Re: nettime The Whole Earth -- Conference (Berlin, HKW 21/22 June
Hi Mark -- a few comments: I was instantly intrigued when I saw this show was up at HKW, and I did make the show but had to depart Berlin right before the conference (after breakfast with Barack and Michelle @ the Reichstag)... If this was mentioned on nettime (considering that it was once the primary topic of this list), I missed it -- did anyone from this collective attend and do they wish to offer a report? I spent an hour with Pit and Diana at HKW, and they did podcast the whole thing, worth listening to, as Fred et al gave a good talk. (I downloaded the podcasts, but have misplaced the URLs -- maybe someone could re-post them? Pit??) (thanks Nina!!) This past spring I had my Meaning of Information Technology students consume the last chapter of the Cyberculture to Counterculture book -- though it was quite deep history to them, and quite abstract in that sense -- it was hard for them to grasp. From eco-psychedelia to Internet neoliberalism: The CONFERENCE will revolve around questions of the legacy of the California counterculture. How did ...snip... of the Anthropocene, are being negotiated, updated, or ??? in some cases ??? forgotten. Yeah, anyway, the show was quite good, imho, a bit hard to picture what it looked like, if you had not been immersed in that cultural situation as we were. I came into possession of a Whole Earth Catalog via my brother who was, for a time, the editor of a radical student paper out of UCSD, and a member of the Weather Underground. He's 13 years older than I, and in 1968, when the first Whole Earth Catalog came out, I was just 10. A few years later when the really big one came out, 400 pages or so, I had a copy, and pored over it for many many hours. days... As a nascent foray into what became a deep involvement in the mail art network, I recall sending to a majority of the addresses in the catalog for more information, brochures, etc... It all made a deep impression, though one which was quite foreign to my family milieu (with my father there at MIT's Lincoln Lab, @ the Pentagon, etc). It definitely was a counter to the culture that I was a part of as far as my teenage mind could measure. I'm thinking that the next step to this exhibition would be a wide creative exploration of (open/living/general) systems theory from Bertalanffy to Church, Miller, Odum, Simms, etc etc and all those who were outside the cybernetics/cold war systems context. At any rate, the show was dense on textual and media content, well choreographed, enjoyable, informative, and again left me wondering what it 'looked like' to a 20-30-something German academic media artist. SO, maybe there are some attendees near to that profile on nettime who would care to reflect on it... I didn't take any notes, though I suspect that the catalog will give a good account of the shows actual content. I was impressed by the show -- and would be interested in hearing from the curators where the original idea to do such a project came from! Turner's somewhat radical connecting of Stewart Brand and the WEC/WELL, the counterculture generally to Wiener's Cold War cybernetics seems very intuitive and not as radical as it may appear on the surface. I especially appreciated his point how applied systems theory (taking the form of operations analysis, systems analysis, etc), is one formative basis for the corporate development of contemporary social computing (i.e., the corporate RD management structures of Silicon Valley). This for me is a powerful conceptual step in decoding the 'effects' and the pervasiveness of the military-industrial structure within Amurikan society. It is my belief that the US system is still, to a large degree, dependent on that M-I-(Academic) Complex framework for its socio-economic-political structural integrity. It's only less visible in these recent years, but no less powerful a determinant. Unfortunately most Amurikans do not make the connection with surveillance, drones-in-the-neighborhood, security, paranoia, etc as symptoms of a defensive (and of course many times offensive) imperial military state. Another book which gives some useful threads with the development of the MIA complex of which Silicon Valley is only one manifestation is: Leslie, S.W., 1993. The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford, New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Anyway, Mark, get the catalog and listen to the podcasts that Nina gave the addresses of... it's well worth your time. Cheers, John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD ensconced on the Western Slope of Colorado http://neoscenes.net/ http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering
nettime Submission reminder - CfP: Philosophers of the World Unite! Theorizing
