The cloud is just somebody else’s computer ☁️💻
Photo: Niels Schrader and Roel Backaert
Behind the soft, weightless immateriality of the word ‘cloud’ sits a very heavy reality: deep-sea cables, server farms gulping electricity and clean water by the gigawatt, rare metals clawed out of the ground, all of it owned and tuned for profit by a handful of companies who weren't thinking much about sustainability or equity when they drew up the blueprints.
So what would it look like to bring the cloud back down to earth? Thinking beyond the metaphors that once helped us make sense of technology but now merely obfuscate the black box, how can we the cloud as something we could actually run ourselves. Bringing the cloud down to earth means dispersing it too, prying that knowledge loose and handing it back to the rest of us.
Even though summer is a chance to slow down, our editorial newsletter keeps its own hours, and there's plenty in here for you to read.
Back down to earth,
⊹ The Hmm ⊹
The Hmm x Hackers & Designers Summer Camp ☁️ Clouds to Commons
This July, we team up with our studio neighbours Hackers & Designers. Their Summer Camp becomes a living commons, where self-hosting know-how gets pried loose from the tech priesthood and handed back to the rest of us. The Hmm joins for the closing night: Thursday 23 July at NDSM Theatre, with fast-paced talks, an exhibition, and a live printing performance – ink still wet.
Stuff you should know:
🗓 Date: Thursday 23 July 2026
📍 Location: NDSM Theatre, NDSM-Plein 85, Amsterdam, and the Inbetween livestream
⏰ Doors open: 19.45 CEST
🕗 Programme starts: 20.00 CEST
🎟 Tickets: on-site €8,- / on-site student discount €5,- / online livestream €5
Join The Hmm on Signal
Part of bringing the cloud back down to earth is paying attention to where our own conversations live. So, we decided to move our Telegram chat to Signal! Signal is non-profit and end-to-end encrypted by default, run by a foundation rather than an advertising business.
You can expect the same roundups of links, plus more frequent and compact updates on our activities. So, don't wait longer – join via the link below! (ᵔᵕᵔ)/
Hmmterviewee of the month: Amy Gowen
What does publishing look like when text leaves the page? That's a question Amy Gowen keeps returning to – through writing, radio, editing, and curating, all grounded in commoning and self-organised practice. As Deputy Director at the School of Commons she edits ISSUES and leads the Making Public programme; on the side she co-runs HumDrumPress and hosts Off Margin on Worm Radio. This month she's our Hmmterviewee.
What's something you stopped outsourcing to a platform, and what did you gain or lose?
My pomodoro clock.
I learnt about the pomodoro method (very late to the game) at the start of the year and it revolutionised my non-existent workflow. Yes, much like everyone else’s. Yes, we are all bored of hearing about pomodoro. Sorry. But I can get so trapped in the scale of some of my weekly work tasks, especially when editing manuscripts, or writing novel chapters, so it is fascinating and seriously encouraging to realise how much you can (or can’t) get done in just 25 minutes. And how many 25 minutes there are between other tasks!!!
I noticed I’d end up in an internet wormhole every time I went to refresh the pomodoro on my browser so I have now outsourced it to an actual pomodoro clock (hurrah!)
It’s fun and fab and communal and shakes the entire table when it’s done. I’ve gained some light entertainment every 25 mins, and now don’t end up in (as many) internet wormholes.
What’s the weirdest thing an algorithm has recommended to you?
I’m not actually sure if I should admit this, but it was so weird and uncanny that I actually became really super interested in it?! Somehow I was embroiled in a highly dedicated algorithm of conspiracy theories (is this actually a conspiracy theory?!) that Erika Kirk is having an long-term and ongoing affair with JD Vance (maybe true, maybe not - don’t come for me, Erika). The videos were so weirdly specific and detailed and oddly put together and I cannot figure out how I ended up in this loophole. But somehow I was there!
How many browser tabs do you have open right now (and what for)?
The question is more, how many windows…
I siphon off my internet browsing to windows rather than tabs to reflect how I’d love to (and fail to) siphon off my brain (one per job, one per ‘task’, one for fun, one for research, one for clothes, one for holidays – a writing window, an editing window, a project management window, a shopping window. etc. etc. etc.)
It’s window chaos, but chaos that works for me. I love windows (:
Have you ever changed how you speak because of the internet? How?
Yes. I often pick up phrases that I then clunkily (and almost always incorrectly) use in real life. My favourite is the phrase ‘I was today years old’, which I always read in my head as ‘I was, today, years old…’ (the grammar is key here!) so was happily (and honestly still am) using this word regularly, incorrectly.
Amy will be part of our programme with Hackers & Designers! You can follow Amy on Instagram: @amygow. Discover more about the School of Commons:
The Hmm @ Brainwash Festival Townhall: From doom scroll to hope core
On 31 October, we're heading to Tolhuistuin for a Townhall at Brainwash Festival: From doom scroll to hope core. Are algorithms actually as bad for us as we think? And is there anything worth saving in a life mediated by social media, ChatGPT, and an app for everything? Over two hours, we'll be in conversation with we'll be in conversation with researcher Daniël de Zeeuw, journalist Süeda Isik, amongst others, as well as people who are simply very online. The Townhall is part of Brainwash's "technology = god" strand, which asks: when does convenience become obedience?
More information about the programme TBA.
Stuff you should know:
📅 Date: 31 October
📍 Location: Tolhuistuin
🎟️ Tickets: via Brainwash
Image by Susann Mielke from Pixabay
Hmm-ing in the wild
Come find us at the following events!
◯ 13–23 July - The Hmm x Hackers&Designers Summer School
◯ 6 July - Where does a chatbot live? Workshop by Slow AI and Natalia Stanusch @ The Hmm Studio (more information soon via our socials)
◯ until 2 August, Beyond the Manosphere – Masculinities Today @ Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (hear what we think in the audio tour)
Had a taste and want some more? The Hmm workshops are available to book here.
Activities in the digital field
◯ Artist Talk: Paolo Cirio @ IMPAKT (27 June)
◯ Open call: New Media Week – Adaptive Breathing (deadline: 30 June)
◯ Open call: Small File Media Festival (deadline: 1 July)
◯ 4 July: Opening What knots knot knots at VHDG Leeuwarden in collaboration with Noorderlicht
◯ 17 July: Opening Metabolising Time, Rythyms beyond linearity at MU Hybrid Art House
◯ Open call: TETEM BYOB 2026 autumn edition (deadline: 15 July)
◯ Open call: Design in Motion Festival (deadline: 19 July)
◯ Exhibition: Wild Waters @ FramerFramed (until 30 August)
We hope you enjoyed this editorial newsletter! Welcome back, and see you soon!
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