¶    * 1 min — intro
(actually ~45 sec)


Hello all! 

I'm Lies / ELisabeth De Laet, crew at the CHT/Totalism.org hackbase. I am presenting to you today from Fuerteventura, Canary Islands Spain where the hackbase currently is located!

Soon, however we - the base - will be heading to your city for a 3 month residency at Kunsthal Gent.

as KUNSTHAL HACKBASE we will be inhabiting the institution fall 2021, and contribute to their public program

So thank you hackerspace Gent for this great oportunity to present ourselves and our plans for coming months

And we hope to see you around!

¶    * 3 min — What are Hackbases?

I'm not sure if everyone is familiar with Hackbases, so I decided to introduce them anyway. 

To be short:
    Hackbases are hackerspaces with a capacity for co-living, or short "Live in hackspaces"

there's a couple of basics that define this:
    in principle it is everything you'd expect form a hackerspace, + a place to stay - sleep, eat, ...
    A hackbase should be publicly accessible,
     ... and it should be possible to host short or long term stays
     residents cover their own costs - which are usually far less than normal lifestyles
     hackbases are an extension of the practices of sharing, already present in hackerspaces
      ... and enable hacker residencies & exchanges, etc


There is a list of self-identified hackbases, one of them is CHT/Totalism.org.
It was established in 2011 as the first hackbase

(BTW) this makes 2021 into the 10 Y anniversary of CHT & of hackbases!


About CHT
    General

CHT/Totalism.org, or shortly CHT, is an infrastructure research project in Canary Islands Spain.
    It started in 2011 as the original hackbase; a coliving hacklab"
    The base hosts ad hoc crew 
    and they use common-owned equipement 
    and coordinates by consensus-established protocols~

In CHT crew works to curate, develop, document & practice the transitioal tactics, technologies, theory and arts, towards ending capitalism.


So how does that work, "what do we do?":

    the project and its crews draw from dramaturgic logic, DIY technology and ecological embeddedness to install "nature infrastructural situations" 
        this means camps (with textile architecture, solar energy, lab equipment, bikes for expeditions, etc)
        and their broader social and natural contexts / dynamics

    The research and its outcomes are collaboratively publish[ed] on the homegrown hypermedia platform, “E2h”, that allows for cowritten etherpads to be transformed 2 hypermedia documents

    (the idea is that) the documents allow for replicability.

    In this sense the base is a primer of a new institutional type (a prototype) rather then a destination.
    They are sustainable experimental apparatuses, and must demonstrate increading readiness for real-world transition




A short timeline will give some idea of how the base evoluated throughout the past 10 years:

1. [Between 2011 - 2014, the hackbase was located in] a shared house in Lanzarote

[During this time it] "collaboratively documented itself as a so called "Type 1 hackbase"; a "liquid shared rented [or] owned house"

including a house manual, a financial model [and] an architectural manifesto

In this time the project also assambles an initial commons of equipment.


2. The equipment was taken into its next iteration as a "Type 2" base in 2014: 
    Type 2 bases are so called "Nomadic resilient bases" or "off-grid operations"

[Going off grid seemed - and also turned out to be-] more challenging, both on an organizational as on an infrastructural level.
It made the hackbase more scalable, replicable, eco, cheaper ... 
Ultimately, more transformative and inclusive.


3. [In 2016] the project acquired a large transporter, and built it into a mobile living unit, media lab, cinema, bio-lab- studio capable platform

CHT shapeshifted to a "Type 4" base

called "Harbours & Mobility", which is a hackbase model of ships (vans, buses, trucks, boats, zeppelins, ...) & harbours (places where they can meet, stay, be stored, get fixed-up, ...)


4. In 2020 the now mobile hacklab moved to the island of Fuerteventura, which is, partialy due to covid, still its current location.


5. to end with a quote:
    """
    As of 2021:
    CHT is an expanse of thousands of interlinked pieces of living written, intermedia & sensor documentation, software specs & code, and infrastructure equipment, held together as a multifaceted hypermedia & resource compendium, and affiliated with a growing number of fellow travellers.
    """

_______________
6. Some future plans are to travel to the other islands. And to install a Type 3 hackbase, which means "buying a piece of land"

¶    * 4 min — Generally, about the residency @KHG

[Also] in 2021 the CHT/Totalism.org hackbase — and so hackbases in general — will celebrate the 10th anniversary of operations.

