing and documenting these folkloric parts of network infrastructure. The designs for these antennas are based on DIY instructions that once lived on home pages and which are now only partially preserved through the Internet Archive. These antennas serve as an interesting point of departure to talk about the internet’s infrastructure and how day-to-day users could potentially influence its shape.

Unitary Networking

Thu, 29 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Combining OpenWRT, Unitary Urbanism, TP-LINK routers, Silicone, Maizena, Gouache, 9V Batteries, Fake Rock Solar Panels as its unlikely ingredients, Unitary Networking looks at the relationship between power and infrastructures, how to challenge hierarchies in networks, how to release devices from their round-cornered black-box, and how to flood USB ports with silicone caulk.

autoindexcms

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

quickly build websites by throwing files in folders

Free Ethernet Spot

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Ethernet spot in portrait mode, the CAT5 cables sticking out make it look like an octopus GIF animation showing a rotating model of the ethernet spot The Free Ethernet spot is a site specific public internet service located in Wunderbar Rotterdam. It mirrors the recognizable Free Wi-fi hotspots that provide internet access for customers in bars and cafes. It provides connectivity to an increasing number of devices that can’t connect to it.

Meshenger

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

a mesh-networking-delay-tolerant-more-than-human-protoype bonanza

ransomnote.py

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

a script that uses favicons to create ransome notes, readable by humans, less so by machines

Drone flights in the Netherlands

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Using public sources to map and the use of military technology over the Netherlands

Bibliotecha

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Bibliotecha is a framework to facilitate the local distribution of digital publications within a small community. It relies on a microcomputer running open-source software to serve books over a local wifi hotspot.

Bordercheck

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

a browser extension that helps trace your data across the globe

Telewar

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Telewar zine An artistic research project done in collaboration with Micha Prinsen and Dave Young that took place during a three week residency at Upominki Rotterdam. During this period, then emerging traces of ‘drone culture’, were collected and exhibited to give viewers an understanding of the phenomenon. At the time the use of drones was not yet widely discussed and one had to resort indirect sources in order to get an understanding of the scope of their use, the parties involved and the nomenclature employed.

Open Drugs

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Open Drugs is a database intervention, concluding an investigation into what people might find to be the ’limits’ of open-sourcing. If knowledge becomes freely distributed and accessible, at what point do people become uncomfortable? What knowledge should and what knowledge shouldn’t be open-sourced? Using recreational synthetic drugs as a case study we wondered if it would be possible to open-source the production process of XTC, and what the effect of that would be.