As the Internet continues to evolve into a highly commodified space, affected by technocorporate and algorithmic influence, the act of building our own spaces online can be a revelatory act. Instructor Imogen Clendinning draws from the Slow Internet movement, an ethos of intentional and balanced Internet use, as well as solar punk philosophy, to build web servers that are designed to feature "hours of operation," dithered images, limited colour and text, and run on solar energy.

In this one day workshop, attendees will learn how to build their own website on a raspberry pi microcomputer using open source software and how to power it using solar energy. Clendinning will walk through designing a static website in HTML, as well as port forwarding and assigning a domain name. In the later half of the workshop, Clendinning will provide attendees with a step by step guide on how to solar-power your raspberry pi website, and give a live demonstration. Participants will also have the opportunity to add their HTML to a collaborative solar site, to be installed at InterAccess during the course of their Vector Festival.

InterAccess will provide raspberry pis for attendees to use during the workshop, or alternatively folks are welcome to bring their own. If you intend to bring your own raspi, please note that there may be existing instructions or commands that could affect running the software used in our workshop. The instructor recommends assigning a new MicroSD to your raspi for the workshop and installing the latest Raspberry Pi OS. If you have any questions about this process please email Imogen Clendinning at imogenwilson106@gmail.com prior to the workshop.

To learn more about Slow Internet visit https://slowinternet.info/.

Accessibility notes: There will be a short walk from InterAccess to Lisgar Park for the live demonstration of the solar power component. There is elevator access in the building and a gentle slope to the park.

This session is presented as part of the Sustainable Practices series, made possible through funding from the Microsoft Toronto Community Fund, supported by Microsoft.

Header image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Dermot Wilson.

About the Facilitator

Imogen Clendinning is a settler media artist and scholar who resides in the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Attawandaron (or so-called London, Ontario). In their research, Clendinning develops DIY solar-powered web servers to hold digital archives and Internet Art. Recent projects include the Archive on Ice exhibited as part of Ice Follies Festival (Nbissing Region, 2021), siliconsoul: a solar-powered love letter to a microchip exhibited in Mitra Fakhrashrafi’s exhibition shadow work at InterAccess (Tkaronto, 2022) and Archivetemporal, a newly launched solar archive developed in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Curating (http://archivetemporal.com/archives.html). Her writing has been published by BlackFlash, Off Centre and tba Journal of Art, Media and Visual Culture. Clendinning is currently pursuing a PhD in Art and Visual Culture, Western University, with a focus on critical infrastructure studies and sustainable practices in digital archiving.