Documenting six years of underground culture

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Situated on the Wibautstraat in the east of Amsterdam, Trouw was a nightclub, music venue, cultural space and restaurant housed in the former newspaper printing facility of several national newspapers. Trouw combined food, music and the arts, and was the first nightclub to receive the 24-hour permit from the city of Amsterdam. After six years of experimenting and over time slowly establishing itself as one of the top nightlife and cultural venues in the city and beyond, Trouw closed its doors on 3 January 2015.

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By Michiel — Posted January 4, 2015 — 469 Comments

Cognitive City Salon at De Verdieping/TrouwAmsterdam

Cognitive City Salon
The synthesis of architecture and network technologies.


Thursday June 30 De Verdieping will host two events on the Future City. One of them is the Cognitive City Salon (CSS). In the CCS the synthesis between architecture, urban environments and network technology (smart-phones, AR technology, data-visualization and ubiquitous computing) is presented. How will (online) media and network technology change the way we understand, build, and inhabit our cities? You’re welcome to join the conversation.

The evening will be moderated by Juha van ‘t Zelfde, host of De Verdieping‘s lecture series Visible Cities and co-founder of Non-fiction, Office for Cultural Innovation.

Guests
James Burke – interaction designer, user experience architect and co-founder of VURB
Katalin Galayas – Policy Advisor to the City of Amsterdam
Kars Alfrink – ‘Chief Agent’ of Hubbub
Edwin Gardner – VOLUME Magazine

The four of them will present their thoughts on urbanity, technology and how we live in the middle of this all. But the Salons are not intended to give the stage to just the speakers. While sometimes it is important to only receive curated information, we are very much hoping for a lively debate at the event. Be challenged by the speakers, but also do your best to challenge them.

A special call for participation for the next IoT workshop by Volume and VURB will be delivered by Vincent Schippers, Alexander Zeh and Caro van Dijk. The workshop is for architects, planners, coders and others interested in prototyping applications for a more writeable city.

Info
Date: 30th of June
Location: De Verdieping, Club Area (http://verdieping.org/)
Address: Wibautstraat 127, Amsterdam
Begin: 19:00 (start at 19:30)
End: 22:30
Entrance fee: 10 Euros

Please visit the Cognitive Cities website for more information

Partners
VURB
Visible Cities
Volume Magazine
De Verdieping

De Verdieping is the cultural fringe programme and project space of TrouwAmsterdam and is kindly supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) and the Netherlands Architecture Fund (SfA).

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By Michiel — Posted June 30, 2011 — 1,451 Comments

Failed Architecture #3: black architecture

(Zwarte MadonnaPhoto taken from Presseurop)

FA #03: Amsterdam, The Hague, Belgrade, …

After the first edition with the American writer and urbanist Anthony M. Tung and the second edition with a panel of five speakers, who provided an international overview of cases of ‘failed architecture’, we are happy to have the following speakers as our guests during the upcoming (third) edition on Wednesday June 15th.

Arnold Reijndorp is an independent researcher at the cutting edge of urbanism/architecture and social and cultural developments in the urban field. He holds the Han Lammers Chair of Social-economic developments of new urban areas at the University of Amsterdam, and is associated with the International New Town Institute. With Maarten Hajer he published In Search of New Public Domain. Recent co-authored publications in Dutch are: Atlas of the Western Garden Cities of Amsterdam and Themed Communities: Living in a imaginated place. In his talk he will focus on the thin line between utopia and dystopia in new towns and themed communities.

Paul Groenendijk has been active as a writer specialized in (Dutch) architecture since 1984. He will talk about his encounters with a wide variety of ‘failed architecture’, focusing on his most recent book that describes the rise and fall of the Zwarte Madonna, or Black Madonna, arguably the most notorious social housing apartment block in the Netherlands. It was demolished in 2007 after years of fierce debate. The only people who protested against its demolition were a few of its inhabitants. At that point even the architect didn’t care anymore, saying: “I am glad it’s gone”.

