WEBPIT 3.0
2023,
made using JavaScript, Node.js, Socket.io, Hostapd, self-hosted on a Raspberry Pi
WEBPIT is an ongoing research project into the materiality of wireless networks, self-hosting, and participatory server-based art. WEBPIT 3.0 is a portable system with crank generator (back-driving DC motor), a PCB board with a supercapacitor that stores the generated energy, and a XIAOESP32 microcontroller that, when powered from the supercapacitor, creates a WLAN and hosts a local server. Users can then join the server and read HTML poetry on it for as long as there is energy. Then they need to continue cranking.
WEBPIT reflects on the ‘leeching’ nature of IoT devices, often consuming energy even in their ‘sleeping’ states. It questions the role of servitude in online platforms and the obscurity of labour done in their upkeep. WEBPIT is proposed as a speculative network-station for others to carry, gather around, and expand on.
Full documentation
WEBPIT 2.0
WEBPIT 1.0
WEBPIT is an ongoing research project into the materiality of wireless networks, self-hosting, and participatory server-based art. WEBPIT 3.0 is a portable system with crank generator (back-driving DC motor), a PCB board with a supercapacitor that stores the generated energy, and a XIAOESP32 microcontroller that, when powered from the supercapacitor, creates a WLAN and hosts a local server. Users can then join the server and read HTML poetry on it for as long as there is energy. Then they need to continue cranking.
WEBPIT reflects on the ‘leeching’ nature of IoT devices, often consuming energy even in their ‘sleeping’ states. It questions the role of servitude in online platforms and the obscurity of labour done in their upkeep. WEBPIT is proposed as a speculative network-station for others to carry, gather around, and expand on.
Full documentation
WEBPIT 2.0
WEBPIT 1.0
