About Monoskop

Welcome to Monoskop, a wiki for arts and studies.

Monoskop is an independent educational resource and research initiative for the arts, culture and society. Monoskop features wiki pages with multilingual genealogical bibliographies of contemporary communities of practice such as technofeminism, decolonial aesthetics, artist publishing, performance, sound art, experimental film and video, and community media, including radio, television, websites and servers. These are accompanied by bio-bibliographical profiles of their contributors. Many of the bibliographic entries are linked to electronic versions of publications made available on monoskop and other free and libre libraries.

Recent activities

• 

  EastUnBloc: Reclaiming Experimental and Subversive Media art Practices, nGbK

• 

  Careful: A Repertorium on Shadow Library Practice, distro

• 

  Read Write Run, Kunstraum Lakeside

• 

  Art Doc Web, TU Berlin

• 

  We Have Never Been Closer, tranzit.sk

• 

  Exhibition Library, Mediacity Seoul

Ongoing

• Palestine Shadow Library

• Calendar

• Web archive

• HTML, library of books in web format.

• Monoskop Log → Log2, digital library for arts and studies.

• Monoskop wiki, you are here.

On Monoskop

• Careful: A Repertorium on Shadow Library Practice, eds. Dušan Barok, Marcell Mars, Tomislav Medak, and Nick Thurston, Basel: distro, Nov 2025, [134 pp].

• Carolina Valente Pinto, a.o., ".expub: Exploring Expanded Publishing: Dušan Barok", eds. Tommaso Campagna, Marta Ceccarelli, and Carolina Valente Pinto, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, Jun 2025, PDF.

• "Bibliografi, kronologi, tidslinje, katalog, vegg, datasett, historie, minne, etnografi. Dušan Barok i samtale med Karin Nygård og Ellef Prestsæter", in Kunsten å sirkulere: en antologi om kunstnerisk publisering, eds. Lotte Grønneberg, Karin Nygård, Elin Maria Olaussen, and Karen Christine Tandberg, Oslo: Torpedo, Nov 2024. (Norwegian)

• Nick Thurston, "In Solidarity and From Curiosity", in Ubu@50 – 50 Ubus: Everything Is Temporary, eds. Marcell Mars and Tomislav Medak, Zagreb: Multimedia Institute, May 2024. Conversation with Marcell Mars, Tomislav Medak and Dušan Barok.

• Benoît Crucifix, "(CoCo): Conceptual Comics and Online Archives", in Ilan Manouach in Review: Critical Approaches to his Conceptual Comics, ed. Pedro Moura, Routledge, Sep 2023, pp 189-203. [1] [2]

• Shusha Niederberger, "Radical Care – Shadow Libraries und die Imagination anderer Institutionen", Fabrikzeitung: "Der radikale Katalog", eds. Lucie Kolb and Eva Weinmayr, Zürich: Rote Fabrik, Dec 2021. (German)

• Mariabruna Fabrizi, Fosco Lucarelli, "Monoskop, 2004-", in Database, Network, Interface: The Architecture of Information, Paris: Caryatide, and Lausanne: Archizoom (EPFL), 2021, p 157. Exh. catalogue. Distributor. Exhibition. [3]

• Olga Goriunova, "Uploading our Libraries: The Subjects of Art and Knowledge Commons", in Aesthetics of the Commons, eds. Cornelia Sollfrank, Felix Stalder and Shusha Niederberger, Zurich: diaphanes, Jan 2021, pp 41-61.

• Kenneth Goldsmith, "Monoskop", in Goldsmith, Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb, New York: Columbia University Press, Jul 2020, pp 123-126.

