Rags 'n' riches

august 29, 2008.

"Me, me, me!", that's what the Amsterdam based Mediamatic calls its current series of events centered on 'Identity and Self-representation on the Internet', a series that - accidentally, or not - accompanies the ongoing ado in the Netherlands on the 'yes/no' and/or 'how much?' of public funding for the dutch media- (and other-) cultural institutions, several of which still face the threat of sudden and drastic cuts in a very near future.

It also came with its moving house: from the industrial (former postal services) building Post CS ( * ) to a space within the gray former ABN/AMRO office building in the Vijzelstraat, where 'Mediamatic' became Mediamatic Bank ...

Even though personally I totally dislike the Vijzelstraat (for some reason that street to me designates depression, wind and rain, even on bright and happy days), for Mediamatic I think this is a good move.

I visited Mediamatic a couple of weeks ago, and came upon a mountain of second hand clothing, provided by the Leger des Heils (the dutch Salvation Army), some tables with sewing machines and sewing kits, a couple of tailor's dummies, and a wall lined with hand-decorated sneakers. It was the setting for a series of fashion (and catwalk) workshops ("Upcycle Yourself"), in the course of which you may learn from young fashion designers how to re-design and re-create second hand clothing into something ... well, eh ... new. To re-present yourself. For example on the internet. All of this partially lead, and inspired, by the work of parisian 'activist' fashion collective Andrea Crews.

I was quickly seduced. First, I am an absolute sucker for thrift stores and almost anything that has been 'formerly owned'. Second, I was much intrigued by the near paradoxical opposition between the event's (intellecto-bombastico) sub-text - 'identity and self-representation on the internet' - and the so un-pretentious hands-on playfulness of what actually appeared to be going on. That's a good sign.

On another - technologies nouvelles - hand: I shot the above picture picture using the RFID photo booth technique that Mediamatic developed. You may ask one of the staff to prepare you (with a laptop on a corner of the bar) a little pink and green "ik" heart. It contains an RFID-tag that is linked to your personal profile page on the Mediamatic website. You can use the tag to take pictures of yourself at a couple of spots in the Mediamatic space, which are then automatically uploaded and added to your profile page. Now that of course is nice, and good fun, but ... what if you are - rightfully - worrying about the many (future and present) dangers of these and related 'tracking technologies'? Then you just stow away your 'ik'-tag in one of the small metal RFID-safe boxes, also from Mediamatic, that will keep your tag from being tracked ...

Here's two shots of me wearing the pair of sekppku pants that my son tailor-made for me during the august 13th Upcycle Yourself workshop :

For, you see, I am not a sewing-machine kind of a person myself, so I actually had the kids labor away, pimping and upcycling stuff for themselves as well as for me ... Meanwhile I sat around. I had a coffee, read newspapers, wrote a couple of lines here and there ... I watched the girls and boys that were diligently cutting, folding and sewing, and listened to the electrical humming of the machines and the many different rustling sounds made by cloth, garments and those that were handling them. I reflected upon the rags and riches, that in the large and quiet of the former banking space now occupied by Mediamatic, suddenly - more than ever - seemed to impose itself as a theme. For there, but as much for elsewhere.

On the huge pile of clothing to be re-used, and to which regularly fresh stock is added, there stuck a sign. If you look carefully at the picture you may see and even read it. It says: "Do not climb the mountain".

That applied to the rags.
It also applies to the riches.

[ You may visit the "ikikik!" DIY-fashion show and workshops at Mediamatic in the Vijzelstraat in Amsterdam until september 14th, 2008. The project series on 'Identity and self-representation on the internet' continues this fall, with two more themes: "Transgender, body and beauty manipulation" and "Death". ]

[ Earlier related SB-entry: All Hallows Trivia (ii) - El Hema ]

notes __ ::
(*) The Post CS building is next to the Central Station. During the past four years and until october 1st, 2008, it also has been home to the modern art museum, the Stedelijk Museum. The Stedelijk is still awaiting the moment it can re-use its official housing on the Museumplein, that currently is undergoing a complex and costly re-decoration, which just goes on and on. The museum can not go back there before december 2009, whence the curious fact that, for over a year and probably even longer, Amsterdam's collection of modern art will be homeless: sans domicile fixe. (The museum, interestingly, intends to spend that period in a true nomadic way, and roam the streets of the city ...) [ ^ ]

tags: amsterdam, mediamatic, fashion, rfid

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