According to a recent referendum it is Friday. This means new Non-fiction drinks at 6 to increase the crisis-fighting firepower of the cultural sector.
“What should I bring?” you ask? Easy: something personal you would like to share with other people. Last week Lorenzo de Rita brought his books from The Soon Institute, and the week before Adéla introduced Becherovka.
We look forward to seeing you tonight at Gabriël Metsustraat 8 at 6.
Almost exactly a year ago we started our search for two interns. And what result we had: one is now traveling the world as a successful producer of zeitgeist music, the other graduated cum laude from the University of Maastricht and is now an official Non-fictioner.
Today, we continue our search for a new intern.
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Alicia Framis, ‘Lost Astronaut’ (2009)
Moon Life speculates on the possibility that humans will live in space in the future. With this thought in mind, the project is a stimulus for artists, architects and designers to create futuristic, radical, political but humane concepts for an extreme lunar environment.
The Moon Life Concept Store, part of the Moon Life Project, creates its own futuristic world in which visitors can explore and test or experience the products and concepts that represent future human life in space.
The Moon Life Concept Store is a pop up shop and art exhibition which will travel around the world, with larger contribution by the Moon Academy. 20 international professionals architects, designers, fashion designers and musicians are personally invited to propose a contribution to Moon Life.
For the Moon Life Concept Store, Non-fiction’s music node Viral Radio is creating a Moon Life Soundtrack, and we are actively looking for contributions. Musicians can submit their music to the Viral Radio dropbox on Soundcloud, or via WeTransfer. For questions please send us an e-mail at info@viralradio.net. For more information on Moon Life visit http://moon-life.org.
Five recordings we have been listening to this week:
1. Skuli Sverisson – Seria II
Latest album from New York bases Icelandic bass guitar player that was recommended to us by the equally talented Raphael Vanoli of Knalpot.
2. Zomby – Witch Hunt
From the new album ‘Dedication’ by English producer Zomby who together with Hudson Mohawke and Rustie took out and liquidated dubstep in 2008.
3. Morton Feldman – For Aaron Copland
We have started working with the Ives Ensemble, who have collaborated with one of our favourite composers of the 20th century Morton Feldman.
4. Kuedo – Oh
New ep on Planet Mu by one half of refrigerated post-dystopia steppers Vex’d and Viral Radio friend Jamie Teasdale who roams the world under his anime pseudonym Kuedo.
5. Grouper – You Never Came
The sound you would hear if you were to shred a digital copy of ‘Do Cyborgs Dream of Electric Sheep’.
So many things are happening in our world but we always forget to write about them. Here’s a fresh attempt to share with you the things we do.
First, on Wednesday, Michiel – with Tim Verlaan and Mark Minkjan – hosted the third local edition of Failed Architecture, the blog that became an architects’ physical space hang out. This time with distinguished guests Maja Popovic, Paul Groenendijk and Ana Souto. Unfortunately Arnold Reijndorp was ill. Another great mixed crowd of young architects and architecture students gathered in the basement of De Verdieping.
Then, on Thursday, we signed an agreement with the world-renowned contemporary music protagonists the Ives Ensemble, who we have followed and admired for as long as we know about the music of Morton Feldman and John Cage – these American composers have written compositions for this ensemble. We will help them in any way possible with their never-ending search for new contexts for their already existing and yet to be found repertoire. And we will also develop and implement new public instruments for becoming a truly public ensemble in our networked culture. Simply put: we will be one part archaeologists of their artistic history, and one part momentum machine for their sociocultural future.
We cannot emphasize enough how delighted and honoured we are with this new partnership, and we look forward to working with such a landmark of Dutch culture.
Between this, we continued creating new plans for the vast portfolio of city restorers Stadsherstel, for whom we are acting a bit like embedded innovators. Besides Zaanse Schans, where Michiel, Amie and Dea are currently preparing one of the houses to become a new arts residency, we are working helping Stadsherstel engaging with different audiences through adopting new strategies for their projects. One of the examples is the ‘development blog‘ of the Zaanse Schans. Here those involved will share images, quotes and references relevant to the whole process of the little house recently that moved here. We are preparing to set up a crowdfunding platform with Stadsherstel, and we will be imagining new futures for one of the fortresses that is part of the Stelling van Amsterdam. That’s right, a fortress. Should be awesome, don’t you think?
A fortress does come in handy in the current ‘war on culture’ that is taking place in the Netherlands. Maybe we can house the homeless art institutions here after 2013, when the proposed funding cuts will be implemented. But let’s hope someone will find a legal route to stop our Minister of Culture implementing his economically irrational and culturally counterproductive plans.
There are more plans underway, for Teylers Museum, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ and Picnic, but we will tell you more about these in the coming weeks.
For now, drive and shoot straight.
Juha
“Hecker accomplishes something special. He makes music for which you switch of one sense to make space for another.” De Volkskrant
On Sunday 1 May Canadian artist-academic Tim Hecker and Iceland based composer Australian Ben Frost performed for the first time at Viral Radio at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam’s renowned venue for jazz, improvised and experimental music. On one of the most difficult days on the Dutch calendar – 1 May is one day after national holiday Queen’s Day – and with a full terrace on the water outside in the sun, close to 300 people visited one of our most anticipated events this year.
Both artists performed powerful sets of evocative music from their recent albums Ravedeath, 1972 and By The Throat. National newspaper De Volkskrant published a raving review by Gijsbert Kamer, who rated the performances a 4/5. “
“With musical performances and sound installations the museum became pleasantly noisy.” NRC Handelsblad