Networked Cultures provides a filmic archive of practitioners from the fields of art, architecture, theory and activism talking about their work in the light of global cultural transformation. Continue reading

A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites: Papacharissi, Zizi (Editor), Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo (Introduction by), Routledge:

A Networked Self examines self presentation and social connection in the digital age. This collection brings together new theory and research on online social networks by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines. Topics addressed include self presentation, behavioral norms, patterns and routines, social impact, privacy, class/ gender/ race divides, taste cultures online, uses of social networking sites within organizations, activism, civic engagement, and political impact.

“The complex and sometimes contradictory phenomena of social media are among the most discussed aspects of digital culture today, and A Networked Self examines these phenomena through a variety of perspectives and approaches from sociology and communication theory. Continue reading

Post-Fordisms and Culture by Brian Holmes, moderated by Yates McKee — Part of Living as Form :: June 30, 2011; 6:30 - 8:00 pm :: The Cooper Union - Rose Auditorium, 41 Cooper Square, New York, NY.

Brian Holmes is an American Born (California) theorist, writer and translator living in Chicago, Illinois. He is a Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where he teaches an intensive summer seminar. He has worked with the French Graphics collective Ne Pas Plier (Do Not Bend) and the French cartography collective Bureau d’Etudes. Continue reading

Cultures in Virtual Worlds: A special issue of the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Guest-edited by Jeremy Hunsinger and Adrienne Massanari :: Call for Submissions - Deadline: November 11, 2011.

Virtual worlds (VW) embody cultures, their artefacts, and their praxes; these new and old spaces of imagination and transformation allow humans to interact in spatial dimensions. Within these spaces, culture manifests with the creation, representation, and circulation of meaningful experiences. But virtual worlds are not novel in that regard, nor should we make the mistake to assume that they are novel in themselves. Virtual experiences have been around in some respect for hundreds of years, and virtual worlds based in information technology have existed for at least 40 years. Continue reading

Gone to Croatan: Strategies of Disappearance, curated by Robert Rumas (Gdansk) and Daniel Muzyczuk (Torun) :: until August 14, 2011 :: Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV), Dortmunder U (6th floor), Leonie-Reygers-Terasse, D-44137 Dortmund.

The first European colonists in the New World disappeared leaving behind the settlements and a paper note with the words Gone to the Croatan. The Croatan were an Indian tribe living in neighbouring territories. They are said to have murdered the settlers, however, reports concerning green-eyed Indians seem to contradict that version of events. A hypothesis suggests that the settlers went on a trip into another dimension.

Disappearance is generally associated with defeat. What is invisible is external to public life, and the invisible have no influence on the direction a community is taking. Continue reading

File Type - curated by Chaz Evans and Lorelei Stewart :: June 17 - July 30, 2011 :: Opening reception: June 17; 5:00 - 8:00 pm :: Gallery 400, 400 S. Peoria Street, Chicago, Illinois.

The specificity of work in electronic media warrants investigations that refine categories past “the digital” or “the internet.” File Type is an exhibition which analyzes the cultural character of digital file formats such as the .pdf, .tiff, .jpeg etc. These and many other file types contain narratives that give specific bodies to the often invisible entities that construct electronic culture. Formats and file types represent ways that artwork in digital or internet media create particular standards of representation. Continue reading

[Image: AUDiNT Installation at Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2010. Courtesy of Artist] The Martial Arts of Sonic Hauntology with Toby Heys, Jon Cohrs, Steve Goodman, Dave Tompkins, Andy Battaglia (moderator) :: Jun 13, 2011; 6:30 - 8:00 pm :: Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st Street, New York City.

This panel will explore the intersection of sonic culture and the military-entertainment complex through the disembodied voices of secret communication devices, battlefield sonic deception and propaganda, acoustic weaponry, the physiology of inaudible vibration (unsound systems) and the encrypted, viral transmission channels of both analog and digital culture. Continue reading

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Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader :: Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds), Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. ISBN: 978-90-78146-13-1, paperback, 385 pages. (download PDF or email books [at] networkcultures.org for a free hard copy):

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 questions about its reliability and accuracy, to unveil the complex, messy, and controversial realities of a distributed knowledge platform. Continue reading

Agency: Assembly (Showroom) :: April 13 - May 28, 2011 :: Opening: April 12; 6:30 - 8:30 pm :: The Showroom, 63 Penfold Street, London.

The work of Agency constitutes a growing list of ‘Things’ that resist easy categorisation, such as divisions between culture and nature, creations and facts, subjects and objects, humans and non-humans, individuals and collectives. These things are derived from judicial processes, lawsuits, cases, controversies and affairs relating to the subject of intellectual property (copyrights, patents and trade marks, for example). Continue reading