felix's blog
Book Out: Digital Condition (Polity Press)
By felix on 15 Feb 2018I'm very happy my new book (a translation of Kultur der Digitalität) has just been published by Polity Press.
In the book I argue that referentiality, communality, and algorithmicity have become the characteristic cultural forms of the digital condition because more and more people – in more and more segments of life and by means of increasingly complex technologies – are actively (voluntarily and/or compulsorily) participating in the negotiation of social meaning. They are thus reacting to the demands of a chaotic, overwhelming sphere of information and thereby contributing to its greater expansion. It is the ubiquity of these cultural forms that makes it possible to speak of the digital condition in the singular.
The goals pursued in these cultural forms, however, are as diverse, contradictory, and conflicted as society itself. It would, therefore, be equally false to assume uniformity or an absence of alternatives in the unfolding of social and political developments. On the contrary, the idea of a lack of alternatives is an ideological assertion that is itself part of a specific political agenda. Indeed, advanced democracies are faced with a profound choice, to continue their long slide towards post-democratic authoritarianism or reinvent democracy for the digital condition.
You can get it from the publisher (UK, US), from Amazon (UK, US), or you local bookseller (UK, US).
The great cover image is by the Dutch artist Bernaut Smilde, from the series Nimbus, Probe #6, 2010.
Updates
- Helena Barranha wrote a thorough and extensive review placing the argument in the context of the current wave of digitization due Covid-19. In: Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies (7/1, 2020, pp. 293-299) (English & Portuguese)
- Sebastien Provencher provides a detailed review of the book under the title: "Les communs, meilleure façon de lutter contre une post-démocratie autoritaire?" (13.02.2020)
- Anthony Mandal offers an extensive summary and appraisal of the book in his review of the field "Digital Humanities. The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory" for Oxford university press.
- A reviewer in the European Journal of Communication (Vol 33, Issue 5)
calls the book "thought-provoking". - In place of a review, Clemens Apprich did a long interview on the book for First Monday (23:8)
- A reviewer at ITNOW, calls the book "prescient" and concludes "the book is timely in its provision of a contemporary world view and where it appears to be heading, but with a potential alternative scenario. Not a speed read but one to ponder as one slowly digests. The absence of an index is a nuisance, if one wished to refer back, unless one makes copious notes whilst reading, as I did." ITNOW, 40:3, p.64
- In a review for the British Computer Society, Mick Phythian gives the book 8/10 points.
- "absolutely insightful" a very positive review by Guido Koller for Collaborative Digital History
- "This book combines the scale and depth of Manuel Castells's research, with that astonishingly revealing vision of a Zygmunt Bauman," writes Pau Todo in his review on Good Reads.
Micro Review: Blockchain Chicken Farm
By felix on 23 Nov 20201/ So, I read “Blockchain Chicken Farm" by @xrw . It’s one of the best books I read this year, not just because its starting point (the countryside) is counter-intuitive for a “metronormative” person like me, but also because it’s much more than simply a book about tech. pic.twitter.com/nMciWDOR6S
— felix stalder (@stalfel) November 16, 2020
Read the full thread here.
Micro Review: Machtmaschinen
By felix on 15 Nov 2020So, ich habe das neue Buch von @Viktor_MS gelesen. In a nutshell: Nicht Rechenleistung, nicht Algorithmen, nicht Data Scientists, nicht Risikokapital sind knapp, sondern der Zugang zu Daten. Die grossen Firmen (in USA und China) haben alle Modelle entwickelt, (1/5) pic.twitter.com/q2NMgaahwS
— felix stalder (@stalfel) November 11, 2020
Den ganzen Twitter Thread kann man hier lesen.
16.-17.10 Momentum Kongress
By felix on 19 Oct 2020Momentum Kongress 2020: Republik, 16 & 17.10. (online)
Track #8: Öffentliche Güter und Räume jenseits von Staat und Markt
Trackmoderation: Felix Stalder
The Pandemic as Smart City Laboratory
By felix on 21 Jun 2020I really think anyone who makes predictions now is a fool.
