Tech collective

Gallery

Experiment overview

My first grassroots technology initiative that transformed a garage into a vibrant hub for open-source innovation and community-driven projects.

The collective deliberately blended technical skill development with creative expression and social connection, demonstrating that meaningful technology engagement requires both technical competence and cultural context.

Main objectives

The project reimagined technology engagement by establishing a physical space for collaborative exploration outside institutional constraints, developing practical community-serving innovations like the air quality sensor that addressed local environmental concerns, and creating multiple accessible entry points to technology through diverse activities including meetups, installations, and movies screenings.

Achieved results

The collective successfully evolved from garage experiment to recognized innovation hub, evidenced by its project exhibition at Poland’s prestigious Zachęta National Gallery of Art and workshop invitation at Copenhagen’s Tech Festival.

The community air quality sensor demonstrated the collective’s ability to address practical local needs through open-source approaches.

The “playing pencil” workshop conducted at Copenhagen Tech Festival with aim to teach participants to create sound-generating devices using graphite’s conductivity, exemplified the collective’s approach to making complex technological concepts accessible through hands-on creativity.

Main reflection

This journey demonstrated that community building follows the same principles as good programming: requiring clear communication protocols, regular maintenance of relationships, and the courage to implement occasional hard resets when systems drift from their core purpose.

Despite its external success, the initiative ultimately failed at its very core: we discovered that beneath our shared enthusiasm for technology, we held fundamentally different values that gradually separated us from each other. Which has gave me valuable lesson that technical collaboration without aligned values creates communities that may achieve recognition but lack lasting cohesion.