a new perspective on what I've been doing for the past decade: media archaeology, #othernetworks, and #imaginarynetworks are all about uncovering/recovering technodiversity. For Yuk Hui, technodiversity is part of planetary thinking: "Without technodiversity, we only have homogenous ways of dealing with nonhuman agencies and the world itself—as if homogeneous equals universal." https://www.e-flux.com/journal/114/366703/for-a-planetary-thinking/

friends: I don't understand the ins and outs of the book publishing industry but I do know there are about 50 copies left of #othernetworks directly from the publisher - if you'd like to get a copy before it disappears, here's the link https://shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898-lori-emerson-other-networks-a-radical-technology-sourcebook

#othernetworks got a nice shout-out by Ellsworth Toohey in boing boing! https://boingboing.net/2025/06/05/new-book-uncovers-radical-networks-that-existed-before-the-internet.html

uhhmm...oh reaaaalllly...and then she said what? and he did whaaaat? #othernetworks Kimberly Coffin

Hello mastodon.radio!

I just got my license earlier this year, inspired by the role hams played in the Hurricane Helene mutual aid disaster relief and by @mediaarchaeologylab's writings about #othernetworks and radio.

Right now I'm studying for my general license, reading about #sdr, and learning what there is to learn.

A question for the #streamer folk: If you're planning on streaming some content that's out of line with your typical content, do you set up a second 'channel?'

Interested in perspectives for and against splitting topics across channels.

Context: Usually I stream video games at @stream, but am looking at streaming some #HomeLab and #OtherNetworks type content, and maybe some #AmateurRadio #POTA activations.

@loriemerson I also love that you use a lot of examples from artists who have used each medium - that often pushes the technologies towards limits that are not realized in ordinary every day commercial use. #othernetworks

My copy of @loriemerson "Other Networks" is in, and so far it's wonderful.

Discussion, fun graphics, and further sources for inquiry for 60+ communications technologies, from ham radio to missile post to mail art to Telex to the Memex, all ways of communicating without the Internet.

Thanks!

incredibly stoked to dig into this new book #othernetworks from @loriemerson !!!

Ahhhhhh my copy of #OtherNetworks by @loriemerson came in today! There goes my evening

IT’S HERE AND IT’S BEAUTIFUL!
@loriemerson #othernetworks

Hellschreiber gets a two page photo spread in @loriemerson 's #OtherNetworks !

The book arrived and it's pretty awesome.

pls boost

radio is the future: "Radio is the ultimate internet circumvention tool because it is not the internet." #othernetworks #radio

https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/why-we-need-shortwave-2-0

This pamphlet includes information on a low power transmitter that (as far as I understand) doesn't need a license in many locations. I'm interested in getting a license as well, but I'll definitely be checking this circuit out.

"It is no longer debatable: the network we call 'the internet' is not the network we want nor the network we deserve. […]

"How many everyday users know that the Web is only one of many networks that make up an internet we call 'the internet'? Or, how many know that radio is integral to nearly every network we use? How many even know how radio waves work?

'Other Networks,' then, is a cluster of projects I have been working on for some years, often in collaboration with the irreplaceable libi striegl, to uncover, document, archive, and experiment with networks that existed before the internet or networks that currently exist outside of this internet. […]

"We hope this pamphlet encourages many others to feel emboldened to experiment with this powerful example of an other network that is for everyone."

https://othernetworks.net/2024/08/20/build-your-own-mini-fm-transmitter/

There have been *so many* great responses, and thank you everyone for contributing! I got some great new #telephony, #RetroNetworking, and #HomeLab contacts and tags to follow, including the formerly-elusive #OtherNetworks tag!

I know that one of the things that people do on enthusiast retro phone networks is hold 'test calls' to other 'subscribers,' with increasingly esoteric equipment.

Is there an in-group term for these 'test calls' that's analagous to QSOs in the #HamRadio world?

@loriemerson @w8emv @mediaarchaeologylab I'd probably have never found the #othernetworks tag on my own (like the elsewhere-mentioned #retronetworking tag), looking forward to falling down that rabbit hole!

I've not yet personally played with #appletalk beyond some scratchy memories as a user from long-enough-ago, but do recall some recent posts where people were playing with it -- and trying to run it over barbed wire or something? Not sure if that's the same group, but it looked fun.

Thanks!

@loriemerson Very much looking forward to reading #othernetworks