Networking Communities as a Research Practice

This project is a further development of Tatiana Bazzichelli’s PhD research: Networked Disruption: Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social Networking (2008–2011). It is based on the practice of networking as a research method used to investigate new models of production of art and culture explored by artists, hacktivists and grassroots communities.

Its objective: To investigate how collaborative practices among communities of artists, activists and hackers engaging with participatory technologies and networks contribute to shape new courses of action, tools and contents within (and beyond) digital culture production.

Research Methods:
(1) To compare new modalities of art production developed by artists and activists after the emergence of social media, reflecting on distributive, iterative and socially-engaged models of participation and innovation;

(2) To apply the concept of disruptive innovation to the art field so as to open up a critical perspective on the “network economy” trying to understand how the market works after de-assembling its strategies and mechanisms of production;

(3) To rethink the concepts of (social) networking, collaborative practices, innovation and participation adopting an ethnographic approach by mapping the activities of communities locally, regionally and internationally.

Das Projekt wird im Rahmen des Innovations-Inkubators der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg gefördert durch den Europäischen Fond für Regionalentwicklung (EFRE) und das Land Niedersachsen.