V2_ was founded in 1981 as an artist collective. A squat in the Vughterstraat 234 (short: V2_) in 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, 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.
The mid-eighties brought a turning point, not only for V2_, but for a lot of artists' initiatives in the Netherlands. 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 Though an historical document, most of what is in the Manifesto is still crucial for the work of the organization.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.
In 1994, V2_ moved to its current location in the center of Rotterdam, 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.
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 art 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.
The growing possibilities of the World Wide Web took away a lot of the energy from the 'medium' of the interactive CD-rom, which in retrospect almost seems a stillborn medium. Interactive narrative became the domain of games. Art never took well to the CD-rom, and for the rest the CD became an 'extra', just a storage disk with interative features that in principle could also be found online. A third area in which some of the 'artistic energy' that was invested in interactive CD-roms was played out, is interactive Flash movies.
Though the CD-roms from the 1990s are on the shelves in a cupboard at V2_ – unplayable on new computers, you'll have to fire up one of those old Mac Performa's – the first thing I did when checking the information, was a quick google-search. In many cases not much came up – sometimes not more than an orphaned entry at Amazon. I also found pages that looked like parts of forgotten websites on the VPRO-server, looking for information on Virtual Conversation. (Amongst the people who worked on that were Taco Stolk, Bert Mulder, and a very young Gideon Kiers).
I wonder if we have a good account of those years. In the Netherlands we had the first websites of V2_ and Mediamatic, and all the activity a the digital 'attic' of the VPRO. My guess is that people have the remains of it on old harddisks: saved copies of simple websites, Director-files, maybe even Hypercard-stacks. Some of the organizations Sometimes pages are even still online, but hard to find, and only partly functional. (There are some such 'forgotten' things at v2.nl as well).
I did not do an awful lot of research into this area. It might be that I simply missed the website of the researcher or enthusiast of early interactive CD-roms, which gives a full account of these times, still I was surprised at the small amount of information that I (quickly) found, and how scattered it is.
Btw: I think it's great to find pages like this one: web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/Voyager.html.
Of course there are many obvious relations to make between these events and past events at V2_. Graham Smith, who was in the 1986 Stategic Arts Initiative, has since then continued to explore a physical notion of telepresence, and many of his projects have been shown at V2_. For instance MOBI, a telepresence robot which is like a more refined version of his 1986 Displaced Perspectives, was part of the DEAF07 exhibition. David Rokeby's n-Cha(n)t was on show at DEAF04. Another obvious relation is the media theory of Arjen Mulder, which has always been deeply informed by McLuhan. His Understanding Media Theory contains, amongst many other things, an inspiring account of McLuhan's thoughts. No wonder that the lectures which accompagnied the presentation of the book featured McLuhan-inspired thinkers. Derrick de Kerckhove – in many ways McLuhan's most direct heir – has also been a guest at V2_ many times, notably at Manifestation for the Unstable Media 4 and the DEAF04 symposium. He wrote an essay for DEAF96: The Digital Imperative. A last obvious connection is that between the robot art of Norman White and the many robot performances which took place at V2_. But I already mentioned some of those in earlier columns.
I wanted to go back further in time – to the 1980s and early 1990s. Only a small part of the V2_archive's documents and information of those years is publicly on view. (We're working on it). I was thinking of 1992, when the San Francisco festival took place at V2_, which included a robot performance by Chico MacMurtrie. Two hi-res scans of the poster are here and here. I guess that connects to Norman White's work in some senses.
Talking about telepresence and 1992, one cannot escape referencing Paul Sermon's groundbreaking installation Telematic Dreaming, which was shown at V2_ as part of the Body in Ruin exhibition in 1993.
And I was also thinking of the event The Art of Being Everywhere, which took place at V2_ in 1992, it was curated by Robert Adrian, one of the central figures in early telematic art. This event adressed the possibilities of electronic networking and the consequences thereof – like telepresence and the idea one is connectected to 'everywhere' by electronic signals. Adrian was the man behind ZEROnet.
Let's go back even further – and just for this time move outside of the V2_archive. Robert Adrian took also part in the by now legendary 1983 event La plissure du texte – conceived by Roy Ascott (See: http://alien.mur.at/rax/ARTEX/PLISSURE/plissure.html). This weaves another connection, as one versions of that text, was captured on disc by, yes, Norman White. It can be accessed online at http://www.normill.ca/Text/plissure.txt. 1983 telepresence, here's a snippet:
"I ALSO THINK IT IMPORTATNT THAT WE TRY IN THIS PROJECT TO AVAOID THE IMB
UIT
INBUILT ENLGLISH LANGUAGE BIAS OF THE ELECTRONIC WORLD. LETS TRY TO KEEP AT LES
T 50
PERCENT FRENCH INPUT ....
