Make your own web server using a raspberry pi microcomputer, design a webpage in HTML language, and learn how to a power a website with solar energy.

As the Internet continues to evolve into a highly commodified space, shaped by technocorporate and algorithmic influence, it can appear daunting to find slower and more reciprocal ways of engaging with virtual spaces. In this 3-hour workshop, instructor Imogen Clendinning will offer an alternative to pre-existing digital spaces, offering beginners the opportunity to make their own web server using a raspberry pi microcomputer, design a webpage in HTML language, and demonstrate how to a power a website with solar energy.

In their ongoing research and creative practice, Clendinning draws from media artist Carrie Hott’s Slow Internet ethos and the energy-responsive design strategies developed by the Solar Protocol Network, to advocate for web design that prioritizes the use of limited colours, fonts and lower resolution images. By incorporating a Slow Internet methodology, artists and web designs may form new relationships to the Internet by centring the various material exchanges at work when we interact with virtual spaces; how through the use of digital technologies we in turn form relations with fibre optic cables, precious metals, and the energy systems that power our computers. Taking to heart the themes of slowness and reciprocity established by Slow Internet, participants will gain skills in minimalist web design while discussing digital sovereignty and the environmental and material impacts of technocapitalism. By building our own websites, these small acts of resistance can cultivate new ways to connect with one another outside of increasingly corporatized, extractive digital platforms. But primarily, we’ll have a lot of fun building our own websites and sharing them together!

No prior web design experience is necessary. All equipment will be provided to participants. Registration is required, space is limited.