Kom je ook? 4 – Apples and Pears

Flasback to the sold-out fourth edition

2 Mar 2010
2 Mar 2010

Boxes filled with apples and pears, (re-)tweets on big backchannels and visitors walking about with castagnets around their neck. Nobody seems to notice the crazy setting, after all it's the fourth edition of Kom je ook? The meeting about innovation and participation in art, culture and heritage.

What was your experience at Kom je ook? 4? Let us know by clicking here and answering the questions. (They are in Dutch though.)

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Kom je ook? 4 publiek - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Andreas Conradi Andreas Conradi

Chairman Riemer Knoop opens the meeting explaining what the theme of this fourth edition is: Apples and pears (read: apples and oranges). Sometimes it is better to make "no comparison, but to look at the idea behind it." At Kom je ook? 4 various projects will be discussed in which the visitor is invited to look at the idea behind it and to be inspired by it.

Rick Mattias: Design for better living.

Mattias Rick, architect of Raumlabor Berlin is the first to convince us of that. He demonstrates how architecture and design can be used to win back the confidence of the public in the city and the public space. Architects in the 60's were very focused on functionality, often forgetting to include the citizen into their design. The result is deserted playgrounds, cold subway stations and a large distance between audience and object. In collaboration with professionals and residents the collective of RaumLabor launched various projects to reduce this distance and to build a relationship between residents and city.

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Matthias Rick Raumlaborberlin - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

Mattias clarifies his principles by giving many examples of his projects. The Eichenbaumoper project was perhaps the project that raised the most eyebrows taking the amount of tweets at the backchannel into account. In the Euchembaumoper project Raumlabor was able to transform a depreciated subway station into a place for art and interaction. In response visitors used the backchannel to inform if Mattias could take care of our Nort-South line as well. The success of Mattias' projects, or social experiments, reminds us that we shouldn't forget the public, because eventually it's the public you are doing it for.

Lidewij van Valkenhoef: The most beautiful works on paper.

It's a dream of many visitors: Looking around in the warehouse of a museum and making an exhibition themselves. The Kröller-Müller Museum turns this dream into reality. Lidewij van Valkenhoef, head marketing of the Kröller-Müller Museum, introduces us to Exposé, an interactive concept that allows online visitors to choose the drawings that they would like to see in the exhibition. During the opening of "The most beautiful works on paper" visitors were able to read valuable comments that were posted online and enjoy Ad Visser's music.

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Lidewij van Valkenhoef, Kröller-Müller Museum - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

Without a doubt an innovative concept, but Lidewij admits that Expose has not been able to attract a new audience. On the other hand, she observes that "The atmosphere at the exhibition was quite different from other exhibitions. People came because they really wanted to see their own thing." The project is a demonstration of courage as well taking into account that the art historical comments that were posted online, haven't been shown in the exhibition. Perhaps this is the way to attract visitors in the future. We're curious to find out more...

Voorbeeld van een fan sourced video, vertoont tijdens Kom je ook? op 2 maart 2010

http://oneframeoffame.com/ By: Roel Wouters

The DOEN-pitch.

It is time for the DOEN Pitch. Six pitchers are competing for the DOEN-clinic, which will increase the likelyness of receiving a grant from the DOEN-foundation.

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DOEN Pitchers - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach


Each pitch takes two minutes and is rated by the public as well as a professional jury. Each vote is collected by the ikPoll and made visible on the backchannel.

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DOEN Pitch Straatkunstprijs - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

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DOEN Pitch ikPoll - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

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Deelnemers en publiek tijdens de DOEN Pitch ikPoll - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

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Winner Doen Pitch: Overal Vincent - Taken at Kom je Ook? 4 Appels en Peren, Mediamatic. Raphael Rehbach

Crowdfunding times 3.

After presentations on reaching your audience, three presentations will follow now on the highly debated crowdfunding. The Sochi Project, Cinema Reloaded and Amsterdam Fund for the Arts share their experiences with us.

The Sochi Project.
Filmmakers Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen argue that independent journalism can be financed by the public. The success of their online journal about the Russian city of Sochi and it's surroundings, can be seen as their main evidence. You can become a sponsor of http://www.thesochiproject.org for as little as 10 euros a year. In return, you'll be able to follow the project, access background stories and be in contact with the filmmakers. Want more? Take a gold package (1000 euro per year) and you'll receive a special box and have more rights on their website. A distinction has to be made, but that might be the strength of the project as well: the differentiation of participants.

