A clandestine cinema in the middle of an empty terrain, the mobile radio system in a demonstration, a market stand to digitise and exchange books, or a sound-system in the middle of a pedestrian area...
Many of the activities that take place to re-appropriate the city and to deviate public spaces from their usual consumerist routines, share one ingredient in common electricity and in many of these situations, the availability of this element is limited.

There are different methods that people use to get power while out in the streets, but this workshop proposes to develop a way to support these activities starting from a resource that has become ubiquitous in cities: lithium batteries. As the streets get more and more filled with networked devices, the batteries that allow them to work "wireless" need more and more lithium to be extracted. On top of the damage that the mining of this mineral does, far and close from here [1], many of the e-scooters and e-bikes dropped in the cities by venture-capital-driven rental companies often end up in garbage dumps and water ways. There are a lot of reasons then to return this resource to common use.

In the Li-Bat-Quest workshop, Rufus and Alix Turcq introduced us to the re-purposing of batteries from electric bikes, to turn them into portable battery packs to support collective activities in the public space.

The workshop was free of charge, no pre-existing knowledge or skill was necessary to participate, except the curiosity and desire to take electronic things in our own hands.
We imagined for people to join this workshop in collectives/small groups of 2 or 3 people, so it was also possible for people to join different days of the workshop, relaying to the other people in the group.

The workshop took place over three days: June 20, 21 and 22, and the main practical part of the workshop will took place from 15:00 to 20:00.
The mornings, from 11:00 to 15:00 were open and dedicated to cooking together for the day, discussing ideas, theories and experiences.

As there were limited places available, priority was given to groups/projects/individuals that planned to use the result of the workshop to create and support spaces of experimentation and solidarity in the city.

To sign up for the workshop (before the 14th of June!), receive more information, share your questions, write an email to martino@constantvzw.org