Blue Daisy

This weekend the stage of the OT301 was filled with musical instruments, MPC’s, midi-controllers, turntables and their operators. The two nights starred the innovative music producers of the future.

Featuring: Kuedo dj-set (soundcloud), S. Maharba live (bandcamp), Blue Daisy live (soundcloud), Tropics live (soundcloud), Free the Robots live, Juha dj-set (soundcloud), Solar Bears live (soundcloud) and Zelyan live.

Tropics

Solar Bears

Free The Robots

Juha

S. Maharba

Kuedo

We’d like to know what you thought about the music, the ambiance and the people at Viral Radio, also we’d like to see your photos and videos. Email us at info@viralradio.net.

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Describe this week in one image?

Juha: release of Zero History for the Moon Life Concept Store.

Boris: Old & New, Warm, Thinking, Wait for it, GO!

Where did you get most of your news this week?

Juha: Twitter first, the Guardian second.

Boris: Flipboard for the iPad, an amazing app which turns all of the news you consume into one easy to read magazine format. Giving a zero-resistance way for me to view content from all kinds of sources, curated by Flipboard, my Facebook and twitter contacts and rss feeds from more obscure sources. I will try to write a blog post for De toekomst van de krant about Flipboard, I promise.

Which person would you recommend following on Twitter?

Juha: @cottam for odd futures, @failedarchitect for what went wrong with architecture, @benhammersley for, well, mostly silly jokes.

Boris: @benhammersley - Maybe the best and funniest alternative technology/futurology news source available. Next level thinking combined with some of the best traditionally prepared English humour.

What do you think of the new Facebook overhaul, and while you are at it, the Spotify integration?

Juha: Interesting. I installed the new timeline by following the developer’s instructions and I must admit I am impressed with the overall design. The ticker is another interesting addition, but not uncontroversial. The ticker shows you what your friends are doing and liking all over Facebook. It’s part ambient conversation, par social spyware. There are good sides, but there appear to be as many bad ones too (1, 2). The Spotify integration is probably a huge development for the music industry. Spotify, and with it the musicians and labels, have gained a potential of 800 million new listeners. The cloud music service has gained over 2 million subscribers since the Facebook integration was announced at f8.

Boris: I think it’s amazing how Facebook managed to reimagine the idea of the profile, next to Juha’s new shiny profile mine looks like it was written on the back of the Dead Sea scrolls. Although I have some serious doubts about some of the privacy implications (I listen to things on Spotify I would’nt want the world to know) and think we need to pay some attention to how we handle this the new profile is going to be huge for the way we consume social news, discover music and recognise social weather.

You both organised something on Wednesday. How was it?

Juha: I organised De toekomst van de krant, the future of the newspaper. It was awesome, thanks for asking. We watched the first part of News War, the PBS documentary about the crisis in the American newspaper industry. After the movie, I interviewed Volkskrant journalist Hans Aarsman, about his thoughts on the subject. He was joined by an engaged audience of media professionals from Het Financieel Dagblad and nu.nl. We had a great talk about the role of newspapers, and the need for innovative and disruptive thinking from within the news distribution model.

Boris: I organised the first editorial meeting with everyone working for VPRO Dorst announcing the changes we are going for on the short and the long term, and to give everyone a long overdue refresher about what our values are and why we exist. The group was huge, we were suprised that when we ordered pizza for everyone no one called to ask if we where sure, the pizzas even arrived on time, this made everyone a bit quiet at first but the heated discussions and inspired that followed where surely worth everything.

I used this meeting and the update I prepared to straighten everything out in our vision and mission, and update what our core values mean. So with renewed ideas and direction, VPRO Dorst moves into the future!

Did you meet anyone interesting this week?

Juha: Yes, I had a wonderful lunch with Lorenzo de Rita of the Soon Institute, one of the most charming and creative men in Amsterdam. I loved his idea of publishing a book of an Italian artist that consists of three years of wiretapping records of his convicted criminal father.

Boris: I just met Lorenzo de Rita, someone I think all of us would like to get close to Non-fiction. A bit surreal though since this morning I rewatched his interesting Picnic talk The Best City Never Seen, and wouldnt have expected to see him in real life immediately afterwards.

Are books still relevant in your life?

