open reading group infrastructure reading group
bi- weekly tuesday session 16:00 – 17:00 cest/cet* (once every two weeks)
facilitated by niels@criticalinfralab.net
meet up here: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/6365963924
take notes here: https://pad.criticalinfralab.net/unz6CPM9SpieqIlkXf-Oqg
sign up for the mailinglist here (don’t forget to click the link in the confirmation email):
https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/infrastructure-readinggroup
October 29th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Introduction + Chapter 1 // The Apple II Age – Introduction
November 12th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 2 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 1
November 26th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 3 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 2
December 10th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 4 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 3
December 24th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 5 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 4
January 7th, 2025- Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 6 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 5
January 21st – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 7 // The Apple II Age – Chapter 6
February 4th – Telegraphic Imperialism – Chapter 8 + Conclusion // The Apple II Age – Chapter 7
February 18th – The Apple II Age – Inconclusions + Epilogue
March 4th – European Objects – Chapter 1 and 2
March 18th – European Objects – Chapter 3 and 4
April 1st – European Objects – Chapter 5 and 6
April 15th – European Objects – Chapter 7 and 8
April 29th – European Objects – Conclusion
previous books read in this reading group:
- The Smartness Mandate – Orit Halpern
- Technology of Empire – Daqing Yang
- News from Germany – Heidi J.S. Tworek
- balkan cyberia – viktor petrov
- how not to network a nation – benjamin peters
- technologies of speculation – sun-ha hong
- the closed world – paul edwards
- four internets – kieron o’hara & wendy hall
- what is wrong with rights – radha d’souza
- digital design and topological control – parisi
- golden age of analog – galloway
- countering the cloud – luke munn
- medium design – keller easterling
- reluctant power – rita zajác
- between truth and power – julie cohen
- the question concerning technology in china – yuk hui
/* We use CEST between the last Sunday of March until the last Sunday of October, then we switch back to CET
open reading group environment reading group
bi- weekly tuesday session 16:00 – 17:00 cet (once every two weeks)
facilitated by fieke@criticalinfralab.net
meet up here: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/5689070082 | sign up for the mailinglist here and add you reading suggestions here.
Upcoming readings:
September 10: Janna Frenzel – ‘How ‘Green’ Computing is Opening Up a New Frontier in Arctic Norway’ (email fieke for a copy)
September 24: A resourcification manifesto: Understanding the social process of resources becoming resources
October 8: What might degrowth computing look like? + Strategies for Degrowth Computing
October 22: Water justice and technology. The Covid-19 crisis, computational resource control, and water relief policy
November 5: cancelled and replaced by Sustainable and Equitable Internet Infrastructure panels 5-7 Nov
November 19: Fieke Jansen – paper on IETF; framing environmental concerns and sustainability solutions (email fieke for a copy) + Solar Protocol: Exploring Energy-Centered Design
December 3: Kimberly Anastacio – Dissertation chapter about the ITU and IETF work on environment-related standards (email fieke for a copy)
December 17: [manifesto!] ‘The compost engineers and sus saberes lentos: a manifest for regenerative technologies‘ by Joana Varon and Lucía Egana
previous books and articles read in this reading group:
– pollution is colonialism by Max Liboiron
– myth of green capitalism by Katharina Pistor
– from moore’s law to the carbon law by Daniel Pargman, Aksel Biørn-Hansen, Elina Eriksson, Jarmo Laaksolaht, Markus Robèrt
– solarities; seeking energy justice by After Oil Collective
– the value of a whale by Adrienne Buller
– after geoengineering: climate tragedy, repair, and restoration by Holly Jean Buck
– against crisis epistemology by kyle whyte
– discard studies: wasting, systems, and power by Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky
– An alternative planetary future? Digital sovereignty frameworks and the decolonial option by Sebastián Lehuedé
– ‘Socialism is not just Built for a Hundred Years’: Renewable Energy and Planetary Thought in the Early Soviet Union (1917–1945) by Daniela Russ
– Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador by Thea Riofrancos
– The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North by Thea Riofrancos
– The Internet Shutdown and Revolutionary Politics: Defining the Infrastructural Power of the Internet by Michael Truscello
– The world wide web of carbon: Toward a relational footprinting of information and communications technology’s climate impacts by Anne Pasek, Hunter Vaughan, and Nicole Starosielski.
