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#AccumulatePleasureMax – Neurath im Informationszeitalter: Technopolitics Salon bei ViennaOpen Freitag 04. September

Technopolitics Timeline Design Sketch

Vorträge, Diskussion, Projektpräsentation und Party, Freitag 4. September 2015, 18 – 24 Uhr
Mit: Andreas Siekmann, Marcell Mars und dem Arbeitskreis Technopolitics. Musik: Camelizer
Ort: Mobiles Stadtlabor, Am Karlsplatz, Wien

Voicing Opposition: Against Neoliberal Europe

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Recent weeks have seen an escalation of events in connection with the Greek Debt Crisis which has been extremely revelatory. This comes together with an escalation of wars, news of opening a case for "treason" on two German journalists and bloggers, and a general feeling of democracy in decline everywhere. Voicing opposition, and doing so effectively, has become a real concern.

Rewind: Grexit and the Politics of Self-destruction (after Polanyi)

The Greek Referendum Alexis Tsipras has announced last night, June 26th 2015, is probably the best they can do. The story that has been going on here was one, where from the very start, the new Greek government was insisting that this was political and could only be solved by heads of state, while the creditors - and we are to be reminded who they are, the governments and nations of the Eurozone, the European Central Bank and the IMF - kept insisting that this was a technical issue which Greeks had to solve with the "Troika" rechristened as "institutions".

Free Mesh Networks. Two Cases from Chile

Valparaiso Mesh 01

This article starts with a short introduction to free networks, followed by a summary about free networks in Latin America. The article then tells in more detail the story of two attempts at making free networks in Chile, in both cases linking the idea of free networks with specific artistic and socially engaged goals, reports Ignacio Nieto, who has been involved in both projects.

The Incomplete Paradigm Shift

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June 18th 1999

This chapter takes a bird-eyes' view of history, locating the developments of wireless community networks within a historical transition from industrial to information society. Following the thesis that this paradigm shift has become stuck, creating serious obstacles for realizing the emancipatory potentials of information society, the conclusion can only be that those obstacles need to be overcome in order to realize “Society in Ad-hoc mode” as a positive, really existing utopia.

Towards the Network Commons (Conclusions)

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This draft chapter summarizes my findings. Based on a recent trip to Germany, where vibrant new communities have triggered discussions about what makes the essence of Freifunk, I am suggesting that the future of wireless community networks lies in the notion of the Network Commons.

Gedankenkunst – László Beke and the Art of Ideas

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Book presentation Laszlo Beke

On the evening of April 8th 2015 at Secession Vienna, the book IMAGINATION/IDEA - The Beginning of Hungarian Conceptual Art. The László Beke Collection, 1971 was presented. László Beke is widely recognized as a key figure in conceptual art in Hungary and internationally. In 1970-1 he sent out an invitation to all his artist friends to send him a documentation of work on an A4 sheet. The incoming work he collected in a book. Due to the vicissitudes of the Communist Hungarian regime in the early 1970s this „collection“ could only be viewed privately, in his home, or at exhibitions abroad. This collection, after it was published as a facsimilie book in Hungarian in 2008, IMAGINATION/IDEA has now been made available in English in a book produced by Tranzit Hungary.

The Museum of Forever - Interview with Robert Adrian

Robert Adrian at Fields

In 1979 the Vienna-based Canadian artist Robert Adrian started using the I.P. Sharp telecommunicatiins network for art purposes. Access to this network had been organized by Bill Bartlett in the context of an event called Interplay. Bartlett had gained access to the network of the company I.P. Sharp Associates for the first time in 1978 through the Toronto based artist Norman White (cf. Shanken 2003. p. 61). In 1980 Bartlett organized he Artist's Use of Telecommunication conference at SF MOMA.

The Obsessive Utopia of Mesh Networks

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Paul Baran Network Topology

„The sleeping beauty of mesh has been kissed into life by the community,“ explains Elektra in her book. The community has made it possible to have decentral wireless networks which connect small local cells, automatically connected by intelligent software (Aichele 2007 p. 15)
In this chapter, a closer look at developments around mesh networks is taken, based on a study trip to Barcelona, supplemented by further research. This chapter also asks the difficult question, how the mystifications of technology might be overcome. Are better mesh routing protocols really the answer to all problems?

The Mixed Political Economy of Guifi.net

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This chapter throws a closer look at the different models used economically by Freifunk and Guifi. In particular, it investigates in which ways the fact that Guifi has a mixed political economy contributed to its growth. This sub-chapter also investigates the terms in which network freedom is defined and with which other ideas and measures it is connected.

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