2025-12-27 –, House of Tea
Chaos Communication Congress (C3) is a big annual event for people who love technology, cybersecurity, free culture, and creativity. Since 1984, it has been held in Germany, first mostly in German, then in English to connect people worldwide.
Today, thanks to International Sign (IS), everyone deaf or hearing can fully join. IS makes communication open, equal, and accessible, helping people overcome language barriers and work together.
There are over 300 sign languages in the world, some more than 5,000 years old. IS has been used for several decades by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and the Deaflympics Games (ICSD). These organizations used to have a hierarchy, but today IS allows a holarchy, where everyone has a place and communication is shared equally.
A big question is: why choose English instead of International Sign? English helps hearing people communicate worldwide. But IS allows deaf and hearing people to connect more equally, opening space for sharing and understanding deaf cultures.
In a world dominated by surveillance and digital control, oral languages are constantly monitored, but sign languages remain largely invisible to automated systems. This session explores the intersection of hacker culture, Deaf culture, and communication, questioning dominant linguistic norms and hearing privilege. Participants will experiment with sign language as a tool for privacy, creativity, and subversion, explore collaborative multilingual communication, and reflect on the politics of visibility and language power. Open to all signers, non-signers, and curious minds ready to hack communication.
Key themes:
Surveillance and privacy
Hacking communication
Sign language as a free / untraceable space
Politics of visibility and language power
Experimentation, creativity, and reinvention of norms
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Introduction to International Sign at 39C3 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Introduction to International Sign at 39C3 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Introduction to International Sign at 39C3 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Introduction to International Sign at 39C3 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉
- 🙊 Oral Languages Are Watched, Sign Languages Are Free 🙉