The net is definitely not the solution for everything. In the moment I am not the only one who is interested not to disappear in the process of consolidation and commercialization. But, at the same time, I am skeptical about the chances of the 'professionalization' of popular net-culture. My thesis is that the net was absorbing a collective desire which peaked between 1989 and 1991, and that very soon it become a everyday medium. The question is how to relate it to the 'outside' where times are definitely getting harder and more unequal. How to define the net as a political tool without neglecting its potential for polymorphous imagination and aesthetics, and so on...
I can describe the situation of 'e-publishing' from my perspective, how it changed from 1992-96 through different phases (in 1992 it was called 'mailboxen' and 'hacking', then 'virtual community' etc.. by using the example of the fast growing project of 'Net critique'. I will pose questions concerning 'content', financing, social intelligence, the dialectic of 'fishing strategies' (exploiting/exploring), use of databases, and so on...
Then I will present a short manifesto for 'Free Content' -- the critique of the distinction between private and public which tends to represent the one of corporate/state property.
Questions how to secure a minimum on 'content for all', how to build pressure groups and open discourse on the question of 'commercialization of knowledge' in the content castles of exploding intranets.
Questions of in- and ex-clusion ON the net.
Questions of marginalization through the politics of access (off-line barbarism)
Questions for Net Art Strategies
The Virtual Cathedral: the Institution as host or enemy.
The 'city territory' as common ground for interfacing and structuring collaborative art projects, the comeback of the traveling artist.
The unnessessity to talk about Art, the crisis of the art system and what it means for the 'artist'. Constructivity of the 'art process' (the user makes the art piece).
Tactics vs. Strategies
'Hit and run' against long term desires. Can we define some common goals for the far future in the field of the cultural politics of the Nets? How to turn down the speed and relax with productivity, less is more against new poverty. How the de-heirarchization effects the art-system. Models for Subjectivity production without 'pieces', Models for effectiveness without discipline and control. Models to update the idea of 'subversion'.
I can write an 'short article' only if you need it.
That's what I think right now, there are enough ideas, we would need a nice location and relaxed people, some food and drinks, and a whole evening or afternoon, for a Nettime meeting.
Geert knows the rest...
OK, I don't reread it because I don't want you to wait any longer.
online-work
until 92 The Thing network
until 87 online BBS/Internet
until 94 web projects
until 95 net criticism
BBS-projects
- german media art news (newsletter)
- thing review (newsletter)
- versch. Symposia (u.a. mit Jordan Crandall, BLAST 3)
- Schrebers Garden (interaktives Theaterstueck)
intenet-projects
* superfly / different net events, publishings, muds, projects
* Museum fuer Zukunft, (93-95) bei Internationale Stadt (eingeladen u.a. Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Medienbiennale Leipzig)
* Orgasmotron Project (94) bei C@C (Eva Grubinger) (eingeladen u.a. in Kuenstlerhaus Stuttgart, Galerie Judy Lybke, ICA London)
* City Metaphor List (95) anlaesslich von Telepolis, Interface3 u. versch. Symposien.
* nettime-mailinglist (seit Anfang 95) 'cultural politics of the net, netzkritik, kollektiver textfilter'
* 'Fechner' ('fuer eine Aesthetik von unten' Reproduktion eines Versuches von 1871 auf dem www) manifesta, Rotterdam, KH Bethanien, Berlin (96)
* 'webstop-superstar' (96, Theorie-textdatenbank im Aufbau)
netzkritik + symposien + treffen
* Datendandy (mit Oliver Schwarz) Planetarium Berlin, 1994
* ZK 95-96 (Treffen von Medienkuenstlern, Philosphen, politischen Aktivisten, Journalisten) (mit Geert Lovink) bei Frankfurt, Biennale Venedig (zusammen mit Club Berlin, Kunstwerke), Budapest, Amsterdam
* Einladungen zu Vortraegen: FU Berlin, Kunstwerke, Interfiction Kassel, Interface3, Metaforum Budapest, Next Five Minutes Amsterdam, Studium Generale Groningen, Ars Digitalis Berlin, Cyberconf Madrid, Digital Chaos Bath, ICA London, ZKM Karlsruhe, KHM Koeln, Deaf Rotterdam.
Buchveroeffentlichungen
* zusammen mit Geert Lovink 'eine kleine Netzkritik', bei i.d. archiv.
* 'Im Zentrum der Peripherie', Hrgs. Marius Babias (zur Lage der Kunst in den Netzen)
sonstige Veroeffentlichungen
Anyp, Envelope, Spex, Frontpage, Prinz, Zitty, 241, Kunstforum, u.a.