The History of the Future
The Class of the New
Building upon the analysis in Imaginary Futures, this 2006 OpenMute book explains the historical predecessors and later remixes of Daniel Bell’s concept of the knowledge class.
Download the pdf version for free
Future is What it Used to Be
Olena Kovalyova interviewed Richard Barbrook about Imaginary Futures for the Future Urbanism project of the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow, Russia, in December 2013.
The Davos Parallax
This science fiction story version of The Class of the New was written for the European Cultural Congress held in Wroclaw, Poland, on 8th-12th September 2011.
Imaginary Futures – Introduction to the Polish edition
This introduction was written for Przyszłości Wyobrażone: od myślącej maszyny do globalnej wioski – the Polish translation of Imaginary Futures – which was published by Muza SA in 2010.
Imaginary Futures – Introduction to the Brazilian edition
This introduction was written for Futuros imaginários: das máquinas pensantes à aldeia global – the Portuguese translation of Imaginary Futures – which was published by Editora Peirópolis in 2009.
Read the Portuguese translation of the book
Interview about with O Estadão de São Paulo, 7th April 2013, in Portuguese
Virtual Dreams, Real Politics
This summary of the critique of McLuhanism in Imaginary Futures was published by Open Democracy on 5th July 2007.
Read the Open Democracy version
Read the ORF German translation
Imaginary Futures: frozen and fluid time
This summary of the opening and concluding chapters of Imaginary Futures was published by Open Democracy on 16th May 2007.
Read the Open Democracy version
New York Prophecies: the imaginary future of artificial intelligence [Science as Culture mix]
This anticipation of the first part of Imaginary Futures was published in Science as Culture, Number 2, Volume 16, 2007, pages 151-167 and in Geert Lovink, Richard Barbrook, Brian Holmes and Piratbryrån, Work Undone/Nezavršen Posao, Biro Beograd, 2009, pages 40-60.
New York Prophecies: the imaginary future of artificial intelligence [Mute mix]
This 2004 article published in Mute, Number 28, pages 96-103, was the forerunner of the first part of Imaginary Futures.
Read the RIXC Latvian translation
The Political Economy of the Net
Internet Ideology
This interview was made by Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico from REFF on 6th February 2010 at Transmediale ’10 in Berlin, Germany.
Read the REFF: RomaEuropa Fake Factory Italian translation
Creative City Theses
This mini-manifesto was written for a talk on the Creative City at the Creative Class: Life & Work in Vienna event in Vienna, Austria, on 28th April 2008 and at the SPLAB: strategies for sustainable creativity conference in Malmo, Sweden, on 8th May 2008.
The Hi-Tech Gift Economy
This article analysed how the anarcho-communist ideals of 1960s and 1970s community media activists influenced the development of the Net. It first appeared in First Monday, Volume 3, Number 12, December 1998.
Read the Libres Enfants du Savoir Numérique French translation
Cyber-communism: how the Americans are superseding capitalism in
cyberspace
This article was developed from a talk given at the 1998 Legacy of McLuhan conference at Fordham University, New York, USA. An early version was posted on nettime and the definitive text was published in Science as Culture, Number 1, Volume 9, 2000, pages 5-40.
Read the Computerra Russian translation
Read the Multitudes French translation
Read the Folha de São Paulo Portuguese translation
THE::CYBER.COM/MUNIST::MANIFESTO
This short version of the Cybercommunism article was written for the 2000 N01SE exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge and the Wellcome Institute, London, England.
The Regulation of Liberty: free speech, free trade and free gifts on the Net
This article explained why legal prohibitions couldn’t prevent the growth of the hi-tech gift economy. It first appeared in the German on-line journal Telepolis, 14th September 2000.
Read the Telepolis English version
Read the Telepolis German translation
The Gift of the Net
This summary of The Hi-Tech Gift Economy article appeared in Open Democracy, 4th September 2003 and Spider: Pakistan’s Internet Magazine, November 2003, pages 56-59.
Read the Open Democracy version
The Napsterisation of Everything
This examination of the music industry’s failure to understand the economics of the Net appeared in The Commoner, Number 5, October 2002 and in Science as Culture, Number 2, Volume 11, 2002, pages 277-285.
Read the Multitudes French translation
Giving is Receiving
This article explaining why generosity is self-interest on the Net appeared in Passages/Passagen, Number 23, Winter 2002, pages 25-26 and Spider: Pakistan’s Internet Magazine, April 2004, pages 55-57.
The Digital Artisans Manifesto
Written with Pit Schultz, this manifesto for the imaginary European Digital Artisans’ Union was written for the 1997 nettime conference held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 2000, the translated text was included in the ZKM exhibit at Expo 2000, Hannover, Germany.
Kautsky in Cambridge
This review of the Immaterial Labour conference held in Kings’ College, Cambridge University, England on 28th-29th April 2006 was written for Mute.
The Digital Economy
A translated version of this article on the mixed economy of the Net appeared in Freitag, 18th July 1997.
FAQ Digital Work
This piece was written for the 1999 Next Five Minutes 3 conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Critiques of Cyberculture
The Holy Fools: a critique of the avant-garde
in the age of the Net [Long Mix]
Written in 1998, this anti-Deleuzoguattarian pamphlet was the first appearance of the concept of the hi-tech gift economy.
