The Next Layer is a collaborative environment combining open source, experimental and artistic research methodologies.

Book Review: The Origins of International Economic Disorder

Submitted by Brian Holmes on Mon, 12/27/2010 - 02:03

The Origins of International Economic Disorder
A Study of United States Monetary Policy from World War II to the Present

by Fred L. Block
University of California Press, 1977 -- 277 pages

The book begins with an overview of the British gold standard and its gradual breakdown during the interwar period. This sets the stage for the main subject: the history of the monetary order underlying the multilateral free-trade system promoted and managed by the United States.

The Return of King Mob

Submitted by Armin Medosch on Fri, 12/10/2010 - 12:41
in

The student demonstrations against the rise of tuition fees, the fourth of which took place yesterday, 9 December 2010 signals the return of King Mob to the streets of London.

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

Submitted by Clemens Apprich on Wed, 11/24/2010 - 17:17

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.

Some remarks on digital art, autonomy, and the labour of others (Eleonore, part III)

Submitted by Armin Medosch on Fri, 10/29/2010 - 17:16
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This final piece in the Eleonore series sums up some more theoretic and political thoughts about the relationships between digital art, autonomy and the division of labour. It comes to the conclusion that the least digital artists can do is to use free software, strive for egalitarian types of working relationships and to name all their collaborators as co-creators of work, regardless of the usual social valuations of types of work and the institutional pressure they come under if their work joins the art circuit.

Eleonore, part 2: Mobile Desires

Submitted by Armin Medosch on Sun, 08/15/2010 - 09:19
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In my last article, I described Eleonore as a conceptual art work, a non-utopian 'social sculpture'. It carries a proposal for the role of artists in society, working out alternative routes for social-artistic-technological development. It does so without the universalistic-totalitarian notions inscribed into previous avant-garde projects. Yet still, it contains 'future' - therefore its' characterisation as non-utopian. It is real and realistic: small, cheap, livable and as far as possible, environmentally friendly. After spending one week here, I try to summarise my insights.

Eleonore: a really existing non-utopian social sculpture

Submitted by Armin Medosch on Tue, 08/10/2010 - 07:51
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(notes, Artist in Residency, Day 2) Yesterday I arrived at the Eleonore in Linz. Already before leaving I had the first insight. I was packing and couldn't find any suitable string to tie together my Yoga map. So I took a Cat 5 ethernet cable because I thought I might need that as well. And then I thought what connects Linux with Yoga? That both can show up, sometimes painfully, the limitations of the human being, especially in my case.

FAULT LINES & SUBDUCTION ZONES: The Slow-Motion Crisis of Global Capital

Submitted by Brian Holmes on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 14:23

The housing-price collapse of 2008, the credit crunch, the bank failures, the downswing of the world economy, the fiscal crisis of the sovereign states, all have been expressed as wild gyrations in the global circulation of information, attention, emotion. Everything undergoes tremendous acceleration at the crucial moments, before the wave recedes into a blur.

Four Fields (Informationalism)

Submitted by Brian Holmes on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 13:26

These are attempts to create a narrative image of the four fields during a specific period (Informationalism in this case), to be used as visual supports for a lecture.
The animated gif doesn't seem to work unless you click on the attachment.

Four Fields (Informationalism)

Four Fields (Fordism)

Submitted by Brian Holmes on Fri, 07/30/2010 - 13:22

These are attempts to create a narrative image of the four fields during a specific period (Fordism in this case), to be used as visual supports for a lecture.
The animated gif doesn't seem to work unless you click on the attachment.

Actually I wanted this to fit into the Book of "Narratives" just as a kind of note or whatever, but I don't quite know how to do it....

Four Fields (Fordism)
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