FEED Issue 18

69 GENIUS INTERVIEW Geert Lovink

channel that existed 30 years ago, but the real changes are happening in our field. FEED: As content becomes internationalised by global platforms, what affect does it have on local culture and community? GEERT LOVINK: I think, due to geopolitical pressures, a local culture will emerge. There’s no doubt about that. We see a lot of signals in that direction.

But building up local alternatives, or local media practices, takes time. These things, by their very nature, grow in an organic way. You can’t say, ‘OK, next week – or even in one or two months – we’ll have a thriving local online video culture’. One of the problems we have, especially in Amsterdam, but I see it all over the world, is that finding cheap places to build up some local infrastructure has become nearly impossible. It is impossible to rent or to get spaces. The local, in order to thrive,

needs spaces. You can say, ‘OK, we’ll just do everything online on local platforms and networks’, but it doesn’t work like that. We would need a serious collapse of the real estate market to enable a lot of local initiatives to thrive again. Unless that’s the case, the local will face a very hard time. Even a place to come together for a few hours or for a festival over a couple of days is becoming too expensive – and also regulated. We can’t just gather here or there. This is developing into a point of crisis. Everyone I know who is organising events runs into this. FEED: Given the currentproblems with data, algorithms and the opaqueness of the big platforms, do you think there will be a sea change in how people approach online media? GEERT LOVINK: Despite the fact that technological changes are happening quickly, our awareness of the situation is

IF WE CRITIQUE THESE PLATFORMS AND WE DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO OFFER, WE BETTER SHUT OUR MOUTHS AND GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

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