Ben Peters: Ukrainian Reflections from Tulsa, Oklahoma

By Geert Lovink, March 14, 2022

I have not been directly affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although I am in touch with dozens of my colleagues, friends, and contacts in the region, where I have lived for about three years and have studied for about twenty. As such, my comments here will bear far less of the immediate unbearable [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 5

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 12, 2022

March 11, 2022 At 11pm, I go to bed with the intent to spend a couple of hours on writing. I am staring at the blank page for quite some time; the siren goes off and then, as if by following its call to tune in, I start writing. A reporter from the Canadian Press [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 4

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 10, 2022

March 6-10, 2022 After a quiet day on Saturday, March 5th, there were six air raid sirens on March 6th, and I noticed that, unless the rockets hit the city, too many sirens per day can make you ignore them. If it’s two or three, your body is turned on and your mind responds by [...]

My Digital Armpits Stink

By Karyna Lazaruk, March 9, 2022

March 4th, day 9 of this shit. I’m on edge. I restlessly check my phone. Fuck, so agitating.. I go to the bathroom with my phone, I go to sleep with my phone, I wake up at night and check my phone. When I hear an air raid siren, the first thing I think about [...]

Notes of Lev Manovich, February 24/March 6, 2022

By Geert Lovink, March 6, 2022

February 24, 2022 In summer 2019 I spent a month in Kyiv. It is a most amazing city – a bit of Rome, Paris Rio de Janeiro, and Bangkok together – but with its own unique vitality, creativity, and energy (some of the most talented artists and other cultural figures of “Russian avant-garde” of 1910s-1920 [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 3

By Svitlana Matviyenko, March 5, 2022

February 27, 2o22 – March 5, 2022 I thought it’s just me, but Asia says she is losing sense of what day it is. I feel the same, not all the time, but some moments, definitely. Writing stops, only fragmented notes are made, but I will now bring them together by reminding myself what I [...]

Pulsations of Dis/information: Diary of Kateryna Kobzdar, Lviv-Berlin, part 2

By Karyna Lazaruk, March 4, 2022

“I never thought I’ll be a refugee,” a colleague wrote in a Facebook group chat. Me neither. While the Ukrainian army and citizens bravely defend my homeland, I write this diary from Berlin. I check if my friends in Kyiv are fine by the green circle in the Facebook chat or through the “last seen” [...]

On Small and Big History, Reflections from a Sleepless Night by Yuliya Yurchuk

By Geert Lovink, March 1, 2022

The third sleepless night. I badly want to check on my father, but what if he is peacefully sleeping and I will just rob him of this ultimate joy – sleep? I am taking notes instead. Yesterday night, last time I spoke with my father, it was totally dark on my telephone’s screen. He could [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 2

By Svitlana Matviyenko, February 27, 2022

February 25-26, 2022 The first day of war leaves 137 dead, 316 injured; by the end of the third, the numbers are up to 198, including 3 children, and 1,115 injured, 33 of which are children. Among the killed, as we learn on the morning of the 25th, are thirteen border guards of Snake Island [...]

Dispatches from the Place of Imminence, part 1

By Svitlana Matviyenko, February 25, 2022

I began this diary two months ago when our everyday life started showing the signs of persistent militarization in response to the Russian troops building up near the Ukrainian border. Registering the nuances of this transformation seemed important. Like many, I thought the tension would dissolve, but this is a war diary now. February 12-13, [...]