The Holy Fools [Mute mix]
This shortened version of the pamphlet appeared in Mute, Number 11, 1998, pages 57-65. A remix of this article was published in Patricia Pisters (editor), The Micropolitics of Media Culture: reading the rhizomes of Deleuze and Guattari, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2001, pages 159-175,
Read the Telepolis German translation
Basic Banalities
This wall poster was written with Andy Cameron to provoke the Deleuzoguattarians assembled at the Virtual Futures ’95 conference held in May 1995 at Warwick University, Coventry, England.
The Californian Ideology
Written in 1995 with Andy Cameron, this article was a pioneering critique of dotcom neo-liberalism. It was first published in the same year in Mute, Number 3 and subsequently in various versions and multiple languages. The definitive text appeared in Science as Culture, Number 26, Volume 6, part 1, 1996, pages 44-72.
Read the Telepolis German translation
Read the Hermès French translation
Read the Derive Approdi Italian translation
Read the Buldózer Hungarian translation
Hypermedia Freedom
This critique of John Perry Barlow’s Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace first appeared in a censored form in CTheory, global algorithm 1.5, 15th May 1996. The definitive text appeared in Peter Ludlow (editor), Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates and Pirate Utopias, The MIT Press, Cambridge MA 2001, pages 47-58.
Read the Libres Enfants du Savoir Numérique French translation
Cybersalon
Richard is a trustee of Cybersalon – a London-based group which organises new media discussions, performances and festivals.
Read the F.A.Q. Wearable Computing
Cronopis Associats Interview
Andrés Lomeña of Cronopis Associats interviewed Richard Barbrook on 13th September 2007.
Read the Cronopis Associats Spanish translation.
Memesis Critique
This demolition job on the thematic statement of the 1996 Ars Electronica conference was written for its ‘Future of Evolution’ Net Symposium.
Read the Ars Electronica version
Never Mind the Cyberbollocks
This critique of Richard Dawkin’s memes theory was written for the 1996 Ars Electronica conference.
Read the Archive version
Read the Rewired review of the Ars Electronica memes debate
Ars Electronica Interview
Willem von Weelden interrogated Richard Barbrook and Mark Dery about their contributions to the 1996 Ars Electronica conference.
The Sacred Cyborg
This article was written in 1996 for a conference on Artificial Intelligence held at the Marstall theatre, Munich, Germany.
Read the Telepolis English version
Read the Telepolis German translation
Electronic Democracy
This article appeared in an edited form in the New Scientist, 29 July 1995.
Read the Archive version
Read the New Scientist version
The Pinnochio Theory
This review of Kevin Kelly’s Out of Control: the new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world was published in Science as Culture, Number 24, Volume 5, part 3, 1996, pages 459-66,
Cultural Babbage
This review of Francis Spufford and Jenny Uglow’s Cultural Babbage: Technology, Time and Invention was published in an edited form in the New Scientist, 16th March 1996.
Read the Archive version
Read the New Scientist version
Collective Intelligence
This review of Pierre Lévy’s Collective Intelligence: Mankind’s Emerging World in Cyberspace was published in an edited form in the New Scientist, 13th December 1997.
Read the New Scientist version
Reviewing Rewired
This review of David Hudson’s Rewired: a brief (and opinionated) net history was published in Telepolis, 5th February 1998.
Read the Archive version
Read the Telepolis English version
Read the Telepolis German translation
Undercurrent Interview
A Canadian on-line journal questions Richard about his writings.
Media Regulation
Media Freedom: the contradictions of communications in the age of modernity
Investigating how different interpretations of the right to free speech influenced the historical development of the French media, this book was published by Pluto Press in 1995. The pamphlet and article versions summarise and widen the arguments of the book.
Read the Archive pamphlet version
Read the Archive article version
Read the Source article version
Broadcasting and National Identity in Ireland
This analysis of how the political currents of Catholic nationalism and secular republicanism shaped the twentieth century Irish media was published in Media, Culture & Society, Number 14, Volume 2, April 1992, pages 203-227.
Mistranslations: Lipietz in London and Paris
This 1990 article examines the different interpretations within the English Left of the French Regulation School’s remix of Marxist political economy. It first appeared in Science as Culture, Number 8, 1990, pages 80-117.
American Theories of Media Deregulation
This 1988 paper on the application of neo-liberal economic theory to media regulation in the USA was written for the Centre for Communication and Information Studies of the Polytechnic of Central London (which later became the University of Westminster).
Radio Broadcasting
Choice or Participation?: an analysis of British radio in the 1990s
This article on early 1990s community radio was published in Science as Culture, Number 15, Volume 3, part 2, 1992, pages 240-262.
The Policeman of the Ether
This 1987 paper on the state regulation of American and British radio broadcasting in the 1920s and 1930s was based on Richard’s doctoral thesis for the University of Kent at Canterbury.
F.M. Fatale
This description of the late 1980s London pirate radio scene was written for the Socialist Society’s Catalyst, Number 1, October-November 1989, pages 34-35.
Digital Rhythms
This article on late 1980s electronic music was was written for the Socialist Society’s Catalyst, Number 2, December-January 1990, pages 34-35.
In an ironic twist, at the height of the cold war, the US military was funding the invention of cybernetic communism.
