[spectre] FWD: E. Satjukow: Towards a History of Deep Europe: Revisiting Internet Culture in Times of War

[Andreas Broeckmann]

"Towards a History of Deep Europe: Revisiting Internet Culture in Times 
of War"

Elisa Satjukow

Within the last two decades, the Internet has become one of, if not the 
most important medium for gathering information and facilitating 
communication in times of war and crisis. By drawing on the example of 
the Kosovo War in 1999, which is often described as the “the First 
Internet War”, this essay shows how the World Wide Web did not only 
serve as an important tool of information, communication and 
intervention, but also how it functioned as an archive for the 
individual and collective experiences of war. In analysing the virtual 
archive of the Syndicate and the Nettime mailing lists, I show how media 
artists and activists contributed to the idea of Deep Europe as an 
imagined (online) community which overcomes the binaries of ‘East’ and 
‘West’, a community which experienced its first major rupture during the 
Kosovo War. Not only do I discuss how, at the time, the Internet served 
as a form of shelter in times of crisis, in the face of censorship and 
cyberwarfare, but also as an emerging social platform, sharing reports 
on everyday events, war diaries and video material, providing historians 
with new and valuable sources for contemporary European history. Lastly, 
contributing to the field of digital humanities, I discuss the potential 
and the challenges of Deep Europe and the Digital East.

read the full article: www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae-114816

on Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, 2022