::fibreculture:: From Stacktivism to Platform Alternatives

[Ned Rossiter]

for those in Narm/Melb area


*From Stacktivism to Platform Alternatives*

*/A critical analysis of the state of the contemporary network culture 
by leading Dutch theorist Prof Geert Lovink/*

*//*

In contemporary activism there is a growing realization that there is an 
urgent need to distinguish between tools for (decentralised) 
organization and (broad) mobilization that scale up. Social media 
platforms have mixed the two up (news & personal messages), to the point 
of becoming unworkable, exhausting, unleashing mental health crises, on 
top of creating dangerous situations in terms surveillance.

The social media hegemony is not yet broken but there are many cracks in 
its architecture—and appeal. While the Internet Question seems stagnant 
and unresolved, the hype caravan has moved on. From VR, crypto and Web3 
we are now all in the grip of ‘AI' as the latest marketing term for 
machine learning and large language models that feeds its generic 
’summary’ content back into the Web. While the ‘infuencer’ persona is in 
decline, the mass obsession with likes, views, comments, swiping from 
one TikTok video to the next, retweets funny memes continues. What will 
disrupt the 'bored billions’ is the automation of activism (already 
visible in the current waves of fake news and deep fakes).

While officials raise the ethics issue of AI for Good, asking the 
impossible question how to build ‘responsible’ extraction software, 
hackers, designers and other artists are coding subversive tools that 
disrupt and undermine the totalitarian system of control, ‘polluting’ 
data bases, turning fake news and monstrous images upside down. The 
message is clear: the world prepares for planetary cyberwarfare. Are you 
ready?

*_Registration link_
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/from-stacktivism-to-platform-alternatives-tickets-1052983942317?aff=oddtdtcreator*

*_About the speaker_*

Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic and author of 
_Uncanny Networks 
<http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/uncanny-networks-geert-lovink/>_ (2002), 
_Dark Fiber 
<http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/dark-fiber-geert-lovink/>_ (2002), 
_My First Recession 
<http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/my-first-recession-geert-lovink/>_ (2003), 
_Zero Comments 
<http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/zero-comments-geert-lovink/>_ (2007), 
_Networks Without a Cause 
<http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/networks-without-a-cause-geert-lovink/>_ (2012), 
_Social Media Abyss 
<http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/social-media-abyss-critical-internet-cultures-and-the-force-of-negation/>_ (2016), 
_Organisation after Social Media 
<https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/organizationaftersocialmedia-web.pdf>_ (with 
Ned Rossiter, 2018), _Sad by Design 
<https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745339344/sad-by-design/>_ (2019) and 
_Stuck on the Platform 
<https://valiz.nl/en/publications/stuck-on-the-platform>_ (2022). Almost 
all these books have been translated into German, Italian and Spanish. 
In 2019 an anthology of his work appeared in Russian with other 
translations in Turkish and Chinese.

Geert Lovink got his BA and MA in Social and Political Sciences from the 
University of Amsterdam in 1984 and did his PhD at the English 
Department, Media & Communication Program at the University of Melbourne 
(2002). He was a postdoc at the University of Queensland in 2003. In 
2004 he was appointed research professor (lector) at the Amsterdam 
University of Applied Science (HvA) where he founded the _Institute of 
Network Cultures <http://www.networkcultures.org/>_. From 2007-2017 he 
was Professor of Media Theory at the _European Graduate School 
<http://www.egs.edu/>_ where he supervised five PhD theses. From 
2004-2012 he was an associate professor in the digital cultures program 
of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam where he supervised 
numerous MA theses.

His centre organizes conferences, publications and research networks 
such as Video Vortex (online video), The Future of Art Criticism and 
MoneyLab (internet-based revenue models in the arts). Recent projects 
deal with digital publishing experiments, critical meme research, 
participatory hybrid events and precarity in the arts. In December 2021 
he was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the UvA Art 
History Department. The Chair (one day a week) is supported by the HvA.

*_Enquiries_*

Please send your enquiries to Prof Scott McQuire via mcquire at unimelb.edu.au

If you have any support requirements in order to participate fully, 
please contact us via scc-events at unimelb.edu.au

/I respectfully acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 
as the Traditional Owners of the unceded lands on which I work, learn 
and live. I pay respect to Elders past, present and future, and 
acknowledge the importance of Indigenous knowledge in the Academy./
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