INC Readers

The INC Reader series are derived from conference contributions and available in print and pdf form.

Publications Overview EPUB
The catalogue includes INC Reader series, Studies in network cultures, Network Notebooks, Theory on Demand and some miscellaneous titles.

Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader
For millions of internet users around the globe, the search for new knowledge begins with Wikipedia. The encyclopedia’s rapid rise, novel organization, and freely offered content have been marveled at and denounced by a host of commentators. Critical Point of View moves beyond unflagging praise, well-worn facts, and questions about its reliability and accuracy, to unveil the complex, messy, and controversial realities of a distributed knowledge platform.
Geert Lovink and Nathaniel Tkacz (eds), Critical Point of View: A Wikipedia Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. ISBN: 978-90-78146-13-1, paperback.

Video Vortex II Reader
Video Vortex Reader II is the Institute of Network Cultures' second collection of texts that critically explore the rapidly changing landscape of online video and its use. With the success of YouTube ('2 billion views per day') and the rise of other online video sharing platforms, the moving image has become expansively more popular on the Web, significantly contributing to the culture and ecology of the internet and our everyday lives. In response, the Video Vortex project continues to examine critical issues that are emerging around the production and distribution of online video content.
Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles (eds), Video Vortex Reader II: moving images beyond YouTube, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2011. ISBN: 978-90-78146-12-4.

Urban Screens Reader
The Urban Screens Reader is the first book to focus entirely on the topic of urban screens. In assembling contributions from a range of leading theorists, in conjunction with a series of case studies dealing with artists’ projects and screen operators’ and curators’ experiences, the reader offers a rich resource for those interested in the intersections between digital media, cultural practices and urban space.
Scott McQuire, Meredith Martin and Sabine Niederer (eds.), Urban Screens Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-10-0.

Video Vortex Reader
The Video Vortex Reader is the first collection of critical texts to deal with the rapidly emerging world of online video – from its explosive rise in 2005 with YouTube, to its future as a significant form of personal media. The contributions from scholars, artists and curators evolved from the first two Video Vortex conferences in Brussels and Amsterdam in 2007 which focused on responses to YouTube, and address key issues around independent production and distribution of online video content.
Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer (eds.), Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008. ISBN: 978-90-78146-05-6.

From weak ties to organized networks
In March 2009 INC brought 12 networks to Amsterdam for a week of getting things done. Aim was to connect the virtual with the real in order to find out how distributed social networks can collaborate more effectively. The more people start working together online, the more urgent it becomes to develop sustainable network models. Together with 28 online interviews, this report provides a comprehensive overview of the general issues that the participating networks dealt with during Winter Camp. MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007. ISBN: 987-90-78146-04-9.

MyCreativity
The MyCreativity Reader is a collection of critical research into the creative industries. The material develops out of the MyCreativity Convention on International Creative Industries Research held in Amsterdam, November 2006. Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter (eds.), MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007. ISBN: 987-90-78146-04-9.

The Art and Politics of Netporn
C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader is an anthology that collects the best material from two years of debate from The Art and Politics of Netporn 2005 conference to the 2007 C’Lick Me festival. Katrien Jacobs, Marije Janssen and Matteo Pasquinelli (eds.), C’Lick Me: A Netporn Studies Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007. ISBN: 978-90-78146-03-2.

Incommunicado Reader
The Incommunicado Reader brings together papers written for the June 2005 event, and includes a CD-ROM of interviews with speakers. Geert Lovink and Soenke Zehle (eds.), Incommunicado Reader, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2005. ISBN: 90-78146-01-X.

Studies in Network Cultures

This book series, edited by Geert Lovink, is a collaboration between the Institute of Network Cultures (INC) and NAi Publishers.

Fifth book in the series:
Nettitudes, Let's Talk Art: Never the darling of the media art institutions and ignored by many curators and critics since its emergence, net art still persists as a ‘non-movement’, residing in the cracks of contemporary media culture. Nettitudes provides an analytical foundation and an insider’s view on net art’s many expressions as it grapples with the aesthetic, conceptual and social issues of our times.
Josephine Bosma, Nettitudes: Let’s Talk Net Art, NAi Publishers, Rotterdam and the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2011. ISBN 978-90-5662-800-0.

Fourth book in the series:
Web Aesthetics: How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society, by Vito Campanelli.

We live in a world of rapidly evolving digital networks, but within the domain of media theory, which studies the influence of these cultural forms, the implications of aesthetical philosophy have been sorely neglected. Vito Campanelli explores network forms through the prism of aesthetics and thus presents an open invitation to transcend the inherent limitations of the current debate about digital culture.

Third book in the series:
Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons, by Matteo Pasquinelli.

After a decade of digital fetishism, the spectres of the financial and energy crisis have also affected new media culture and brought into question the autonomy of networks. Yet activism and the art world still celebrate Creative Commons and the ‘creative cities’ as the new ideals for the Internet generation. Unmasking the animal spirits of the commons, Matteo Pasquinelli identifies the key social conflicts and business models at work behind the rhetoric of Free Culture.

Second book in the series:
Delusive Spaces: Essays on Culture, Media and Technology by Eric Kluitenberg.

The formerly open terrain of the new media is closing fast: market concentration, legal consolidation and tightening governmental control have effectively ended the myth of the new media networks as the home of the free. The object of this book is not simply to critique these conditions.

First book in the series:
Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour, New Institutions by Ned Rossiter.

The celebration of network cultures as open, decentralized, and horizontal all too easily forgets the political dimensions of labour and life in informational times. Organized Networks sets out to destroy these myths by tracking the antagonisms that lurk within Internet governance debates, the exploitation of labour in the creative industries, and the aesthetics of global finance capital.

Network Notebooks

Network Notebooks presents new media research commissioned by the INC. Available free in print and pdf form. Edited by Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer.

