speculative peculiars part 2

A Collective Daydream, Amsterdam Imagined in 2059. - October 4th, 2009

speculative peculiars part 2

what if the red light turned

speculative peculiars part 2 Another SID LEE collective fanzine SPECULATIVE PECULIARS – 4 THE PARTICIPANTS – 6 Daniela Bershan – 8 Edwin Gardner – 14 Liedewij Loorbach – 20

Speculative

PECULIARS

2059 Speculative peculiarS iS an imaginary and viSionary glance at the future of urban landScapeS. it iS an interdiSciplinary program about the poSSible and the impoSSible, the politicS, SubcultureS, developmentS and conventionS that will govern and Shape amSterdam and montreal 50 yearS from now. Speculative Peculiars wants to explore how we will live, work and socialize in the future. What kind of places we would frequent and what kind of people we would meet. It wants to map how we would give meaning to our surroundings. Speculative Peculiars invites all kinds of people from Amsterdam and Montreal to use the tools they’ve acquired on the job—writing, designing, art directing, inventing, strategizing, mapping or doodling—to express their time traveling, mindaltering vision on Amsterdam and Montreal in 2059.

Their ideas will be put out there for all to worship through monthly events open to public, fanzines, and the best ideas will be further developed in the laboratory. 2059 Speculative Peculiars consists of five public events where artists, writers, scholars, scientists, designers, politicians, etc. will give their impression of their cities in 50 years time from now. They are asked to research trends from today, something they see as important, or maybe even irreversible, and extrapolate these trends to the not-so-distant future. Their work will also be available in fanzines, through the Speculative Peculiars blog and the Sid Lee Collective blog.

SPECULATIVE PECULIARS - 4 -

wHy THE fUTURE?

THE EVENT fEATURED THE foLLowING PEoPLE:

Because of its unpredictable nature.

Daniela Bershan Artist

Because the future is the only place that cannot be measured, probed, or scanned.

Edwin Garner Architect, theorist, web-editor

Because science is on equal ground with arts and politics.

Liedewij Loorbach Freelance journalist

Because we need all the current knowledge, creativity, and vision to make the future come to life.

All Speculative Peculiars events are hosted by journalist and Amsterdammer Maurits Martijn

In essence, we are going boldly into the future in order to know more about the present.

QUESTIoNS? To PARTICIPATE?

For more information see: http://speculativepeculiars.blogspot.com

PRoGRAm DATES AmSTERDAm

Every first Sunday of the month, at 4 p.m., Speculative Peculiars will take place in the gallery-space of Sid Lee in Amsterdam, on Gerard Doustraat 74 (there is also an entrance at 101 Albert Cuyp Street).

Do you have more questions? Or do you want to participate? [email protected]

wHAT ABoUT THIS PARTICULAR BookLET?

This booklet is one of a series of five. This particular issue is an account for and an overview of the second Speculative Peculiars event that was organized in Amsterdam on the 4th of October 2009. Speculative Peculiars has been developed for Sid Lee Collective by political scientist and writer Christiaan Fruneaux and independent curator Femke Lutgerink

SID LEE CoLLECTIVE - CREATIVE INCUBAToR AND EmPoRIUmS

Sid Lee Collective is an incubator that allows the Sid Lee team to push the boundaries of creativity further. Sid Lee Collective undertakes cultural and commercial projects in the fields of visual arts, industrial design, music, publishing, etc. A brainchild of Sid Lee, the Collective thrives on collaboration and experimentation. Christiaan Fruneaux graduated on Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. From 2003 until 2006, he worked for De Balie as a programmer. In 2006, he founded Partizan Publik, a bureau for applied social science that operates on the cutting edge of academic scholarship, art, and social policy. He lived and worked in Jakarta, Damascus, and Beirut. Presently, Fruneaux is working on some highly secretive writing projects. Femke Lutgerink is trained as an art historian at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Since 2002, she works as an independent curator based in Amsterdam. Lutgerink is general and artistic director of FOTODOK, an international place for documentary photography in Utrecht, Netherlands. She is also working on a long-term project called the Detroit Unreal Estate Agency in Detroit (Michigan, USA). http://femmeusa.blogspot.com Speculative Peculiars is generously supported by


