Transmediale 2016



packet radio setup
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. Over the last decade a growing scene of artists, hackers, and network practitioners has been actively working on creating community networks, ad-hoc connectivity, and autonomous systems of sensing and data collecting. But how feasible are the changes these groups want to see?

Following last year’s offline networks unite! panel at transmediale and several specially organised workshops, Off-the-Cloud Zone brings together various actors to discuss the challenges, barriers, and possibilities of the field. With open conversation formats and hands-on demonstrations, the event seeks new strategies of joining forces and building common tools to take users beyond the sovereignty of the cloud.