Rethinking Tactical Space in Vienna
ion capable of altering people's perception of the city in this total, immersive way". Thus 0100101110101101.ORG continues its history of works meant to be told instead of being seen; works which pose the problem of an art which is mythopoetic. The whole performance has been realized in cooperation with Public Netbase, the Vienna netculture institution. Konrad Becker, director of Public Netbase, explains: "It is our duty to directly intervene into urban and media space, to bring up the issues of symbolic domination in public space by private interests. We see Nike Ground as a statement for the artistic freedom to manipulate the symbols of everyday life". Naturally, not all of the reactions were so enthusiastic. Amongst the letters published in newspapers, one Viennese commented: "It is a scandal that while in the US Nike had to pay 1.5 million dollars for misleading the consumer with false advertising, in Vienna we decide to build a monument to a corporation which is still making a large use of sweatshops". Another one added: "The Viennese schnitzel might not be as fancy but it is surely tastier than their meaningless plastic swoosh". To assuage people's anger, or simply inform citizens of Nike Ground activities around the world, an infoline has even been set up: 0664-123, where a female voice kindly accepts all questions and criticism. The authors of this surreal performance promise that the Infobox will stay in place for another month. Now that the fake has been revealed, many people wonder whether Nike will try to put an end to the performance. "Why should they? - asks Mattes surprised - we produced the first Nike no-budget advertisement!". Nike Ground is the latest surreal action by the organization known as 0100101110101101.ORG, a band of media artists who use non conventional communication tactics to obtain the largest visibility with the minimal effort. Past works include staging a hoax involving a completely made-up artist, ripping off the Holy See and spreading a computer virus as a work of art. NIKEGROUND: http://www.nikeground.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] CONTACTS: HTTP://0100101110101101.ORG [EMAIL PROTECTED] # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Free Bitflows participation
of residencies for artists to develop a project for the event in June. There are still residencies available which are intended to allow applicants to develop a project in Vienna to be presented at Free Bitflows. These short term residencies (up to one month) include travel within Europe/ accommodation/ subsistence and artist fee. All applications should refer to the format and space requirements of their proposed presentation/installation in Vienna, including maps and measures. Please apply with concept, description and detailed technical list of the equipment for your project as well as additional requirements during the residency. | |--- | | Concept: | Felix Stalder (CH/CAN) und Konrad Becker (AT) | |--- | Production: Public Netbase (Vienna, AT) www.t0.or.at +43 (1) 522 18 34 | http://freebitflows.t0.or.at |--- ex-stream.net is carried out with the support of the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union. The content of this project does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Community, nor does it involve any responsibility on the part of the European Community. # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Free Bitflows
el for a creative nation Brewster Kahle (US): Universal Access to All Knowledge Istvan Rev (HU): Open Society Archives Moderation: Thorsten Schilling (DE) 17.00 - 19.30 Session 4 : Compensation Decentral What are the new models and alternatives for a direct distribution and dissemination beyond the big gatekeepers of the music industry? With only 5% percent of the value going to the creators, there are chances to cut out the media cartels to achieve a fair compensation for artists and a broad distribution of "stuff". What are existing examples and what should we learn from their experience? To reclaim utopias in defense of imagination might provide enough room of manoeuvre to allow the emergence of new practices beyond the all too real dystopias of digital restrictions at the end of the world as we know it. Volker Grassmuck (DE): In Favor of Collectively Managed Online Rights Kristin Thomson (US): The Future of Music, for Musicians Wendy Selzer (US): Voluntary Alternative Compensation Systems Bjoern Hartmann (DE/FR): Netlabels vs. Brick-and-Mortar Distribution Notes from the Trenches of the Electronic Music Scene The whole conference will be streamed live http://freebitflows.t0.or.at // EXHIBITION Artists from the enlarged Europe examine cultures of access and politics of dissemination from a broad range of perspectives. Amongst others the exhibition will feature: Beat Brogle (CH) / One Word Movie, James Brown (UK) / apology, Ewen Chardronnet (FR) / Ground Control, Petko Dourmana (BG) / Out of recession, Eastwood - Real Time Strategy Group (CS) / Civilization IV, Maia Gusberti (CH/AT) and Michael Aschauer (AT) / e_etc.tv, Christoph Kummerer (AT) / 0penM1nd, Anja Neitzert (DE) / Release early release often diary and Max Moswitzer (AT) / HUD_DEMO. // EVENTS Wednesday 2 June, 16.00 - 20.00 Exhibition opening: Live Streaming Performance TRAMJAM - VIENNA RUSHHOUR by Mumbai Streaming Attack (CH) (Shu Lea Chang, Niki Schawalder a.o.) Location: Temporary Location on Karlsplatz Thursday 3 June, 23.00 - 01.30 An evening of performances employing computers, humans and heterogenous streaming technologies. X-powered-by: xdv.org (gl03, pxp, it's not fair, > epy), Kate Donovan, Chris Kummerer, and others Location: Semperdepot, Prospekthof, Léhargasse 6, 1060 Vienna // WORKSHOPS Hands on Stream Studio Workshop Wednesday 2 June, 10.00 - 17.00 with Stoyan Kostadinov (BG) The workshop enables direct experience with innovative Open Source streaming solutions. It will demonstrate a series of practical streaming scenarios and explained how they can be realized most effectively with free and open source software. Location: Public Netbase/t0, Burggasse 21, 1070 Vienna Workshop 'Radio Syndication Seminar' Saturday 5 June, 9.00 - 13.00 organized by Bootlab (DE) While numerous non-commercial radios exist, the aim is to combine the old analog practice with digital media. During the seminar radio makers will examine existing usages and technologies, and map out best practice models for the future. Location: Public Netbase/t0, Burggasse 21, 1070 Vienna Artist Software Presentation Workshop Thursday 3 June, 10.00 13.00 Artists including Georg Lauteren (AT) will present their latest projects in the field of software development. Location: Semperdepot, Prospekthof, Léhargasse 6, 1060 Vienna The People Speak Friday 4 June, 10.00 13.00 with Saul Albert (UK) and Michael Weinkove (UK) The People Speak is a set of ideas and strategies for stimulating debate, conversation, and self-expression. It develops experimental communication forms where the power structures are obvious and no instruction manual is required - the people speak! Location: Semperdepot, Prospekthof, Léhargasse 6, 1060 Vienna Free Bitflows is realized in the framework of exStream, a two-year collaborative project of Hull Time Based Arts (Hull, UK), V2_ (Rotterdam, NL), Bootlab (Berlin, DE), InterSpace Media Art Center (Sofia, BG), and Institute for New Culture Technologies/t0 - Public Netbase (Vienna, AT). Concept and Conference Editors: Konrad Becker, Felix Stalder Conference Co-Editor: Pit Schultz Institute for New Culture Technologies/t0 Zwischenquartier Burggasse 21 1070 Vienna, Austria phone: ++43,1,522 18 34 fax: ++43, 1, 522 50 58 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.t0.or.at Free Bitflows is realized with the support of the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union. # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FREEDOM, TERROR & SEMIOTIC DEMOCRACY
World-Information.Org ** WORLD-INFO FLASH 17 ON FREEDOM, TERROR & SEMIOTIC DEMOCRACY ** ++ US Artist Faces Terrorism Charges ++ http://world-information.org ++ ** ++ FOUNDING MEMBER OF CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE AND WORLD-INFORMATION.ORG CONSULTANT FACES TERRORISM CHARGES ++ Steve Kurtz, a renowned artist and Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the State University of New York's University at Buffalo whose work addresses the implications of information and bio technologies, was arrested by a joint terrorism task force on 12 May, 2004. In a tragic antecedent, Kurtz's wife had died unexpectedly in the early morning of the previous day due to a cardiac arrest. Critical Art Ensemble have been working on projects designed to expose the strategies of the biotech industry and to enable a critical public debate on bio technologies, whose life-transforming power contrasts sharply with the lack of a public discourse. Kurtz' tools included laboratory material needed to show transgenic contamination of food products. The materials pose no danger and Steve Kurtz has successfully used them in international art shows for years. Although the materials represent devices and substances that are commercially available and can be legally obtained by anyone, Steve Kurtz's home was searched by a hazmat squad and declared a danger zone. A founding member of the renowned Critical Art Ensemble, Steve Kurtz now faces an indictment based on laws that severely curtail fundamental rights using the fight against terrorism as a pretext. The 'Patriot Act' serves as justification for a campaign not only against immigrants, but also against critical journalists, scientists, and recently also artists. Steve Kurtz has publicly denounced the patenting of the biosphere and the role played by corporations, and recently examined the transgenetic contamination of food products. His attempt to use artistic means to make the genetic manipulation of the food chain and the practices of the bio industry visible have meant that state authorities dazed by paranoia now view him as a "terrorist". Eight other members and associates of Critical Art Ensemble