This lab took place from 10 – 13 March 2022. 

Natural Intelligence, the third part of FIBER’s Reassemble Lab, will explore alternative internet infrastructures based on earthly dynamics, low-carbon solutions and ecological ethics. Join us this spring in Amsterdam (at i.a. A Lab)!

The immense possibilities of today’s internet services, data centres, artificial intelligence and rendered computer graphics have been made possible by a large supply of cheap energy sources: fossil fuels. The promises of yet another generation of AIs and metaverses are unthinkable without the endless extraction and flow of fossil energy. Many are already talking about ‘data warming’ as one of the strongly growing drivers of global warming.

From March 10 to 13, FIBER provides a four day meeting place for artists, designers, creative coders, technologists, researchers, energy experts and policy makers who are committed to, or interested in, working towards a fossil-free and fair internet.

As a participant you are invited to join hands-on workshops, prototyping sessions, talks and discussions. These are ranging from a workshop on decolonial design literacy, to using everyday technologies and developing low-carbon websites, to conceptual design sessions and hands-on technical workshops, such as working with a new solar server by Solar Protocol and prototyping new UX concepts. 

The lab will kick off with an (online) public programme exploring the theme of Natural Intelligence on Thursday evening, open to everyone. The aim of the programme is to bring together existing practices, skills and knowledge, and to form new alliances. We will ask questions like:

• What role can design, creative coding and artistic research play to envision and prototype a fundamentally different way of adapting our technological demands to natural cycles?
• What does it mean to learn from, adapt to, and work with natural intelligence, and how to imagine, articulate, practice and connect initiatives towards fossil-free futures?
• How can we envision future energy, information and communication systems that are non-extractive in nature, following ecological realities and interacting with natural phenomena and cycles?
• And how to start implementing these values in everyday practices?

Visit the Lab!
On Sunday evening (March 13), you can visit the lab and learn more about the research, projects and fresh collaborations that were born during the weekend. You are welcome from 17:30, location A Lab. No registration or ticket needed.

The third iteration in the FIBER’s Reassemble Lab series provides a four day meeting place for artists, designers, creative coders, technologists, energy experts, policy makers and (academic) researchers who are committed to, or interested in, working towards a low-carbon, ethically fair and potentially regenerative internet. The lab offers a space to meet different makers and thinkers, gain skills and connect networks of knowledge.

On top of that we host a public programme on Thursday the 10th of March that introduces the theme. You can join us at A Lab or online.

Photo: Mark Ijzerman

Programme outline

The question of ‘natural intelligence’ will be explored within four interdependent and sometimes overlapping research areas ‘Energy Literacy’, ‘Everyday Technologies, ‘Collective Infrastructures’ and ‘Fossil-Free Imaginaries’.

• During the lab, you are invited to follow one or more of these tracks, participate in various workshops, gain new practical skills and knowledge, and develop individual and collective projects.
• There are both conceptual design sessions and hands-on technical workshops, such as working with a new solar server and prototyping new UX concepts.
• Next to the workshops and sessions, there will be enough time for improvised meetings, and to meet and exchange with other lab participants, mentors, speakers and workshop leaders.

• One of the outcomes of the lab will be a digital publication that brings together visual mappings, writing and first design prototypes.
• On top of these lectures and workshops, a public conference programme will be added during the evenings. As a lab participant you can freely attend the public programmes as well.
• The aim of the whole programme is, on the one hand, to learn new skills and, on the other hand, to bring together existing practices, knowledge and networks to possibly form new alliances.

The lab is developed in partnership with A Lab and MozFest. Others to be confirmed.

Everyday Technologies
how to practice?

Everyday Technologies looks at how to start today with accessible personal interventions and design solutions to the ongoing environmental emergency. In this area, we share and work with artistic/design practices and interventions, current tools and available technologies. We explore tangible outcomes. For example: How to build a low-carbon website or start a zero inbox?

During the ‘Everyday Technologies’ track we have workshops from Tega Brain, Alex Nathanson and Benedetta Piantelli (Solar Protocal Team, US), and talks from Roel Roscam Abbing (NL/SE), Aymeric Mansoux (FR/NL) and Maike Gebker (DE).

Energy Literacy
how to articulate?

This research area will look at how to include a new energy awareness in design practice. We will discuss and create an intersectional mapping of the various concepts and communities, and their strategies and views on how network infrastructures’ impact could be lowered. How to work from, and collaborate with, natural cycles, ecological ethics and decolonial computing?

Within this research area we have talks from Farah Ghazal (EG), Abdo Hassan (EG/NL), Kris de Decker (BE), Marloes de Valk (NL), Marjan van Aubel (NL), Anastasia Kubrak (RU/NL) and Tommaso Campagna (IT/NL).

Fossil-Free Imaginaries
how to imagine?

Which ways of futuring will help us to steer to a desirable, fossil-free future? What place does the Internet have in this? This track will use speculative design and worldbuilding to imagine an alternative society based on natural cycles and renewable energy. What would a non-extractive economy and regenerative Internet look like?

