Public Netbase

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Public Netbase locked

(Public) Netbase was launched in 1994 by the Vienna Institute for New Culture Technologies / t0 as a network culture institution. It offered the art and culture sector a platform for the self-determined use of new media . At the interface between science, technology and art, the possibilities of digital networks were explored in symposia, exhibitions and workshops and a critical look at the society that is increasingly determined by technology. When the City of Vienna stopped financing the project in early 2006, it was ended.

The artist and media researcher Konrad Becker is considered the founder of (Public) Netbase .

history

1994–1997: Beginnings of an interface for digital networks

Netbase 3.jpg

The beginning of the year 1994 in common rooms with the depot were marked by a new critical cultural practice, which already at that time did not correspond to current norms due to the emancipatory understanding of the use of new media. Nevertheless, this early activity found great interest among artists and cultural workers, who thus had the opportunity for the first time to familiarize themselves with the new information and communication technologies and to get free access to the Internet. Introductory workshops and accompanying lectures were very popular and within a short time more than 1,000 users gathered on the t0 platform.

On this basis, it was possible to provide for an intensive revitalization of the area, which was still completely desolate in the 90s , by setting up separate rooms in the former Messepalast (now the MuseumsQuartier ). At this point in time, Public Netbase became a much valued partner in the alliance with other institutions located in the Museum Quarter . With a regular program of events as well as artistic projects and interventions in public space (such as Flesh Machine and Intergalactic Conference), a diverse audience was addressed, which had a lasting impact on the socio-cultural character of the project.

1998/1999: FPÖ - conflicts and court proceedings

The subsequent conflicts must be seen above all in the context of the Kulturkampf of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) under Jörg Haider . This was directed against critical voices in contemporary art and in 1998 also targeted Public Netbase. The trigger was a series of events that dealt with the subject of censorship and pornography on the Internet from a feminist perspective. The FPÖ took the title sex.net. Sex, Lies and Internet as an opportunity to discredit the prestigious work of Public Netbase. Ultimately, the courts had to deal with it, which prohibited Jörg Haider from repeating his allegations under threat of punishment.

Regardless of this, the project work with exhibitions, conferences and interventions such as B. Robotronika and Information Terror continued. With Period After 1998/1999 Public Netbase set an example for the international cooperation of civil society media at the time of the war in the former Yugoslavia and offered numerous media activists in the affected region resources and working bases in Vienna.

1999/2000: reversal government and electronic resistance

Netbase 1.jpg

However, the electoral success of the Haider-FPÖ and the subsequent formation of a government with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) at the turn of the millennium made work in the Museum Quarter even more difficult and the future involvement of Public Netbase was deprived of any basis due to the appointment of new management. Critical initiatives were often subjected to harassment and contractual uncertainties in order to drive them out of the area.

This development should generally characterize the change of government from now on. Those responsible for culture at the ÖVP pursued a policy of eliminating critical and unpleasant projects. Public Netbase, as a technology and communication platform, was particularly targeted by the protest movement now known as the "Internet generation". The final cancellation of all basic funding by the federal government was preceded by months of unsuccessful operational and financial audits and the revocation of important international project funds that had long been pledged as a contribution to the cultural capital of Brussels 2000.

2000/2001: Conflict and moving out of the Museum Quarter

Against this background, the City of Vienna declared itself ready to avert the threatened cancellation of the EU project due to the actions of the Federal Government and to make the necessary funds available. The culture department in Vienna, headed by the ÖVP at that time, refused, out of consideration for the national-conservative federal government, to make the urgently needed disbursement of the funds, and instead increased the political pressure on Vienna's cultural policy .

An agreement brought about in 2001 by numerous international protests was supposed to ensure that Public Netbase would remain in the Museum Quarter through the mediation of the City of Vienna . But just 10 months later this agreement was disregarded without any resistance from the city's cultural policy, and Public Netbase had to leave the cultural area. This made the phase of spatial improvisation a permanent one.

