Electronic Cafe for Poetic Computation

Description

The Electronic Cafe for Poetic Computation (ECPC) is an internet cafe being developed in real time by the School for Poetic Computation (SFPC) for the Session Program at Recess. Community members and visitors are invited to participate in a series of workshops and events exploring creative, inclusive, and liberatory uses of networked technology within an abolitionist framework. Drawing inspiration from the local hubs of the early 2000s where people could access free internet, relax, play games, chat with friends, and print documents, this intimate space alludes to the “golden era” of the internet, where it was possible to find your community online or at your local cafe. ECPC is our reimagined expression of the “multi-media telecollaboration network” first initiated by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz’s Electronic Cafe ‘84, a project that transformed informal community venues into a networked cultural organization. The internet cafe, as both a virtual and geographical connection point, offers many possibilities for collectively learning and practicing more creative, empowered, and just relationships to technology. By exploring this form, ECPC investigates and transcends the tension between exclusive art and academic spaces and people-first, community spaces, and explores the possibilities in operating a hybrid in-person and online classroom.