Floating Swarm - Radical Networks

Floating Swarm began in the context of a net art course given by Raphaël Bastide at Parsons Paris last semester. Bastide wanted to publish the most interesting student’s netart projects on a public online gallery. Then I realized it can be even better if they publish it themselves, on a decentralized web network, taking advantage of the cool features Beaker Browser offers (among other, to publish and fork content in seconds). I want this project to go beyond the net art course and invite experienced persons like you.

Dat is a peer-to-peer network and Beaker Browser allow to surf on it. Beaker makes the publication really easy thanks to a “Create new website” button.

Floating Swarm is the name of the surf club I created. The format is simple and inspired by many older surf clubs (Nasty Nets, Spirit Surfers, Club Internet...).

This presentation will describe how Floating Swarm follows the traditions of artistic internet “surf clubs”, and also how it differs from its ancestors. Bastide also plan to focus on technical details of the dat protocol and Beaker Browser, and what publishing is interstices such as a P2P web means for artists, technically and creatively. Concluding on a note on the technicality and the notion of tools for conviviality coined by Ivan Illich.

Raphaël Bastide
Radical Networks - Spektrum Berlin
21 Oct. 2018