Networked Cultures. Parallel Architectures and the Politics of Space

Networks have become the most powerful figure to describe our conception of the world: networks dominate the prevailing structures of cultural, economic and military power. Departing from sites of geopolitical conflict and social confrontation, the Networked Cultures project, an international platform of artists, architects, curators and theorists, aims to reconsider cultural transformations by examining the potentials and effects of networked spatial practices.
Attention will be focused on the phenomenon of network creativity, by tracing the routes of networks laid out by translocal artistic production. The site that will be opened up, marks an arena of engagement between space and conflict and leads to an interrogation of contested territories across Europe and beyond, examining the architecture of contestation, and proposing models for geocultural negotiation. Investigating their modus operandi, the focus then shifts to governmentality and self-government by examining the organizational matrix of black markets, informal settlements and accompanying parallel economies. Responding to these global realities, the parallel worlds of mobility and migration are discussed in relation to the current politics of connectivity and the emerging "archipelago of peripheries".