Waag Futurelab is an internet pioneer and connects many initiatives, organisations and individuals in its mission towards a better digital infrastructure. But did you know that Waag is also a physical and material part of the internet? Discover why there is a fibre optic cable running through our monumental building and how we helped build an internet that did not belong to Silicon Valley, but to everyone – including creators, thinkers and dreamers.
We want bandwidth
In 1997, a loud call for digital space rang out. During the Hybrid Workspace in Kassel (Documenta X), Waag presented the manifestation We Want Bandwidth together with artists and makers from its network — a towering wall of shouting texts in which the cultural and public sector demanded more bandwidth. Behind that slogan lay an urgent message. Participants observed how the telecommunications infrastructure was unequally structured: those with capital received more space, while public and cultural voices risked being silenced. Their call was clear:
"Broadcast for all. Access to information and communication should be a fundamental democratic right. In the process of accelerating technological change and revolution the diversity of democratic voices is under threat and measures are called for to maintain them."
— We Want Bandwidth FAQ
With the GigaPort project (2001), the call for digital equality took on a concrete form. Until then, the broadband network had been reserved for institutions in industry and academia. With the connection of Waag (then: Waag Society) in Amsterdam and V2_ in Rotterdam, that changed: for the first time, arts and cultural organizations also gained access to the high-speed fiber optic network. This marked not only a technological step forward, but also a symbolic one: ideas and knowledge from the creative and social sector were given a place within the infrastructure of the future.
The collaboration had a clear goal: strengthening the research and development activities of the Virtueel Platform, the network for research and presentation of Dutch new media organizations. Within this platform, institutions such as De Balie, STEIM, the Dutch Institute for Video Art, Paradiso, Submarine, Doors of Perception, and V2_ worked together with Waag on the digital culture of a new era.
Internet pioneers: how do you do it?
Until then, Waag had been working with what was called a "baseband modem" — an enhanced 2 Mbit connection running from the basement. The switch to fiber optic was technically groundbreaking, but also an organizational adventure. Obtaining such a connection meant negotiating with "fiber farmers" and requesting quotes from major telecom companies. In the end, it was KPN that delivered the internet connection.
The fiber optic cable itself was literally dug into the Nieuwmarkt: a trench was cut from the nearby hub to the Waag building — the so-called local loop. A purple switch from Extreme Networks — at the time a technological feat and exceptionally expensive — ensured that the fiber optic connection was translated into ethernet ports inside the building.
But it was not just about speed or technology. The new connection made it possible to build an alternative internet: a network of and for the cultural, artistic, and activist world. An infrastructure was set up through which Amsterdam and Rotterdam connected to SURFnet, which provided the internet connection. Institutions like Paradiso and De Balie hosted their servers at Waag and were thus able to benefit from the new fiber optic connection.
At the same time, parties like Paradiso were experimenting with live streaming, and initiatives such as Squatnet and Indymedia found their digital home at Waag. Around this time, a collaboration also emerged with an Iraqi opposition movement standing against the regime in Iraq — like Waag, they hosted one of the first TOR servers in the world. Privacy, freedom of information, and technological autonomy were central concerns.
During this period, Waag was not simply an internet user; it was a base of operations for hackers and activists who saw unprecedented possibilities in internet technology. The choice to invest in fiber optic was not purely technical, but also ideological: the internet had to belong to everyone. And so Waag helped build an internet that was meant to be open, decentralized, and free.
Connecting Amsterdam's cultural community
Following the first steps with gigabit connections around the turn of the millennium, Waag received a substantial subsidy a few years later to realize an even greater ambition: connecting the entire Amsterdam cultural sector through a shared digital infrastructure. What began as a local experiment grew into a network that linked venues, institutions, and creative clubs — literally and figuratively.
Around 2003–2005, a fiber optic ring was set up with the help of XS4ALL, connecting institutions including Paradiso, De Balie, Melkweg, Het Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, and Montevideo. From 2007, Pakhuis de Zwijger officially joined as well. This was not a commercial infrastructure: it was a shared facility for the cultural sector, by and for makers.
"We simply built a part of the internet."
— Henk Buursen, Waag Futurelab
Where commercial providers like XS4ALL and NLnet offered hosting at a cost per gigabyte of traffic, Waag operated differently. Thanks to the fixed fiber optic connection via SURFnet, Waag paid a flat rate, which allowed room for experimentation without financial risk if something suddenly went viral.
That freedom led to a series of adventurous digital experiments that were far ahead of their time. As early as 2002, Waag set up one of the first wireless access points in Amsterdam via wireless.waag.org. Around the same time, extensive video streaming experiments took place, initiated by Paradiso through the fiber optic connection. From this emerged the legendary Fabchannel, an online concert archive that was far ahead of its time.
Projects such as connected.waag.org (2003–2005), plugin.waag.org, and killertv.nl also had their origins here. Killertv.nl was among the first to stream online videos by Hippies from Hell — at a time when YouTube did not yet exist, video streaming was revolutionary. Many of those clips have since ended up on YouTube, but the pioneering work happened here at Waag and at the cultural institutions that were part of the fiber optic ring.
CineGrid and the 4K era
One of the most groundbreaking projects of this period was CineGrid: a collaboration between Waag, Blender (the open source graphics software pioneer), SURFSARA, international partners, and festivals. CineGrid centered on streaming 4K video — four times the resolution of HD, at a time when HD itself was still new.
One of the goals was to create new cultural experiences, for instance by live-streaming 4K performances between locations in Europe, Japan, and the US. A memorable experiment took place during the Holland Festival of 2007, with the production Era la Notte. The plan was to stream this opera live from the Stopera, but it did not go without complications: during the site survey with Japanese technicians, their advanced cameras turned out to be unable to properly register the Amsterdam stage lighting.
The performance ultimately moved to the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, but even there it was complex: no fiber optic cable was in place, and running one there required passing through the cruise terminal, which turned out to be official customs territory. But you are an internet pioneer or you are not: the cable was laid, and CineGrid @ Holland Festival 2007 was realized after all.
This was one of the first times that 4K video was streamed live from Europe to international locations; it was even the first 4K trans-Atlantic livestream. The livestream was also uncompressed, with a connection speed of 1 gigabyte per second. That was — and still is — a unique achievement, made possible only through collaboration with universities such as Keio University Japan, the University of California San Diego, and the University of Amsterdam.
Nevertheless, the challenges remained significant. There was a 4K infrastructure, but no good 4K cameras were available. The solution: creativity. Blender, the open-source 3D program, was brought in to generate virtual content in 4K.
Building a public digital space
Even in the years following the major infrastructure projects, Waag remained an incubator for digital innovation. An initiative like Fairphone found its place within the same ecosystem in which the first cables had once been laid. From the spaces of the Waag, not only new connections emerged, but also new ideas about fair technology, digital rights, and civic participation.
The history of Waag shows that building the internet and digital culture is not only a technical matter, but also a cultural and societal one. The internet was originally developed within the military and academic world — with projects such as ARPANET and research networks that shaped the architecture and functioning of the internet. That origin determined not only the technology itself, but also the assumptions about access, control, and hierarchy.
But from the moment the cultural and creative sector got involved, the character of the internet also changed. Arts institutions, hackers, activists, designers, and cultural organizations brought their own values: openness, collaboration, experimentation, expression, transparency. We did not only help build the infrastructure, but also its meaning and use.
This unique history — which is physically and materially part of Waag — is a reminder that digital infrastructure is not neutral, but something in which the public, cultural, and creative sector must have a fundamental voice.
