Error 417
𰁁􀅾𰅙𰁔C𰆈ATI𰅉N F𰀈𰂐𰄘𰁐D
Error 406
[T𰁆𰀡𰁶 F𰀁𰅴𰀩IS𰄢] 𰄲O𰆆 A𰀩𰀩𰁒𰅡TA𰀐L𰁉
Error 417 Expectation Fail logo

Error 406
[T𰁆𰀡𰁶 F𰀁𰅴𰀩IS𰄢]
𰄲O𰆆 A𰀩𰀩𰁒𰅡TA𰀐L𰁉

Jiawen Uffline: sorry, my data is too dirty for your model (working title)

We were impressed by the inventiveness, urgency, and insightfulness of the applications we received in response to our first open call, Error 406 [Tech Fascism] Not Acceptable. The proposals explored powerful forms of resistance, refusal, and subversion: from instructional approaches and how-tos to interventions and collective practices that push back against tech fascism. It is inspiring to see so many projects challenge existing systems in very specific and diverse contexts using strategies like misdirection, slowing down, opting out, and collective reimagination, while building toward technologies that serve shared needs rather than exploit them.

We received an overwhelming number of 430 submissions from around the world, and are happy to announce the selection of 13 projects by artists and collectives based in Austria, Brazil, France, Georgia, Germany, Mexico, Rojava, Turkey, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA. These projects, selected by our jury Hito Steyerl, Nora O’Murchú, and Sam Lavigne, will receive a total of €50,866 in support and will be featured in an online exhibition in winter 2025/26.

While we regret that we are only able to support a fraction of the many outstanding proposed projects, it is heartening to see how many artists are already actively engaging with these critical questions. We sincerely thank everyone who applied!

Selected Projects

NotToday: BitRot
868labs: 868Wearables
David Huerta: Deauth_ority
Signals Rising: SignalScribe
Annika Santhanam: spam_risk/
Kuntay Seferoglu: V-Ball (Voiceball)
Alexey Boriskin: Starry Heavens Above You
gabe nascimento: Nunca Mais: Antifa Recipes
El Proyecto Sonidero: The Real Life Continues
Enkaryon Ang: Glitch Floods: Partisan Ballads
Rojava Center for Democratic Technologies: Green Cloud
Jiawen Uffline: Sorry, My Data Is Too Dirty For Your Model (Working Title)
permacomputing.net: Brewing Collectives: a Step-by-Step Guide to Organise a Local Permacomputing Community

Jury & Selection Criteria

Read more about the selection criteria and the jury consisting of Hito Steyerl, Nora O’Murchú, and Sam Lavigne.

Selection Critera
The Jury

Tech Fascism Not Acceptable

From surveillance systems and algorithmic decision-making to the emerging influence of AI, authoritarian technologies are not just tools — they are systems of control, exclusion, and manipulation that are deeply embedded in the very systems we interact with daily.

We must therefore ask: How does tech fascism affect us? How can we refuse, intervene in, or sabotage fascist systems? How can practices of civil disobedience be shared and brought to the mainstream? What role can art play in these acts of resistance?

Artists, curators, and collectives worldwide were invited to apply with project ideas, instructions, how-tos, interventions and practices that engage with the contemporary condition.

Read the Call for Projects

Essays

To contextualize the call's topic, the foundation commissioned two essays by cultural and media theorists Ana Teixeira Pinto and tante.

Essay: «Oh Man!» by Ana Teixera Pinto
Essay: «Refusing Tech Fascism» by tante

NotToday: 𰀓𰂇𰆆𰅲𰅁𰆃

NotToday: BitRot

BitRot is a media hacking tool that aims to weirdify the plunge of Latin American users into the far-right pipeline with a series of trojan horse tactics.

Selected for its tactical and technically advanced intervention to undermine online radicalisation through the far-right.

— Jury Statement

NotToday is a Mexican-Colombian collective based in Vienna, founded by artists Sara Martinez and Nicolás Henao-Bonnet. Their work targets far-right radicalization pipelines using experimental media tactics that blend fiction, sabotage, and symbolic distortion to experiment with disrupting ideological authority online.

