[aha] Networked Disruption (T_Bazz PhD Abstract)

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Grazie Tizz!

In bocca al lupo!

Ciao

Fabio


On 7 Oct 2011, at 15:50, T_Bazz wrote:

> Ciao!
>
> vi invio l'abstract della mia PhD dissertation che ho consegnato a  
> fine agosto presso il Dipartimento di Information and Media Studies,  
> Aarhus University. Se tutto e' confermato la "difesa" sara' il 5  
> dicembre ad Aarhus University (Danimarca).
>
> Saluti da Berlin,
> T_Bazz
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> PhD Dissertation Abstract:
>
> Networked Disruption
> Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social  
> Networking
> by Tatiana Bazzichelli
>
> Objective:
> The objective of this research is to rethink the meaning of critical  
> and oppositional practices in art, hacktivism and the business of  
> social networking. The aim is to analyse hacker and artistic  
> practices through business instead of in opposition to it. By  
> identifying the emerging contradictions within the current  
> economical and political framework of Web 2.0, my aim is to reflect  
> on the status of activist and hacker practices as well as those of  
> artists in the new generation of social media (or so called Web 2.0  
> technologies), analysing the interferences between networking  
> participation and disruptive business innovation.
>
> Hypothesis:
> My hypothesis is that mutual interferences between art, hacktivism  
> and the business of social networking have changed the meaning and  
> contexts of political and technological criticism. Hackers and  
> artists have been active agents in business innovation, while at the  
> same time also undermining business. After the emergence of Web 2.0,  
> the critical framework of art and hacktivism has shifted from  
> developing strategies of opposition to embarking on the art of  
> disruption. Artists and hackers use disruptive techniques of  
> networking within the framework of social media, opening up a  
> critical perspective towards business to generate unpredictable  
> feedback and unexpected reactions; business enterprises apply  
> disruption as a form of innovation to create new markets and network  
> values, which are often just as unpredictable. Disruption becomes a  
> two-way strategy in networking contexts, a practice to generate  
> criticism, and a methodology to create business innovation.
>
> Theoretical Background:
> Adopting Fred Turner’s perspective of investigating the  
> interferences between business and radical culture through  
> coexisting layers instead of progressive cooptation, I developed the  
> concept of the Art of Disruptive Business as a possible model for  
> deconstructing business logic through the act of experiencing it  
> from within. The concept of disrupting business in social media  
> sheds light on the practices of artists, activists and hackers who  
> are rethinking critical interventions in the field of art and  
> technology by deciding to act inside the market scenario. Drawing on  
> Walter Benjamin’s notion of the dialectical image, I propose to  
> adopt a dialectic approach in which the oppositions coexist.  
> Bypassing the classic power/contra-power dichotomy, the dialectical  
> opposition between business and its undermining therefore shifts  
> into a synergetic tension where one is part of the other, and they  
> mutually contribute to each other’s formation. Conscious that  
> nowadays contradictions and dichotomies are an inherent part of  
> business logic, the challenge lies in the exploration of symbolic  
> dissolutions of powers, where hackers and artists directly engage in  
> such contradictions and provoke unexpected consequences, which can  
> be seen as an art form. Building on the analysis of non-hegemonic  
> practices and the logic of affinity by Richard J. F. Day, I propose  
> an analysis of practices that challenge the notion of power and  
> hegemony, and the battle for dominance, generating distributed,  
> decentralised and fluid networking practices which act through the  
> bugs inherent in economical systems.
>
> Methodology:
> The method is based on the reformulation of a research approach  
> which functions within the subject of research, rather than on the  
> subject of research. Adopting the montage method derived from  
> Benjamin’s writing style of Denkbilder (thought-images),  
> decentralised and plural viewpoints become part of theory and  
> practice. The result is a methodological constellation of networking  
> practices, which I define as ethnography of networks, which aims to  
> actualise – and to question – the notion of “fieldwork” itself. The  
> theoretical viewpoint of this research is closely connected with the  
> act of being a direct part of the research subject, creating a  
> mutual exchange with the actors of the analysis through  
> conversations and interviews as well as participating in some of the  
> projects described here. To investigate the progressive  
> commercialisation of sharing and networking platforms, it is  
> necessary to understand business culture from within. My research  
> develops through the analysis of different conceptual nodes of a  
> network, connecting together disruptive practices of networked art  
> and hacking in the framework of a network economy. To sort through  
> the various effects of networking art and hacking in the business of  
> social media, I examine their development and influence on a cross- 
> national scale. Case studies cross space and time: hackers,  
> activists and artists in California (especially those in the Bay  
> Area) are closely connected to those in Europe.
>
> Case Studies:
> The case studies analysed in this research are those based on the  
> concept of disruption rather than opposition. Artists and hackers  
> adopt viral and flexible strategies, as does contemporary networking  
> business by provoking contradictions, paradoxes and incongruities. I  
> investigate two different but related critical scenes: the art and  
> technological context in California and the European contexts of net  
> culture, which generate a constellation of projects created by  
> hackers, artists, networkers and entrepreneurs acting at the  
> boundary between art, business and social networking. This  
> perspective binds together different models of disruption in  
> business contexts of social media and artistic practices focused on  
> networking, thereby adopting a disruptive critical dimension. In  
> particular, I analyse: the genesis and the creation of several  
> grassroots networks applying methodologies of disruption (e.g. mail  
> art, Neoism, The Church of the SubGenius, Luther Blissett,  
> Anonymous); the development of underground artistic and hacker  
> practices in California and its synergies with the business of  
> social networking (e.g. The Suicide Club, The Cacophony Society,  
> Burning Man Festival, NoiseBridge, Kink.com); projects highlighting  
> the paradoxes and limits of social media (e.g. Anna Adamolo,  
> Seppukoo by Les Liens Invisibles and Face to Facebook by Paolo Cirio  
> and Alessandro Ludovico) and decentralised techniques of networking  
> based on peer production and the distribution of productive assets  
> (Venture communism by Dmytri Kleiner and the Telekommunisten  
> collective).
>
> Conclusions:
> What were once marginal practices of networking in underground  
> hacker and artistic contexts have in recent years become a core  
> business for many Web 2.0 companies. The increasing  
> commercialisation of sharing and networking contexts is transforming  
> the meaning of art as well as that of business. Artistic practices  
> develop beyond the realms of artistic institutions and some of them  
> are transforming the meaning of business. If business is adopting  
> hacker and artistic strategies of disruption, what is the answer of  
> artists and hackers working within a critical networking dimension?
> Distributed, autonomous and decentralised networking practices of  
> disruption. become a means for rethinking oppositional hacktivist  
> and artistic strategies within the framework of art and business.
>
> Department of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University, 2011
>
> Supervisor: Søren Pold, Associate Professor
> Department of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University.
>
> Co-supervisor: Fred Turner, Associate Professor
> Communication Department, Stanford University, California.
>
> http://networkingart.eu/2011/09/bazzichell-phd-abstract/
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