Institute of Network Cultures
Amsterdam Media Research Centre

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Date of publication: June 2011
Editors: Sabine Niederer & Linda Wallace
Copy editing: Morgan Currie & Margreet Riphagen
Design and formatting: Silvio Lorusso

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The Institute of Network Cultures analyses and shapes the terrain of network cultures from the inside. No innocent bystander, it actively contributes to the field through events, publications and online dialogue. The sphere of new media has huge potential for socio-technological change, and the mission of the Institute of Network Cultures, the INC, is to explore, document and feed this potential. 

Established in 2004 the INC takes as its focus the internet and other new forms of media. The INC is a framework for the realisation of a diverse array of projects, with a strong emphasis on content. Its goal is to create an open organisational form where ideas from both individuals and organisations can be given an early institutional context. A key INC focus is the establishment of sustainable research networks. Following from this the INC seeks to identify emerging critical topics, then to initiate and steer dialogue and exchange in order to shape the way these new forms develop. Differentiating the INC from Information Technology research is its emphasis on the interaction between aesthetics and social relations within technological environments. Attention is also paid to the intercultural aspects of the field. The INC views theoretical developments and self-reflection as vital to the creation of the rich autonomous language that this new area of knowledge deserves. 

The Institute of Network Cultures was founded by Geert Lovink following his appointment as Professor within the School of Interactive Media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. INC is also part of the Create-IT applied research centre.

http://networkcultures.org/

info@networkcultures.org

Publications Overview

INC Readers

The INC Reader series are devoted to INC conference themes and derived from conference contributions. 

INC Readers online

Studies in Network Cultures

This book series investigates concepts and practices specific to network cultures and also explores how to conduct research within this shifting environment. Published by NAi Publishers.

Studies in network cultures online

Network Notebooks

Network Notebooks presents new media research specifically commissioned by the INC. 

Network Notebooks online

Theory on Demand

This series takes its name from Print on Demand, a process in which new copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received. 

Theory on Demand online

INC Readers

About the INC Readers: The aim of the INC is to create sustainable research networks through the formation of a small group of international researchers, both inside and outside of the academy, which may then result in a larger online discussion and international conferences on the specific research themes: search engines, Wikipedia, online video, urban screens, etc. Many of these events culminate in an INC reader, which functions as both a document of the live proceedings and as an important vehicle for the sustainability of the research network.

Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader (2011)

About the book: For millions of internet users around the globe, the search for new knowledge begins with Wikipedia. The encyclopedia’s rapid rise, novel organization and freely offered content have been marveled at and denounced by a host of commentators. Critical Point of View moves beyond unflagging praise, well-worn facts and questioning of its reliability and accuracy, to unveil the complex, messy and controversial realities of a distributed knowledge platform.

The essays, interviews and artworks brought together in this reader form part of the overarching Critical Point of View research initiative, which began with a conference in Bangalore (January 2010), followed by events in Amsterdam (March 2010) and Leipzig (September 2010). With an emphasis on theoretical reflection, cultural difference and, indeed, critique, contributions to this collection ask: What values are embedded in Wikipedia’s software? On what basis are Wikipedia’s claims to neutrality made? How can Wikipedia give voice to those outside the Western tradition of Enlightenment, or even its own administrative hierarchies? Critical Point of View collects original insights on the next generation of wiki-related research, from radical artistic interventions and the role of bots to hidden trajectories of encyclopedic knowledge and the politics of agency and exclusion. 

Contributors: Amila Akdag Salah, Nicholas Carr, Shun-ling Chen, Florian Cramer, Morgan Currie, Edgar Enyedy, Andrew Famiglietti, Heather Ford, Mayo Fuster Morell, Cheng Gao, R. Stuart Geiger, Mark Graham, Gautam John, Dror Kamir, Peter B. Kaufman, Scott Kildall, Lawrence Liang, Patrick Lichty, Geert Lovink, Hans Varghese Mathews, Johanna Niesyto, Matheiu O’Neil, Dan O’Sullivan, Joseph Reagle, Andrea Scharnhorst, Alan Shapiro, Christian Stegbauer, Nathaniel Stern, Krzystztof Suchecki, Nathaniel Tkacz, Maja van der Velden.

Editors: Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz. Editorial Assistance: Ivy Roberts and Morgan Currie. Copy-Editing: Cielo Lutino. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Cover Image: Ayumi Higuchi. Printer: Ten Klei, Amsterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Supported by: The School for Communication and Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam DMCI), the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in Bangalore and the Kusuma Trust. 

Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds), Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. ISBN: 978-90-78146-13-1, paperback, 385 pages.

Video Vortex Reader II: Moving Images Beyond YouTube (2011)

About the book: Video Vortex Reader II is the Institute of Network Cultures’ second collection of texts that critically explore the rapidly changing landscape of online video and its use. With the success of YouTube (‘2 billion views per day’) and the rise of other online video sharing platforms, the moving image has become expansively more popular on the web, significantly contributing to the culture and ecology of the internet and our everyday lives. In response, the Video Vortex project continues to examine critical issues that are emerging around the production and distribution of online video content.

