Autonomy
An experimental mesh network in a historic zone of sacrifice

The spaces of globalization are not merely global abstractions; they are concrete spatial productions affecting life in specific localities. In an increasingly interconnected world, some sites are left to disrepair while others benefit from emerging social formations. Situated in this contact zone—where digital infrastructures inherit the legacies of past networks—is Autonomy, a village-scale decentralized wireless mesh network in Ohio's rural Appalachian region. Designed as counter-infrastructure to sustain soft infrastructures of connection and resist extractive logics.

Once the backbone of urban industrial growth, Appalachian company towns and zones of sacrifice functioned as both, resource frontiers and dumping grounds, peripheral to centers of power. In the first mining boom of the 20th century, labor and minerals were the initial sites of dispossession in southeast Ohio, where crucibles ignited the Central Appalachian region’s labor and civil rights movements. Now, a contemporary wave of technological extraction proves a test ground for SpaceX Starlink satellites, data farms, and cryptocurrency mines.

Beyond a technological solution, Autonomy is a social experiment—a politics of processuality. We utilize ‘mesh’ networking technology built on a series of interconnected nodes that collaborate. The network operates as a collective effort, shaped and sustained by users who extend it to their neighbors.