[DATAGOV Core] infrastructure-through-play

Federico Bonelli fredd at trasformatorio.net
Sat Jan 17 10:55:57 CET 2026


### Introducing “The Box”: An "Infrastructure-Through-Play"

open proposal for the datagovlab artistic side

 >"The first task of the lab is to set up the lab."
Albumahin the Elder, the seven unspeakable laws of wisdom p.999

I see what i call "the box" as an object with a function; to "take out 
the box" is "to set-up lab".

Since the beginning of our work some months ago we wished for an open 
source, privacy aware, knowledge sharing service. A system to build our 
own labs activities upon.
To have buld our own lab's infrastructure is a key passage. It should be 
"a playground in a box" and such  "to play the box" the first games I 
propose we play together.

Embodied experiences are far more than technical procedures used to 
defining the playing field. We want only draw the lines, tell the rules 
but played the game.

  I thought  about the simplest, most atomic, instance of (own)DATA and 
(SELF)Governance i could propose as the initial form. The Box contains 
files and files are being organised. Is as well a complex technological 
object we should be able to understand, at least in principle, maintain 
and operate. During a long project tools the organisation evolves. 
Interpersonal knowledge is forming and has to be shared with newcomers. 
A Box is a container to transport precious things. The more precious the 
box the more interesting the story that carries the notions you want to 
share.

As in knowledge its "oneness" is totally fictional. So you see one box 
but there are multiple boxes. 8 to be precise, the standing symbol.


They represent "the VAULT"; they contain the files but as well are the 
vault, because when is there a file has 8 copies in all others vault, 
not only a back up but a signal to all the cluster of boxes, because 
communication makes a message bigger than its words. Each box is 8 boxes.

Then, each box cannot survive without its keeper, as for any structure 
it sign a meaning at the same time that its custodian keep the necessary 
knowledge to access it. The custodian knows how to build it, operate and 
maintain it, and knows why. They are the link to the story that justify 
the meaning, without them the piece of metal and circuit is a worthless 
fossile.
For this reason to build the lab's walls each one of us has to build 
their box.  This is how you earn your box.

The 8 cluster  form a unity in the net, through a private encrypted 
network. As such they are used by us, the labbers, as gateway to our own 
lab infrastructure. Opening (or switching on) the box is creating the 
"situation" lab. As such has to refract on the other boxes far away. The 
box is a feeling entity, so has to be linked to feeling the lab as a unity.

To show ourselves this sensibility layer of  connection that i call 
awareness layer we need to give other functions to the boxes. The 
hardware allows many. I chose for now the simplest most atomic i could 
think of, a RGB led. Color, light, behaviour should map properties of 
the cluster: activity, relations, distance of elements. We have to find 
which ones will be relevant to us and implement them. The system allows 
to do a lot, from playing music to giant installations piloted by our 
knowledge base dynamic, yet we want to be able to perfect autonomy in 
constructing these effects and as such interpret them. They should speek 
to us. Technology for communication should have at least an attempt to 
be poetical. We shall find our own way to signal this.
All these machines, these data producing and interpreting units that we 
already have in the pockets and on the desks. What other means of 
communication allow? How many of those are hybrid (in the sense of 
having a reality that is neither only material neither merely technical? 
And how they should behave in the environment to appear polite and 
proper? Is it only vanity and dopamine addiction to drive design? What 
is to be the education of machines? And what all this screaming of data 
does to human and more than human existence?

SO what in god's name shall this tiny light do? Become pulsing white 
when we are in the same room? Blink orange when someone edits a file in 
the vault? Glowing warm purple if someone writes a new page? And is that 
peasant or annoying?
I believe in fostering awareness, in liminal perception systems and 
enjoy the feedback it gives me, calms me to ear the noise of the steps 
of a loved one on the staircase, the sounding buzz of the fridge at 
night, the glow of a candle, the perception the work is done by the 
order on the desk... but you?  What  is necessary and what is 
superfluous, what is annoying and what is practical? We can investigate 
and find this together.

In short:  "how can we be a lab without having a lab space?".

My answer is we are the lab and we play the lab game in the lab. We set 
shop anywhere and we make this evident by connecting to our boxes: they 
react with light and color to our activities, and give us a hook to show 
who we are and tell some story of our work if we feel like. And we learn 
by playing the lab together.

  I hope that this will be enough (if you read till here) to engage you 
all in this because wishes to be a playful proposal, meant to blend 
making, thinking, and experimenting together "the lab". I propose it and 
start playing it, you are not obliged to play with me. To play takes to 
set aside some time they say. Yet life is not time, is presence and felt 
duration, I think that fulfilment is a better measure than time, an 
activity should last till its fun factor fulfils us.
  Let's not fear time. The feeling time is short. We should always allow 
us all the time to feel. Is such a big part of taking care of what/who 
we love.


TECH APPENDIX

   Let’s describe what should be inside the eight boxes. Consider for 
now I have build two that are functional as a proof of concept and I can 
demonstrate to guide you to make one if you like. We shall order asap 
the parts.

- A small single-board computer running Linux, with the following functions:
   - Connect to a private network (VPN), with the box acting as a node.
   - A complete, auto-updating and self synchronising copy of all texts 
written by the entire group and based on obsidian (VAULT). This is 
allowing each member to browse read and add their own notes as well as 
those taken by others propagating a 8 folded back up. As many other 
potential functionalities. Texts will be in markdown and as a writing 
and ordering system I propose to use the open source multi platform and 
extensible software obsidian.
   - A perceptive system, letting us *intuitively sense* the activity of 
the whole group through the behaviour of the box. This is done by 
signals carried by two different protocols (OSC and MQTT)

To build the box, we will need to:
   - Explore basic electronics and system design.
   - Learn elements of networking and routing.
   - Understand principles of operation and maintenance.

TIME
   It took me about 8 hrs work in tree days to figure out how to patch 
the first 3 boxes together. We can revise this architecture in a couple 
sessions

COST
  the cost of the elements to build the 8 boxes should in total about 
500 euros, +- 80 euros per box. Unless you want to house it in a Fabergé 
Egg the actual container should be a fun side project to make.

You will be able to get into the VPN with all your local devices; access 
the files shared with all the group locally as they synch in the 
background. It will work in any place, can be powered by battery and 
with solar. Can function without connection to internet. Allows to 
"exit" to the internet in any of the location of the connected boxes. 
The hardware that has space for mounting other drives, connecting 
sensors and interface with many kinds of actuators to express a wide 
range of activities both digital or in the space we are.





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