It's a little bit like trying to predict the future of foreign policy in October 2001.
Evgeny Morozov, interviewed by Holly Herndon & Matt Dryhurst, May 11, 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic is both an urban and technological phenomenon. 95% of all diseases have so far been registered in cities. From the starting point in Wuhan, via the metropolitan region of Lombardy, Paris, Madrid, New York, Rio de Janeiro to Moscow, the virus spreads mainly within large cities. This is hardly surprising, since not only does the higher density favor the local spread of the virus from person to person, but the virus also arrives first in the large cities. They are the central nodes of the hypermobility of people and goods that characterizes the neoliberal phase of globalization. From this perspective, tourist hotspots like Ischgl are temporary cities in the mountains. Whether the hypermobility, which has been largely brought to a standstill at the moment, will be fully revived is not yet clear. That the global trend towards urbanization will be broken is very unlikely. So much can be confidently predicted.
Map of all the 5384 people whose Covid-19 infection could be traced back to the ski resort of Ischgl, Austria. (Source)
17.06. Digitalität Post-Covid (emc Wien) (online)
By felix on 18 Jun 2020Gastvortrag und Diskussion. ecm - educating/curating/managing. Masterlehrgang für Ausstellungstheorie & -praxis
18.00–19.30 Digitalität Post-Covid
Aufbauend auf dem Text "Erfassen und Modellieren. Covid-19 und die Politik von «Big Data»" und dem Projekt "Sleep Battle" (Stadtwertkstatt Linz, 2018) diskutieren wir, wie der Digitalisierungschub durch Covid-19 unsere Wahrnehmung verändert, die Potentiale für offnen Umgang mit big data und die Rolle von Museen und anderen "memory institutions".
16.06. Ringvorlesung: Art and Digital Culture (AdBK, Nürnberg) (online)
By felix on 10 Jun 2020Prof. Dr. Felix Stalder: Zur Kultur der Digitalität
https://kunst-transfer-praxis.adbk-nuernberg.de/programm/ss-2020/zur-kul...
Online-Vortrag
10. Juni 2020, 18 Uhr
In der Ringvorlesung werden verschiedene Implikationen von Digitalität in Alltagskulturen wie auch in der zeitgenössischen Kunst thematisiert und ihre kulturgeschichtlichen, gesellschaftlichen und ökonomischen Auswirkungen diskutiert. Die immer weiter zunehmende Bedeutung digitaler Technologien für die zeitgenössische Kunst wird von Künstler*innen, Kultur- und Medienwissenschaftler*innen, Designer*innen und Kurator*innen im Hinblick auf aktuelle Entwicklungen zur Sprache gebracht.
Felix Stalder ist Professor für Digitale Kultur und Theorien der Vernetzung an der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste und freier Autor in Wien. Er beschäftigt sich mit dem Wechselverhältnis von Gesellschaft, Kultur und Technologien und forscht u.a. zu Netzkultur, Urheberrecht, Commons, Privatsphäre, Kontrollgesellschaft und Subjektivität. Stalder ist zudem Vorstandsmitglied des World Information Institute in Wien, Mitglied des freien Forschungsprojekts "Technopolitics" und langjähriger Moderator der internationalen Mailingliste
Ausgehend von seiner gleichnamigen Publikation wird Felix Stalder die zentralen Aspekte seines Verständnisses der "Kultur der Digitalität" (erschienen 2016 im Suhrkamp Verlag) vorstellen.
Tracking People and Modelling Society. COVID-19 and the politics of big data
By felix on 24 May 2020
At the moment, many people are sensing how the tectonic plates under their feet are moving. It is hard to get one’s bearing on such shifting grounds. Beginning with the virus itself, which is assumed to have jumped from animals to humans (“zoonotic spillover”) sometime last fall, there are simply too many actors in the complex dynamic system of a planetary civilization whose paths have been altered in hard-to-understand ways. This makes it impossible to plot the cumulative effects of their interaction.