Based in: Vienna, Austria

https://instagram.com/identikitten/
https://instagram.com/_el_nahual/

868LABS:
868𰈅𰁂𰀀𰅰𰀆𰀓𰄒𰁅𰅸

868Labs: 868Wearables

868wearables is a compact toolkit for secure long-range messaging. Based on the premise that the most radical opt-out is leaving the internet itself, the project offers a tangible alternative to platform dependency: communicate without relying on SIM cards, satellites, or cloud infrastructures.

Selected for its well-developed proposal for off-grid, encrypted communication with practical mesh network in wearable designs.

— Jury Statement

868labs is a Berlin-based collective developing tactical tools for decentralized, off-grid communication. Initiated by new media artists Helena Nikonole, Katerina Kataeva, and collaborators remaining anonymous, the group’s first prototype—868Wearables—is a peer-to-peer, open-source communication device enabling encrypted, long-range messaging over the 868 MHz radio band. Designed to be assembled, adapted, and shared, their work challenges commercial infrastructures and invites users to build their own resilient alternatives.

Based in: Berlin, Germany

https://868labs.net

David Huerta:
𰀵𰁗𰀀𰆖𰆅𰁷_𰄶𰅰𰂇𰆃𰈖

David Huerta: Deauth_ority

Deauth_ority is a device designed to run a Wi-Fi deauthentication attack on the network used by the US White House. Rather than serving as a fully realized means of deterrence, it is a provocation to remind people they do have demonstrable means of resisting fascist regimes.

Noted for its provocative visual language and bold speculative approach as well as potential broader application in disrupting WiFi networks.

— Jury Statement

By day, David Huerta helps journalists learn how to utilize privacy-enhancing technology to protect a free press. By night, he creates artistic interventions and workshops which explore alternatives to mass surveillance.

Based in: New York City, US

https://tenforward.social/@huertanix

Signals Rising:
𰅹𰂒𰁴𰄲𰀀𰄖𰆀𰀡𰅰𰂉𰀓e

Signals Rising: SignalScribe

SignalScribe is an open-source application that combines powerful offline automatic speech recognition with low-cost software-defined radio systems, enabling communities to monitor publicly accessible amateur and emergency radio transmissions at a scale previously accessible only to state institutions.

Selected for its operational system and tangible on-ground impact by aiding disaster response for remote communities.

— Jury Statement

Signals Rising exists to grow the size and strength of the amateur radio community —particularly in underserved communities — by enabling access to education in radio technologies, operation, and licensing. We provide equipment that individuals may not otherwise have access to, and we conduct research projects to expand the field of amateur radio communications.

Signals Rising is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit based in the US, with four board members located in the US and UK, working alongside a wide network of amateur radio operators, educators, and activists.

Based in: US, UK

https://signalsrising.org

Annika Santhanam:
𰅴𰅗𰀃𰄡_𰅰𰂇𰅵𰄄/

Annka Santhanam: spam_risk/

spam_risk/ is a step-by-step guide on redirecting the daily annoyance of spam calls back to those who quietly exploit the public by granting them annoyances of their own.

The project offers a smart and direct intervention by rerouting phone calls to those who need to receive them most.

— Jury Statement

Annika Santhanam is a designer, director, and technologist. Her practice is rooted in humor and curiosity, tackling complex and grim circumstances with carefully designed wayward action, inspired by the constant whiplash of technological advancement. She has exhibited works across the world from the US to Cuba, Germany, and China, and participated in projects with Pixelmouth, The Net Gala, the Ludwig Foundation, Hackers on Planet Earth, and Sonic Liberation Devices.

Based in: based in Brooklyn, New York, US

https://annikas.xyz
https://instagram.com/icantevendothat/

Kuntay Seferoglu:
𰈂-𰀔𰀃𰄑𰄖 (𰈁𰅂𰂇𰀩𰁕 𰀑𰀀𰄓𰄑)

Kuntay Seferoglu: V-Ball

V-Ball is a DIY throwable act of defiance, an unconnected object designed to play your audio in a continuous loop until its battery dies.

Stands out as a low-cost intervention with potential applications in protests.

