Johan Söderberg, BA

Presentation:

Academic background: BA Science and Technology Studies, Lund University (1996), BA Illustration, Falmouth College of Arts (2001). Present position: PhD candidate. Research interests: Hacking, alternative licenses, user-centred development of technology and technology-becoming-aesthetics. Theoretical homage: Influential schools are post-Operaismo and the Frankfurt school. Some important philosophers that I draw from are Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, Lewis Mumford, Slavoj Zizek, Jacques Ranciere.

Current projects:

At the moment I'm gathering material for my thesis on hackers. I recently finished a book on free software development and I'm now looking into the emerging movement of open hardware hackers. I make the claim that hackers are not only inventing solutions to technical problems, but, much more significant, they are inventing a new social relation for developing technology. This social relation is informed by the play-drive and a concept of aesthetics rather than the instrumentality and economic rationality commonly associated with technology.

Selected publications:

Hacking Capitalism - The Free and Open Source Software Movement, Routledge, 2007
(Swedish, title as yet not decided) Upphovsrätt och fildelning, Atlas Förlag, forthcoming spring 2008