Geert Lovink (born 1959, Amsterdam) is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures,[1] whose goals are to explore, document and feed the potential for socio-economical change of the new media field through events, publications and open dialogue.[2] As theorist, activist and net critic, Lovink has made an effort in helping to shape the development of the web.
Since 2004 Lovink is a researcher at the Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) where he heads the Institute of Network Cultures. From 2007 till 2017 he was a professor of media theory at the European Graduate School, where he supervised five PhD students. From 2004-2013 he was an associate professor of new media at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).[3] In December 2021 he was appointed professor of art and network cultures at the UvA Art History Department. The chair (one day a week) is supported by the HvA. Lovink earned his master's degree in political science at the University of Amsterdam, holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and has been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Queensland.[4]
Geert Lovink was one of the key theorists behind the concept of tactical media – the use of media technologies as a tool for critical theory to become artistic practice. As an Internet activist, he describes tactical media as a "deliberately slippery term, a tool for creating 'temporary consensus zones' based on unexpected alliances. A temporary alliance of hackers, artists, critics, journalists and activists."[15]
In essence, he believes that these new resources of which audiences could become participants in actions against higher powers became an area in which many different types of people could unite. Lovink also was a founder of the early web mailing list "nettime", as well as a number of other projects.
Lovink, Geert. Dark Fiber: Tracking Critical Internet Culture, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN0-262-12249-9
Lovink, Geert. Uncanny Networks, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2002.
Lovink, Geert. My First Recession, Rotterdam: NAi/V2_Publishing, 2003.
Lovink, Geert. The Principle of Notworking, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005.
Lovink, Geert. "New Media, Art and Science: Explorations Beyond the Official Discourse", in Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis (eds), Empires, Ruins + Networks: The Transcultural Agenda in Art, Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press, 2005.
Lovink, Geert. Tactical Media, the Second Decade, Brazilian Submidialogia, 2005.
Lovink, Geert. Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
Lovink, Geert. Networks Without a Cause: A Critique of Social Media, Cambridge and Malden: Polity, 2012. ISBN9780745649689.
Lovink, Geert and Rasch, Miriam (eds), Unlike Us Reader: Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2013. ISBN978-90-818575-2-9, paperback, 384 pages.
Lovink, Geert. Social Media Abyss, Critical Internet Cultures and the Force of Negation, Cambridge and Malden: Polity, 2016. ISBN978150950776-4.
Lovink, Geert, Tkacz, Nathaniel, and de Vries, Patricia (eds), MoneyLab Reader: An Intervention in Digital Economy, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2015. ISBN978-90-822345-5-8.
Gloerich, Inte, Lovink, Geert, de Vries, Patricia, MoneyLab Reader 2, Overcoming the Hype, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2017.
Lovink, Geert, Rossiter, Ned, Organization after Social Media, Brooklyn: Minor Compositions, http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=857.
Lovink, Geert, Sad by Design, Eurozone, January 2019, https://www.eurozine.com/sad-by-design/.
Lovink, Geert, Sad by Design, On Platform Nihilism, London: Pluto Press, 2019.
Gerritzen, Mieke, Lovink, Geert, Made in China, Designed in California, Criticized in Europe, Amsterdam: The Image Society, 2019, https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/amsterdam-design-manifesto/.
Lovink, Geert, Stuck on the Platform, Reclaiming the Internet, Amsterdam: Valiz, 2022.
Lovink, Geert, Extinction Internet, UvA inaugural speech, November 2022, https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/extinction-internet/.
References
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^Meikle, Grahama (2004) "Networks of Influence: Internet Activism in Australia and Beyond" in Gerard Goggin (ed.) Virtual Nation: the Internet in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney pp 73-87