Peer Preview Group

The JSTOR Case - US Government v Aaron Swartz

doll_yoko — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 01:01:25 +0000

Although we have thus far discussed P2P file-sharing in terms of its most representative instances, that is, the exchange of materials drawn from popular culture, other artefact classes are also swapped, from pornography to ‘serious’ publications. Sometimes genre-specific events can bring into focus larger issues arising from cultural commodification, public domain contraction, and resultant counter actions and movements. For example, recently American digital activist Aaron Swartz allegedly downloaded a massive number of papers from the JSTOR academic database. Subsequently the United States Government brought unprecedented charges against him, claiming that he planned to release the material through P2P networks. This case demonstrates how even the spectre of unsubstantiated file-sharing can trigger disordering responses across informational domains (academia, publishing, policing, justice), some of which which might be more rooted in emotions (anger, fear, revenge, spite, etc.) than in pragmatic circumspection.

Art as Visual Research (Lecture notes)

Armin Medosch — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:10:45 +0000

This text is written in preparation for two upcoming talks and highlights a few aspects of my PhD thesis-in-progress "Automation, Cybernation and the Art of New Tendencies (1961-1973)". New Tendencies were one of the first postwar movements in art to focus on visual research as a way of redefining the role of art in society.

SUCKA my code, baby: Peer-to-Peer's production of sprawling unkempt cultural knowledge archives

doll_yoko — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:26:16 +0000

Introduction

Reading the Digital City: New political technologies in the Network Society (revised version)

Clemens Apprich — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:17:45 +0000

This article examines the 'digital city' debate of the mid 1990s as a point of departure for a media-historical questioning of how technology and the discourse about technology were used as an experimental playground for new forms of knowledge that are fundamental for the understanding of today’s network society. This text has been presented as a conference paper at the 'networks and sustainability' track of the 'textiles' conference in Riga in June 2010. The paper will also appear in a special edition of the Arts and Communications Journal edited by RIXC at the end of 2010.

Notes on Bourdieu filtered by Robbins

Armin Medosch — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:09:01 +0000

Knowing well about the problematic of publishing notes, unfinished forms of writing, in a very early stage, I am publishing here an excerpt of thoughts that I had when reading up on Pierre Bourdieu's theories on art, filtered by a quite concise presentation by Derek Robbins.

Research Matrix: Technopolitics

Armin Medosch — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:27:40 +0000

Diagram: Research Matrix Technopolitics; the terms slightly deviate from the outline for reasons of length and readability

The Gap Between Now and Then - on the conservation of memory

Josephine — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:29:14 +0000

Let’s play hide-and-seek with future generations. We hide. The seeker is not among us yet. He or she lives in another era, a time yet to come. We don’t know if he or she will be a finder. We are not even sure we want or need to be found. We might simply just jump from our lair one day, reveal ourselves, unexpectedly, to win the game.

Paradigm Changes in Media Art: Research Project Description (Abstract, long version)

Armin Medosch — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:33:21 +0000

This research investigates media art through practice based and theoretic research. At the centre of this investigation are seminal exhibitions in the history of media art as well as my own curatorial practice. The thesis proposes that paradigm shifts in media art and society are closely linked and that studying those paradigm shifts through the chosen exhibitions provides insights into the interlocking dynamics of art, technology and social change.

Reading the Digital City: New political technologies in the Network Society

Clemens Apprich — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:16:57 +0000

At the beginning of the 1990s, the proclaimed crisis of the city marked a general crisis of governance: the discussion about the supposed “decline of cities” was characterised by a controversial debate about a possible loss of control. Paradoxically, all hopes have been pinned on those technologies that were held accountable for the dissolution of the urban space. That’s because, as in similar techno-utopias before, cyberspace was considered to be constructable and, therefore, controllable.

Diagram: Techno-economic and artistic paradigms in the 20th century

admin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 06:40:25 +0000

This diagram is rendered by graphviz using the dot language. It tries to reflect key elements of the dominant paradigms in the 20th century regarding accumulation regimes, developmental models, political constellations, scientific breakthroughs, artistic movements and social movements. The current version is still experimental and not very strict in its interpretation of the model, which means that the diagram is imperfect on one hand anyway, but also has deliberately avoided becoming too linear, i.e. certain new terms are brought in while others get dropped.