Ignite
Ignite is run by locals, for locals. Founded in Seattle, the events are held around the world. Ignite is fast-paced and merciless, but most of all they're fun, thought-provoking nights, full of fresh ideas and clever insights. Speakers get five minutes to present their idea. They make use of twenty slides that auto-advance every fifteen seconds. A ruthless moderator will guarantee those five minutes aren't exceeded. Ignite serves as a platform for locals to connect offline and have a drink together.
Program
Ignite Amsterdam #2 coincided with Museum Night, so we thought it fitting to select a wide variety of speakers to present themselves, their work, or an idea. Musicians, artists, designers and writers took turns wooing the audience in just five minutes. Each presentation was held twice. Indie heroes Space Siren and the freshly nostalgic electro pop outfit Staatseinde played some nice tunes.
Mark Shepard
Mark conducts research into the implications of ubiquitous computing for urban environments. He predicts a so-called 'sentient' city: a networked environment in which computers, omnipresent, are connected to each other and to you.
Yuri Landman
Yuri designs musical instruments for bands like Liars, Sonic Youth, HEALTH and Women. He spoke about and demonstrated a few of his instruments.
Sandra Blichert Christensen
Sandra read from her work. She writes little fables about pirates and indians.
Erik Alkema
The Inkijk gallery at Waterloo square metro station showed some of Erik's work earlier this year. A sculptural installation inspired by the "Slag om Blauwburg", a major confrontation between squatters and the police in Amsterdam. The Impossible Marriage is a long running project: a documentary concerning the current political and social climate in The Netherlands.
Caetano Carvalho
Caetano is a graphic designer and musician. Tonight invited the audience to invest in, and live on his island.
Spoelstra
Spoelstra makes funny songs using guitars, a synth, samplers, a loopstation, a boxful of effects and other found and made equipment. He is also fascinated by MS Paint.
James Burke
James, Juha van 't Zelfde and Ben Cerveny are VURB. VURB is currently working on Urbanode: a mobile application that allows you to directly influence your surroundings.
Artun Arasli
Artun (poet) is a fourth-year student in the Image and Language department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. He read a long poem about friendship and Keira Knightley.
Jan Robert Leegte
Jan Robert concerns himself with the materiality of the world around us, be it physical architecture, the computer environment, or the internet.
The Don't Touch My Croque-Monsieurs
The Don't Touch My Croque-Monsieurs (TDTMCM) are four mischievous handsome young men from Amsterdam-Noord. They play Post-Avant Garage Punk Rock Hop music for a better tomorrow and consider themselves the best at it.
stop-motion animation by Loes van Dorp. Music: 'Space Siren' By: Bas van den Broeke
Daniela De Paulis
Earth-moon-earth (EME) technology has been used since the forties. Daniele figured you must be able to send images in the form of radio signals from the earth to the moon and back. She started collaborating with Dwingeloo radio and CAMRAS (radio astronomy station), and set up a connection between Brazil and Dwingeloo (NL).
Daniel de Zeeuw
Daniel de Zeeuw presented his research into paranoid perception as an epistemological condition of living in networked environments.
Club Opera
Club Opera deals in chamber opera and contemporary musical theater. Director Matthias Mooij told us something about the current show and the future of musical theater. He was accompanied by vocalist Michaela Riener.
Foundland
Foundland is a young collective hailing from three continents. Together they explore and map new worlds. Foundland presented two of their most recent projects.
Robert Keil
Robert conducted research into religion. After having lived for a day each as a Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Jew, he evaluated the religions by counting the colors of the traffic lights between his house and university.
Max Ehrhardt
Max Ehrhardt is a harpist. Besides playing two wonderful pieces, he also did a bit of improv with Abel, TDTMCM's lead singer.
Sander Veenhof
Sander is a new media artist, interested especially in interactivity. Tonight he told us something about one of his latest projects, AR MoMA: an augmented reality art invasion of the Museum of Modern Art.
Sina Khani & Papa Adama
Sina Khani interviewed Papa Adama about life and art.
Short presentations ask for short breaks. Electro pop outfit Staatseinde and indie gem Space Siren provided the music.
More information
Ignite Amsterdam #2 was part of Museumnacht Amsterdam, and took place at Mediamatic Bank, Vijzelstraat 68 Amsterdam.