Maja Popovic is an architect from Belgrade with an articulated interest in preservation of 20th century built heritage and the relationship between architecture, memory and storytelling. In her talk she will focus on Staro Sajmište. This was the site of Belgrade’s international fair before WWII. During the war, it was turned into a concetration camp by Germans. Today it’s mostly in ruins. The vast complex of buildings and smaller pavilions was supposed to kickstart the large scale development of New Belgrade in 1937, but during communist times the plans radically changed and Staro Sajmište became isolated and neglected. Although doomed to be forgotten it found a way to survive as a refuge for artists and outcasts. But how can you engage the public at large with this historically significant place, and how can it be rescued for generations to come?

The night is hosted by Michiel van Iersel with Tim Verlaan and Mark Minkjan.

Staro Sajmište during WWII (photo taken from Oldtajmeri)

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Failed Architecture is a series of talkshows with presentations by various experts and public discussions that focus on buildings and urban environments that failed to stand the test of time and are neglected, abandoned or even vandalized or demolished, because of changing economic, social, political, cultural and/or physical circumstances.

Without a doubt the maxim ‘Failed Architecture’ raises questions. What and according to whom is architecture failed? Which criteria do we use when assessing architecture, e.g. the viewpoint of inhabitants and/or users, architects and/or planners? And how does the ‘Zeitgeist’ or ‘our’ contemporary taste and cultural differences influence our judgment of buildings and cities?

Follow Failed Architecture on Facebook and Twitter

Next Failed Architecture?
Failed Architecture will return after the summer. Check our website for updates.


De Verdieping
is the cultural fringe programme and project space of TrouwAmsterdam and is kindly supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) and the Netherlands Architecture Fund (SfA).

By Michiel — Posted June 2, 2011 — 6,220 Comments

Presentation for Danish Network for Younger Planners (NYP)

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By René Boer — Posted May 16, 2011 — 4,071 Comments

Viral Radio 4 Year Anniversary

On Saturday 19 March Viral Radio celebrates its 4 year anniversary at Amsterdam’s legendary underground music venue OT301. On the line up a special selection of first time performers Om Unit and Illum Sphere, who will make their debut in the Netherlands, and all time favourite artists Raphael Vanoli (Knalpot), Datcho (Viral Radio), Cinnaman (Viral Radio) and Non-fiction’s Juha.

In the 4 years since Viral Radio began, it has grown into one of the Netherlands’ most recognized vehicles for innovative electronic music. It has presented a generation of experimental bass and rhythm music at festivals as North Sea Jazz, Exit Festival and Appelsap, and it has connected musicians and audiences of different generations at renowned institutions as Bimhuis, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ and the TrouwAmsterdam.

This event starts at 9 pm with champagne, cake, and a world premiere: a solo performance of electroacoustic improviser Raphael Vanoli of Knalpot. Tickets are 5 euros before 10, and 7.50 afterwards. Join us on Facebook and Last.fm, but more importantly, at OT301 on 19 March. We look forward to celebrating with you.

By Juha — Posted February 20, 2011 — 4,615 Comments

Viral music distribution

Viral Radio is the experimental electronic music vehicle of Non-fiction’s Juha van ‘t Zelfde and Beat Dimensions’ initiator Yuri Boselie (Cinnaman). It has been organising cutting-edge events in TrouwAmsterdam, Paradiso, Bimhuis and other venues across the Netherlands. Its latest interest is investigating new forms of music distribution and interaction via mobile phones, in collaboration with 3voor12 and VURB. Tonight, they organise their monthly night in TrouwAmsterdam.

On this month’s edition Viral Radio presents two artists it has been following for years and years: Dimlite and Jamie Vex’d. Swiss born Dimlite (Dimitri Grimm, 1980) is a master of mosaic textures and imaginative drum patterns. He is one of the most admired artists of his generation and a distinguished performer. His concerts at the Bimhuis in 2008 and 2009 rank among the best given there in the past few years. Englishman Jamie Vex’d (Jamie Teasdale, 1979) has gained critical acclaim as experimental dubstep duo Vex’d. They released the album Degenerate on Planet Mu in 2005, a prescient example of forward thinking bass music. Jamie has released solo works that are closer related to the video game and science fiction cartoons aesthetic of Hudson Mohawke and Rustie. He has created the new avatar Kuedo, that will release its first tracks within weeks.It is one of the most anticipated releases of the year.