Network Notebook #3:
The Telekommunist by Dmytri Kleiner

In the age of international telecommunications, global migration and the emergence of the information econ- omy, how can class conflict and property be understood? Drawing from political economy and concepts related to intellectual property, The Telekommunist Manifesto is a key contribution to commons-based, collaborative and shared forms of cultural production and economic distribution.
Dmytri Kleiner, The Telekommunist Manifesto, Network Notebooks 03, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2010. ISBN: 978-90--816021-2-9.

Network Notebook #2:
The Internet of Things by Rob van Kranenburg

The Internet of Things is a critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID by Rob van Kranenburg. He examines what impact RFID and other systems, will have on our cities and our wider society. The notebook features an introduction by journalist and writer Sean Dodson.
Rob van Kranenburg, The Internet of Things: A critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID, Network Notebooks 02, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2007. ISBN: 978-90-78146-06-3.

Network Notebooks #01:
Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? by Rosalind Gill.

This INC commissioned research goes beyond contemporary myths to explore how people working in the field experience the pleasures, pressures and challenges of working on the web. Illustrated throughout with quotations from interviews, it examines the different career paths emerging for content-producers in web-based industries, questions the relevance of existing education and training, and highlights the different ways in which people manage and negotiate freelancing, job insecurity, and keeping up to date in a fast-moving field where both software and expectations change rapidly. Rosalind Gill, Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat?, Network Notebooks 01, Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2007. ISBN: 978-90-78146-02-5

Online Magazines

Cut-up Issue 20: The Art and Poltics of Netporn
In cooperation with the Institute of Network Cultures, online magazine cut-up has produced an issue on The Art and Politics of Netporn. Bas van Heur (ed.), The Art and Politics of Netporn, Cut-Up issue #20 (2005).

Cut-up Issue 32: Databodies
In co-operation with the INC and the Databodies research group, online magazine cut-up produced a ‘Databodies’ issue about the social consequences of profiling, tagging and security. Contributors include: Richard Rogers, Sabine Niederer, Loes Sikkes, Michael Stevenson, Jasper Moes, and Esther Weltevrede. Theo Ploeg (ed.), Databodies, Cut-Up issue #32 (2006).

First Monday: Urban Screens
In February 2006, peer-reviewed Internet journal First Monday published this special issue on urban screens. Contributors include: Anthony Auerbach, Giselle Beiguelman, Pieter Boeder, Vera Bühlmann, Wael Fahmi, Ava Fatah, Raina Kumra, Paul Martin Lester, Lev Manovich, Scott McQuire, Rekha Murthy, Julia Nevárez, Tore Slaatta, Mirjam Struppek and Kate Taylor. Pieter Boeder and Mirjam Struppek (eds.), Urban Screens: discovering the potential of outdoor screens for urban society, First Monday issue #4 (2005).

Newspapers

54.780 Woorden over Nieuwe Media Cultuur in Nederland
We hebben twintig mediatheoretici, wetenschappers en publicisten gevraagd om vanuit hun eigen discipline te beschrijven wat er in Nederland zoal gebeurt op het gebied van nieuwe media. Het resultaat is een lappendeken van bijdragen waarin wordt geput uit praktijk én theorie. Zie alle artikelen op: http://networkcultures.org/krant.

The Creativity
The Creativity is a free accidental newspaper dedicated to the anonymous creative worker. The Creativity was produced by Sandberg Institute, the Institute of Network Cultures (Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and the Centre for Media Research (University of Ulster). The newspaper was officially presented at the MyCreativity convention on creative industries research, which took place 16-18 November 2007, in Amsterdam.

Geert Lovink's publications

Zero Comments
In this third volume of his studies into critical Internet culture, following the influential Dark Fiber and My First Recession, Lovink develops a ‘general theory of blogging.’ Unlike most critiques of blogging, Lovink is not focusing here on the dynamics between bloggers and the mainstream news media, but rather unpacking the ways that blogs exhibit a ‘nihilist impulse’ to empty out established meaning structures. Geert Lovink, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, New York: Routledge, 2007. ISBN: 978-04-1597-315-1.

The Art of Free Cooperation
This book takes an inventory of the art of collaborative practice, surveys the landscape of new, cooperation-enhancing technologies, and renders the inner workings of cooperative processes as a new model for social movements. Civic participation is on the decline, but, online, more people work together than ever before. Geert Lovink and Trebor Scholz (eds), The Art of Free Cooperation, New York: Autonomedia, 2007. ISBN: 978-15-7027-177-9.

The Principle of Notworking
Inaugural speech at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, february 2005, with three chapters on multitude, network and culture, the theory of free cooperation and the dawn of the organized networks. Geert Lovink, The Principle of Notworking: Concepts in Critical Internet Culture, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005.

My First Recession
My First Recession starts when the party is over. This study maps the transition of critical Internet culture from the mid-to-late 1990s Internet craze to the dotcom crash, the subsequent meltdown of global financial markets, and 9/11. Geert Lovink, My First Recession: Critical Internet Culture in Transition, Rotterdam: V2_NAi Publishers, 2003. ISBN: 90-5662-353-2.

Uncanny Networks
A collection of interviews with new media artists, theorists and critics from East and West-Europe, USA and Asia who reflect on their concepts and practices. It provides a critical context of ideas, networks and artworks that have shaped the past decade. Geert Lovink, Uncanny Networks: Dialogues with the Virtual Intelligentsia, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 0262621878.

Dark Fiber
In Dark Fiber, Lovink combines aesthetic and ethical concerns and issues of navigation and usability without ever losing sight of the cultural and economic agendas of those who control hardware, software, content, design, and delivery. Geert Lovink, Dark Fiber: Tracking Critical Internet Culture, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 0262621800.