received subpoenas. As part of an international response, the Free Bitflows conference, organized by World-Information.Org's partner organization Public Netbase on 3 - 4 June, 2004, issued a declaration in support of Kurtz. An international audience of artists, academics and cultural workers condemned the actions taken by the US justice authorities against Steve Kurtz in the strongest possible terms. They demanded an immediate stop of the repressive steps taken against Steve Kurtz as well as his full vindication and restoration as an artist. The petition was handed over to the US representative in Vienna on 15 June as part of a protest at the US Embassy. On the same day a Grand Jury hearing began which will decide whether Kurtz will be formally indicted. Chances are that he will be, given that "the Grand Jury courts have been traditionally used to eliminate social and political resistance", according to one CAE member. These courts have no obligation to hear contradicting evidence, and therefore are expected to subscribe to the police's version of events, "I could indict a ham sandwich", in the words of the attorney general. Critical Art Ensemble's theoretical work and analysis of technologically saturated societies has been of crucial importance in the emergence of post-ideological forms of critique. Steve Kurtz and the Critical Art Ensemble have been contributors to World-Information.Org from the project's beginning in 1999. As a cultural intelligence provider, World-Information.org was affected by CAE's theoretical work in a decisive way, and the group was present with their art projects at all World-Information.Org events, including their famous presentation of Cult of the New Eve in Brussels in 2000. The fact that Steve Kurtz has become the object of aggressive police maneuvers shows that his art does in fact touch the nerve of occult power in the techno state. As a matter of fact, even assuming the most evil intentions, nothing of what Kurtz did or possessed in a material way could be categorized as criminal. His 'offence' can only be constructed on a symbolic level. On this level, behavior that is formally perfectly legal seems to violate symbolic restrictions of the information containment architecture. Coupled with government-nurtured security paranoia Kurtz as a critical artist becomes the target of state repression that neither adheres to principles of freedom of thought nor freedom of expression. His case shows the urgency of an open debate about the meaning of semiotic democracy, while illustrating the lack of checks and balances that could restrain semiotic repression. *
GSA - Urban Information Peacekeeping
[A world full of opportunities for the security business! why wasting time servicing the white-cubicle industries, this is where the action is. Safety issues? GSA will be delighted to cut you a deal! ->K] + GSA - Urban Information Peacekeeping Global Security Alliance is proud to announce its new expanded security campaign in cooperation with the City of Munich: A public private partnership with the power to influence results! GSA leads an alignment of covert information operations testing new forms of risk perception management for urban areas. Strategic communication operations win the hearts of the population through a rich spectrum of new technologies and conventional information dominance solutions: - Black Helicopters under Munich A fleet of 12 Black Helicopters, as viewed from outer space, is deployed according to statistical security data and conflict mapping. The GIS based GSA operation introduces new psycho-geographic tactics of satellite imaging into the battleground of a subjective security experience. - Security Fest 2006 The Security Fest Munich disseminates highly contagious material on Mobile Urban Screens for the popular imagination. The "Security look of the Year Award" draws target populations into the new quest for security and leads up to a highlight of any Security Fest: truck-mounted GSA PsyOps Soundsystems performing a classical Peacekeeping Concert! + Security Fest Munich 23.09. 2006 -> 15:00 -22:00 Hours | Sendlinger Tor Platz - Theater of Operations - Lat: 48.133 Lon: 11.567 -> 19:00h - 22:00 Hours GSA / www.global-security-alliance.com Global Security Alliance provides a wide range of 21st century services for transforming threat into opportunity. We customize and execute solutions for our clients to help meet today's information peacekeeping and stability operations challenges. Infoglobal-security-alliance.com # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
GSA: ET Biopolitics and Creative Industries
