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140
Book Review
Rasa Smite, Creative
Networks in the Rear-View
Mirror of Eastern European
History, Theory on Demand
11, Amsterdam: Institute of
Network Cultures, 2012, ISBN:
978-90-818575-0-5, 159 pp.
Reviewed by PIIBE PIIRMA,
Estonian Academy of Arts;
email: piibe.piirma@artun.ee
DOI: 10.1515/bsmr-2015-0019
Do We “Network” or Communi-
cate? The Baltic Region’s Con-
tribution to the Historical De-
velopment of Network Culture
Currently there are close to 2.5
billion people communicating
online as the Internet has not
only become a mass media tool
but the greatest means of com-
munication in human history.
Therefore, it is understandable
why it is important to explore
and conceptualise the Internet
as a medium from different dis-
ciplinary perspectives. The au-
thor of this book, Rasa Smite, a
Latvian media artist, researcher,
and organiser, asks several im-
portant questions in the intro-
duction to the book. “What is so
specifi c about digital networks
that make almost everyone will-
ing to be online? And what is the
meaning of the ‘social’ in relation
to these networked environ-
ments? How do networks inte-
grate themselves into the social
sphere? How does society con-
ceptualize technology?” (Smite
2012: 38)
In her book, she seeks an-
swers to these questions based
on the experience of several art
networks that emerged, and in
which she participated, dur-
ing the digital revolution of the
1990s. The signifi cance of her
research for the readers of this
journal lies in the fact that the
developments and activities
she describes took place here in
the Baltic countries as well as
in other Eastern and Northern
European countries. The rapid
development of the Internet
and the fact that the Baltic Sea
countries were early adopters
has helped the local artists
and their works to reach the
international art scene. This
development has not only been
on a par with Western countries,
but pioneering in terms of the
development of the local Inter-
net culture. A third signifi cant
reason for investigating our re-
gional experience is that several
initiatives from decades ago can
be understood as forming the
foundation for the emergence of
contemporary social media.
Smite starts off by discuss-
ing the wider question of how to
conceptualise network culture.
Should it be mapped using ex-
amples from the recent past or
studied as a process subject
to sociological theories? Then,
she does both because, fi rstly,
it is a phenomenon where both
technological progress and its
users have an important role.
Secondly, she argues that, as a
phenomenon, network culture
is connected to the evolution of
human society. She suggests
that network culture and espe-
cially early creative networks
have been inadequately studied,
and there are no specifi c ana-
lytical categories. Undoubtedly
there are several reasons for the
lack of such categories but the
most direct one might be the
newness – a certain distance
in time is needed for objective
criticism and analysis. Also link-
ing together all the geographic,
virtual/technological and socio-
logical aspects and the speed of
progress in all of this make it a
complex subject to discuss and
analyse.
Creative networks and
the role of Eastern Europe
Smite’s analysis of the topic is
based on fi ve well-known crea-
tive networks and mailing lists,
that existed most actively in
the 1990s: Nettime – the origin
of critical network culture and
a mailing list for the Internet
culture and critical discourse
(1995); Faces – a cyberfeminist
community founded to promote
the visibility of women in the
fi eld of media art specifi cally
and on the Internet in general
(1997); Syndicate – a collabora-
tion network for Eastern and
Western European media art
– artists and media art organi-
sations (1996); 7-11 – a net.art
mailing list and community, free
space for net.art experiments
(1998); and Xchange – a global
creative Internet radio network,
an experimental collaboration
platform for exploring borders of
“acoustic cyberspace” (1997).
Why highlight the links be-
tween artistic activities from
decades ago and contemporary
communications networks? Ac-
cording to Smite, network cul-
ture has its direct roots in these
“creative networks”. She uses the
term to refer to the initiatives of
artists, thinkers, and theoreti-
cians sparked by the Internet eu-
phoria and cyber-utopian ideas
of the second half of the 1990s.
She points out three of the most
important reasons why the roots
of network culture should be
investigated:
1. Creative network communi-
ties have played a role in the
development of online
cultures and can be used
to draw conclusions about
the functions of contem-
porary social networks.
2. The new forms of social
relationships and organising
communities online were
manifested fi rst in the mid-
1990s. Artists who discov-
ered the Internet as a new
and unprecedented com-
munication environment
were oriented to experimen-
tation, discussing, and using
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141
the new technological
affordances in innovative
ways.
