<nettime> Happy Birthday: Ten Years After

[david garcia <davidg@xs4all.nl>]

It was pointed out to me early in the summer that this year it has been 
ten years since the launch of this list.  

>From its inception nettime seemed indispensable space for thinking out-loud,
collaboratively, informally, skeptically, ardently and occasionally with some
rigour. I have no idea whether I speak only for myself, but for me nettime remains
an indispensable space for a certain way of speaking to-my-self-together. So to
both the founders and to those moderators who have worked for years now to keep
this space alive and open: THANK YOU! 

A meeting? 

In its early phase nettime also included irregular meetings in actual places
accompanied by informal printed publications. Perhaps the demographics of this
list have changed so profoundly that it is no longer possible but (let me
dream)... could this Jubilee year be an appropriate moment for a brief revival of
the *live* nettime think-in?  I believe so.  why ? 

a spectrum of reasons: from the re-assertion and tightening of ALL boarders (not
only geographical), to the growth in persecution of resistant voices around the
world, to the more local issue of "the war on art" (from the left and the right),
to the related contraction and destruction of many of the institutions which
supported multi-media art and critical net practice, alluded to recently on this
list by Andreas Broeckmann and Rob van Kranenburg. These issues and many more seem
to call for some collective (action orientated) networking and strategizing. 

Of course the apocalypse all too often becomes the signature tune of intellectuals
and maybe we are simply witnessing the inevitable machinations of geo-political
cycles along with their related funding and fashion cycles but there are plenty of
reasons for thinking that we really are (from all of our different regional and
cultural perspectives) in very new waters. And at the very least we are going to
have to fight much harder and with more imagination, global savvy and (old word
here) solidarity if we are to retain effective platforms for art, critique and
resistance. Does the survival of nettime itself (whatever the bumps and bruises)
have anything to teach us? 

My fantasy/hope is that some of our most energetic thinkers, artists, organisers,
commentators and chatterboxes might be willing to sacrifice a few days (a big ask
I know) to meet up for a modest no budget affair, which emphasized an un-self
promoting generosity of spirit. A thinking aloud together about where we are now.
And (if there is a "we") what we might be in the process of becoming. 

Happy Birthday Nettime 

Early questions: 
* Are there others who think that this is an idea worth realizing?  
* Do the numbers represent a critical mass? 
* Where shall we meet?  
* How should it be "organized"? 
* Will there free beer as well as..? 


David Garcia   


 



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