— Jury Statement

Kuntay Seferoglu builds sonic worlds through DIY technologies, immersive environments, and sculptural interfaces that explore the interactions between bodies, spaces, and machines. By blending sound objects, performance, and poetic engagements with technology, their work delves into the intimacy of human-technology relationships and the embodiment of these connections.

Based in: Istanbul / Berlin

https://kunsf.xyz
https://instagram.com/kunsf.xyz
https://youtube.com/@kunsf

Alexey Boriskin:
𰅴𰆃𰀁𰅦𰅧𰈔 𰂄𰁗𰀅𰈁𰁐𰄣𰅸
𰀃𰀖𰅉𰈂𰁅 ¥𰅆𰆙

Alexey Boriskin: Starry heavens above you

Real job interviews at morally questionable tech companies become the site for exploring Kant's categorical imperative and the ethics of technological power.

A philosophical exercise and reproducible practical intervention.

— Jury Statement

Alexey Boriskin is an artist/software developer working across video, code, installation and print. Insider experience in large corporate codebases underpins his inquiry into the ethics of algorithmic infrastructures that govern labour, censorship and power. His works have been shown at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Ural Industrial Biennial and the Multimedia Art Museum Moscow. He left Russia after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and now lives in exile.

Based in: Tbilisi, Georgia

https://alexeyboriskin.com 

Gabe Nascimento:
𰄣𰆔𰄲𰀠𰀃 𰄡𰀁𰂐𰅶:
A𰄣𰆆𰂐𰁠𰀃 𰅦𰁐𰀦𰂐𰅗𰁁𰅴

gabe nascimento: Nunca Mais: Antifa Recipes

Nunca Mais: Antifa Recipes reclaims the use of cake recipes – once used as tool to censor unwanted press under Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985) – in order to craft new recipes with strategies to combat the recent surge of fascist movements in Brazil.

Chosen for its inventive use of recipes as hidden resistance to techno-fascism in Brazil, emphasising community involvement and urgency.

— Jury Statement

gabe nascimento is a non-binary historian. He has a history degree from the Federal University of São Paulo and is currently a master's student in Federal University of Minas Gerais. Both in his historical research and artistic practices, gabe investigates technologies, particularly computers and digital practices, in multiple aspects such as social, cultural, and political. He debates the tech-mythology for the outskirts that are only true for a small group of people.

Based in: Belo Horizonte, Brazil

https://instagram.com/gabirth

EL PROYECTO SONIDERO:
𰆐𰂁𰁇 𰅰𰁐𰀆𰄑 𰄖𰂇𰁠𰁁
𰀡𰄶𰄣𰆃𰂐𰄰𰆔𰁖𰅵

ArchivoEPS, Baile Tepito by Livia Radwanski

The Real Life Continues is a defense of life in the form of ‘bass materialism’, a display of bodies in public space, a call for joy, pleasure, and fierceness.

Selected for its captivating approach to spread collective action locally without digital platform dependency.

— Jury Statement

El Proyecto Sonidero is dedicated to recognizing the power of the sonidero movement since 2008. This culture serves as a transnational and transcultural platform for expression, innovation, participation, and distribution for a large segment of Mexican society, extending through migration to the United States and resonating throughout Latin America. This is the realm we explore alongside the sonidero community, activist collectives, and academic, cultural and artistic spheres.

Based in: Mexico City, Mexico

https://instagram.com/el_proyecto_sonidero

Enkaryon Ang:
𰁱𰄖𰂅𰆆𰀨𰂂 𰁠𰄒𰅀𰅉𰀳𰅵:
𰅘𰀃𰅰𰆐𰂐𰆀𰀀𰄣 𰀔𰀃𰄒𰄔𰀁𰀵𰅹

Enkaryon Ang: Glitch Floods: Partisan Ballads

Glitch Floods resurrects Taiwan’s Cold War-era “flood songs” (水災歌) – folk ballads that helped Taiwanese people secretly transmit resistance messages under authoritarian rule – using deep fake voice technology.

