We interviewed C.I.R.C.E. – International Research Centre for Electrical Conviviality, about its workshop and Hacker Pedagogy intervention as part of the Festival della Peste (Milan), on Saturday 8 November 2025, at the Il Lazzaretto foundation. Can power be approached by overcoming hierarchical and control-based definitions? What scenarios arise if pleasure reveals new dimensions of listening, transforming order into vibration and empathy? These are the questions and starting points of the workshop. We discussed them with the collective after the workshop in order to compare intentions, expected results and prospects for the future.
Elena Giulia Rossi: Your contribution to the Festival della Peste is part of your practice of hacker pedagogy aimed at “changing behaviours that promote automatism and therefore reduce freedom of choice”. Can you tell us how you applied this practice at the Festival della Peste?
C.I.R.C.E.: During the workshop, we tried to highlight the role of bodies, the power we have or do not have, and the pleasure we derive or do not derive from digital interactions. When we deal with mass platforms, we are there with our human bodies, more or less compulsively tapping away on the devices we carry with us, i.e. electronic bodies. These systems are connected to each other in a global tangle consisting of hundreds of thousands of kilometres of submarine cables, the backbone of the Internet network; millions of network devices designed to direct our interactions to the right places (modems, routers, switches, repeaters, etc.); enormous industrial warehouses guarded by armed guards, crammed with buzzing computers running 24/7/365, i.e. data centres where our data lies. And the data from the social networks and platforms we constantly access. There are the bodies of the millions of workers who make all these systems work, in addition to the bodies of the machines connected to each other. Realising the complexity of all this means taking a first step towards observing our habits, our use of technology, with a squint, sideways glance. Observing ourselves interacting. Breaking out of our automatic responses, imagining what happens in these interactions.
Who is the audience you generally target with your work?
A diverse audience. In the first training course for trainers, we listed some of the categories that contact us: GGP (Concerned Parents Groups – about social media, the perdition of their children); RS (Researchers Shocked by “new practices” in the US: seizure of computers and devices, surveillance, detention, repatriation if all goes well); ASS (Social Media Activists, with all the implicit contradictions). To these we can certainly add teachers, people with educational responsibilities, people involved in European-funded projects, aid workers and third sector associations who are uncomfortable with the dominant technological systems.
Were there any unexpected responses from participants in the context of the Festival della Peste?
There were no answers. After all, we didn’t give any answers either. On the other hand, there were many questions, reflections, considerations and imaginings that we would like to dwell on. We are all in the same boat, on this planet. Techno-bros, toxic males, racist sociopathic billionaires with ambitions of planetary conquest want to live forever at the expense of all other living species. They are contributing to the worsening of the catastrophes in which we live. Unfortunately, too often we are helping them to accelerate the destruction, instead of reversing the course. Remaining in these turbulent times, sinking a little into these dystopias, is a necessary step in order to imagine together how to desert the mad rush towards the abyss. We like to have experiences in which we try to build mutual trust, in which each person has their own space and time, equally; spaces where we do not debate but listen, try to welcome and transform. There are wonders yet to be discovered, many others already known to be experienced. The future is not written anywhere.
What advice would you give to young people (and others) to break out of possible automatisms?
Let us remember that it does not depend (only) on us. There is no way to “use well” toxic systems such as social media, or, worse still, current industrial AI. At best, we can mitigate, reduce the damage. These are technologies designed to consume fabulous amounts of resources, to be managed hierarchically and centrally by a handful of decision-makers without the slightest democratic control. They simply need to be abandoned, deserted, in order to do something else.
A basic self-defence measure: in addition to removing all audio notifications from your smartphone, try experimenting with black and white. Black and white screens, perhaps even in super energy-saving mode. Try observing your emotional reactions during a day with a colourless phone. How do you feel?
What are the next events?
We have several training courses and workshops planned around Europe, organised by a wide variety of organisations according to their needs. On the website, we try to provide information about open training courses and other events. More generally, keep an eye on where you will find “warm-up” events ahead of the next Hackmeeting. In the meantime, we are keeping busy with our selection of graffito pills.
C.I.R.C.E. is the International Research Centre for Electric Conviviality, an affinity group scattered across Europe. Through study, they develop and disseminate convivial technologies of liberation and mutual support, even in a world dominated by toxic megamachines: through training courses, workshops, books and articles. Davide and Carlo from C.I.R.C.E. have published the essay Pedagogia hacker (Hacker Pedagogy) with Eleuthera.
