CTRL+ALT+REPAIR

- Everyday Digital Innovation in Cuba

The research project exhibition Ctrl+Alt+Repair introduces us to an alternative digital reality. In Cuba, access to technology and the internet is limited, but creative Cubans have cultivated a repair culture that provides access to the digital world. Ctrl+Alt+Repair opens on November 16, 2024.

DIY Solutions in a Digital World

Ctrl+Alt+Repair takes us to Cuba, where daily life looks quite different from our own. It’s a life with limited access to technological products, digital infrastructure, and the internet. This experimental exhibition explores how creative citizens in Cuba have developed an independent repair culture with new DIY solutions in a digital world.

Community and Repair Culture

In Ctrl+Alt+Repair, we encounter research-based installations that explore the alternative solutions Cubans have developed to overcome technological limitations. From extensive homemade computer networks and creative repair methods to offline “sneakernets,” the exhibition offers insights into how Cubans defy scarcity by reusing and reinventing technology. These DIY technologies challenge the dominance of global IT corporations, introducing community-centered alternatives to digital systems typically reserved for affluent consumers.

What Does This Say About the Digital Reality We Live In?

The exhibition comments on throwaway culture and raises questions about our digital rights as individuals in a digitalized world. Ctrl+Alt+Repair tells the story of how humans always come up with creative solutions when faced with limitations.

The exhibition is created by multimodal anthropologist Steffen Köhn and media artist Nestor Siré, with support from Aarhus University, the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, the Augustinus Foundation, and the Beckett Foundation.