3. Smite posits that early
e-mail lists were the
predecessors of today’s
social networks. She argues
that the period’s daring
communications practices
crossed physical, national,
and technological bounda-
ries. This era constituted the
period when the founda-
tions for broader sub-
cultural movements on the
Internet were formed. These
networks were independent
and forward-looking, criti-
cally oriented, and, above all,
independent of the rules of
the corporate business world.
Yet, on top of these rationales
for studying the beginnings of
creative arts networks on the
Internet, Smite’s book also of-
fers, in more specifi c terms, her
valuable insights into the impor-
tance of the Baltic and Nordic
countries in the evolution of the
Internet culture.
Freedom and presence
Smite points out three important
aspects of the creative networks:
interconnectedness, openness,
and simultaneity. The last of
these keywords, the so-called
“presence effect” refers to real
time mediated interactions as a
new social dynamic. Additionally,
Smite suggests that the concept
of “freedom” that had a special
connotations for Eastern Europe-
ans, constituted the foundation
for the formation of several on-
line initiatives in our region dur-
1 It should be added that not only in
case of the Internet but also photo-
graphy, radio, and television, it
has been noted that their use was
at its most creative level during the
inception of these media technolo-
gies. During stabilisation and adop-
tion, the potential became clearer,
after which creative endeavours
became more specifi c or dwindled
(Smite 2012: 12).
ing the second half of the 1990s.
These initiatives played an im-
portant role both conceptually
and ideologically in the develop-
ment of art in the post-socialist
countries, which had existed in
isolation for decades. Therefore,
the spread of the Internet also
enabled the artists in this region
to overcome physical boundaries.
The ways that the existing
physical borders affected the
freedoms of Eastern Europeans
is expressed in author’s vivid
descriptions of personally expe-
rienced diffi culties in travelling to
other European countries, obtain-
ing visas, purchasing expensive
airline tickets, and struggling with
the lack of funding for culture
– these all set limits on free in-
teraction. Eric Kluitenberg (1999:
52) also refers to this situation:
“Initially, the translocal collabora-
tion networks were of a particular
importance – they were the pri-
mary connection channel through
which it was possible to overcome
the isolation of the post-Soviet
years, as visa requirements, slow
trains, dangerous bus routes and
very expensive fl ight tickets made
it very diffi cult for young people in
the Baltic states to connect to the
rest of Europe.”
With the goal of crossing
boundaries and connecting
people, several new net initia-
tives were founded: for example,
the culture project Open (1995),
organisation E-Lab (1996), and
Xchange Internet radio (1997)
in Latvia. Similar developments
also took place in Estonia – an
electronic media centre was
established at the Estonian
Academy of Arts in 1994 (E-
Media Centre). Rasa Smite also
2 It should be noted that for Estonia
this was created with the support
of an academic institution but the
artists were nevertheless free in
their endeavours. It is quite a fi tting
characterisation of the early days
of the Internet – technical support
existed but there were no direct
limitations because the Internet as a
new phenomenon was still very new.
mentions the artists’ initiative
Jutempus in Vilnius (1993).
“The Internet was a new
medium and a new soil for crea-
tive expressions for the artist
who was curious about digital
networks and processes in con-
temporary art regardless of the
country of origin. It was a whole
new situation – Eastern Europe-
an artists were now able to par-
ticipate in the rise of a new art
‘genre’ instead of only imitating
Western artistic ideas, as often
observed in Latvian contem-
porary art of the early 1990s.”
(Smite 2012: 119)
The Soros Contemporary Art
Centre’s initiative for developing
the media culture in the Baltic
states was invaluable at the
time; other fi nancing structures
such as the Latvian Cultural En-
dowment were not established
until 1998.
Additionally, Smite mentions
the signifi cant role of the Swed-
ish government in developing
culture funding in the Baltics
through the founding of the Bal-
tic Centre – Peace Quest already
in 1991 and offering support, not
only for online activities or me-
dia artists, but for all sub-fi elds
of Latvian art and culture. This
launched fruitful co-operation
between the Baltic Centre and
Latvian media artists that has
lasted for many years.
The discussions taking place
in the mailing lists of various
creative networks connected
artists and thinkers from the
East and the West. Collabora-
tion between creative people
was simplifi ed domestically and
across borders (local and trans-
local movements). Therefore, it
became necessary to introduce
local initiatives more broadly and
increase cooperation between
activists. Interaction between
East and West was also the
3 In comparison: The Cultural
Endowment of Estonia was already
established in 1994.
