Head down to Paradiso this Friday 29 January for the best of Pips:Lab. You can look upon PIPS:lab as a kind of A-Team — where the ‘A’ stands for ‘Art School Dropout’. Actually, they are more like MacGyver — but then with a sense of humour and a taste for Human Growth Hormone. But seriously, PIPS:lab tells a heart warming, and often brain melting, story of what happens when a collective of artists from a variety of disciplines seek to create everything, from software to vocal harmonies, themselves. Combining new media, theatre, music, film and photography — along with tech, chuckles and raw public interaction — PIPS:lab produce everything from theatrical performances to installations. And it’s all done live in your face, right down to the video editing.
For example, their Washing Powder Conspiracy show is a groovy, funny and catchy laundry-themed multimedia theatre concert. And while loose and wacky, the show is still tighter than two people in a washing machine. Everything — from the sing-along tunes and primal screaming right through to the light graffiti artistry and outfits — refers to washing powder. Things that did not quite make sense from earlier in the show are later power edited live to form new backdrops for yet more nonsensical acts of madness. Where else can absurdist speeches about detergents be magically transformed into radical political statements? Meanwhile all the happy chaos is rhythmically backed by a washing machine, three dryers and a sextet of irons. And remember folks, your whites can always get whiter…
Meanwhile, staying in touch with friends and loved ones just gets easier and easier these day. And now it’s even possible to stay in touch with the dead thanks to the internet community DieSpace. Step right up folks! Yes indeed, with laptops, cameras and light sensors, PIPS:lab has created a interactive musical show about post-mortem social networking. And with today’s ongoing ‘grayification’ of society, it’s not such a crazy idea — especially if you believe the onstage marketing manager/show master. Meanwhile… Your mug shot is being projected on the screen since he chosen you, above all others, for a DieSpace Premium Account!
With the world’s largest documentary film festival IDFA opening this weekend, let’s take a moment to pay tribute to the forgotten masses who have been working the last weeks in subtitler sweatshops found across town in dank basements and dusty attics. So instead of feeling sorry for all those overhyped masses of call center workers, take a moment to give thanks to all those selfless subtitlers out there who make this event possible…
It’s also worth checking out T_Visionarium Open City (pictured) at the Zuiderkerk (an ancient church worth visiting in its own right as Amsterdam’s urban planning center). This installation, running until 22 November, bends the mind as a 360 degree 3D — complete with glasses — projection of hundreds of films about urbanisation. Browse, watch, remix, repeat. Really quite trippy…
Posted: November 21, 2009 at 10:02 am. Add a comment
The former shipyards of NDSM in Amsterdam Noord is a post-industrial wonderland which features the biggest “breeding ground” for the arts in the country with over 200 artist studios. This Saturday 14 November, they are having an open house. I love this place: it’s got the free ferry ride from behind Centraal Station, lots of apocalyptic eye candy and a great cafe/restaurant. I’ve written about this place a lot – here for instance – because I saw it as a microcosm of Amsterdam (or even the world) where the battle between arts and commerce is playing out. But since the credit crunch, the commerce part has stepped backed and the area seems to be reverting back to its more purely arty roots. Hell, they even found a new place to squat: the former pumping station…
Posted: November 12, 2009 at 10:56 am. Add a comment
Last month Virtueel Platform, “the sector institute for e-culture in the Netherlands”, asked me to write a report about their Hot100 programme taking place at the new media lovefest PICNIC ‘09 where both design hipsters and billionaire entrepeneurs come together to chart out our transmedia futures. Hot100 brings together the hottest new media students for a day of lectures and workshopping. And it turned that, indeed, the kids are alright… Read my report here.
This evening my pals The Anacondas (stay tuned for their new album, Lost in the Space Age/Bad Buzz, which I’m working on with them) are performing in the epic City Archives. They are providing a live soundtrack to the classic Japanese B-movie King Kong vs Godzilla as part of the inspired Rocket Cinema festival (where you can also catch zZz accompanying Frankenstein in an ancient church and DJ Alec Smart doing Jaws in a swimming pool).
Tonight’s happening is being jumpstarted by the hilarious short, Godz***A Vs The Netherlands, by another pal Sietske Tjallingii. Should be cultural. And if you haven’t yet been to the new-ish City Archive, just go: some parts are like entering an Egyptian mummy crypt. Yes, scary.
