Open air Hotel in Utrecht, Leiden + Delft - OpenluchtHotel

Utrecht 18/19 June 2011
Leiden 21 June 2011
Delft 10 September 2011

Visitors can register to book to sleep in one of these artist-beds in the open air in one of these cities. More info in Dutch only is here: www.openluchthotel.nu our bed is an ode to Shakepeare and all of the senses including taste.

"Under perfumed flowers I lie, there I couch when owls do cry"

by Sonja van Kerkhoff + Sen McGlinn

[with apolgies to Shakepeare's The Tempest]
Peaseblossom is the name of one of the fairies in Shakepeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who serves the Queen of the Fairies.
This open hotel location is an interpretation of the type of bed she could have made where you can see, smell and taste "pea blossoms" growing through willow branch forms.

Peaseblossom is de naam van een van de feeen uit Shakespeare's A midsummer Night's Dream die de Koningin der Feeen dient.
Dit is een interpretatie van het soort bed dat zij had kunnen maken, waarin je de door de wilgentakkenbeelden groeiende (pronk)erwt bloesems kunt zien, ruiken en proeven.

In Leiden our bed will be set amidst trees in the Kaasmarktschool, artist studio courtyard, Koppenhinksteeg 13

Darling Buds exhibition in London

For those in or around London, we have two installations in this show curated by
Davinia-ann Robinson, Rebecca Hallett, Nelly Curtis, Jessica Mautner, and Boudicca Collins

at:

Parlour Project Space
181-185 Queens Crescent, NW5 4DS
London, United Kingdom

Open: 6 - 10 May 2011
Fri-Tues: 11:00am - 6:00pm

installations by

Grace Adam, Daniel Bourke, Matt Gee, Sian Griffiths, Melissa Henderson, Sadie Hennessy, Fiona Long and Sonja Van Kerkhoff & Sen McGlinn.

There's a blog about this exhibition and a facebook page.

2 feb video screenings + bijna een laatste kans om de installaties te bekijken

2 Feb 2011:
19:30 - 20:45
Sonja presents 4 short videos with discussion in between (in nederlands or English)

20:45 - 21:30
Opportunity to view the exhibition
"The unwanted land"
with installations by Tiong Ang, David Bade, Renée Ridgway, Dirk de Bruyn, Sonja van Kerkhoff


Stills from "Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen"




There will also be opportunity to ask Sonja questions inside the installation Kāinga a roto (Home within / Innerlijk huis)

You can view a 5 minute of footage of Kāinga a roto on YouTube below and there's a page of photos about the exhibition here and a page focussed just on Sonja and Sen's installation here or see: www.theunwantedland.com

The programme for the evening is:
7:30: "Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen" (13 min),
won the regional (Limburg) Gulden Vlam award in 1994 in the category, documentary.
The main actors are Sonja's young children, who simultaneously foreground as well as function as background for associative narratives on various levels.

5-10 min question and answer session.

"Athena" (2 min), 1994,
a dance-choreographic work on the theme of wisdom from a feminine viewpoint.

"360 Clockwise around Europe" (3 min) 2010,
music by Sandy Hoover (USA) Kath Tait (UK)

A response to living in Europe for the past two decades. The footage selected from the EU archive contrasts diverse aspects of European life-worlds: cities, institutions, as well as historical events with stills of our family in diverse places - a mix of private and public worlds; a commentary on how we all play a role in a changing Europe.

5-10 min question and answer session.

"Essences and Particularities" (6 min) 1994,
music by Evren Celimli (USA).
Mythopoeic drawings constantly metamorphasize while a choir sing in medival style. We often think of universals as being what connects us to God or to our soul. Here the particular or exceptional are the means for 'stories' or the 'differend'.

5-10 min question and answer session.

20:45 - 21:30, Viewing of the exhibition "The Unwanted Land" and discussion inside "Kainga a roto" (Home within)

Entrée / entry fee for both museum and the screening > 5 euros

RSVP: 7 p.m. 31st January 2011 to either:
info@beeldenaanzee.nl
or ring:
070 358 58 57 between 11 - 5, Tuesdays to Sundays.

