#10

6th March, 2018

INTERNET CRITIQUE AND DIGITAL FOLKLORE

Guest Speaker: Geert Lovink

Fascination for pirate radio, free radio, radio in general

The theory of mixing
• Difference between traditional radio vs. the integration of dubstep

Started the institute of Network Cultures

Radio theory
Tactical media
• Means that one connects a lot of different ways of expressions with what is out there
• Working with the existing tools and channels that are available
• You are not married to the medium, you don’t believe in the medium, you use it then you drop it
• Even in difficult circumstances you have a whole array of different expressions
• Can be used together – combine performance with video, combine radio with the internet, etc

Sovereign media
• You have gained complete control over the medium and it is no longer used to communicate a message
• The medium is self-contained and doesn’t need to self-legitimize itself to some outside reference
o Important esp in the age of new media during the 80s/90s

The data dandy
• a figure invented in the 90s
• the people who are completetly focused on their smartphones
• an anticipation of this complete obsession with the device
• the act of the design of a figure
o different figures to represent a certain age in time, content, etc. – the cyborg, cyber punk

going through the individual voice of a person and how all these individual voices can come together in a cloud of voices

radiogarden
• an interface of independent livestreams from different radio stations or individuals who’s running a stream from their room using their own server or from their own mobile phone
• this interface might be completely Eurocentric and colonialistic
• a new way to envision radio culture that is not completely related to social media as we know it today
• an enormous database of streaming radio that can be browed through according to country

radio theory as compared to film theory, is not as elaborate. Has overlaps with experimental sounds, sound installation. But still is quite different from broadcasting and podcasting – purpose: establish a relationship with the listener



Video vortex xi kerala
• an example of a living community that they built up, came into existence even before youtube
• youtube was successful because all these ideas of videos were put together on one platform – youtube created a platform for a stream of videos
• online video integrate all the aspects of film and television and adds something unique to it – the internet experience
• watching youtube = watching a database
o recommended videos
o the very act of “browsing through a database” is a new cinematic experience that we now have
• watching youtube = the integration of the comments section
o one can get a sense of how the other users feel as well as their opinions on it
o the imaginary audience is one that you need to construct in your head
o social media platforms allow us to meet and visualize such persons (private chats, etc.)

Society of the Query
• focusing on search and the question of search
o rise of google and the google search engine
• “the society of the spectacle” situationist movement
o billboards, television screens
o watch the spectacle – it is this spectacle that, to him, was the driving force behind capital
• we are forced to become active consumers – sitting in front of facebook does nothing you need to navigate
o passive consumers have no room if not nothing will happen

Wikipedia
• the biggest non-profit organization in the world
• few are involved in it
• collab between netherlands germany and india to develop an independent view on this large online encyclopedia
• this only exists because people contribute to it

Unlike Us #3
Social Media: Design or Decline
• how should these social media technologies change (given how you have various complaints about it – addiction, friends on facebook, etc.)
• defining relationships online and what it means when its taken offline
o does unfriending on facebook mean not being friends irl?
• The idea of the clickbait
• The everyday experience on these social media platforms that are targeted to a dispersed experience
o Monetarily driven
• Crypto design challenge
o How can artists and activists rethink privacy online
o From a user experience POV
o How can we bring in the design aspect
o Privacy aspect seen as a task for two groups – law enforcers and engineers
o The user interface aspect is often forgotten

The critique of the creative industries
• The idea that artists have to become entrepreneurs
• That art and culture have to become a profitable industry itself
• Contradiction: that the artists have to become entrepreneurial but in order for that to happen, it takes place under many government policies
• The artist and the social network being part of this new class called the precariat class
o All of the workers themselves are small entrepreneurs
o E.g. Airbnb, uber drivers
• The thinking of the creative industries is highly related to the rise of the entreprecariat – proletariat and entrepreneurs

MoneyLab
• Focus on internet revenue models for the arts
• If the copyright regime is broken and no longer providing these artists with a stream of income
• Mobile payment micro payment systems, subscriptions, cryptocurrencies
• Emphasis is on artists and art projects and the situation of artists and art cultural workers in general