ecessity to bribe the dissenting segments of the population and no incentive to grant extension of freedoms. Instead of peddling hope and visions of mutually shared commonwealth, authority is maintained by the production of synthetic fear and the need to secure property against some other. Deimos and Phobos, the gods of panic, angst and terror dominate the omni-directional realm of geo-psychological strategies in an asymmetric world war against invisible enemies without qualities. Market concentrations benefit neo-feudal power structures that know how to use access to media, private security and intelligence services to advance their interests. Private oligarchic networks of finance and business cartels cultivate relations to governmental entities controlling state agencies and military units. Media narratives and public relations strategies transform synthetic fear into advantages that produce windfalls of power and profit. This theater of fear is a skillful interplay of compartmentalized information units, privatized command centers, loyal officials and gatekeepers as well as professional Special Forces. Productions of artificial angst call for scenarios of counter-terrorist theater rehearsals and paramilitary actors as well as the professional staging of scapegoats and dupes. The dark networks draw on privatized intelligence units, so called "asteroids", business entities which provide cover for compartmentalized operations. Space was formerly known as heaven and manned space flight from earth could be understood as mechanical equivalent to an ascent to divinity. Johannes Kepler suspected paradise to be located on the moon and Konstantin Tsiolkowsky, the Russian pioneer of modern rocket science, saw manned space flight as a freeway to the supernatural. In his novel "Gravity's Rainbow" Thomas Pynchon contemplates the ambiguous interrelations between sex, rockets and magic. Jack Parsons, a key figure in American rocketry, lost his reputation and security clearance in obsessive pursuit of occult rituals and sexual mumbo-jumbo before he diffused into space in a lab explosion in 1952. A crater on the dark side of the moon is named in memory of Parsons, a tribute to the shady cofounder of the famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The 19th century spiritualist pseudoscience of a world of ghosts and occult belief in spirits, a complex adaptation to modernity, has morphed into 20th century sciences. From social theories and "optimization" of the workplace, from operations research to scientific communication and applied psychology, many genres of academic disciplines and the influence business are rooted in the twilight zone of the netherworlds. When Norbert Wiener, who developed his work on cybernetics from ballistics research, writes that "Communication and control belong to the essence of man's inner life, even as they belong to his life in society" he evokes the ancient art of assessing the human personality and exploiting motivations. Developed out of clandestine mind control programs in the 1960's, the methodical application of Personality Assessment Systems became standard operating procedure in business and intelligence. Systems of discipline and control which took shape in the 19th century on the basis of earlier procedures have mutated into new and aggressive forms, beyond simplistic theories of state and sovereignty. In the past, the science of power branched into the twin vectors of political control and control of the self. In the 21st century the technologies of material control and subjective internalization are in a process of converging. The traditional twin operations, with which the authorities aim to win the hearts and minds, the binding maneuvers of law enforcement and the dazzling illusionist control of the imagination, are transforming into each other. Not unlike werewolves using the powers of the moon for a violent metamorphosis, contemporary agencies of power turn into shape shifters and fluctuating modes of dominance. Star Wars technology shape-shifts into applications of creative industries, into the domain of desire, imagination and mediated lunacy. Technologies of individualization bound to controllable identities and the global machinery of homogenization are superimposing to a double-bind of contemporary power structures. The renaissance heretic Giordano Bruno anticipates these developments in his visionary treatise "De Vinculis in Genere" - a general account of bonding - on operational phantasms and the libidinal manipulation of the human spirit. The disputatious philosopher of an infinite universe, beyond his unique investigation into the imaginary and the persuasion of masses and the individual, also challenged the ontological separation between the spheres of the heavens and the sublunary world of his time. Today, in a technological marriage of heaven and earth, there is a full spectrum military entertainme
Culture and 21st Century Risk Management