• Roberto Cruz Arzabal, "La piratería como forma imposible: circulación y estratificación de la teoría contemporánea", in Exclusión y deriva: dinámicas fronterizas de la digitalidad, eds. Johanna C. Ángel Reyes and Joseba Buj, Mexico City: Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México, Jan 2020, pp 163-186. (Spanish)

• Adéla Kudlová, "Dělat odvážná rozhodnutí. Rozhovor s Dušanem Barokem", Iluminace 31:4, Prague: Národní filmový archiv, 2019, pp 85-89. [4] [5] (Czech)

• XPUB, "Interview with Dušan Barok", in The Library Is Open, Rotterdam: Piet Zwart Institute (XPUB Special Issue 09), Jul 2019, pp 70-73. [6]

• Felix Stalder, Cornelia Sollfrank, "From Notepad to Cultural Resource. The Aesthetics of Crosslinking at Monoskop, Interview with Dušan Barok", Mar 2019, 27 min. Video. Transcript. Conducted Oct 2017 at HEK, Zurich. Part of the Creating Commons project. (English)

• Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, "Monoskop", in Thylstrup, The Politics of Mass Digitization, MIT Press, 2018, pp 89-94, n161-162, HTML. (English)

• Nina Vidovencová, Digitálny upgrade v slovenskom vizuálnom umení, Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2018, p 68. Master's thesis. [7] (Slovak)

• Vanessa Kowalski, "Monoskop", in Kowalski, On Curating, Online: Buying Time in the Middle of Nowhere, Helsinki: Aalto University, 2018, pp 129-137. Case study in Master's Thesis in Curating, Managing, and Mediating Art. [8] (English)

• William Blueher, "Monoskop", Art Libraries Society of North America, Oct 2017. Review. (English)

• Annet Dekker, "Copying as a Way to Start Something New. Annet Dekker in Conversation with Dušan Barok About Monoskop", in Lost and Living (in) Archives, ed. Annet Dekker, Amsterdam: Valiz, 2017. Conducted May-Jun 2016. [9] (English)

• Davide Giorgetta, Valerio Nicoletti, "They are Not Yet Books. Conversation with Dušan Barok" / "Non sono ancora libri. Conversazione con Dušan Barok", Progetto grafico 28: "Publishing", eds. Maria Rosaria Digregorio, Silvio Lorusso, Silvia Sfligiotti, and Stefano Vittori, Milan: AIAP, Nov 2015, pp 58-69, HTML. Conducted Mar 2015. [10] [11] (English)/(Italian)

• McKenzie Wark, "Metadata Punk", in Javna knjižnica / Public Library, eds. Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, and WHW, Zagreb: WHW & Multimedia Institute, 2015, pp 111-117. (English)
  • "Metapodatkovni punk", trans. Dušanka Profeta, in Javna knjižnica / Public Library, eds. Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, and WHW, Zagreb: WHW & Multimedia Institute, 2015, pp 41-47, PDF. (Croatian)

• Tomislav Medak, "The Future After the Library. UbuWeb and Monoskop's Radical Gestures", in Javna knjižnica / Public Library, eds. Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, and WHW, Zagreb: WHW & Multimedia Institute, 2015, pp 121-137. (English)
  • "Budućnosti iz knjižnice. Radikalne geste UbuWeba i Monoskopa", in Javna knjižnica / Public Library, eds. Tomislav Medak, Marcell Mars, and WHW, Zagreb: WHW & Multimedia Institute, 2015, pp 51-66, PDF. (Croatian)

• Lenka Rišková, "Monoskop.org", in Rišková, Kultúra v sieti.Nezávislé iniciatívy v umení a kultúre nových médií v Bratislave po roku 2000, Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2015, pp 37-39 & 50-51. Master's thesis. [12] (Slovak)

• Michal Rehúš, "Softvér je tiež literatúrou", Kloaka 5:3, Bratislava: Literis, 2014, pp 29-36. Interview conducted Sep-Dec 2014. (Slovak)

• Sarah Hamerman, "Cataloging Plunder: Thoughts on the Digital Text-Sharing Underground", LIS Theory blog, 20 Nov 2014; upd. as Pirate Libraries and the Fight for Open Information", The Media 61: The Immaterial Digital Labor Issue, 5 Sep 2015. (English)