Juha: Yes sir! I am glad I am still a reader, however difficult it sometimes remains to find the time or the concentration. I am currently reading A Brief History of the Future by Jacques Attali and The Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson. I should finish the novel in one stretch, but I got distracted by the book with the great title. I haven’t tried an e-reader yet, also because of the tactile sentiments books still have. But I am sure it will happen soon.

Boris: I don’t read. There are two reasons for this: the first is that I am dyslectic and/or lazy and not I don’t want to plow through a gazillion pages filled with symbols; the other is that I hate stuff, and books tend to at some point transform themselves into clutter in one of the corners of my bedroom.

Luckily there are two solutions for this. The solution for the second problem is easy: eBooks, eReaders and eDistribution. The release of the new Amazon Kindles must make this more within reach, but my iPad also functions fine for reading shorter texts.

The solution to my dyslexia/lazyness is audiobooks. Audiobooks give an experience somewhere between being told a story or interesting concept at a fireplace in a romantic wooden cabin and Kuedo’s new album Severant. The problem with this is that a lot of interesting books (Everyware by Adam Greenfield for instance) do not get released as audiobook. Still a lot of beautiful books are available. I recommend writers with great voices like Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion or narrators with great sense of language like the reading of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Stephen Fry.

How about movies?

Juha:  Oh yes. Cinemas are a thing to cherish. My favourite ones in Amsterdam are the Movies and Kriterion. I miss visiting Lantaren/Venster in Rotterdam, but I promise to get over it.

Boris: I love movies, and keep meticulous ratings on everything I see and a complete list of everything I want to see soon. I find documentairy movies to be a great kickstarter for rapid thinking and cinema films great for getting wild ideas and inspiration.

How is the new office?

Juha: It is awesome. You should all come by for a drink on Fridays at 6. We have quite a view.

Boris: Wow, I could live here and I probably would if Juha would just let me move in here. The view, the sounds, the atmosphere and in a few weeks the other tenants will make this the single best office in all of Amsterdam, I’m convinced.

We have just started a new tradition. From time to time, hopefully on regular basis, we would like to release an update on what we are currently working on, fascinated by and preparing for. We will be experimenting with the format, but, now, we find small interviews as a suitable way how to share information with you. Short questions, which will be changing over time, should give you, and us, an idea of Non-fiction daily life. Here come the the first round of questions:

• A warm up question: If you would have to sum up this week with one word, what would it be?
• We had many interesting meetings this week. Which one was somehow special for you?
• Are you leaving abroad this weekend? If so, where and why.
• Song/poem/favorite Czech saying/novel describing this week?
• Why have we just started Non-fiction Diary?

Juha   

• Sauna-on-the-sea.
• There were a few, but I really enjoyed our final presentation with the Ives Ensemble: lots of energy and constructive ideas for the near and far future for one of my favourite ensembles. They play music for the future.
• I am going to Linz today to give a presentation at Ars Electronica. It will be on how networked media are changing the way we experience cities, and how I use applications as Urbanode, Sonar and Forecast to read urban information.
• New Kuedo album Severant is the best coming out this year. And King Rat by China Miéville was an incredible read.
• We were busy reading BERG’s weeknotes… but here we are, see you next week, have a good weekend.

Adéla

• Thesis
• Besides the first half of the week when I was in daily intensive contact with no one else but my thesis, I met on Thursday Radna with whom we spoke about possible collaboration on Capital A. Nonetheless, as it usually goes, we also managed to have girly talk, discuss rotten fruits or possibility of a new haircut.
• No, staying in Amsterdam and hoping for some sun.
• Since I am an expert on Czech sayings, I am happy you have asked this question. This week can be sum up by this saying: Komu se nelení, tomu se zelení./Who is not lazy has a green field.
• There are so many great things going around us every day, this might be a way how to process them and share them.

Boris

(On Fridays, our non-Non-fiction, thus fictional, friend Boris van Hoytema, often joins our office. So here you can read a interview with our office guest from VPRO Dorst)

• Retrospective
• The week was dominated by my yearly meeting at the VPRO, looking back at a year’s wins and losses, and making the environment for me to function optimally for the next period I will be there.
• No, I will stay in and work.
• You cannot know the future without knowing the past
• Everything moves to fast. Time capsules will give us the only possibility to remember where we where we were.

And, yes, Michiel is still Non-fiction, and you can read an interview with him soon too. You are also encouraged to ask your own questions, we might use them in the next diary post. Have a nice weekend and thanks for following us.

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.