Starting from the inadequacies of global digital infrastructure and its predetermined options, roles and narratives of growth, this Master’s thesis asks how we can move past complaint towards the making of irresistible infrastructure. It is structured through three practice-based action-research cycles: building a web server from an old phone, writing a glossary based on conversations with collectives that make and maintain their own digital infrastructure, and repairing, maintaining and hosting the Bleibeguide, an existing digital collection in Basel.

Through these encounters and actions, the thesis argues that irresistible infrastructure emerge as meso-scale projects that centre the quality of their relations and are aligned with and directed towards a purpose.

The thesis offers a working definition of irresistible infrastructure that is grounded in the relation between intimacy, materiality and scale and proposes this as a means of practising and building digital systems that allow for meaningful interaction and exchange.