Join the Cloud Clinic/Workshop Session and take control of your own hardware with the Austrian media art initiative servus.at – Kunst und Kultur im Netz. In response to the end of Windows 10 support on 14th October, we will collectively explore alternative operating systems for phones and laptops, as well as liberatory workflows that free us from corporate design and communication tools.
For over two decades, internet corporations now known as Big Tech have been establishing an oligopoly based on endless computational infrastructures, data surveillance and the appropriation of users’ intellectual work. A key aspect of this dominance is creating a pervasive sense of inevitability and the high social cost of using alternative tools, leading everyone to believe that there is no alternative to GAFAM. Those who lack the resources to look beyond such conspiratorial market engineering find themselves tightly bound to current digital systems and forced to buy new machines due to bloated software and financial constraints. Beneath the surface, however, there are large ecosystems of alternatives, such as non-commercial digital tools and community-based networks.
In this context, MFRU is hosting a session as part of the distributed event #Endof10. This is a global community response to the announcement that support for Windows 10 is ending, meaning that no bugs or security issues with the ageing operating system will be resolved.
The aim is to help users continue to use their functioning laptops, rather than being forced to buy a new, more powerful machine in order to upgrade.
Workshops held by servus.at's community provide participants with insights into self-hosted digital tools and best practices in digital hygiene, promoting anonymity and autonomy when using the internet.
✹ Saturday 4 October, 17:00 @ Infotočka, Glavni trg 22