Stedelijk Museum presenteert Stedelijk in de stad

Stedelijk will be present at Picnic 2009 with a special programme on the 23rd, 24th an 25th of September at the Westergasterrein in Amsterdam.

What: PICNIC 2009

When: 23, 24, 25 September 2009

Where: Westergasterrein, Amsterdam

Stedelijk Museum – The Construction Cabin on tour
The Stedelijk Museum is touring the city of Amsterdam with special projects and exhibitions. One of those projects is the ‘Construction Cabin on tour’. This artistic version of a construction cabin, a design by Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe, is a temporary nerve-centre for experiments, workshops, performances, talks, walks, discussions and debates.

Drop in for a free cup of coffee and meet artists, game designers, and museum staff, or visit the programme we compiled especially for PICNIC 2009.

The breeding ground of the digital revolution
A programme selected by Stedelijk curator Marten Jongema with classics from the era
1985 – 1995, in which the advent of Flash enabled designers and artists to create their own digital animations and video montages. In Amsterdam, the illegal pirate station PARK-TV allowed artists and designers to broadcast their films, while graphic designers like Max Kisman and Rosto created bumpers and leaders for national television. The Stedelijk collection contains numerous of these classics, of which we will show a selection during PICNIC 2009.

Me at the Stedelijk
Let us take your photograph in front of a green screen and wander through the former rooms of the Stedelijk: stand face to face with a Warhol, check out Lichtenstein, maybe meet your friends in the Karel Appel bar? Me at the Stedelijk is a project by Isabel Lucena, graduate of the Design department of the Sandberg Institute. She developed the project for ‘Visibly Absent’, one of the projects of ‘Stedelijk Goes to Town’.

Wednesday September 23, 16-17h
Come and have a look at the Drawing Machines!
Artist Jochem van der Spek will give you insight in his drawing machines (the Stedelijk has one in it’s collection)
Painting is a celebration of the trinity formed by thinking, moving and looking.
These are, like our views and thoughts about movement, anthropomorphic. They are determined by our expectations and limited by our physique. The question, what does a non-human movement look like, leads to the question: what does a non-human line look like? Can it hold emotion, will we not see the humanity of a movement all the more in its absence?
The drawing machines and machine drawings explore the balance, searching for where the human experience lies. In the midst of all possible mechanical, predictable, repeatable, constant and non-human movements, a few sometimes show character, a poetry that is theirs and theirs alone.

Thursday September 24, 17-18 h
Round table discussion. Museums and e-culture: from digitization to innovation?
In the mid 1990s the first museums started to appear online. In that early period the deployment of new media technology equalled innovation. Futuristic ideas of reaching vast new audiences through virtual platforms prevailed. Especially for museums with major collections - that in the analogue world remain largely unseen, as they are stashed away in the depots – digitization seemed the answer to their prayers. 15 year later, however, many museums are still struggling to make this dream a reality. At the same time the virtual and AR media have multiplied and using them is not enough to be considered innovative (as SenterNovem, the Dutch governmental innovation platform recently made clear). So what is the significance of e-culture for the contemporary museum world and what does it take to be innovative? 
These, and other probing questions will fuel a round table discussion in the Stedelijk’s Construction Cabin. Participants are a.o. Dr. Margriet Schavemaker (Head of collections at the Stedelijk Museum and specialist in the field of e-culture and media art), Wouter de Voogd (Database Manager at the Stedelijk Museum), Trilce Navarrete (PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam, researches the documentation of museum information) and James Burke (Co-founder / Interaction Designer of narb.me, a new interactive museumrelated platform) 

Friday September 25, 16-17h
Games and Art!? How to develop an artistic game? And what could be the raison d’être for the artistic game?
In 2008, the Stedelijk Museum and SubmarineChannel received the award for ‘best idea for an artistic game’ at PICNIC. Development of the game is now in the works.
Marten Jongema (Stedelijk Museum curator), Sander van der Vegte (successful game designer, developed ‘Rocket Riot’ for XBOX LIVE ARCADE) and Monobanda (a collective of five young artists/game designers) will talk about the status of the independent and the artistic game. Can independent game designers fuel a serious discussion with artists? Should we expect crossovers between the disciplines or will nothing change about the introverted nature of these disciplines?

Friday September 25, 15-16h
Watch the VPRO-documentary Trendspotting San Francisco by
Alexander Oey, Gabrielle Provaas and Rob Schröder on the Game Developers Conference and the Independent Games Festival in San Francisco.
San Francisco is the stomping ground of hip and creative America. This bustling and geeky city is host to the renowned Game Developers Conference (GDF). One of the most important elements of GDF is the Independent Games Festival. As more and more artists and small graphic design agencies have started to develop games, they have created a market for their niche product, aimed at enthusiasts. The game industry has evolved into a billion dollar business, overshadowing the film industry. But still: every game is based on an artistic thought. How does artistry relate to the commercial aspects of the industry? And is it still possible to develop a game without large financiers? What will be the influence of the ever evolving design techniques? Isn’t it time to start looking at games from a different perspective, in which the game functions as an interactive, expressive medium that focuses on experience rather than result? What future developments are to be expected and how will games relate to artistic disciplines such as literature or film?