CyberCulture beyond technology - ASU2, Project Report

author Zeljko Blace with co-authors: Joanne Richardson, Teodor Celakoski, Nenad Romic, Manu Luksch, M icz Flor, ASU participants

Increasing mediations of art and widespread commercialisation of net space, have proven to be essential for culture workers to become the curators of their own production and the distributors of their own desires.
The Art Servers Unlimited, held in London in July 1998, was an international meeting of non-commercial Web projects. ASU (http://asu.sil.at/) sought to formulate an analysis of the experimental/non-commercial/critical use of the net, and to promote the sharing of knowledge, skills, bandwidth, hardware, alternative software.
In the context of the recent trend towards unconditional commercialisation of Croatian net space, it has become increasingly important to organize ASU2 in Croatia.
Organized by LABinary (http://www.LABinary.org/) and partners in Slovenia (http://www.ljudmila.org/) and Bosnia&Herzegovina (http://www.pro.ba/). Projects involved in ASU2 have proven to be important for the emergence and development of internet specific structures, organizational forms, hybrid-hyper-media and network distributed productions.
Net.radio stations founded by enthusiasts work on international level via internet using it to produce and exchange programmes. Collectives have started their own community based news/media and highly profiled Web portals established by the content creators evolve as juxtapoints, unreachable to mainstream portals.
Combination of workshop and festival form, meeting projects from the non-commercial Web productions : net.art, alternative technologies & independent media.