Following the success of the mailing list, the website and first Video Vortex Reader in 2008, recent Video Vortex conferences in Ankara (October 2008), Split (May 2009) and Brussels (November 2009) have sparked a number of new insights, debates and conversations regarding the politics, aesthetics and artistic possibilities of online video. Through contributions from scholars, artists, activists and many more, Video Vortex Reader II asks: What is occurring within and beyond the bounds of Google’s YouTube? How are the possibilities of online video, from the accessibility of reusable content to the internet as a distribution channel, being distinctly shaped by the increasing diversity of users taking part in creating and sharing moving images over the web?

Contributors: Herry Bard, Natalie Bookchin, Vito Campanelli, Andrew Clay, Alexandra Crosby, Alejandro Duque, Sandra Fauconnier, Albert Figurt, Sam Gregory, Cecilia Guida, Stefan Heidenreich, Larissa Hjorth, MÈl Hogan, Nuraini Juliastuti, Sarah KÈsenne, Elizabeth Losh, Geert Lovink, Andrew Lowenthal, Rosa Menkman, Gabriel Menotti, Rachel Somers Miles, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Teague Schneiter, Jan Simons, Evelin Stermitz, Blake Stimson, David Teh, Ferdiansyah Thajib, Andreas Treske, Robrecht Vanderbeeken, Linda Wallace, Brian Willems, Matthew Williamson, Tara Zepel.

Editors: Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles. Copy Editor: Nicole Heber. Design: Katja vay Stiphout. Cover Image: Team Thursday. Printer: Ten Klei, Amsterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Supported by: the School for Communication and Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam DMCI). The Video Vortex Reader is produced as part of the Culture Vortex research program, which is supported by Foundation Innovation Alliance (SIA - Stichting Innovatie Alliantie).

Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles (eds), Video Vortex Reader II: moving images beyond YouTube, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. ISBN: 978-90-78146-12-4, paperback, 378 pages. 

Urban Screens (2009)

About the book: The Urban Screens Reader is the first book to focus entirely on the topic of urban screens. By assembling contributions from a range of leading theorists, in conjunction with a series of case studies dealing with artists’ projects and screen operators’ and curators’ experiences, the reader offers a rich resource for those interested in the intersections between digital media, cultural practices and urban space. 

Urban Screens have emerged as a key site in contemporary struggles over public culture and public space. They form a strategic junction in debates over the relation between technological innovation, the digital economy and the formation of new cultural practices in contemporary cities. How should we conceptualize public participation in relation to urban screens? Are ‘the public’ citizens, consumers, producers or something else? Where is the public located? When a screen is erected in public space, who has access to it and control over it? What are the appropriate forms of urban planning, design and governance? How do urban screens affect cultural experiences? 

Contributors: Simone Arcagni, Alice Arnold, Giselle Beiguelman, Liliana Bounegru, Kate Brennan, Andreas Broeckmann, Uta Caspary, Sean Cubitt, Annet Dekker, Jason Eppink, Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Mike Gibbons, M. Hank Haeusler, Bart Hoeve, Erkki Huhtamo, Karen Lancel, Hermen Maat, Meredith Martin, Scott McQuire, Julia Nevárez, Sabine Niederer, Shirley Niemans, Nikos Papastergiadis, Soh Yeong Roh, Saskia Sassen, Leon van Schaik, Jan Schuijren, Audrey Yue. 

Editors: Scott McQuire, Meredith Martin and Sabine Niederer. Editorial Assistance: Geert Lovink and Elena Tiis. Copy Editing: Michael Dieter and Isabelle de Solier. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: Raamwerken Printing & Design, Enkhuizen. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2009. Supported by: the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in collaboration with Virtueel Platform, the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, the School for Communication and Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, MediaLAB Amsterdam and the International Urban Screens Association. The editors would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Australian Research Council LP0989302 in supporting this research.

Scott McQuire, Meredith Martin and Sabine Niederer (eds.), Urban Screens Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-10-0, paperback, 288 pages.

Video Vortex (2008)

About the book: The Video Vortex Reader is the first collection of critical texts to deal with the rapidly emerging world of online video, from its explosive rise in 2005 with YouTube to its future as a significant form of personal media. After years of talk about digital convergence and cross-media platforms we now witness the merger of the internet and television at a pace no one predicted. 

These contributions from scholars, artists and curators evolved from the first two Video Vortex conferences in Brussels and Amsterdam in 2007 which focused on responses to YouTube and address key issues around independent production and distribution of online video content. What does this new distribution platform mean for artists and activists? What are the alternatives? 

Contributors: Tilman Baumgärtel, Jean Burgess, Dominick Chen, Sarah Cook, Sean Cubitt, Stefaan Decostere, Thomas Elsaesser, David Garcia, Alexandra Juhasz, Nelli Kambouri and Pavlos Hatzopoulos, Minke Kampman, Seth Keen, Sarah Kèsenne, Marsha Kinder, Patricia Lange, Elizabeth Losh, Geert Lovink, Andrew Lowenthal, Lev Manovich, Adrian Miles, Matthew Mitchem, Sabine Niederer, Ana Peraica, Birgit Richard, Keith Sanborn, Florian Schneider, Tom Sherman, Jan Simons, Thomas Thiel, Vera Tollmann, Andreas Treske, Peter Westenberg. 

Editors: Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer. Editorial Assistance: Marije van Eck and Margreet Riphagen. Copy Editing: Darshana Jayemanne. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: Veenman Drukkers, Rotterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Supported by: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, School of Design and Communication, and XS4ALL.

Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer (eds.), Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008. ISBN: 978-90-78146-05-6, paperback, 320 pages.

MyCreativity (2007)

About the book: The MyCreativity Reader is a collection of critical research into the creative industries. The material develops out of the MyCreativity Convention on International Creative Industries Research held in Amsterdam, November 2006. This two-day conference sought to bring the trends and tendencies around the creative industries into critical question. 

The ‘creative industries’ concept was initiated by the UK Blair government in 1997 to revitalise de-industrialised urban zones. Gathering momentum after its celebration in Richard Florida’s best-seller The Creative Class (2002), the concept mobilised around the world as the zeitgeist of creative entrepreneurs and policy-makers. Despite the euphoria surrounding the creative industries, there has been very little critical research that pays attention to local and national and variations, working conditions, the impact of restrictive intellectual property regimes and questions of economic sustainability. The reader presents academic research alongside activist reports that aim to dismantle the buzz-machine. 

Editors: Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter. Editorial Assistance: Sabine Niederer. Copy Editing: Michael Jason Dieter. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Cover Image: Hendrik-Jan Grievink. Printer: Veenman Drukkers, Rotterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter (eds.), MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007. ISBN: 987-90-78146-04-9, paperback, 275 pages.

The Art and Politics of Netporn (2007)

About the book: C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader is an anthology that collects the best material from two years of debate from The Art and Politics of Netporn 2005 conference to the 2007 C’Lick Me festival. The C’Lick Me reader opens the field of ‘Internet pornology’. Based on non-conventional approaches and mixing academics, artists and activists, it reclaims a critical post-enthusiastic, post-censorship perspective on netporn, a dark field that has been dominated thus far by dodgy commerce and filtering.

The C’Lick Me reader covers the rise of the netporn society from the Usenet underground to the blogosphere, analyses economic data and search engine traffic and compares sex work with the work of fantasy, disability and accessibility. The reader also expands the notion of digital desire beyond the predictable boundaries of the porn debate and depicts a broader libidinal spectrum ranging from fetish subcultures to digital alienation, from code pornography to war pornography. C’Lick Me concludes by re-contextualising queer discourse into a post-porn scenario. 

Notes: Contains sexually graphic images and text that may not be suitable for a work computing environment.

Editorial assistance: Geert Lovink, Sabine Niederer. Copy editing: Wietske Maas. Design: Kernow Craig. Supported by: Paradiso, Amsterdam.

Katrien Jacobs, Marije Janssen and Matteo Pasquinelli (eds.), C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007. ISBN: 978-90-78146-03-2, papaerback, 305 pages.

Incommunicado (2005)

About the book: The Incommunicado Reader brings together papers written for the June 2005 event and includes a CD-ROM of interviews with speakers. The reader features: Jan Nederveen Pieterse on Digital Capitalism and Development, Roy Pullens on Migration Management (INC commissioned research), Alexandre Freire on Brasil and the FLOSS process, Solomon Benjamin on the E-Politics of Urban Land, and Maja van der Velden on Cognitive Justice. 

Editorial assistance: Pieter Boeder and Sabine Niederer. Design: Kernow Craig. Supported by: Hivos. 

Geert Lovink and Soenke Zehle (eds.), Incommunicado Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2005. ISBN: 90-78146-01-X.

Studies in Network Cultures

This book series, edited by Geert Lovink, is a collaboration between the Institute of Network Cultures (INC) and NAi Publishers.

About the Studies in Network Cultures: This book series investigates concepts and practices special to network cultures. Exploring the spectrum of new media and society, we see network cultures as a strategic term to enlist in diagnosing political and aesthetic developments in user-driven communications. Network cultures can be understood as social-technical formations under construction. They rapidly assemble and can just as quickly disappear, creating a sense of spontaneity, transience and even uncertainty. Yet they are here to stay. However self-evident it is, collaboration is a foundation of network cultures. Working with others frequently brings about tensions that have no recourse to modern protocols of conflict resolution. Networks are not parliaments. How to conduct research within such a shifting environment is a key interest to this series.

Josephine Bosma, Nettitudes, Let’s Talk Net Art (2011)

About the book: Never the darling of the media art institutions and ignored by many curators and critics since its emergence, net art still persists as a ‘non-movement’ residing in the cracks of contemporary media culture. Nettitudes provides an analytical foundation and an insider’s view on net art’s many expressions as it grapples with the aesthetic, conceptual and social issues of our times. 

Net art is still fairly unfamiliar to the general public in the Netherlands, an odd state given that Dutch net artists have ranked among the world leaders since the mid 1990s. Net art is almost always interdisciplinary and based on internet cultures, which revolve around technology, games, social networks, commerce and politics. Whether stage director, filmmaker, sculptor, musician, painter, photographer, writer, poet or dancer, net artists escape from the corner in which traditional art criticism has held them hostage for decades. Well-known exponents of this trend include Jodi (the Dutch-Belgian artist duo Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans), Peter Luining and the internet personality Mouchette.org. In Nettitudes the prominent role of Dutch net art is made evident amidst its international counterparts.

