Worlding the Brain 2017

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The next edition of the Worlding the Brain conference is coming up! From 2-4 November 2017. Theme this year is Affect, Care and Engagement. Our keynotes are VittorioGallese, Alva Noe and Felicity Callard. The confernece includes an evening in the Stedelijk Museum, as part of the Stedelijk Statements. See for more information the Worlding the Brain website. The extended program can be found here. Graphic design of banner and posters by Johanna Ehde and Anton Weflo. 

Cinema Olanda Platform: Black Figures, Black Voices

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Cinema Olanda: Platform
17 June - 20 August 2017


Witte de With transforms into an adaptable platform for groups and individuals who have informed Cinema Olanda, artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh and curator Lucy Cotter’s presentation in the Dutch pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale 2017. A series of changing presentations and public events will be programmed by Quinsy Gario (Artist, Poet), Charl Landvreugd (Artist, Curator, Writer), Patricia Pisters and Esther Peeren (ASCA, University of Amsterdam), New Urban Collective (Jessica de Abreu, Mitchell Esajas), and First Things First (Katayoun Arian; Curator, Researcher, Writer, Louise Autar; Activist, Organiser, and Max de Ploeg, Activist, Cultural & Political Programmer). 
 
Black Figures, Black Voices
Monday 3 July - Sunday 9 July 2017 

A series of events, talks, performances, and screenings programmed by participants at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam, chaired by Patricia Pisters and Esther Peeren. See impression of both evenings at the ASCA website here. Under 'Photos' on this site there is a visual impression. 

 
Black Figures, Black Voices: Zwart Belicht; Painted black 
Tuesday 4 July 2017, 7 - 10 pm 

An evening about hidden black (art) histories


The first session of Black Figures, Black Voices focuses on the documentary Zwart Belicht; Painted Black(2008) by Tessa Boerman, which zooms in on the hidden stories behind black figures in 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings Shedding new light on famous paintings such as those of Pieter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt van Rijn, as well as less famous works of art, the film tempts us to look at what was meant to be seen, but has often been overlooked. In response to Zwart Belicht, Valika Smeulders (researcher at KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) discusses issues of representation, colonial history and art historical canons with Boerman, and performer Naomi Veldwijk reads from Robin Coste Lewis’ collection of poems, Voyage of the Sable Venus (2015).

Recordings of the entire Cinema Olanda Platform at Witte de With can be found on the gallery's Youtube channel.

 
Black Figures, Black Voices: Edgar Cairo
Thursday 6 July 2017, 7 - 10 pm

A Dutch James Baldwin or Frantz Fanon? Whose voice spoke the Dutch (post-)colonial context?

A second session of Black Figures, Black Voices focuses on the work of the Surinamese -Dutch poet and author Edgar Cairo (1948-2000). The evening starts with a screening of Cindy Kerseborn's (Film Maker) documentary 'Edgar Cairo: ‘Ik ga dood om jullie hoofd’ (2011), about the life and work of this writer, poet, painter and performer. Kerseborn's film highlights Cairo's role as a pioneer in the thinking about a black identity and a black consciousness in the context of the Dutch colonial history and post-colonial present. During this evening, Charl Landvreugd (Artist, Researcher) will read from Cairo’s poems and present a performative lecture that focuses on reading Cairo as theory. In the exhibition space, a number of rarely exhibited paintings by Edgar Cairo will be on display. The program ends with time for questions and a dialogue between the audience, Charl Landvreugd and Cindy Kerseborn. Read more

Location: Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (entrance fee for the museum, event is free)
 

NECS conference 2018 in Amsterdam

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Announced at the NECS2017 conference in Paris: Next year we will organize in Amsterdam. See the trailer above. 

Images below from the Paris conference 29 June - 1 July 2017. See also NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies)

Kevin B Lee, Patricia Pisters, Jaap Kooijman at the Sorbonne during the NECS2017 conference Paris. 

Necsus # True

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The Spring 2017 issue of NECSUS is out with a sepcial section TRUE by guest editors Ilona Hongisto, Toni Pape, and Alanna Thain. And the audio-visual essays section curated by Kevin B. Lee.  And much more to check out at www.necsus-ejms.org

Geomediations

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Image: Pieter Paul Pothoven, Lapis Lazuli from Serr-i-Sang, PuntWG, Amsterdam, 2015. Photograph by Gert-Jan van Rooij

Geo Mediations

A symposium with Jussi Parrika, Femke Herregraven, Erin Espelie, Conny Groenewegen, Pieter Paul Pothoven, Adam Nocek and Patricia Pisters

16 Juni 2017 20:30 -23:00  

Mediamatic Biotoop

Dijkspark 6, 1019BS Amsterdam

http://www.mediamatic.net/

Geo Mediations celebrates the entanglements of media and geological events. By situating media objects and digital culture within geological processes, the event addresses the need for a materialist understanding of mediation in the Anthropocene: the present geological epoch during which humans have become a geological force that is capable of having environmental impact on the earth. The evening program brings together a wide ensemble of voices in both talks and artwork presentations.

 The program is composed and organized in collaboration with ASCA (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis) and the Laboratory for Critical Technics from Arizona State University and will be hosted by Mediamatic.

