Institute of Network Cultures | Ideas travels – tracing the journey of a Syrian refugee via Whatsapp

Ideas odyssey is one of the many harrowing stories of refugees arriving in Europe. Amsterdam-based journalist Sam Nemeth (himself the son of a Hungarian refugee) befriended Ideas while on holiday on the Greek island Lesbos and stayed in touch via Whatsapp while Ideas made his way across Europe. By tracking his journey and sharing it via social media he attempts to put a human face on the humanitarian crisis happening on the Mediterranean shores.

Whatsapp screenshot from Mashable‘s report on Ideas journey.

Naked Logic: Lecture of Boldizsár Hordós at Metaforum X, Budapest

By Geert Lovink, November 12, 2024

I am happy to teach computer history at a fine arts university. Besides, I also work with small kids. Part of my job is to pry phones out of their hands—not the most pleasant part of the day. This is partly because (as with every mandatory intervention) it stirs up more chaos than it prevents. [...]

Infrastructure that Sticks: Digital Affect Within Sovietcore

By Salome Berdzenishvili, November 4, 2024

Жить тяжело и неуютно Зато уютно умирать (Living is difficult and confining, But dying is liberating) The words written above are an excerpt from the song Sudno (Boris Ryzhy) by post-punk band Molchat Doma from Minsk. These words also often loop over the reels on post-Soviet aesthetics found online – the ones of decayed brutalist [...]

Ágnes Básthy: Crisis? What Crisis? Taking a Suspicious Walk around a Fashionable Notion

By Geert Lovink, October 31, 2024

(Text of the speech by Ágnes Básthy on the first day of Metaforum X, Budapest, October 25, 2024) “‘Krisis’ was originally a medical concept which designated, in the Hippocratic corpus of texts, the moment when the doctor decided whether the patient would be able to survive the disease. Theologians reprized the term to indicate the [...]