ThE PARTICIDaniela Bershan (*1980, DE) makes sculptures, Edwin Gardner is architect, web-editor and theorist working for Volume/Archis and Partizan installations, performances and saaaooounds. Her work*play is based on process and growth. Publik. Gardner studied Architecture at the Loss of control and organic short cuts lead Technical University in Delft. In 2009 he her towards inevitable forms and situations that graduated in architecture theory. The subject of are neither constructed nor random. The love his thesis is ‘Reasoning in Architecture; About the for transparency; the «paradox of enchanting Diagrammatic Nature of Thinking with Real and disenchantment» is omnipresent in her work: Imagined Objects’. Gardner’s website gives you a good overview of his broad range of activities and “to see thru helps me to be sufficiently blind”. different media he works in. enhance artiplicity! www.edwingardner.nl optimiSe art to diSperSe itS environmental impact! develp methodS of crap protection! improve freedom, tolerance and reSiStance! Daniela Bershan lives and works in De Bijlmer, Amsterdam. Next to her research and practice she works as a DJ and producer a.k.a. Baba Electronica.


PAnTS. Night life, pop music, youth culture, these are the most favorite topics of freelance journalist Liedewij Loorbach. From June 2004 until September 2009 Loorbach, born in Rotterdam, worked for the Amsterdam Newspaper Het Parool. She wrote about street rappers, drug controls at parties and basically everything that happens in the city between five and nine in the morning. With a colleague of the paper she wrote the book ‘Kroeglopen in Amsterdam’ (‘Pubbing in Amsterdam’). Last September she has quit her job to start her freelance practice to see what lay beyond the limitations of the papers twenty to two thousand word articles.

Speculative Peculiars’ host is journalist and Amsterdammer Maurits Martijn. He works as a journalist and an editor for the weekly magazine Vrij Nederland since 2007. Before he coordinated the successful debate series ‘Vrij Nederland in debat’ (Vrij Nederland in debate). He studied Communication Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). During his studies he was active for HappyChaos, a collaboration between students and Vrij Nederland. Maurits writes about diverse topics, with special attention towards social and engaged future enhancers such as science and internet.


Daniela

Bershan It doesn’t seem right seem right to think about the future. The tools of rational thoughts and thinking cannot accelerate our bodies and souls. Future is something that is constantly produced. A physical process. Right here and now as we are sitting here in blind being. There is nothing to think about! My idea to approximate the future is to amplify our own state of being. In the being we are production. Only in the blind being we have future. We have to transgress the world of rational thought and knowledge, and learn to use our blindness. As for the necessary approximation of the impossible. It is a possibility we have.





To see the future is like seeing the NOTHING. The blind spot appears a BLACK HOLE a gap.

Something we all share.

of actions I never entirely control. I take the responsibility for the risks of actions, that lies in their unpredictability. Responsibility only exists in contrast to the irresponsible. If decisions and actions were to be entirely calculable, there would be no need for responsibility or a subject.

Many people say that time is like a fabric.

Responsibility only exists as an EXCESS.

It wraps itself around us, silky smooth, dark and blind.

For the collective mind blow

Something impossible. BLINDNESS.

