The Labs function as infrastructures for collective inquiry in preparation of the festival: running in the months before the festival, they bring artists and researchers together for sustained cycles of critical discussion and collaborative making. Against the backdrop of extraction and surveillance, the labs carve out spaces of autonomy; here, technology is something to be collectively handled, tested at its edges, and rethought from the inside out. The goal is to produce prototypes, tools and projects that test and articulate shared languages to organise, resist, and live otherwise.

Each Lab is formed by about five participants: early career and emerging artists, researchers, curators, students and practitioners from all disciplines. Every lab is guided by an artist or technologist whose practice challenges dominant internet infrastructures and articulates alternative ways of building and inhabiting the web. Together, participants develop a project that is presented and activated through public events during the festival week in Berlin. As each Lab has specific requirements, please consult the individual calls for details.

The labs are dedicated to knowledge dissemination and collective production. They are built on flat hierarchies and peer-to-peer learning. There are no lecturers and audiences here, only practitioners in different stages of knowing, sharing expertise laterally and building collective understanding through sustained exchange.