[spectre] Institute of Network Cultures Newletter mid 2011

[Geert Lovink]

Institute of Network Cultures News

The Institute of Network Cultures wishes you a great summer! We are  
closed from the 22nd of July and back on the 22nd of August.

In this newsletter you can read more about:

- Networks Without a Cause, A Critique of Social Media, by Geert  
Lovink (forthcoming February 2012)
- Video Vortex #7, Yogyakarta, Indonesia | 18-21 July 2011

- Video Vortex summerschool at University of Split, Academy of Arts |  
22-31 August 2011

- Theory on Demand research update

- Urban Screens, Interactive Public Space, research program

- New INC Research Network: Unlike Us - Understanding Social Media  
Monopolies and their Alternatives | Forthcoming two events | Amsterdam  
and Cyprus | February 2012

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Networks Without a Cause, A Critique of Social Media, by Geert Lovink
Beginning 2012 Geert’s latest book Networks Without a Cause is  
expected. It examines our collective obsession with identity and self- 
management coupled with the fragmentation and information overload  
endemic to contemporary online culture. With the vast majority of  
Facebook users caught in a frenzy of friending’, ‘liking’ and  
‘commenting’, at what point do we pause to grasp the consequences of  
our info-saturated lives? What compels us to engage so diligently with  
social networking systems? With a dearth of theory on the social and  
cultural ramifications of hugely popular online services, Geert  
provides a path- breaking critical analysis of our over-hyped,  
networked world with case studies on search engines, online video,  
blogging, digital radio, media activism and the WikiLeaks saga.
This book offers a powerful message to media practitioners and  
theorists: let us collectively unleash our critical capacities to  
influence technology design and workspaces; otherwise we will  
disappear into the cloud. Probing but never pessimistic, Geert draws  
from his long history in media research to offer a critique of the  
political structures and conceptual powers embedded in the  
technologies that shape our daily lives.

Publisher: Polity Press 2012 and design: Studio Leon Loes.

Anticipating on the publication of this book, a series of videos have  
been made where Geert discusses his book. http://www.vimeo.com/album/1626182
Videos produced by Linda Wallace. Camera and editing: Emile Zile.  
Interviewer: Morgan Currie.

More information: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/weblog/2011/06/27/networks-without-a-cause/

Videos: http://www.vimeo.com/album/1626182
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  Video Vortex #7, Yogyakarta
Indonesia has seen an explosion of video practices and organizations  
since the arrival of affordable platforms for production and  
distribution. To date, much vital work has been done – in ground-up  
networks devoted to art and digital culture, social activism and  
participatory media – to survey this diverse activity, its growing  
purchase on the public sphere, and the challenges faced.

But as DV is absorbed into the mainstream media-scape, what are the  
crucial technical, social and aesthetic strategies for the politics of  
video going forward? What are the exemplary videos, who are the video- 
makers, and organizations, and why? And what histories have shaped the  
medium that has yet to be written into the discussion? This 4 day  
festival gathers key thinkers from diverse constituencies in  
Indonesia, and innovative practitioners from abroad, to exchange and  
discuss the discourse on video in Indonesia beyond overviews.

Project Partners & Hosts: House of Natural Fiber, Yogyakarta [HONF],  
Video Vortex (Institute of Network Cultures), Amsterdam [VV], Forum  
Lenteng, Jakarta [FL], KUNCI Cultural Studies Center, Yogyakarta  
[KUNCI], Indonesian Visual Art Archive, Yogyakarta [IVAA], ruangrupa  
and OK Video Festival, Jakarta [ruru], Engage Media, Jakarta [EM],  
Langgeng Art Foundation, Yogyakarta [LAF], Kedai Kebun Forum,  
Yogyakarta [KKF], Yogyakarta Documentary Film Festival [FFD].

This festival is supported by: Ford Foundation, Goethe-Institut  
Indonesien and the Institute of Network Cultures from the SIA RAAK  
program Culture Vortex.

More information: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/7-yogyakarta-2

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Video Vortex #7 summer school at University of Split, Academy of Arts

We would like to invite you and your students to participate in the  
Video Vortex summer school Vis, 22-31 August 2011. This is the first  
year that a summer school is being organized as part of the  
international Video Vortex network. The aim of the project is to  
establish a European summer school and future joint study programs in  
the fields of film, media arts, performance and cultural theory.

The following Universities will be involved: Sint Lucas Art Academy of  
Gent, Belgium, Sussex University of Brighton, School of Media, Film  
and Music, UK, University of Nova Gorizia, School of Arts, Slovenia,  
University of Zagreb, Academy of Dramatic Arts, Croatia, University of  
Rijeka, Academy of Aplied Arts, Croatia, and the University of Split,  
Academy of Arts, Croatia.