In the future DARKNESS and BLINDNESS will be recognized as what they are. The very tools of AFFIRMATIVE PRODUCTION. When you make art you are in the future. With one arm or one foot, with one thought or a fingertip. You are asserting a form that comes from the future. Artworks are machines that amplify the being, they radiate future... To accelerate yourself into a state of blind production means you need courage to step into the unknown, to take the risk of an uncontrollable movement. It is a strategy I use a lot in my work. «Stepping into the BLIND» as a tool - is not as trivial as it may sound. True loss of control means to take true freedom and true responsibility. In the sense of the German philosopher Marcus Steinweg: I affirm myself as an authority

ALSO BLINDNESS ONLY EXISTS AS AN EXCESS In the future I will be invisible. The I-state of humans will fade away. Finally we will have transgressed the idiocy of identity. The state of the Individual (in German: Individuum) will slowly morph into a vibration of DIVIDUUM. I is many parts of a bigger multiplicity, that an entity is not able to grasp. It will never be able to grasp and this is what keeps us producing. We are more than the sum of our products. The MINI MACHINES function. We consist of billions of them. They will survive us and still be producing future when the I is long gone. BEING IS A BLIND AUTOMATISM.


In the future we will not HAVE any more division.

We’re hidden from immediate view.

In the future all we will BE is division.

We’re sponsored anonymously.

We’re of concealed or undisclosed identity.

Fragments, one world of fragments.

We’re having infinite outlets!

infinite worlds of fragments.

We’re closed at no end.

flowing like water.

We’re dense enough to form a screen.

Amsterdam, RHIZOME CITY!

We’re done without seeing,

Amsterdam will never be gone!

We’re operating by instruments alone.

Many people say that time is like a fabric.

We’re made without prior knowledge.

We are not capable of making anything up. Fold in the neuron fabric.

We’re BLIND FLIGHT.

2059 it is. Fold and Fold. Again and Again. Folds of the time and folds of the soul.

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE THE FUTURE IS BLIND!

We’re unable to see, we’re lacking the sense of sight, we’re sightless.

WE GOT TO HAVE FUN IN OUR SOULS THE FUTURE IS BLIND!

We’re unwilling or unable to perceive and understand.

UUUUUUUHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Yahaaaaa!

We’re not characterized or determined by reason or control. We’re not based on reason or intelligence; We’re absolute and unquestioningly blind! We’re lacking all consciousness and awareness. We’re drunk. We’re hard to see or understand.

To make sightless permanently, temporarily, or momentarily, as by injuring, dazzling, bandaging the eyes... A blind fabric... TIME.


Edwin

Gardner creative deStruction A diary of a professional creative

2058-2059 theSe are a Selection of entrieS from a diary from the future written by a young and ambitiouS ‘creative’ directing one of the beSt creative agencieS in amSterdam. in thiS particular future the extrapolation of the creative city iS explored, the home of the creative claSS aS deScribed by richard florida and aS embraced by the city of amSterdam, although by 2059 Some are having Some Second thoughtS on what it meanS to be a creative city.



Infinite playground

Blasé

Amsterdam has become like New Babylon. The uncomfortable utopia conceived by Constant Nieuwenhuijs. Amsterdam; a city packed with so called creatives, they are the incarnations of Constant’s homo ludens, ‘the playing man’. The age of ‘the working man’ has ended, now we just spend our days playing, we’ll have to be creative until the end of time. ... Perpetual reinvention, my head aches at the idea.

I’m surrounded with well educated, eloquent and fashionable people. I hop from espresso bar to tea lounge. From restaurants in factory halls, to nightclubs in subway tunnels. From art galleries suspended between the trees, to launch events on roof tops, from conferences on zeppelins, to congresses on urban farms, from seminars on submarines to masterclasses on trains, from parties on construction sites to birthday bashes on hovercrafts. I feel so bored sometimes ...

poSt #668 - 05:42 tueSday 1St Jan 2058

poSt #694 - 06:16 Saturday 16th mar 2058

Good intentions

It’s all in the mix

poSt #671 - 17:42 monday 21St Jan 2058

When I touch newly designed objects, walk around in hip interiors I feel a form of sadness. Everything is designed, everything object has an intention. So much effort went in to make an experience, to communicate something, to make the user feel something, the obviousness of the effort makes me sad. I enjoy old objects more, the intentions of the design has faded or its functionality expired, it’s not trying so hard to prove itself anymore. The nostalgia works consoling. Also things that are engineered feel more real than things designed. Engineering has more objective goals, like that it shouldn’t break or that it should make use of a material in the most efficient way. That’s why designed objects are often more honest and less pretentious on the inside, opened up, exposing the machinery the wiring. But what I enjoy most of all are things and spaces without any intent, these are the most beautiful and consoling ... but where to find them in the city?

