Institute of Network Cultures

During this fourth Tactical Video broadcast we discussed the potentials and limitations of streaming as an opportunity to create digital infrastructures of solidarity. The urgency to make and maintain localized yet distributed, open yet trusted, community-led yet flexible, and accessible yet ecologically and socially sustainable alternative infrastructures for online gathering has only grown from the now seemingly distant pandemic times. Online video streaming, our medium of choice, is only behind AI when it comes to energy and computationally intensive technologies. This begs the question: can streaming become a sustainable practice, placing care for the environment, for hardware (from cables to cameras and servers), and each other before uncritical mass outreach and constant content production? How can streaming become a practice of solidarity that acknowledges its material, infrastructural conditions and limitations? An evening of earnest conversations on how we can start to stream otherwise bringing together the self-hosting and alternative design initiatives SysterServer and Permacomputing. Featuring presentations and chats with Ola Bonati, Aymeric Mansoux, vo ezn, ooooo.be, and Karl Moubarak the event was moderated by Erica Gargaglione and the T.V. Team. The night was opened with a zine launch by our StreamArt Network collaborator 3022 and completed with a therminoise performance by noiserr. This hybrid event was produced and published by THE VOID (Tommaso Campagna, Giulia Timis, Jordi Viader Guerrero) with the assistance of Maja Korczyńska, August Kaasa Sundgaard, Salome Berdzenishvili, and Carolina Valente Pinto.

Gizem Üstüner is an artist and researcher based in Amsterdam, whose work is a direct confrontation with the realities of precarity, migration, and womanhood. In recent years, she’s been traveling to Yogyakarta, Athens, Istanbul, and back to Amsterdam for the long-term ‘Low Budget Projects’. Wherever she goes, Gizem seeks to build solidarity through one-on-one exchanges with peers navigating struggles similar to hers. Over coffees, cigarettes, nights out, or moments of protest, she listens, connects, and shares in the everyday tactics and resistance strategies that cultural practitioners develop in response to the cultural, economic, and political infrastructures they inhabit. In this podcast, we discuss the different chapters of Low Budget Projects, and what they tell us about transparency, solidarity, humor, and resistant joy among art workers’ communities. Links: Low Budget Projects IG: instagram.com/lowbudgetprojects Low Budget Projects in Amsterdam: https://framerframed.nl/en/projecten/low-budget-projects-do-not-expect-anything-out-of-the-blue/ Low Budget Projects in Athens: https://yellowbrick.gr/step-47-low-budget-projects Gizem on Stegi Radio: https://stegi.radio/artist/gizem-uestuener

Vermeir & Heiremans started their collaborative artistic practice in 2006, when they defined their apartment in Brussels as an artwork and created the Art House Index. In the following decades, they developed a deep artistic research practice focusing on the interplay between art, speculation, finance, and real estate. Ronny Heiremans and Katleen Vermeir have also successfully worked on Belgian art policy development and co-founded the artistic research platform Jubilee. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, from financialisation for the public good to automated art dividends, real estate speculation, bottom-up policymaking, new ways of mutualization, and the lure of art cooperatives.

Kate Rich is an artist, trader, and researcher based in the UK. We discussed 'feral trade', a grocery business set up by Kate, for which her internationally traveling (art world) friends and acquaintances act as couriers. We then talked about 'radmin', a long-term effort to radicalize the administrative work that's always there, but usually remains in the background, even in social art practices. Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen. This episode was recorded in Brussels, in a studio generously offered by Rune Peitersen and Level Five Cooperative. Link list Feral Trade website: https://feraltrade.org Interview with Kate on Feral Trade in Wired from 2013: https://www.wired.com/2013/07/whats-new-with-kate-rich-and-feral-trade Katherine Gibson and Kate Rich, 'Feral Trade: Taking back Markets for People and the Planet', Unlikely, no. 1, https://unlikely.net.au/issue-1/feral-trade Introduction to feral trade from 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyvofILBKKs&ab_channel=AVFestival Radmin Reader 2020: https://fo.am/publications/radmin-reader-2020 Article by FoAM-founders Maja Kuzmanović & Nik Gaffney on the aims of the organisation: https://www.designdecode.org/maja-kuzmanovic-nik-gaffney Article by Kate Rich, Maja Kuzmanović, and Nik Gaffney from 2023 discussing the Institute for Experiments with Business (IBEX): https://anarchive.fo.am/crystal/grey-skies-thinking The 2024-2027 project Frictions: https://www.alpinecommunityeconomies.org/2024/10/01/welcome-to-dr-kate-rich-our-first-marie-sklodowska-curie-postdoctoral-fellow

