About Mediamatic

Mediamatic is an art centre dedicated to new developments in the arts since 1983. We organize lectures, workshops and art projects, focusing on nature, biotechnology and art+science in a strong international network.

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Mediamatic Biotoop Dijkspark on a sunny day - Waterside view of Mediamatic Biotoop with the refugee vessel "Meneer Vrijdag" of Rederij Lampedusa mooring in the Dijksgracht Ruby Lee

At Mediamatic we are always looking for new developments in society. We are interested in how art, design and science merge and how we can use this to experiment with new (living) materials. We challenge the senses and tackle perceptions regarding food, waste and unconventional materials such as piss, bacteria and fungi. The processes involved are all based on sustainable principles, as we are happy to contribute to a circular economy.

We organise lectures to further discover and learn how art, design and science merge and we look at how our senses, such as taste and smell, influence our emotions and associations. During Odorama we use smells to guide the audience through the world of everything olfactory, while the Biotalk focuses on art, science, new materials and new technologies and during the Pis’Talk we try to inspire a whole new perception of piss. The Pure Gold installation on our façade collects kindly donated urine, which we use as a fertiliser for the Dijkspark. We cultivate plants and fish together in our Aquaponics, a closed system in which we pump water from the fish tank through the grow beds. The excrements of the fish serve as a fertilizer and the plants filter the water returning to the fish tank. It is a sustainable system and perfect for growing food in the city as it hardly takes up any space and wastes very little water. We use the vegetables from the Aquaponics green house for our restaurant Mediamatic ETEN.

In the Myco Design Lab we explore the possibilities of designing with living organisms. We believe that the mycelium, the root system of mushrooms, will eventually replace plastic. Currently we are making insulation from mycelium using the waste from our brewery. We use this insulating material for isolating a nineteenth century barn, the project space where we organise our lectures.

Mediamatic serves as an international networkhub with a physical location in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

More info about our organisation, can be found here (Dutch only).

Mediamatic is sponsored by Mondriaan Fonds, Stimuleringsfonds voor de Creatieve Industrie and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.

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