– Shifting from ‘sustainability’ to regeneration by Bill Reed
– A Digital Tech Deal: Digital Socialism, Decolonization, and Reparations for a Sustainable Global Economy by Michael Kwet
– We Need To Rewild The Internet by Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon
– Beyond Wiindigo Infrastructure by Winona LaDuke and Deborah Cowen
event Sustainable and Equitable Internet Infrastructure panels 5-7 Nov November 2024
On November 5-7 we will host three conversations on Tech-poetics and the Cosmos of Resistance, Regenerative infrastructures, and Playing with Solarpunk Computing and Tiny Infrastructures. Speakers include Thiane Neves, Miguel de Barros, Madeline R. Young-Touré, Jen Liu, Joana Varon, Sunjoo Lee, Luã Cruz, Spencer 張正 Chan, and Esther Mwema. See more info on each panel below.
To discuss the ecological burdens of computation, challenge the notion of scale, uplift communal and regenerative computing practices, and dream together about alternative socio-technical pathways that center people and planet over profit and capital.
Panel 1: Playing with Solarpunk Computing and Tiny Infrastructures
November 5, 12h-1.30pm (UT-3), 10am – 11.30am EST, and 4.00-5.30 PM (UTC +1)
Zoom Link to Register:
https://mozilla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkfu6rrD4tG9TuQENae6V2NSbadwjc3Ckz
Panel 2: Tech-poetics and the Cosmos of Resistance
November 6, 12h-1.30pm (UT-3), 10am – 11.30am EST, and 4.00-5.30 PM (UTC +1)
Zoom Link to Register:
https://mozilla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMldeyhpzIqHNUbB-TRa-FufW8qMrkwbnJY
Panel 3: Regenerative infrastructures
November 7, 12h-1.30pm (UT-3), 10am – 11.30am EST, and 4.00-5.30 PM (UTC +1)
Zoom Link to Register:
https://mozilla.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vcu2hrT4sGNX5CFg7ya2Sz4Qaq2XCM17V
The panels
Panel 1: Playing with Solarpunk Computing and Tiny Infrastructures
November 5, 12h-1.30pm (UT-3), 10am – 11.30am EST, and 4.00-5.30 PM (UTC +1)
Speakers: Luã Cruz, Spencer 張正 Chan, and Esther Mwema
Moderator: Michelle Thorne
We already know what Big Tech built for profit looks like. But what if we reimagine digital infrastructures with community service, joy, and just the right amount of technology to meet collective needs? This panel explores these possibilities through solarpunk computing, tiny infrastructures, and other alternative models that foster sustainable, justice-oriented digital futures. We’ll learn from communities managing their own internet connectivity, gaining insights into resilience and meeting local needs through grassroots efforts. We’ll also hear from community-led renewable energy projects and how they inform sustainable, rights-based governance of technology. The panel invites us to rethink digital infrastructures — envisioning ways to reduce resource use while designing technologies that truly support collective well-being.
Panel 2: Tech-poetics and the Cosmos of Resistance
November 6th, 12h-1.30pm (UT-3), 10am – 11.30am EST, and 4.00-5.30 PM (UTC +1)
Speakers: Thiane Neves, Miguel de Barros, and Madeline R. Young-Touré
Moderator: Lori Regattieri
This panel explores the intersection of technology, infrastructure, and socio-environmental impacts within the framework of racial capitalism and colonial power structures. Inspired by the critical writings of Sylvia Wynter and Denise Ferreira da Silva, it challenges prevailing biocentric and anthropocentric ideologies to redefine what it means to be human in a world deeply shaped by industrial and digital technologies. Through a blend of research, art, film, and documentary, the panelists critique extractive practices and their devastating effects on both human and ecological systems. By engaging with themes of infrastructure, environmental degradation, and colonial legacies, this dialogue envisions a future where technology systems are designed with a deep recognition of all life forms, fostering resistance, solidarity, and policies that honor interconnectedness and belonging in a cosmos of shared existence.
Panel 3 Regenerative infrastructures
November 7th, 12h-1.30pm (UT-3), 10am – 11.30am EST, and 4.00-5.30 PM (UTC +1
Speakers: Jen Liu, Joana Varon, Sunjoo Lee
Moderator: Fieke Jansen
Internet infrastructures are a central but often invisible part of our lives. Recent protest and resistance against data centers have made certain challenges surrounding our infrastructures visible but fails to address the underlying values of growth, extractive, and abundance. Local win end up displaying the challenges to other territories. To flip the script and move beyond what is to what could be this round table centers on the idea of regenerative infrastructures, a term we use to describe restorative ecological and social approaches to infrastructures. We asked our speakers to offer different perspectives on regenerative infrastructures, focussing on community, environment, self-reliance, and autonomy, and alternative ways of thinking about infrastructures, from exploring low-tech and post-silicon computing. For example, washed-away concrete bridges in the rainy season deposit solid waste in rivers and lands and require external expertise to rebuild, whereas bamboo bridges decompose and can be rebuilt by the community.