The evening starts at 22:30, and tickets are 12 euros. As always, Viral Radio hosts Juha and Cinnaman will play their music straight out of the package. We look forward to welcoming you there.

By Juha — Posted February 5, 2010 — 4,318 Comments

What does Amsterdam sound like?

Viral Radio on Nalden.net

Friday 8 January 2010 will be the first Viral Radio of the new decade. In the new year, the Amsterdam vehicle for well tempered drum machines will investigate the musical identities of 6 cities that are part of the viral networks of experimental bass and beat music creation and distribution.

Theses cities are: 1. Amsterdam (January); 2. Glasgow (March); 3. Bristol (May); 4. London (August); 5. Sydney (October); 6. Los Angeles (December).

On the Amsterdam Edition local wonderboys of bleep hop Zwart Licht will perform live, with the support of their producers FS Green and Sir OJ. Viral Radio veteran Aardvarck – DNA testing should one day prove the theory he is the father of the Gaslamp Killer – will join hosts Juha & Cinnaman to cover the spectrum of bleeps and bass in Amsterdam.

Viral Radio will continue to do regular events in the months in between, and radio shows every two weeks on VPRO’s 3voor12, bringing the next level in computated acoustic stimulants.

By Juha — Posted January 7, 2010 — 8,633 Comments

Non-fiction in 2009 (and we’ve only just begun..)

It has been an exciting first year (in beta) for us at Non-fiction, with projects ranging from social media strategies for the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ and Tropenmuseum Junior, via new concepts for an illustrious canal house ánd an ancient castle to a range of workshops in a.o. Ljubljana and Zürich. Together with our friends at TrouwAmsterdam we opened the temporary project space ‘De Verdieping‘, hosting a wide range of cultural and social events. The year ended with a cover story in Time Out magazine, giving our co-created vision of Amsterdam in 2020. The start of the next decade promises to be even more innovative, collaborative and challenging..

So what happened in 2009?

At the beginning of the year we worked with the renowned Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, the Concerthall of the 21st Century, helping the organization with their public strategy, new media development and visual identity.

In the months leading up to the summer we organized Aura: an exhibition and a series of events in the historic premises of Castrum Peregrini Foundation, where in WWII young German Jews survived in hiding.

Since March we are responsible for the artistic direction and strategic development of a cultural project space, De Verdieping, in the basement of the Berlin-style club and restaurant TrouwAmsterdam, resulting in a series of lively public discussions, art and architecture exhibitions, experimental performances and film nights in collaboration with half the city (and soon the world).

Around the summer working with the Tropenmuseum Junior (TMJ) in Amsterdam to devise a social strategy for their new exhibition ‘Qi of China‘ and an online game that enables children in the age of 6 – 13 to experience a number of key cultural values in Chinese culture.

Halfway through the year Non-fiction relocated its office from the Scheepvaartmuseum (National Maritime Museum) to the former laboratory of the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, right in the cultural heart of Amsterdam overlooking Museumplein (Museumsquare).

in July 2009 Non-fiction’s Juha van ‘t Zelfde co-founded VURB, together with Ben Cerveny, design strategist and data visualization theorist and in collaboration with James Burke (RoomwareNarb). VURB is a European framework for policy and design research concerning urban computational systems.

Next spring and summer we will be organizing several projects at Duivenvoorde Castle, a stately museum-mansion and unique parkland (see below) near the city of The Hague. We received a request from the organization to make a contribution to their yearlong celebration of the museum’s 50th anniversary in 2010.

In the past four years, we have been organizing experimental music events at Bimhuis, Melkweg, De Verdieping and TrouwAmsterdam. These nights are organized under our electronic music label Viral Radio, which has a regular show on Dutch public network VPRO‘s 3voor12.

In december we visited lovely Ljubljana to give a presentation and a series of workshops for the Access to Contemporary Art Conservation conference, organized by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage in collaboration with Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid and kindly hosted by the Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana.

Non-fiction’s Juha participated an intimate workshop in Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in his role as editor of Soundmuseum. ‘Audio Art on the Radio’ was organized by the Institute for Contemporary Arts Research of the Zurich University of the Arts, and focused on the question how open, interactive and democratic radio should be?

