Video Vortex

Institute of Network Cultures (INC), Amsterdam Video Vortex website

In collaboration with Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer at the Institute of Network Cultures (INC)⁠, Amsterdam, along with Vera Tollman in Berlin, we researched and conceived ‘Video Vortex’ (INC 2006) as a platform for the critique of online video that culminated in a number of conferences and published readers. I came up with the Video Vortex title, in response to YouTube being a type of void, a ‘black hole’ of endless video content. I helped facilitate and research the first major Video Vortex conference in Amsterdam (2008). Conferences have been held in VV1# Brussels (2007), VV2# Amsterdam (2008), VV3# Ankara, Turkey (2008), VV4#Split, Croatia (2009), VV5# Atomium, Brussels (2009), VV6# Amsterdam (2011), VV7# Yogyakarta Indonesia (2011), VV8# Zagreb, Croatia and the next Video Vortex 9# event is occurring in Lüneburg, Germany hosted by the Moving Image Lab and Post-Media Lab of the Innovation Incubator at Leuphana University. 

Video Vortex #9 (2013) Lüneburg, Germany call for contributions.
Video Vortex #8 Split, Croatia (2012) call for contributions
Video Vortex #7 documentation, Jokjakarta, Indonesia (2011)
Video Vortex #6, Amsterdam March, 2011

Video Vortex #6 video documentation 2011 Amsterdam

VVV Atomium Brussels Video Vortex V report

Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube a book which brings together outcomes from the the Video Vortex forums, conferences and exhibitions staged from the end of 2007 into 2008.

Download the pdf
More publication information

Video Vortex #2 Conference : January 18 – 19 2008, Amsterdam

Video Vortex is an international conference that I was involved in as a researcher, in collaboration with Geert Lovink at the Institute of Network Cultures (INC), in Amsterdam.

A reader is currently in the process of being produced as a publication post the event.

The videovortex mailing list is still open for discussion.

A summary of the what the conference was about.

Links to documentation:

The Video Vortex video documentation is online. Ogg Theora files are also available for download.

Amsterdam Conference, Master of Media blog posts

opening-session-friday-january-18/
video-aesthetics-short-essay/
tal-sterngast-karasek-speaks-the-asthetics-of-videoblogging/
thomas-elsaesser-on-constructive-instability/
jan-simons-on-the-narrative-of-tagging/
dan-oki-cinema-as-research-database/
alternative-platforms-and-software/
participatory-culture/
video-vortex-curating-online-video/

The first Argos – INC satellite event Argos is the Centre for Art & Media. Video vortex ARGOS presentations are available on the ARGOS blog Video Vortex video documentation post.

Masters students from Amsterdam University have documented some of the sessions:
Lev Manovich on User Generated Content @ Video Vortex
Deleuze vs. YouTube: Adrian Miles @ Video Vortex
Tomas Rawlings and Ana Kronschnabl @ Video Vortex
The Artist Moving (through) the Web @ Video Vortex
Truth, meaning and Peter Horvath @ Video Vortex