Networkingart

"JODI: Something Wrong is Nothing Wrong", Ad by Motherboard TV (DELL)

Keywords:  counterculture, social networking, Web 2.0, business & advertisement.

The above image, published in VICE magazine Vol 7 Nr 2 (2010), is an advertisement for the social networking platform Motherboard TV, sponsored by DELL. But people into digital culture would immediately recognize something else.
The advertisement shows a reconstruction of the homepage http://wwwwww.jodi.org, a work by the Dutch artists JODI.org, a very well known symbol of the early net.art. JODI were part of a recent show at Eyebeam gallery in New York (December 2009) and got interviewed by the team of Motherboard TV (see here).
But this advertisement, branded by DELL, might also be the symbol of something more. What were once the values and philosophy of the hacker ethic are since some years the domain of many of the business companies which represent the development of “Web 2.0” and contributed to create the notion of social media. I have analyzed this matter on an article which is going to be published on the next issue of the Arnolfini journal, ‘Concept Store’ (Bristol, UK) .

The ideas of sharing, openness, decentralization, free access to computers and the hand-on imperative of the hackers’ imaginary, today are strictly connected with the use of commercial platforms. We are facing a progressive commercialization of contexts of software development and sharing, which want to appear open and progressive (very emblematic is the motto “Don’t be evil” by Google), but which are indeed transforming the meaning of communities and networking, and the battle for information rights, placing it into the boundaries of marketplace.This process is changing the meaning of collaboration and art itself.

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 5:00pm – 7:00pm. SpringLab, Finlandsgade 24A, Aarhus.

Yesterday was the opening night of Hack Århus, the new hacker space in the city of Århus. A lot of people came despite the snow storm and we had fun with some talks, hack-presentations and circuit bending. I gave a short speech about the roots of hacker ethics and the background of hackerspaces, with examples from Italy, Germany and California.

There were some people from Labitat, the hackerspace in Copenhagen, who shared their experience with us, and some projects presentations followed – like the very interesting one about the coding-wooden-sculpture machine from Jacob Pedersen, who is one of the initiators of the Hackerspace.

Some more info about Hack Aarhus:

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The meeting with Jake Appelbaum was a very nice opportunity of gathering students, researchers and interesting ‘geeks’. The discussion was quite alive and based on sharing of experience and knowledge about hacking, technology and development of hacker communities. We reflected on the technological and political meaning of hacking, on gender issues related to the creation of hackerspaces, and Jake inspired us through his experience within NoiseBridge, the hackerspace in San Francisco which he contributed to found, and through an interesting overview of the hacker scene in the Bay area. This meeting was also an occasion to compare different strategies and visions of hacking between Europe and USA.

Among the public were people from Computer Science and IMV at Aarhus University, Hack-Aarhus, the recently founded hackerspace in Aarhus and Labitat, the new hackerspace in Copenhagen. With the hope of having many other interesting occasions of sharing knowledge about interdisciplinary subjects (and people!), I suggest the readers to get involved in the discussion following the Hack-Aarhus mailing-list: http://groups.google.com/group/hack-arhus

Here are some photos of the event.

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Talk with Jacob Appelbaum (NoiseBridge, San Francisco)

Jacob Appelbaum lives in San Francisco and is an independent computer security hacker currently employed by the Tor Project.. He is the executive director and a founder of the hackerspace Noisebridge in San Francisco (www.noisebridge.net).

NoiseBridge is a space for sharing, creation, collaboration, research, development, mentoring, and learning. Noisebridge is also more than a physical space, it’s a community with roots extending around the world. The hackerspace provides infrastructure and collaboration opportunities for people interested in programming, hardware hacking, physics, chemistry, mathematics, photography, security, robotics, all kinds of art, and, of course, technology. Through talks, workshops, and projects, it encourages knowledge exchange, learning, and mentoring. As a space for artistic collaboration and experimentation, is open to all types of art – with a special emphasis on the crossover of art and technology. From hardware labs to electronics, cooking, photography, and sound labs, anything that’s creative is welcome.

The tor project is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.

The meeting with Jacob Appelbaum is organized by the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre. Presented by Tatiana Bazzichelli.

Thursday January 7, 2010.
14.30-16.00, Helsingforsgade 14, Aarhus University, Turing building, 8200 Århus N, room T014.

AHAcktitude 2009 [27-28-29th November, Milan, Italy]
# Organised by:
aha@lists.ecn.org and AHA: Activism-Hacking-Artivism

AHAcktitude 2009, Milan

The community of aha@lists.ecn.org, the Italian mailing list on art and hacktivism is organizing a 3 day event in Milan at the Cantiere Social Centre. They called it AHAcktitude, as a collective development of the AHA: Activism-Hacking-Artivism project which I founded in 2001. I will contribute via Skype from San Francisco with a presentation on the topics I am researching during my visiting scholarship at Stanford University (starting August 2009).
The name of my presentation is: From Silicon Valley with Love, and it will connect art, tech and grassroots projects in the Bay Area (Saturday November 28, 9.30pm).

Here is the AHAcktitude press announcement:

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