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Sochi project tijdens Kom je ook? - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

Reloaded Cinema.
Anton Damen projectleader of the International Film Festival Rotterdam argues that there is another way. Cinema reloaded is a non-commercial online platform enabling the audience to support three pre-selected independent filmdirectors by assigning coins to their favourite. In return for their support the audience can contact and follow their director in his creative process. Anton emphasizes that 'money' can't buy you influence in the creative process of the directors. The coin rather symbolizes the support for independent film makers. Also a conscious choice has been made not to become a social medium, which may also have contributed to their success. The independent directors though are more involved with their audience and are learning to make a relation with them. Finally everyone at Kom je ook? gets a free coin to see the project in action themselves (which is a huge recommendation!).

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Cinema Reloaded Kom je ook?4 - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

With: Anton Damen

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Kom je ook? 4 introductie microfoon - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

For the Arts.
After independent journalism and film now it's time for the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst / AFK. Meike Le Coultre, Communications Director, argues that the grants program should in part be organised by crowdfunding. "With the help of crowdfunding we can see how much we contribute, how much other people contribute and the artist himself." The goal is among others transparency, because grants for art have in fact always been a sensitive issue. Especially now the obviousness of subsidy is not that obvious anymore.

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AFK Meike Lecoultre - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

Roy Cremers jumps in: "[The grants program] will be a mix of public and private money. The contribution of the AFK should be seen as a catalyst, not as funding." You begin to wonder why we didn't come up with this idea earlier after listening to the presentation. The backchannel also confirms sounds of relief as a reply to this news. The discussion ends with what went wrong with SellaBand. The recent bankruptcy of Sellaband prevented any further cooperation with the AFK. Either way the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst will still go on with their grant program "Voordekunst'.

Book launch "Museums in Transition"

After a short break, the book "Museums in Transition: Roles of meaning" is given to Siebe Weide, director of the Museum Association, by Erfgoed Nederland. Obviously, everyone will get a free copy.
Watch the movie that has specially been made for the book presentation. By Anne Vroegop, Radna Rumping, Dick Rijken, Willem Velthoven, Jan Hovers and Marijke Oosterbroek. The book can also be ordered through Erfgoed Nederland.

Chris O'Shea: Do not forget to play.

Finally follows Chris O'Shea by many perceived as the "dessert of the afternoon"(RT). Which is understandable. After presentations about reaching out to the public and crowdfunding, Chris O'Shea comes up with something completely different: To make the public itself a subject of art.

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Chris O'Shea Kom je ook?4 - Foto genomen tijdens Kom je ook?4 op 2 maart 2010 in de Westergasfabriek. Foto Mediamatic / Raphael Rehbach Raphael Rehbach

With: Chris O'Shea

"In my design I want to provoce unexpected behavior, make people smile and encouraging creativity." His interactive installations always represent an element of art or games. "Technology makes the imaginary come alive." Which means that in the world of Chris a paint brush can suddenly make lines of a light, "the hand from above" is tickeling mere bystanders, mirrors are looking for their contactlenses and your shadow is giving light.

Audience - rAndom International

Flap to Freedom by Ico Design

Twitter paparazzi.

During Kom je ook? a lively discussion is taking place on the back channel. Through the backchannel we find out that container company "Hoek" in Rotterdam has the best container prices and that chairman Riemer has a nice scarf. That somebody is enjoying his pear( "mm tasty"), somebody else is even using the backchannel to toast. As you can see, the tweets are not always related to the presentations ( "Isn't the backchannel distracting too much?"). Furthermore some questions on the back channel haven't been discussed after the presentations. Surprisingly nobody dared to use the castanets either to ask their questions after all.

Anyway, the backchannel made it clear that during Kom je ook? 4 many photos are taken with the ikCam and new friendships made. Also it's clear who voted for who through the IkPoll and who'd just arrived (some apparently later than promised). Everything is visible and open, because to inspire and to collaborate, transparency and trust are needed. In that respect, Kom je ook? 4 certainly succeeded. The drinks and discussion persued until late ...

Kom je ook? is sponsored by:

The Mondriaan Foundation Stichting DOEN, Deneuve Cultural Projects, and makelovenotart, the new knowledge program that inspires and supports cultural institutions to connect with society.