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    <p>for those in Narm/Melb area <br>
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                <p style="background:white"><span style="color:black"> <b>From
                      Stacktivism to Platform Alternatives</b></span></p>
              </div>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><b><i><span
                      style="color:black">A critical analysis of the
                      state of the contemporary network culture by
                      leading Dutch theorist Prof Geert Lovink</span></i></b><span
                  style="color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><b><i><span
                      style="color:black"><img width="846" height="374"
                        style="width:8.8125in;height:3.8958in"
                        id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:part1.bVM8piid.W6yN9IiL@nedrossiter.org"></span></i></b><span
                  style="color:black"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="color:black">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.</span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof"
                style="background:white;line-height:1.5rem"><span
                  style="color:black"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="color:black">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).</span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="color:black"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="color:black">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?</span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><b><u><span
                      style="color:black;background:white">Registration
                      link</span></u><span
                    style="color:black;background:white"><br>
                     <a
href="https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/from-stacktivism-to-platform-alternatives-tickets-1052983942317?aff=oddtdtcreator"
                      target="_blank"
title="https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/from-stacktivism-to-platform-alternatives-tickets-1052983942317?aff=oddtdtcreator"
                      class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/from-stacktivism-to-platform-alternatives-tickets-1052983942317?aff=oddtdtcreator</a></span></b></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></p>
              <p style="background:white"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
              <p style="background:white"><b><u><span
                      style="color:black">About the speaker</span></u></b><span
                  style="color:black"></span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof"
                style="background:white;line-height:1.5rem"><span
                  style="color:black">Geert Lovink is a Dutch media
                  theorist, internet critic and author of
                </span><u><span style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/uncanny-networks-geert-lovink/"
                      target="_blank"
title="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/uncanny-networks-geert-lovink/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Uncanny Networks</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (2002), </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/dark-fiber-geert-lovink/"
                      target="_blank"
title="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/dark-fiber-geert-lovink/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Dark Fiber</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (2002), </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/my-first-recession-geert-lovink/"
                      target="_blank"
title="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/my-first-recession-geert-lovink/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">My First Recession</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (2003), </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/zero-comments-geert-lovink/"
                      target="_blank"
title="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/zero-comments-geert-lovink/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Zero Comments</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (2007), </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/networks-without-a-cause-geert-lovink/"
                      target="_blank"
title="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/networks-without-a-cause-geert-lovink/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Networks Without a Cause</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (2012), </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/social-media-abyss-critical-internet-cultures-and-the-force-of-negation/"
                      target="_blank"
title="http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/social-media-abyss-critical-internet-cultures-and-the-force-of-negation/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Social Media Abyss</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (2016), </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/organizationaftersocialmedia-web.pdf"
                      target="_blank"
title="https://www.minorcompositions.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/organizationaftersocialmedia-web.pdf"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Organisation after Social
                        Media</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (with Ned Rossiter, 2018),
                </span><u><span style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745339344/sad-by-design/"
                      target="_blank"
title="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745339344/sad-by-design/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Sad by Design</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (2019) and </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a
href="https://valiz.nl/en/publications/stuck-on-the-platform"
                      target="_blank"
title="https://valiz.nl/en/publications/stuck-on-the-platform"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Stuck on the Platform</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> (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.</span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof"
                style="background:white;line-height:1.5rem"><span
                  style="color:black"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="color:black">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
                </span><u><span style="color:#3659E3"><a
                      href="http://www.networkcultures.org/"
                      target="_blank"
                      title="http://www.networkcultures.org/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">Institute of Network
                        Cultures</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black">. From 2007-2017 he was Professor
                  of Media Theory at the </span><u><span
                    style="color:#3659E3"><a href="http://www.egs.edu/"
                      target="_blank" title="http://www.egs.edu/"><span
                        style="color:#3659E3">European Graduate School</span></a></span></u><span
                  style="color:black"> 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.</span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="color:black"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span
                  style="color:black">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.</span></p>
              <p style="background:white"><span style="color:black"> </span></p>
              <p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><b><u><span
                      style="color:black">Enquiries</span></u></b><span
                  style="color:black"></span></p>
              <p style="background:white;line-height:1.5rem"><span
                  style="color:black">Please send your enquiries to Prof
                  Scott McQuire via
                  <a href="mailto:mcquire@unimelb.edu.au"
                    title="mcquire@unimelb.edu.au"
                    class="moz-txt-link-freetext">mcquire@unimelb.edu.au</a></span></p>
              <p style="background:white"><span style="color:black">If
                  you have any support requirements in order to
                  participate fully, please contact us via
                  <a href="mailto:scc-events@unimelb.edu.au"
                    title="scc-events@unimelb.edu.au"
                    class="moz-txt-link-freetext">scc-events@unimelb.edu.au</a></span></p>
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                  <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:110%"><i><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:110%;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">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.</span></i><span
style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:110%;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"></span></p>
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