Against the Flat Net

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The talk critiques the contemporary internet – often labeled Web 2.0 – through a media-theoretical lens informed by the notion of media-centric perception, affect theory, and cyberpunk imaginaries, tracing the trajectory from early net optimism to today’s algorithmic capture. Where once the internet was a portal to a consumption-free space, shaped by programmers, we are now shaped by opaque interfaces designed for control, distraction, and extractive engagement. I propose an alternative: spatial, multi-user, and more sensorially integrated interfaces that reconnect physical and digital space, in opposition to defaulting to the flatness of doomscrolling feeds and user passivity. Rather than just critiquing the evil algorithms, I want to draw attention to the interface – rethinking navigation, access, and interaction. Drawing on artistic and speculative approaches, I envision a digital virtual space that is less about consumption and more about situated, affective co-presence – an archive that can be moved through like a space, shared in real time, and felt through interface rather than only seen. A radical meeting space – capable of collapsing vast distances and dissolving social hierarchies, where identities could be fluid and encounters unbounded by physical or institutional constraints. This is both a critique of current paradigms and a call for designing otherwise.

Vortragende*r