Geert Lovink and Platform Brutality

Geert Lovink and Platform Brutality

Geert Lovink joins me in the studio for this new episode of Art in Permacrisis. Geert is a media theorist and the founder of the Institute of Network Cultures. He has a background in the Amsterdam squatting movement, he invented the notion of 'tactical media' several decades ago, and in recent years, he has focused on platform and social media critique. In this episode, we discuss his newest book, Platform Brutality. We talk about the violent turn of the tech overlords, technofeudalism, the question of tactical media today, antifascist figure design, and the special responsibility of art. LINKS & REFERENCES Platform Brutality: Closing Down Internet Toxicity: https://valiz.nl/en/publications/platform-brutality [https://valiz.nl/en/publications/platform-brutality] Notes on deletion and technological sacrifice: https://networkcultures.org/geert/2025/08/27/notes-on-deletion-and-technological-sacrifice [https://networkcultures.org/geert/2025/08/27/notes-on-deletion-and-technological-sacrifice/] Geert's two cents in the technofeudalism debate: https://networkcultures.org/geert/2024/03/22/cloud-capital-and-platform-regression-review-of-janis-varoufakis-techno-feudalism [https://networkcultures.org/geert/2024/03/22/cloud-capital-and-platform-regression-review-of-janis-varoufakis-techno-feudalism/] The origins of the Duckrabbit: https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/duckrabbits-unveiled-a-sneak-peek-at-the-postartistic-theory-and-practice [https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/duckrabbits-unveiled-a-sneak-peek-at-the-postartistic-theory-and-practice/] ABOUT Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organisation of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt [https://caradt.nl/]. This episode was hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen.

Gizem Üstüner’s Low-Budget Projects

Gizem Üstüner is an artist and researcher based in Amsterdam, whose work is a direct confrontation with the realities of precarity, migration, and womanhood. In recent years, she’s been traveling to Yogyakarta, Athens, Istanbul, and back to Amsterdam for the long-term ‘Low-Budget Projects’. Wherever she goes, Gizem seeks to build solidarity through one-on-one exchanges with peers navigating struggles similar to hers. Over coffees, cigarettes, nights out, or moments of protest, she listens, connects, and shares in the everyday tactics and resistance strategies that cultural practitioners develop in response to the cultural, economic, and political infrastructures they inhabit. In this podcast, we discuss the different chapters of Low Budget Projects, and what they tell us about transparency, solidarity, humor, and resistant joy among art workers’ communities. LINKS & REFERENCES Low-Budget Projects IG: instagram.com/lowbudgetprojects [http://instagram.com/lowbudgetprojects] Low-Budget Projects Amsterdam: https://framerframed.nl/en/projecten/low-budget-projects-do-not-expect-anything-out-of-the-blue [https://framerframed.nl/en/projecten/low-budget-projects-do-not-expect-anything-out-of-the-blue] Low-Budget Projects Athens: yellowbrick.gr/step-47-low-budget-projects [http://yellowbrick.gr/step-47-low-budget-projects] Gizem on Stegi Radio: stegi.radio/artist/gizem-uestuener [http://stegi.radio/artist/gizem-uestuener] ABOUT Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt [https://caradt.nl/]. This episode was hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen and edited by Salome Berdzenishvili.

Vermeir & Heiremans between Speculative Fiction and Operational Realism

Vermeir & Heiremans started their collaborative artistic practice, when they defined their apartment in Brussels as an artwork and created the Art House Index in 2006. In the following decades, they developed a deep artistic research practice focusing on the interplay between art, speculation, finance, and real estate. Ronny Heiremans and Katleen Vermeir have also successfully worked on Belgian art policy development and co-founded the artistic research platform Jubilee [http://Website of Vermeir & Heiremans: https://www.in-residence.be/ Art House Index: https://www.in-residence.be/extensions/view/39 / http://ahi.in-residence.be/chart.php Article on 'A Modest Proposal (in a Black Box)' in Finance and Society, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/finance-and-society/article/modest-proposal-in-a-black-box/4586E97058B4581F71795AEDBB647E1C Art workers proof (kunstwerkattest): https://www.workinginthearts.be/nl/professioneel/kunstwerkattest/kunstwerkattest/wat-is-het-kunstwerkattest Jubilee: https://www.jubilee-art.org/ Commons to Coop Summer School: https://kunsthal.gent/en/agenda/jubilee-summer-school-2024-commons-to-coop]. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, from financialisation for the public good to automated art dividends, real estate speculation, bottom-up policymaking, new ways of mutualization, and the lure of art cooperatives. Links & References Website of Vermeir & Heiremans: https://www.in-residence.be [https://www.in-residence.be] Art House Index: https://www.in-residence.be/extensions/view/39 [https://www.in-residence.be/extensions/view/39] / http://ahi.in-residence.be/chart.php [http://ahi.in-residence.be/chart.php] Article on ‘A Modest Proposal’, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/finance-and-society/article/modest-proposal-in-a-black-box/4586E97058B4581F71795AEDBB647E1C [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/finance-and-society/article/modest-proposal-in-a-black-box/4586E97058B4581F71795AEDBB647E1C] Art workers proof (kunstwerkattest): https://www.workinginthearts.be/nl/professioneel/kunstwerkattest/kunstwerkattest/wat-is-het-kunstwerkattest [https://www.workinginthearts.be/nl/professioneel/kunstwerkattest/kunstwerkattest/wat-is-het-kunstwerkattest] Jubilee: https://www.jubilee-art.org/ [https://www.jubilee-art.org/] Commons to Coop Summer School: https://kunsthal.gent/en/agenda/jubilee-summer-school-2024-commons-to-coop [https://kunsthal.gent/en/agenda/jubilee-summer-school-2024-commons-to-coop] Cover image: graph illustrating A Modest Proposal (in a Blackbox) [https://www.jubilee-art.org/projects/a-modest-proposal] About Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt [https://caradt.nl/]. The podcast hosts are Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. This episode was recorded in Brussels, in a studio generously made available by Rune Peitersen and Level Five Cooperative [https://levelfive.brussels/].

