Ben Grosser: Planning the Exodus from Platform Realism

By Geert Lovink, June 29, 2021

Thinking about the current state of platforms, I’m reminded of Mark Fisher’s articulation of capitalist realism, the idea that we don’t imagine or build alternatives to capitalism because we can no longer envision a world without it. Big tech, in a few short years, has managed to instill within the public a similar state of [...]

CODE NL-D over het terugwinnen van onze digital agency

By Geert Lovink, June 24, 2021

Graag nodigen we je uit voor het symposium CODE NL-D, over het terugwinnen van onze digital agency: https://impakt.nl/code-nld/ Het symposium vindt online plaats deze zaterdag middag 26 juni 2021 van 14:00 – 17:30 uur. Connected Digital Europe (CODE) NL-D is een samenwerking tussen IMPAKT [Centrum voor Mediacultuur], (NL) en School of Machines, Making & Make-believe [...]

A Genealogy Of LiveLeak: From Transgressive Teen To Mannered Man

By Maurice Dharampal, June 17, 2021

In early May 2021, the internet lost a controversial yet vital part of its history. Seemingly out of the blue, video hosting platform LiveLeak shut down. It was a staple website for gore content, especially among millennials or other early internet users, and for its information transparency and unrestricted censorship to citizen journalists, whistleblowers and [...]

Open Letter: Belarus and the Need for a New European University for Eastern Europe

By Geert Lovink, June 14, 2021

Initiated by Ellen Rutten at University of Amsterdam and colleagues from Italy and Germany I contributed to the open letter below, signed by Olga Tokarczuk, Judith Butler, Boris Groys, Saskia Sassen, Eva Illouz, Slavoj Zizek and many others: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/open-letter-we-need-new-university-eastern-europe. – With the climate of repression reaching fever pitch in Belarus and Russia, European institutions need [...]

Ben Grosser: Why Instagram’s Like Hiding Saga is a PR Stunt