Scale | Ep.#2: Alternative Networks in Cuba [w/ Steffen Köhn & Nestor Siré]

Alternative community-based data distribution networks on the local scale have emerged in Cuba as a consequence of the economic sanctions imposed on the country in recent decades. German anthropologist Steffen Köhn and Cuban media artist Nestor Siré shed light on the unique materiality and significance of these networks, built to overcome the limitations of internet access in Cuba. In the current capitalist, consumerist form of internet, characterised by closed platforms, we are fed content chosen for us by algorithms, whereas informal infrastructures allow their users, makers and content creators to be the protagonists of their own choices – and allow us to envision decentralised, non-commercial and collective interactions on the web.

Suggested content:

[Video] Localising the Internet: Cuban Alternative Data Distribution Networks and the Social Infrastructures that Sustain Them, a talk by Nestor Siré & Steffen Köhn as part of Tactics&Practics #14: Scale, 2023

[Research article] Fragile connections: Community computer networks, human infrastructures, and the consequences of their breakdown in Havana by Nestor Siré and Steffen Köhn in American Anthropologist, 2022

[Website] Nestor Siré | Steffen Köhn

COLOPHON

Host: Neja Berger
Guest: Steffen Köhn, Nestor Siré

Recording and editing: Neja Berger
Audio Mix: Staš Kramar
Music: Gašper Torkar

Scale podcast series

Curated by Janez Fakin Janša
Produced by Marcela Okretič
for Tactics&Practice#14: Scale

Production:
Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary Art
Ljubljana, 2023

Part of
Tactics&Practice
konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art

The project konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art was chosen on the public call for the selection of the operations “Network of Investigative Art and Culture Centres”. The investment is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.