 A technically ambitious project that accentuates the politics of digital colonisation and linguistic erasure.​​​​​​​

— Jury Statement

Enkaryon Ang is a poet and interdisciplinary artist whose work confronts tech fascism through traditional resistance forms. Published works include Rorschach Inkblot and A Galaxy of Howness. Former UNESCO Prague City of Literature resident writer and AICA critic, he investigates Sinitic writing systems, Southeast Asian scripts, and colonial structures through ecological and geopolitical lenses.

Based in: Taipei, Taiwan

https://instagram.com/enkaryon/

ROJAVA CENTER FOR DEMOCRATIC TECHNOLOGIES:
𰁨𰅰𰁅𰁉𰄣 𰀡𰄓𰅈𰆔𰀱

Rojava Center for Democratic Technologies: Green Cloud

Green Cloud is a DIY defense system that combines basic electronics and mechanical techniques to enable independent communities to protect themselves against high-tech threats.

Recognized for breaking the narrative of insuperable technologies within a complex regional context.

— Jury Statement

The Rojava Center for Democratic Technologies is formed by a fluid group of artists and engineers working in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). It was initiated by artist and cultural critic Dani Ploeger in 2022.

Combining art and engineering, and focussing on both 'intermediate technologies' and 'mythological knowledge', the center investigates and develops visions and practices for a postcolonial technological culture that builds on the principles of democratic confederalism, which is is based on decentralized, stateless governance, gender equality, cooperative labour and ecology.

Revolution Refridge – a prototype of a Kurdo-futuristic refrigerator for a decentralized technoculture – received a Nomination for the STARTS Prize 2024, the grand prize of the European Commission for science, technology and art.

Based in: Qamishlo, Autonomous Administration Of North And East Syria

JIAWEN UFFLINE:
𰅶𰅁𰅲𰅰𰈠, 𰄡𰈠 𰀵𰀁𰆐𰀅
𰂐𰅴 𰆅𰅃𰅁 𰀳𰂒𰅧𰆅𰈘
𰁠𰅈𰅩 𰈙𰄶𰆔𰅦 𰄡𰅆𰀲𰁒l

Jiawen Uffline: sorry, my data is too dirty for your model (working title)

Sorry, my data is too dirty for your model (working title) reverses the cleaning heuristics used for large-scale web-crawled datasets to instructions for making our data too dirty to be trained, as a bottom-up opt-out in an age where robots.txt is shamelessly ignored.


Picked for its approach of subtle sabotage through data manipulation that's hard for systems to block.

— Jury Statement

Jiawen Uffline's research focuses on technology as memory and desire, with contaminated history but appearing pure, sterilized, decontextualized and dehistoricized, operating through reducing rather than relating. Jiawen looks into the (counter)history, materiality, poetics and politics of technology. She sees leak as a definite part of the digital reality, and leaking as a method to survive.

Based in: Bremen, Germany

https://worrymetaphor.com
https://tldr.nettime.org/@jwn

Permacomputing.NET:
𰀑𰅰𰁉𰈅𰂐𰄣𰁱 𰀦𰅆𰄓𰄔𰁖𰀢𰆅𰂐𰈁𰁗𰅹:
𰀀 𰅵𰆆𰁖𰅡-𰀑𰈔-𰅹𰆃𰁂p 𰁨𰆔𰂅𰀵𰁁
𰆆𰅆 𰅀𰅧𰁱𰀀𰄣𰂉𰆀𰁁 a 𰄓𰅐𰀠𰀃𰄔
𰅖𰁒𰅰𰄢𰀁𰀦𰄶𰄡𰅡𰆔𰆐𰂐𰄤𰁴
𰀦𰅈𰄡𰄢𰆔𰄣𰂇𰆆𰈖

Permacomputing logo

Brewing Collectives: a step-by-step guide to organise a local permacomputing community fosters the creation of local communities for collectively problematising computational culture and organising countervailing activities. Think: repair cafés, allotment gardening or tech activist mutual aid networks.

Appreciated for its low-threshold knowledge-sharing approach directed at self-organised communities worldwide to maintain low-tech infrastructures.