About the author: Josephine Bosma is an Amsterdam-based journalist and critic who has commented on the fields of art and new media since 1993. One of the first to probe into and engage with the domain of net art, her pioneering work is published internationally in books, periodicals and catalogues. 

Design: Huug Schipper/Studio Tint. Cover: Leon Kranenburg and Loes Sikkes. With the support of: the Mondriaanstichitng and Fonds BKVB. 

Josephine Bosma, Nettitudes: Let’s Talk Net Art, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam and the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2011. ISBN 978-90-5662-800-0. Paperback, sewn, 272 pages, Size: 16 X 23 cm. € 23.50.

Vito Campanelli, Web Aesthetics: How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society (2010)

About the book: Online video, web interfaces, file sharing, mailing lists and social networks are transforming our experience of the world. While the social dimension of these web-related forms dominates public discourse, their aesthetic impact is largely ignored. In response, Web Aesthetics intervenes in the field of new media studies and art theory, proposing an organic theory of digital media aesthetics.

Italian media theorist Vito Campanelli tracks the proliferation of web technologies, platforms and software and offers a catalogue of aesthetic strategies to address their profound cultural impact. As Campanelli argues, when the web is located inside sociocultural practices, processes and expressions, it becomes a powerful agent of aestheticization of life on a global scale.

About the author: Vito Campanelli lectures on the theory and technology of mass communication at the University of Naples-L’Orientale. He is a freelance curator of digital culture events and co-founder of MAO - Media & Arts Office. His essays on media art are regularly published in international journals. 

Design: Huug Schipper/Studio Tint. Cover: Leon Kranenburg and Loes Sikkes.

Vito Campanelli, Web Aesthetics; How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam and the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2010. ISBN 978-90-5662-770-6, Paperback, swen, 276 pages, Size: 14 x 21 cm. € 23.50.

Matteo Pasquinelli, Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons (2008)

About the book: After a decade of digital fetishism, the spectres of the financial and energy crisis have also affected new media culture and brought into question the autonomy of networks. Yet activism and the art world still celebrate Creative Commons and the ‘creative cities’ as the new ideals for the internet generation. Unmasking the animal spirits of the commons, Matteo Pasquinelli identifies the key social conflicts and business models at work behind the rhetoric of Free Culture. 

Corporate parasites infiltrating file-sharing networks, the hydra of gentrification in ‘creative cities’ such as Berlin and the bicephalous nature of the internet with its pornographic underworld are three untold dimensions of contemporary ‘politics of the common’. Against the latent puritanism of authors like Baudrillard and Žižek, constantly quoted by both artists and activists, Animal Spirits draws a conceptual ‘book of beasts’. In a world system shaped by a turbulent stock market, Pasquinelli unleashes a politically incorrect grammar for the coming generation of the new commons. 

About the author: Matteo Pasquinelli is an Amsterdam-based writer and researcher at the Queen Mary University of London and has an activist background in Italy. He edited the collection Media Activism: Strategies and Practices of Independent Communication (2002) and co-edited C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader (2007). Since 2000, he has been editor of the mailing list Rekombinant (www.rekombinant.org).

Design: Huug Schipper/Studio Tint. Cover: Leon Kranenburg and Loes Sikkes.

Matteo Pasquinelli, Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam and the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2008. ISBN 978-90-5662-663-1. Paperback, sewn, 240 pages, Size: 16 X 23 cm. € 23.50.

Eric Kluitenberg, Delusive Spaces: Essays on Culture, Media and Technology (2007)

About the book: The formerly open terrain of the new media is closing fast: market concentration, legal consolidation and tightening governmental control have effectively ended the myth of new media networks as the home of the free. The object of this book is not simply to critique these conditions. A thread that binds this collection of essays is the desire to assume both a critical position whilst retaining a utopian potential for the emerging cultures around new digital media. The challenge is how to develop such a position without falling prone to the delusions of the ‘new’, something that accompanied ‘new media culture’ all too often in its formative years. With this book Kluitenberg insists upon a cultural reading of media and technology and argues that in order to reach the desired critical position it is necessary to understand the much larger histories of the linkages of culture and technology and to situate ‘new media’ cultural practices carefully within the local contexts they emerged from. 

Delusive Spaces is divided into four main sections: ‘Archaeology’, tracing alternative histories of technology; ‘Politics’, questioning the politics of media and information; ‘Anthropology’, asking how to live in a digitally networked world; and ‘Art’, exploring the relevance of artistic strategies in a society dominated by global machines. 

About the author: Eric Kluitenberg is a writer, theorist and organizer. He works as a program coordinator at De Balie, Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam. He has taught new media courses at Media-GN, the Art Academy Minerva in Groningen; Media Studies, University of Amsterdam; and the School of Interactive Media at the Amsterdam Polytechnic, and has worked as scientific staff member at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. 

Eric Kluitenberg, Delusive Spaces: Essays on Culture, Media and Technology, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam and the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2007. ISBN 978-90-5662-617-4. Paperback, sewn, 250 pages, Size: 16 X 23 cm. € 23.50.

Ned Rossiter, Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour (2006)

About the book: The celebration of network cultures as open, decentralized and horizontal all too easily forgets the political dimensions of labour and life in informational times. Organized Networks sets out to destroy these myths by tracking the antagonisms that lurk within internet governance debates, the exploitation of labour in the creative industries and the aesthetics of global finance capital. Cutting across the fields of media theory, political philosophy and cultural critique, Ned Rossiter diagnoses some of the key problematics facing network cultures today.

