New Aesthetic New Anxieties - Institute for the Unstable Media

13. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSBy its very nature, a booksprint is an intense experience: three and a half days ofintense writing and collaborative thinking. To pull something like this off requires a lotof help on many levels.First and foremost, thanks to Adam Hyde for his guidance, support and facilitationover the three and a half days. His expert facilitation and the Booktype softwaremade this book possible.We would like to thank the wonderful staff and associates of V2_ Institute for theUnstable Media, Rotterdam. There are almost too many too list, but Arie Altena, Jorisvan Ballegooijen, Sofia Bustorff, Roxanne Duarte da Cruz, and Wilco Tuinmandeserve special mention. Also thanks to our designer Arjen de Jong of BURO duplexfor the front cover of this book and also for generating the designs for the booksprintevent.The exact shape of this book was not clear at the start: the initial provocation to theauthors was entitled Fiddling While Rome Burns? and centred around beauty,aesthetics, and economic crisis. It was wide open at the beginning but once we wereall in the same room, quickly the phenomenon of the New Aesthetic became central toour discussions. We wish to extend thanks to James Bridle for starting the Tumblr andinitiating debate around the New Aesthetic.The initial responses to James Bridle's presentation of the New Aesthetic were also ofcourse very interesting. We were inspired by Bruce Sterling, Marius Watz, MezBreeze, Christiane Paul, and many, many others.72