Experimental Chatroom

Experimental Chatroom
Name	Experimental Chatroom
Location	Internet
Date	2020/07/20-2020/07/24
Time	16:00-18:00
PeopleOrganisations	Xin Xin, Lark VCR
Type	HDSA2020
Web	Yes
Print	No

Credits: Wild Chat by Lark VCR. Texts by Lark VCR and Xin Xin.

Visit workshop website for daily schedule, script, and resources.

How might we begin to exit established forms of social media and infrastructures of surveillance? Experimental Chatroom was a week-long workshop that explored the histories of micro-social-medias and used p5.js to build experimental chatrooms from scratch. As a means to think beyond Web 2.0, participants designed their own chatroom interfaces and explored playful and embodied ways of communicating with each other by including features such as collaborative drawing and interactive play.

Workshop materials and discussions addressed pressing issues of how we can build inclusive, collaborative, and considerate online spaces. Templates and tutorials were provided for both a peer-to-peer chatroom (using peer.js) and also a chatroom that archives data. Participants customized design elements using basic HTML and CSS, no previous knowledge of coding was required.

The peer-to-peer model offers alternatives to surveillance capitalism, while the database backend model allows for the archival and building of collective memory. Through a comparison between decentralized and centralized networks, we considered ways that the architecture of online spaces impacts community interactions.

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  Wendy's Chatroom https://chaotic-fun-chat.glitch.me/

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  Kwan's Chatroom https://p2p-energyflowchat.glitch.me/

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  Loes's Chatroom https://loes-babydraw.glitch.me/

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  Sol & Lark's Chatroom https://mysterious-whimsical-infinity.glitch.me/

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  Wendy's Chatroom https://chaotic-fun-chat.glitch.me/

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  Stanley's Chatroom https://chroma-fairy-metal.glitch.me/

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  Anja's Chatroom https://bare-bones-onions.glitch.me/

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  Wendy's Chatroom https://warp-6-archival-chat.glitch.me/