Public Netbase: Non Stop Future

New information technologies have become ubiquitous and thoroughly established in our everyday lives. This marks the end of a period of intense experimentation and speculations related to the introduction of global communication systems more than a decade ago. Artists and cultural workers were the first to explore their liberatory dimensions and to apply their emancipatory potentials. These early pioneers developed a range of interdisciplinary models and practices in order to expand the scope of social participation in information society cultures. Initiatives like the radical Viennese mediaculture institution Public Netbase became important nodes in a global network dedicated to critical art, culture and science based on new media practices.

A virtual world is possible, but never without real spaces and tangible social interaction. This publication is both a review of the pioneer days from the perspective of Public Netbase as well as an outlook into the future of art and culture in digital networks. It provides an overview of a critical information economy discourse, insights into Tactical Media strategies and a critique of the loss of public domain and the commons. Based on the extensive archives of Public Netbase, the book features some of the most spectacular and controversial art projects and interventions from 1994 to 2006. It also offers historical documents and manifestos critical of commercialisation and control society issues, together with a view into the digital world of tomorrow. "Non Stop Future" raises awareness for a need to invest in new and diverse practices in art and media.

Extensive contributions from many art and media theorists and practitioners to this book relate to long lasting collaboration with Public Netbase through different formats of conferences and projects, reflecting some of the most relevant problematics in constellation of art and tactical media practices and theories within communication technologies. The broad spectrum of themes regarding politics of digital media culture, art practices, networking, participation and self-organizing make the “Non Stop Future” an important contribution to forming the critical digital heritage of the future.

List of Contents

DISCOURSE

20 A Virtual World is Possible: From Tactical Media to Digital Multitudes
Geert Lovink and Florian Schneider

28 Market-ideology, Semiocapitalism and the Digital Cognitariat, Franco Berardi Bifo

32 Byzantium 550 AD, Paulina Borsook

36 Seduction of the Cyber Zombies, Hakim Bey

42 Spiritual Telegraphs and the Technology of Communication: Tuning into The Electromagnetic Imagination, Erik Davis

48 Which Democracy in a Post-political Age?, Chantal Mouffe

54 Free Software, Free Culture: After the dotCommunist Manifesto, Eben Moglen

60 The Information War, Peter Lamborn Wilson

70 Gray Markets and Information Warlords, Bruce Sterling

76 Economics, Computers and the War Machine, Manuel De Landa

86 Free Bitflows: Editorial, Konrad Becker, Felix Stalder

88 Torrents of Desire and the Shape of the Informational Landscape, Felix Stalder

96 A Topography of E-space - Electronic Networks and Public Space, Saskia Sassen

102 Free Software, Free Hardware, Free Bandwidth, Interview with Eben Moglen

106 Frequently Asked Questions about the Public Domain, Eric Kluitenberg

120 Myths about Copyright, Lawrence Liang

130 Bits of Freedom, Sjoera Nas

NEW ART PRACTICES

134 New Art Practices: Editorial, Branka Ćurčić

136 Becoming Nike? The Fake Behind the Swoosh, Vera Tollmann

138 On the S77CCR-Consortium, Marko Peljhan

140 Information War in the Age of Dangerous Substances, Sadie Plant

146 TextFM: Open Broadcasting System, An interview with Graham Harwood and Matt Fuller, Michelle Kasprzak

150 Posthuman Development in the Age of Pancapitalism, Critical Art Ensemble

158 Space Travel - By Any Means Necessary, Jason Skeet

162 An Interview with Stelarc, Miss M

170 Synworld, Konrad Becker

174 General Statement on Synworld, Faith Wilding

178 "Play with me!" or: Cyberspace as Toyspace, Oliver Marchart

182 Interface as the Key Category of Computer Culture, Lev Manovich

TACTICAL MEDIA

190 30 Years of Tactical Media, Felix Stalder

196 Various Documents, New Kunstsektion

200 The Nature of Art… Public Netbase's Hidden Manoeuvres, Martin Wassermair

204 Inverted Towers. Strategies for a Reappropriation of Urban Space, Gerald Raunig

210 Blown Into Peaces. Virtual Cow Kidnapping – a Drama in Four Acts, Lisa Mayr

214 Swarmachine, Activist Media Tomorrow, Brian Holmes

222 Reboot Your Radio!, Pit Schultz

DIGITAL MEDIACULTURE, NETWORKING AND PARTICIPATION

234 Introduction Meaning of Digital Networks, Saskia Sassen

236 Report of the Work Group on "Cultures of Electronic Networks”, Cultural Competence, Linz

242 Reclaiming Spaces and Symbolic Culture, Netbased Public Interventions in Vienna Konrad Becker

250 The Free Media Camp – Picturing Protest, Patricia Köstring

254 Reflections on Building the European Cultural Backbone, Andreas Broeckmann

256 A Look at Vienna's Ruins of Future, Andreas Broeckmann

258 wahlkabine.at, An Online Orientation Tool Awakens a New Interest in Politics Karin Liebhart, Martin Wassermair

262 The Past – A Servant Of The Future, Katharina Wegan

264 Period After – A Review, Branka Ćurčić

PUBLIC NETBASE

268 Let it RIP! Obituary of an Endless Myth: Public Netbase, 1994-2006, Brian Holmes

272 Building a Netbase from Scratch, Francisco de Sousa Webber

276 Public Netbase. A Political Controversy, Konrad Becker, Martin Wassermair

280 Opposing Nest Culture: The Political Conflicts of Public Netbase, 1994-2006 Katharina Ludwig

286 Intermission at the Combat Zone, A Review of Public Netbase's Urban and Symbolic Lines of Conflict, Clemens Apprich

294 Open Letter to the Austrian Public

300 Notice Served to Public Netbase in the Museumsquartier

302 Public Netbase t0 Moves Into Position

304 Open Letter to Michael Häupl, Mayor of Vienna, and the Vienna City Government

306 Discussion on Public Funding and Critique, Branka Ćurčić

WORLDINFORMATION.ORG

308 World-Information.Org, World-Information.Org

310 World InfoCon Brussels (2000): An Annotated Report, Steve Kurtz

316 World Information Forum Vienna (2000): Conference Report, World-Information.Org

318 The Vienna Document, Xnational Net Culture and "The Need to Know" of Information Societies , Open Cultures Working Group

322 World-InfoCon 2002 Amsterdam, Eric Kluitenberg

326 World-Information.Org mission in Serbia, Dejan Sretenović

328 When State of Emergency Becomes a Constant, Branka Ćurčić

330 Cultural Intelligence and the Urban Multitudes, "World-Information City" World-Information.Org

336 Bangalore and Back, Reflections on World-Information-City, Bangalore, Felix Stalder

348 List of Contributors

352 Web Sources