|
|
|
|
Title: Documentation
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
# A Nourishing Network
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*A Nourishing Network* is a publishing project that aims at documenting
|
|
|
|
|
and circulating current research done by a network of artists, activists
|
|
|
|
|
and programmers that collaborate with the Austrian net culture
|
|
|
|
|
initiative *servus.at*. Especially in this moment of reduced mobility
|
|
|
|
|
and physical encounters, the publication stimulates the circulation of
|
|
|
|
|
materials and their further development in a community that usually
|
|
|
|
|
gathers in small-sized events and festivals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The project is a continuation of *Art Meets Radical Openness*--*AMRO*
|
|
|
|
|
in short--a bi-yearly festival organized by servus.at in Linz
|
|
|
|
|
([https://radical-openness.org](https://radical-openness.org/)). The
|
|
|
|
|
festival creates space for discussions around the current impact of
|
|
|
|
|
internet technologies and platforms. It aims to imagine possible (real)
|
|
|
|
|
sustainable models for computational infrastructures, as an alternative
|
|
|
|
|
to the growing techno-solutionist trend.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*A Nourishing Network* is produced as a hybrid publishing process
|
|
|
|
|
realised by Manetta Berends and Alice Strete from the Rotterdam
|
|
|
|
|
initiative Varia ([https://varia.zone](https://varia.zone/)).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The project emerged as a response to the following three departure
|
|
|
|
|
points:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Another lost occasion for degrowth?**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At the beginning many thought that the spring lockdowns of 2020 might
|
|
|
|
|
have been a great opportunity to embrace less impactful lifestyles and
|
|
|
|
|
production models. As soon as the measurements loosened up, the level of
|
|
|
|
|
consumption rose to pre-lockdowns levels. Was the emerging environmental awareness overshadowed by a „sort of" return to normality?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Re-centralization or blooming alternatives?**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
During the first wave of lockdown, data-avid proprietary services gained
|
|
|
|
|
a more central role within online ecosystems and daily life. Faced with
|
|
|
|
|
this new context, communities dealing with free and open source software
|
|
|
|
|
continued to work on alternative platform models. What happened? And
|
|
|
|
|
what could be further explored?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Artdiversity loss: is now Zoom the best art gallery 2020?**
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 2020 many cultural initiatives were forced to shift towards online
|
|
|
|
|
videocalls, where often the materiality of bodies and matter is
|
|
|
|
|
deprioritised. As the spectrum of technical possibilities offered by
|
|
|
|
|
(centralised) digital platforms currently shape and actively format the
|
|
|
|
|
field of the arts, how can we make space to experiment with alternative
|
|
|
|
|
formats?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## How the nourishing network works:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The publication is in itself an experiment: one in peer-to-peer
|
|
|
|
|
publishing starting from the *feed* as a potentially multi-directional
|
|
|
|
|
circulation device. Through web-syndication protocols and mail art
|
|
|
|
|
practices, this publication engages with complex circulation flows,
|
|
|
|
|
thereby exploring the social dynamics of such networked forms of
|
|
|
|
|
publishing. Borrowing from food terminology, the activity of
|
|
|
|
|
*nourishing* translates into an act of continuous care within the
|
|
|
|
|
network and for the network itself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A subscription to the digital and/or postal feed, nourishes her
|
|
|
|
|
subscribers with a stream of essays. The feeds are available at
|
|
|
|
|
[https://](https://a-nourishing-network.radical-openness.org/)[a-nourishing-network.radical-openness.org](https://a-nourishing-network.radical-openness.org/)
|
|
|
|
|
and can be digested in different ways: as RSS, Atom and ActivityPub
|
|
|
|
|
streams, or as a stream of physical publications which are distributed
|
|
|
|
|
through a "postal feed" throughout Europe.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
## How to circulate within the Nourishing Network?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The project is an invitation to stimulate circulation by further
|
|
|
|
|
disseminating the material in online and offline ways. Each subscriber
|
|
|
|
|
to the postal feed will receive two copies of the publication in order
|
|
|
|
|
to extend the circulation network with one step -- by sending it to
|
|
|
|
|
someone who might appreciate it. Similarly, the feed is prepared to
|
|
|
|
|
circulate in online networks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
|
|
|
|
{.documentation}
|