2001–2006: Increased political activity

Netbase 6.jpg

The demand for locations for future-oriented art and cultural development thus came back into focus. The Karlsplatz in the center of Vienna, at the request of the mayor should be transformed into an art space, offered the opportunity to make a stand against the representative culturalism of the conservative federal government. In addition, the program of the Viennese city government, developed jointly by the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Greens , promised serious efforts in the field of culture and media.

In the summer of 2003, protest measures were staged to remind the City of Vienna of the implementation of these previously unfinished agenda items. In particular, the "media camp" at Karlsplatz and the manifestations of the "FreeRePublic sound politicization" tried to bring support for these concerns. This also made Karlsplatz a suitable setting for artistic interventions and media projects such as a. "Nikeground", "Citizens' Initiative Opens Karlsplatz!" and "System-77CCR".

In fact, as early as 2002, Vienna City Planning asked Public Netbase to get new premises in the course of the renovation work on Karlsplatz and the underground system. However, the cancellation of funding by the City of Vienna in 2003/2004, which can be traced back to the previous critical activities, meant a serious setback which made planning for a new location considerably more difficult and resulted in initial restrictions in the field of activity of Public Netbase.

The end of the project

The refusal of the City of Vienna to secure the foundations of the ongoing international project activities and to pay out already agreed co-financing forced the suspension of Public Netbase Internet service providing for thousands of artists and cultural workers in autumn 2004. This also affected workshop and mediation offers as well as public services. It was therefore inevitable to adapt the profile of the activities to the trend in cuts, which was also reflected in a change to even smaller rooms. This forced reduction in the scope of services was taken into account by a name change: Public Netbase became Netbase.

At the beginning of 2006, only a few months after the opening in the newly adapted rooms as well as an internationally acclaimed project in Bangalore (India), the successful media culture institution was informed that all funding from the City of Vienna was finally withdrawn.

The Institute for New Cultural Technologies / t0, the sponsoring organization of Public Netbase, is part of the World-Information.Org founded in 1999 (and its facility for research and discourse, the World-Information Institute) and the Austrian online policy orientation aid Wahlkabine.at, which was launched in 2002 still active.

Projects

  • WORKSHOPS / INDIVIDUAL EVENTS

The following lists mainly larger projects, conferences, exhibitions, websites and the like. It should be noted that especially in the second half of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s - when Public Netbase still had the appropriate infrastructure - a large number of workshops and, in phases, an almost daily program of events (presentations, discussion events, screenings, music events, ... ) took place. In a phase of the development of net culture and media art, in which it was above all important to create a broad and complex range of offers in order to make the area known in its diversity, develop discourses and enable the acquisition of media skills, this level is at least to be considered equally important with the large projects, but listing these in detail would go beyond the scope of an encyclopedia article. This can be read in the book Public Netbase: Non Stop Future as well as in an online activity report that records the activities up to autumn 2004.

  • Intergalactic Conference of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts (1997)

Behind the seemingly Dadaistic undertaking of an “intergalactic conference” on an independent community-based space program is a critical examination of the accessibility of technology and the politics of space.

  • Infobody Attack (1997)

This series of events, carried out in October 1997, dealt with surveillance and control in the information society.

  • Flesh Machine: A Gene Exploitation Project (1997)

The Critical Art Ensemble's project on the “biotechnological revolution” was first realized in Vienna. Among other things, in '' The Cloning Project '' volunteers were able to have their DNA screened and find out whether or not they would be assessed as suitable for reproduction in the all-encompassing biocapitalism. In a multimedia lecture, members of the CAE presented the background to the project.

  • Information Terror (1998)

As part of this project, carried out in cooperation with The Society of the Unknown (London / UK), a transport container in front of the Vienna Opera was "transformed into a psychogeographic feedback system".

  • Robotronika (1998)

In this five-day event consisting of a symposium and an exhibition, current developments in the field of automation and robotics were presented and the effects questioned.

