<nettime> net_institute's kernel is running!

[Luther Blissett <pasquine@dsc.unibo.it>]

dear all,

net_institute's database is running! see http://net-i.zkm.de

The net_institute is  not another  institution  dealing with
new media but an  attempt to  develop  horizontal strategies
for cultural production and to deconstruct traditional power
models.

Net_institute's  web site is, in particular, a collaborative
tool  to develop  a cultural  infrastructure  in Italy and a
media  lab  in Bologna,  but it  features  also a map of the
european mediascape, which you are invited to construct. The
building  process is completely  public  and via the web and
makes up net_institute's mediatic image as well.

You  all are invited to add your projects, sites, media cen-
ters, mailing  list, bedrooms, etc.  to the  european media-
scape map and, if you like it, to net_institute's structure.
Further instructions are provided on the site.

Net_institute's  web interface wants  to work as a groupware
for the collaborative construction of networks and organisa-
tions. It could  be an useful  example for platforms such as
European Cultural Backbone  or urban networks such as Inter-
national City Federation and Open-Berlin.

The  interface can be improved.  This is the  first version,
not finished.  In the next weeks a more mass-friendly portal
will be designed. Comments, critics and support are welcome.
At  present  a listserver  is needed to run  net_institute's
mailing  list.  Collaborations  to apply  this idea to other
cities or urban projects are welcome as well.

mailto:net-i@zkm.de

A big thank to QWERG.com and Walter van der Cruijsen.

greetings,
Luther Blissett


[PS. The net_institute is the concept evolution and the
urban implementation of Luther Blissett as an "open pop
star" and multi-user tool. More info in the next weeks.]






____________________________________________________________


The net_institute.


The net_institute is a medium-building. It is an hybrid
between the net of the metropolis and the information
architecture of the internet, between landscape and
mediascape. The net_instute is a physical, social, mediatic
space controlled and constructed by the net. The content and
the structure produced on its web interface draw and shape
the urban space. The net_institute doesn't consider the city
an established identity but a collective representation
continuously reshaped by its users.

McLuhan: "We shape our tools and thereafter they shape us".
The net_institute is a trans-architecture project. It's not
a city-metaphor for another alienated virtual community but
an urban project to embody the structure and the content of
the net. It doesn't imitate the appareance of the medium but
its deep framework.

Franco Berardi aka Bifo: "Metropolis is the becoming-
cyberspace of the urban space". The concept of urban
interface is the opposite of the digital communities and
cities. The urban interface breaks with the cultural
dominance of discourses about cyberspace, virtual,
simulation. The net_institute is a physical, social,
mediatic space controlled and constructed by the net.

The 'institute' name and the image were chosen to abandon
the hype about virtual and cyberspace, and as a strategy of
retro-avangardism [see Neue Slovenische Kunst, Electronic
Embassy, Laibach, Luther Blissett itself]. They are also a
joke and a reflection about the institutionalisation of
subcultural movements.

The net_institute is a project of "hacking" of the
architectural and urbanistic code, not only of information.
Hacking means deconstructing a tool to understand its
working and to reconstruct in a personal, creative way. In
the jargon of computer science, the net_institute is the
implementation of the net in another environment.

The net_institute is a multiform building. Its name means
net_worked_institute. Everyone can integrate net_institute
architecture with public or personal spaces, bodies, events,
devices, theories, computers, photos, files, imgs, projects.
The image and the structure produced on the net thereafter
shape the urban space. The net_institute uses the net to
catalyze social life.

The net_institute web interface works as groupware, a space
for collective brainstorming, a field for the connective/
collective intelligence. It structures itself, in progress,
to be a "technology of intelligence" [Pierre Levy]. The
net_institute's framework, functions, links, spaces can be
redefined by users experimenting hybrid, creative,
surrealistic architectures, by making up other "institutes".
  The interface works as a conceptual map that has to be
subsequently developed in the real space.



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      net_institute     __   (_)
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                     http://net-i.zkm.de
                     mailto:net-i@zkm.de

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