They consider that computers are craft artifacts that must be creatively manipulated. They display a natural vocation for experimentation. They populated recycling centres all over Brazil. They are an open free and self-organised movement. Here they are, they are the: Metarecyclers, finalists of APC’s 2005 Betinho Prize.
MetaRecycling is neither an organisation nor a project. It is defined as an idea “on reappropriating technology for social change”. This idea has such diverse origins as science fiction, cyberpunk and the ecological movement. This idea is as virtual as it is material, and constantly nourished by theory and practice.
The origins
It is not surprising that MetaRecycling came about from a discussion list, the horizontal and participatory structure by excellence. Over 200 people from all over the country were on this listserv, Metá:Fora, to exchange ideas (and strategies to carry them out) on art, communication, education and technology. According to what Felipe Fonseca, one of the driving forces behind MetaRecycling told APCNews, the idea came from this space, which he defined as “an incubator for collaborative projects”.
Felipe describes: “The idea circulated within the Metá:Fora network for a few months, until Dalton Martins and I decided to put it into practice, through an agreement with Agente Cidadão, an NGO that distributes material donations in San Pablo. […] At that time, MetaRecycling became independent from the Metá:Fora project, which finally disappeared”.
ConecTAZes and spores
Then what is it that MetaRecycling does? How does it work? It is a decentralised network that takes the shape of conectTAZes and spores. A conecTAZ focuses on “the effective use of metarecycled structures to create social networks” “Meta” seems to be a key word; it indicates the possibility of appropriating, over and over, not only the technology but, more generally, all the processes that are behind MetaRecycling.
A spore [a biological notion that refers to an independent cellular structure] is, precisely, a “meta-instance of MetaRecycling”. In all of them the focus is “the planning [of the conecTAZes] and carrying out research and experimentation activities that facilitate the creation of these structures”.
In both cases, the protagonists are the communities. According to Felipe, technology is treated by a “mere tool in search of greater objectives – the stimulation of collaborative production of free knowledge, the exchange of this knowledge through a network and its appropriation and reproduction in different contexts.” Other types of benefits stem from this approach: “the community organises itself to create endeavours dedicated to economically exploring technological waste and offers the neighbourhood computers three times cheaper than the connected hyperbolic PC.”
Upon questioning the relationship between different associations and local groups, Felipe noted a central aspect of MetaRecycling: “We do not chose them: it is the local members that decides to be a part of our movement. Therefore they need to conform to our principles [but] the rest of the decisions are local, even the use of the name MetaRecycling”.
Photo: Parc library at the Saint Andrew school, in a neighbourhood close to Sao Paulo, where MetaRecycling installed a wireless access point.
