February on -empyre-: networks, art & collaboration With Geert Lovink and Trebor Scholz collaboration 1. United labour, co-operation; especially in literary, artistic, or scientific work. 2. specifically Traitorous cooperation with the enemy. --Oxford English Dictionary, Online Edition Rarely does a word contain within it such positive and negative connotations. The history of collaboration reflects this duality. Wordsworth and Coleridge, Fluxus, Wiki, Blogging, the organization of the WTO protests, the rise of Nazism in pre-WWII Germany and surrounding states, and the actions of the recent US-led "coalition" in Iraq demonstrate positive and negative aspects of collaborative effort. -empyre-, in cooperation with the conference on networks, art, & collaboration (http://www.freecooperation.org), welcomes Geert Lovink and Trebor Scholz, as they discuss the complexity, challenges and rewards of collaboration both off and on-line. Subscribe at: http://www.subtle.net/empyre ------------ Lovink and Scholz are both part of a collaborative team that created the collaborative weblog Discordia on arts, politics, and techno cultures. (http://discordia.us) ------------ Geert Lovink Geert Lovink is an Amsterdam-born media theorist and activist who co-founded the on-line group for media arts producers, nettime, and the Australian-based forum fibreculture.org. Lovink has lectured widely on media theory, and is a member and co-founder of Adilkno (Foundation for the Advancement of Illegal Knowledge). http://www.laudanum.net/geert ------------ Trebor Scholz Born in East Berlin, Trebor Scholz is a media artist who, involved in ventures both collaborative and individual, addresses issues on the intersection of art, politics and the Internet. Dividing his time between Brooklyn and Buffalo he is professor at the Department of Media Study, SUNY at Buffalo. http://molodiez.org ------------ Subscribe at: http://www.subtle.net/empyre