Satisfaction

poSt #682 - 23:30 thurSday 28th feb 2058 We got chosen with our office to make a proposal for the rebranding of the city of Amsterdam. I should be a bit more psyched about it, I mean it’s Amsterdam: Creative Capital of the world for like 14 years in or a row or something, at least according to the outdated indexes of Florida. It’s gonna be hard to make an impression on all the creative comrades out there, although we always seem to manage. It’s weird, that with getting the most wanted commission in the city I feel a dissatisfaction, instead of euphoria.

poSt #702 - 22:10 wedneSday 20th mar 2058 At the office we had an inflamed discussion about concepts for a new shoe brand. The concepts we talked about were all about a remix of this, a sampling of that or doing a retro. In other words; an exercise in rehashing it one way or another. Rehashing is the fastest way of making something new, or at least appear new, but the newness is always short lived. So no problem, it’s a perfect fit for fashion, which has no interest in the long haul. The rehash in design is different, after the first reflex-smile-of-recognition, comes the irritation that we’re only experiencing two things we already know, two everyday objects and their functions twisted, mashed up to make a new ‘unexpected’ combination. I always call it the Droog Design effect, after a period in the late 20th century when these formalistic jokes were something the Dutch got known for in the high design ‘slash’ art world, but when you look at it now, it all looks like cheap trickery to me ... It’s a recurrent sensation I have when I have to come up with something like a new shoe concept. I just can’t help it... fashion should have stayed in Milan and Paris...

Too Creative

poSt #728 - 19:14 tueSday 9th apr 2058 We had a high profile meeting concerning the new branding scheme for Amsterdam, we met with the mayor, some aldermen and the entire board of the creative industries association. The meeting was weird and inspiring at the same time . I’m not sure what to think of it yet. All these commissioners, executives and politicians


were worried about that the creative city was becoming too exclusive and mono-functional. After Amsterdam had won the war of the creative cities, Amsterdam had become a metropolis packed with hipsters, slash artists, bohemians, gays, supermodels and whiz kids. All the weed, junks, whores, gypsies and homeless had left for Rotterdam which practically functions as a ban de lieu of Amsterdam by now. Amsterdam was clean now, and on the verge of becoming boring. All the cultural hotspots, talent breeding grounds and other forefronts of gentrifications had reached Badhoeverdorp by now. The city clearly needed more than just a rebranding. You could even feel a sense of desperation with the city’s executives, ... they gave us carte blanche.

Utopia realized

poSt #729 - 23:47 thurSday 11th apr 2058 The recent turn of events around the city rebranding commission are keeping me awake. I can’t get my head around it. How to undo the creative city? Somehow Amsterdam has done the impossible, they were now the utopia they so desperately fought for to become, and now they didn’t like it. This thought is paralyzing and has a mind numbing effect on me... Is this it? Is this what utopia looks like?

around the world so it could find it’s way to you. Making, designing, conjuring up meaning for the physical world around us seems to be like black magic or voodoo, a ritual in which the physical dies to make the metaphysical real, ... for as long as it lasts anyway.

The uncreative city poSt #788 - 23:27 tueSday 17th Sep 2058

What to propose for Amsterdam.... Once again it has to reinvent itself, but the problem is it can’t be superficial this time. How to make the creative city uncreative? It would be good if Amsterdam could go on a gap year, backpacking around the globe, hitchhiking, do some soul searching, get some sleep. But well, cities cannot stop to take a break. We cannot get the old people out and get some new ones, we can’t bomb the city and start over, we can’t ‘‘control z’’ the whole damn place. Perhaps we could convert the gurus of creativity to preach uncreativity, ... whatever that may be. Perhaps we could dig up an old religion, or make a new one, perhaps we need a new period of iconoclasm. Perhaps we could make a funeral, and burry the creative city, send it out on a burning raft on the IJ....