Museum Beelden aan Zee website
Harteveltstraat 1
2586 Den Haag

5 minute footage of our video installation on show

You can also view it on my channel: www.youtube.com/user/sonjavank

We come in Peace - on hackers, media and gender

The 27th Chaos Communication Congress (27C3), an annual four-day conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) starts tomorrow at the Berlin Congress Center and is one of the largest gatherings of hackers and proponents of open source technologies. These categories: community, culture, hacking, making, science, society say it all and here are links to the presentators as well as often a link to the material to being presented. The website is a wealth of knowledge!


A few randomly chosen presentations to wet your appetite:

Safety on the Open Sea - Safe navigation with the aid of an open sea chart.

AllColoursAreBeautiful - interactive light installation inspired by blinkenlights

A Critical Overview of 10 years of Privacy Enhancing Technologies

Android geolocation using GSM network - "Where was Waldroid?"

DIY synthesizers and sound generators - Where does the sound come from?

They also promote those around unable to attend to gather and join the conference remotely in what they have called Peace Missions, which reminded me of a conference I attended remotely earlier this year:


ElectroSmog << this links to some info about this on de balie website because their actual website is a killer for those with slow connections or on mobile devices.
Even on a large computer screen as I have here: I need to first click away the screen filling popup, and then scroll down past another screen-filling image before I reach any links or content (don't get me started on the usability of this website!) - scroll past all this, click around, and yes there are some interesting articles especially the stuff at the Distance Lab run by Stefan Agamonolis (see a presentation I did on a thesis of his on design for interactive media).

And the conference itself? ...(sigh)... At the time I was going to write a critique of the conference because it was dominated by a few men sitting in a room in Amsterdam - where some men flew over from London. I am so glad I stayed at home (Amsterdam is half an hour north by train). First I wanted to respect the ethos of the conference, that participants don't use up carbon in travel, and second, I found it much better to feel on equal (as much as one can be 'equal' in terms of bandwidth access) with others around the world who hadn't travelled to Amsterdam. The conference was all bad, (I always learn something), but it didn't live up to what it claimed it was abou. It was a real buzz communicating with Zita in Christchurch and Julian and others on a waka in the middle of the Whanganui river! See some fabulous photos of waka.wireless here

Admittedly the female-male ratio of presentations at ccc is no better than was at Electrosmog but access seems freer and the diversity, well there's no comparision of course, it is completely different set-up.

However great things are happening in media worlds such as WikiLeaks (watch this fabulous documentary produced by a Swedish film company (scroll to 25 mins to the Iraqi footage and you will never doubt the important of freedom of open documentation + it raises big issues on secrecy and accountability. I do think that Bradley Manning is a hero (see 23mins into the documentary) and here you can see why OpenLeaks started (at 29:22 mins into the documentary). The documentary stops suddenly and you can watch the final part here (6:03 starts at where the previous one stopped.)
It is great that there's no real squabble here, WikiLeaks takes the strategy of using the media for greater impact on the world, and OpenLeaks works more on the quiet.

And in my own backyard
there's Genderchangers
and the ECT conferences and gatherings,
both run by
and for the fairer sex:)

Crying out for culture (een schreeuw voor cultuur) and Creative Leiden

I thought I'd make this a post about some of the creative initiatives happening in my city, Leiden, in response to the Dutch government announcement to cut all culture and arts funding by 20% (c. 200 million Euros). They also announced that they will also remove the reduced sales tax for art and culture (from 6% to 19%).

In response to this a national day of protest called, "Holland screams (calls out) for culture" (Nederland schreeuwt om cultuur) was held throughout the Netherlands, on November 20th. In most cities people gathered to 'cry out' or 'scream' -very fitting given that the government just announced just a major cut to all arts funding in the Netherlands.

