Geert Lovink is een Nederlandse mediatheoreticus, internetcriticus en auteur van Uncanny Networks (2002), Dark Fiber (2002), My First Recession (2003), Zero Comments (2007), Networks Without a Cause (2012), Social Media Abyss (2016), Organization after Social Media (met Ned Rossiter, 2018) en Sad by Design (2019). In 2004 richtte hij het Institute of Network Cultures op aan de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA). Dit centrum organiseert conferenties, publicaties en onderzoeksnetwerken zoals Video ...

Who are you, who do you want to be, and what do you need to do to get there? We are constantly pushed to lead the perfect life. The media present us with a picture of an existence in which we’re rich, beautiful, happy and successful. We design our own identity, create our own image and present ourselves in the way we want to be seen. The various imaginative methods and ideas for upgrading oneself are seen as new forms of creativity, or Self-Design. Help Your Self is an inspiration book to d...

When everything is destined to be designed, design disappears into the everyday. We simply do not see it anymore because it is everywhere. This is the vanishing act of design. At this moment, design registers its redundancy: our products, environments and services have been comprehensively improved. Everything has been designed to perfection and is under a permanent upgrade regime. Within such a paradigm, design is taken over by the capitalist logic of reproduction. But this does not come wit...