Xin Xin (林心瑜) is a Taiwanese-American cultural producer exploring community-driven technology in creative and educational spaces. As creator of TogetherNet and co-editor of the Critical Coding Cookbook https://criticalcode.recipes, Xin advocates for liberatory software culture through the reclamation and subversion of power dynamics embedded within digital systems.
Born in Taipei and raised in Massachusetts, Xin brings a multicultural perspective to questions of technology and sovereignty. Identifying as non-binary and anarcho-feminist, their genre-nonconforming practice weaves together art, education, organizing, and technological experimentation—interrogating who controls technology, who benefits from it, and the power of collectives in building a more equitable digital future.
An Eyebeam Rapid Response for a Better Digital Future Fellow and Sundance Art of Practice Fellow, Xin‘s work has been exhibited internationally at Ars Electronica, Human Resources, Z/KU, and Kunstverein Wolfsburg. They have been a resident artist at MASS MoCA, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art.
Xin works with the Processing Foundation to support open-source software for artists and teaches as Assistant Professor of Interaction and Media Design at the New School, where they work with emerging practitioners to develop critical and socially-engaged approaches to technology and design.
Rapid Response Project
Togethernet is an open-source communication software that invites groups of 10 or fewer participants to build community archives through practices of consent. Designed around the ethos of data transparency and consent, TogetherNet’s goal is to transform digital rights policies such as the right to be forgotten into an embodied practice through re-imagining software architecture and user experience.
Togethernet is an open-source tool built for people who work under the broad umbrella of art and technology and invites users to contribute, remix, and pluralize the source code and guidelines in an effort to create a truly horizontal tool reflecting the needs of its users. It provides a glimpse into the potential for a new kind of grassroots software development that centers digital rights and community building from the outset.
This tool and initiative stands on the shoulders of Consentful Tech Zine by Una Lee and Dann Toliver and Design Justice Network Principles — by considering transparency and consent every step of the way, the source code serves as both a technical and a moral document that seeks to uncover systems of power and uncertainties embedded in network technologies.