Kate Rich and Radical Administration

For this episode I had a conversation with artist, trader, and researcher Kate Rich. We discussed ‘feral trade’, an international grocery business set up by Kate, for which her traveling (art world) friends and acquaintances act as couriers. We then talked about ‘radmin’, a long-term effort to radicalize the administrative work that’s always there, but usually remains in the background, even in social art practices. Links & References Feral Trade website: https://feraltrade.org [https://feraltrade.org] 2013 interview about Feral Trade: https://www.wired.com/2013/07/whats-new-with-kate-rich-and-feral-trade [https://www.wired.com/2013/07/whats-new-with-kate-rich-and-feral-trade] Katherine Gibson and Kate Rich, ‘Feral Trade: Taking back Markets for People and the Planet’: https://unlikely.net.au/issue-1/feral-trade [https://unlikely.net.au/issue-1/feral-trade] Radmin Reader 2020: https://fo.am/publications/radmin-reader-2020 [https://fo.am/publications/radmin-reader-2020] Article by FoAM-founders: https://www.designdecode.org/maja-kuzmanovic-nik-gaffney [https://www.designdecode.org/maja-kuzmanovic-nik-gaffney] Article about the Institute for Experiments with Business (IBEX):https://anarchive.fo.am/crystal/grey-skies-thinking [https://anarchive.fo.am/crystal/grey-skies-thinking] For 2024-2027, Kate is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Brave New Alps (Italy), where her research centres on the everyday work of administration as a regularly overlooked place for critical, creative and collective practice: https://titipi.org/frictions [https://titipi.org/frictions] About Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on the organization of art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt [https://caradt.nl/]. The podcast hosts are Candela Cubria and Sepp Eckenhaussen. This episode was recorded in Brussels, in a studio generously offered by Rune Peitersen and Level Five Cooperative [https://levelfive.brussels/].

Inte Gloerich and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations

Inte Gloerich is a critical media and technology researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures. She is one of the core people behind the research community MoneyLab and recently finished her PhD on feminist blockchain imaginaries. In this episode of Art in Permacrisis, we discuss blockchain beyond the hype, and beyond the wish to get rich fast. How can blockchain be a tool for radical imagination and decentralised autonomous organising in the arts? We discuss concepts and dilemmas, and briefly revisit what’s left of the NFT boom, but we mainly dive into the practices of contemporary DAOs, from Dayra, to Black Swan, The Sphere, Circles, and CultureStake. What works? What doesn’t work? How? And why? Inte Gloerich’s new book, titled ‘Artists, Activists, and Worldbuilders on Decentralised Autonomous Organisations: Conversations about Funding, Self-Organisation, and Reclaiming the Future’, will be published by the Institute of Network Cultures soon. Keep an eye out on networkcultures.org [http://networkcultures.org]. Links & References Inte’s website: www.integloerich.nl [http://www.integloerich.nl] MoneyLab: www.networkcultures.org/moneylab [http://www.networkcultures.org/moneylab] Terra0: www.terra0.org [http://www.terra0.org] Video explaining Dayra: www.vimeo.com/721710848 [http://www.vimeo.com/721710848]? Article explaining Black Swan DAO: www.kw-berlin.de/en/black-swan-dao [http://www.kw-berlin.de/en/black-swan-dao] Circles Coop Berlin: www.circles.coop [http://www.circles.coop] The Sphere: www.thesphere.as [http://www.thesphere.as] Commons[dot]art: www.casco.art/projects/commons-art [http://www.casco.art/projects/commons-art] ReUnion: www.reunionnetwork.org [http://www.reunionnetwork.org] CultureStake: www.culturestake.org [http://www.culturestake.org] Furtherfield: www.furtherfield.org [http://www.furtherfield.org] About Art in Permacrisis is a podcast on organizing art workers in the face of the ever-growing stack of crises, published by the Institute of Network Cultures and Caradt. This episode was hosted by Sepp Eckenhaussen and edited by Salome Berdzenishvili.