In the still open question of whether the societal organizational form of the digital network age will follow the dystopia of a totalitarian control system or rather the vision of open commons, artistic work once again has an avant-garde role in the truest sense of the word. (Manuela Naveau)

Since the World Wide Web was made publicly accessible in 1993, digital communication technologies have been changing our relationship with the world. The boundless connectivity enables close collaboration over long distances, but it also increasingly makes us dependent on large international corporations that have gained wealth and power through the collection and use of our data and are trying to steer our needs with the information they gather.

However, as early as the 1980s, there were independent mailbox networks for electronic communication by counter-public initiatives and activists in environmental protection, human rights—and also in the arts. New worlds opened up for cross-border experiments, previously unknown spaces beyond markets emerged. The first net art projects, online platforms, and mailing lists for media artists were created independently of the controlling mechanisms of the art world.

With the rapid spread of electronic networking in the 1990s, numerous initiatives began working at the intersection of art, society, and technology. The latter sometimes became art itself: with the creation of digital tools which involves programming their own software, manufacturing electronic interfaces, and free servers for the community, art and technology merged. A new, mostly collaborative DIY culture emerged. At the same time, the rapidly developing structures of official institutions and companies on the web were questioned and undermined with subversive strategies.

In the DigiDic SummerWorkshop, the toolboxes of this net culture are now being explored. From feminist initiatives, the OpenSearch movement, or community servers, to DIY projects, strategies of self-empowerment are presented, discussed, and performed.

Workshops, lectures, discussions and concerts in cooperation with the Volkskundemuseum am Paulustor, CoSA, mur.at and OpenWebSearch.eu