The website for collecting petitions of protest, enabled you to scream into the microphone, while this page has films and photographs of the day of protest.

Here is a news item with links and photos from the culture oriented broadcasting corporation, the VPRO, Photos from the protest in Amsterdam, and photos from Utrecht, and in this blog has a link on youtube of the protest in Leiden - in summary the first speaker informs us that with a 6 week warning of the increase in sales tax from 6% to 19%, theatres aimed for youth in particular cannot survive.

The Leiden city councilor for culture, Jan-Jaap de Haan the second speaker (here at 3'10" in the video in link above) spoke very well: he wanted to sing, but the orchestra is gone, so he has to scream and asks why is culture perceived as a left-wing hobby. Culture informs and shows who we are. The government is focussed on what we are not (very apt reference to the government focus on the fear of migrants and anti-Islamic sentiments).

It made me realise, that yes, without culture, expression becomes noise -yelling and screaming.

It's ironic that the news today is that yet more criminal records have been revealed of members of the Dutch parliament in Wilders' right-wing extreme nationalist party (PVV 'party for freedom' - oh so Orwellian!).
So the current cabinet remains in power, if Wilders' doesn't remove these individuals who lied about their past 'convictions' (!) from his party. Two weeks ago one member of parliament left this same party because he didn't want yet more limelight put on his past. Ironic that a government needs these people in order to remain in power.

And so to Leiden:

Creatieve Stad Leiden

is a blog run by Jeroen Maters which often has ideas or thoughts or reports on cultural related issues in Leiden.

The 24 Nov blog concerns creative ideas for some ugly architecture along a main street, and his idea there is for a vertical garden. I came across this via the Linkedin Leiden Network group in response to a call for suggestions for this empty block.

The old post office next to this block is now used by a collective of artists as a gallery, de Pieter, which focusses on group exhibitions by Leiden artists.

As a result in the down turn in the economy in the past year or so there are more empty spaces in the centre of the city, and so the artists here are able to pay a low rent to the city council for this space. Below is another arts initiative ultilizing empty shops.

Open Makers

Early in 2010 I first heard of OpenMakers which provides temporary studio spaces in the centre of Leiden utilizing empty shops.

In September + October Sen and I built our installation in one of these spaces. What is so great about their project is that it is interdisciplinary and invites artists from all levels to have the opportunity to work on a project. So far there's been theatre, tango, fashion design, poetry as well other visual artists.

Scheltema

- centre for theatre, visual arts, dance, lectures, events, etc
Scheltema is an old wool factory, converted since 2005 into an arts centre.

New Media Related conferences + publications

I often am sent interesting links or information about conferences, some I can attend.

So I'll add new links to such events and feel welcome to add your own links in the comments.
15+16 Jan 2011: Fiber festival, http://www.fiberfestival.nl/
hosted by:
MediaLab in Amsterdam whose website has numerous links to media mainly in connection with education: http://medialab.hva.nl/

Two things happening in November are:

Game in the City

gameinthecity.nl/2010
18 + 19 Nov, Amersfoort, The Netherlands: the Third edition of the Dutch Game Awards, the annual business awards for the Dutch Game Industry.

Of interest to me is the conference and the session on Sustainability:
* Alma Schaafstal - TFI (Taskforce Innovatie Regio Utrecht [Taskforce Innovation around Utrecht])
(Global Game Jam > will be held 28-30 January 2011)
* Philippe Petit and Rens Vogel – Greeny Games (Be Green)
* Jacky Nieuwstraten – Amersfoort (BioB@ttle)
* Derk de Geus – Paladin Studios (Enercities)
* Bruno Felix – Submarine Channel (Collapsus)

AND in London this weekend the conference:

Besides the Screen:
Moving Images during Distribution, Exhibition and Consumption

New media technologies impact cinema well beyond the screen; they also promote the reorganization of its logic of distribution, modes of consumption and viewing regimes. Once, it was video and television broadcast that disturbed traditional cinematographic experience, revealing the image as soon as it was captured and bringing it into the home of the audience. Nowadays, computer imaging and online networks cause an even stronger effect to the medium, increasing the public agency in the movie market dynamics.
In order to understand how these significant changes in the modes of accessing and distributing moving images might affect cinematographic experience, economy and historiography, we are obliged to rethink not only of its future, but its past as well. Besides the Screen is a one-day international symposium that aims to map research projects on new and old forms of moving image distribution, exhibition and consumption. The conference will be hosted in Goldsmiths College in November, with the support of the Graduate School and the Media and Communications Department.

