Unstable Frequencies

A Case for Small-scale Wifi Experimentation

Abstract

In this essay I describe an experimental wifi network sideBand which provided access to a simple message-board during the Content/Form workshop, held at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in January 2024, as part of transmediale. This is considered in relation to the collaborative infrastructure ServPub that was carefully assembled and maintained for the workshop. The production of the hardware and software required for the sideBand network is described with specific consideration of the types of memory and data storage systems that are utilised. The programming that provided message-board (and wider) functionality is also described. The conditions of this production along with the specific ways in which use of the network unfolds are considered in relation to Dunbar-Hester’s propagation and a Luddite framing, that includes sabotage and refusal. This is argued as producing other ways of understanding infrastructure and place, related to the feminist methodologies of ServPub.