— Jury Statement

Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice focused on the injustices, harm and climate impact of computation. We develop design principles and facilitate IRL and online exchanges to problematise the techno-optimist, techno-solutionist and techno-fascist mess we're in and how to organise a collective response.

Based in: international collective spread across North-America, Europe and Tasmania, with several satellite groups and communities beyond.

https://permacomputing.net

𰅵E𰄑𰁖𰀠𰆅𰂐𰅁𰄣 𰀠𰅰𰂒𰆃𰁅𰅰𰂐𰀀 ERROR 406
T𰁆𰀡𰁶 F𰀁𰅴𰀩IS𰄢
𰄲O𰆆 A𰀩𰀩𰁒𰅡TA𰀐L𰁉

Relevance to the Theme: Refusing Tech Fascism

The projects should clearly engage with the concept of tech fascism — surveillance, algorithmic control, data extraction, platform power, etc. The jury is asked to look for critical insight and personal or political urgency tied to this theme.

Score

The applicant should demonstrate an understanding of the realization of the projects as a score, how to, or instruction. It should be made clear that the project opens up spaces for action (these can be metaphorical and narrative as well, for example).

Conceptual Clarity and Depth

We welcomed clear, well-thought-out concepts that not only relate to the theme but offer a strong critical, artistic, speculative and/or interventionist approach to confronting, resisting, or reimagining it. We also welcomed artistic work on infrastructural projects.

Urgency

The jury was asked to prioritize projects that respond to contemporary socio-technical developments or personal / political urgencies – projects that are contextually responsive and culturally relevant should be favoured.

Feasibility & Process

The proposed working process should be reflective of the conceptual aims. The foundation was open to supporting open-ended projects that may not be completed by the time of the online exhibition (end of 2025). Still, we were looking for projects that make sense to show publicly at that point.

Risk Taking and Failure

The foundation welcomed high risk, process-oriented projects that embrace a certain potential to fail by exploring non-preconceived paths. Bonus points were awarded to projects that specifically engage with the theme of failure and are able to reflect on it with humour.

Adaptability to an Online Exhibition Format

Can the work exist meaningfully online? The artists will be asked to deliver a) a score, and b) a realization of the score within the artists’ practice that can be exhibited online in a suitable format.

Additional Information: CV & Portfolio

The foundation favoured a diverse and broad representation of artistic positions, taking into account the artists’ practices and their experience / career. The jury could to take CVs and additional information into consideration. CV and portfolio were intended to provide additional context to the submissions, but should not be treated as main criterion for the selection.

Scope of the Grant

The funding requested by a specific project should correspond to its assumed complexity.

𰆆𰂃𰁈 J𰆑R𰈘

𰁸IT𰅁 ST𰁗Y𰁒RL

Photo: Leon Kahane

Hito Steyerl is a filmmaker and author.

𰄲𰅆𰅧𰀀 O' 𰄡U𰅨𰀩H𰆓

Photo: Nora O Murchú

Nora O’ Murchú is a curator and researcher whose work explores how digital infrastructures—software, algorithms, and networks—reshape contemporary culture and politics. Drawing on queer-feminist and postcapitalist theory, her projects examine how technology can reinforce extractivist and authoritarian systems, while also revealing cracks for collective action and dissent.

She has curated exhibitions, residencies, and public programmes at Akademie Schloss Solitude, LABoral, and the Seoul Museum of Art, and served as Artistic Director of transmediale—Europe’s leading festival for art and digital culture—from 2020 to 2024. Her practice questions the boundaries between art and technology, asking how we might reclaim space for agency and collaboration amid the accelerating reconfigurations of techno-social life and the illusions of techno-solutionism. She currently serves as a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick in Ireland.

https://www.noraomurchu.com

S𰀀M 𰄓𰀉VI𰁩𰄨E

Sam Lavigne, Training Poses, 2018

Sam Lavigne is an artist and educator whose work deals with data, surveillance, cops, natural language processing, and automation. He is a Creative Capital grantee, recipient of the Pioneer Works Working Artist Fellowship, and the Brown Institute’s Magic Grant. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Synthetic Media and Algorithmic Justice at the Parsons School of Design.

https://lav.io