[The residency at Kunsthal Gent marks this anniversary 

We will use this time to] establish a retrospective overview of the produced & collected materials, and a prospective outlining of the near & far possibilities of the project.


As "KUNSTHAL HACKBASE", CHT will "inhabit the art institution for 3 months, 
we will be there from October 1th till December 31th

[... and ofc, a city is quite a shift in comparisson to the desert-context, so in this ongrid time CHT is looking forward to have access to a far extended public & to material and expert resources, etc

So, our plan is to have a big people driven programme and to implement a series of labs, excusrions, happenings and exhibitions
we will apply our participatory practices, research and develop a hackbase pattern for the urban and perhaps even art-institutional context and use our collected archival & metrical lifestyle-data to visually represent the project on site.]


I would now like to shortly list and sometimes introduce a selection of the programme, which I thought could be of specific interest to you, the adjacent hacker community.


To start there will be - ofc - the inhabitation of the Kunsthal, we titled this
→ KUNSTHAL HACKBASE
    and it refers to the permanent inhabitation of the institution, for which we have an ongoing open call for crew to join the project
    The inhabitation will be an infrastructure & process demo
    with variations of hackbase-type1 or hackbase-type2; on site and possibly as auxillary camps.
 

→ CHT BASE COORDINATES
is the public introduction of the programme - or the vernissage if you like
this will take place October 15th
there will be a short talk & discussion, an exhibition and food and drinks. 
It would be great to meet you there!


Then, as part of the inhabitation pattern, we organise a 
→ Totalist Cantine
[the cantine] deploy[s] CHT's supply & chef protocols and is Essential to [a] base's lived experience
the Cantine regularly serves crew, Lab fellow travellers, and the Kunsthal.


[Because a hackbase is also a hackerspace, we will be] 
→ Gathering a Lab
The idea is to assamble a hacklab instance by contacting adjacent spaces and instances
and collect their tool & material surplus and procure the rest from best possible sources
The equipement will be used and deployed amongst a network of kindered collectives
(so for this we would like to reach out to you)


→  Pad.Land [for Fellow Travellers]
[...is] the public instance of our powerful collaboration tool E2h.
[You can either write] lone texts, or use as a full content management system for wiki-like sites.
In this lab we'll explain the system, build up competence but also evaluate & continue to refine the tool based on user experiences


→ [The] Art-Tech Sovereignty [Lab]
[will be a] Hands-on [introduction...] to non-proprietary, self-hosted and de-hosted/end-to-end platforms and workflows; 
[Because we are in an art-context,] specific considerations will go to artistic work, its real needs, and seeking solutions to address them.


→ [we will be organizing] : Research Excursions to Adjacent Spaces
excursions hold space for interviews, guided tours, workshops, etc
we aim to spidering our network and get to know local actors
excursions also inform labs


→ Space Manuals [is a] "Bring your own manual !" [event 
    to] Present; discuss; collect; hybridize.
    We will assembe a "manual archive", discuss a "manual kit", and try out an intertextual pastiche technique.


→ Harbouring a Caravan
    is an Attempt [at] luring a congregation of hack/art/activist vessels: buses, boats, vans
    basically a type4 showcase.


[Furthermore there will be a]
→ Prepared Hackathon
which will take place in December and will be a full day & night of hacking in the Kunsthal


[and then - to finish - there is ofc, the]    
→ 37th Chaos Communication Congress (37c3)
    [to which we aim sending a Kunsthal Hackbase-delegation]

¶    * 2 min outro

That's about it for the selected programme

there is more, more details and more programme, which you can find on totalism.org/@khg-programme

If you'd like to reach out to us, to participate in one of the events, become crew, or if you have some other great ideas, you can contact us via info@totalism.org,
Or ofc just knock our door when we are on site, from october on!

Hope to see you around!

and for now Cheers from the Fuerteventura Base!