Posts By: Geert Lovink

Just Out: Organization after Social Media by Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter

By Geert Lovink, June 15, 2018

Exploring the politics of networks through and beyond social media Organized networks are an alternative to the social media logic of weak links and their secretive economy of data mining. They put an end to freestyle friends, seeking forms of empowerment beyond the brief moment of joyful networking. This speculative manual calls for nothing less [...]

The Internet is not a Cultural ‘Melting Pot’

By Geert Lovink, June 8, 2018

Rough Theses on Internet & Global Politics anno 2018 by Geert Lovink (This text is based on an email interview with Polina Kolozaridi of the Moscow-based website www.internetbeyond.net. You can find the Russian translation and original English version here). Anglo-American globalization has been challenged for decades. The liberal consensus says that There Is No Alternative [...]

Interfacing Counterculture and Digital Cultures: A Personal History, Interview with Geert Lovink by Valérie Schafer

By Geert Lovink, May 1, 2018

(original posting here: https://web90.hypotheses.org/4054) During his entire life Dutch media theorist and net activist Geert Lovink has been thinking about, and struggling with, the issue of institutionalisation of social movements and independent media. He would probably dislike the fact that he is now described as an “established figure” of media theory and net criticism… or [...]

Social Media Critique with Geert Lovink–for the Ukrainian magazine Korydor

By Geert Lovink, April 29, 2018

Interview with Geert Lovink by Taras Nazaruk This conversation was recorded online on March 14, 2018 at the very beginning of the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal. It was recently published, in Ukrainian by cultural magazine Korydor: http://www.korydor.in.ua/ua/opinions/geert-lovink-pomylky-majut-buty-vepravleni.html. I later edited and shortened the original text in English. TN: In preparation for this conversation I read different [...]

Social in the Abyss–Interview with Geert Lovink by Tuğçe Yilmaz for K24

By Geert Lovink, April 19, 2018

Published first on March 18, 2018 by K24 in Turkish. Tuğçe Yilmaz: Social Media Abyss is the fifth volume of your ongoing investigation into critical internet culture. What is the main idea behind your treatment of social media as a dreadful abyss? Geert Lovink: The motive of falling into an vortex is a scary one, I [...]

Radical Think-Tank Theory–Interview with Ralf Homann and Manuela Unverdorben

By Geert Lovink, April 19, 2018

  By Geert Lovink How can we imagine to do radical research outside of the established academic institutions and large mainstream media? Is this possible anyway? For decades this has been my dream. At first, my 1980s generation imagined this as an intellectual practice that was allocated deep inside the social movements. This was mostly [...]

Q & A on Fake News and The Yes Men Legacy

By Geert Lovink, April 9, 2018

Interview with Geert Lovink by Hadas Emma Kedar, including a guest appearance by Jacques Servin (The Yes Men). Hadas Emma Kedar is masters student of Media Arts Cultures in Krems/Austria, working with Ana Peraica on her thesis on the legacy of The Yes Men in relation to today’s activist media arts. Hadas Emma Kedar: Why [...]

Let’s Talk about Social Media

By Geert Lovink, April 7, 2018

First published in Amsterdam Alternative #17, April 2018 By Geert Lovink “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Dr. Suess In early 2018, social media criticism has reached a new stage. In past months, voices from deep inside the IT industry have made themselves heard. The suspicion against Google and Facebook started with [...]

Rude Awakening: Memes as Dialectical Images by Geert Lovink & Marc Tuters

By Geert Lovink, April 3, 2018

(This is part II of our critical meme theory, originally published here. The first part can also be found on non.copyriot.com here) “It’s not that what is past casts its light on what is present, or what is present its light on what is past; rather, image is that wherein what has been comes together [...]

Interview: Background & Strategy of #deletefacebook

By Geert Lovink, March 30, 2018

“Fragmentation of the internet is our key aim right now.” Original: https://catharsismagazine.com/2018/03/30/geert-lovink-fragmentation/ Geert Lovink, net critic and theorist and advisory editor of Catharsis and Swagat Baruah, managing editor of Catharsis discuss the recent Cambridge Analytica data mining scandal and other relevant issues pertaining to the internet and social media. Swagat Baruah: The data mining scandal [...]