BREAKING NEWS… While I was working on the StrangerFestival newspaper (see here), word got out about me having been typecast as anchorman in the past. So now this Saturday 17 October, I will be “Richard Ambrosius”, reporting live from the StrangerFestival’s AwardShow, along with my co-anchor “Claudine Bell” (Esther Mugambi). It will be streamed live from the StrangerFestival website between 20.30 and 23.00 (CEST). It should be slapstick…
StrangerFestival is an online forum for young European video-makers supported by the European Cultural Foundation. The website has thousands of films – all of which tell a story in under five minutes. So check it out! Everyone between ages 15 and 25 are welcome to upload their creations here. And the cool thing about StrangerFestival is that they run workshops across Europe for youth who don’t usually have access to the required technology so they are creating a truely diverse collection. This week the best of these video-makers are swooping down on Amsterdam for some quality hanging out. With Your Local Heroes, I worked on the programme newspaper and it was pretty funny talking/emailing with some of the participants. Two guys — one from Armenia and the other from Poland — could have been twins in the way they answered with the same smartass verve. Yep, perhaps there is a European identity after all… Poster design/art direction by Jannemieke Oostra.
Between 17 September and 4 November, the Filmmuseum is having a retrospective on everyone’s favorite indie film icon, the writer/actor/director John Cassavetes.
“What would life be like living in a John Cassavetes film? Well there’s one advantage: you’d almost always have a strong drink in your hand. But alas there’s a catch: you will eventually get drunk. Stupid drunk. In fact, chances are that you are an unsympathetic middle-aged alcoholic simmering with raw emotion but forever incapable of expressing it. And that’s always a bummer…
“Life would seem fragmentary, unpolished and often overlong (if not downright boring). There would be few easy answers and plenty of open endings. Many things will be in close-up – especially when you are moaning after being punched, bleeding from getting pricked or experiencing loneliness like a kick in a place where it hurts the most. The dubious lighting will either have you glowing in over-exposure or disappearing into a shadow. The equally shitty sound quality would only have one advantage: background noise may sometimes cover up the fact that you are continuing to talk even though you have nothing to say…” [Read more here.]
Posted: September 15, 2009 at 10:56 am. Add a comment
Animation fans should definitely check out the Klik Amsterdam film festival that is taking place 17-20 September. One of the organisers Luuk van Huet was a writer for Amsterdam Weekly, and as such I sometimes had to work to calm his smartass tendencies (my older friends will recognise the absurdity of such a situation). It’s the festival’s third edition and is screaming with ambition. A related exhibition, Animation Chiellerie, has already opened with prints and animations by the inspired locals likes of Erik Kriek, Lamelos, Martin Draax and Jeroen Blankert…
Posted: September 14, 2009 at 8:08 am. Add a comment
Now what kind of self-respecting secret society opens its doors on “Open Monument Day“? The Freemasons that’s who. Yep, as a boy’s club they’ve been coming out of the closet for a while now–apparently membership numbers have been dropping steady for some years now. And so just like everyone else these days they are going through a rebranding process. Today I saw both their “red temple” and their “blue temple” at their lodge at the corner of Vondelstraat and 1e Constantijn Huygenstraat. Sadly, I did not get to see the beer-tapping room donated by Freddy Heineken’s dad Henry Pierre…
The general impression was, um, it’s a tad shabby. Yo Grandmaster: time for a paint job and some new carpeting, perhaps? But I shouldn’t judge: maybe seeking world domination isn’t the high-paying gig we all assume it is. Or maybe they really are just some fellows banded together who use building metaphors in their voyage towards self-discovery. The Freemason I talked to said their secretive reputation comes only from the fact that they are protective about their rituals so that when new members experience them they are more emotionally affected. Regardless, they certainly aren’t Bilderberg. [Please note: out of respect for the Freemason's once-secretive reputation, I only took a picture from the outside.]
I also got to look inside some of the houses along one of my favourite residential streets, Bellamystraat, that runs up from the center of Ten Katenstraat market. At number 74, small-scale industry is alive and well in the form of the blacksmith company GF Meister en Zonen who have been at it since 1909. Compared to the Freemasons, this place is more manly than merely men-only.
Posted: September 13, 2009 at 3:31 pm. Add a comment
The former shipyards of 
Last month 
This evening my pals 
Between 17 September and 4 November, the Filmmuseum is having a 
Animation fans should definitely check out the 
Now what kind of self-respecting secret society opens its doors on “
I also got to look inside some of the houses along one of my favourite residential streets, 