Cyberdeck workshop: build your own ‘mesh-berry’ 🫐

Hand-soldered cyberdecks are all over the internet. The cyberdecks we know from cyberpunk fiction and hacker culture were improvised machines—originally appearing in William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer—often built within a narrow and masculine idea of who gets to tinker, hack, and build. The cyberdecks filling our feeds today look different. They’re cute.

From mermaid-shell Raspberry Pis to Hello Kitty makeup cases, these devices have exploded in popularity over the past year, thanks to women teaching each other to build artistic, hyper-feminine computers online.

Cyberdecks push back against the sleek, sealed, and extractive technologies we rely on every day. While most consumer computers lock us into systems that are becoming increasingly unethical, from non-consensual surveillance to automatic AI integration no one asked for, cyberdecks are hacked together. Often built with femininity and sustainability in mind, they’re personalised with cute and colourful items that would otherwise be thrown away. In an age of mass-produced devices, cyberdecks turn technology into a form of self-expression.

Make your personalised ‘mesh-berry’! 🫐

In this workshop, you’ll build your very own, personalised ‘mesh-berry’ 🫐 device: a local chat tool that runs on a mesh network. You don’t need WiFi, internet, or anything Big Tech related. To keep things accessible, we won’t build a full computer, but focus on a working chat tool you can actually take home and use, change, or build upon.

Guided by web developer and artist Heerko van der Kooij, you’ll learn how to hand-solder your own motherboard and how to style your chat program. Lilian Stolk from The Hmm will go a bit deeper into the aesthetic side of things, looking at how (and why) to design a personal case for your device

After the workshop, you’ll walk away with a working mesh-berry that you can use to chat with other mesh-berry owners nearby. If your friends couldn’t make it to this workshop, you’ll have picked up the skills to build one for them yourself.

Requirements and Prep

You don’t need to have any experience with coding to join this workshop. The ticket price includes all the hardware you’ll need: a screen, keyboard, battery, and speaker. We’ll provide some basic crafting materials, but we ask you to bring your own case that is at least 5x7cm (a bag, box, tin, or anything else you’d like to turn into your device’s shell) and extra bits and pieces to personalise it further. Think of stickers, fabric, beads, paint, or anything else that makes it yours. The workshop will be conducted in English.  

The Hmm experiments…

This event is part of a series of programs that we are developing with The Hmm, where we give space in our studio for our community to explore new ideas and experiment with workshops as part of our public program.

What you need to know

📅 Date: Saturday 26 September 2026 🕗 Times: 13.00 – 17.00 CEST 📍 Location: The Hmm’s studio, NDSM-plein 125, 1033 WC Amsterdam 🎟 Tickets: €45 regular, €41,50 students (this is including €37,50 for hardware material)

As these workshops are more intimate sessions, there is a limited supply of tickets available. You can find information about physical accessibility at The Hmm’s studio here.

💚 This programme is kindly supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL