/ feral-labs First day at PIFcamp © Makery

PIFcamp, a Feral Lab in the Slovenian Alps

Published 5 August 2019 by

International summer hacking PIFcamp is returning to the beautiful Soča village in pristine Triglav National Park for the fifth time on August 4–10, 2019. As a partner of the Feral Labs Network, Makery is reporting on location all week, beginning with days 1 and 2.

PIFcamp is the first event of the Feral Labs Network series. Zavod Projekt Atol is the convenor and initiator of the Feral Labs Network. PIFcamp is a 7-day nomadic hacker/maker-base set in pristine Alpine nature, where art, technology and knowledge meet. From August 4 to 10, PIFcamp is hosting about 60 participants, bringing together artists from across Europe and beyond.

Projekt Atol and fieldwork-based artistic research

As an organization, Projekt Atol has extensive and long-standing experience in fieldwork-based artistic research around the world. It manages one of the first and signature art+science field-based nomadic laboratories, Makrolab. These experiences have helped shape Projekt Atol’s ongoing activities with the Arctic Perspective Initiative, which since 2007 aims to empower people in the Northern and Arctic regions through open source technologies, as well as applied education and training. By creating access to these technologies while promoting an open, shared network of communications and data, without a costly overhead, they can advance the sustainable and continued development of culture, traditional knowledge, science, technology and education opportunities for peoples of both the North and the Global South.

Projekt Atol also instigates similar activities in Slovenia, namely the Unmanned-Resilience project held on the Gora Plateau and the annual PIFcamp, held in Triglav National Park. This year, PIFcamp leads the Feral Labs Network with support from the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

A celebratory bonfire marked the first evening at PIFcamp. Some couldn’t wait to start jam sessions.

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Bonfire @pif_camp #pifcamp #ferallabs

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Jam session @pif_camp #ferallabs #pifcamp

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Five years of PIFcamp

PIFcamp’s first iteration was developed as a new format in 2015 in cooperation with Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory, as part of the EU-backed Changing Weathers project (read our reports from 2015, 2017 and 2018). Despite its limited capacity, the camp quickly became one of the most important events in Slovenia for technology-based artists and art organizations, with more organizations and collectives helping.

The camp is an immersive experience, where media, video and sound artists, theorists, programmers, engineers and scientists work together on themes such as DIY electronics, modular-synthesis, wearable-electronics, wild-food and environmental studies. The participants themselves lead workshops, practical field trips, theoretical lectures and on-sight briefings, while actively collaborating on the development of various DIY/DIWO projects in a creative working environment.

First day of activities

Day 1 starts with healthy activities!

The afternoon turns toward making things or chilling out.

The PIF foodlab attracts a lot of curiosity.

Open Saturday

On “Open-Saturday” August 10, PIFcamp invites visitors from the valley, as well as anyone interested from across Slovenia and beyond to catch a glimpse of the PIFcamp vibe and experience the results of intense week-long hacking.

To be continued!

More about PIFcamp on Makery’s and PIFcamp’s Instagrams

Feral Labs Network website

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