[Compiled a while ago for a Global Security Alliance project -that has not been realized yet- for your safety and pleasure... ~>K] Global-Security-Alliance.com *** The Art of Security Culture and 21st Century Risk Management Ever since the end of the Cold War, culture has made a dramatic return to the international stage. The predictions are that its presence will be even more widely felt in the new millennium [.] displacing military coercion as a political tool. "Culture, Identity and Security" Project On World Security, Rockefeller Fund, Amir Pasic, 1998 A new security culture is emerging in key sectors of society. Security has become a central economic, societal and political issue and has reaches deep into the sphere of art and culture. While culture increasingly receives the spotlight in International Relations studies and military strategy documents the OECD calls for a "Culture of Security" and encourages the development of a mindset to respond to the threats and vulnerabilities of Information Systems (1), Raoul Vaneigem in "The Revolution of Everyday Life" (2) pointed to the importance of an assurance of security for the project of cultural self-realization by providing energy formerly expended in the struggle for survival. Although this need for safety can get in conflict with the need for freedom of art and expression, this freedom is itself based on security for the arts. As the traditional discourse on the freedom of art has slowly faded to the background it has given place to thinking about the role of art in a security culture. It therefore seems appropriate to look at the relation of art and security and the role and service that art can offer to security issues. In a changing world of insecurity and threats which is based on politics of mediated reality control, artists are forced to adapt their role in society. The politics of creative industries have been criticized for endangering democratic struggle against the "reduction of inequalities and of various forms of subordination" (3), as a result of privatizing the public sphere. By shifting "democratization in the realm of aesthetics and taste" (4), the ideology of a commercially driven culture of creative industries is opposed to an understanding of culture as central to social justice and self-governance, but a security driven global cultural environment raises new questions regarding dissent, resistance and autonomy. Security seems to know no ideological boundaries; from the manuals of the Brazilian Urban Guerrilla to those of the School of Americas, never the slightest sign of laxity in the maintenance of security measures and regulations was permitted. In Security Culture the concept of creative industries, to bring the fine arts in from the cold into the productive forces of industry and thus bring security to the artists and culture to the machines of capital is advanced into the understanding of the arts becoming a security force by itself. The word "secure" started to find its modern use in the 14th century, when the securing of roads, in particular for merchants and pilgrims, became a major concern. The Emperor, and more importantly, the respective princes declared the protection of the highways and signed treaties to this effect. 1375 the Dukes of Austria and Bavaria agreed "that they will protect and secure the roads everywhere". While classic ideological assumptions hold that liberal freedoms in culture are by necessity bought with blood and that liberal values can only be uphold through lethal force, Paul Virilio claims that what drives our technocratic societies is not capital but militarism and the security complex itself. The culture that develops out of this dromological movement and permanent state of crisis is fixated on security and speed, on who can protect themselves best and fastest. Thanks to this, technological production attains a new dimension, and capital can be invested in weapons, tools and even more security. The age of computing brought about the control revolution but as every cryptographer knows, security is an illusion. Security has complex dimensions in informational societies and is strongly based in subjective experiences. Personal feelings of fear and safety are grounded in multiple unconscious causes and composite experiences. The 'fear of death' combines the abstract, empirical fact of biological death, subjective emotional fear of ceasing-to-be and ontological anxiety itself. This sense of 'ontological insecurity' is intensified by an increasing awareness of 'risk' in society at large. Ulrich Beck divides modern civilization into three epochs of pre-industrial , industrial, and "global risk society" (5) suggesting that individuals have all become increasingly aware of the dangers that face them in both the social and the natural environments and feel powerless to minimize them. But in a culture of fear, public perceptions about risk cannot only be understood as reactions to a pa
IP and the City