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objective for the Syndicate mail-
ing list. A meeting in Rotterdam
(1996) brought together nearly
30 media artists, curators, and
Internet activists from 13 coun-
tries. The so-called Eastern Bloc
countries were represented by
Slovenia, Russia, Estonia, Poland,
Macedonia, Slovakia, and Latvia.
We should also not overlook
the Interstanding 1 conference
(Interstanding – Understanding
Interactivity) held in Tallinn in
1995, which became a source of
inspiration not only to the author
of the book, but was the place
where she fi rst used the Internet.
The network that connected
Baltic and Nordic media art-
ists was the translocal creative
network NICE. This network was
established in 1999 at Helsinki’s
Kiasma Museum of Contempo-
rary Art, where an event called
TEMP (Temporary Media Lab)
was organised. The attendees
discussed the regional particu-
larities, including political and
economic issues, and repre-
sentatives of the Baltic states
attended as equal partners in
this important discussion.
“As a result of this meeting
the translocal creative network
NICE (Network Interface for Cul-
tural Exchange) was launched
with the aim to support the de-
velopment of emerging media art
centers in Baltic-Nordic region.
NICE included the E-media
center in Tallinn falling under the
Art Academy, the independent
artist foundation in Riga E-Lab,
the Jutempus artist initiative in
Vilnius, CRAC (Creative Room for
Art and Computing) in Stock-
holm, Atelier Nord in Oslo, BEK in
Bergen, M-Cult and Katastro.fi in
Helsinki and others, also involv-
ing individual new media artists.
At times, such partnerships
resulted in a fi nancial benefi t,
like when the European Union
program Culture 2000 supported
the long-term cooperation
project ‘RAM – Re-approaching
New Media’.” (Smite 2012: 90)
About boundaries
and innovation
When discussing the develop-
ment of network culture, Smite
often refers to her post-Soviet
background. She states that
sometimes the ideological
boundary also constituted dif-
ferent understandings about
the functioning mechanisms of
society. For example, when par-
ticipating in the cyber-feminist
mailing list Faces, her back-
ground and different goal-set-
ting did not allow her to compre-
hend why questions about the
role of women in society were so
important. That is because she
had been taught not to discuss
gender differences, housework,
or feminism, which at the time
carried a negative connotation in
the countries of Eastern Europe.
The emergence of all these new
issues for Eastern European art-
ists meant crossing boundaries
in every sense and it gave early
online communications a par-
ticularly innovative fl avour. For
Eastern Europeans, participation
in these networks enabled them
to be involved as co-authors in
the birth of a new genre of me-
dia art and not only to imitate
developments in the West. As an
example, Smite points out the
online radio initiative Xchange,
created in 1997 to encourage in-
dependent radio experts, media
and sound artists, techno musi-
cians, DJs, etc., to broadcast
their works in real time through
the Internet. This initiative was
headquartered in Riga, but its
members included activists from
all over the world.
“The Xchange Internet radio
network community created
presence as a unique social val-
ue in the 1990s by experimenting
with early streaming media tech-
nologies and collective broad-
casting possibilities. During its
weekly sessions with the highest
activity from 1998 to 1999, E-Lab
via the Xchange mailing list in-
vited network participants –
artists, community radio activ-
ists and other ‘creative broad-
casters’ from all over the globe
– to join this collaborative ex-
periment by contributing their
live audio stream in this ‘acoustic
cyberspace’ mix.” (Smite 2012:
29)
The fact that knowledge
about digital technology and the
Internet was new made it a dis-
tinctive feature of the Internet-
related initiatives of the time;
virtual servers had to be “in-
vented” on your own; there were
no streaming servers or simple
user guides. Each new initiative
required active technological
intervention, the technological
infrastructure was undeveloped,
server locations were random,
their maintenance and activi-
ties “parasitic” at times. On the
other hand, independent servers
were developed that began to be
called “art servers” that played
a substantial role in technically
servicing the emergent crea-
tive networks of the time. Today
the managers of such networks
have largely decided to use the
services of large global platform
providers (Google, Amazon, etc.)
because it enables them to move
from resolving practical issues
(e.g., issues related to stability,
security, and capacity) to more
contextual issues. On the other
hand, the phenomenon of inde-
pendent servers continues to be
an intriguing issue because it
once again enables a decentral-
ised network to be talked about
and alludes to DIY activities in-
dependent of corporations.