CfP: Philosophers of the World Unite! Theorizing Digital Labour and=20 Virtual Work: Definitions, Forms and Transformations Special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism Critique ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JULY 31, 2013 CfP: http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/announcement/view/14 Supported by COST Action IS1202 =E2=80=9CDynamics of Virtual Work=E2=80=9D= -Working Group=20 3 =E2=80=9CInnovation and the Emergence of New Forms of Value Creation an= d New=20 Economic Activities=E2=80=9C (http://dynamicsofvirtualwork.com,=20 http://dynamicsofvirtualwork.com/wg3/), tripleC (http://www.triple-c.at): Communication, Capitalism Critique.=20 Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. Editors: Marisol Sandoval, Christian Fuchs, Jernej A. Prodnik, Sebastian = Sevignani, Thomas Allmer In 1845, Karl Marx (1845, 571) formulated in the 11th Feuerbach Thesis:=20 =E2=80=9CThe philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways= ; the=20 point is to change it=E2=80=9D. Today, interpretation of the world has be= come an=20 important form of labour that is expressed on and with the help of=20 digital media. It has therefore become common to talk about digital=20 labour and virtual work. Yet the changes that digital, social and mobile = media bring about in the world of labour and work have thus far only=20 been little theorized and theoretically interpreted. In order to change=20 the information society to the better, we first have to interpret=20 digital labour with the help of critical theories. Theorists of the=20 world from different fields, backgrounds, interdisciplines,=20 transdisciplines and disciplines have to unite for this collective=20 philosophical task. The overall task of this special issue of tripleC: Communication,=20 Capitalism Critique is to gather contributions that help to an=20 understanding of how to critically theorize digital labour, virtual work = and related concepts. Theorizing digital labour requires us to provide=20 grounded 1) definitions of digital labour and virtual work, 2)=20 systematic distinctions and typologies of forms of digital labour and 3) = theorizing the transformations that digital labour is undergoing. All submitted papers should be theoretical and profoundly engage with=20 the meanings of various concepts. Rather than presenting case studies,=20 papers should focus on fundamental theoretical concepts and discuss=20 definitions. They can also explore the relations between concepts, the=20 historical development of these concepts, typologies and the relevance=20 of different theoretical approaches. The special issue is interested in=20 theorizing the broader picture of digital labour. We welcome submissions that cover one or more of the following or=20 related questions. 1) Concepts of Labour * How should concepts such of work and labour be defined and what are=20 the implications of these definitions for understanding digital labour=20 and virtual work? * Which theoretical or philosophical definitions of work and labour=20 exist and which of them are meaningful for understanding virtual work=20 and digital labour? * What is the difference between labour and digital labour? What is part = of digital labour and what is not? Which online, offline, knowledge,=20 physical, industrial, agricultural etc forms of work are part of it or=20 not part of it? Is digital labour only knowledge labour that happens=20 online or do we have to extend the concept to the offline realms and=20 physical labour? Where is the demarcation line? Is digital labour also=20 labour where digital technologies are of vast importance or not? Does=20 digital labour involve the physical forms of work necessary for=20 producing digital labour? * Is there a difference between 'work' and 'labour' and if so, how does=20 it matter for the discussion of digital labour and virtual work? * What is the role of Karl Marx=E2=80=99 theory of labour and surplus val= ue for=20 understanding digital labour and virtual work? * Is the traditional distinction between the material base and=20 superstructure in the realm of social media and digital labour still=20 valid or does it become blurred or undermined? Are new information and=20 communication technologies and social media, their production and use=20 (n)either part of the base (n)or the superstructure or are they part of=20 both? *If in the agricultural and industrial age land and nature have been the = traditional objects of labour, how do the objects of labour and=20 productive forces look like in the world of digital media and digital=20 labour and how are these productive forces linked to class relations? * What is meant by concepts such as digital labour, telework, virtual=20 work, cyberwork, immaterial labour, knowledge labour, creative work,=20 cultural labour, communicative labour, informational work, digital=20 craft, service work, prosumption, consumption work, online work,=20 audience labour, playbour
