Konrad Becker

Konrad Becker (born January 9, 1959 in Vienna) is a hypermedia researcher and interdisciplinary content developer, director of the Institute for New Culture Technologies-t0 and initiator of Public Netbase and World-Information.Org.[1]

Konrad Becker at World-Information.Org, Amsterdam 2002.

Music and acting

As actor, Konrad Becker is known for his role as Böckstiegel in Wolfgang Petersen's anti-war drama Das Boot (1981).

As a musician Konrad Becker created Monoton,[2] the crucial Austrian electronic music act providing distinguished soundscapes. The Wire magazine singled out Monoton’s record "Monotonprodukt07" as one of the 100 most important records of the 20th century.[3] Konrad Becker has recently focused on notebook live jamming with minimalist rigor.

At the borderline of sound art, psychoacoustics and contemporary dance practices, Konrad Becker's project has crossed a variety of genres over the years and has gone through various mutations and side projects. Starting with meta-mathematical and performative multimedia installations, from industrial ambience noise to audio software art and a dance context in the early rave scene he also developed theatrical productions.

"Like other Germanic groups (Kraftwerk, Neu, Cluster, Conrad Schnitzler), Monoton's products have turned out to be fine forerunners of certain trends in electronic music at the end of the twentieth century." (Eric Mattson, ORAL, 2002)

Art, writing, multimedia

Since 1979, he has been active in electronic media as an artist, writer, composer, curator, producer and organizer of numerous intermedia productions, exhibitions, and event designs for international festivals and cultural institutions. He has published media works, electronic audiovisuals and theoretical texts, lectured and held positions at various universities, and participated in conferences and symposia. He has been a member of various boards and committees on information and communication technologies and culture, and has worked as a consultant.

Institute for New Culture Technologies-t0

A focal point of Konrad Becker’s activities as a new media researcher, activist and theoretician is the Institute for New Culture Technologies-t0, which he founded together with Francisco de Sousa Webber. Starting its activities in 1993, t0 created one of the first arts and culture related sites on the emerging World Wide Web.[4] It is one of the pioneering organizations in this field in Europe and has also assumed a very important role on the local level as a main site for the development of the new media arts and cultural scene in Vienna/Austria.[5] t0’s activities are implemented mainly through long-term projects / sub-organizations, e.g. Public Netbase and World-Information.Org,[6] currently: World-Information Institute.[7]

In addition to the strategic development of the Institute and its projects,[8] Becker’s activities include the conceptualization of conferences and exhibitions,[9] lecturing, research projects;[10] his theoretical approach is also developed in a series of books which started in 2002 with Tactical Reality Dictionary.[11]

Books by Konrad Becker
  • Psychonautic, MonotonProdukt, Wien (1986)
  • Die Politik der Infosphäre- World-Information.Org, VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, BPB Berlin (2002) [in German]
  • Tactical Reality Dictionary, Cultural Intelligence and Social Control, Selene Verlag Wien, Autonomedia New York (2002)
  • Tactical Reality Dictionary, Russian translation and Foreword by Oleg Kireev, Ultraculture Publishing, Moscow (2004)
  • Konrad Becker, Martin Wassermair (Hg.), Kampfzonen in Kunst und Medien. Eine Veröffentlichung des World-Information Institute, Wien: Löcker 2008, ISBN 978-3-85409-483-8 [in German]
  • Konrad Becker, Felix Stalder (eds.): Deep Search. The Politics of Search beyond Google, Studienverlag Innsbruck (2009)
  • Strategic Reality Dictionary. Deep Infopolitics and Cultural Intelligence, Autonomedia New York (2009)
  • Konrad Becker, Martin Wassermair (Hg.), Phantom Kulturstadt. Eine Veröffentlichung des World-Information Institute, Wien: Löcker 2009, ISBN 978-3-85409-506-4 [in German]
  • Konrad Becker, Jim Fleming (eds.): Critical Strategies in Art and Media. Perspectives on New Cultural Practices, Autonomedia New York (2010)
  • Konrad Becker, Martin Wassermair (Hg.), Nach dem Ende der Politik. Eine Veröffentlichung des World-Information Institute, Wien: Löcker 2011, ISBN 978-3-85409-552-1 [in German]
  • "Dictionary of Operations – Deep Politics and Cultural Intelligence" with an introduction by Hakim Bey and an afterword by Franco Berardi Bifo, Autonomedia NY (2012),
  • Konrad Becker, Felix Stalder (Hg.), Fiktion und Wirkungsmacht. Eine Veröffentlichung des World-Information Institute, Wien: Löcker 2016, ISBN 978-3-85409-663-4

