110916 | Virtueel Platform’s HOT100 ‘11 on PICNIC
The sun was shining and the sky was blue. Yes, it was a hot day. Not only in the meteorological sense, but also on a whole other level. It was time, yet again, for the HOT100s of Virtueel Platform. A get-together on PICNIC at the NDSM Wharf, of alumni from universities and art academies.
Stories
The day started with a warm welcome by Klaas Kuitenbrouwer from Virtueel Platform. After doing some live crowdsourcing to determine a few demographics (please stand up if you were born after 1983 - the year of the switch over to TCP/IP), he elaborated on the programme that followed quickly. I sat down at a very interesting talk by Annette Mees, co-founder of Coney. She told about how she creates new ways of storytelling and experiences in theater. To do so, she gets inspired by the uses of new media. Through different means of communication story spaces and the lifespan of a play can be highly enriched. It creates the opportunity for an open way of storytelling, which was very interesting to hear.
After a short presentation of the different workshop cases, it was time for lunch. Like last year, the lunchbags contained food and drinks for two. The HOT100s were requested to sit down with someone they do not know in the room. This way, you got the chance to connect with others around you. I sat down with Hilde, an interaction designer from the HKU. We had a nice chat about our backgrounds and plans for the future.
Workshops
Next thing on the programme were the workshop cases by Dropstuff, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, NOS op 3, OBA (public library of Amsterdam), Institute of Network Cultures, Virtueel Platform and last but not least VPRO. You had to send in your preferences in advance and according to those the participants were divided. Luckily, the NOS decided to take things outside and put us to work with data visualization. How and by what means can they use data visualization to enrich their news? It was a good case to brainstorm about with this talented group. We eventually came up with some basic things, like shared connections with other relevant news stories, comparison to make news tangible (how many cucumbers got thrown away because of the E.coli scare?), but also openness of news. The process of news is not open at all. What if you strip the process and make it viewable to the news consumers? Why not make journalistic questions like what, where, who, when, why and how accessible in a way? It was a good session and we even got invited to come visit NOS in the near future.
All good
It did not stop there, because after this the results of the works in progress were presented, and a last panoramic photo was made of the whole group on PICNIC (like last year). We concluded with drinks and bites and lastly got these cool badges (photo). The day was closed with a nice tour at the Stedelijk Museum with a special talk by Bart Rutten. All in all, a very sunny, fun, creative day with lots of talented people. Thanks to Virtueel Platform for bringing us together. I’m sure beautiful things will come out of these HOT100s.
More: Virtueel Platform. HOT100 ‘11 (pdf). Coney. NOS op 3. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