Politics of the online self
• Radicalizing the selfie – not celebrating or criticizing it
• Selfie – manifestation of a particular configuration of the online self
• How is the online self-related to the crypto design
• Another figure emerging – anonymity
o Acts of masked design
• Selfie and anonymous mask are two sides of the same thing – the representation of the online self
• Snapchat and filters – switching from the “real” selfie to the “anonymous” mask

Digital publishing toolkit the publishing lab
• New developments to online publishing
• A place where students are able to get hands on practice

click
for more on the institute of network cultures

“The juice media”

We are overwhelmed by the ubiquity and the pervasiveness of data
Transmission: the signal transference
The desire to push the communication of visual art deeper
The air that we breathe have been partitioned – they’re not public

Bitnik and Julian Assange
“delivery for Mr. Assange”

we need to completely reconfigure our understanding of production and reception in the 21st century
meaning is not fixed

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Guest speaker: Briony Kidd
“film noir”
mission of the festival (stranger with my face): highlight under represented film makers

• 2012 – movement “women in horror” month (February)
• talk about women horror directors/ novelists
• her type of horror was had a more artesque-coming-of-age direction
• there is an audience for genre film – doesn’t matter whether the actors are well known or not, they just want to see novel ideas
o very male dominated as a genre
• started out as an interest that she wanted to do for her group of friends but now has changed to a film festival catered to elevating the women involved in
horror films
o political component: increasing the gender in the horror field
o taste component: psychological horror – where what people are afraid of are more than just being “chased down the street by a monster”; more interested in
the horror from within
♣ themes of mental illness, being taken control
♣ women have been “gaslighted” by society historically due to traditional societal norms; how women and their ideas have been buried under the surface
• massive scope of what is actually horror and what constitutes horror
o changing definition of what makes up horror itself
o sort of “gendered”

“evolution”

distribution of films might be done by the artists themselves – they’re thinking of setting up a VOD platform for the festival to assist in distribution of the films showcased

#11

Network Art and Culture

14th March, 2018

#12

group task journal

6th march, 2018
today, we met to discuss the direction of our mock exhibition after class. we went through a couple of ideas and finally settled on the theme of "digital footprint".

funny story - when we sat down and took out our laptops, we saw how each of us had personalized our laptops even in spite of us all owning Macbooks.

we expanded on the idea personalization and thought about how one could personalize their online persona as well. issues of privacy and surveillance "big brother is always watching" were also brought into our discussion.

given the strong sentiments that many of us had towards digital footprint, we thus decided to settle on that as the central theme of our exhibition.

to us, the exhibition was more than just a space to showcase the art work of other artists; it was also a method to raise awareness of issues in society.

we used google docs to document our meeting minutes, it was very useful in helping us collaborate when we weren't together as a group.

we decided to include a piece of our own in our exhibition because we felt that we wanted to leave our mark (our digital footprint) in the exhibit.

given how digital footprint can be personalized, we felt that the name "____ was here" was appropriate for our exhibit as each of us left our own unique trail online.

"big brother is always watching"

10th march, 2018
we've had a rough idea of how we wanted our video piece to be like, but didn't exactly know how to go about putting it together.

after much discussion, we've finally figured out how we'd like for it to be done - the video would feature each of us going about our day to day processes on one half of the screen. on the other half, "codes" would be generated. these "codes" represent our navigation through the online space.

we also found the artists we were going to feature in our mock exhibit - "Data Shadow" by Mark Farid, "The Glass Room", "Jacolby Satterwhite", "Data Dandy" by Geert Lovink.

16th march, 2018
we had our group consultation with prof nancy and our TA tiffany. overall, they seemed to like our idea.

Prof nancy introduced us to an artist's work that might be relevant to our topic of "digital footprint"; "Data Walks" by Alison Powel.

also, we found out today that creating our own art piece wasn't necessary... guess we found out too late since we've already done our video! only thing lacking is an appropriate song/ background music to accompany the video.

on the right are some notes we took from our consultation today. we included these notes on our google doc for easy reference.

20th march, 2018
on the left is a sample of a brochure we would distribute at our exhibition.

we decided to have our exhibition done in collaboration with kult gallery and studio because of their prominence as a gallery. this would increase the likelihood of individuals attending our exhibition.

on the right is the space plan that our group mate, justus, came up with for our exhibit.

23rd march, 2018
our finalized video.