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1979Kassbach - Ein PortraitSein Sohn
1980Exit... nur keine Panik
1981Das BootBockstiegel
gollark: All three.
gollark: Unless you turn up the optimization setting to ~30, at which point it makes quite fast code.
gollark: ```python#!/usr/bin/env python3import argparseimport subprocessparser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Compile a WHY program')parser.add_argument("input", help="File containing WHY source code")parser.add_argument("-o", "--output", help="Filename of the output executable to make", default="./a.why")parser.add_argument("-O", "--optimize", help="Optimization level", type=int, default="0")args = parser.parse_args()def build_C(args): template = """#define QUITELONG long long intconst QUITELONG max = @max@;int main() { QUITELONG i = 0; while (i < max) { i++; } @code@} """ for k, v in args.items(): template = template.replace(f"@{k}@", str(v)) return templateinput = args.inputoutput = args.outputtemp = "ignore-this-please"with open(input, "r") as f: contents = f.read() looplen = max(1000, (2 ** -args.optimize) * 1000000000) code = build_C({ "code": contents, "max": looplen }) with open(temp, "w") as out: out.write(code)subprocess.run(["gcc", "-x", "c", "-o", output, temp])```The compiler for the new `WHY` language. Made as a joke because someone on the esolangs server insisted that all compiled languages were fast.
gollark: BT being bad, who would ever guess so?
gollark: Amazing, right?

References
  1. For more information about the development of Institute for New Culture Technologies/t0 and its projects and sub-organizations since 1993 cf. Branka Ćurčić / Zoran Pantelić / New Media Center_kuda.org (Ed.): Public Netbase: Non Stop Future - New Practices in Art and Media, Frankfurt a. M. (Revolver), 2008, ISBN 978-3-86588-455-8 and Clemens Apprich / Felix Stalder (Hrsg.): Vergessene Zukunft. Radikale Netzkulturen in Europa. transcript, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1906-5 [in German].
  2. For a discography cf. the entry at Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Monoton
  3. Cf. “Monoton’s Monotonprodukt07: One of Electronic Music’s Most Important Albums Revisited”, FACT, 30 Jul 2012, http://www.factmag.com/2012/07/30/monoton-one-of-electronic-musics-most-important-albums-revisited/
  4. Francisco de Sousa Webber: "Building a Netbase from Scratch", in: Branka Ćurčić / Zoran Pantelić / New Media Center_kuda.org (Eds.): ‘’Public Netbase: Non Stop Future - New Practices in Art and Media’’, Frankfurt a. M. (Revolver), 2008, online: http://nonstop-future.org/txt?tid=195606bfd5f57eb46cbc3100ef62ff0c
  5. Cf. the article on Public Netbase.
  6. http://world-information.org/
  7. http://world-information.net/en/
  8. Together with t0’s board of directors: Felix Stalder, Martin Wassermair, Francisco de Sousa Webber.
  9. Cf. the ‘List of Events’in the article on Public Netbase. A recent example: Shared Digital Futures (June 2013): http://world-information.net/sdf/
  10. Recently: Felix Stalder, Martin Wassermair, Konrad Becker: “Kulturelle Produktion und Mediennutzung im Alltag. Urheberrechtliche Problemfelder und politische Lösungsperspektiven”, Studie im Auftrag der Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Wien: AK 2013, http://media.arbeiterkammer.at/wien/PDF/studien/Kulturelle_Produktion_und_Mediennutzung.pdf [in German].
  11. Cf. in ‚Books by Konrad Becker’: Tactical Reality Dictionary, Strategic Reality Dictionary, Dictionary of Operations. "With his seventy-two keys, Konrad Becker aims to unlock the gates of strategic reality: its construction over centuries, its imposition through stealth and force, its dull and laborious maintenance, and its dissolution and destruction by those who can’t take it anymore.” (Brian Holmes, “Phantasmagoric Systems”, in: Konrad Becker, Strategic Reality Dictionary. Deep Infopolitics and Cultural Intelligence, New York: Autonomedia (2009), pp. 9-13)
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