Why have radical social-technical networks so often collapsed after the party? What are the key resources common to critical network cultures? And how might these create conditions for the invention of new platforms of organization and sustainability? These questions are central to the survival of networks in a post-dotcom era. Derived from research and experiences participating in network cultures, Rossiter unleashes a range of strategic concepts in order to explain and facilitate the current transformation of networks into autonomous political and cultural ‘networks of networks’. 

About the author: Australian media theorist Ned Rossiter works as a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies (Digital Media), Centre for Media Research, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland and an Adjunct Research Fellow, Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney, Australia. 

Design: Huug Schipper/Studio Tint. Cover: Leon Kranenburg and Loes Sikkes.

Ned Rossiter, Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour, New Institutions, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam and the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2006. ISBN 90-5662-526-8. Paperback, sewn, 250 pages, Size: 16 X 23 cm. € 23.50.

Network Notebooks

Network Notebooks presents new media research in the genre of the ‘20,000 word essay’ or ‘manifesto-length’ formats. These works are specifically commissioned by the INC and come available free in pdf, print or print-on-demand form. The series is edited by Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer.

Network Notebook #3: Dymtri Kleiner, The Telekommunist Manifesto (2010)

About the book: In the age of international telecommunications, global migration and the emergence of the information economy, how can class conflict and property be understood? Drawing from political economy and concepts related to intellectual property, The Telekommunist Manifesto is a key contribution to commons-based, collaborative and shared forms of cultural production and economic distribution. 

Proposing ‘venture communism’ as a new model for workers’ self-organization, Kleiner spins Marx and Engels’ seminal Manifesto of the Communist Party into the age of the internet. As a peer-to-peer model, venture communism allocates capital that is critically needed to accomplish what capitalism cannot: the ongoing proliferation of free culture and free networks. 

In developing the concept of venture communism, Kleiner provides a critique of copyright regimes and current liberal views of free software and free culture that seek to trap culture within capitalism. Kleiner proposes copyfarleft and provides a usable model of a Peer Production License. Encouraging hackers and artists to embrace the revolutionary potential of the internet for a truly free society, The Telekommunist Manifesto is a political call to arms in the fight against capitalism.

Encouraging hackers and artists to embrace the revolutionary potential of the internet for a truly free society, The Telekommunist Manifesto is a political-conceptual call to arms in the fight against capitalism.

About the author: Dmytri Kleiner is a software developer working on projects that investigate the political economy of the internet and the ideal of workers’ self-organization of production as a form of class struggle. Born in the USSR, Dmytri grew up in Toronto and now lives in Berlin. He is a founder of the Telekommunisten Collective, which provides internet and telephone services as well as undertakes artistic projects that explore the way communications technologies have social relations embedded in them, such as deadSwap (2009) and Thimbl (2010). 

Network Notebooks editors: Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer. Producer: Rachel Somers Miles. Copyediting: Rachael Kendrick. Design: Studio Léon&Loes, Rotterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Supported by: Amsterdam School of Design and Communication, Interactive Media (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and Stichting Democratie en Media.

Dymtri Kleiner, The Telekommunist. Network Notebooks 03, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2010. ISBN: 978-90-816021-2-9, paperback, 57 pages.

Network Notebook #2: Rob van Kranenburg, The Internet of Things (2007)

About the book: Cities across the world are about to enter the next phase of their development. A near invisible network of radio frequency identification tags (RFID) is being deployed on almost every type of consumer item. These tiny, traceable chips, which can be scanned wirelessly, are produced in the billions and are capable of connecting to the internet in an instant. This so-called ‘ambient intelligence’ promises to create a global network of physical objects every bit as pervasive and ubiquitous as the worldwide web itself. 

Some are already calling this controversial network the ‘internet of things’, describing it as either the ultimate convenience in supply-chain management or the ultimate tool in our future surveillance. This network has the power to reshape our cities, and yet it is being built with little public knowledge of consent. Here Rob van Kranenburg examines what impact RFID and other systems will have on our cities and our wider society, while also ruminating on what alternative network technologies could help safeguard our privacy and empower citizens to take power back into their own hands. It is both a timely warning and a call to arms. 

About the author: Rob van Kranenburg (1964) has taught at various schools in the Netherlands (UvA, EMMA Interaction Design, Industrial Design) and has worked at several Dutch cultural institutions; de Balie, Doors of Perception and Virtual Platform. Currently he works as the Head of the Public Domain Program at Waag Society. He lives in Ghent, Belgium.

Network Notebooks editors: Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer. Copy editing: Sean Dodson. Design: Studio Léon&Loes, Rotterdam. Print: Telstar Media, Pijnacker. Publisher: Insitute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Supported by: Amsterdam School of Design and Communication, Interactive Media (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and Waag Society, Amsterdam.

Read the foreward by Sean Dodson, titled Forward, A Tale of Two Cities.

Rob van Kranenburg, The Internet of Things. A critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID, Network Notebooks 02, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2007. ISBN: 978-90-78146-06-3, paperback, 61 pages. Lulu price $ 5.87.

