A small project I did, which will be displayed at Storefront as part of their exhibition on Strategies for Public Occupation. 

P2P Occupation

Within the last two years China, Egypt and Syria have shut down telecommunication systems to immobilize emerging civil dissidence, demonstrating the liabilities of these centralized networks. If we consider the spectrum airwaves that transmit these communication frequencies an extension of our natural right to free speech, then such deprivation violates notions of civil liberty.

P2P (peer-to-peer) Occupation studies the propagation of a 'shadow' Wi-Fi network that circumvents official telecommunication networks to offer a safe and public internet for citizens. Such an occupation works by introducing existing software that converts existing telecommunication devices into Wi-Fi access nodes. By networking these nodes together they dynamically route information back to physically connected network connections. This decentralized wireless access can be used to convey and then proliferate safe, open internet.

Since multiple users are incentivized to dynamically configure themselves to changing conditions, such a system is evolutionary in principle. An attempt at eradication will only weed out weaker configurations and in turn promote the growth of successful ones.

Note: P2P Occupation presents an fictional narrative of network propogation (in which each user networks to two more users) in Beijing. Yet its operative tools and tactics are not in themselves speculative. The software to turn ones laptop into a wireless hub exists, like Connectify for Windows 7, and can be used to today.

Check out other strategies for public occupation here: http://www.storefrontnews.org/exhibitions_events/exhibitions?c=&p=&e=458

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