<synthesis> Launch of the StreamArtNetwork (SAN)

[Geert Lovink]

#StreamArtNetwork #HybridTogetherness #ParticipatoryTelevision #CollaborativeStreaming #TelematicPerformances #GreenDeal #LiveWebCasting

The idea of the StreamArtNetwork (SAN) emerged together with UKRAiNATV’s weekly live webcasts from the StreamArtStudio in Krakow (PL), in response to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, just after February 24, 2022. Media artists, activists, journalists, AV producers, DJs, and IT freaks from the region and beyond reached out to others to pick up the stream, join, and show solidarity. Soon after, responses came in, and collaborations started, first and foremost to support artists in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and other places throughout Ukraine.

UKRAiNATV began traveling, showing up, hosting workshops and lectures using pop-up studios in New York, Trondheim, Rome, Barcelona, Berlin, Lviv, and Kyiv – searching for partners around the world. In early 2023, the VOID TV channel of the Amsterdam-based Institute of Network Cultures joined, followed by the Intermedia Budapest crew in early 2024. In the fall of 2024, a network was established consisting of the following founding members, each running a green-screen studio: UKRAiNATV in Krakow, the VOID in Amsterdam, Re:Frame.TV in Kyiv, Konfluxus Collective in Budapest, CDI in Coventry, and the 3022 in Vilnius.

The aims of the StreamArtNetwork are diverse, radical, and utopian at the same time. The network streams together, mixing and layering, meeting in-between platforms, localities and realities. We stream against war, neo-imperial invasions, genocide and limited mobility. Against big-tech centralization and neo-liberal social media monopolies with their 30-second ‘influencers’. We invite all like-minded to join, in favor of an endless exploration of time-spaces that we are creating together in our collective, heterogeneous hyper-realities – in glocal, hybrid, innovative, decentralized, low-budget, and sustainable ways, in a permanent process of learning and teaching by streaming for change, together.

Please join the network, press <on>, connect, share your inputs and let’s collect and exchange new knowledge, experiences, and share them back around. It’s an open loop, a new movement based on circular aesthetic and ethic for a more participatory, free, and open future.

SAN invites both institutional partners and smart, creative, transdisciplinary collectives – small experimental labs, and big rich cultural entities stack in cultivating the traditions of twentieth-century white cubes and old-school theatre halls. Demystify and reclaim the video tech. Hack your nearby green room or buy that green piece of textile et voilà, you’re on-air. The virtual is material and vice-versa. The stream art network is testing new models and initiating discussions on systemic changes regarding the production and distribution of contemporary and digital culture, and the redistribution of funds for its development. We will set up a green-box studio and collaborative media lab in every cultural, educational, public, and social institution and reclaim the internet, our archives, digital and critical culture, and direct, equal, multi-directional communication across political, geographical and technological boundaries.

(version 1.0, November 15, 2024)

Fouding members:

UKRAiNATV, Krakow https://ukrainatv.streamart.studio/
VOID/INC, Amsterdam https://networkcultures.org/void/
CDI, Coventry https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cdi/
Re:Frame.TV, Kyiv https://www.instagram.com/re_frame.tv/
3022, Vilnius https://3022.place/
Konfluxus, Budapest https://www.instagram.com/konfluxus.collective/

With the support of Pacesetters, Dyne.org, Intermedia Dept Krakow, Intermedia Dept Budapest, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, University of Warwick.

Contact x more information:  dziadkiewicz at o2.pl | streamart.centrala at gmail.com