From robots to videos, from techno to technology
May 05, 2006
| In the third weekend of March the Dutch city of Eindhoven has been visited by strange bug-driven machines, unique installations, video screenings, and a spectrum of live performances. All happened in the really peculiar strjp-S area, which represents a kind of city in a city, a closed area composed of old and present day buildings of the Philips factory. |
This industrial zone is really a perfect set for the concept of "discovery"; in the past decades gifted scientists such A.Einstein work at their studies in these laboratories, and is exactly there that compact disc was projected and produced for the first time. During the three days of the program thousands of visitors went wandering between the intriguing robotic creatures and fascinating installations in the exhibition area; a very interesting result, which was definitely one of the main goals of the organizers, is the family-friendly concept of this exhibition, which attracted children, and adults of all ages catching everybodies' attention. |
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In the display area you might have met a homeless robot asking for change or have shared a beer at the bar with a kind of friendly-party android, seen some small "star-wars looking" robots controlled by coakroaches and played with a "painstation" where the winner is not the one who scores millions or billions points, but the one who resists the longest a little torture (heat, light whipping...) that the playing hand is given by the console. |
In other rooms as day melted away dj, vj and live sets started animating the evening. Loads of storming basses and different degrees of experimental approaches invaded the Klokgebouw; the day visitors let space to a dancing tribe who had the pleasure to move driven by sets from masters as Derrick May, DMX Krew, (his majesty) Jeff Mills, Karl Bartos, Atom Heart, just to name really a few; while laptop sessions and abstract vibes filled the other different halls. The visual area hosted live cinema, video-art and movies, involving many different styles and a lot of revolutionary ideas. We would love to mention AddictiveTv, SXNDRX, Skotz Kolgen and the Tulse Lupe VJ performance by Peter Greenaway in particular, appreciating anyway the high quality, variety and interest of all projects. The festival also hosted a session of dorkbot, an international network of people involved in technology research and applications. During sessions held in different cities of the world (on dorkbot site, www.dorkbot.org they simply say "people doing strange things with electricity") the projects are showed, explained and spread to a not-expert audience. |
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After three crowded days all the strange creatures took off to their own respective planets and the Strijp-S returned to a reserved area open only to the authorized personnel. Everyday work noises became again the soundtrack..... waiting for next year new space invaders! A particular thank to STRP director Frens Frijns for his interesting explanations and concepts shared in a crowded Sunday afternoon... more infos: www.strp.nl |