  • Period After (1998/99)

This project, operated in a network with Southeastern European media initiatives, dealt with the potential consequences of the 'Balkan Crisis' and developments in the field of media and contemporary culture.

  • Synworld playwork: hyperspace (1999)

dealt with the relationship between popular games and scientifically and socially relevant developments. It offered a very comprehensive program of lectures, installations, multimedia presentations, games stations and a lounge.

  • Kultur.Netz.2000 + (1999)

In an event and the development of a cultural policy paper, a. The creation of an “Austrian cultural backbone for networking cultural workers”, the support of infrastructures to promote media literacy and the increased involvement of art and culture in the field of information and communication technologies are called for.

  • European Cultural Backbone (1999-2003)

European Cultural Backbone (ECB) was an amalgamation of organizations and individuals in the media culture sector who worked together on the creative use of participatory media in the sense of social change.

  • foreign network (1999)

This anti-racist project, which was carried out in a Vienna subway station at the time of the formation of the right-wing conservative ÖVP-FPÖ government, included: a. the media art installation “External Control” by Franz Xaver, several lectures and presentations by Period After and the Get to Attack platform that is currently being formed.

  • government-austria.at (2000/2001)

The right-wing conservative ÖVP-FPÖ government was sworn in on February 4th, the first large-scale demonstration against it took place on February 19th, and in the intervening period this website was launched, which represents a series of discourses "that explicitly addresses the dialogue with the black - denied the blue government and instead wanted to build its own identity. "

  • free.netbase.org (2000-2004)

documented the political repression to which Public Netbase was exposed by the right-wing Austrian government, as well as international expressions of solidarity.

  • Interface Explorer (2001)

presented current trends in the development of new interfaces and web browsers. As part of the Interface Explorer event, concrete projects by international artists who deal with the topic in various ways were presented on the one hand, and a forum was offered in discussions with experts to discuss the current state of development and the future of network communication media. The event was co-curated by Johannes Grenzfurthner .

  • Basecamp (2001/2002)

Under this title, three installations were set up in public space in and in front of the Vienna Museum Quarter, each presenting a media project: the virtual billboard "Remote Viewing", the SMS project "Text-FM" and the music project "Remote Jam" instead of.

  • free: re: public (2001-2004)

In the spirit of “sound politicization”, an annual youth culture rally took place in Vienna from 2001 onwards. "FREE RE ​​PUBLIC stands for free access to education and the participatory use of electronic media, for social self-determination and for the right to self-organization."

  • Dark Markets (2002)

This strategic conference examined current connections between media politics, information technologies and democratic theories. The strategies of oppositional political movements and the role of new media were examined.

  • Airport campaign against illegal data transfer (2003)

As part of its cooperation in the "European Digital Rights" network, Public Netbase carried out an action at Vienna Airport in which passengers were informed that a new regulation by the EU Commission could pass on data to US authorities without their knowledge.

  • Open Cultures (2003)

This project, consisting of a two-day conference, workshops and an exhibition, dealt with the politics of the infosphere and inventive approaches for the further development of a “free flow of information”.

  • Democracy and the Public in the Information Society (2003)

A few days after the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) took place in Geneva, Public Netbase dealt critically with it in two public events.

  • Free Media Camp (2003)

On June 27, 2003, a free media camp was set up at Karlsplatz in Vienna to raise awareness of the fact that the existence of independent and participatory media initiatives in Vienna continues to be at great risk. Around 100 individual events (discussions, presentations, concerts, screenings, etc.) took place in the four months that the camp lasted. A cooperation between Public Netbase and IG Kultur Wien, the independent newspaper MALMOE, Community Radio Orange 94.0 and the media cooperative PUBLIC VOICE Lab.

