Have been playing with video material from experiment no 003 at the Stopera in Amsterdam, check here for more details about this action. Video editing still not my favourite pastime, but nice to have moving images for a change.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Amsterdam alderwoman Carolien Gehrels improvising a rap number,

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This is Simone Bommelje, leading light of Yuhry and ever-ready to play!

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And here one of the event’s organisers at play

Did experiment no 003 in a totally new setting yesterday.  Thanks to Yuhri I got to play with Amsterdam civil servants in the famous Stopera – the city hall annex opera house  that is so emblematic. It was really great to get the opportunity to go to a non-art venue and see how the experiment works there. Thanks again Simone!

First of all I had to think of a way to connect to the theme of the conference. The reason the Amsterdam civil servants got together was to generate ideas to make “Metropolis Amsterdam” (even) more attractive to people and businesses from all over the world. So I decided to do the thing performance-wise: me as a brain-trainer and the Wind installation as a brain-train-instrument that makes players  more creative.  This is a whole new take on the idea behind experiment no 003, and one that opens up a lot of new avenues. So: good. No: fantastic!

Anyway, I put the thing at the entrance of the conference and invited a lot of people to play. And they played!  I even got keynote speaker and Amsterdam alderman (or -woman, really)  Carolien Gehrels improvising a rap number, chanting  ’Im on it, I’m on it, this fohn is megatronic’. She’s cool!

Pics included here are stills from the video material I’ve got. I’ll do a bit of editing:  the Brain Trainer video is to be uploaded to YouTube shortly….

Had lunch yesterday with Simone Bommelje, creative motor behind startup Yuhri. Screenshot  shows her (left) as a Little Fallen Angel on YouTube.

We share a fascination: how to get adults in a playful mood? Had a lovely time comparing notes.  Yuhri aims to introduce games where people wait: at railway stations, hospitals, meetings. Sounds familiar? “Yuhri offers – with help from an international creative network – large artistic objects or small gadgets that provide those waiting with a memorable experience”.

We talked about how to use my games in a Yuhri context. And the good thing is: we’ll be doing a tryout next week! Simone does business at a conference hosted by the municipality of Amsterdam,  and we’ll place  my  Wind game there.  I love the idea of presenting my games in a not-gallery and not-arty space!

Did another move action yesterday: masters students relocated to the Asch van Wijckkade, as the school at IBB closes down for the summer. Very nice space we’ve got – much bigger, nice location, beautiful light. We’ll do the dividing-up-thing today, hope no blood will flow. Will watch the Brazil-Holland soccer and have dinner afterwards with the survivors.

So: new lab facilities for visual-art-research.com!

This space is really posh –  need to think of a way to take advantage of  this. Also for the first time I can really install, without the need to share the space or move things in and out very quickly. Am working on a series of balls of different sizes, textures and springy-ness to use in the installation I have in mind.

Of course it was  kids that did the coolest experiments during my slots at CATCHING UP. They even added an extra dimension to Experiment no. 003.

They  found out that the hair drier keeps blowing once the microphone is directed towards it – it becomes a closed loop, and the contraption never stops blowing. For the sound of the hair drier goes to the microphone which triggers the drier –  ad infinitum. Then these kids took a ball from Experiment no 005 (which was in the same room) and had it balance on the warm jet of air out of the drier. Then they tried different sizes and materials of balls – I made them stop when the yellow plastic ball that ‘s on pic no 4 was almost melting.

I love the way kids take to my experiments. I love the way adults shy away from them.