Mechanist City

AI is forcing a rewrite of the social contract, reshaping relationships between creatives and training data, between displaced workers and automation, and between local communities and datacenters. In this context, we aim to encourage civil society to go beyond being mere consumers of AI and instead take active part in drafting and promoting policies for navigating its challenges. Should AI companies redistribute profits to the creatives on whose works these system rely? How about to the workers whose work they have automated? Or to local communities impacted by datacenters? Our collective is focused on prefiguring such practices through upcycled hardware and workshops on permacomputing, legislative theater, and guerilla art.