REVOLUTIONARY PROTOTYPES

With my collective Rojava Center for Democratic Technologies, based in North-East Syria, I develop prototypes for anarcho-socialist techno-futures

What should an anarcho-socialist future beyond technoconsumerism look like? How can artworks operate as working prototypes for alternate technological imaginaries and vice versa? Since 2022, I have collaborated with artists, mechatronics engineers, revolutionaries and cultural theorists on the creation of what we call “revolutionary prototypes”: technological systems that combine speculative artistic research with functional technical processes. As part of the Rojava Revolution, we make artifacts and performative interventions, which some consider art, others engineering, and some neither.

The Rojava Center for Democratic Technologies is a fluid collective, mainly based in Qamishlo, North-East Syria. It is connected to the Rojava Revolution, a social movement aimed at creating a society grounded in decentralized governance, equality, and ecology. I initiated the collective at the University of Rojava in 2022. Since then, we have worked in various constellations, at times including collaborators in the Netherlands and Germany.

The interactive installation Propaganda Television (2022) involved the temporary attachment of two repurposed obsolete televisions to an advertising structure above a street in the centre of Qamishlo, the de-facto capital of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). When vehicles passed underneath at night, the screens lit up. They presented two decontextualized quotes by imprisoned Kurdish activist and thinker Abdullah Öcalan, written in a reconstruction of his handwriting: "imagine endlessly" / "think about the entire universe". A video of the work can be watched here.

Revolution Refridge (2022-24) is a refrigerator that defies the ideology of the fitted kitchen - a domestic design concept rooted in US American space age aesthetics - while responding to regional technical challenges (limited electricity provision and extreme heat). Firstly, the device combines a historical, vaporization-based cooling method with a bottom-end contemporary solar system. Secondly, its design suggests an alternative, regionalist futurity, fusing sci-fi idioms with regional heritage. The shape of the unit is inspired by space exploration rockets and historical regional architecture. It is covered in fragments of Kurdish carpets and its golden colour connects to both traditional jewelry and high-tech circuitry. This short video documentary of the prototype’s background and development was presented at ISEA 2022. In 2024, the project received a Nomination for the S+T+ARTS prize, the European Commission’s prize for science, technology and the arts.

Mij (The Fog) (2026) is a mobile defense system against Semi Active Laser (SAL) missiles, which combines open source defense technology with myth and folklore. A sculpture has been made, based on a 3000 BCE votive figure for the Sumerian god of thunder and mist, Ninurta. The statue’s eyes detect infrared laser signals emitted by missiles, while a device in its interior can generate fog that is released through its mouth to confuse missile targeting systems. The work’s development phase was supported by a grant from the foundation Error 417 Expectation Failed. A large scale installation, which will be launched in November 2026, has been commissioned by Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.