Exit Fest

Starting with a University of Amsterdam Humanities faculty event on Wednesday night at Spui25, we will gather for a two day event in the former Amsterdam squat OT 301 for a two day conference plus additional programs such as a book fair and a closing party on Friday night.

The INC Exit Fest is a community gathering and party that celebrates the departure of our 22 year-old research group from the Amsterdam HvA-polytech to become an autonomous centre/NGO/orgnet/Dutch cultural organization. The move was instigated by the mandatory retirement at 67 on September 1, 2026, of its founder Geert Lovink. INC did not want to run the risk of being taken over by outsiders with a different agenda that would, for instance, close down the website. We would have more budget cuts, be forced to work on AI ethics and thus kill the spirit and vision that was forged over the past decades. Any form of appropriation would be the end of a precious legacy we’re proud of. Instead, the team decided, already in 2024 to step into an open, yet uncertain, future–one in which will look for new partners, coalitions, and funding possibilities. We believe in the power of metamorphosis and new beginnings. It is the strong desire of the wider INC community to continue our ever-changing INC ways to bring together critical research with speculative experimentation.

The three-day program has grown organically, curated by the current core team. Due to limited funds and the special occasion, this event does not have the usual aim to create a network that will intervene in one specific emerging field. In the past, these were, for instance, search, online video, net porn, urban scenes, art criticism, Wikipedia, urgent publishing, precarity in the arts, or crypto. Instead, we have chosen to give an overview of the issues that we have been working on lately, such as digital sovereignty, streaming, girl theory, AI refusal, digital publishing strategies and Internet Core aesthetics. Most of all, we want to come together and celebrate our unique tribe with the aim of deciding where to take INC next. Last but not least, we do all this inside the psychedelic green screen and close off, as we’ve often done in the previous years at OT301, with a performance evening and party INC style.