Iconoclasm

poSt #796 - 00:54 thurSday 3rd oct 2058

Making meaning

poSt #742 - 16:04 Sunday 12th may 2058 When you invent meaning for an object, do you deplete the object of its own significance? What I mean is; when you desire an object, you first consume all its images, animations and sounds through the multitude of screens that surround you. The propaganda machine works overtime for your desired object, to supercharge it, to create an aura around it, an atmosphere of happiness, status, achievement and all the other bullshit. And then when you buy it, unpack it, and you switch it on ... it dies. The disappointment is immense, a disillusion. Because the object is not what you thought it would be, it didn’t give you what you believed it would give you. It’s a mere object. It’s like the life was sucked out of it, and put on billboards. It’s like the soul had left the body of your desired object and was broadcasted, wallpapered and printed

The idea was so radical, so inspiring and elevating that the city of Amsterdam, and the board of creative industries applauded it with a standing ovation. A new era of iconoclasm has been heralded in, many of the executives even showed genuine relief, that they could finally leave the period of the creative city behind, the board members of creative industries were convinced that they could get all the large design and advertising firms to cooperate, the smaller ones would follow. It felt like we went beyond a horizon, it was like new vistas were opening up, unknown, but all the more intriguing.


Redemption

new years eve

Destroy the image, and burry the creative city. With iconoclasm we had enough historical reference material to make a grand narrative to elevate the people. One of the main pillars of devotion of all the religions that descended from Abraham was; that you couldn’t give God a name, you couldn’t make an image of God. Instead of perpetual reinvention we could now go on a quest for eternal truth and unity. Nirwana as the redemption of the creative city.

At midnight all urban screens will be switched off, billboard posters will be taken down. All fashion retailers will only sell white garments with no labels. The newspapers and magazine’s will leave their ads out. All objects will be undone of every trademark. A massive procession of ‘creatives’ dressed in white will march towards the IJ, carrying with them their images of desire. When they’ve reached the IJ, everyone will descend into the river as if they were cleansing themselves on the steps of the sacred Gangesh. The unholy images will be collected on barges that will be set aflame and float away on the river burning into the night.

poSt #797 - 11:23 friday 4th oct 2058

poSt #826 - 21:01 tueSday 31St dec 2058

Productive crisis poSt #814 - 15:45 Sunday 10th nov 2058

I am beginning to get second thoughts about my proposal for making Amsterdam ‘uncreative’ again. Not because, it’s not a brilliant idea, not that it wouldn’t work, people have long accepted the insignificance of the fact if a movement is run by politics, activists, religious parties or corporations. In the end only the meaning, the profoundness, the intention and consistency of the message, or idea matters. The boundaries between the spheres of political, commercial and civic interest have long evaporated. But wouldn’t this whole operation just be another reinvention, a crisis made productive, a point where we create new values and than again continue for a few decades, before the next crisis of creativity will unfold...?

Going Beyond

poSt #827 - 13:11 friday 3rd Jan 2059 Around the world there had been a run on the all-white, label-less designer goods. Many companies hired the Dutch to destroy their images, to cleanse their branding. All-white, the signs were all still there, but all similar: the same font, same size and no images. The messages were objective and honest, they broadcasted technical information instead of spin. No idolization, a communism of imagery, all equal... The campaign had been a worldwide success, the press was lyrical about the recent turn of the Dutch Designers. It was beyond creative, we had reached the next level of creation, nobody fully understood it yet, ... but one thing was for sure, Amsterdam was the most creative city in the world.


