Where we started

• Data storage & Digital Legacy
• collected a lot of ideas
• why we think this topic is important to talk about

(counter-) cultures

Struggle:

• we want to prototype, but what?
• how do we the object into future? (not just present movements) (speculate)
• our ideas all over the place

Creating an exhibition as a framework for us to work in

at the beginning we restricted to much: exhibition = pieces behind glass
-> for now we leave it open what a exhibition will be in a 100
– while still using the ruff structure for story telling

3 level:

• 1: our main characters. living in the next 100 years
  their stories of resistance are told through personal objects left behind.
  Our main story telling device
• 2: The curator: someone taking / finding those objects and putting them on display. Adding context or info through their perspective. (can be misleading on purpose)
  Our way to frame the story.
• 3: The observer. This fictive exhibition is made for fictive people in a 100 years, but will be seen by people from right now, with average knowledge of right now.
  -> they will maybe know stuff about the objects, people in a 100 years will not know about any more.
  -> other things presented as common knowledge will be open for interpretation.

Collecting ideas

our mind maps
-> the tools we used to collect our thoughts (Dator’s 4 futures, guest lectures input, EXF Cycle, timeline map)

3 Topics / Prototypes

• music -> streaming collapses ->person creates physical media player
  Worldbuilding: Counter to Streaming:
  ->People create personalized media player environment
  ->it can record and physically share Audio with other such devices (not upload/down load audio through internet)
  
• personal archiving -> inter-generational passage of family media on physical carriers (accessories x electronics)
• using internet -> scenario: no personal ram/cpu -> phone server
  
  overarching theme: serendipity of discovering one´s personal digital trace (digital or analogue)
  
• All of above are “passive counter cultures” (not following mainstream)
• maybe combining personal archiving & using internet
  + making the third an active one:
• -> destroying data centers / trapping ai…
  
  

next steps

• going unobomber

Some people deliberately mislead; some do it unintentionally

So how can you know what really happened, or what is just a really good imitation?

Working with this topic

• How can we address the problems of the future without framing it as solely dystopian?
• What kind of (counter-) cultures will the ethnologists be able to trace in a hundred years?
• What would people in the future think of our current distrust in Big Tech?
• How can we achieve subtle positive world-building through curating artifacts for future ethnological museum?

Creating a Curated Exhibition

• through the perspective of a society in 100 years
• highlighting a fictional Counter Movement
• Different objects telling the stories of different people

Different objects tell the story of different People, being part of this movement.

Those objects could be…

• Mesh network
• Antenna
• SD (recovery)
• Cyberdeck
• Small props e.g. stickers

Aesthetics

• Built, modified, and used by those people
• Not clean, not mass-produced, not cyberpunk
• DIY, indie tech
• Different looks –> coming from different people & times
• Still alive electronic devices, or intentionally destroyed

Example:

Object + Character = Story

• Characters are an important part of any worldbuilding process.

• Example of character + object for our future project presentation

Portable Music Player (“Cassette”)
Vienna, Austria, c. 2026
3D-printed housing, acrylic paint, salvaged lithium-ion battery, microcontroller board, microSD card, Arduino components

By the mid-2020s, most music was streamed through smartphone subscriptions and filtered by recommendation algorithms. Some young people pushed back by building their own offline players by hand, modelled on the mass-produced portables of earlier decades.

This one belonged to a Viennese teenager, who painted its shell to look like a cassette, a format they had likely never used. Its play button is worn smooth. The memory card holds 1,214 hand-sorted tracks, ranging from 1970s American rock music and Soviet post-punk to hyperpop and untitled voice memos.

What changes when music is owned rather than rented? How was piracy viewed in DIY electronic communities?

Harddrive experiment

Experiment is not finished
–> use findings for character development

World building

• Creating Characters

Data storage & Digital Legacy

Common Interest

1. Data storage
   physical objects & digital data
   Local vs. cloud storage
2. Expanding digital footprint
3. AI/governments/companies interfering with “truths”
4. Archiving, memory & time

Accessing Data

Adapter Hell

Recovering Data

SD / Open heart surgery

Intentionally passing on data

Finger USB’s

Satellite – Time Capsule