Network Notebook #1: Rosalind Gill, Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat (2007)

About the book: AAccounts of new media working conditions draw heavily on two polarised stereotypes, veering from techno-utopianism on the one hand, to a vision of webworkers as the new ‘precariat’ and victims of neo-liberal economic policies on the other. Heralded from both perspectives as representing the brave new world of work, what is striking is the absence of research on new media workers’ own experiences, particularly in a European context. 

This INC commissioned research goes beyond contemporary myths to explore how people working in the field experience the pleasures, pressures and challenges of working on the web. Illustrated with quotations from interviews, it examines the career paths emerging for content producers in web-based industries, questions the relevance of existing education and training and highlights the ways people manage and negotiate freelancing, job insecurity and keeping up-to-date in a fast-moving field where both software and expectations change rapidly.

The research is based on 35 interviews carried out in Amsterdam in 2005 and contextually draws upon a further 60 interviews with web designers in London and Brighton. The interviews were conducted by Danielle van Diemen and Rosalind Gill. 

About the author: Rosalind Gill is a teacher and researcher based at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is author of The Gender-Technology Relation (with Keith Grint) and Gender and the Media published by Polity Press. She conducted research on new media working conditions for the European Commission in 2000. She is preparing a book about women and the web and completing analysis of 180 interviews with web designers in London, Brighton and Los Angeles.

Interviews: Rosalind Gill and Danielle van Diemen. Copyediting: Ned Rossiter. Design: Léon&Loes, Rotterdam. Network Notebooks editors: Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer. Printing: Cito Repro, Amsterdam. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Read the introduction by Rosalind Gill.

Rosalind Gill, Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web, Network Notebooks 01, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2007. ISBN: 978-90-78146-02-5. Lulu price $ 5.35.

Theory on Demand

This series derives its name from Print on Demand, a process in which new copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received. The series applies practice-based research to test a widening landscape of distribution platforms and to ask how the content and design of a written work translates across print and digital mediums. Another aim is to act as an organized, professional facilitator of DIY publishing practices for first-time or marginal authors seeking a platform and to provide models for independent publishing in general.

Print on Demand publishers include Lulu, Blurb, QooP and OpenMute. All editions in the Theory on Demand series are also available for download as a free pdf of the publication. Theory on Demand launched in January 2010.

Issue no. 7 Image, Time and Motion: New Media Critique from Turkey, Ankara (2003 – 2010) (2011)

About the book: This reader is a collection of essays written by Turkish graduate students between 2003 and 2010 for Andreas Treske’s seminar ‘Image, Time and Motion’ at Bilkent University in Ankara, revised and actualized in 2010. Coming from a wide range of disciplines they had studied before, though very rarely media or cultural studies, these students integrated their observations and understandings in a seminar related to cinema and new media to discuss and sometimes just to describe the influences of digital media technologies for themselves and their colleagues. Starting from the premise that digital technology redefines our moving image culture, the authors reflect in their essays various kind of approaches and methods, experiences and practices, whether descriptive, critical and interdisciplinary.

Contributors: Pelin Aytemiz, Bestem Büyüm, I. Alev Degim, Bilge Demirtas, Fulya Ertem, Deniz Hasirci, Cagri Baris Kasap, Zeynep Kocer, Rifat Süha Kocoglu, Leyla Önal, Ufuk Önen, Didem Özkul, Segah Sak, Ayda Sevin, Umut Sumnu, Andreas Treske and Funda Senova Tunali.

Edited by: Andreas Treske, Ufuk Onen, Bestem Büyüm and I. Alev Degim. Design: Katja van Stiphout. DTP: Margreet Riphagen. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Andreas Treske, Ufuk Onen, Bestem Büyüm and I. Alev Degim, Issue no. 7 Image, Time and Motion: New Media Critique from Turkey, Ankara(2003 – 2010), Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2011. ISBN: 978-90-816021-5-0, 145 pages. Lulu price: $ 10.05.

Issue no. 6 Tom Apperley, Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Situated to the Global (2010)

About the book: Global gaming networks are heterogeneous collectives of localized practices, not unified commercial products. Shifting the analysis of digital games to local specificities that build and perform the global and general, Gaming Rhythms employs ethnographic work conducted in Venezuela and Australia to account for the material experiences of actual game players. This book explores the materiality of digital play across diverse locations and argues that the dynamic relation between the everyday life of the player and the experience of digital game play can only be understood by examining play-practices in their specific situations.

About the author: Thomas Apperley is a Lecturer in Media Studies at the University of New England.

Author: Tom Apperley. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Tom Apperley, Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Situated to the Global, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2010. ISBN: 978-90-816021-1-2, 169 pages. Lulu price: $ 11.03.

Issue no. 5 Nikos Papastergiadis, Spatial Aesthetics: Art, Place and the Everyday (2010)

About the book: This book examines the most recent shifts in contemporary art practice. Nikos Papastergiadis provides a critical account of the transformation of art and public culture by working with artists and closely observing the way in which they relate to urban space and engage other people locally and globally. He shows how art has sought to democratise the big issues of our time and utilise new information technologies. While the concept of the everyday highlights the potential for transformation at the level of the individual, it can also be seen as a critique of broader structures. In this book Papastergiadis stresses the importance of situating a work within art history as well as relating it to its social context.

