Datacide 14 Editorial

Welcome to the latest issue of Datacide, again a bumper issue full of varied contributions spanning different aspects of counter-cultural intervention and analysis of the intersections of noise and politics, technology and subversion, music and literature. This is also the first issue with a colour cover and contains specially commissioned illustrations to a number of articles. The interaction of visual artists, writers, musicians and theoreticians in print (and e.g. on records), to us, offers unique possibilities. Therefore we do not intend to join those who in recent months and years have given up on the print aspect of their publications and have migrated to an online only presence.

This exposes them to the danger of disappearing into a rapidly changing internet where the previously assumed ‘flat’ hierarchies have given way to largely corporate controlled and government surveilled data exchanges that are increasingly organised around steep hierarchies. ‘Social media’ was seen (by some) as the ‘death of the underground’, where finally everybody was taking part in one big sharing community. In reality a vast user-generated spectacle was created.

This spectacle doesn’t demand passive acceptance anymore, on the contrary it demands constant participation and availability; nevertheless it marks the irresponsible sovereignty of the auto- cratic reign of the market economy. It feasts on the free time of its ‘participants’, collecting data in order to market itself, presenting itself as a vast ultra-accessible reality that cannot be questioned, only liked. It remains ideology materialised.

This confronts the critic with some problems. Not because s/he is not allowed to critique, but s/he is in danger of losing a meaningful context, an audience that is willing to engage in real discussion. Complex arguments are often seen as an impertinence, looking back at history as useless nostalgia. We cannot allow this to deter us and we insist on digging out moments of revolt, as we know past and future to be interlinked. Ideology critique has a revolutionary content. Music and writing is about making things happen.

Of course we use the available technologies as much as possible, but maintain that the hundreds of hours of work that is condensed in the issue that you hold in your hands creates something special and powerful.

One problem to maintain and expand these activities (for more see p.72) is of an economic nature. The reason we can print this issue is thanks to the fundraising parties and as such thanks to the many musicians and helpers who made these possible and successful; and not so much due to sales, let alone subscriptions. So if you want to support Datacide and radical independent publishing, please take out a subscription (see info on p.26), or if you are interested in selling copies, get in touch via datacide[at]c8.com. The same applies if you are interested in hosting a Datacide event in your area.

This issue is dedicated to the memory of two good friends and contributors to the magazine who died in the course of the last year. Boris Domalain, aka Saoulaterre, aka Gorki Plubakter, and Paul Kidd, aka Nomex.

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