Images taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht9gnp94wou


Liedewij

Loorbach



Rachid

23, child, werkelooS, woont in de wiJk haarlem. Hij wil niet dat zijn achternaam bekend wordt. Rachid (23) is bleek. Ingevallen wangen, droog en dun haar. Doffe ogen. Hij hangt op zijn riante, afgesleten bank die langs alle wanden van de kamer kringelt. Het zwart is afgesleten op de plek waar hij het liefste zit. Daar slaapt hij ook. Tegenover de deur. Zodat hij het meteen ziet als zijn moeder weer eens binnenkomt terwijl hij via Chi over de wereld zwerft. Meestal komt ze binnen om, zoals Rachid het noemt, aan zijn kop te zeuren. Over dat hij naar buiten moet, de werkelijke wereld in. Dat hij een keer wat moet eten, want wat blijft er over van zijn darmen als hij ze helemaal nooit aan het werk zet? Rachid is een ChiLD, zoals de jongeren zich noemen die de mogelijkheden van hun Chi tot in het extreme onderzoeken. En daarvoor hoeven ze niet naar buiten. Een fysieke ontmoeting voor het interview vond hij dan ook hopeloos ouderwets. Zijn afkeer verwoordde hij vriendelijk doch resoluut. “We spreken elkaar nu toch ook?” Hij voelt zich prettiger in Chi dan in de werkelijke wereld. Als de verslaggever vraagt naar zijn ongezonde uiterlijk verandert hij prompt in een gebruinde spiermassa. Zelfs zijn stem wordt donkerder. Hij speelt er nog even mee. Verandert in een ranke Aziatische dame, en vervolgens in een middeleeuwse ridder. Dan weer in zichzelf. Of wat hij ons van zichzelf wil laten zien. “Bleek en ongezond, zo zien alle ChiLDs eruit,” zegt Rachid. “Of ze nu in Japan zitten, Persië of Brazilië. Zo herkennen we elkaar.”

ontmoeten. Zonder al die franje. Ik wil gewoon kennis uitwisselen, ben op zoek naar programmaatjes, dat soort dingen. Heel community gericht eigenlijk.” Met Nederlanders heeft hij vooral contact als er nieuwe maatregelen zijn genomen. “Dan is het even met z’n allen schouders eronder en een paar dagen later is het opgelost.” Zoals onlangs, toen de overheid het nieuwe anti-drugs programma presenteerde. Rachid zegt: “Dat was een pittige, maar in vier dagen waren we eruit. Daar hebben we hulp voor gekregen vanuit Amerika. Die zijn natuurlijk voorlopers op dat gebied.” Rachid kan dus in vervoering raken wanneer hij wil, niet gehinderd door de beperkingen die de overheid oplegt. “Dat is als je vijftien bent toch de grootste aantrekkingskracht van de ChiLDs,” lacht hij. Terwijl zijn klasgenoten in kelderboxen in het geheim alcohol probeerden te brouwen, lag hij al gratis voor pampus op zijn bank. In Chi lekker dronken aan t poolen bij vrienden in Zweden. “Die zijn grootgebruikers.” Maar het goede spul komt traditiegetrouw uit Nederland, en ook Rachid programmeert wat mee. “De laatste Chi-drug die ik gemaakt geeft je het gevoel of je zweeft in het water. Alsof je samenvalt met het water. Je bent helemaal ondergedompeld, maar kan ademen. Heel ontspannen, niks wilds. Ik heb ‘m Fish genoemd,” vertelt Rachid. “En hij verkoopt best goed. Er zijn zelfs al een paar nepperds in Chi, maar dat heb je altijd.”

Met Amsterdam heeft hij niet veel. Hij woont in de wijk Haarlem, van de rest van de stad heeft hij nauwelijks wat gezien. “In Chi zie ik de hele wereld, en liefst nog een mooiere versie ervan.” Met de fantasy en gewelddadige kant heeft hij niet veel. “Ik vind het leuker om echte mensen te


Kwame Duyventak 17, anti, middelbare Scholier, woont in de wiJk almere.

