TOD #23: +KAOS: Ten Years of Hacking and Media Activism

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About the book
At the end of the 20th century, hacking was bleeding edge. When the ideas, practices and pranks of this experimental niche of technophiles attracted the attention of a handful of activists in Italy, they understood that information and communication were what would give shape and voice to social, political, and cultural processes in the near future.

+KAOS is a cut and paste of interviews, like a documentary film transposed on paper. It describes the peculiar relationship between hacktivism and activism, in Italy and beyond, highlighting the importance of maintaining digital infrastructures. While this may not sound as glamorous as sneaking into a server and leaking data, it is a fundamental topic: not even the most emblematic group of hacktivists can operate without the services of radical server collectives.

Authors
Autistici/Inventati, or simply A/I, was funded in 2001 with the goal of creating an autonomous server and providing free web services which respected users’ privacy and anonymity. Having grown into a distributed network spread over several countries, their projects and servers have repeatedly been subjected to legal pressure by governments: however, even while being forcibly seized, shut down and under invasive surveillance operations, they survived. As of today they still offer secure and non-commercial tools for free communication to thousands of users.

Colophon
Forewords by: Maxigas, Ferry Byte, and Sandrone Dazieri. Edited by: Laura Beritelli. Translated by: Laura Beritelli, Trish Byrne, reginazabo, blicero, and other anonymous supporters. Editorial Support by: Miriam Rasch. Cover design: Katja van Stiphout. Design: Inga Luchs. EPUB development: Inga Luchs. Print on Demand. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2017. ISBN: 978-94-92302-16-8