[artinfo] INC-Transmediale: The Eternal Network:

[Geert Lovink]

The Eternal Network: The Ends and Becomings of Network Culture

<https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/the-eternal-network/>https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/the-eternal-network/

'The network is everlasting' wrote Robert Filliou 
and George Brecht in 1967, a statement that, at 
first glance, still seems to be true of today's 
world. Yet there are also signs that the 
omnipresence of networks is evolving into another 
reality. In recent times, the limits of networks 
rather than their endless possibilities have been 
brought into focus. Ongoing media debates about 
hate speech, fake news, and algorithmic bias 
swirl into a growing backlash against networks. 
Perhaps it is time to reconsider the contemporary 
reach and relevance of the network imaginary.

Accompanying transmediale 2020 End to End's 
exhibition 'The Eternal Network', this collection 
gathers contributions from artists, activists, 
and theorists who engage with the question of the 
network anew. In referencing Filliou's eternal 
notion, the exhibition and publication project 
closes the loop between pre- and post-internet 
imaginaries, opening up possible futures with and 
beyond networks. This calls many of the 
collection's authors to turn to instances of 
independent and critical net cultures as 
historical points of inspiration for rethinking, 
reforming, or refuting networks in the present.

Authors: Clemens Apprich, Johanna Bruckner, 
Daphne Dragona, Kristoffer Gansing, Lorena Juan, 
Aay Liparoto, Geert Lovink, Alessandro Ludovico, 
Aymeric Mansoux, Rachel O'Dwyer, Luiza Prado de 
O. Martins, Roel Roscam Abbing, Femke Snelting, 
and Florian Wüst.

Editors: Kristoffer Gansing & Inga Luchs

Published by the Institute of Network Cultures, 
Amsterdam, and transmediale e.V., Berlin, 2020