  • nikeground (2003)

The project, realized in cooperation with 0100101110101101.ORG, reacted to the increasing commercial closure of public spaces. The renaming of Karlsplatz, one of the most prominent historical squares in Vienna's center, to “Nikeplatz” has been announced. As part of this renaming, plans were announced for the construction of a 36 meter high monument in the form of the company logo. A futuristic-looking glass pavilion was actually built, which for a month was a sign of this alleged renaming plan that was visible from afar. The project led to discussions in the scenes focused on art, culture, urbanism, etc., but was at the same time spectacular and credible enough to trigger a wide variety of protests from citizens as well as a broad media response.

  • No asylum procedure on the World Wide Web! (2003/2004)

This anti-racist project reacted to the tightening of the asylum policy by the ÖVP-FPÖ federal government in Austria. In workshops, young asylum seekers were given the opportunity to acquire important knowledge in dealing with information and communication technologies.

  • S-77CCR - System 77 Civil Counter-Reconnaissance (2004)

S-77CCR was critical of surveillance technologies and toyed with the idea of ​​providing civil society with their own tools for surveillance of public spaces. “Monitoring from above for movements from below!” (Brian Holmes)

  • Art! = Bioterrorism (2004)

After the artist and scientist Steve Kurtz, founding member of the Critical Art Ensemble , was arrested by the FBI and threatened with conviction under the US terrorism law, Public Netbase organized solidarity and protest events in Vienna.

  • Free Bitflows (2004)

As part of this project, which dealt with “Cultures of Access and Politics of Dissemination”, a comprehensive program of conference, workshops and an exhibition took place in June 2004.

  • Awesome or totally wrong? (2005)

On the occasion of the year of political education declared by the Council of Europe for 2005, this discussion event dealt with the question of whether the allegedly low level of enthusiasm among young people for politics was not due to the methods of political education and the presentation of politics in society and the media.

  • ZKW kf45 2005

Sixty years after the end of the Second World War and fifty years after the signing of the Austrian State Treaty, 2005 was celebrated as the official “anniversary year”, with which this “virtual drama in four acts” was critically examined.

  • Patriotism or Treason (2005)

Another project for the Austrian “anniversary year” 2005: a quiz with 22 questions determined which of eight types in the field of tension between “patriotism and treason of the fatherland” one most closely matches.

  • Piracy makes you impotent! (2005/2006)

This media guerrilla project reacted to the "pirate copiers are criminals" campaign of the German film industry. The establishment of a “Consortium ZKM” was announced and the takeover of the campaign in Austria was announced. Among other things, a press conference was faked in Vienna's most famous shopping street, in which pirate copiers were publicly pilloried for crimes such as “protected ringtones sent to girlfriend”.

