As an artist and tech worker, I have often utilized oral history interview techniques to better understand the technology I work with or am building - it turns out, behind every technology there's at least one technologist. I will use these techniques to take the oral histories of five different tech workers who work on a proposal for an alternative network of some kind. Spanning between individuals within the Internet Freedom, Silicon Valley and New Media fields with same but different goals, I am learning from these people's lives: what do we mean by "our" and what do we mean by "network," both currently and potentially. What led each of these people to look at the current state of networks and think, "We can do something better"?
During “Our Network Our History: alternative archives”, I will first present each interview, both individually and in relation to each other. The remainder of the time will be spent discussing ways we can utilize the tools each individual is contributing to to archive their history. For example, if I were to interview an IPFS developer, how could we use IPFS to store their story? This portion of the session isn’t expected to be anything more than a brainstorm, but I hope to tap into the potential for alternative networks to produce alternative archives.
Position networks in relation to archives and the power structures they have the potential to rearrange
Learn more about those who contribute to alternative network projects past their pull requests and stack overflow comments
Better define what an alternative network means
Material and Technical Requirements
[List materials you as presenter require AND any participant materials (indicate if support is required for a purchase/cost). Include equipment, technical, and installation requirements if applicable. We will aim to accommodate where possible]
None.
Presenter(s)
Name: Lai Yi Ohlsen
Email: laiyi.ohlsen@gmail.com
Url(s): www.laiyiohlsen.com
Twitter: n/a
GitHub: @laiyi-ohlsen
As organizers we strive for low-cost pathways of participation, are you interested in a community billet program either hosting out-of-towners or staying with locals?
Sure!
Presenter Bio
Lai Yi Ohlsen is an artist and tech worker operating at the intersection of media and movement.
She works to promote open data and advance Internet research and policy as Project Director at Measurement Lab. Previously, she worked to defend and promote human rights online with eQualitie.
She is a 2019 Artist in Residence at Movement Research and her work has been shown at MR’s Fall Festival, New York Art Book Fair and the Internet Archive’s Decentralized Web Summit. Lai Yi has been supported by Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation, rehearsal Residency, Pioneer Works and Peer-to-Peer NYC. She is the author of ‘100 Scores: movement inspired by computers' and tends to her creative practice at Soft Surplus, a collective warehouse space in Brooklyn.
Her current research interests include the proliferation of movement through crappily compressed images, the resistance of automated ‘best practice’ bodies, and how analog forms move in resistance against digital power.
Description
As an artist and tech worker, I have often utilized oral history interview techniques to better understand the technology I work with or am building - it turns out, behind every technology there's at least one technologist. I will use these techniques to take the oral histories of five different tech workers who work on a proposal for an alternative network of some kind. Spanning between individuals within the Internet Freedom, Silicon Valley and New Media fields with same but different goals, I am learning from these people's lives: what do we mean by "our" and what do we mean by "network," both currently and potentially. What led each of these people to look at the current state of networks and think, "We can do something better"?
During “Our Network Our History: alternative archives”, I will first present each interview, both individually and in relation to each other. The remainder of the time will be spent discussing ways we can utilize the tools each individual is contributing to to archive their history. For example, if I were to interview an IPFS developer, how could we use IPFS to store their story? This portion of the session isn’t expected to be anything more than a brainstorm, but I hope to tap into the potential for alternative networks to produce alternative archives.
Type: Talk / Workshop Length: 1-2 hours Language: English Additional considerations: none
Session Objective
Position networks in relation to archives and the power structures they have the potential to rearrange Learn more about those who contribute to alternative network projects past their pull requests and stack overflow comments Better define what an alternative network means
Material and Technical Requirements
[List materials you as presenter require AND any participant materials (indicate if support is required for a purchase/cost). Include equipment, technical, and installation requirements if applicable. We will aim to accommodate where possible]
None.
Presenter(s)
Name: Lai Yi Ohlsen Email: laiyi.ohlsen@gmail.com Url(s): www.laiyiohlsen.com Twitter: n/a GitHub: @laiyi-ohlsen
As organizers we strive for low-cost pathways of participation, are you interested in a community billet program either hosting out-of-towners or staying with locals?
Sure!
Presenter Bio
Lai Yi Ohlsen is an artist and tech worker operating at the intersection of media and movement.
She works to promote open data and advance Internet research and policy as Project Director at Measurement Lab. Previously, she worked to defend and promote human rights online with eQualitie.
She is a 2019 Artist in Residence at Movement Research and her work has been shown at MR’s Fall Festival, New York Art Book Fair and the Internet Archive’s Decentralized Web Summit. Lai Yi has been supported by Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation, rehearsal Residency, Pioneer Works and Peer-to-Peer NYC. She is the author of ‘100 Scores: movement inspired by computers' and tends to her creative practice at Soft Surplus, a collective warehouse space in Brooklyn.
Her current research interests include the proliferation of movement through crappily compressed images, the resistance of automated ‘best practice’ bodies, and how analog forms move in resistance against digital power.