As part of the ‘Fossil-Free Imaginaries’ track  Michelle Thorne (UK), Cristina Napoleone (AU) and Martina Huynh (CH/NL) give presentations on their practices, and workshops from Lisette van Beek (NL) and Louis Alderson-Bythell and Greg Orrom Swan (UK).

Collective Infrastructures
how to connect? 

Radical changes need a collective spirit. How to foster collective infrastructures and organize communities towards an internet based on ecological ethics, how to find new modes of collaboration and build bridges between existing practices, and how to connect design and critical thinking with policy making on multiple scales?

Mick Jongeling (NL), Kim van Sparrentak (NL), Manetta Berends (NL) & Cristina Cochior (NL) and Federico Poni (IT/NL) give presentations on digital infrastructures and policy making.

We are excited to announce we will be collaborating again with our neighbours from A Lab, where the Natural Intelligence four-day lab programme will take place. As this third part of our multi-year Reassemble project aims to investigate the role of design and art in a low-carbon internet, A Lab will be a beautifully symbolic location for our lab.

The research scope of ‘Natural Intelligence’ derives from the problems around our current internet services predominantly running on fossil fuels, with dire climatic consequences. A Lab’s building carries an important history in fossil fuels, as it used to be Shell’s Groot Laboratorium (Grand Lab). The area on the River IJ’s north bank used to be completely Shell-owned, with ultimately over 40 buildings at Shell’s disposal. Today, only a few properties remain, including the Poortgebouw, where our office is located, and the A’DAM Toren.   

A Lab hosts a multidisciplinary mix of creatives, technologists, social entrepreneurs and labs in the building

With this Call For Journalists & Researchers we want to extend the invitation to both professional journalists and studying researchers (bachelor and master students, PHD researchers) to join FIBER’s upcoming lab about alternative internet infrastructures based on earthly dynamics, low-carbon solutions and ecological ethics. ​​We offer an opportunity to carry out research during and after our upcoming lab. This can be done for the development of a media item, essay or within the context of someone’s study or thesis.

We will offer a number of spots to visit the lab free of charge and will work together with our team to access the work and research of our participants and speakers. In return, we ask for the development of concrete outcomes: from media items to written articles.

FIBER considers its task to share the knowledge and socially relevant topics dealt with in the labs in an open and accessible way in the public domain. In addition, we offer opportunities for students and starters to develop their practice within the labs. For these purposes, we seek cooperation with journalists and researchers.

MORE INFO

How can I join?

At this moment, you can show your interest in the programme through applying via our Open Call. Based on the submissions, we will invite participants to be a part of the lab. In the short term, we will also share more information about our conference programme and workshops, which will consist of parts curated by FIBER and partnerships. We will inform everyone as soon as possible with further information about the workshops, sessions and lectures.

Participant fees are as follows*:
€80 — Independent artists & researchers
€40 — Students
€150 — Corporate participants 

Planning

• Launch Open Call — Thu 16/12/21
• Application Deadline — Sun 07/01/22
• Application Deadline Extended  — Sun 23/01/22
• Selection Participants — Mon 31/01/22 (contact by email)
• Reassemble Part 3: Natural Intelligence — 10 till 13 March

*The fee gives you access to all parts of the lab, all lectures, workshops and mentor feedback. We are aware that in this pandemic reality it is not possible for everyone to pay this amount. If you would like to participate, but are unable to pay the fee, please contact us so we can search for a solution together.

APPLY NOW

During this lab, we offer researchers – master and PHD students – the opportunity to do temporary research and to translate it into an article or interview together with our team. This will become part of the knowledge and resources dossier we are building around this lab. In addition, the lab offers a unique opportunity to put your studies into practice and expand your network. Please get in touch with: zoe@fiber-space.nl. Photo: Pieter Kers

Tap the button below to jump to the frequently asked questions about the ‘Natural Intelligence’ Lab.

TO FAQ

Critical Tool Analysis

Parallel to the ‘making’, Sound Ecologies critically reflects on the historical and sociopolitical contexts in which digital tools are created and the contemporary (digital) cultures they are part of. The ways in which technological developments shape a multitude of different futures can be liberating for some and dehumanizing for others.  They are forces of extraction, exclusion and division, while they simultaneously offer the possibility to give form and imagination to new, necessary realities.

Who develops the tools and platforms we use? What is the cultural impact and political/commercial origin of simulation technologies and machine learning? In what ways do the current forms of these technologies relate to ecological and social problems? Do they help with creating solutions? Do they add fuel to the fire? What possibilities are there for artistic practices to adapt their use, or even reassemble them to accommodate representation and inclusion? A network of researchers will investigate the lab methods, techniques and principles and disseminate them through our platform.

Diversity, Inclusion and Equity

In addition to understanding our entanglement with a multispecies reality, the lab will  strive to bring together a rich prism of perspectives – including feminist, queer,  non-binary, trans and voices of color – to share resources, time and space with many different imaginations of our near-future societies. We warmly welcome participants from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds and people from LGBTQIA+ communities.

Despite some of the technical aspects of the lab, the focus will be on unlocking and  accessing a wide variety of (non-coding) skills. This will be done through  interdisciplinary collaboration and conceptual approaches to topics. Therefore, the lab will also be a valuable environment for newcomers to narrative, sonification and visualization techniques.