Femke Herregraven Optical Orbits

Visual artist Femke Herregraven will present Optical Orbits, a video work that addresses the historical and contemporary construction and geography of the telecommunications infrastructure that serves as the backbone of today’s financial markets.

Pieter Paul Pothoven: Stone Light Mirror

Pieter Paul Pothoven’s artistic work consists of installations, sculptures and photography, and also includes different forms of writing. In Mediamatic, Pothoven will present Stone Light Mirror, a work that engages two ongoing projects that focus on ancient geological resources and artifacts, their postcolonial history and the social interaction they continue to mediate as precious commodities.

Jussi Parrika + Emma Charles: Underground: An Occult Infrastructure

Underground: An Occult Infrastructure is a performance talk. Media theorist Jussi Parikka elaborateson the centrality of the underground and the imaginary of the invisible, hidden data infrastructures as part of the current focus on data culture and the legacies of the Cold War. The talk is performed as part of Emma Charles’ film The White Mountain (2016). The White Mountain is a 16mm docu-fiction film that is set primarily in the Pionen data centre, a former Cold War era civil defence bunker buried 30 metres underground in Stockholm and redesigned by architect Albert France-Lanord in 2008 to house large servers, notably having included those of Wikileaks and PirateBay.

Conny Groenewegen: Fashion Machines

Conny Groenewegen creates fashion and art pieces made from textile with a focus on production and labour processes. In collaboration with the Laboratory for Critical Technics at Arizona State University, Mediamatic and Conny Groenewegen presents Fashion Machines: a large scale installation incorporating more than 1.000 kg of fleece sweaters and the labor of hundreds of volunteers to set the machines in motion. As such, Fashion Machine is a critical reminder of the magnitude and lasting impact the fashion industry has on the Earth.

Erin Espelie: Automorphic

Erin Espelie is an American filmmaker, writer, and editor. Her work investigates current scientific research related to the Anthropocene, issues in environmental history, questions of epistemology, and our expectations of the moving image. Her film Automorphic shows the rare-earth mining operations in the Mojave Desert and how they offer their own set of boundaries for our sense of seeing, self-reflection, and meditation on technology.

Information and Tickets

Geo Mediations Symposium 
Friday 16 June
Program starts at 20:30
Mediamatic Biotoop, Dijksgracht 6, Amsterdam

Geomediations Collective website


 

 

Felix & Sophie: Het Denken van Deleuze

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Felix & Sophie op 16 mei 2017

Hoe werkt het denken van Gilles Deleuze?

 

De filosofie van Gilles Deleuze staat bekend als uiterst moeilijk, en niet zonder reden. Zij staat bol van neologismen, waaronder transcendentaal-empirisme, deterritorialisatie, lichaam-zonder-organen, immanentievlak en vluchtlijn. Achter deze enorme woordenbrij treft men bovendien ook nog eens een grootse systematiek.

Ondanks de complexiteit wint Deleuze vandaag de dag wel enorm aan populariteit. Zijn denken wordt in de meest diverse kringen toegepast: metafysici, antimetafysici, nihilisten, theologen, literatoren, filmmakers, management-specialisten, wiskundigen en chaostheoretici – allen hechten zij een groot belang aan het werk van deze Fransman. Deze avond zullen we Deleuze’s bijdrage aan twee domeinen van de filosofie onder de loep nemen: de metafysica en de esthetica.

Binnen het metafysische denken heeft Deleuze een unieke positie. Hoewel hij bijvoorbeeld bekend staat als postmodern, moet Deleuze niks hebben van het einde van de metafysica. Deleuze is veeleer een realist: in zijn denken ontwaart hij structuur in een wereld zonder God - geen pure chaos, geen universele kosmos maar een ‘chaosmos’. Met behulp van concepten als ‘verschil’, ‘multipliciteit’, ‘ rizoom’ of ‘assemblage’ maakt hij de oneindige hoeveelheid verschillende dingen van de wereld tot zijn uitgangspunt terwijl hij die op hetzelfde moment binnen één en hetzelfde denkraam probeert te vangen.

Ook binnen de esthetica is Deleuze’s denken invloedrijk. Voorop daarin staat het soort ervaring dat de kunsten ons bieden. Waar de filosofie volgens hem vooral concepten moet creëren, creëert de kunst namelijk ‘een brok ervaring’ in de vorm van een affect of percept. Aan die percepten moet de filosoof proberen in een concept uitdrukking te geven. In zijn invloedrijke studies over film doet Deleuze dat bijvoorbeeld door het soort ervaring dat de film ons biedt nader te articuleren. We moeten films volgens hem niet beschouwen als een aaneenschakelijking van losse momentopnames, maar als een ondeelbare fluïde beweging. Gewapend met dat inzicht buigt hij zich over het effect van die beelden, een effect ‘op de hersenen’ in plaats van de geest.

Aan de hand van deze twee dimensies, het metafysische en het esthetische, zullen we niet alleen proberen de complexe logica van Deleuzes denken te ontrafelen maar ook te demonstreren hoe zijn denken werkt.

Met: Patricia Pisters