A little internet: Difference between revisions
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== | == Prototypes for a lighter internet == | ||
The project 'Prototypes for a lighter internet' describes a collaborative exploration across the Netherlands and Armenia that resulted in a two week-long workshop for teenagers at The TUMO Center for Creative Technologies<ref>https://tumo.org/</ref> in Yerevan – a free-of-charge educational program that puts teens in charge of their own learning. | |||
The aim of the project was to creatively and critically explore contemporary challenges that come with building and participating in contemporary internet culture in a manner that is sustainable and equitable. Data centers, cable networks, always-on devices (e.g. routers and phones) that allow us to be connected via the Internet have huge energy requirements. Moreover, the mining required to source materials for required chips inside our hardware is exhausting the earth and is the cause for geopolitical tensions. With the development of the proposed project we aim to critically and artistically explore the social and environmental implications of internet technologies with a hands-on practical approach and from the perspective of those who will be most affected by the rising threats of climate change – kids and youngsters. | |||
=== Our collaborative mission! === | |||
Participants joined the H&D collective for two weeks for an intensive research trajectory and worked together on developing prototypes for a lighter, less wasteful internet. The learning lab was process-driven, giving space for playful trial and error, guided by hacking principles<ref>We refer to hacking as the curious and joyful act of opening up technology, and using it in novel unexpected ways.</ref>, The question we researched is: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
"Why is the internet so heavy? (And what can we do about it?)" | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Through hands-on prototyping we worked our way towards building and imagining a lighter, less wasteful internet, and explored the limits and unexpected possibilities of such a small internet. | |||
Along the way we proposed many exercises to get reduce kb, and traced every step of the collaborative research project, document successful and failed experiments, to share with each other and the world. | |||
== Methods exercises == | == Methods exercises == | ||
Revision as of 09:53, 13 July 2023
Prototypes for a lighter internet
The project 'Prototypes for a lighter internet' describes a collaborative exploration across the Netherlands and Armenia that resulted in a two week-long workshop for teenagers at The TUMO Center for Creative Technologies[1] in Yerevan – a free-of-charge educational program that puts teens in charge of their own learning.
The aim of the project was to creatively and critically explore contemporary challenges that come with building and participating in contemporary internet culture in a manner that is sustainable and equitable. Data centers, cable networks, always-on devices (e.g. routers and phones) that allow us to be connected via the Internet have huge energy requirements. Moreover, the mining required to source materials for required chips inside our hardware is exhausting the earth and is the cause for geopolitical tensions. With the development of the proposed project we aim to critically and artistically explore the social and environmental implications of internet technologies with a hands-on practical approach and from the perspective of those who will be most affected by the rising threats of climate change – kids and youngsters.
Our collaborative mission!
Participants joined the H&D collective for two weeks for an intensive research trajectory and worked together on developing prototypes for a lighter, less wasteful internet. The learning lab was process-driven, giving space for playful trial and error, guided by hacking principles[2], The question we researched is:
"Why is the internet so heavy? (And what can we do about it?)"
Through hands-on prototyping we worked our way towards building and imagining a lighter, less wasteful internet, and explored the limits and unexpected possibilities of such a small internet. Along the way we proposed many exercises to get reduce kb, and traced every step of the collaborative research project, document successful and failed experiments, to share with each other and the world.
Methods exercises
Tooling Days
The curriculum broke the question of creating prototypes for a lighter internet into smaller chunks and exercises. Participants could choose one of 3 "Tooling Tracks" that they could be follow for a short period at the beginning of the curriculum. The skills and knowledge acquired within these tracks were then brought together in the development of group projects: 1. Small images, compression, low-res graphics 2. Accessible and Sustainable approaches to HTML, CSS and JS 3. Building the required hardware and connecting the whole toolchain
Exercises
Some of the exercises explored during the curriculum
Drawing your home on the internet
Field day: mapping the physical internet
Audio auditing
A focus on alt-text (for accessibility and sustainability)
Server tour from the system-administrator
Network observatory
Prototypes
- ↑ https://tumo.org/
- ↑ We refer to hacking as the curious and joyful act of opening up technology, and using it in novel unexpected ways.