Counterstructural CommonsBri Griffin, Cindy Hernandez Mathis The Counterstructural Commons Residency brought together eight artists and creative technologists in New York City for ten weeks to prototype alternatives to extractive technological systems. This publication collects their project essays alongside theoretical contributions, project descriptions, and imagery. |
About the author (2026)
Bri Griffin (aka muein) is an artist, community designer, and organizer at rhizome.org, a non-profit focused on supporting the preservation of internet-era culture and art. Bri's programming centers around artists working with mass-communication technologies, while their broader artistic practice spans writing, teaching, design, sculpture, and experimental sound. Responding to their past as an architectural experience designer, Bri imagines more thoughtful, connected environments (irl and virtual) that seek to challenge conventional boundaries of our digital world.
Michael Connor is Executive Director of Rhizome, where he oversaw the Net Art Anthology initiative, an effort to retell the history of net art through 100 works, presented as an online exhibition, gallery exhibition, and book. His first online curatorial project took place in 2003 at FACT, Liverpool, where he organized an edition of the traveling exhibition "Kingdom of Piracy" with Shu Lea Cheang, Yukiko Shikata, and Armin Medosch. Connor is currently editing a book by Gene Youngblood about the work of Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz.
Ramsey Nasser makes games, systems, and art that challenge, delight, and confound. He hopes people come away from his work with renewed belief in themselves and their communities, with greater contempt for those who hoard wealth and power over them, and with a deepened faith in the possibility of a better world.
As a part of duo, ZZYW, Zhenzhen Qi employs critical technical practice and speculative inquiry to challenge hegemonic technological constructs. Through software prototypes and writing, ZZYW explores the cultural and political imprints of computing systems while envisioning alternative modes of technicality.
As a part of duo, ZZYW, Yang Wang employs critical technical practice and speculative inquiry to challenge hegemonic technological constructs. Through software prototypes and writing, ZZYW explores the cultural and political imprints of computing systems while envisioning alternative modes of technicality.
Steven Jos Phan works at the edge of what's presently possible. His practice finds form in nascent technologies and systems without precedent, in dialogue with traditional design craft. He lives and works from a regenerative farm in upstate New York, where the study of ecology and tending land informs his work.
Chris Woebken is a participatory futures researcher, experimental interaction designer, and co-founder of the Extrapolation Factory. He develops platforms that allow underserved communities to prototype and navigate complex futures.
Cindy Hernandez Mathis is a design historian, writer and researcher based in New York. In 2017, she co-founded Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute, a grass-roots open source design historical resource, focused on archiving micro-trends and movements in design and material culture from the 1970's onward. She has a Master of Arts in History of Design and Curatorial Studies from The New School, where she wrote her thesis on defining the Y2K Aesthetic.
Bibliographic information
| Title | Counterstructural Commons |
| Editors | Bri Griffin, Cindy Hernandez Mathis |
| Contributors | Michael Connor, Mozilla Foundation, Michael Candy, Beck Haberstroh, Shakti Mb, Ari J. Melenciano, Ramsey Nasser, Zhenzhen Qi, Yang Wang, Steven Jos Phan, Chris Woebken |
| Publisher | Rhizome, 2026 |
| ISBN | 9798996077601 |
| Subjects | › Art / General Technology & Engineering / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |