Short Bio
Geert Lovink is a Dutch-Australian media theorist and critic. He is Professor at the European Graduate School, Research Professor at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, where he is founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, and Associate Professor in Media Studies (new media), University of Amsterdam. Lovink is author of Dark Fiber (2002), My First Recession (2003) and Zero Comments (2007). He recently co-organized events and publications on Wikipedia research, online video and the culture of search. His forthcoming book investigates the rise of ‘popular hermeneutics’ inside Web 2.0, large scale comment cultures and the shifting position of new media (studies) inside the humanities.
http://www.networkcultures.org/
C.V.
Research institute: http://www.networkcultures.org
Old text archive: http://www.laudanum.net/geert
Old text archive: http://www.desk.nl/bilwet
Blog: http://www.networkcultures.org/geert
Blog of his masters students: http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl
Education
MA, Social and Political Sciences, University of Amsterdam, 1984.
PhD, English Department, Media & Communication Program, University of Melbourne, 2003.
Current Employment
Research professor (‘lector’), Institute of Interactive Media, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA).
Associate professor, Mediastudies, new media program, Humanities Faculty, University of Amsterdam.
Director of the Institute of Network Cultures (INC) at HvA (all from January 2004, tenured from 2008).
Professor at the European Graduate School, Saas Fee (CH)
Past Employment
Independent media theorist, critic, publisher and conference organizer since 1984.
Editor, Mediamatic magazine (www.mediamatic.nl), 1989-1994.
Radio Producer, Radio 100 (Amsterdam community station), 1987-1990, Radio Patapoe (Amsterdam community station), 1990-1993, VPRO (www.vpro.nl, Dutch Public Radio), 1993-1996.
Coordinator of public research program, Waag Society (Society for Old and New Media), Amsterdam, 1996-2000 (http://www.waag.org).
International PhD Fellowship, University of Melbourne, Australia, 2002.
Postdoc fellow at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 2003.
Honorary Research Advisor within the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane (2004-2006).
Fellowships and Residencies
2003 March-April, Residency at the English Literature department, University of California, Santa Barbara.
2005-2006 Fellow at the Wissenschaftkolleg, Berlin (Centre for Advanced Study).
Professional Activities
Co-founder, Bluf!, Dutch political weekly (1981-1987), editor from 1981-1983.
Co-founder Ravijn, Dutch publishing house (1988-1998), member of editorial board from 1989-1994.
Co-founder, Digital City, Amsterdam freenet/community network (http://www.dds.nl), 1993-2001.
Co-founder, Desk.nl, Internet provider for arts and culture (www.desk.nl), founded in 1994.
Co-founder, with Pit Schultz, nettime mailinglist (www.nettime.org), founded in 1995.
– Series of international nettime conferences and meetings (1996-1997).
– Co-moderator of the international list (1995-99).
– Co-editor of nettime publications (see publication list).
– Co-ordinator of non-English nettime mailinglists.
Co-founder, Contrast.org, political Internet content provider (www.contrast.org), founded in 1997.
Co-founder, fibreculture, a mailinglist and web journal on Australian Internet culture and research (www.fibreculture.org) founded in 2001.
Co-founder and moderator, Solaris, a mailinglist on critical issues in IT and development, 2001-2004.
Co-founder of collaborative weblog discordia (www.discordia.us), 2002-2004.
Co-founder, Incommunicado, international ICT for development research network, founded in 2005.
Co-founder, Urban Screens, international network of urban screens reseachers, from 2006.
Co-founder, MyCreativity, international network of creative industries reseachers, from 2006.
Founder of Videovortex, international network of online video researchers and practioners, from 2008.
Conferences and Festivals co-organization
– Wetware: new media festival, conference and publication, Amsterdam, August 1991.
– Next Five Minutes Tactical Media Conferences 1-3, Amsterdam January 1993, January 1996, March 1999 (http://www.n5m.org).
– Ex Oriente Lux, first Romanian video art exhibition, including a publication and conference, organized by the Soros Contemporary Arts Centre, Bucharest, November 1993.
– Metaforum 1-3, Budapest, October 1994, October 1995, October 1996 (http://www.mrf.hu).
– Co-curator of two Ars Electronica conferences, Linz, 1996: Memesis, 1998: Infowar (http://www.aec.at).
– Interface 3, Hamburg, November 1995.
– Beauty and the East, Nettime Conference, Ljubljana, May 1997.
– International Browserday Competitions (five), Amsterdam-New York-Berlin, 1998-2001 (www.waag.org/browser and www.internationalbrowserday.com).
– Tulipomania Dotcom, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, June 2000 (www.balie.nl/tulipomania).
– Make World Festival, Munich/Germany, October 2001 (www.make-world.org)
– Co-organizer of Fibreculture public debates/meetings, Melbourne, December 2001; Sydney, November 2002; Brisbane, July 2003 (www.fibreculture.org/conference.html).
– Dark Markets, Media and Democracy in Crisis, organized by Public Netbase/Vienna, October 2002.
– Crisis Media, Uncertain States of Reportage, Sarai New Media Centre, Dehli, March 2003.
– Networks, Art and Collaboration, conference at SUNY, Buffalo, April 2004.
– Decade of Webdesign, organized together with the Piet Zwart Institue, Amsterdam, January 2005.
– Incommunicado 05, produced together with Waag Society and Sarai, Amsterdam, June 2005 (www.incommunicado.info/conference)
– Urban Screens, together with Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, September 2005, continued in Manchester, October 2007, Melbourne, October 2008 and a one day conference to launch the INC reader on urban screens in Amsterdam, December 2009 (www.networkcultures.org/urbanscreens).
– Art and Politics of Netporn, Amsterdam, September 2005 (www.networkcultures.org/netporn).
– MyCreativity (together with Ned Rossiter), Amsterdam, November 2007 (www.networkcultures.org/mycreativity).
– New Network Theory (together with ASCA/UvA-Media & Culture), Amsterdam, June 2007.
– Videovortex, a series of conferences and exhibitions on online video, started in October 2007 in Brussels, then Amsterdam, January 2008, Ankara, October 2008, Split, May 2009 and Brussels, November 2009 (www.networkcultures.org/videovortex).
– Critical Point of View, a series of conferences on Wikipedia research, in Bangalore, January 12-13 2010 and Amsterdam, March 26-27 2010.
Temporary Media Lab Co-organization
– Hybrid Workspace, Documenta X, Kassel, June-September 1997 (http://www.medialounge.net).
– Media lab at Kiasma (contemporary arts museum), Helsinki, October-November 1999 (http://temp.kiasma.fi).
– Wintercamp, Amsterdam, March 2-8, 2009, 12 invited networks, 150 guests, organized by the Institute of Network Cultures (www.networkcultures.org/wintercamp).
Teaching
– Annual workshop/course for five years at the IMI media school in Osaka, 1996- 2000.
(http://www.iminet.ac.jp. The documentation of this annual ‘AiR’ project has been published as a book: Electronic Street Cultures, IMI, Osaka, 2001.
– Merz Academy in Stuttgart (1994 and 1998).
– KHM media art school in Cologne (1998).
– Internet for Curators, De Appel curatorial program (1998, 2004, 2005)
– School for Art and Communication in Malmö, Sweden (1999).
– UIAH media design school in Helsinki (1999).
– Sceen Culture course at College of Fine Arts/University of New South Wales (first semester 2002).
– Critical Internet course, Victorian College of the Arts (August 2002).
– Mapping Swiss Info-society, course at the Zurich media design school (late 2002).
– Tactical media course, Bauhaus University, Weimar (Wintersemester 2003-2004).
– BA and MA new media courses, University of Amsterdam (January 2004-present), see for instance the collaborative student blog http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/.
– Masterclass at the University of Queensland, organized by the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies (December 2004).
– PhD courses at the European Graduate School (including online supervision), June 2007 and June 2009.
– Masterclass at the University of Melbourne, Media and Communications, Melbourne (December 2008).
– Masterclass at University of Media and Edith Cowan, Perth (December 2008).
– Lecture series at the Comparative Literature Program, UC Irvine (February 2009).
– Masterclass for the Masters program of UAM-Reina Sofia, Madrid (February 2009).
– Masterclass at the FAMU filmschool, Prague (October 2009).
Advisory Board and Jury Memberships
– External advisor, review panel of School of Communications Arts, University of Western Sydney, 2009.
– Jury member of the Networked Book competition, 2009.
– Reviewer on the international board of the Mondrian Foundation (Netherlands Art Council (2007-2008).
– Member of advisory board of new media institute at the Banff Centre, Canada (2006-2007).
– International Program Committee, ISEA 2006 festival (San Jose/USA).
– Jury member of the VIPER festival, Basel (2004).
– Faculty Advisory Committee, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (2003).
– IT and International Cooperation Committee (Social Science Research Council, NYC, 2003-2005).
– International Program Committee, ISEA 2004 festival (Stockholm-Helsinki-Tallinn), 2003-2004.
– Peer reviewer, new media arts board of the Australia Council (Sydney, July 2003).
– ICT taskforce, Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development (New Delhi, 2002-2003).
– Member of the board of the Waag-Sarai exchange program (ongoing since 1998).
– Committee member of Thuiskopiefonds (home copy fund, Amsterdam, 1999)
Print Publications
Books by Geert Lovink:
The Network Condition, Foundations of Critical Internet Culture (forthcoming, Polity Press, 2011).
Zero Comments, Blogging and Critical Internet Culture (Routledge, New York, 2007 with translations in Italian and German).
The Principle of Notworking, Concepts in Critical Internet Culture, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2005 (translations in Dutch and French).
My First Recession, Critical Internet Culture in Transition (V2, Rotterdam/NL, 2003, Italian translation 2004).
Uncanny Networks, In Dialogue with the Virtual Intelligentsia (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002).
Dark Fiber, Tracking Critical Internet Culture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002, with translations in German, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Japanese).
Hör zu – oder stirb! (Amsterdam and Berlin: Edition ID – Archiv, 1992, in German).