Networks of Ones Own #1 : Etherbox

https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/

Create your own Etherbox: https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org/etherbox/manual.html#inside-the-box
Share your experience or set-up: please email info@constantvzw.org

This first episode in the series Networks Of One’s Own includes a software release, manuals, documentation and essays of Etherbox, a constellation of practices and tools developed in and around Constant. Etherbox responds to practical issues when collaborating in physical spaces with digital tools. In parallel, it became a platform to reflect on network technologies, on how to document artistic processes and on processes of collaboration.

On a practical level, Etherbox was a response to several frustrations: the fragility of online resources, the fact that the labour necessary to maintain resources online after a collective session was often overlooked or simply assumed to continue indefinitely, the limitations of Internet bandwidth when working with many people using etherpad-lite. The goal of the project was thus to present an infrastructure that is both visible and situated. Since it’s early beginnings in 2013, many groups have enjoyed the pleasure of writing and documenting together, questioning infrastructure set-ups or simply sharing files effortlessly. Through these multiple experiences, Etherbox has grown up to facilitate discussions and collaborative practices independent from Constant collaborators. Now it is ready to transmutate into other networked imaginations.

Networks Of One’s Own is a para-nodal1 periodic publication that is itself collectively written in a network. Each of the episodes is thought of as the ‘release’ of a specific software stack, contextualised in its specific practice. The series aims to document a set of tools, experiences, ways of working that are diverse in terms of their temporality, granularity and persistence.