DARK MARKETS – INFOPOLITICS, ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY IN TIMES OF CRISIS
CONFERENCE BY PUBLIC NETBASE / t0, 03/04.10.2002, http://darkmarkets.t0.or.at
For press information / photos please contact:
Christina Werner | w.hoch.2wei | Kulturelles Projektmanagement
T ++ 43 1 524 96 46 DW 22 | F ++ 43 1 524 96 32 | E werner@kunstnet.at

BIOGRAPHIES

FRANCO BERARDI BIFO (IT)
http://www.mediamente.rai.it/biblioteca/biblio.asp?id=31&tab=bio

Franco Berardi Bifo is known as a political activist since he was a student at Bologna University in the seventies: 1976 he founded "Radio Alice", an alternative media project and 1977 the cultural magazine "A/traverso". His main interests in research are media theories and the relationship between technologies and social movements. He is author of various books, at last 2001 "La fabbrica dell`infelicità. New Economy e movimento del cognitariato".

PAULINA BORSOOK (US)
http://www.transaction.net/people/paulina.html

Paulina Borsook is a Californian researcher on the development of netculture. She is author of the book "Cyberselfish. A critical romp through the terribly libertarian culture of high tech", which was being published 2000 and became an international bestseller. She published many critical articles in various places, including "Wired", "Newsweek", "New York Times", "Salon.com" and "suck.com".

ARIANNA BOVE / ERIK EMPSON (UK)
http://coyote.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/generation_online

Arianna Bove and Erik Empson are independent researchers and thinkers in the field of philosophy and politics. They have collaborated in the dissemination and discussion of new political philosophies within electronic media, with the aim of fostering non-institutional spaces for generative and participatory critiques of the present.

OLEG KIREEV (RU)
http://www.getto.rema.ru

Oleg Kireev is a Russian art critic, editor and curator. He participated in a number of media-political campaigns (e.g. "Against all parties", 1999) and actions (e.g. "Barricade at Bolshaya Nikitskaya", May 1998). He is the author of articles on art and politics in the Russian and international press ("Novaya gazeta", "Nezavasimaya gazeta", "Flash art", "Siksi", "Mute"). Since 2001 he runs the Internet-site and publishing project "ghetto".

GEERT LOVINK (NL/AU)
http://www.laudanum.net/geert

Geert Lovink is an independent media theorist and net critic, based in Sydney. He is the co-founder and organizer of numerous Internet projects, mailing lists, conferences and publications on the cultural politics of new media. In 2002 The MIT Press published Dark Fiber, his essays on critical Internet culture and Uncanny Networks, a collection of interviews with international media theorists and artists. His main research areas are the rise and fall of dotcommania, foundations of the digital commons, net activist strategies, weblogs, list culture and the shifting role of culture and arts in today's networked control society.

CHANTAL MOUFFE (FR)
http://www.wmin.ac.uk/csd/cm.htm

Chantal Mouffe is Professor of Political Theory at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster in London. She has taught and researched in many universities in Europe, North America and South America. 2000 she published "The Democratic Paradox". She is currently elaborating a non-rationalist approach to political theory; formulating an 'agonistic' model of democracy; and engaged in research projects on the rise of right-wing populism in Europe and the limits of the 'third way'.

OLIVER RESSLER (AT)
http://www.t0.or.at/democracy

Oliver Ressler is an artist who carries out projects on various socio-political themes. Since 1994 he has been concerned with exhibitions, site-specific projects and videos on issues such as racism, economic globalization, sustainable development, genetic engineering and forms of resistance.

NED ROSSITER (AU)
http://www.fibreculture.org

Ned Rossiter is Lecturer in Communications, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Melbourne. He is co-editor of Politics of a Digital Present: An Inventory of Australian Net Culture, Criticism and Theory (Melbourne: Fibreculture Publications, 2001) and Refashioning Pop Music in Asia: Cosmopolitan Flows, Political Tempos and Aesthetic Industries (London: RoutledgeCurzon, forthcoming 2003). Also he is a co-facilitator of fibreculture, a network of new media researchers in Australia.

FLORIAN SCHNEIDER (DE)
http://www.wastun.org

Florian Schneider is working as author, net activist and movie producer. Over the last years he was concentrated on the question, how communicational leadership and dominant positions can be attacked and undermined by a practical criticism of borders and networks.

CHRISTOPH SPEHR (DE)
http://rli.gesellschaftsanalyse.de/aktuell/preis/

Christoph Spehr is a German political scientist and historian. He was the first scientist receiving the "Rosa-Luxemburg-prize" in the year 2000 for his essay "Gleicher als Andere - Eine Grundlegung der freien Kooperation", trying to answer the question, how social justice and political freedom can be connected. At last he published 1999 "Die Aliens sind unter uns - Herrschaft und Befreiung im demokratischen Zeitalter". There are presented two of his videos during this conference: "Time is on my side" and "Go on, you free pigs!"

SOENKE ZEHLE (DE)
http://www.wastun.org

Soenke Zehle is a German researcher on the main topics of autonomous media, environmental justice, cross-border/migrant worker organizations. He taught courses on ethnic and environmental studies, contemporary philosophy, and postcolonial literature. Currently he is completing a doctoral project: Ecology & Empire: Indigenous Peoples in the Biodiversity Process.