Syndicate: [net.INSTITUTE.it] Call for partecipations and contributions

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

dear frieds,
below you find a fast abstract of the new media lab project [beta-version!] that the Luther Blissett Project in Italy has developed in the last two months. It's the first italian project in the field of new media and net culture, with a critical approach, I mean.

There is no kind of new media-oriented centre in Italy. No content provider/developer in net culture. Ours would be the first one, small but connected to the european scene. We are working to eliminate this gap and to introduce italian artists and activists into what we call [from Italy] the "north" european network. We have got an european fund of 10.000 euros and we hope to open in October in Bologna.

[If someone needs details, I can describe the sad italian situation in the field of new media and net culture from institutions to underground.]

This is a call for partecipations and contributions for the [few] syndicalists based in Italy and not. Comments and suggestions from the northern :) Europe are welcome.

worksite, only in italian:   http://utenti.tripod.it/net_i

ciao,
 matteo
 Luther Blissett Project
 Bologna - Italy



______net.INSTITUTE Project______________
___________________by Luther Blissett____

     open architecture project___urban interface
     public netbase___new media centre
     Bologna___Italy

                     _
               __   (_)
        ______/ /  __
       /_  __  /  / /
        / /_/ /__/ /__
       / ____________/
      /_/

Das Institut               http://utenti.tripod.it/net_i
Für Netzkultur             net_i@iname.com
            \                    |
             net.INSTITUTE project
             |                    \
Urban interface                   Luther Blissett
Bologna, Venice, Milan...         open/architecture pop star

 #i

Italy shows a wide technological, cultural, political gap in the field of
new media culture: there is no kind of new media project or event alike the
ones existing in "northern" Europe. The Luther Blissett Project designed
this experimental net-based centre in order to introduce in Italy, starting
from the city of Bologna, the european net culture, in an easy, fast and
pop way. In brief, it is an inexpensive all-in-one new media centre :).

 #i

The net.INSTITUTE, as its name suggests, is an hybrid between the net of
the metropolis and the information architecture of the internet, between
the social, urban, architectural spaces and the media-scape. The
net.INSTITUTE is a conceptual architecture work ejected into the real
world. It considers the city the field of action of the net: it is an urban
interface of the net and of net culture.

 #i

The Luther Blissett Project has put in this project its media activism
experience and networking attitude. The Luther Blissett Project is a
collective of media activists that organized in the last years, in Italy as
well as in Europe, mediatic hoaxes and counterinformation campaigns, in the
name of Luther Blissett. Luther Blissett is a multiple name: whoever can
use it in the most creative and freest way. LB is a networked mass avatar
on the media stage, piloted from the net: an open architecture pop star.
The net.INSTITUTE is its urban and architectural implementation.

 #i

"We shape our tools, and thereafter they shape us" [Marshall McLuhan]. 

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, as a net and by means of it. It
doesn't imitate the appearance of the medium but its deep framework.

 #i

"Metropolis is the becoming-cyberspace of the urban territory" [Franco
Berardi aka Bifo].

The concept of urban interface is the opposite of that of
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.

 #i

The name and the concept of the 'Institute' were chosen to give up the hype
about virtual and cyberspace, and as a strategy of retro-avantgardism [see
Neue Slovenische Kunst, Electronic Embassy, Laibach, Luther Blissett
itself]. It is also a joke, and a reflection about the institutionalization
of the subcultural movements.

 #i

The net.INSTITUTE is a project for "hacking" the architectural and
urbanistic code, not only an info-communication one. Hacking means
deconstructing a tool to understand the way it works and to rebuild it in a
personal, creative way. In terms of computer science, the net.INSTITUTE is
the urban "implementation" of the net.

 #i

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 net.INSTITUTE, inspired
by situationists' psycogeography and urbanism, uses the city as a map for
the network and the latter as a map for the city. The interface works as a
conceptual map that has to be subsequently developed in the real space. The
Scheme is the Medium.

 #i

The net.INSTITUTE is a multiple building. Its name means NETWORKED
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 is a sort of political
role-game: the city is not considered as an established identity but as a
collective interface continuously reshaped by its users. The net.INSTITUTE
uses the net to catalyze social life.

 #i

A proof of the outcome of the net.INSTITUTE within the urban texture is
Das Institut [a german name in an italian-speaking context!], a low-tech
minimal retro-avantgardistic sub-project, a youth sub-cultural interface devoted
to urban space exploration and "mass engineering", events organisation,
'old-style' media art activism, parties, psychogeographical investigations
and drifts.

 #i

The net.INSTITUTE is a medium-building.

 #i

thanks to:
 The Society for Old and New Media, Amsterdam, http://www.waag.org/
 Public Netbase t0, Vienna, http://www.t0.or.at/

 #i
___    
                 _
           __   (_)
    ______/ /  __
   /_  __  /  / /  
    / /_/ /__/ /__
   / ____________/
  /_/
  
  DAS INSTITUT             http://utenti.tripod.it/net_i
  FÃ?R NETZKULTUR           net_i@iname.com
           \                    |
            net.INSTITUTE project
            |                    \
  urban interface             LUTHER BLISSETT
  Bologna, Venice, Milan...   open/architecture pop star

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