Calender overview
WhyNot x Arcam: The Body & Borders
The Body & Borders
Location: Arcam, Architecture Institute Amsterdam
Date: 30 September
Times: 15:00 - 18:00
Entrance 10 euro
The Body & Borders is the third edition of a new series in which WhyNot connects the body and dance to each time a different art scene, to find common grounds and to inspire each other.
At Arcam, contemporary dance and performance platform WhyNot zooms in on the body in relation to architecture. The Body & Borders researches how the body moves through different types of spaces, and how an architect can alter this physical experience. How can we re-imagine our urban environment departing from a more physical, organic approach to the space around us? And how can architectural principles enrich our view on the body itself? With talks and short performances by different artists and architects, we dive deeper into the overlap between these two disciplines.
Programme
Studio RAAAF (film & talk)
RAAAF [Rietveld Architecture-Art Affordances] operates at the crossroads of architecture, art and philosophy. With projects like ‘The End of Sitting’ they question our (sitting) society. This architectural installation is a concept for a new working environment wherein the chair and desk are no longer unquestionable starting points. This afternoon they will give an insight into their working philosophy.
raaaf.nl
Het Nieuwe Instituut: WORK, BODY, LEISURE (talk)
Marina Otero Verzier (architect, researcher and director of Research at Het Nieuwe Instituut) curated WORK, BODY, LEISURE, the Dutch contribution to the 16th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale. Together with assistant curator and researcher Katía Truijen, she will discuss how the project fosters new forms of creativity and responsibility within the architectural field in response to emerging technologies of automation. They will highlight body-related projects from different artists from the Biennale 2018.
work-body-leisure.hetnieuweinstituut.nl
Gosse de Kort & Amos Ben-Tal (talk & interactive performance)
Visual artist Gosse de Kort studied Architecture at TU Delft and ArtScience at the Royal Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. His work takes place at the interface of the architectural and theatrical. Amos Ben-Tal is a dancer/ choreographer, who danced at Nederlands Dans Theater for nine years. Since 2012 he is creating his choreographies in collaboration with his collective OFFprojects, known for their ‘out of the box’ approach to dance and exceptional performing skills. Together they are creating a new interdisciplinairy work commissioned by WhyNot, as an investigation of how these art forms could merge, and be of significance for both the architecture and dance field. During The Body & Borders, they will talk about the first steps in their research and will engage the audience in an exercise about physicality and space.
gossedekort.com / offprojects.nl
Mariana Fernandez Mora (interactive performance lecture)
With her Rietveld graduation project The Wall, Mariana works with a real size print of one of the prototypes for the border wall between Mexico and the United States, looking to confront different environments and cultures with the physical dimension of the object as a way to question the human implications of a plan of this magnitude.
thewall-project.com
Antonia Steffens: Extract of Metamotion (performance)
At Arcam, Antonia presents an extract of her graduation work “Metamotion for 270degrees” specially chosen for the context of “The Body & Borders”. In between the two performers, that are made out of human and non human material, a web of relationships unfolds, that deal with the desire to overcome each others differences and negotiates who is the "builder" and who the "building". Being both, attracted and rejected, a worker finds herself being constructed by her own building. The space opens up to a imagined-real locality, made out of references, mental states, speculative histories and desired futures. While conversing and merging into each other, the two agents become sparring partners, that are intertwined in a play of power and recognition, while remaining unable to fully grasp each others roles. In a mental and physical construction of overlapping spaces unfolds a danse macabre of (e)motion, physical labor, constructed illusions and a decaying history of classicism.
Stephanie Lama (moderator)
The evening will be moderated by Stephanie Lama, architect at NOAHH - Network Oriented Architecture, engaged as architect in the project for the new Education and Cultural Center (Onderwijs & Cultuurcentrum) in The Hague which will house The Hague Philharmonic, the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), the Royal Conservatory and the Dance and Music Center foundation. Stephanie is a guest teacher at the Academy for Architecture in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and CODARTS School of the Arts. From a fascination for both the body and space, together with architect and pianist Sebastian Janusz she set up Space in Motion and creates site-specific performances, architectural designs, and installations for, among others, the Van Gogh Museum, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, EYE film museum, Arcam and the Muiderpoort theater.spaceinmotion.org
Ourspace @ RAUM
Ourspace @ RAUM
Location: Berlijnplein, Utrecht
Date: Saturday 15 September
Times: 18:00 - 22:00
OurSpace is a performative game that zooms in on online and offline behaviour. Specially for RAUM, OurSpace has been redesigned for the Leidsche Rijn neighbourhood in Utrecht. Our social bot provides the participants with facts and gives them movement assignments based on social contacts.
OurSpace is an initiative of WhyNot, Klasien van de Zandschulp and James Graves, and is based on the previous project iPerform designed for the Van Gogh Museum in 2015.
OURSPACE
OURSPACE
a social performance bot
OurSpace is a participatory performance that zooms in on the virtual and the physical space between people, their online and offline identity and social encounters.
Ourspace is a quirky social experiment and performance that choreographs the bodies of participants using a chatbot in WhatsApp. The performance tests the boundaries of space in our hyperconnected world. It’s a productive way to reflect on the seemingly normalized things we do in virtual social networks like following, zooming and liking -- and to highlight the embodied experience of these media practices.
The audience is guided by an artificial chatbot on WhatsApp. This artificial companion is sharing stories and responding with assignments that translates online social habits into physical movements. These storylines can vary from simple actions “If you think somebody looks interesting, tap this person on the shoulder” to more intimate actions “Observe your new friend closely: smell them, feel them”.
Credits:
OurSpace is an initiative and production of Klasien van de Zandschulp, WhyNot, and James Bryan Graves.
Choreography: Marjolein Vogels Script: Klasien van de Zandschulp, Daisy Benz, Marjolein Vogels
Technology: James Bryan Graves
Interaction Design: Klasien van de Zandschulp
Music: Mark Meeuwenoord
Graphic Design: Angela Lidderdale
In September 2018 we launched Ourspace 3.0, commissioned by RAUM, Utrecht. This new version of Ourspace is focussing on new social spaces (neighbourhoods, festivals). It offers an offline social network, human data visualizations and guarantees ‘new friends for life!’. OurSpace was inspired by the interactive app iPerform, developed for Van Gogh Museum in 2015. Currently, OurSpace has been bought by schools, and it being played by kids all around the country.
Julidans x WhyNot: Off Venue
Julidans x WhyNot: Off Venue
As WhyNot we have an idiosyncratic view of dance and frequently work with makers who stretch the discipline's boundaries and overthrow conventions. As such Julidans and WhyNot will meet and join hands this year. On Saturday afternoon, 14th July, WhyNot will be curating an alternative dance route: Off Venue. This free tour leads the audience along five different short dance performances, at five special locations in Amsterdam West and the Centre, from hidden cafes to record stores. Up-and-coming dance talents such as Charlotte Mathiessen (Chronos) present new work and choreographers such as Nicole Beutler experiment with the outdoor space.
Jump on your bike and be surprised!
More information about the route can be found soon at www.offvenue.nl