While a lot of things are fairly chaotic and improvised reactions to fast-changing events, there is a certain structure to it, simply because people and institutions draw on that material, political and cultural resources which they have available. But which resources to draw on, how to mobilize them, and how to create new ones in the process is the key question. While there is path-dependency and continuity, even in the way actors can change paths, there is also a moment of extraordinary openness. It is therefore important not only to be vigilant against the authoritarian forces that are exploiting this crisis, i.e. to defend democracy as it exists, but also to think about ways of strengthening and expanding it right now.
Überwachen und Anstecken (LMD)
By felix on 16 May 2020
Die Welt verändert sich vor unseren Augen in rasendem Tempo. Keine drei Monate nachdem die Behörden von Wuhan erstmals die Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) über ein neuartiges Coronavirus informiert haben, sind mehr als 3 Milliarden Menschen mit schweren Einschränkungen ihrer Bewegungsfreiheit konfrontiert, die mindestens mehrere Wochen dauern sollen.Dieses Regime der erzwungenen Immobilität ist nur der sichtbarste Teil einer tektonischen Verschiebung der politischen Landschaft, in der Maßnahmen durchgesetzt werden, die bis vor Kurzem noch undenkbar waren. Gleichzeitig radikalisieren sich bestehende Entwicklungen.
Bei der Nutzung digitaler Daten im Kampf gegen die Ausbreitung des Virus kommt beides in problematischer Weise zusammen. Es ist naheliegend, auf „die Daten“ der großen Firmen der Mobilfunk- und Social-Media-Branche zurückzugreifen, um die Ausbreitung des Virus zu bekämpfen. Seit Jahren betonen diese Firmen gern, wie genau sie uns kennen, wie detailliert sie über unsere Handlungen, Sorgen und Wünsche Bescheid wüssten und dass sie unser künftiges Verhalten aus unserem bisherigen ableiten könnten.Mehr noch, die digitale Netzwerktheorie, etwa Facebooks „social graph“, der die Beziehungen zwischen allen Nutzern der Plattform darstellt, und die Netzwerktheorie der Epidemiologie sind in ihren Grundlagen sehr ähnlich.
21.04. Crises, Cracks and Openings. Technopolitics of COVID-19 (online)
By felix on 17 Apr 2020
Tuesday, April 21. 20:00
(CEST, Central European Summer Time), Via ZOOM
Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/94058587129
Meeting ID: 940 5858 7129
Crises, Cracks and Openings. Technopolitics of COVID-19
The virus, officially named SARS-CoV-2, is often portrayed as something coming from the outside, be it nature or a foreign country. However, its spread is neither a natural disaster nor a strategic ploy, but a deeply techno-political event. As the disease turns into a pandemic it reveals many of the hidden structures and contradictions of the highly integrated, yet locally differentiated contemporary word.
The societal reactions to the spread and the measures which are currently put into place are transformative and might turn revolutionary.
To address an event as distributed and complex as COVID-19, no single point-of-view can suffice. Thus, we have invited artists and theoreticians from four places – Sao Paulo, Chicago, Tel Aviv, and Vienna – to speak about their particular experiences, the techno-political dynamics created by the virus, agency for cultural producers and speculate about what will remain.
SPEAKERS
David Sperling Architect, Institute of Architecture and Urbanism (IAU), University of São Paulo
Lucas Bambozzi Artist, Filmmaker and Activist, São Paulo
Brian Holmes Researcher, Writer, Activist, Chicago
Udi Edelman Isreal Digital Art Center, Tel Aviv
Tsilla Hassine Artist and Art-up Founder, Tel Aviv
Technopolitics Working Group Vienna
Technopolitics Research Group
Suhrkamp Verlag, 2016
Buch & Netz, 2014
PML/Mute, Winter 2013
