We used to have about 20 Facebook groups for people involved in a network of alternative media projects. Some of the groups were dedicated to editorial discussions, some were general discussion groups for our paying members, some were interest groups about financial issues, gaming, cultural topics etc.

When we learn about the Industrial Revolution in school, we hear a lot about factories, steam engines, maybe the power loom. We are taught that technological innovation drove social change and radically reshaped the world of work.

Likewise, when we talk about today’s economy, we focus on smartphones, artificial intelligence, apps. Here, too, the inexorable march of technology is thought to be responsible for disrupting traditional work, phasing out the employee with a regular wage or salary and phasing in independent contractors, consultants, temps and freelancers — the so-called gig economy.

But this narrative is wrong. The history of labor shows that technology does not usually drive social change. On the contrary, social change is typically driven by decisions we make about how to organize our world. Only later does technology swoop in, accelerating and consolidating those changes.

This insight is crucial for anyone concerned about the insecurity and other shortcomings of the gig economy. For it reminds us that far from being an unavoidable consequence of technological progress, the nature of work always remains a matter of social choice. It is not a result of an algorithm; it is a collection of decisions by corporations and policymakers.

A place where you can learn and share knowledge about co-ops, platform co-ops, the digital economy, and more.

 To Means TV, the world's first post-capitalist, cooperatively run streaming service.

Forrest warrior

Planet Earth senses itself through a gigantic swarm of satellites and a multitude of smart city sensors scans the flows below and above its surface. The mechanical viewpoints of our phones observe, sense, and analyse our bodies and biologies while tracking our movements. As algorithms influence our behaviour, real-time surveillance technologies are shaping politics in a profound way from Harare to Beirut, and from Lagos to Beijing.

A ‘sensorium’ describes the combined system of perception that an organism has to sense its surroundings. Has a planetary sensorium emerged in which a worldwide technological megastructure of cameras, sensors, laser lights, and ultrasonic waves gestures towards new organic and synthetic entanglements?

To imagine a Planetary Sensorium is to both acknowledge and re-imagine our conception of Planet Earth. As increasingly sophisticated technologies are created to sense the world, the Planetary Sensorium is drastically shifting people's worldview in return. Infrastructural networks and logistics of pipelines, high speed rails, and fibre optic cables have informed the worldview of earth as an interconnected and globalised whole in service of a specific mono-culture of technology. This in turn produces its own geopolitical realities, impacting how people’s lives are governed across the world.

The current planetary sensorial apparatus — sonic, tactile, visual, affective, and embodied — can help us to imagine alternate possibilities for the digital planet and new ways of living together. As the planet flows through human, technical agents, and other beings, a question then emerges: for which Earth do we create our intellectual, cultural, and artistic interventions?

The theme is inspired by the philosophical work of Lukáš Likavčan.


The Digital Earth Fellowship 2020 - 2021 will focus on investigating The Planetary Sensorium and how we can imagine a humane digital earth to come.

A ideia de uma nova economia, mais inteligente e dinâmica, em que liberdade e facilidade valem mais do que posse absoluta e exclusiva de objetos, ganha força. Por que ter um carro se eu posso conseguir um com motorista em dois cliques no celular, a um preço razoável? Ou, invertendo a lógica, por que manter aquele quarto vazio nos fundos da casa quando alguém poderia aproveitar esse espaço? Para que deixar a bicicleta encostada ou um livro mofando? Por que não aproveitar melhor as coisas?

Bem-vindo à comunidade pandêmica, uma forma de pertencimento social estruturada pela lógica participativa e profilática das máquinas em rede. O objetivo da vida na comunidade pandêmica é estar intimamente “em contato”, mas seguramente fora do alcance, estar totalmente conectado em isolamento higiênico e, portanto, totalmente isolado por redes higiênicas.

1° Temporada Episódio 3 Ruídos, Beakmania e Ranho