Mediamatic

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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.

With: Arie Altena, Paul Groot, Dirk Van Weelden, Jorinde Seijdel, Geert-Jan Strengholt, Willem Velthoven, Klaas Kuitenbrouwer, Jans Possel, Bea Correa, Frits Maats, Marieken Verheyen, Barbara Pyle, Jan wijle, Mondriaan Foundation, Stimuleringsfonds voor de Creatieve Industrie, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Marcel Sturing

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. (2023)

Mediamatic was founded in 1983 as a meeting place for media, television and video artists, intellectuals and scientists. After a while the first Mediamatic Magazine was published; a magazine about media, art and television that was published internationally. It acquired a legendary status among those interested in the discussion around new media. From 1994 and onwards every issue was accompanied CD-ROM/DVD-ROM art.

When the Mediamatic website launched in 2000, the paper version of the Mediamatic Magazine was followed up by Mediamatic Off-line. Mediamatic Off-line(compared to On-Line) was an irregular series of publications, always having an autonomic artistic project as subject which could be viewed on the CD/DVD-ROM. Famous and renowned CD-ROMs by Gerald van der Kaap, Jodi and Florian Thalhofer were published by Mediamatic. The last Medimatic Off-Line issue appeared in 2007. (2023)

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