Welcome to the Decentralized Web (DWeb) For Creators open source curriculum. DWeb for Creators is an 8-week online course that empowers artists, designers, archivists, gallerists, curators, and others with the knowledge and tools necessary for exploring the decentralized web. Through lecture, discussion, and hands-on practice with emerging technologies, participants in DWeb for Creators will use an intersectional lens to study the theoretical frameworks that shape the decentralized web. Participants engage with technologies like blockchain and mesh networks; examine case studies in curation, publishing, data sovereignty, and community building; and apply decolonial approaches to world building as they envision the future of DWeb technologies. Culminating in an online salon where students will present their projects and ideas developed during the course, this course provides the necessary background, skills, and support to adopt decentralized technology into every creative practice.
This course was originally developed at Gray Area in spring 2025. Here you will find course materials including slides, lecture notes, readings, links to resources, and the source code for the course website.
- View the 2025 course website
- View 2025 student projects - coming soon!
DWeb for Creators is made possible by the support of Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web.
- Ayana Zaire Cotton
- Kelani Nichole
- Mai Ishikawa Sutton
- ngọc triệu
- Regina Harsanyi
- Sarah Friend
- Sarah Grant
- Roxi Shohadaee
The course consists of 8 Knowledge Sessions and 8 Praxis sessions for hands-on practice with DWeb Technologies.
- Knowledge Session: Introduction to Decentralized Web (Dweb) and Its Cultural Foundations
- Praxis Session: Command Line for Creatives
- Knowledge Session: DWeb Lexicon and Ecosystem
- Praxis Session: Data Sovereignty and Storage
- Knowledge Session: The Evolution of DWeb Art, Activism, and History
- Praxis Session: Critical DWeb Art Projects + Practices
- Knowledge Session: Values and Philosophical Underpinnings of DWeb
- Praxis Session: Cloudbusting! Self-Hosting Your Own Web Services
- Knowledge Session: Governance, Creative Ownership and Cross-institutional Collaboration
- Praxis Session: Decentralized Social Media
- Knowledge Session: Diversification of Storage Practices
- Praxis Session: Archiving Preservation in DWeb
- Knowledge Session: Decentralization: Sovereignty, Power, and Critical Practice in DWeb
- Praxis Session: Setting up a Mesh Network
- Knowledge Session: DWeb’s Social and Community Impact
- Praxis Session: DWeb Worldbuilding + Speculative Design
- Public Presentation of Student Projects & Research
This repository contains both course materials and code for building the DWeb for Creators 2025 website.
- Slides, acitivity guides, and other files can be found in the
assets/course-materialsfolder. For an easy-to-read index of materials, visit the course website. - All folders beginning with an underscore, index.md, and calendar.md are part of the course website code. The website is built with Jekyll and hosted on GitHub pages.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for details on the site structure and how to make updates.