Abstract (Short paper)

Keywords: DIY, publishing, book scanner, 3D printing, CCTV Camera, selfie.

DIY (do-it-yourself) has taken on expanded meaning beyond reappropriating communication and media typical for underground cultural movements since the seventies. DIY has been extended by the so-called ‘bedroom generation’ during the nineties, metaphorically opening its bedroom walls to the digitally connected world. Twenty years later the same and the subsequent generations seem to be trapped in an endless technologically driven self-referential narrative. Furthermore, the virtual disappearance of the walls has been conceptually replaced by the borders of the screen to which they’re constantly referring. The previous ability to question dominant cultural code and enable alternative ‘processes’, has been obfuscated by the easiness and almost instantness of producing virtual and physical products. This as generated an vacuous loop of self-gratification. Confronting the media strategies of contemporary DIY is then necessary in order to break out of this loop and find again a strategic perspective.

• Alessandro Ludovico is an artist, media critic and chief editor of Neural magazine since 1993. He received his Ph.D. degree in English and Media from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge (UK). He has published and edited several books, and has lectured worldwide. He’s one of the founders of Mag.Net (Electronic Cultural Publishers organisation). He also served as an advisor for the Documenta 12’s Magazine Project. He teaches at the Academy of Art in Carrara, Italy. He is one of the authors of the Hacking Monopolism trilogy of artworks (Google Will Eat Itself,  Amazon Noir, Face to Facebook).    neural.it

Full text (PDF) p. 810-813