Institute for Applied Autonomy

Active in the early 2000s

Institue for Applied Autonomy was a collective of artists and computer engineers that utilized technology in protest.

The Institute recognized police militarization and autonomous technology hostile to mass protests was beginning to become an large issue in the US. Their solution was to use their own technology against them. They were the collective that created TXTmob. TXTmob was a way to blast sms messages in real time. This was widely used at protests and was the direct inspiration for Twitter. While no longer active, they played an important part in teaching protestors about 21st century survelliance.