From February 26th to 29th young artists, filmmakers, musicians, theorists and activists from all over Europe and many other parts of the world have met at the Muffathalle in Munich for NEURO; a number of events, speeches, discussions, presentations, performances, concerts and actions reflecting the pulse of the age. NEURO has not only been a conference, nor was it just a fair or a conventional festival. Rather it was a place for collaboration and common production. It has been about a critical, connected practice and a practical critique of networking. It hosted debates, presentations and reports on the results of ongoing projects and provide an opportunity to discuss new ideas, plan and start common projects.

First of all, NEURO stands for "Networking Europe". Only few weeks before the official eastern enlargement of the European Union, it ill promote the networking of new media initiatives and projects from within Europe; in and outside of the new borders. The central question will concern, at what point young people in Europe join together with one another, where the traces of this association runs and how they can be bundled into creative alliances.

Though not an end in itself, networking is now raising more than ever questions that cannot be answered at straightaway: What does networking actually mean nowadays? What does networking have to do with freedom of movement? How do social movements network? How can technologies be used in ways that come up against ressentment and exclusion and create social change on a broader level than the self? How do we conceptualise the common that is created in and through networks whilst not being reducible to them?

Ten years after the start of the internet boom, the crisis of the idea of networks is long overdue. Alongside the collapse of the new markets, the bombastic constructions about media art, media theory and media activism have fallen like a house of cards. Nevertheless, in the ensuing impasse, a new generation of media and networking initiatives have formed and taken onboard the discussion and reflection on everyday life, and new tasks, methods, functions, challenges and perspectives.

About two years after the first make-world festival, NEURO will again interface with current debates around migration and mobility, racism and nationalism, civil society and global mobilisation, networking and new technologies, informatisation and precarious labour, education and control society, common organising, and digital culture.

To find out what happened at this D-A-S-H event, check out the detailed documentation.