• Barbora Linková, "Monoskop", ch. 6.3 in Linková, Archivy a sbírky. Od uměleckého archivu k internetové databázi, Brno: Masaryk University, 2014, pp 61-65. Master's thesis. (Czech)

• Michal Murin, "Share & Go: Dušan Barok", Enter 16, Košice: Dive Buki, Autumn 2014, pp 84-87. Interview conducted May-Jun 2013. (Slovak) [13]

• Barbora Linková, "Monoskop, e-mailové interview s Dušanem Barokem", Mar 2014. Conducted for the author's dissertation. (Czech)+(Slovak)

• Alessandro Ludovico, "Die dehnbare Bibliothek. Bücherdigitalisierung und daran anknüpfende Kunstprojekte", Springerin 3, Vienna, Aug 2013. (German)
  • "The Liquid Library", Eurozine, 26 Aug 2013. (English)

• "Monoskop Log de Dušan Barok", Culture Mobile, 29 Apr 2013. (French)

• Alessandro Ludovico, "Dušan Barok, Interview", Neural 44: Special Issue on Post-Digital Print (2013), pp 10-11. Conducted Jan 2013. (English)

• "Monoskop v sieti: Rozhovor Michala Murina s Dušanom Barokom", Profil 4 (2012), pp 92-105. Interview conducted Jul-Aug 2012. [14] (Slovak)

• Robert Bobnič, Jurij Smrke, Jasmina Šepetavc, "Monoskop", Tribuna, December 2012, pp 16-17. Interview conducted Nov 2012 during HAIP festival in Ljubljana. (Slovenian)

• Dan Barrow, "Unofficial Channels: Monoskop", The Wire, Nov 2012. (English)

• Alina Matějová, "Rozhovor s Dušanem Barokem", Remake blog, Apr 2012. (Slovak)

• Janneke Adema, "Scanners, collectors and aggregators. On the ‘underground movement’ of (pirated) theory text sharing", Open Reflections blog, Sep 2009. (English)

• Eva Krátká, "Monoskop: Collaborative Research on Media Art", Flash Art CZ/SK 9, 2008, HTML. (Czech)

• Oliver Rehák, "Monoskop nových médií", 3/4 21-22, Bratislava: Atrakt Art, 2007. (Slovak)

• Slávo Krekovič, "DIY-publishing dot sk", in The Mag.net Reader: Experiences in Electronic Cultural Publishing, eds. Miren Eraso, Alexandro Ludovico and Slávo Krekovič, Arteleku-Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, 2006, pp 24-35. (English)

Notice

User Notice for Copyrighted Materials on Research Website

Some of the text, images, graphics, audio and video clips, and other content of this website (collectively, the "content"), are protected by copyright law, where the copyright is owned by third parties. Monoskop makes the third-party content available to you under the fair use doctrine. Fair use permits only certain limited uses of the content.

You may use the website and its content only for your personal, educational and scholarly use. If you wish to distribute or make available any of the content to others, or use any of the content for any purpose other than your personal, educational and scholarly use, you must obtain any necessary permission from the copyright holder.

Copies, mirrors

• monoskop.org wiki dump on Internet Archive: 2014 (20G), 2020 (30G), 2023 (150G).

• @monoskop Twitter archive, 2009-2017. Also available as a CSV file (1M).

• @monoskop Twitter archive, 2009-2022. Also available as a ZIP file (140M). Made with Make your own simple, public, searchable Twitter archive from Darius Kazemi.

• monoskop.org on Archive.is, from 2017.

• monoskop.org on Wayback Machine, from 2012.

• burundi.sk/monoskop on Wayback Machine, 2004-2012.

About us

Monoskop was initiated as a self-documentation practice by participants in the Multiplace network and the experimental space Burundi in Bratislava. It revolves around a website with contributors from around the world, which remains kindly hosted by Multiplace. What appears on the wiki is often informed by exhibition and research projects carried out with collaborators and partners.

Contact

You can reach us by email at db at monoskop dot org.

We also maintain a low-frequency presence on Mastodon, hosted by Lurk.