Hij borstelt zijn haar elke dag. Zijn zwarte, lange krulhaar, tot ver over de schouderbladen. Hij zwiept het met zijn linkerhand tijdens het gesprek steeds terug naar achteren. Kwame is beweeglijk. Heeft veel energie. “Dat moet eruit,” zegt hij. “Ik houd er niet van om via Chi te spelen, mijn lijf wil bewegen.” Het lange haar heeft hij om te headbangen. “Ik houd gewoon van vroeger. Van zweet, van blauwe plekken. Van duwen, van springen. Volgens mij was dat een hele toffe tijd.” Gitaarbands uit de vorige eeuw zijn zijn helden. Hij heeft posters van de Beatles aan de muur, van Nirvana, van The Golden Earring en Tokio Hotel. Pronkstuk is zijn vintage gitaar uit de jaren dertig. “De eerste dag dat ik ‘m had speelde ik er zo lang op dat ik blaren had.” Dat hij zijn elektra quotum opmaakt aan gitaarspelen maakt hem niet uit. “Ik hoef ook niet op de elektrische fiets. Vind ik ook belachelijk. Ik fiets gewoon zelf. Eigen spieren gebruiken, weet je. Als ik de windtunnel pak vanuit mijn huis in Almere dan ben ik binnen een uur in de Korsakoff. Daar werk ik sinds kort bij de garderobe.”

Kwame vertelt: “M’n moeder begrijpt niet dat ik zo kritisch ben tegenover Chi. Zij houdt juist van alles wat met nieuwe technologie te maken heeft. Ze zegt: zonder was jij er toch ook niet geweest?” Zijn moeder kreeg Kwame op haar tweeënvijftigste. In de klas wordt hij weleens gepest. “Vooral in Chi. Zie ik overal ANTI! ANTI! Maakt me niet uit dat ze me zo noemen. Het zijn toch sukkels, als ze me echt zouden willen hebben dan doen ze me wat in de werkelijke wereld, Chi zet ik gewoon uit.” Hij heeft een paar vrienden die ook ANTI zijn, op zijn school zitten er een stuk of dertig. “We komen wel eens bij elkaar om kleren te maken, of biertjes te drinken. Een vriend van mij maakt zelf een soort wodka.” Natuurlijk zit hij ook wel eens in Chi. Al is het om met andere ANTI’s te hangen die verder weg zitten. “Ja, daar maken we zelf ook wel eens grappen over,” zegt Kwame. En ja, hij heeft ook wel eens met een meisje gezoend via Chi. “Maar ook al voel je dan ook van alles, ik vind het toch niet hetzelfde.”

De Korsakoff is een ouderwetse kroeg die een paar jaar geleden opende in de gordel van Amsterdam. Naar het voorbeeld van de danskroeg Korsakoff die in 2011 moest sluiten wegens gebrek aan klandizie. Het interieur is viezig, je kan er bier kopen in flesjes. Instrumenten hangen aan de muur. Bijna iedereen heeft er lang haar, jongens en meiden. Zelfgemaakte, wijde kleren in donkere kleuren zijn er duidelijk de mode. Soms met schreeuwerige opdrukken. Elke avond treden er bands op. Die niet alleen te horen zijn via Chi, maar ook via je oren. “Ik zet Chi zowiezo het liefst uit,” zegt Kwame. “Ben ook echt blij dat dat kan in Nederland. Lijkt me verschrikkelijk als je hem altijd aan moet hebben staan. Soms weet je niet meer of je zelf denkt of iemand anders.”


Ay-Ling Gonzalez

29, dJ en feeStorganiSator, woont in de ring amSterdam.