We expect to have 2-4 students from each university. All together,  
around 20 students and 10 teachers are expected. The invited teachers  
should select some of their students to participate in the workshop.  
Structure of the workshop is that students work in couples of groups.  
For example, one group will be working in the field as a mobile film- 
media crew and another group will be assembling and editing materials  
and/or putting it online. Other groups or individuals can develop  
their own work methods or they can work exclusively with online moving  
image. There will also be a small film set and the production of a  
couple of scenes for a feature film will be taking place. We will have  
underwater cameras and motion capture control, lighting and sound  
equipment. Each day there will be a conceptual round table centered on  
planning the next day of production. Each evening we will also have  
one presentation or lecture by one of the teachers. At the end of the  
workshop we will have presentations in the local cinema and on about  
10 plasma televisions placed around the town of Komiza.

More information: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/weblog/2011/07/15/video-vortex-summer-school-at-university-of-split-academy-of-arts/

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Theory on Demand

During the last two months several implementations took place at the  
INC. All the readers are now available both on Issuu and Scribd. The  
two platforms gave great results in terms of reading and downloading:  
since the half of June the publications were read more than 3.000 on  
Scribd, while more than 2.700 on Issuu. Critical Point of View: A  
Wikipedia Reader, the most recent INC publication, was downloaded 58  
times from Scribd.
Also, in order to adopt open standards, we began to test EPUB format.  
One result is the INC publications’ overview which is downloadable  
from our main website. Those experiments are a starting point to  
define the problematics of the EPUB format for non-fiction texts. Some  
of these reflections are reported on the Theory on Demand’s blog.
Another mean of DIY publishing was tried: the Espresso Book Machine.  
Employing this system, all the printing and binding operations take  
less than half an hour. A copy of the TOD no. 7 (Image, Time and  
Motion: New Media Critique from Turkey) was produced and all the  
process was documented in a little video.
Meanwhile, a new project called Out of Ink: Future Publishing  
Industries started. The project will firstly investigate the  
developments of the Dutch publishing houses -especially the ones  
involved in academic and art/design fields- considering the current  
digital opportunities. A website with a dedicated visual identity is  
under development and it will be ready in the next few weeks. It will  
employ open source typography and web architecture.
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  Urban Screens, Interactive Public Space
INC is already for years involved in Urban Screens. In 2009 it issued  
the the Urban Screens Reader. From early September, a collaboration  
will take place within the researchgroup Interactive Public Space from  
Mettina Veenstra. The aim of this researchproject is to create outdoor  
media with an added value for the public space. The role of public  
screens will be examined in supporting the needs and activities of  
individuals and organizations in public space. From INC, Sabine  
Niederer, Matthijs ten Berge and Denisse Iglesias will be invloved  
within this researchgroup. More information will available from early  
September on.

Sabine and Mattijs are both representatives in the International Urban  
Screens Association.

More information: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/urbanscreens/


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New INC Research Network: Unlike Us - Understanding Social Media  
Monopolies and their Alternatives | Forthcoming two events | Amsterdam  
and Cyprus | February 2012


The aim of this proposal is to establish a research network of  
artists, designers, scholars, activists and programmers who work on  
'alternatives in social media'. Through workshops, conferences, online  
dialogues and publications, Unlike Us intends to both analyze the  
economic and cultural aspects of dominant social media platforms and  
to propagate the further development and proliferation of alternative,  
decentralized social media software.

If you want to join the Unlike Us network, start your own initiatives  
in this field or hook up what you have already been doing for ages,  
subscribe to the mailinglist (see under). Traffic will be modest. Soon  
there will be a special page/blog for the initiative on the INC  
website. Also an independent social network will be installed shortly,  
using alternative software.

Whether or not we are in the midst of Internet bubble 2.0, we can all  
agree that social media dominate Internet and mobile use. The  
emergence of web-based user-to-user services, driven by an explosion  
of informal dialogues, continuous uploads, and user generated content  
have greatly empowered the rise of participatory culture. At the same  
time, monopoly power, commercialization and commodification are also  
on the rise with just a handful of social media platforms dominating  
the social Web. These two contradictory processes – the facilitation  
and the commercial exploitation of social relationships and  
communications – seem to lie at the heart of contemporary capitalism.  
On the one hand new media create and expand the social spaces we  
interact, play and even politicize ourselves through; on the other  
hand they are literally owned by three or four companies that  
potentially have phenomenal power to shape such interaction. Whereas  
the hegemonic Internet ideology promises open, decentralized systems,  
why do we, time and again, find ourselves locked into closed familiar  
corporate environments? Why are individual users so easily charmed by  
these 'walled gardens'? Do we understand the long-term costs that  
society will pay for the ease of use, simple interfaces of their  
beloved 'free' services?

Forthcoming; two events in Amsterdam and Cyprus in collaboration with  
the Cyprus University of Technology, Lemasol.

Unlike Us is an initiative from Geert Lovink and Korinna Patelis  
(Cyprus University if Technology, Lemasol).

More information: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/weblog/2011/07/15/new-inc-research-network-unlike-us-understanding-social-media-monopolies-and-their-alternatives/

Subscribe to the Unlike Us mailingslist to discuss and stay updated: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/unlike-us_listcultures.org

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