This panel series is supported by the Mozilla Alumni Connection Grants
talk - presentation - panel AI, Digital Sovereignty and Media Infrastructures in India and elsewhere November 2024
Open Cities research platform November Research-in-Progress Seminar:
Technological Sovereignty in Media Infrastructures: Indigenous 5G Networks in India
Technological sovereignty is increasingly sounded by policy makers world wide as the common objective of three megatrends: digitalisation, decarbonisation and deglobalisation. Within such a framework, Maxigas examines how “indigenous 5G networks” are articulated in India. The empirical material is drawn from recent infrastructural ethnography in Delhi and Bangalore, which focused on making new media in the context of the government’s “Make in India” campaign. The story takes place on contested territory defined by the geopolitical ambitions, telecommunications standards, and technology vendors of the USA, EU and China. The findings are made relevant to the burning questions of the day by contrasting them with current policy developments closer to home. In particular, the ongoing debate on industrial policy for the new European Council, the publication of the Draghi report, and the conference on European Digital Independence.
Prof. dr. Payal Arora will be the main discussant.
7 November 2024, 15:00-18:00 at the Grote Zaal, Muntstraat 2A in Utrecht and online through a videocall
workshop Rethinking Data Centers in the Age of Scarcity, Humanities Labs, Amsterdam November 2024
Interested in joining the workshop – email fieke@criticalinfralab.net
Data centres are a visible and at times contested infrastructure in the Netherlands. Local protests, such as in Zeewolde, have spotlighted the tension between the growing demand for data centres, negative public sentiment, and the broader concern that society is running up against planetary boundaries. In the sustainable and just infrastructure research project we explored this tension by asking the data centre ecosystem to identify the environmental harms associated with this infrastructure, current sustainability efforts, and things that need to be included in a policy if we rethink data centre governance in the age of scarcity.
In the workshop, we will bring together different experts to discuss, explore, hack, and deepen the ideas and solutions that emerged during our research. For example. prioritisation rather than facilitating the mushrooming of digital infrastructures. This raises questions about on ‘What grounds do we prioritise?’, ‘How much infrastructure do we need?’, ‘What are the consequences of prioritisation?’. Or demands for an industrial policy that invests in, supports, and promotes a just and sustainable future internet. This raises questions on ‘What is sustainable and just?’, ‘Who decides?’, ‘Do we continue to invest in traditional silicon computing or is it the role of the state to dream big and differently?’ and ‘What are the opportunities and consequences of dreaming big?’.
Interested in joining the workshop – email fieke@criticalinfralab.net
Date & time: November 14th, 2024, 13:00 -18:00
Location Bushuis/Oost-Indisch Huis
event ARTES Research Seminar: Democracy, War and the Digital, UvA Library, Singel 425 November 2024
The wars in Ukraine and Palestine raise new questions about digital self-determination, digital sovereignty, the use of digital tools in warfare, resistance, and democracies. On November 15, the Digital Networks, Communications, and Technologies Cluster of ARTES is organizing a research seminar to exchange ideas about the social, cultural, and political impacts of war. This research seminar brings together different perspectives to understand the role of technologies in military warfare, digital infrastructures under fire, the role of culture in times of occupation, and the everyday lives of people affected by war.
Please check the website of the event for more information.
Location: Belle van Zuylenzaal at the University Library, Singel 425.
Time: 09:00-12:00
workshop Data Walk Workshop May 2025
May 12-13, 2025 at Utrecht
The purpose of the two day workshop is to bring together scholars and artists who have each engaged in developing data walks or similar projects, in order for them to reflect on the phenomena of data walks as a methodological approach to data power and critical infrastructure studies. The two day workshop will have space and time to explore the city of Utrecht, engage with like minded participants, and conduct a collective experiment in data walking resulting in a report/fanzine. The first day is dedicated to getting to know each other and exchanging perspectives in “show and tell” style presentations of prior work and the state of the art. The second day is for devising and conducting a collective experiment in data walk as a method. After the walk we discuss the experiment and document it in the form of a report/fanzine, with the help of facilitators in spontaneous experimental publishing.
The workshop is organised by the critical infrastructure lab, Institutions for Open Societies’ Open Cities research platform and the Data School, with [urban interfaces] at Utrecht University.