S.S.C. (SSC Shifting Cipher) is a Secret Server Club, a ssc, or a ssc. Core members Alice Yuan Zhang, Nat Decker, Shanhuan Manton, Haley Roeser and Sammie Veeler have worked in Los Angeles for the past five years, variously at intersections of art, technology, and solidarity, spanning disciplines from film to sculpture and everywhere in between. We share an affinity toward making work which manifests as real infrastructure-- enacting an alternate present rather than imagining a speculative future. This website is hosted on a free PC on the east side of the LA river.
We formed SSC as a container to experiment with stewarding technological infrastructure which might otherwise be held in power hungry corporate datacenters, to document this process, and to make blueprints accessible to others. SSC ritualizes data solidarity. We hold with reverence the knowledge that our computers came from the ground. We both de-invisibilize the infrastructure of "cloud" data storage and re-ground it upon the earth, within the hands of our peers as an act of communal sovereignty. We study and practice the above methods in public and in community, inviting reproduction, collaboration, and ongoing inquiry into how we can create and enhance community self-sufficiency with digital technologies.
A non exhaustive list of digital infrastructure projects we've worked on in the past five years: Virtual Care Lab, New Art City Virtual Art Space, Cripping_CG, F.R.A.C.T.A.L., Resonant.love, and Solidarity Infrastructures @ SFPC. These projects view art as a form of pedagogy, where study becomes a collective act.