"
As V2_ finds its roots in the alternative scene, and started in squatted buildings in Den Bosch, there should also be quite a few examples of political inspired art from the early days. Stephen Wilson's Street Voice Space from 1990 used a computer who asked the public to vent their opinions on social, political or psychological subjects through a microphone in the middle of the square. That's somehow comparable to what will happen in the Test_Lab: Who Wants to Be and the Blowup Show Me the Money...
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Though V2_ has always looked to the future and has speculated much on what will happen in future technological times, the "The Internet of Things" – an idea which has been around ever since someone thought about hooking up the fridge to the internet – nor 3D printing have ever occupied at center stage at V2_.
But there is a close connection – a very close connection – between the DIY-approach of Julian Bleecker and the way in which the V2_ lab develops some projects. Julian Bleecker loves making things, and promotes that love – and so does V2_. Just look for instance at these V2_workshops: DIY networks, DIY Ambient Intelligence, the Workshop Wearable Technology, or this cutout circuit board design.
And, though "The Internet of Things" might never have played a central role at V2_ there are many projects in which objects are furnished with communication technology, and networked to communicate. The first project which comes to mind is Thecla Schiphorst's Soft(n) – which basically consists of cushions which communicate. Another take on communicating objects is Mobile Feelings by – though that work is more about the boundaries between object and virtual – an issue explored by many more projects presented at V2_.
The lack of clearly related projects in the V2_archive is just one reason more to be excited about an exploration of speculative design – there might be something new to invent – a new thing, or a new behavior. Maybe to get context for this night we should not search the V2_archive for leads, but rather look at the present – and go further back, even to an updated 19th Century – and read Lars Spuybroek's new book The Sympathy of Things, .
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The V2_archive collects documentation about events, people, organizations and
artworks, and includes essays, interviews and publications that have
played a role in V2_'s history. The emphasis of the V2_ archive is on
digital-born information connected to the history and activities of V2_.
On November 29th 2010 the contents of the previous archive website were
migrated to the current V2_website.
The V2_archive does not intend to cover media art in a complete or objective way, but emphasizes V2_'s specific approach towards electronic art and unstable media. In this way, it should be considered complementary to the documentation collected by partner institutions and individual artists. As a rule, we only cover and describe works, people and activities that have a direct relation with V2_'s activities in the present and the past.
The archive is a work-in-progress, the data is subject to continuing revision and improvement. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the completeness and correctness of information contained in this data collection. Visitors to the archive portal are welcome to provide additions and corrections to the data found in the online archive, taking the archive's scope into account. Comments can be sent to the archive's editorial team: archive[a]v2.nl
The physical archive of V2_ consists of videotapes in various formats of about 750 hours of event and art work documentation, a collection of about 15.000 photographs and a growing number of digital videos, next to posters, audio tapes, CD-ROMs and DVDs, old websites, a small library with books and magazines on new media art and adjacent fields, these are broadly related to the programs that V2_ has developed from 1981 until now.
The physical archive focuses on V2_'s perspective on media art. The physical archive is located in the V2_ building, Eendrachtsstraat 10, 3012 XL Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It can be visited for research purposes and by appointment only. For an appointment, please contact archive@v2.nl or call +31 10 7501525 at least one week in advance.
The archive is an ongoing research project. Formerly, the online archive's descriptions and documentation focused on the timespan from 1993 - historically coinciding with V2_'s relocation to Rotterdam and increasing focus on network technologies. Currently, descriptions and documentation of earlier activities are gradually added to and published on the website.
In 2009 and 2010 the V2_archive team worked on the development, refinement and augmentation of the archival module for this website, also as a replacement of the old archive website. V2_archive collaborates with De Balie in Amsterdam on the development of this archival module, as well as on, amongst others, the development of a videoplayer. This was made possible thanks to a generous grant from SenterNovem.
The software which ran the old archive website alas did not function well anymore. All of the contents of the archive were migrated to the current website at the end of 2010. Not all of this content is available for website visitors yet, as it needs to be editted and sometimes corrected. Next to editing this content, the archive team is in the process of digitizing the most important parts of the physical archive, and will make those files available in the digital archive too.
The old archive website was available at archive.v2.nl from 2003 till February 2011. It had to be taken offline also because the server on which the software ran caused a security problem for the V2_ network. The old archive-website was archived as a DVD – excluding some image and movie material – and is available as a disk image for those interested. URLs starting with 'framework.v2.nl' which used to point to the archive, are now redirected to the current website.
The information in this online archive is collected and edited by curators, researchers and editors employed by V2_. Most information is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Exceptions and special arrangements are as follows: articles, essays and interviews that are or were part of V2_'s publications and of readers in the context of V2_'s activities remain copyrighted to their original authors. Most of the photographic material in V2_'s archive was created by freelance photographer Jan Sprij. For obtaining permission for the reproduction of photographs, please contact sprij@xs4all.nl
Telephone: +31 10 206 7272
Archive general: archive[a]v2.nl
Joke Brouwer (manager): jb[a]v2.nl
Arie Altena (editor, media archivist): arie[a]v2.nl
Sofia Bustorff (media archivist): sofia[a]v2.nl