below an editorial of the new World-Information infopaper... plus related links... This Monday at Netbase, a pre-view on World-Information City "Billboard Call Bangalore 2005" artists campaigning projects with Marina Grzinic, Ljubliana; Elffriede, Vienna. And a panel discussion on IP and the City with Hanna Hacker, Vienna; Felix Stalder, Zurich; Veronika Weidinger, Vienna greetings, ->K IP and the City Restricted Lifescapes and the Wealth of the Commons The booms, bubbles and busts of the digital networking revolution of the 90s have ebbed into normality. The new logic of information economies is interacting with the full range of social and political contexts, producing new systems of domination but also new domains of freedom. It is now that from deep societal transformations the new informational lifescapes start to emerge. Thus it has become necessary to highlight the strong normalizing forces that shape this process. This is not just a question of abstract information policy. On the contrary, the building of immaterial landscapes has very material consequences for social, cultural and economic realities. With digital restriction technologies and expanded intellectual property regimes on the rise, it is an urgent task to develop new ways to protect and extend the wealth of our intellectual and cultural commons. Human life is physical and informational at the same time, our physical and cultural dimensions are mutually constitutive. Their interrelations emerging from historical and local context are now more than ever influenced by global transformations in the info sphere. The term "globalization" describes a deep change in how physical and informational spaces are organized and how they intersect with one another to form landscapes, both physical and informational. "Zoning", the establishment of domains governed by special rules, is a key concept to understand these new landscapes. Physical space is increasingly fragmented into "export zones", special "safety zones", VIP lounges at transportation hubs, gated communities, "no-go areas" and so forth. Just when for the first time in history a majority of humanity lives in cities, their form starts dissolving and is replaced by a patchwork of distinct sectors. Every city has places that are fully global alongside others which are intensely local, "first world" and "third world" are no longer regional identifiers, but signify various patches within a single geographic domain. Informational landscapes are fragmented by similar processes. What used to be relatively open and accessible cultural spaces are increasingly caved up in special administrative zones, privatized claims of intellectual property, and policed through the ever increasing scope of patents and copyrights. What comes natural to people, to create, transform and share ideas, thoughts, and experiences - as songs, as computer programs, as stories, as new processes how to make things better - is being prohibited by proprietary claims of "data lords" who enforce dominion over their own zones of the cultural landscape. This is accompanied by intense propaganda efforts extolling the "evils" of sharing culture. There is no trespassing, and while their culture is ubiquitous around the globe, we are more and more restricted from making our own. Counter-movements that talk about the commons instead of proprietary zones have been gathering strength around the globe. The goal is to devise new ways in which information can flow freely from one place to another, from people to people. Instead of deepening fragmentation, information and cultures are held to be a resource produced and used collaboratively, rather than being controlled by particular owners. People should be free to appropriate information as they see fit, based on their own historical and personal needs and desire, rather than having to consume the standardized products of McWorld. More than ever informational commons, accessible under conditions of their own choosing, are needed to help reconnect people bypassed by the standard flows of information and capital. In this paper, we bring together theoreticians and practitioners, artists and lawyers, programmers and musicians who offer a diverse critique of the new regime of physical and informational zoning. This collection of cultural intelligence looks into alternative models of how to reinvent cultural practices based on a collaborative plurality of commons and, perhaps, imbue fragmentation of space with a new positive sense of shared differences. As each and every one of us produces culture in the course of our daily lifes, we are forced to choose sides: do we, in the myriad of small acts that constitute life in the information society, enforce restrictions or enable access? Konrad Becker, Netbase/t0, Institute for New Culture Technologies Felix Sta
World-Information City Bangalore
Tommorow Monday 14th is the launch of World-Information City festival in Bangalore... Parallel to the WSIS in Tunis, World-Information City is a one-week programme of events addressing global issues of intellectual property and technology in conjunction with changing urban landscapes. The programme brings together researchers, artists and activists from Europe and South Asia. It consists of a conference, workshops, an exhibition, a public campaign, and a series of musical and art events based on electronic media. Held at India's IT metropolis Bangalore, World-Information City is a cooperative project of the Institute of New Culture Technologies/t0, Sarai CSDS, Waag Society, ALF (Bangalore), Mahiti (Bangalore) and local partners. Conference streaming will be available on 17/18th... a conference blog will be in place and the website will be continuously updated... for details please check http://world-information.org cheers, >K # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
