THE GUARDIAN 6 February 1997

CYBERLIFE UK - Yoof on the hoof

Where should one go to catch up with homegrown cyberculture
or to discover if such a thing exists? The short answer is
not to look in the same places as one would in America.
British cyberculture doesn't work through quite the same
channels. In the US, young people looking to explore digital
technology tend to try to make their mark via the Net, Web
sites and virtual communities.

Faced with BTs local call charges, would-be digital
youth go elsewhere. Club culture and dance music, for
example, where a strong DIY tradition already exists and
where the technology needed, is reasonably cheap.

Oddly enough, the art world is another area where a
distinctive homegrown (and European) technoculture is
beginning to emerge.

Last week Anti with E, a pleasingly chaotic secret Net
art conference took place at Backspace, the East London
riverside cybercafe opened by Obsolete, one of Londons
sharper Web design outfits. The event was put together by
Heath Bunting.

It was supposed to be a kind of antidote to the official
techno-conference circuit, where digital pundits bash out
familiar arguments at high cost. Anti with E was sort of
free (to get in you had to bring some food and drink) and
packed with potential speakers. More than 30 artists,
curators and theorists, from across Europe, were on the
bill. Each had five minutes to show some work, stage a
performance of some sort or mess around.

(You can find links to their projects at
http://www.irational.org/cybercafe/backspace).

I first bumped into Heath around three years ago when he was
getting a bit of press for his plan to set up a London
cybercafe, a sort of 24-hour real world space which would
try to recreate some of the free-flowing excitement people
then found on the Net. In the end, the cybercafe idea was
picked up by people with a more commercial vision. Heath,
who has worked in graffiti and pirate radio, got on with
something else.

But with this conference, he seemed to have returned to the
idea and showed how it could work. As it turns out,
Obsolete's James Stevens, who is responsible for organising
Backspace, was working with Heath on his original cybercafe
idea.

Given the standard the 1990s cybercafe has become, the name
seems somehow inappropriate for Backspace. One alternative,
suggested by Obsoletes Cherie Matrix, is that the place is
a members-only cyberlounge. Obsolete opened the space
(downstairs from its main office) with the aim of having
somewhere for its clients to relax.

But there was also a more idealistic desire to create a
place online and off, where some of the more interesting
strands of British cyberculture could come together.
Consequently, the Backspace Web site
(http://www.backspace.org) has become a kind of online home
for UK techno-art and, Backspace itself has become a sort of
home from home for the capitals grass roots technoculture.

Over the next few weeks, Mute (the UK technoart magazine),
Esol (a group exploring alternative energy sources), and
Acid Test (a free radio project), are all holding events at
the offline Backspace. Debates about drugs, clubs and Net
censorship legislation are also planned, along with a few
more events from Heath Bunting.

Details are probably available on the Backspace site.
There's always something going on there. I suggest the best
thing to do is to just turn up one evening and hang out.
Certainly, its doubtful theres a better place to go if you
need to be convinced that there is such a thing as British
cyberculture. Backspace is at Winchester Wharf, Clink
Street, London.

Jim McClellan