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Smell of the exotic
Rare animals in Amsterdam
The exotic animal trade: one might not think too much of its significance to our ecosystem. Yet, it is very much “alive and kicking” and becoming a real threat in the global world. Recently, the...
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Presentation: Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark
Death Architecture
- Still Life 03 - with David Rademacher, Susanne Duijvestein, Theun Karelse and Robin Beers18Sep 2019How we relate to death culturally, is reflected in the design of our cemeteries and crematoria. Death has been pushed behind the scenes for the last decades, but it appears times are changing. It...
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Presentation: Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark
Mapping Scent
- Odorama 33 - with Dora Goldsmith, Birthe Leemeijer, Kate McLean, Gayil Nalls and Caro Verbeek27Sep 2019Kate McLean pioneered Scentscaping, a method to capture the smells of a city onto a map. A recent trend shows artists and researchers alike trying to map scents of cities and areas. Alongside McLean
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Dora Goldsmith
Dora Goldsmith is a PhD student of Egyptology at the Freie Universität Berlin. The topic of her PhD project is the sense of smell in ancient Egypt, the exact title of her research being The...
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Scented encounters
Considered the first comprehensive exploration of the history of scent, the book Aroma. The cultural history of smell opens with the sentence: ‘Smell is a social phenomenon, invested with particular...
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Plantable gold
An era of colonial agriculture
One of the main culprits of contemporary scent is the local ecosystem. But with a globalized approach to importation and exportation, our locality not only sports indigenous flora but foreign ones...
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Marineterrein
The Marineterrein is located on the city island of Kattenburg on the east side of the center of Amsterdam. The doors of the site opened to the public in 2015 and a varied collective of about fifty...
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The Dark Side of Medicine
Dutch Cocaine and Opium Trade
A revised narrative in Dutch history?
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A Dutch-style cleaning frenzy?
What has cleanliness got to do with anything?
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Oosterdok Irina Ridzuan
The Aroma of Amsterdam's Chinatown: Peanuts
The humble beginnings of Chinatown Amsterdam is inextricably linked to a surprising aroma: peanuts!
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History
1983 - now
In 1983 our focus was on media technology: video art, installations and performance were the early core of our presentations, productions and magazine . In the 1990s it was interactive media. We...
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Oosterdok
A Brief History of Oosterdok
Changes throughout the centuries
Oosterdok is a body of water in Amsterdam. Nowadays, the eastern dock plays a crucial role in adorning the Amsterdam skyline. It features proud contemporary architecture that stand stark against the...
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Oosterdok Irene de Craen
The dirtiest street in the Netherlands
A busy city is often a smelly city...
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Oosterdok Irene de Craen
Warehouse of smells
The once massive warehouse of the VOC on Oostenburg Island must have been an extreme olfactory experience...
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Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark, Oosterdok
Olfactory History of Oosterdok
Getting Nosy about the Past
Our research and programmes initiated since 2019 aims to augment the histories that have flowed through Oosterdok, or Eastern Dock, through more embodied and sensorial artistic practices. The...
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Bibliography
Olfactory History of Oosterdok
English bibliography Allen , Catherine. “To be Quechua: The Symbolism of Coca Chewing in Highland Peru”. American Ethnologist , 8, no. 1 (February 1981): 157-171. doi:10.1525/ae.1981.8.1.02a00100.
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Oosterdok
Partners
Olfactory History of Oosterdok
Amsterdam Museum Bureau Marineterrein City Archeologist Jerzy Gawronski Expeditie Oosterdok OBA (Amsterdam Public Library) Oude Kerk Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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Presentation: Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark
Leather Galore
- Odorama 32 - with Justus Tomlow, Daniel Soliman, Billie van Katwijk, Raymond Timmer and Frank Bloem27Jun 2019This time at Odorama, we’ll have a chance to talk about something sexy, something cool, something functional, and something luxurious - leather. With a lot of different speakers lined up, this...
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Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark, Oosterdok
Open Call 2019 Olfactory History of Oosterdok
This open call is closed
Before Covid19, we were planning an ambitious event in Amsterdam about the Sensory History of Oosterdok, the eastern part of the old harbour of the city. Related to this project, Mediamatic issued an...
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Dutch Pavilion Venice Willem Velthoven
Cinema Olanda at Venice Biennale
13May 2017- Nederlandse bijdrage onderzoekt postkoloniale geschiedenis van klein westers landje26Nov 2017Wendelien van Oldenborgh mocht dit jaar Nederland vertegenwoordigen in Venetië. Ze maakte een paar films over de nederlandese maatschappij aan het eind van de twintigste eeuw.
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Presentation: Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark
Scent from Heaven
- Odorama 31 - with Sanne Groeneveld, Miguel Matos, Claudia de Vos, Annalisa Butticci and Caro Verbeek3May 2019With scents being so uncontrollable, invisible and intangible, is it really a surprise that mankind would associate it to the divine? We will explore the mysterious smell of the famous ancient...
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Arthur Oosterbaan
Arthur is an all-round field biologist. He’s been working for many years as curator and nature guide at Ecomare, the center for Wadden and North Sea on the island of Texel. Ecomare is a nature museum
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Lizzie Marx
Olfactory Art Historian
Lizzie Marx is a History of Art PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge and the 2018–2019 Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Rijksmuseum, where she researches the visual representations of smell in...
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Presentation: Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark
Ambergris
- Odorama 29: with Vibeke Mascini, David Deijmann, Frank Bloem, Lizzie Marx and Arthur Oosterbaan14Mar 2019Ambergris is the rare perfume ingredient that is found on beaches, that brings fixation to perfumes and that is worth its weight in gold. The 14th of March will be wholly dedicated to this mysterious...