Publications on Public Netbase

  • Clemens Apprich, Felix Stalder (ed.): Forgotten future. Radical net cultures in Europe. transcript , Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1906-5 .
  • Clemens Apprich: Interventions in the data room: Public Netbase (1994-2006). In: Hans-Joachim Lenger, Michaela Ott, Sarah Speck, Harald Strauss (eds.): Virtuality and control. "across" series of publications by the Hamburg University of Fine Arts . Textem , Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-941613-26-3 , pp. 288-296.
  • Martin Wassermair: Public Netbase: Who Owns the Culture of the Future? In: Elke Bippus, Andrea Sick (ed.): Industrialization <> Technologization of art and science. Series 01 of the University of the Arts Bremen . transcript, Bielefeld 2005. (online)
  • Kuda.org, Branka Curcic, Zoran Pantelic (Eds.): Public Netbase: Non Stop Future - New practices in Art and Media. Revolver, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, ISBN 978-3-86588-455-8 .
  • Clemens Apprich: Public Netbase: 1994-2006. A Viennese network institution opens the digital space for new forms of media practice. In: netzpioniere.at (no longer available online), 2007. Full text on future-nonstop.org
  • Josephine Bosma: The construction of media spaces. Access and commitment: what is really new about network (work) art. In: Media Art Network. 2004. (online)
  • Inke Arns: Net cultures. Europäische Verlagsanstalt , Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-434-46107-8 , pp. 46 and 81.
  • Armin Medosch : Public Netbase Vienna. Network base for cultural workers. In: telepolis . 1998. (online)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kuda.org, Branka Curcic, Zoran Pantelic (eds.): Public Netbase: Non Stop Future - New practices in Art and Media. Revolver, Frankfurt a. M. 2008
  2. ↑ PUBLIC NETBASE t0: A Culture and Youth Oriented Center for New Communication Technologies. (PDF; 479 KB) In: free.netbase.org. Institute for new Culture Technologies, September 2004, accessed November 22, 2017 .
  3. ^ AAA Association of Autonomous Astronauts. Documentation of some lectures. In: future-nonstop.org. Retrieved March 24, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Florian Ledermann: Public Netbase t0 media ~ space October program. In: t0.or.at. October 2, 1997, accessed March 27, 2018 .
  5. ↑ http://t0.or.at/t0/projects/fleshmachine , accessed on 16-07-2013
  6. ↑ http://www.t0.or.at/about_de/t0_about_06.html , accessed on 11-07-2013
  7. ↑ http://robot.t0.or.at/presse.htm , accessed on 11-07-2013
  8. ↑ http://periodafter.t0.or.at/pa2/index.html , accessed on 11-07-2013
  9. ↑ http://synworld.t0.or.at/ , accessed on 16-07-2013
  10. ↑ http://netz2000.netbase.org/press.htm , accessed on 11-07-2013
  11. ↑ http://netz2000.netbase.org/ , accessed on 11-07-2013
  12. ↑ http://www.ecb.net/ ( Memento from January 15, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on 11-07-2013
  13. ↑ http://fax.priv.at/fremdsteuerung/ , accessed on 16-07-2013
  14. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on 11-07-2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.springerin.at
  15. ↑ Konrad Becker in an interview, in: Clemens Apprich, Felix Stalder (Ed.): Forgotten Future. Radical net cultures in Europe. transcript, Bielefeld 2012, p. 161
  16. ↑ http://government-austria.at/ , accessed on 11-07-2013
  17. ↑ http://free.netbase.org/ , accessed on 11-07-2013
  18. ↑ http://interface.t0.or.at/ , accessed on 16-07-2013
  19. ↑ http://basecamp.netbase.org/ , accessed on 11-07-2013
  20. ↑ http://future-nonstop.org/c/f693abd08f6baac27c1b62fd2849bc28 , accessed on 11-07-2013
  21. ↑ http://darkmarkets.t0.or.at/ , accessed on 11-07-2013
  22. ↑ http://edri.org/
  23. ↑ http://www.netbase.org/t0/projects/edri , accessed on 11-07-2013
  24. ↑ http://opencultures.t0.or.at/oc
  25. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on 09-07-2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.t0.or.at
  26. ↑ http://future-nonstop.org/c/7b93f0e13e6acf445f9fb66280e54d63 , accessed on 09-07-2013
  27. ↑ http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/rohrpost-0306/msg00177.html , accessed on 09-07-2013
  28. ↑ http://www.t0.or.at/nikeground , accessed on 09-07-2013
  29. ↑ http://workshop.t0.or.at/workshop/about/asyl , accessed on 09-07-2013
  30. ↑ http://s-77ccr.org/ , accessed on 09-07-2013
  31. ↑ http://www.t0.or.at/t0/caedefense/deutsch , accessed on 09-07-2013
  32. ↑ http://freebitflows.t0.or.at/ , accessed on 09-07-2013
  33. ↑ http://www.netbase.org/t0/projects/20050302 , accessed on 09-07-2013
  34. ↑ http://zkw.netbase.org/ , accessed on 09-07-2013
  35. ^ Projects. In: netbase.org. Retrieved February 23, 2019 (see section Patriot or Traitor to the Fatherland? ).
  36. ↑ http://netbase.org/hartaberrechte2006 , accessed on 09-07-2013