Tonight, after the Catch at Podium WILLIE, get ready for some adventurous explorations in the music world of Planet WILLIE. Resident DJ’s Radion, Wonder and Cette Truc (c’est moi) at the helm. Whooosh!

On January 29, the last day of the #isthemessage exhibition I curated, there will be an additional (and final) program in Kunstenlab with a presentation of Planeet Faceboek and a special edition of The Diamond Exchange. It all starts at 14:00 hrs.

Walter Breukers and Jaap Godrie form the artist duo Breukers & Godrie. Their work, like the project Planeet Faceboek, is an aesthetic reflection on contemporary developments. Planeet Faceboek is a digital studio where Breukers & Godrie perform artistic studies on the planet named Facebook. These studies translate into poetry, video, images, etc.

They study Facebook because with half a billion users, it is very decisive place for developments in image, language, sound, communication and (social) behavior. And as artists have a long history relating to the most important phenomena of their time, so to Breukers & Godrie relate to Facebook. Also see www.facebook.com/planeet.

Record label esc.rec. presents The Diamond Exchange. Two passionate music lovers take turns in playing their personal favorites for each other. You’re allowed to be present as an audience and enjoy. At best, you will witness an exciting, musical conversation between two connoisseurs. That conversation may – depending on the participants – be designed to listen, to dance, or both. Anything is possible, anything goes.

In this special edition for #isthemessage, The Diamond Exchange not only connects two music lovers this time, but also two locations. One of the participants is at Kunstenlab, the other is at Podium Willie in Havenkwartier Deventer. The exchange of music and communication is via a live stream over the internet.

Participants in this fifth edition of The Diamond Exchange are Julien Mier and Maria Cristina Fazecas (MiaMia). They are both music composer and producer of (electronic) music and they have both released works through esc.rec. These are no strangers to each other. Actually, after booking them, it appeared that they are currently neighbors…

Two editions of The Diamond Exchange coming up this weekend!

The first is on January 28 (23:00-3:00) in Burgerweeshuis, with Albert Reinink (Deventer Schouwburg) and Arris Roordink (Alles Los). The second is a special edition for #isthemessage on January 29 (15:00-18:00) in Kunstenlabánd Podium Willie, with Julien Mier and Maria Cristina Fazecas (MiaMia).

All locations are in Deventer. See you there?

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.

Nieuwe Electronische Waar (N.E.W.) organizes a conference day filled to the brim with masterclasses. On December 10, in Burgerweeshuis Deventer. The place to be if you’re into electronic music and want to learn more about hardware, software, mastering and mixing. All you need to get the best out of your tracks, both on record and in a live set.

Masterclass 1: Nobody Beats the Drum – Hardware vs Software
Masterclass 2: Kubus – Synthesizers, Sounddesign & Synthese
Masterclass 3: Delic – Software & Mix techniques
Masterclass 4: Rinus Hooning (Recordindustry) – Mastering
Masterclass 5: Arne Broekhoven – Online promotion
Masterclass 6: Pitto – Ableton
Masterclass 7: Steve Mensink – Hardwired

And there’s so much more… my record label esc.rec. will be there too of course! Please look up the complete program overhere. Tickets are available throughBurgerweeshuis for 10 euro.

And (as you may have noticed by now), the N.E.W. platform has had a massive re-design! There’s still some work to be done, but the new website is live and there’s more to come. Check it out!