If we observe the develop-
ment of new media art toward
increasingly hybrid technological
solutions and related substan-
tive discussions, it is diffi cult
to draw direct links to connect
the early creative networks and
contemporary social network
services. Yet, it may be suggest-
ed that the endeavours of the
4 DIY – do it yourself.
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experimental artists established
specifi c technological trajecto-
ries and also initiated important
theoretical discussions that
have shaped the perceptions of
new generations of engineers
and designers of services.
“Therefore, it is possible to
conclude that today the fi eld
of activity of creative networks
is not related exclusively to in-
formation technology anymore
but also to energy infrastruc-
tures and to other domains of
society. This brings forward a
new trend – to address and to
solve sustainability issues, both
by referring them to networks
themselves as well as to the de-
velopment of society in general.”
(Smite 2012: 147)
The Golden Age of
the Internet has ended
In what direction have the Inter-
net and its networks of cultural
debates evolved since then?
Smite draws on the ideas of Pit
Schultz, Geert Lovink, and Eric
Kluitenberg, the activists and
creators of the Nettime mailing
list, arguing that the golden age
of the Internet ended before it
even began.
“[D]espite the fact that uni-
versal access to the nets has
hardly been realized, we have
already landed in the age of
disappointments, cynicism and
decadence for the few. Internet’s
Golden Age is over, before it even
began.” (Schultz, Lovink 1996: 5)
“The brief period when there
was nobody actually planning
the Internet and it simply grew
out of socially dynamic com-
munication – was short lived.”
(Smite 2012: 35) “Public Inter-
net facilities (in both the real
and virtual senses) that are not
structured for commercial use,
or regulated to exclude danger-
ous content, have been margin-
alised, or even ceased to exist.
Public funding has dried up and
as an effect the Net has been
conceptually ‘cleansed,’ making
way for business. Governments
who have once funded basic
research into computer network
standards are now merely inter-
ested in content regulation and
rush to put together legislation
for e-commerce.’” (Lovink, Klu-
itenberg 2000)
According to this view,
the turning of the millennium
changed Internet democracy
into an e-commerce bubble, also
known as the dot-com bubble.
Allegedly, the business world
quickly started to exploit the
novel technologies for its own
purposes. Therefore, the com-
munity of artists communicating
online turned to new subjects
that were no longer just about
how to develop Internet technol-
ogy, but about new hybrid forms
of technology use and their
interpretations in a wider soci-
etal context – mobile position-
ing, satellite experiments, and
broader issues related to sus-
tainable energy, environmental
care, and the interdisciplinary or
trans-disciplinary forms of col-
laboration of art and science.
Coming back to the ques-
tion of freedom – the freedom
to communicate online carries a
different meaning for artists as
opposed to regular communica-
tors, because most quotidian
communications in today’s sense
do not present any substantive
challenges for Internet culture,
technology, or innovation at
large. If we can describe early
creative networks as self-organ-
ising, dynamic, and free, then the
next question is: What are the
freedoms within the contempo-
rary social networking services?
Can we say that they enable
similar freedoms? And what are
the technological challenges
left for the society/culture? It
may be suggested that several
issues such as hacker attacks,
abundance of spam, information
overload, and the related time
defi cit require new approaches.
Also, services provided by large
corporations include control
mechanisms that did not exist
in the early days of the Internet.
Contemporary freedoms more
generally are not comparable to
the freedoms experienced in the
creative networks of the 1990s.
Therefore, the issues related
to technological progress that
were relevant in the second half
of 1990s are increasingly over-
shadowed by questions about
the society’s general develop-
mental issues, and inter- and
trans-disciplinary ways of think-
ing and acting.
I would also like to point out
some linguistic issues. Whereas
the sole solution for establishing
mutual communication in the
1990s seemed to be the creation
of English-speaking environ-
ments, today increasing em-
phasis is on the uniqueness of
various regions and languages.
Rasa Smite, in this sense, has
had a very contemporary ap-
proach from the beginning: she
has attempted to link together
the experiences of Latvia and the
rest of the world, but also high-
lighted the uniqueness of Latvia
by pointing out in her practical
work the particular initiatives
created there (E-Lab, Xchange,
and RIXC – the Centre for New
Media Culture in Riga, which was
established about at 2000 on the
basis of E-Lab).
Communities or networks?
Do mailing lists constitute
communities or networks? The
former refers to a narrower circle
while the spectrum and scale of
networks could be vast. Based
on an interview with Pit Schultz,
Smite points out that the term
“community” refers to physical
communication happening in
real time where, in addition to
sharing thoughts, body language,
and personal traits, the moment
and specifi c situation plays an
important role (Smite 2012: 73).
