Networked Cultures

PARALLEL ARCHITECTURES AND THE POLITICS OF SPACE

Political conflicts, humanitarian disasters, wars and migrations – we live in an age of global unrest and discontinuity. While official reactions consist in the search for means of stabilization and restraint, the dynamics of deregulation are giving rise to a situation characterized by global parallel systems: parallel architectures, parallel societies, parallel lives.

This book offers an insight into the complex spatial and social realities of globalization, from city-like informal markets in Moscow and the post-war self-urbanization in Kosovo to the border economies of the Mediterranean and the parallel worlds of today’s burgeoning megacities.

In this state of uncertainties, networks have become the most powerful tool in how we organize our lives. The emerging struggle between network formations produces a space that is both fragmented and contested, yet testifies to the creativity of its inhabitants. As a result, our cities have become topologies of overlapping realities and narratives as much as they are geographical entities.

Networked Cultures traces these conflictual negotiations in dialogue with artists, architects, curators and theorists whose work explores possibilities for a multi-inhabitation of territories and narratives across cultural, social or geographic boundaries. Their shared knowledge and accompanying case studies provide stirring insights as well as imaginative encounters with a world of networks – our world.

The enclosed DVD features conversations with the contributors to this book that follow the thematic strands along which the collaborative format of Networked Cultures has evolved: Network Creativity – Contested Spaces – Trading Places – Parallel Worlds.

Selected chapters available as PDF:
Introduction: Connectivities
Chapter 1: Network Creativity

 

Peter Mörtenböck, Helge Mooshammer (eds.)
Networked Cultures: Parallel Architectures and the Politics of SpaceRotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2008

With texts by Adrian Blackwell, Marina Grzinic, Irit Rogoff and AbdouMaliq Simone, and conversations with Özge Açıkkol, Azra Akšamija, Ayreen Anastas, Ricardo Basbaum, Helmut Batista, Jochen Becker, Matei Bejenaru, Ursula Biemann, Sylvie Blocher, Stefano Boeri, Katherine Carl, Sarah Carrington, Branka Ćurčić, François Daune, Igor Dobricic, Ana Dzokic, Joan Escofet, Jesko Fezer, Asya Filippova, Rene Gabri, Iacopo Gallico, Sophie Hope, Nataša Ilić, Guven Incirlioglu, Katrin Klingan, Vasıf Kortun, Erden Kosova, Olga Lopoukhova, Margarethe Makovec, Marc Neelen, Philipp Oswalt, Kyong Park, Marta Paz, Constantin Petcou, Tadej Pogačar, Poka-Yio, Marjetica Potrc, Gerald Raunig, Oliver Ressler, Josep Saldaña, Marko Sančanin, Güneş Savaş, Florian Schneider, Despoina Sevasti, Pablo de Soto, Srdjan J. Weiss, Eyal Weizman, Seçil Yersel and Claudia Zanfi.