Forward? A Short History of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit. | by Samuel McIlhagga | Medium
The internet was a fascinating place, especially for early adopters. The promise of free flows of information, the minimization of geographical space, the flattening of old social hierarchies, the elasticity of open-source software, the ability to sample endless music and potential to pursue knowledge unhindered seemed to coexist alongside a grey and drab, and mostly conservative, final two decades of the twentieth century. It was this historical moment that would see the creation of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU or Ccru, 1995–2003): an unofficial affiliation of graduate students and junior academics housed in a small room in a set of unassuming modernist buildings at Warwick University There have been few attempts to tell the story of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit. The music journalist and author Simon Reynolds travelled from New York to the University of Warwick in 1999 for the now-defunct Lingua Franca magazine to cover the strange rumours coming from the univers