Inte Gloerich is a critical media and technology researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures. She is one of the core people behind the research community MoneyLab and recently finished her PhD on feminist blockchain imaginaries. In this episode of Art in Permacrisis, we discuss blockchain beyond the hype, and beyond the wish to get rich fast. How can blockchain be a tool for radical imagination and decentralised autonomous organising in the arts? We discuss concepts and dilemmas, and briefly revisit what's left of the NFT boom, but we mainly dive into the practices of contemporary DAOs, from Dayra, to Black Swan, The Sphere, Circles, and CultureStake. What works? What doesn't work? How? And why? Art in Permacrisis is a podcast of the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt on organizing art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises. It is hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen, and tech support is provided by Tommaso Campagna. Salome Berdzenishvili edited this episode. Links: Inte's website: www.integloerich.nl MoneyLab: www.networkcultures.org/moneylab Terra0: www.terra0.org Video explaining Dayra: www.vimeo.com/721710848? Article explaining Black Swan DAO: www.kw-berlin.de/en/black-swan-dao Circles Coop Berlin: www.circles.coop The Sphere: www.thesphere.as Commons[dot]art: www.casco.art/projects/commons-art ReUnion: www.reunionnetwork.org CultureStake: www.culturestake.org Furtherfield: www.furtherfield.org Inte Gloerich's new book, titled 'Artists, Activists, and Worldbuilders on Decentralised Autonomous Organisations: Conversations about Funding, Self-Organisation, and Reclaiming the Future', can be ordered for free on the website of the Institute of Network Cultures: https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/artists-activists-and-worldbuilders-on-decentralised-autonomous-organisations-conversations-about-funding-self-organisation-and-reclaiming-the-future/

We kick off a new season of Art in Permacrisis with a special episode. In October, we were in Budapest for a conference of media artists and researchers called MetaForumX: PermaCrises. One of the contributions to MetaForum was a podcast created by media artist Constant Dullaart. It's a fresh take on the notion of permacrisis, the development of AI, and the role of art. Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises. How can artists make a living without selling their souls? Can we imagine and practice a sustainable art economy beyond precarity? How should we transform the circulation of artworks, the curriculum of art and design academies, the exhibition programs of museums, and the organization of collectives and unions? We invite speakers with combined backgrounds in art, theory, and organizing to share their insights. Art in Permacrisis is a podcast of the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. It is hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen with tech support by Tommaso Campagna. Links: MetaForumX - PermaCrises website: https://networkcultures.org/events/metaforumx-permacrises Constant Dullaart's website: https://www.constantdullaart.com/

This is the fourth episode of Art in Permacrisis, a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises. How can artists make a living without selling their souls? Can we imagine and practice a sustainable art economy beyond precarity? How should we transform the circulation of artworks, the curriculum of art and design academies, the exhibition programs of museums, and the organization of collectives and unions? We invite speakers with combined backgrounds in art, theory, and organizing to share their insights. In this episode, we talk to Yazan Khalili. Yazan is an artist, architect, and cultural activist living in and out of Palestine. Some of Yazan's many roles are: PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, co-founder of Radio Alhara (since 2020), and co-founder of The Question of Funding-collective (since 2019). Our conversation focuses on crisis and the crisis economy as a defining force in the arts. We also discuss the practice of infrastructural critique, or how to build alternative art institutions from the bottom up. And, of course, we talk about Palestine. Art in Permacrisis is a podcast of the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. It is hosted by Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. Tech by Tommaso Campagna. Editing by Giulia Timis. We would also like to note that the Shadia Abu Ghazaleh Campus of the People's Free University in Amsterdam was unfortunately evicted from their building on June 13th. To keep up with their actions, you can follow @peoples.university.amsterdam on Instagram. Links: Yazan's website: https://www.yazankhalili.com/ The Question of Funding: https://documenta-fifteen.de/en/lumbung-members-artists/the-question-of-funding/ What we talk about when we talk about crisis: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/111/346846/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-crisis-a-conversation-part-1/ Radio Alhara: radioalhara.net Radio Alhara Linktree: https://linktr.ee/radioalhara