Recently the Amsterdam branch of the international city periodical Time Out invited us to come up with a vision of the city in the year 2020, so we decided to provide them with a collaborative urban visions by collecting dozens of thought-provoking Twitter-style messages from our friends and heroes from around the world.  The magazine has just hit the stores, so check it out or contact us if you wish to receive a copy!

Wow, that’s a lot..

And we even forgot to tell you about Curating the City, our night long interview series with museum professionals and artists about ‘the museum in the city and the city as museum’ during the annual Museumnight (n8), and about our latest publications and our friends, new and old, and about the birth of Michiel’s daughter and Juha’s hobbies.

And what are our plans for 2010?

Now the ‘noughties’ make way for a brand new decade, Non-fiction is gearing up for yet another year of recession-defying activities and  intelligent pragmatism. We will continu our exploration of the pro’s and con’s of co-creation, social media, urban interventions, guerilla gardening, data visualization, public accessibility, augmented reality, ubiquitous museums and other innovative ideas that will fundamentally change our lives.

And we will jumpstart the new year with presentations and proposals for such diverse organizations as the local municipality, SNS REAAL Foundation, Binger Filmlab, the Zuidas, PICNIC, ICN, Paradiso, Duivenvoorde and ING. And we are happy to receive more inquiries and invitations, since we can always outsource some of our activities to our man in India.

We will keep you updated on our website and on Facebook and Twitter (and here and here), but please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you are looking for a stimulating conversation, a good laugh or a place to meet kindred spirits.

Please join us for the opening of the new year in De Verdieping with a special sound performance by our dear friend and multi-instrumentalist Machinefabriek on Wednesday 6 January at 8 pm. And later that month, on Thursday 28 January at 8 pm we are hosting the ’2020 vision’ event at De Verdieping in collaboration with Time Out Amsterdam, showcasing different perspectives on the future of Amsterdam by KesselsKramer, LAgroup, Concrete, Benthem Crouwel and… Non-fiction.

Drive and shoot straight on New Year’s Eve!

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By Michiel — Posted December 31, 2009 — 9,076 Comments

Monthly film night The Great Dictators

The vanity of evil

The Great Dictators is a new monthly film night at De Verdieping, the cultural project space of TrouwAmsterdam, focussing on ‘the vanity of evil’. Each night centers around one absolute ruler, both past and present, and shows how tyrants and populist leaders are (re)presented in (documentary) films. Non-fiction’s Michiel van Iersel is curating this series.

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By Michiel — Posted September 15, 2009 — 4,600 Comments

CDR – create, bounce, burn.

CDR was picked up by Time Out Amsterdam

The August edition of CDR was picked up by Time Out Amsterdam

Create, bounce, and burn. This is the vernacular of a new generation of beat makers around the world. They use software with swanky names as Logic, Reason or Live to contribute to the ever growing architecture of rhythmculture. Forming scenes in Glasgow, Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam, and in many other outskirts, they are the dark metabolism of nightlife and music culture of today. With social networks reaching semantic cruising altitudes, the exchange rate of music is getting more spectacular by the day. Virally communicating and freely sharing through Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter, iChat and (even) MySpace, a faceless herd of avatars and monikers roam the digital present in search of a beat.

With CDR, Viral Radio and Beat Dimensions have joined London’s Burntprogress in creating a common ground for these producers to present their music. CDR, which takes place in De Verdieping in the ‘Berlinesque’ Wibaustraat in Amsterdam, acts as a hub and social hive for musicians, music professionals and the general public to exchange new beats. The process is basic: people bring their music on a CDR, hand it in to the DJs of the night, who will play them over the weighty club soundsystem. Each artist name and track title will be projected on the wall. The night will be opened by interviews with the visiting artists from the following Viral Radio night upstairs at TrouwAmsterdam. Entrance for musicians with a CDR is free; 5 euros is charged for other visitors. As a bonus everyone can stay for Viral Radio later on.

The third edition of CDR is about to start tonight at 8.30 PM at De Verdieping. We look forward to seeing you there.

By Juha — Posted September 4, 2009 — 6,598 Comments