School
for
Poetic
Computation
Consensual Hacking is a collective thought experiment and a guided, participatory workshop focused on digital and relational consent. Through conversation, writing, and hands-on computer access, students will explore what it means to give, withhold, or request consent in digital and physical spaces. Students may choose to engage in a consensual process of hacking into each other’s personal computers—a practice that raises questions around control, vulnerability, and care. What is social and digital consent and how are they interwoven? What does it mean to responsibly give and take access and control to our most intimate digital or physical spaces? Is there pleasure to be found in a bounded exchange of trust and vulnerability? Together, we’ll navigate secure networking protocols (ssh) and basic uses of the terminal, while also co-creating sociotechnical contracts that express our boundaries and desires towards a loving, secure, and mutual digital transgression.
Images courtesy of teachers.
Content warning: This workshop includes discussions of consent, boundaries, and vulnerability that may surface personal experiences or associations with consent violations. Topics may touch on themes related to bodily autonomy, sexual violence, surveillance, or control.
No prior technical experience required. The focus is more on emotional and ethical aspects of hacking, though basic familiarity with computers is helpful.
This workshop may be for you if you:
This workshop may NOT be for you if you:
Melanie Hoff is an artist, organizer, and technologist working within spaces of hacking and performance. Their work cultivates spaces of learning and collective reflection grounded in poetry and reconciliation for how we choose to live and what choices have been made for us. At the core of their practice is a study of intersecting systems of classification and power, building spaces—organizational and artistic—where contradictions can be held and futures rehearsed. Melanie teaches about art, sex, technology, design, and social cybernetics at Harvard, NYU, and Yale. Their work has been exhibited at the New Museum, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum, and elsewhere. They co-direct Hex House, an artist's space they co-founded in Brooklyn. They also co-founded Cybernetics Library, and formerly co-directed the School for Poetic Computation where they can often be found teaching from the edges of their research and experimentation.
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· website
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Applications are not required for workshops. Signups will remain open as long as seats remain. A limited number of scholarship tickets will be released via the SFPC email list two weeks before the date of the intensive.
For 1 classes, it costs $300 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
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