[curatorial.net] FW: [node-l] Geert Lovink lecture: 23rd November

[Joasia]

Dear All,

Thinking ahead to the forthcoming discussion on the theme of social
technologies and curating that we planned for later this month I thought
this announcement below was perhaps worth forwarding as a way of
introducing the issue of blogging.  This relates to the recent work by Luis
Silva, Lisbon-based curator, who posed the idea of blogging in relation to
curating. We will follow on this soon.
Joasia

------ Forwarded Message
From: Matthew Fuller <cus01mf at gold.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 22:39:07 +0000
Subject: [node-l] Geert Lovink lecture: 23rd November

Lecture:  Geert Lovink

Zero Comments: Blogging, the Nihilist Impulse
A Critique of Citizen Journalism

Place:   Room RHB 309, Goldsmiths College
Date: Friday 23rd November
Time:  6-8pm
Free, all welcome

The dominant citizen journalism discourse presents itself as an empowering,
all-inclusive movement. However, the vast majority of bloggers neither sees
itself as a political subject ('citizen') or has the ambition to become a
journalist. The 'citizen journalism' meme was produced by a small vanguard
of US-American bloggers (the so-called A-list), who, through their
competitive knowledge of Internet applications found a way to intervene in
the already declining legitimacy of the Western news media. Instead of a
radical critique of news manufacturing and public relations, most bloggers
used citizen journalism  to create a niche market: how do I fit in?

In my theory of blogging, which recently came out as part of the book, Zero
Comments (Routledge NY, 2007) I emphasize the massive, inward-looking,
reflective aspect of diary keeping rather than the media related categories
such as 'truth', 'news' or even 'reporting'. Blogging in the post-9/11
period closed the gap between Internet and society. Whereas dot-com suits
dreamt of mobs of customers flooding their e-commerce portals, blogs were
actual catalysts that realized worldwide democratization of the Net. As
much as democratization means 'engaged citizens', it also implies
normalization (as in setting of norms) and banalization. We can't separate
these elements and only enjoy the interesting bits.

Each new blog adds to the fall of the media system that once dominated the
twentieth century. What¹s declining is the Belief in the Message;
that¹s the nihilist (nihil = zero) moment and blogs facilitate this
culture like no platform has done before. Each new blog entry adds to the
slow implosion of our centralized meaning structures. Blog software assists
users in their crossing from Truth to Nothingness. The printed and
broadcast message has lost its aura. News is consumed as a commodity with
entertainment value. Instead of presenting blog entries as mere self
promotion, we should interpret them as decadent artifacts that remotely
dismantle the broadcast model without offering an alternative model, let
alone subversive content.

Apart from my 'nihilism' thesis, as exemplified through the 'shocklogs'
genre, I am working on a general theory of blogging together with the
US-American scholar Jodi Dean. In this collaborative research we look into
the subjectivity formation of blogging and how the software architecture,
combined with the general post 9-11 climate, produces a certain kind of
blog behaviour.

This lecture is presented by the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths
College, University of London
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cultural-studies/

Geert Lovink is Director of the Institute for Network Cultures, Amsterdam,
http://www.networkcultures.org/   He is the author of, 'Dark Fiber' (2002),
'Uncanny Networks' (2002), 'My First Recession' (2003) and 'Zero Comments'
(Routledge New York, 2007).

_________________________________
Dr. Matthew Fuller
David Gee Reader in Digital Media

Centre for Cultural Studies
Goldsmiths College
University of London
New Cross
London SE14 6NW

e: m.fuller at gold.ac.uk
t: +44 (0)20 7919 7206
w: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/cultural-studies/staff/m-fuller.php

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