<nettime> Networked Disruption - The Book

[Tatiana Bazzichelli <tbazz@transmediale.de>]

Dear all,

my PhD "Networked Disruption" is finally published and I would like to 
share this news with you. Below are some additional information, plus 
the link for free download.

For the people living in Berlin, the launch is on Tuesday 26 at c-base, 8pm.

More info are on the website:
http://disruptiv.biz
About the launch:
http://www.transmediale.de/content/resource-004-networked-disruption

All the best,
Tatiana

-----------------
Networked Disruption
Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social 
Networking

By Tatiana Bazzichelli

Published by Digital Aesthetics Research Center Press.
Download free PDF:

http://disruptiv.biz/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Networked-Disruption-web-version-15.03.2013.pdf
(licensed under the Peer Production License)

The current techno-economic paradigm of Web 2.0 has challenged notions 
of art and hacktivism within digital culture. The book "Networked 
Disruption" takes up this challenge and discusses a new perspective on 
political and social criticism. It simultaneously asks what are the 
conditions for hacker and artistic practices under Web 2.0 and how can 
social networking be seen to build on and incorporate artistic practices 
from the earlier decades of digital and network culture.

Through its theoretical discussion of contemporary art and hacktivism, 
the book maps out a new contradictory space for art and criticism: 
Networked disruption.

---------------------------------------------------------
##What is the book about?

After the emergence of Web 2.0, the critical framework of art and 
hacktivism has shifted from developing strategies of opposition to 
embarking on the art of disruption. By identifying the emerging 
contradictions within the current economical and political framework of 
Web 2.0, the aim is to reflect on the status of activist and hacker 
practices as well as those of artists in the new generation of social 
media (or so called Web 2.0 technologies), analysing the interferences 
between networking participation and disruptive business innovation. 
Connecting together disruptive practices of networked art and hacking in 
California and Europe, Tatiana Bazzichelli proposes a constellation of 
social networking projects that challenge the notion of power and 
hegemony, such as mail art, Neoism, The Church of the SubGenius, Luther 
Blissett, Anonymous, Anna Adamolo, Les Liens Invisibles, the 
Telekommunisten collective, The San Francisco Suicide Club, The 
Cacophony Society, the early Burning Man Festival, the NoiseBridge 
hackerspace, and many others.

##Main objective and themes

The objective of this book is to rethink the meaning of critical and 
oppositional practices in art, hacktivism and the business of social 
networking. The aim is to analyse hacker and artistic practices through 
business instead of in opposition to it. Shedding light on the mutual 
interferences between networking participation and disruptive business 
innovation, this book explores the current transformation in political 
and technological criticism. The analysis poses the following questions: 
Is the business of social media co-opting DIY culture? How can hackers 
and artists be critical in the business context of social media? Is it 
possible to respond critically to business without either being co-opted 
by it or refusing it? Is criticism only possible through opposition?

Disruption becomes a two-way strategy in networking contexts, a practice 
to generate criticism, and a methodology to create business innovation. 
Connecting together disruptive practices of networked art and hacking in 
California and in Europe, and comparing North American and European 
political traditions, Tatiana Bazzichelli proposes a constellation of 
social networking projects that challenge the notion of power and hegemony.

##A new perspective for social and political criticism

By describing the concept of "disruptive business" as an art practice, 
Tatiana Bazzichelli's analysis becomes an opportunity, both for 
academics and practitioners, to imagine new possible routes of social 
and political action. Distributed, autonomous and decentralised 
networking practices of disruption become a means for rethinking 
oppositional hacktivist and artistic strategies within the framework of 
art and business.

Bazzichelli's hypothesis is that mutual interferences between art, 
hacktivism and the business of social networking have changed the 
meaning and contexts of political and technological criticism. Hackers 
and artists have been active agents in business innovation, while at the 
same time also undermining business. Artists and hackers use disruptive 
techniques of networking within the framework of social media, opening 
up a critical perspective towards business to generate unpredictable 
feedback and unexpected reactions; business enterprises apply disruption 
as a form of innovation to create new markets and network values, which 
are often just as unpredictable. Bazzichelli proposes the concept of the 
art of disruptive business as a form of artistic intervention within the 
business field of Web 2.0. The notion of disruptive business becomes a 
means for describing immanent practices of hackers, artists, networkers 
and entrepreneurs, which are analysed through specific case studies.

##What does this book add to the field?

This book analyses artistic practices through business disruption 
instead of in opposition to it. The concept of business, which has 
become so common in Anglo-Saxon daily life and language is far from 
obvious, and deserves a deeper critique. An analysis of how business 
("being busy", in the context of Protestant culture) relates to 
political and aesthetic disruption is needed in the field. Many 
activists usually prefer not to deal with the notion of "business", 
confining it to the domain of commercial market logic. The book 
demonstrates how artists-critics use business logic knowingly, how they 
"co-opt the co-optation". Tatiana Bazzichelli's proposal offers some 
ways to overcome the apparent dialectical deadlock that currently 
characterizes the dichotomical process of invention/subsumption. 
Connecting disruptive practices of networked art and hacking in 
California and Europe, it offers unique insights into the techno-social 
and material processes that constitute the art and activist projects 
under scrutiny. The projects are positioned within a rich context, both 
on theoretical and practical levels, and across historical and 
contemporary modes. The concept of "The Art of Disruptive Business" 
includes suggestions for future effective critical strategies that 
recombine critical art practices and disruptive business.

##Theory and Practice

This book adopts a comparative approach not only conceptually 
(researching the mutual interferences between business and disruption), 
but also by shedding light simultaneously on heterogeneous practices of 
hackers, artists, networkers, activists and entrepreneurs, who engage 
deeply with network activity. This practice-based research also becomes 
a methodological challenge. The theoretical viewpoint of this research 
is closely connected with the act of being a direct part of the research 
subject, creating a mutual exchange with the actors of the analysis 
through conversations and interviews as well as participating in some of 
the projects described in the book. The method is based on the 
reformulation of a research approach, which functions within the subject 
of research, rather than on the subject of research. The result is a 
methodological constellation of networking practices, which aims to 
actualise – and to question – the notion of "fieldwork" itself.

More info: http://disruptiv.biz/networked-disruption-the-book/

--
Tatiana Bazzichelli // programme curator
reSource transmedial culture berlin // http://www.transmediale.de/resource
BWPWAP - transmediale 2013
29.01 – 03.02, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin // 
http://www.transmediale.de
http://twitter.com/transmediale

transmediale | festival for art and digital culture berlin
Klosterstr. 68 10179 Berlin, Germany | fon +49 30 24749 761 | fax +49 30 
24749 763
Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH
Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender Volker Heller | Geschäftsführer Moritz van Dülmen




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