Bookmark this page to stay up to date on what we will cover each week, including readings and assignments.
WEEK 1: What Are Solidarity Infrastructures?
Prepare to briefly introduce yourself!
WEEK 2: Reclaiming Our Technological Imagination
ASSIGNMENT
Always Already Infrastructuring (Inspired by Melanie Hoff’s Always Already Programming)
Prepare a bit of writing or drawing or story or set of images to share about an existing infrastructural tool, approach, or network that interests you. Upload it to Nextcloud, and we will do a show-and-tell in class!
READ
- Ursula K. Le Guin. A Rant about Technology, 2005 https://www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about-technology
- Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones), Technology & Ethos, in Raise Rage Rays Raze (NYC: Random House, 1965) http://www.soulsista.com/titanic/baraka.html
- Ahmed Ansari, Decolonizing Design Through the Perspectives of Cosmological Others. The ACM Magazine for Students Volume 26 Issue 2 Winter 2019 https://www.are.na/block/19677929f
WEEK 3: How Does The Internet Work?
READ
- Mallory Knodel and Niels ten Oever. How The Internet Really Works: An Illustrated Guide to Protocols, Privacy, Censorship, and Governance
- Panayotis Antoniadis. The Organic Internet: Building Communications Networks from the Grassroots https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-66592-4_13#Sec3
- Ingrid Burrington. Networks of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide to Urban Internet Infrastructure https://c-i-r-c-u-l-a-t-i-o-n.org/media/pdf/Networks-of-New-York.pdf
EXPLORE
- Teleogeography. Submarine Cable Map https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
- Quartz. Map of the Internet https://classic.qz.com/map-of-the-internet/
- Tabita Rezaire. Deep Down Tidal (2017). 18min long video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9EIywuH-LM
GUEST LECTURE
- Lai Yi Ohlsen, Measurement Lab. Spring 2023. https://media.infrastructures.us/w/dsVeEwbDeWRHD7N5tEqkod
WEEK 4: Community Tech
READ
- Diana Nucera. Teaching Community Technology Handbook. Chapter 1: What is community tech? http://www.mothercyborg.com/community-technology
- The Community Memory Project: An Introduction, Berkeley 1982 https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2019/02/102734414-05-01-acc.pdf
EXPLORE
- Community Tech NY. Journey Map https://www.communitytechny.org/
- Janastu Servelots. COWMesh https://open.janastu.org/projects/cowmesh
- Portals Sem Porteiras. Nodes That Bond https://www.apc.org/en/blog/seeding-change-nodes-bond-women-overcome-access-gaps-portal-sem-porteiras-community-network
GUEST LECTURES
- Sanketh Kumar, Janastu. Spring 2023. https://media.infrastructures.us/w/gDDkiXGMpk8mQ9cpqJrJed
- Rodrigo Troian, NUPEF. Winter 2024. https://media.infrastructures.us/w/wwMmaC8skYTNC4tGM2jfDU
WEEK 5: Sovereign Software
READ
- The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest. Bugreporting as a method. https://titipi.org/wiki/index.php/Bugreporting_how-to
- Alice Yuan Zhang. Sea Change: A Critique of Forkonomy(). https://outland.art/forkonomy/
- Élodie Mugrefya and Femke Snelting. Collectively Setting Conditions for Re-use. https://march.international/collectively-setting-conditions-for-re-use/
GUEST LECTURE
- Sarah Aoun, security & privacy researcher. Winter 2024. https://media.infrastructures.us/w/kzpJcWMTgd5tKxtiMttWoF
WEEK 6. Materiality of Computing
ASSIGNMENT
Find a repair cafe near you and try to get something fixed there. If you can't find one on the website, try the local library or makerspace.
READ
- Lori Emerson. Reclaiming the Future with Old Media https://loriemerson.net/2021/11/21/six-difficult-and-inconvenient-values-to-reclaim-the-future-with-old-media%EF%BF%BC/
- Tega Brain, Alex Nathanson, Benedetta Piantella. Solar Protocol: Exploring Energy-Centered Design. https://arena-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/19281259/6a36c211be5af9ee67746cc00cf612ab.pdf?1670225882
- Kathryn Yusoff. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. https://solidarity.nohost.me/nextcloud/s/KH4Jiiaiz87wSY9
EXPLORE
- Marloes de Valk. Damaged Earth Catalog. https://damaged.bleu255.com/
- 100 Rabbits. https://100r.co/site/home.html
WEEK 7. Do It Yourself, Do It With Others
READ
- Shannon Mattern. "Maintenance and Care," Places Journal (2018) https://placesjournal.org/article/maintenance-and-care/
- Nancy Mauro-Flude & Yoko Akama. “A feminist server stack: co-designing feminist web servers to reimagine Internet futures” CoDesign Journal (2022) https://www.are.na/block/20949157
- Spideralex. Underneath and On the Sidelines: Sustaining Feminist Infrastructures Using Speculative Fiction. https://donestech.net/files/iterations-spideralex-underneath-and-on-the-sidelines.pdf
GUEST LECTURE
- Varia. Spring 2023. https://media.infrastructures.us/w/omTUZfDGXin4192sWQR5tn
WEEK 8: Media Arts & Movement Organizing
We'll be joined by May First Movement Technology, a non-profit co-op that engages in movement building by advancing the strategic use and collective control of technology for local struggles, global transformation, and emancipation without borders.
READ
- Rithikha Rajamohan. Dispatches from Cascadia. https://solidarity.nohost.me/nextcloud/s/7i3AMEGeHMxP4f8
- Ruth Catlow. Translocal Belonging and Cultural Cooperation after the Blockchain – A Citizen Sci-Fi. In Radical Friends, pg. 173-189 https://www.are.na/block/17517583
- Christian Ulrik Andersen & Geoff Cox. Toward a Minor Tech https://darc.au.dk/fileadmin/DARC/newspapers/toward-a-minor-tech-online-sm.pdf
- Aimi Hamraie, Kelly Fritsch. Crip Technoscience Manifesto. https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/29607/24772
EXPLORE
- Art.coop’s model of solidarity economies
- Pukllasunchis Radio
WEEK 9. Radical Signals & Rogue Frequencies
READ
- Kate Donovan. Nightcall Radio: Radio-Anthropocene Entanglements. https://arena-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/19283044/6945f936e3a87b3e81a1155ff1874a34.pdf?1670240463
- Helga Tawil-Souri. Speculation on infrastructural ecology: Pigeons, Gaza, and internet access https://www.are.na/block/19282985
- Critical Art Ensemble. Nomadic Power and Cultural Resistance. from The Electronic Disturbance, Ch. 2 (1994) http://critical-art.net/books/ted/ted2.pdf
WEEK 10. Project Showcase & Conclusion
Prepare to share your class project and reflections.