Eden: Gardens of the New Internet

The conference Ogrody Nowego Internetu (Gardens of the New Internet) was organised by Polish techo-critical Grupa Robocza June 15 - 16th.

The conference brought together designers, researchers, activists, lawyers and others in Poland who have been critically examining the tech industry, platform monoculture and social media.

East of Moon was invited to participate, delivering a talk entiteld For an Imperfect Internet: The case for digital services on village scale:

"In this presentation, we’ll share experiments with developing digital platforms for communities on the scale of a village, where no schemas of “design thinking” or “lean startup” feedback loops are required because the user is a human next door. In order to maximise their returns from the means of communication, the monopolistic platform owners optimise them with professionalised design practices. These practices result in perfect “not allowed to touch” spaces.

We wonder whether spaces that effectively enable creativity on a community level share one characteristic: They are imperfect. This means they not only allow for, but require an active fixing by the user, where they not only participate in sharing but also how to share on it.

We will draw from concrete examples of our practice of “innovation of communities and communities of innovation” from remote fishing villages to urban creative spaces, and the digital platforms we have developed along the way".