Ay-Ling Gonzalez ontvangt in haar eigen club. “Dat is pure mazzel,” zegt ze. Het schoonmaken van de avond ervoor moet nog beginnen. Plastic glazen op de grond, vlekken tegen de witte muren. “Mijn overgrootopa heeft ooit dit hele pand op de Nassaukade gekocht. Ik heb veel geluk dat het in de familie is gebleven.” Haar zus woont op de derde verdieping, zij op de tweede. De eerste verdieping is haar kantoor, en de begane grond is de club waar Ay-Ling haar dj-carrière is begonnen. “Gewoon zelf feestjes organiseren. Warme, soulvolle muziek. Drankje, mensen ontmoeten, dansen. Ik wist dat het zou gaan lopen.” Ze begon vijf jaar geleden, op het moment dat er nog maar weinig clubs over waren in de stad. De combinatie van de hype van feesten in Chi, en de invoering van het electra quotum, deden veel clubs de das om. “Maar de behoefte elkaar in de werkelijke wereld te ontmoeten blijft,” zegt Ay-Ling. “In honderd jaar jongerencultuur is dat altijd hetzelfde gebleven: samenkomen, dansen, in vervoering raken. Ja, sex drugs en rock ’n roll,” lacht ze. De inrichting hield ze simpel, ze begon met bijna niks in de ruimte. Wat houten bankjes, een oude lamp aan het plafond. Muziek hoort het publiek, dat uit heel ring-Amsterdam naar haar toekomt, via Chi. Bij de ingang hangt een bordje: ‘wij houden van de buren en hopen dat ze ook van ons blijven houden. Dus praat met elkaar via Chi’. “Dat we nu zo muziek kunnen beleven is de redding geweest van de Amsterdamse clubcultuur,” zegt Ay-Ling. Toen haar club, Nassau, ging lopen heeft ze wel geinvesteerd in anti-geluid. “Dat mensen gaan schreeuwen, gillen, stampen als ze helemaal uit hun dak gaan, daar kan en wil je niks aan doen,” zegt de dj.

is dat toch anders. Ik heb in Nassau ook wel apparaten staan die de bas in je buik na bootsen, maar in het echt is het toch vetter.” Op dit moment zit ze in haar retrofase. Muziek uit de jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw gemixt met de pompende, donkere beats uit Rio. “Charly is vrolijk en heeft tegelijkertijd dat agressieve onderbuik gevoel,” legt Ay-Ling uit. Op deze ochtend draagt ze een joggingpak, maar achter de draaitafel draagt ze liefst paillettenjurkjes met veren. “Het is spannend om te zien waar de Braziliaanse sound allemaal nog toe gaat leiden. Het is al zo lang aan de gang, en nog steeds niet uitgeput. In Europa doen we er toch weer heel andere dingen mee dan in Azië.” Zelf groeide ze op met Eurabiahouse. “Ik heb alleen het staartje meegemaakt, de commerciële boom. Eigenlijk had ik er een hekel aan,” zegt Ay-Ling. “Zo plat. Pas later ben ik het gaan waarderen, toen ik ging zoeken naar de eerste platen uit begin jaren dertig.” Ay-Ling excuseert zich even. Ze krijgt een bericht in Chi. Een concentratiemoment later kijkt ze me zuchtend aan. “Hmmmmm. Weer drugs geconstateerd gisteren. Derde waarschuwing in twee maanden, kennelijk waren er weer undercovers.” Nog twee waarschuwingen en Nassau moet een maand dicht. “Heb ik al twee keer meegemaakt. Het blijft vreemd: met die Chi-drugs heeft helemaal niemand er last van. De volgende dag ben je niet eens brak. En verslaving is zo makkelijk opgelost. Maar het mag niet en dus moet de gemeente controleren.” Ze staat op om een nieuwe plaat op te zetten. Vinyl. “Vanavond maar weer de drugs-blokker aanzetten.”

Toch is ze blij dat ze het afgelopen jaar ook kan draaien op feesten waar muziek de lucht mag laten trillen. “Op een of andere manier


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Photos: Texts: Design:

Andreas Widman (Sid Lee) The participants, Speculative Peculiars (Christiaan Fruneaux, Femke Lutgerink) Michel Lavoie (Sid Lee)

A special thank you to: all the participants, Frédéric Gauthier, Eline Ermens, Maurits Martijn, Harm Sas, Amélie St-Cyr, Marina Tello & Andreas Widman. ©2009 The participants, Speculative Peculiars, Andreas Widman

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