The inevitiblity of the computer should no more be allowed than letting television become a life necessity. Which is why it would be better – even if it’s no longer possible – not to be caught up in the computer-net. Only then can the new media offer a useful option. Everything else is coercion … There will now be a media-criticism that is finally informed, and which, insofar as this criticism will take place in the nets, will finally be part of the new media themselves.
Predictor: Lovink, Geert
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 interview with Arndt Weseman for Screen Multimedia, Geert Lovink, the European media theorist behind Amsterdam’s cybermagazine Mediamatic, says: ”The issue is rather whether computer-nets will become commercial or can free spaces continue to exist? Are there public spaces in the communication nets? How are they organized? The point is that they have to be shaped now and not in five or ten years. The inevitiblity of the computer should no more be allowed than letting television become a life necessity. Which is why it would be better – even if it’s no longer possible – not to be caught up in the computer-net. Only then can the new media offer a useful option. Everything else is coercion … The way of dealing with media in the 80s, a lot of muttering and grumbling only to arrive at a flat rejection, is over and done, finito. There will now be a media-criticism that is finally informed, and which, insofar as this criticism will take place in the nets, will finally be part of the new media themselves.”
Biography:Geert Lovink was the editor of the media/art magazine Mediamatic from 1989 to1994. He has lectured about media theory in Eastern Europe and participated there in conferences on independent media, the arts and new technologies since 1991. He helped organize Interface 3 (Hamburg,1995) on the culture of computer networks. In 1995, together with Pit Schultz, he founded the International “nettime” circle, which promoted Internet criticism (www.desk.nl/nettime). (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: October 21, 1994
Topic of prediction: General, Overarching Remarks
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Screen Multimedia
Title, headline, chapter name: Slaves of the Cybermarket: An Interview with Geert Lovink
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=151
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney