Dutch academic
Geert Lovink (born 1959, Amsterdam) is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures,[1] whose goals are to explore, document and feed the potential for socio-economical change of the new media field through events, publications and open dialogue.[2] As theorist, activist and net critic, Lovink has made an effort in helping to shape the development of the web.
Since 2004 Lovink is a researcher at the Faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) where he heads the Institute of Network Cultures. From 2007 till 2017 he was a Professor of Media Theory at the European Graduate School where he supervised five PhD students. From 2004-2013 he was an Associate Professor of New Media at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).[3] In December 2021 he was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the UvA Art History Department. The Chair (one day a week) is supported by the HvA. Lovink earned his master's degree in political science at the University of Amsterdam, holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and has been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Queensland.[4]
Activities
Since the early eighties, Lovink has been involved in a range of different projects and initiatives in the field of new media.
- 1983 Member of Adilkno
- 1989–94 Editor for the media art magazine Mediamatic[5]
- 1993 Co-founder of the support campaign for independent media in South-East Europe Press Now[6]
- 1994 Co-founder of the Amsterdam-based free community network Digital City[7] (DDS)
- 1994 Co-founder of the internet workspace and content provider for the arts desk.nl.
- 1995 Co-founder (together with Pit Schultz) of the international nettime circle
- 1996–99 Public researcher at the Society for Old and New Media, De Waag[8]
- 1996 Coordinating projects and teaching once a year at the IMI mediaschool[9] in Osaka/Japan
- 2000 organizer of the Tulipomania Dotcom conference
- 2000–08 Consultant/editor to the exchange program of Waag Society and Sarai New Media Centre (Delhi)
- 2001 Co-founder of FibreCulture,[10] a forum for Australian Internet research and culture
- 2002 Co-organizer of Dark Markets,[11] on new media and democracy in times of crisis in Vienna
- 2003 Co-organizer of Uncertain States of Reportage[12] in Delhi
- 2004 Co-organizer (together with Trebor Scholz) of the conference on the art of (online) collaboration Free Cooperation[13] at SUNY Buffalo
On 31 May 2010 Geert Lovink took part in Quit Facebook Day and deleted his Facebook account.[14]
In 2020 two text archives of Geert Lovink were preserved and transferred to the INC website: The Adilkno/Bilwet archive, once hosted by desk.nl (1990-1999): https://networkcultures.org/bilwet-archive/ and the text archive of geertlovink.org (2000-2010): https://networkcultures.org/geertlovink-archive/.
Theories
Geert Lovink was one of the key theorists behind the concept of tactical media – the use of media technologies as a tool for critical theory to become artistic practice. As an Internet activist, he describes tactical media as a "deliberately slippery term, a tool for creating 'temporary consensus zones' based on unexpected alliances. A temporary alliance of hackers, artists, critics, journalists and activists."[15]
In essence, he believes that these new resources of which audiences could become participants in actions against higher powers became an area in which many different types of people could unite. Lovink also was a founder of the early web mailing list "nettime", as well as a number of other projects.