Their blog has more and they expect to produce a publication: besidesthescreen.blogspot.com

Programme:
Saturday, 20th November
10:30 - 10:45 Welcome! [MRB Screen 1]
10:45 - 12:30 First Panel Session

Panel 1a [MRB Screen 1]: Distribution & TV

* Keith Beattie, Exhibiting Direct Cinema: The Realignment of US Broadcast Television and the Development of the Observational Mode

* JP Kelly, In the “Perpetual Now”: 24 and the Distribution of Real-Time
* Melanie Kennedy, High School Musical as a Made-for-Television Tween Musical
* Hannah Andrews, The BBC Film Network: User-generated Content and the Public Service Broadcaster

Panel 1b [MRB Screen 2]: Marketing and/or Participation

* Adnan Hadzi, Why Openness Matters: the Deptford.TV Project
* Marc Stumpel, File-sharing or attention-sharing? Implications of the hybrid economy
* Stephanie Janes, Viral Marketing Strategies in Hollywood Cinema

14:00 - 15:45 Second panel session
Panel 2a [MRB Screen 1]: The (Archived) Image

* Maarten Brinkerink, Open Images: Establishing an Audiovisual Commons
* Ana Carvalho, The ephemeral in AV realtime practices: an analysis into the possibilities for its documentation
* Evelin Stermitz, ArtFem.TV
* Claudy Op den Kamp, The forgotten ones: is audiovisual archival public domain material really freely available?

Panel 2b [MRB Screen 2]: The Shape of (Image) Space
* Stefania Charitou, Projection dislocated
* Sudeep Dasgupta, The Screen beside Itself: Situational Transformations in Visual Culture
* Zlatan Krajina, How to Tame the Sun: Visual Indulgences at a Screen-Place as Strategies of Appropriation

16:00 - 17:00 Keynote [MRB Screen 1]

* Julia Knight, Distribution, Diversity and Digitalisation

Sunday, 21st November
10:30 - 12:15 Third Panel Session
Panel 3a [BPB 1]: Remix, Appropriation & the Amateur

* Felix Seyfarth, Television 2.0: Exploring user-generated video and online participation
* Marin Hirschfeld, Redacted and the Problems with Appropriating Amateur Digital Discourses
* Nicola Evans, Rambo Remix
* Patricia Moran, The image time: procedure of cultural remix

Panel 3b [BPB 2]: (New?) Image Aesthetics

* Patricia Iuva, Trailer aesthetic
* Luca Barbeni, Until the End of Cinema
* Vito Campanelli, The DivX and MP3 Experience

13:45 - 15:30 Fourth Panel Session
Panel 4a [BPB 1]: The Image on the Move

* Simone Knox, Besides, On and Through the Screen: The Transnational Distribution and Consumption of Cinema
* Laura Rodriguez Isaza, Touring the Film Festival Circuit: Migrating Patterns of Latin American Cinema
* Leandro Valiati, Cultural Economics and Movies: Indicators and empirical research

Panel 4b [BPB 2]: As Art: Authenticity, Originality & Exhibition

* Bojana Romic, New Exhibition Spaces: viral video goes offline?
* Frantisek Zachoval, ART-y-CHOK-e
* Catrien Schreuder, Pixels and Places: Video Art in Public Space
* Dominik Hasler, Party as art? AntiVJ and the migration of VJing into the sphere of fine arts