V2 Institute for the Unstable Media
Encyclopedia
V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media, or simply V2_, is an interdisciplinary center for art and media technology in Rotterdam
, the Netherlands
. It has been singularly important at researching and developing art projects at the interface of art, technology and society.
V2_ presents, produces, archives and publishes about art made with new technologies and encourages the debate on these issues. V2_ is a platform where artists, scientists, developers of software and hardware, researchers and theorists from various disciplines can share their findings. In V2_'s view, art and culture play an essential role in the social embedment and attitude towards technological developments, and created a context in which technological issues are explored through critical reflection and practice-oriented research.
V2_ organizes public lectures, exhibitions, workshops and presentations. These events present V2_'s research, showcase related developments in media art, and function as a platform for debate, offering artists an opportunity to present new work to an audience and exchange ideas with other artists, researchers and technicians. Since 2011, V2_ distributes artworks through the V2_Agency.
Scientists, artists researchers, theorists and organizations that have collaborate with V2_ include: Stelarc
, Orlan
, Symbiotica
, Dick Raaymakers
, Michel Waisvisz
, Francisco López
, Brian Massumi
, Manuel de Landa
, Paul Virilio
, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
, Knowbotic Research
, Rem Koolhaas
.
V2_ is interested in the relationships and interactions between different media and in the relationship between art and scientific disciplines. The connections between art, technology, media and society are continuously explored, by bringing together artists, scientists and civil organizations and by initiating interdisciplinary collaborations. Over the past 20 years V2_ has succeeded in establishing an ongoing dialogue within a wide network of contacts that contributes to the development of specific (art) projects for research and presentation.
, accommodated artists from various disciplines. The founding members, including Alex Adriaansens and Joke Brouwer, named it a multimedia center. The building gave room for concerts and performances and experiments with analogue media, like TVs, loudspeakers and Super-8 film. It also included an exhibition space for (wall) paintings, installations and machine art. Bands like Sonic Youth
, Einstürzende Neubauten
and Laibach
performed at V2_ in the early days. It was a do-it-yourself period, where music
, video
, sound and visual arts
were combined and the artists took the arts to the street.
. At the time, V2_ began transforming itself from a multimedia organisation into a center for art
and media technology. Because of dissatisfaction with the art practice of the day, the "Manifesto for Unstable Media" was issued by V2_ in 1987. It was intended to really ruffle the feathers of the visual arts. The Manifesto laid down the theoretical principles of V2_, also known since that time as the Institute for the Unstable Media. Though an historical document, most of what is in the Manifesto is still crucial for the work of the organization.
In the next years, V2_ organized a number of "Manifestations for the Unstable Media," which focused on the use of new technology and electronic media
in the audiovisual arts. The festival showed interactive video and sound installations and experimented with robotics and the use of computers for generating electronic music and digital imagery. By organizing public events and publishing books, V2_ also stimulated the debate on art, theory, technology and society.
, and since then concentrated on art in electronic networks and communications media, like the World Wide Web
. Initially, artists only worked with text within the relatively small computer networks, but soon computer and telecommunication networks (ISDN) enabled them to work with sound and images. Artist began to explore the possibilities of computers as an artistic medium, using digital techniques, virtual reality
and 3D projections to immerse users in cyberspace
. During that time, V2_ developed itself into a professional organisation with an international network of contacts and Manifestation of the Unstable Media changed into the biannual Dutch Electronic Art Festival, where V2_'s network of artists, scientists and organisations from different disciplines could meet.
projects and technical research projects, for example hardware or open source software development. The often long-term research projects focus on the use of new technical possibilities for artistic means, research on the cultural and social implications of these techniques and the development of technically innovative (web) applications. They have resulted in software tools, but also in mixed media applications and interactive installations in public space. Apart from that, V2_ also organizes workshops and expert meetings to exchange knowledge and experiences with other professionals.
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. It has been singularly important at researching and developing art projects at the interface of art, technology and society.
