________________________________________________________________________________ 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. ____________________________________________________________ _ net_institute __ (_) _______/ / __ /__ __ / / / / /_/ /__/ /__ / ____________/ /_/ http://net-i.zkm.de mailto:net-i@zkm.de ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org