'T_Cyberhol #8

Welcome at the eight work session of 'T_Cyberhol. Explore the exciting world of cyborg electronics, infused with the spirit of technofeminism! Together we can shape the future of technology in an inclusive and empowering way, short-circuiting patriarchal and neoliberal technologies.

For beings who are gender non-conforming, gender dissident, trans, fd, dyke, inter, bi, female, non-binary, or identify themselves CYBERFeministBIOHACKTransBORGS.

Initiated by Joke Caimo & ooooo with the support of MORPHO

BEAM: Biomorphic Analogue Roboticxs

In this session [Juni] will introduce you to BEAM robotics as a subversive practice that challenges how we look at technological waste and innovation. BEAM is a loose term for analogue circuits that exhibit various behaviors (some 'robots' that emerged from this field may barely count as robots in fact). The acronym can stand for various things, for example: Biology, Electronics, Aesthetic, Mechanics | Biotechnology, Ethology, Analogy, Morphology | Building, Evolution, Anarchy, Modularity |.

BEAM circuits are usually rather simple, yet they can exhibit very complex behavior. Creating BEAM robots thus has less to do with traditional engineering and more with balancing components and playful creation, allowing ample space for modification and collaboration. They can be built from entirely scavenged materials.

By scavenging, repurposing and reclaiming machine parts as aesthetic objects and creative material, we challenge the techno-capitalistic framing of technology as a tool of value-extraction, and refuse the ever-present binaries ‘functional–broken’ / ‘useful–useless’ that permeate contemporary thinking about technology and underpin global systems of waste (mis-)management and natural resource extraction.

→ [Juni] is a philosopher, musician and DIY enthusiast, interested in circuit bending and BEAM robotics. Fascinated by open technologies and the cultures of subversion that thrive around them. Working on intersecting feminist and queer studies with theories of technology and the self.

Bring your own lunch and possibly plugs, laptops, smartphones for research & documentation + also a soldering iron and basic tools if you have them, as well as old electronics and materials to build circuits and robot bodies!