This is the third episode of Art in Permacrisis, a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises. How can artists make a living without selling their souls? Can we imagine and practice a sustainable art economy beyond precarity? How should we transform the circulation of artworks, the curriculum of art and design academies, the exhibition programs of museums, and the organization of collectives and unions? We invite speakers with combined backgrounds in art, theory, and organizing to share their insights. In this episode, we talk to Katja Praznik. Katja is an associate professor at the University at Buffalo's Arts Management Program and the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies. Our conversation focuses on her book, Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism as well as questions of strategy and the future of work in the arts. Art in Permacrisis is a podcast of the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. It is hosted by Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. Tech by Tommaso Campagna. Editing by Candela Cubria.  Links Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (English) https://utorontopress.com/9781487508418/art-work/ Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism (Slovenian): https://maska.si/knjiga/katja-praznik-delo-umetnosti-nevidno-delo-in-zapuscina-jugoslovanskega-socializma/ Bifo’s piece on student protests/BDS protests about Palestine: https://illwill.com/sabotage-and-self-organization Goran Đorđević’s blog with all the documentation about the artists strike: https://whatwasmodernart.wordpress.com/2020/09/11/international-strike-of-artists/ New Books Network podcast interview: https://newbooksnetwork.com/art-work Slovenian art workers union ZASUK: https://zasuk.si/ Recommended further reading/listening/watching: “Wages for and against Art Work: On Economy, Autonomy, and the Future of Artistic Labour,” A short text that summarizes some of the key arguments, including the feminist perspective: https://reshape.network/article/wages-for-and-against-art-work-on-economy-autonomy-and-the-future-of-artistic-labour Wages Against Housework by Silvia Federici: https://monoskop.org/images/2/23/Federici_Silvia_Wages_Against_Housework_1975.pdf "New Books New Feminist Directions" talk with Katja and Silvia Federici  at University at Buffalo Gender Institute, Social Reproduction speaker series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgJv4XEEDYg 'Wages for and against Art Work: On Economy, Autonomy, and the Future of Artistic Labour', https://reshape.network/article/wages-for-and-against-art-work-on-economy-autonomy-and-the-future-of-artistic-labour ‘Feeling Powers Growing: An Interview with Silvia Federici’: https://joyfulmilitancy.com/2018/06/03/feeling-powers-growing-an-interview-with-silvia-federici/ Review of Art Work on the Labor Art Review: https://laborartreview.net/how-yugoslavias-self-managed-socialism-made-the-labor-of-art-invisible/

This is the second episode of Art in Permacrisis, a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises. How can artists make a living without selling their souls? Can we imagine and practice a sustainable art economy beyond precarity? How should we transform the circulation of artworks, the curriculum of art and design academies, the exhibition programs of museums, and the organization of collectives and unions? We invite speakers with combined backgrounds in art, theory, and organizing to share their insights. For this episode, we talk to Emanuele Braga. Emanuele is an artist, researcher, and activist. Over the past decades, he has been involved in many important grassroots initiatives, including MACAO, a center for art and culture in Milan, and the Institute of Radical Imagination. This conversation focuses mostly on Art for Universal Basic Income (manifesto), which was produced by the Institute of Radical Imagination in 2022, and which was co-edited by Emanuele, together with Marco Baravalle and Gabriella Riccio. Art in Permacrisis is a podcast of the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. It is hosted by Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. Tech by Tommaso Campagna. Editing by Giulia Timis. Link list: Art for UBI https://shop.b-r-u-n-o.it/products/art-for-ubi-manifesto Art for UBI petition https://www.change.org/p/european-commission-art-for-ubi-manifesto Institute of radical imagination https://instituteofradicalimagination.org/ MACAO https://www.macaomilano.it/spip.php?article166 Museum of the Commons: https://vanabbemuseum.nl/en/museum/support-the-museum/linternationale Gathering into the Maelstrom (part of Venice Biennale): https://instituteofradicalimagination.org/2024/02/15/gathering-into-the-maesltrom-platform-action-exhibition/

This is the first episode in the mini-series Art in Permacrisis, a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises. How can artists make a living without selling their souls? Can we imagine and practice a sustainable art economy beyond precarity? How should we transform the circulation of artworks, the curriculum of art and design academies, the exhibition programs of museums, and the organization of collectives and unions? We invite speakers with combined backgrounds in art, theory, and organizing to share their insights. For this episode, we are welcoming Kuba Szreder. Kuba is a lecturer in art theory at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a freelance curator. He co-founded the Free/Slow University of Warsaw and the Office for Postartistic Practices. The main topic of our conversation is Kuba's book ABC of the Projectariat: Living and Working in a Precarious Art World. Art in Permacrisis is a podcast of the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. It is hosted by Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. Tech by Tommaso Campagna. Editing by Giulia Timis.