Re: Netbase (1994-2006)
thanks for the kind obituaries on the list and many personal responses Nettimers have supported Netbase (formerly known as Public Netbase) through countless crises over the years. They have written and signed endless online-petitions and open letters for this base of critical cultural intelligence to survive in a hostile environment- the battle is lost. Not too surprisingly, the success of its urban media interventions was many times inversely proportional to the amusement of the local political establishment. Accordingly this network of tactical media and art has been under fire for many years. From sensationalist rightwing accusations (from the exotic "child abuse" and pornography to being "at the throat of the government") to extended financial audits, threats of police evacuation and the daily grind of cultural warfare, Netbase has come a long way... Interestingly enough, in the end, the rooting out of possibly the last cultural organization of visible dissent in Vienna was not executed by the extreme right or conservatives. But does it matter? The new principle of symbolic domination has been put in place: enforced silence. It's no longer a question of making people believe as in representation, it is about silencing: "every noise evokes an image of subversion". And since we have been put under threat of serious legal and financial consequences if we go public with any official press release or any other statement we will use our last remaining right- to remain silent. Nevertheless let me thank the amazing multitude of those who were part of this and made it all happen. best, Konrad # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
Free Media Camp Vienna - Report from an Illegal Squat
Yesterday night a broad alliance of independent media initiatives and cultural organizations including the community radio "Orange", members of the community media cluster Vienna (CMCV), the magazine MALMOE, the media lab PVL, and umbrella organizations like IG Kultur, joined Public Netbase reclaimed the streets by establishing a free media camp in the center of Vienna. The illegal squat started with three office containers and a large tent set on an empty square in the middle of one of the main junctions of inner city traffic. The Karlsplatz close to the state Opera also happens to be one of the main hangouts for homeless and addicts and has been in the focus of restructuring plans for considerable time. The perspective of gentrification and a new venue for representational culture and tourist industry has received sharp criticism. Expropriation/privatization of the commons by neoliberal religious practice and the attack on public space demands direct action. Austria has been in the grip of a rightwing government for some years now, with a substantial effort on societal restructuring which includes increased control and withdrawal in culture. The city of Vienna which traditionally has a social democratic majority reacts by increasing control on public and cultural services themselves, while the political opposition parties in town are useless or hostile towards civil society's dissent and struggle. For Public Netbase standing accused of causing damages of 45000 euros at a recent street protest (celebrating the "day of free media" 15.June) conflict is the only response left to deal with the local situation. A joint act of civil disobedience by a large coalition of critical culture is a strong signal that sleepy Vienna is waking up to claim its birthright: free media culture. The ceremonial opening of the camp on Friday 23:00 included speakers from media and cultural organizations, an address from Dieter Schrage, one of the activists from the first squat in Austria in the 70's (Arena), Ricardo Dominguez with an electronic Zapatista declaration praising the technologies of imagination, and ended with an open air notebook concerto deep into the warm summer night. Although they issued a warning, police has not been on location and abstained from direct interference for the time being. The free media camp, featuring a free wifi, will be a hotspot for information exchange, workshops, events and parties for the next weeks and months - or until removed by brute force :) ~>K http://mediencamp.t0.or.at/ the campsite http://www.pbase.com/viennafoto/270603_container_am_karlsplatz some first snapshots: http://free.netbase.org/ a netbase info site www.verkehrshoelle.at an extremly dubious citizens initiative http://mediencamp.karlsplatz.at a map of the area http://www.magwien.gv.at/gdvmo/stadtplan/asp/grafik.asp?WidthUser=500&Re sUser=640&Layer2=1&Layer3=1&Layer5=1&Layer6=1&Cmd=CHECKWIDTH&Server=ADVG dvMoStadtPlan&XMin=2578%2E24&YMin=340121%2E34&XMax=2686%2E53&YMax=340179 %2E41&Adr_X=2632%2E39&Adr_Y=340150%2E38&Adr_StrObjId=10004845&Adr_StrNam e=Treitlstra%DFe&Adr_KatCode=10070&Adr_KatText=Stra%DFenname # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
