The Rise of the Network Commons

Aktuelle Betiräge | cba – cultural broadcasting archive

On the occasion of the release of The Rise of the Network Commons, a collection of texts Armin Medosch published on his website The Next Layer until his death in 2017, Stadtwerkstatt and servus.at did a talk during Stwst84x11 on the book as well as it’s subjects in connection the beginning of servus.at within the Stadtwerkstatt.

The talk that took place on Sat, 6. Sept 2025 consists of four parts:

• In the first part, Maite Cajaraville & Gisle Frøysland (Piksel) talk about their project DIY Thread, where they assembled electronic art projects from their 23 year archive as part of Stadtwerkstatts Red Thread of Media Art. Some of theses projects tackle similar issues as the works of Armin Medosch.
• In the second part, Davide Bevilacqua (servus.at) and Xav (Stadtwerkstatt) talk about the book and the time from where the texts originate as well as Armin Medoschs connection to the Stadtwerkstatt.
• In the third part, we hear an atmospherical tour through the physical places of the networks within Stadtwerkstatt, including the servus.at server room. Tour guides are Davide Bevilacqua and Peter Wagenhuber, who was systems administrator at servus.at from 2005 to 2015.
• In the fourth part, Thomas Lehner talks with Xav and Davide Bevilacqua about the beginnings of servus.at and the situation it was formed in as well as the importance of autonomy in arts and infrastructure – rooted in anarchist principles of self organization. Tommi Lehner was part of the Stadtwerkstatt for many years and is responsible for crucial projects of the house.