Spatial Aesthetics will help artists, curators and cultural workers think about the ways they intervene in public life. Challenging recent declarations in the art world that theory is obsolete, it seeks to show how art uses ideas, and how everyone can be involved in the ideas of politics and art.

About the author: Nikos Papastergiadis, is Professor at the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Throughout his career, Nikos has provided strategic consultancies for government agencies on issues relating to cultural identity and worked on collaborative projects with artists and theorists of international repute, such as John Berger, Jimmie Durham and Sonya Boyce. His current research focuses on the investigation of the historical transformation of contemporary art and cultural institutions by digital technology. His publications include Modernity as Exile (1993), Dialogues in the Diaspora (1998), The Turbulence of Migration (2000), Metaphor and Tension (2004) as well as numerous essays which have been translated into over a dozen languages and appeared in major catalogues such as the Sydney, Liverpool, Istanbul, Gwanju, Taipei and Lyon Biennales.

Author: Nikos Papastergiadis. Design: Katja van Stiphout. DTP: Margreet Riphagen. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Nikos Papastergiadis, Spatial Aesthetics: Art, Place and the Everyday, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2010. ISBN: 978-90-816021-3-6, 133 pages. Lulu price: $ 9.44.

Issue no. 4 Joost Smiers & Marieke van Schijndel, Imagine there are is no copyright and no cultural conglomorates too… Better for artists, diversity and the economy / an essay (2009)

About the book: If we recognize that copyright is unfeasible and unjustifiable, what should our response be? It immediately comes to mind that copyright provides an investment protection for blockbusters, best sellers and pop stars. It distorts cultural markets and pushes a wide variety of cultural expressions out of sight. At the same time, the cultural conglomerates controlling copyright dominate cultural markets by owning the means of production, distribution, marketing and reception of cultural expressions. From the perspective of democracy and fair competition this type of market control is not to be tolerated.

Thus let us imagine what we could accomplish by abolishing copyright and cutting cultural conglomerates into pieces. The result would be a level playing field in which more artists can make a decent living and, perhaps more important, the restoration of our public domain of creativity and knowledge.

About the authors: Prof. dr Joost Smiers is a political scientist and Research Fellow at the Research Group Arts & Economics, Utrecht School of the Arts, the Netherlands. His book Arts Under Pressure: Promoting Cultural Diversity in the Age of Globalization has been translated into ten languages. He lives in Amsterdam. Marieke van Schijndel is a cultural scientist and MBA graduate. She works in the cultural field in the Netherlands and lives in Utrecht.

Authors: Joost Smiers and Marieke van Schijndel. Translation from Dutch: Rosalind Buck. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Joost Smiers & Marieke van Schijndel, Imagine there are is no copyright and no cultural conglomorates too… Better for artists, diversity and the economy / an essay, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-09-4, 81 pages. Lulu price: $ 7.53.

Issue no. 3 Ana Peraica, Victims’ Symptom (PTSD and Culture) (2009)

About the book: Victims’ Symptom is a collection of interviews, essays, artists’ statements and glossary definitions which was originally launched as a web project (http://victims.labforculture.org). Produced in 2007, the project brought together cases related to past and current sites of conflict such as Srebrenica, Palestine and Kosovo reporting from different (and sometimes conflicting) international viewpoints. The Victims Symptom Reader collects critical concepts in media victimology and addresses the representation of victims in economies of war.

Texts: Sezgin Boynik, Adila Laidi Hanieh, Geert Lovink, Ana Peraica, Stevan Vuković. Interviews by: Ana Peraica (with Enrique Arroyo, Noam Chomsky, Agricola da Cologne, Anur Hadžiomerspahić, Joseph de Lappe) and Marko Stamenković (with Peter Fuchs, Jonas Staal, Carlos Motta, Neery Melkonian and Tomas Tomlinas). Artists’ statements: Mauricio Arango, Alejandro Duque, Andreja Kulunčić, Marko Peljhan and Martha Rosler.

Editor: Ana Peraica. Copyediting: Vicky Anning, Michael Dieter. Image on the front-page and project design: MANNSCHAFT. Glossary: Tihana Jendričko and Tina Peraica. Commissioned by: Lab for Culture, Amsterdam, 2008. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Ana Peraica, Victims’ Symptom (PTSD and Culture), Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-11-7, 157 pages. Lulu price: $ 10.63.

Issue no. 2 Geert Lovink & Pit Schultz, Jugendjahre der Netzkritik, Essays zu Web 1.0 (1995 – 1997) (2009)

About the book: Dieses PDF / Print-on-Demand-Heft bringt eine Auswahl der Texte zusammen, in denen die Medientheoretiker und nettime-Gründer Pit Schultz und Geert Lovink zwischen 1995 und 1997 gemeinsam die Grundzüge des Konzepts der Netzkritik formulierten. Damals auf deutsch in verstreuten Publikationen erschienen und zwischenzeitlich weitgehend in Vergessenheit geraten, werden sie nun erstmals gesammelt veröffentlicht. Sie eröffnen einen Blick auf die frühe Phase der Entwicklung des Internets und die beginnende kritische Debatte, die durch eine besondere Diskussions- und Spekulationsfreude geprägt war. Das Internet stellte noch keine allgegenwärtige Realität dar, aber sein zukünftiges Potential war schon absehbar. Im Zentrum dieser Texte steht die Kritik der damaligen Cyberutopien, die die Grundlage für die spätere Dotcom-Manie schafften. Weitere Schwerpunkte sind die Kunstpraxis (net.art), die Deutsche Medientheorie und Gegenöffentlichkeit (taktischen Medien).

