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.:bootlab:.
bootlab e.v. gerichtstr 65 13347 berlin/germany bootlab at bootlab dot org mission --> events --> projects --> members --> 2008 --> 2007 --> 2006 --> 2005 --> 2004 --> 2003 --> 2002 --> 2001 --> 2000 --> >>43characters >> --> "north avenue club" --> gemeinsam utube gucken (test event) --> nerd-prostitution --> speaking books --> the oil of the 21st century --> screenings --> open source tools in design education --> radio bar --> radiobar --> amerikanische botschaft --> in absentia --> pirate cinema --> reboot.fm --> bar im radio --> attachment --> copy cultures --> bootlab raum 3 --> kino raum 3 --> real --> last tuesday --> This project has been funded with support from the European Commision. |
<-- back "CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME" Ten years ago, it was still a commonly-held belief that while television produces separation, the internet produces community. It was a classical tale of technological progress: a one-directional medium, useful only to transmit orders, was being replaced by a person-to-person network that could be used to actually communicate. Obviously, the media industries tried hard to sabotage it, and the commonly-cited worst case scenario was a repeat of the history of radio: peer-to-peer technology reappropriated as broadcast infrastructure. Ten years ago, Google bought YouTube, and since then we have learned what it means to turn the internet into television (incrementally, of course, but by now, they're pretty much done with it). The most important lesson is that in order to produce separation, there is no longer a need to turn the masses into passive consumers of propaganda: to capture and commodify their personal communication works even better. The sad figure of the couch potato has been dislodged by an even sadder one: an office chair potato, in short: a YouTuber. Of course, internet television is still television, and most of what YouTubers do is just a waste of time: the "content" they produce is meaningless, useless and entirely harmless, and no-one is watching it anyway. From time to time though, we can witness a perfect storm, when deep personal isolation meets a strong penchant for exhibitionism in front of an unusually large audience. These are unique moments of transcendence, images that make visible what it looks like when we turn internet into television. And it's not a pretty sight. Our program is going to be rather short, since most of us have a relatively low upper bound of tolerance for this type of material (even though none of it contains any nudity, violence, gore or nazis - these are just bored teenagers, and like previous generations, they're the most radical outsiders our societies have ever seen). At the same time, our screening shouldn't be mistaken for a cringe fest or a fail compilation: this is footage that rises way above cringe, and the failures it exhibits are not individual, but obviously systemic. Anyone who still has any hope in the internet as a medium of enlightenment should watch this kind of stuff at least every now and then, since rather than just a peek into a deep corner of the internet, it provides a look at the dark core of enlightenment itself. If the culture industry used to make consumers imitate commodities (see Horkheimer/Adorno), then social media turns this act of imitation into a commodity of its own. Separation is no longer a product of this process, but its raw material: it is not perfected until it is shared. And to reiterate our warning: Under the right wrong conditions, the results can look very weird, often not in a good way, and sometimes even a bit disturbing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- pirate cinema berlin u kottbusser tor sunday, september 25, 9 pm 12 seats, rsvp first come first serve location in separate mail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- () >< pirate cinema berlin www.piratecinema.org <-- back |