Raphaël Bastide

I am an artist and educator, based in Paris. My work is mainly relating to the digital and computer program culture. The projects I create include installations, online and offline performances, websites and custom made programs.

My sculptural work takes the form of installations or instruments, focusing on making conceptual models inspired by programs, languages, and software. I researches the potential influence of digital systems on physical reality, exploring thematics such as time distortions and version-based fiction.

I am also a free software enthusiast, I use free and open source code and content and distribute mine under free licences as well. I currently teach at Parsons Paris and I am part of research collectives such as PrePostPrint (experimental publishing systems), VTF (libre type foundry), ex-member of Libre Objet (open source objects).

Presenting

Floating Swarms

Floating Swarm began in the context of a net art course I give at Parsons Paris last semester. I wanted to publish the most interesting student’s netart projects on a public online gallery. Then I realized it can be even better if they publish it themselves, on a decentralized web network, taking advantage of the cool features Beaker Browser offers (among other, to publish and fork content in seconds). I want this project to go beyond the net art course and invite experienced persons like you.

Dat is a peer-to-peer network and Beaker Browser allow to surf on it. Beaker makes the publication really easy thanks to a “Create new website” button.

Floating Swarm is the name of the surf club I created. The format is simple and inspired by many older surf clubs (Nasty Nets, Spirit Surfers, Club Internet...).

My presentation will describe how Floating Swarm follows the traditions of artistic internet “surf clubs”, and also how it differs from its ancestors. I also plan to focus on technical details of the dat protocol and Beaker Browser, and what publishing is interstices such as a P2P web means for artists, technically and creatively. I want to conclude on a note on the technicality and the notion of tools for conviviality coined by Ivan Illich.