V2_ presents, produces, archives and publishes about art made with new technologies and encourages the debate on these issues. V2_ is a platform where artists, scientists, developers of software and hardware, researchers and theorists from various disciplines can share their findings. In V2_'s view, art and culture play an essential role in the social embedment and attitude towards technological developments, and created a context in which technological issues are explored through critical reflection and practice-oriented research.
V2_ organizes public lectures, exhibitions, workshops and presentations. These events present V2_'s research, showcase related developments in media art, and function as a platform for debate, offering artists an opportunity to present new work to an audience and exchange ideas with other artists, researchers and technicians. Since 2011, V2_ distributes artworks through the V2_Agency.
Scientists, artists researchers, theorists and organizations that have collaborate with V2_ include: Stelarc
Stelarc
Stelarc is a Cypriot-Australian performance artist whose works focuses heavily on extending the capabilities of the human body. As such, most of his pieces are centred around his concept that the human body is obsolete...
, Orlan
Orlan
ORLAN is a French artist, born May 30, 1947 in Saint-Étienne, Loire. She lives and works in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. She was invited to be a scholar in residence at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, for the 2006-2007 academic year...
, Symbiotica
Symbiotica
' is an artistic laboratory dedicated to the research, learning and critique of life sciences. Located within the at The University of Western Australia, it is the first research laboratory of its kind, in that it enables artists to engage in wet biology practices in a biological science...
, Dick Raaymakers
Dick Raaymakers
Dick Raaymakers is a Dutch composer, theater maker and theorist. He is known as a pioneer in the field of electronic music and tape music but he has also realized numerous music theater pieces and has published many theoretical essays.-Biography:Raaymakers studied the piano at the Royal...
, Michel Waisvisz
Michel Waisvisz
Michel Waisvisz was a Dutch composer, performer and inventor of experimental electronic musical instruments...
, Francisco López
Francisco López (musician)
Francisco López is an avant-garde experimental musician and sound artist.He has released a large amount of sound pieces with record labels from more than fifty countries and realized hundreds of concerts and sound installations worldwide; including some of the main international museums, galleries...
, Brian Massumi
Brian Massumi
Brian Massumi is a Canadian political philosopher and social theorist. Massumi's research spans the fields of art, architecture, political theory, cultural studies and philosophy. He received his Ph.D in French Literature from Yale University in 1987...
, Manuel de Landa
Manuel de Landa
Manuel De Landa, , is a writer, artist and philosopher who has lived in New York since 1975. He is presently the Gilles Deleuze Chair of Contemporary Philosophy and Science at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland; a lecturer at the Canisius College in Buffalo, New York; a lecturer...
, Paul Virilio
Paul Virilio
Paul Virilio is a cultural theorist and urbanist. He is best known for his writings about technology as it has developed in relation to speed and power, with diverse references to architecture, the arts, the city and the military....
, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican-Canadian electronic artist who works with ideas from architecture, technological theater and performance. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montreal...
, Knowbotic Research
Knowbotic Research
Knowbotic Research is a German-Swiss electronic art group, established in 1991. Its members are Yvonne Wilhelm, Christian Hübler and Alexander Tuchacek...
, Rem Koolhaas
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and "Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design" at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, USA. Koolhaas studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam, at the Architectural...
.
Mission & History
As described in the 1987 Manifesto for the Unstable Media, art which applies electronic media - especially digital or unstable media - reflects upon and takes into account the meaning, idiosyncrasies and boundaries of such media. In this process, instability is a creative force that is essential to the continuous re-ordering of the social/cultural, political and economic relations in society. Instead of providing us with an orderly, homogeneous worldview, unstable media present an image of a world that is inconsistent, heterogeneous, complex and variable.V2_ is interested in the relationships and interactions between different media and in the relationship between art and scientific disciplines. The connections between art, technology, media and society are continuously explored, by bringing together artists, scientists and civil organizations and by initiating interdisciplinary collaborations. Over the past 20 years V2_ has succeeded in establishing an ongoing dialogue within a wide network of contacts that contributes to the development of specific (art) projects for research and presentation.
