Yesterday we went to the [CCA][1] – the Centre of Contemporary Art in Glasgow. This is actually an excellent location for any revolutionary being an artist by profession, as these are one of the few Art “Museums” that don’t shy away from working-class and revolutionary art – in the real sense of the word. Although me myself being quite ignorant particularly to Modern Art, the CCA is well worth recommending a visit to everybody.
Last weeks event was [Machinista][2], loosely entitled to be _“ART FROM THE MACHINE: Gleams of the Inhuman”_. Apart from this odd title and [garlic][3] in weird places it was quite a useful and fun event which was particularly used to promote GNU/Linux Software for audio, video and similar, Workshops on Open Source and Free Software, Wireless networking, and similar. Originally the festival started off as [Machinista][4] in Perm, Russia, and this is the second festival in Glasgow.
The workshop yesterday was titled to be Freenetwork DIY antenna workshop. And, in fact, we made antennas ourselves, which is very useful. The main artists were involved in the RICHAIR2030 project, and that’s where the garlic comes from, too. They make small computers to put in lunchboxes and use them to rollerskate or walk round the town trying to pick up wireless internet access. Apparently, they marked their antennas with garlic, so people could smell where there would be a wireless internet connection possible.
What we did not realise before is how much the FreeNetworks need to build a community to work, with regular physical meetings and workshops. This might actually be one of the main limitations of the wireless internet technology – the human effort needed to build up the communities.
For more information on how to build antennas go to: Raylab. More information can also be found out via Consume Net. For anybody who is more interested in Wireless internet technology, there is a gathering this September 2004.
Another site to be inspired by is NYC wireless community website.
There is also a wireless community in Glasgow Net and in Backnet Edinburgh, which we did not know before, and it was good to liaise.
More information about wireless network can be found via these URLs:
EastEndNet, free2air.