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Notes on "The Postmodern Condition, A Report on Knowledge"

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The Postmodern Condition, A Report on Knowledge, by Francois Lyotard, first published in French in 1979, was not the first book to carry the word postmodern in its title, but probably one of the most influential ones in the long term, with both its warnings and sometimes its overly optimistic assumptions about the future of knowledge in a computerised society. Reading it now what is perplexing is the rather one-sided reception it has got. While Lyotard's critique of meta-narratives and the proposed switch to language games has characterised the postmodern debate, his ambiguity about the development of science and the university under the condition of neoliberalism appears to have been given much less consideration by his followers.

Ökonomische Verarmung und Verarmung der Subjektivität im Neoliberalismus

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Dieser Text ist die deutsche Übersetzung des Vortragstextes Maurizio Lazzaratos bei der Creative Cities Konferenz am 31.3.2009 in Wien. Die Übersetzung stammt von Stefan Nowotny. In diesem Text argumentiert Maurizio Lazzarato, inwiefern die derzeitige Politik Frankreichs und der EU im Bereich der Creative Industries anti-produktiv ist.

How We Became Post-Modern

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Notes on Das Altern der Moderne1124 by Peter Bürger. Peter Bürger, Professor emeritus for literature and aesthtic theory, author of the Theory of the Avant-Garde1123, a seminal text in art theory of the 20th century, in this collection of articles written between 1983 and 2000, re-examines some of the main concepts already at the heart of his earlier work, such as the difference between Modernism and the avant-garde, the historic avant-garde's often repeated ambition of bringing art and life together, and what constitutes the failure as well as the success of those movements. While the hopes of the historic avant-garde of permanent transformations of the social world were not rewarded, avant-garde ideas, slogans, strategies and aesthetic methodologies of the Futurists, dadaists and Surrealists have found a permanent place in the cultural 'history' by having entered the endless recycling relationships of contemporary culture via popular culture. Slightly different the case, then with Modernism, because it never had, or purpoted not to have, such a strong social agenda, yet here the name of the art movement is identical with the name of an age: modernity. In this respect, Bürger asks the fascinating question about the aging of modernity and how we became postmodern (or not).

Notes on Bauhaus: Community of Creative Workers

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In this text a collection of notes on the book Bauhaus (1999), by Jeannine Fiedler and Peter Feierabend (editors) and in particular the introduction Bauhaus - geschichtlich by Andreas Haus, is used as a starting point for further reasonings about the ideas and motivations of the historic avant-garde in general and Bauhaus in particular, and why that matters for contemporary practices. Key issues are the development of arts and arts and crafts within an increasingly industrial economy, art/-isanal working methodologies and relationships with science and new technologies, and the notion of the artistic or artisianal community as a driver of social change.

"Die Zeit" und die "intellektuelle Finsternis"

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Die sogenannte Heidelberger Erklärung und die Kampagne namhafter deutschsprachiger Medien gegen Open Access und Google Books verrät nicht nur ihre Arroganz und Borniertheit gegenüber neuen Formen der Produktion und Dissemination von Kultur und Wissen, sondern offenbart auch anti-liberale, autoritäre Züge - die bürgerlichen Medien haben ihre liberalen Wurzeln wohl vergessen oder verdrängt. Die "intellektuelle Finsternis", die von FAZ und Die Zeit auf Grund der "unheimlichen Kräfte" des Internet befürchtet wird, ist bereits da und von ihnen selbst mitverschuldet. Was jedoch wirklich gebraucht wird, anstatt drakonischer Urteile und Netzsperren, sind neue Wege der Vergütung kultureller Produktion, die an den etablierten, im Niedergang befindlichen Instanzen vorbei gehen.

A Gathering of Artistic Research: From New Science to Nameless Science

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Art and Research
Volume 2. No. 2. Spring 2009

Editorial:

This issue of Art & Research represents a ‘gathering’ of issues and experiences in artistic research as manifest in papers and artworks presented on the ‘occasion’ of significant international conferences and symposia dedicated to artistic research held between May and December 2008:

Thenextlayer at Getting Published Tuesday 28th April

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Getting Published Tuesday 28th April

This panel discussion will bring together a range of speakers who will
highlight different routes into getting published within and external to
academia. It will be followed by a discussion around the benefits and
challenges inherent in these routes in particular in relation to new
possibilities afforded by new media/ web 2.0.

Chaired by Kenneth Armstrong, Professor of Law, Queen Mary, University of
London. Speakers include:

Disorderly Conduct: some initial reflections on file-sharing

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The phenomenon of "peer to peer", or "P2P" file-sharing over the internet is a transglobal expression of techno-social relations. We could say the same about other popular domesticised forms of internet usage, such as email, searches, blogging and photo sharing. However, P2P is different, like the 'special' child who doesn't really fit in with the rest of the family.

Handshakes amongst strangers: P2P and the production of disorder within informational capitalism

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This is an attached slide-show (with notes)* from my presentation at The Second IT & Disorder Workshop held at the University of Technology, Sydney, on 26 March 2009. I need to work this up into a paper for publication in a uni e-journal very very soon! But I seem to be more devoted to d/l'ing endless stuff 'for research' from my favourite sites.... Anyway this presentation went well, and I felt i had redeemed myself after 2 really embarrassing presentations late last year.

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