School
for
Poetic
Computation
How do we cultivate infrastructures of solidarity with each other, especially under conditions of crisis, protest, and systemic inequity? Beyond corporate data clouds and monopolistic service providers, this class offers a critical space to reframe technology from a grassroots perspective in relation to other components of day-to-day societal infrastructure. We will explore concepts like the slow web, organic Internet, right-to-repair, data sovereignty, minimal computing and anti-computing, within the context of the Just Transition movement. Learn how community tech and cultural organizing go hand-in-hand through real-world case studies. Explore creative applications and underlying ideologies of various open source tools and network topologies. Tune into signals of radical communication beyond colonialist legibility. Challenge the techno-capitalist worldview and break the dichotomy of "high" and "low" tech in favor of a needs-based approach that centers collectivist values and the earth. In this class, participants will develop technical skills for running a situated server practice and learn from the experiences of their peers. Each participant is encouraged to apply the idea of "computing in place" to their own locale through a creative project which may range from a small poetic experiment, to archiving personal and familial stories, to collaborating with the neighborhood library, community garden, elderly home, or mutual aid coalition. As creative practitioners, we will direct our imaginative power toward experimenting with refusal, repair, responsibility, and reconnection in order to dream into practice the relational infrastructures we need.
Participants can expect to spend two hours outside of class each week on readings and assignments. Each participant is invited to develop a situated infrastructural intervention of choice over the course of the class, with the option to apply technical skills for server hosting that we will learn together. Developing this intervention will vary on outside class time depending on the size and complexity of the endeavor. This requires being proactive with researching the needs of a community that is specific to you, and establishing or deepening relations with collaborators.
All levels of technical experience welcome. Beginners are encouraged to plan time for office hours for extra support. Prior experience in programming or system administration is not required, but these skills can be used in class projects and are also welcome.
Together we will develop:
This class is for you if you:
This class may NOT be for you if you:
Rooted in Kerala, Inspired by Oakland, Born, Raised, and Residing in Atlanta, GA, Meghna Mahadevan is a community technologist, in the terms of technology as a range of tools for human progress. They experiment with building programs, initiatives, relationships, and creations as a way to make meaning of the world around them and as a practice of hope for the future. Meghna’s projects range from organizing for larger movements of technology justice, multimedia storytelling via sound and photography, gathering people together, collective building, djing QTBIPOC+ parties in the South, and investigating autonomous technology infrastructure outside the US. Meghna has co-founded two collectives, intent on relational based methods to organizing, synthesizing, and visioning. Their work has been featured in protocol, NPR, Balamii Radio, Lower Grand Radio, LA Times, and more. Meghna has a degree in industrial engineering from georgia tech with a focus on computer science. They enjoy spending time with friends, exploring hinduism through a queer abolitionist lens, and dancing at all times of the day and night.
they/them
· twitter
· instagram
Max Fowler is an artist and programmer working with offline-first software, mycology and community infrastructure. They are a contributor to PeachCloud, software that makes hosting peer to peer software on local low-power hardware more accessible. They are also a co-founder of KiezPilz (kiezpilz.de), a communal fungi cultivation group based in Berlin. They were a student at the School For Poetic Computation in 2016, and later a TA. They are one of the admins of sunbeam.city, and are interested in foraging, flip-phones, rust and html.
they/them
· website
· twitter
Applications open until Applications closed on November 17, 2024.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on December 2, 2024. Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 10 classes, it costs $1200 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule weekly or monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
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