Unit 00: The Prototype
Inside Unit 00
CriticalMesh is a decentralized, distributed, functional art installation composed of 24 separate LoRa-radio enabled nodes, each encased in a unique housing constructed from salvaged e-waste and obsolete equipment. When brought together on the same radio frequency, they create a 'meshnet': a decentralized network of devices that transmit, receive, and repeat text messages independent of internet, cellular, or WiFi data. This distributed system of nodes is capable of covering the entire CNW event grounds, providing a novel and off-grid means of communication.
This art piece is spread amongst twenty-four distributed, unique meshnet radio devices. The art looks like enthusiastic salvage: the colorful casing of dead disposable vapes, cyberpunk chassis constructed from obsolete and deprecated cyberware, frames forged from forgotten circuitboards. Antennae protrude from this salvaged waste, signaling the eagerness of these strange devices to communicate with each other across a slice of the radio spectrum.
Unit 00: The Prototype
Inside Unit 00
CriticalMesh was conceived from the synthesis of two primary questions: - How can we repurpose the manufactured waste otherwise destined for landfills to serve novel (art)forms and functions? - How can we stay connected with our loved ones without dependence on invasive, brittle, or inaccessible communications technology; and without reliance on global internet, cellular data, or power grids?
The roots for this project extend to 2023, when Jupiter felt the need to find or create alternate forms of neighborhood and city-spanning communications technology to keep communities in touch in the event of serious internet or cellular data disruptions or outages. She found resonance in this quest with her future-thinking friends in hackerspace culture, and realization of this goal in the emergence of local radio-based meshnets using the meshcore protocol—including the local CascadiaMesh that bloomed from hobbyist dream into functional reality in 2025 and continues to surge in 2026.
100% salvaged exterior
Repurposing a radio into a radio
Jupiter brings the necessary experience with technical savvy, organizational attention and artistic panache to this project. - Life-long tinkerer and salvager: she takes a joy in saving the scraps of a wasteful society and repurposing them for new use. Jupiter has already 'harvested' parts from dead vapes, old obsolete electronics, and the detritus of ancient PC towers for this purpose and constructed many totally unique mesh nodes. Sure, she could 3D-print new plastic components—but why not use what's already lying around in a fun new way? - Jupiter is also an FCC-licensed ham radio technician. She has been a part of the growing CascadiaMesh for a year, and has configured and distributed around three dozen mesh nodes and repeater units for friends and family.
Cozy lantern repeater
Newborn node in husked vape shell