This was all evidenced in the
early creative networks, as
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144
each network was started and
received a subsequent push
from the meetings of the enthu-
siasts and thinkers. Hence, crea-
tive networks are both communi-
ties and networks. Nevertheless,
in all early creative networks a
desire to contribute to the devel-
opment of a critical Internet cul-
ture can be detected, as opposed
to the creation of networks in the
formal sense.
Smite analyses these multi-
ple effects and functionalities of
the early creative communities/
networks in meticulous detail
and this constitutes another rea-
son to appreciate her work.
In this regard, one of the
most intriguing experiments
described by Smite in her book
is the Collaborative Mapping
Project “Milk” (2004–2005, Ieva
Auzina, Esther Polak). The aim of
the project was to bring technol-
ogy closer to people. Using GPS-
based mapping, the route of milk
from Latvian producers to Dutch
cheese producers was studied.
In 2005, the collaboration be-
tween the various social groups
– artists and farmers, milk pro-
ducers in Latvia and cheese ven-
dors in the Netherlands, as well
as subsequent exhibition visi-
tors – was awarded the Golden
Nica, the most important prize in
media art, at the Ars Electronica
festival.
This example is well suited
to characterise the present time
where the human factor is the
most powerful force in the crea-
tion, functioning and continua-
tion of all kinds of communica-
tion networks. The network as
a form of social organising has
been used throughout history
5 The latter is most characteristic
in terms of fi nancing – collaboration
between small cells in the name
of collective ideas is a common
practice when applying for funding
for culture.
6 In comparison, Estonian artist Timo
Toots was awarded the Colden Nica
in 2012 for the network artwork
Memopol 2.
in various societies, but it has
acquired new meaning with the
birth and wide adoption of the
Internet. Contemporary social
relationships evolve at the inter-
sections of social and network
logic, which are virtual and ma-
terial. Analysing the evolutionary
dynamics of such networks is
a large-scale and serious job.
Studies from an artist’s position
only confi rm that all active mem-
bers of society play an important
role in it. While contemporary
social networks generally rely
on the rather pragmatic goals of
their users and designers – to
transmit ever more information
and to focus less on the tech-
nological aspects “underneath”
– recent developments in new
media art suggest that its criti-
cal interest in new technologies
continues and new hybrid art
forms will continue to both ques-
tion the wider technological/
cultural “progress” as well as
contribute to it. In this regard,
Smite’s work demonstrates that
artists from Eastern Europe and
the Baltic states have not only
been moving toward deepen-
ing cooperation with new media
artists of other countries, but
they have also established new
directions and developed deeper
conversations. Yet, paradoxically,
the question of whether the new
media art in the Baltic States or
Eastern Europe remains distinct
continues to exist. And one might
ask, is there indeed a need for
such differentiation? There are
many new challenges to fi nding
our special contribution to those
developments. As Smite points
out, both local and translocal,
geographical and social charac-
teristics and relationships are
equally important in this devel-
opment (2012: 55).
Conclusion
The creative networks described
by Smite continue to exist in
their various forms, but have
less to do with conceptualising
technological change and more
with the broader issues pre-
dominant in society. An example
is the initiatives based on peer-
to-peer networks that not only
exist in virtual environments, but
are also increasingly intervening
in real spaces and communi-
ties (e.g., fl ash mob campaigns).
From the perspective of the need
to sustain networks, Smite lists
three defi ning fundamentals of
network communication struc-
ture that are important and still
applicable today:
1. “key people” – founders
or directors of a network
community;
2. a common and meaningful
goal in order to collaborate;
3. an ability to change goals
or fi elds of activity in order
to continue its existence,
to grow, and to develop.
Although Smite’s book is titled
Creative Networks in the Rear-
View Mirror in Eastern European
History, she examines the se-
lected topics mostly on an axis
of “Latvia” versus “the rest of
the world”. This seems justi-
fi ed because, fi rstly, Latvia has
been at the forefront of these
developments, and secondly,
Rasa Smite herself is one of the
most renowned theoreticians
and practitioners in the fi eld of
Internet culture and new media
art and has personally played a
signifi cant role in these develop-
ments.
Returning to the title of
this review – do we “network”
or communicate? – it is fair to
say that Smite’s book suggests
we do both. Networking is an
increasingly colloquial word in
everyday use that is also used
ever more broadly. The popular-
ity of the terms that are partly
rooted in the interactions of the
creative networks of the 1990s is
understandable. We must accept
the unique nature of Internet
communication – it is a form of
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