Social media have made a name for themselves in society. For many, a life without is barely conceivable. How does art relate to social media? Artists are, as with the introduction of photography and video, first at the scene to explore the (artistic) possibilities of the medium. But also to critically examine and question them. Reason enough for Kunstenlab to ask me as a guest curator for an exhibition on this topic. Not only because I’m an artist, designer, curator and owner of a record label, but also as early and frequent social media user.

The exhibition ‘#isthemessage’ shows a kaleidoscopic and intriguing image of social media and the phenomena triggered by them. For example, Christopher Baker makes you aware of the nature of tweets in his Murmur Study, Birgit Bachler lets you listen to the Internet and examines an anonymous communication network in physical public with The Discrete Dialogue Network, Philipp Teister made the login of his personal Facebook profile known in his Facebook Life Sharing project and Nicholas Felton (also graphic designer of the new Facebook Timeline) shows very personal infographics in his Annual Reports.

As with other media, it is primarily how, why and by whom social media are used that matters. The exhibition is the result of research into a multitude of different perspectives from which social media can be viewed: e.g. psychology, identity, communication, utopia, altruism, social criticism, corporate business, data mining, marketing, revolution, democratization (of art) and – somewhat obvious – privacy. The exhibition ‘#isthemessage’ opens new ways to experience the power of social media and to ask critical questions about the place these media have in our lives.

Given the particular subject of this exhibition I decided not to fill the entire exhibition to leave room for a social aspect. The public can contribute and participate by mailing directly to the printer that is installed in the exhibition area (starting December 17 to isthemessage@hpeprint.com) or be a guest curator of this input by making a personal selection of the prints accumulating on the floor. Of course, participation via Twitter (#isthemessage) and this Facebook wall is also possible.

I created the website hashtagisthemessage.net for this exhibition. Usable as an online version of a catalogue. In the middle column you’ll find an additional selection of works, which can be found online. This website will be updated once more with all added content and data obtained during the exhibition.

The opening of #isthemessage takes place on Sunday 18 December at 16:00 with the participation of De Bubbelebim, an (anti)literary and absurd theater-stage-performance-viduo from Rotterdam. De Bubbelebim appears to have something to say about sociale media as well.

Like said before, composer and theatre maker Dick Raaijmakers is to receive the Witteveen+Bos Art+Technology Award 2011 for his entire oeuvre. The award ceremony takes place in the Bergkerk Church in Deventer on 10 November 2011, and will be celebrated with a Raaijmakers exhibition which will run until 4 December 2011.

On the last day of this exhibition, esc.rec. organizes a special 18th edition of ass-crack stage-hack with a complementary program about Dick Raaijmakers at WILLIE in Havenkwartier Deventer. You can attend this program after your visit to the exhibition in the Bergkerk Church; WILLIE opens at 15:00 hrs.

Starting at 15:30 with a screening of the film ‘Op zoek naar een vergeten toepassing – A portrait of Dick Raaijmakers by Jacqueline Oskamp‘. Jacqueline Oskamp is also the author of the book ‘Onder Stroom’, in which she vividly describes the history of Dutch electronic music. She is present at the screening, tells us more about Dick Raaijmakers and answers questions if needed.

After you’ve enjoyed a good meal at WILLIE, the program continues with three concerts/performances/installations which have an obvious relation to the work of Dick Raaijmakers. Performing artists are Cathy van Eck, Radboud Mens and Wouter van Veldhoven.

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My label esc.rec. has another release out: Twee (Two), the second album by Gluid. You could order it blind without any risk at all (I promise you it’s really that good), but for those who hesitate to take my word for it, please listen to it first. You can do that here. Or, as of today you could also check it at the VPRO 3voor12 Luisterpaal. Enjoy!!

The cover photography and design of this album are by me.

Good news! After lying dormant for quite some time, WILLIE is now back on it’s feet again and reclaimed it’s place in Havenkwartier Deventer. WILLIE is a collective of artists, designers and alike to which I have happily dedicated lots of time and effort in the past and as it now seems, will happily continue to do so in the future. Read more about WILLIE’s comeback and mission statement overhere.

Since WILLIE’s old website had already died and couldn’t be revived, I designed and built this new one, based on the old WILLIE logo by Bart Folmer. It’s a WordPress based website, with lots of hidden and automated extra’s. And I’m quite proud of it! Especially when taking into consideration that this website had to be realized on very short notice.

Due to my vacation I couldn’t spend as much time as I would have liked on realizing the new WILLIE bar interior, but that turned out great too! So come take a look when you get the chance. We’re open every Friday (17:00-1:00) and Sunday (15:00-23:00). Check the website for the complete agenda.

I recently made some small adjustments to a web design I made years ago (2006), before the exploding social media era and before I started exploring WordPress. It’s the personal website of journalist and art critic Sandra Smets, who mainly writes for NRC Handelsblad.

In my humble opinion this design has survived the test of time just fine. It was nice to hear that Sandra thought so too, and was still very happy with it. The site just needed some tweaking to make sharing easier. Also Google changed it’s code for personalized search over the years, and this happened to break the search functionality all together. All is up and running again. The contents make for some  interesting reading too, so go check it out already.

Sandra also asked me to design some stationary for her. Working on that now.