“Fluid Rhythms”—Summer School, LAB and Seminar

“The crowd is a body, the body is a crowd” –Henri Lefebvre

Life in the city both repeats itself, and is constantly changing. Situated in the Bijlmer, one of Amsterdam’s most vibrant neighborhoods, once envisioned as an urban utopia and famous for being called the “city of the future,” Open Set launches a new programme, dedicated to exploring the potential of rhythm in the city. The movement of bodies in space; financial transactions; the circulation of sounds, cells, and smells; changing social constructs that divide and connect people; the flow of microscopic substances—such looping patterns generate dynamic complex structures, or “rhythms,” that shift over time. Where there is rhythm, there is life (C. Nevejan). Understanding and working with such dynamic complexities requires careful attunement to the interactions between social, imagined, and physical realms. 

We are looking for artists, designers and scholars to join this international and interdisciplinary programme, in collaboration with the scientific consortium “Designing Rhythm for Social Resilience” (OIS Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Delft University of Technology, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions). Together we investigate rhythm-led practices as common ground for research and artistic practice. This means providing tools to perceive and tap into the generative qualities of rhythms. Such dynamic patterns occur on multiple levels simultaneously: in the macro-level structures of the city, within the cells of bodies, and in the interconnections between thought and emotion, brainwaves and heartbeats. By investigating the intertwined patterns of change, a world of subtle complexity begins to reveal how humans, machines, animals and microbes interact and coexist.

Participants in the programme will engage with the city to generate artistic work in and around the Bijlmer area. Such interventions can take on any form, whether sound, food, image-based, performance or digital applications—presenting the opportunity to discover new, invisible or forgotten rhythms, and unearth the points of friction. We seek ways to transform and harness this energy for social, political and ecological change. Working with rhythms is indeed a way of synchronizing efforts in acting and living together in a networked society.

Involved artists, designer and scholars: Nadia Al Issa, Heather Barnett, Cascoland, Espen Sommer Eide & Signe Lidén, Uta Eisenreich, Satinder P.Gill, Thought Collider, Noam Toran, Angelo Vermeulen, more to be announced.  

Open Set: for whom?
Open Set is an nomadic, practice-based research platform, bringing together emergent artists, designers and scholars with the support of leading figures from design and adjacent fields. In a lively interdisciplinary environment, participants in our programmes have the opportunity to take their practice to the next level. Open Set opens the doors for new hybrid forms of makers and thinkers, supporting people who challenge traditional definitions and methodologies.

Context & location
The programme will be contextualised around the modern, historical, social and environmental frameworks of the Bijlmer neighborhood. All events are hosted and supported by the municipality and local cultural centres in South-East Amsterdam.

Open applications 2018–19
We currently offer three programmes for designers, artists and scholars who are interested in engaging with multiple dimensions of “rhythms” and open to discovering new ways of working with a network of international partners and experts from the local community. For more information see application procedure and scholarships.

Summer School: August 15–25, 2018
Application deadline: July 1 (early birds June 1) 
Intensive programme of workshops and lectures.

Open Set LAB: Practicing Rhythm: October 19, 2018–February 23, 2019 
Application deadline: August 20 (early birds July 20) 
Five-month programme with practice-based sessions held every two weeks in the Bijlmer, aiming at developing individual projects. The parallel trajectories will end in sync, with a shared public presentation and conference. 

Seminar: Rhythmanalysis in Context: August 13, 2018–February 9, 2019
Application deadline: July 1 (early birds June 1) 
Series of presentations, discussions and theoretical texts readings from different disciplines, aiming at exploring the key concepts and multidisciplinary practices related to rhythmanalysis.

Open Set programme is generously supported by the City of Amsterdam-Zuidoost and Het Pauwhof Fonds.