Do-it-Yourself: 1981-1987
V2_ was founded in 1981 as an artist collective. A squat in the Vughterstraat 234 (short: V2_) in 's-Hertogenbosch, the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, accommodated artists from various disciplines. The founding members, including Alex Adriaansens and Joke Brouwer, named it a multimedia center. The building gave room for concerts and performances and experiments with analogue media, like TVs, loudspeakers and Super-8 film. It also included an exhibition space for (wall) paintings, installations and machine art. Bands like Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
and Laibach
Laibach
Laibach can refer to one of the following:* German name for Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia* Laibach , Slovenian industrial musical group** Laibach , the title of the debut album by the band with this name...
performed at V2_ in the early days. It was a do-it-yourself period, where music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
, sound and visual arts
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
were combined and the artists took the arts to the street.
Unstable Media: 1987-1993
The mid-eighties brought a turning point, not only for V2_, but for a lot of artists' initiatives in the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. At the time, V2_ began transforming itself from a multimedia organisation into a center for art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and media technology. Because of dissatisfaction with the art practice of the day, the "Manifesto for Unstable Media" was issued by V2_ in 1987. It was intended to really ruffle the feathers of the visual arts. The Manifesto laid down the theoretical principles of V2_, also known since that time as the Institute for the Unstable Media. Though an historical document, most of what is in the Manifesto is still crucial for the work of the organization.
In the next years, V2_ organized a number of "Manifestations for the Unstable Media," which focused on the use of new technology and electronic media
Electronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form...
in the audiovisual arts. The festival showed interactive video and sound installations and experimented with robotics and the use of computers for generating electronic music and digital imagery. By organizing public events and publishing books, V2_ also stimulated the debate on art, theory, technology and society.
Network and Communications Media: 1993-1998
In 1994, V2_ moved to its current location in the center of RotterdamRotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, and since then concentrated on art in electronic networks and communications media, like the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. Initially, artists only worked with text within the relatively small computer networks, but soon computer and telecommunication networks (ISDN) enabled them to work with sound and images. Artist began to explore the possibilities of computers as an artistic medium, using digital techniques, virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
and 3D projections to immerse users in cyberspace
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
. During that time, V2_ developed itself into a professional organisation with an international network of contacts and Manifestation of the Unstable Media changed into the biannual Dutch Electronic Art Festival, where V2_'s network of artists, scientists and organisations from different disciplines could meet.
Art and Media Technology: 1998-present
The opening of the V2_Lab, an international media laboratory, in May 1998 meant an extension of V2_'s practices towards art production, research and knowledge exchange. In V2_'s interdisciplinary workspace, national and international artists, scientists and technicians collaborate on electronic artElectronic art
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electronic music...
projects and technical research projects, for example hardware or open source software development. The often long-term research projects focus on the use of new technical possibilities for artistic means, research on the cultural and social implications of these techniques and the development of technically innovative (web) applications. They have resulted in software tools, but also in mixed media applications and interactive installations in public space. Apart from that, V2_ also organizes workshops and expert meetings to exchange knowledge and experiences with other professionals.
Publications
V2_Publishing connects practice and theory, and links disciplines such as sociology, architecture, media theory, biology and technological innovation. These books about art, new media and media theory are used in universities, colleges, polytechnics and art academies.- Dick Raaymakers: A Monograph, 2008
- The Architecture of Continuity, 2008
- Interact or Die!, 2007
- aRt&D, 2005
- Feelings Are Always Local, 2004
- Understanding Media Theory, 2004
- My First Recession, 2003
- Making Art of Databases, 2003
- Information Is Alive, 2003
- TransUrbanism, 2002
- Machine Times, 2000
- Book for the Electronic Arts, 2000
- The Art of the Accident, 1998
- TechnoMorphica, 1997
- Interfacing Realities, 1997
- Book for the Unstable Media, 1992