Winter is a time to read some books. This was a Christmas present a gave to myself. Part 1 of 3. Books.
Why
Not much to do with East, even though Contemporary enough (just published, 2025). It was more an interest in a method, that seems to be somehow related to what I am doing in this blog, writing something, for myself and maybe for others, outside of established and solidified knowledge-producing hierarchies, that lead me to this book. And, EC is of course always interested in media in the broadest sense and how they shape our world. Because art, as a reflection of the world, always needs an carrier, a medium so to speak, to transmit the intellectual, emotional or whatever content it is attempting to convey.
Form
The paperback book published by Set Margins’ in Eindhoven is simple but beautiful. Pages are stich-bound and then glued together, not just simple-paperback-like glued together, ensuring a more pleasant page turning and longer lifetime. The cover is decorated with silver-embossed lettering cleverly advertising the names of authors far more famous than the author of the book itself. Typesetting is also great. Letters are big enough. Layout simple and not cluttered. It is, simply speaking, a pleasure to hold the book in one´s hand and read it.
Content
A critical internet researcher (Billuart) writes a book about other (senior) critical internet researchers with the aim of finding a way forward for her own career. The focus lies on “how” the others do it, the practical aspects and economics of it. At the same time, by quoting and name dropping her role models, some of their fame rubs off on her. I found this approach both clever and honest in its transparency and that attracted me to the book. The research is useful to Billuart in itself (learning from others) and at the same time, it is an interesting read, as it puts the reader in her shoes.
The book is too slim to present any kind of complex theory or approach. It reads more like a compilation of ideas and insights. The first part of the book simply speaking contrasts two modes of critical internet researcher existence: Academic affiliation and funding via the official grant system, while publishing outside of standard academic channels. This model is represented by Geert Lovink and his Institute of Network Cultures. The opposite model is exemplified by Joshua Citarella, a post-internet artist who manages (allegedly) to fund himself through subscriptions and online platform publishing. Different aspects in the daily work of a critical internet researcher are observed from these two contrasting perspectives. The generational gap between the two personalities implies the direction of the future development. The second part of the book consists of three interviews. Two of them with the aforementioned personalities; a third one is a lady´s round table with Billuart, Alex Quicho and Sophie Publig, linking into the gender aspects of self-representation, which is of course a big deal when one is performing herself on-line.
The whole thing is an easy and pleasant read. Even on paper, it feels inspired by podcast format, something that is both informative and easy to digest in a limited amount of time. I wish there was a bit more variety than the constant Geert – Joshua – Geert – Joshua flip-flopping and the Billuart/Quicho/Publig interview feels a bit like an afterthought (Quicho only appears in the Girl Online sub-chapter and Publig does not appear in the essay at all, if I remember correctly). Generally, the breadth of reference points could be expanded, but obviously, sometimes less is more and that is especially true when acting in an attention-scarce media environment. Nevertheless even with these deficits, it is a pleasure to read the book.
Takeaway
The main learning was that there is no secret recipe or magical formula. There does not seem to be much other options than, either making one´s money elsewhere (institution, industry) to fund one´s critical internet research hobby, or jumping onto the social media treadmill and praying for success (which will be of course highly dependent not only on one´s talent and hard work, but also on the amount of financial and social capital available to jump-start the process). The book was also useful for gathering references for further reading on recent themes in critical internet research. It was fresh. The book did not surprise or shock me, but it opened my eyes and made me curious.