About the authors: Pit Schultz ist Autor, Künstler, Programmierer und Radiomacher und lebt in Berlin. Er ist Mitinitiator, Organisator und Mitglied von vielen Projekten wie Botschaft e.V., nettime, Bootlab, backyardradio, Reboot FM und Herbstradio. Der niederländisch-australische Netzkritiker Geert Lovink ist Autor von Dark Fiber und Zero Comments (beide auf Deutsch erschienen). Seit 2004 leitet er das Institut für Netzkultur an der Hochschule Amsterdam (HvA), ist Associate Professor Mediastudies an der Universität Amsterdam (UvA) und Professor an der European Graduate School.

Authors: Geert Lovink and Pit Schultz. Editorial support: Andreas Kallfelzslation. Design: Katja van Stiphout. DTP: Margreet Riphagen. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Geert Lovink & Pit Schultz, Jugendjahre der Netzkritik, Essays zu Web 1.0 (1995 – 1997), Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-816021-4-3, 99 pages. Lulu price: $ 8.14.

Issue no. 1 Geert Lovink, Dynamics of Critical Internet Culture (1994–2001) (2009)

About the book: This study examines the dynamics of critical internet culture after the medium opened to a broader audience in the mid 1990s. It is Geert Lovink’s PhD thesis, submitted late 2002, written in between his two books on the same topic: Dark Fiber (2002) and My First Recession (2003).

The core of the research consists of four case studies of non-profit networks: the Amsterdam community provider, The Digital City (DDS); the early years of the nettime mailinglist community; a history of the European new media arts network Syndicate; and an analysis of the streaming media network Xchange. The research describes the search for sustainable community network models in a climate of hyper growth and increased tensions and conflict concerning moderation and ownership of online communities.

Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2002, English Department University of Melbourne. Special thanks to: Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis and the University of Melbourne. 

About the author: Geert Lovink, founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, is a Dutch-Australian media theorist and critic. In 2003 he was post-doc researcher at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland. In 2004 Lovink was appointed Research Professor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Associate Professor at University of Amsterdam. He is the founder of internet projects such as nettime and fibreculture. He recently published his third volume on critical internet culture, Zero Comments (2007). His institute organizes conferences and related publications on urban screens, creative industry, online video, network theory, culture of search and Wikipedia research.

Author: Geert Lovink. Editorial support: Ned Rossiter. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam.

Geert Lovink, Dynamics of Critical Internet Culture (1994–2001), Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-07-0, 229 pages. Lulu price: $ 13.48.

INC’s miscellaneous titles

From Weak Ties to Organized Networks (2009)

About the book: In March 2009 the Institute of Network Cultures brought 12 networks to Amsterdam for a week of getting things done. Aim of Winter Camp was to connect the virtual with the real in order to find out how distributed social networks can collaborate more effectively. The more people start working together online, the more urgent it becomes to develop sustainable network models. Do we just go online to gather ‘friends’ or do we get organized and utilize these tools to provoke real change in how we work together? How do networks deal with difference, decision making and economic issues? Together with 28 online interviews, this report provides a comprehensive overview of the general issues that the participating networks dealt with during Winter Camp.

Contributors: Liliana Bounegru, Chris Castiglione, Maggie Chau, Gabriella Coleman, Anne Helmond, Marijn de Vries Hoogerwerff, Niels Kerssens, Bram van der Kruk, Geert Lovink, Rosa Menkman, Sabine Niederer, Ned Rossiter, Laura van der Vlies and Thom Stokkel, Annette Wolfsberger and Soenke Zehle.

Editor: Geert Lovink. Editorial Assistance: Margreet Riphagen. Copy Editing: Marije van Eck. Design: Michael Schenkyr. Illustrations: Het Harde Potlood. Photos: Anne Helmond. Printer: Raamwerken Printing & Design B.V. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam. Supported by: Mondriaan Foundation, Democracy and Media Foundation, Amsterdam Art Foundation and the Institute of Interactive Media at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam). 

From Weak Ties to Organized Networks, Ideas, Reports, Critiques, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-08-7.

The Creativity (2007)

About the book: The Creativity is a free accidental newspaper dedicated to the anonymous creative worker. The Creativity was produced by Sandberg Institute, the Institute of Network Cultures (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and the Centre for Media Research (University of Ulster). The newspaper was officially presented at the MyCreativity convention on creative industries research, which took place 16-18 November 2007, in Amsterdam.

Editors: Mieke Gerritzen, Hendrik-Jan Grievink, Geert Lovink, Sabine Niederer, Ned Rossiter. Editorial Assistance: Shirley Niemans and Matthijs Rutten. Translator: Laura Martz. Design: Hendrik-Jan Grievink. Print: Drukkerij Boesenkool, Castricum. Circulation: 10.000.

Mieke Gerritzen, Hendrik-Jan Grievink, Geert Lovink, Sabine Niederer and Ned Rossiter (eds.), The Creativity, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007.