Geert Lovink

The Institute of Network Cultures (INC) analyzes and shapes the terrain of network cultures through events , publications , and online dialogue . Our projects evolve around urgent publishing, alternative revenue models, critical design and making, digital counter culture and much more. All INC publications, including the blog postings, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0) The publishing world is perhaps one of the last big media organizations to be making the transition to the digital domain. So it is now going through a sea-change moment in which new relationships will emerge between writer, publisher, designer and distributor. Many of its older mechanisms may soon no longer work, but in their place new possibilities will arise with regard to formats, reading experiences, social reading, do-it-yourself, business models, and so on. Is the book business – like other media industries – headed towards a model in which content is cut up into parts? What about e-readers and reading online, on your phone? Design is more than just the optimization of business processes and information streams. For INC, design is above all an aesthetic expression that asks questions. Design is a skill and an applied art that is essential to anyone building systems for the media and information industries. Without a solid knowledge of visual language, and a critical attitude towards form and functionality, designers end up simply copying standard protocols: the filling in of empty templates. A world without aesthetic practice is a bleak and barren environment, dominated by a pure functionality in which the spirits of both the maker and the user are absent. In design education, it is essential that links are forged between functional informatics and interaction design, not just for students but for everyone who goes online. How do we break out of this ‘urge to optimize’? The Institute of Network Cultures (INC) is part of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS, HvA in Dutch), faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries. Within this faculty, the INC is part of the knowledge centre. The responsibilities of the INC include the provision of internships, lectures, and BA thesis supervision. The INC team on Tuesday 24 September 2024. From left to right: August Kaasa Sundgaard, Sepp Eckenhaussen, Tommaso Campagna, Jordi Viader Guerrero, Maja Korczyńska, Carolina Pinto, Diana Millán, Salome Berdzenishvili, Chloë Arkenbout, Geert Lovink Core team (Tommaso, Chloë, Sepp, Geert, Ruben and Mela) and wider scene (Noah, Anielek, Radu, Chelsea, Sara and Giovanni), preparing for the INC Exit Fest, during the last weeks in the HvA office, June 18, 2026. Geert Lovink is a Dutch media theorist, internet critic, and author of Uncanny Networks (2002), Dark Fiber (2002), My First Recession (2003), Zero Comments (2007), Networks Without a Cause (2012), Social Media Abyss (2016) and Sad by Design (2019). In 2003 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne, followed by a postdoc position at the University of Queensland. In 2004 he founded the Institute of Network Cultures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). From 2004-2012 he was associated professor in the new media program of Media studies, University of Amsterdam. In 2005-2006 he was a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study (Wiko) in Berlin. From 2007-2017 he taught at the European Graduate School (Saas-Fee/Malta) where he supervised five Ph.D. students. Late 2021 Geert Lovink was appointed Professor of Art and Network Cultures at the Art History Department, Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam. The Chair (one day a week until September 2026) is supported by the Amsterdam University of Applied Science. Contact: geert[at]networkcultures[dot]org. Noah Pellikaan joined the INC in 2024 and is an Amsterdam-based student of Literary & Cultural Analysis (BA, Universiteit van Amsterdam) from