3-9 August 2009

Out of The Blue is an international symposium organized by The Blue House (Het Blauwe Huis) focusing on three different strands to further unpack and understand experimental communities: Instant Urbanism, Hospitality and Accelerated History.

Out of The Blue is a discursive forum where a number of investigative questions will be articulated via workshops, intense dialogues, in-conversations, study sessions, public plenaries, performances, and discussions with a number of guests on stage. The initiator and main organizer is The Blue House, situated on Ijburg; a major new urban district being developed on a cluster of man-made islands to the east of Amsterdam city centre.

Out of The Blue will take place in the future 'Activity Centre' on the island presently under construction. The still concrete structure will be used as a temporal public faculty, a 50-room motel and an amphitheatre. The design is made by Maartje Dros and Francois Lombarts. The curator of the symposium is Yane Calovski. It is part of Blue House project 'Parade of Urbanism' from Jeanne van Heeswijk and Dennis Kaspori in collaboration with Floris van Heynsbergen.

Symposium program:

Instant Urbanism: All for the love of Instant Urbanism Organized with Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen (STEALTH.unlimited, Rotterdam / Belgrade).

'All for the love of Instant Urbanism' brings together a group of people involved with and troubled by the necessity for a more future oriented instant creation and collectivity in the city. It blends a workshop, performance and discussions with a number of guests on stage, while setting out for the slippery grounds of even newer horizons.

Hospitality: Hospitality, Privacy, Place Organized with Dr. Johan Siebers (Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies School of Advanced Study, University of London).

'Hospitality, Privacy, Place' is a two-day workshop that will explore the dialectic between these concepts in the context of the question what it means to build and develop a community that can be a mirror of Europe, both mediating and shaping its course.

Accelerated History: Is Time Enough? Duration, Location and Accelerated Histories Organized with Dr. Paul O’Neill (artist - curator and GWR Research Fellow in Commissioning with Situations, University of the West of England, Bristol).

This strand of the symposium takes a speculative look at how duration and the evolutionary process of time is conceived of as part of new cumulative approaches to artistic, organizational and curatorial praxis in response to a specific locations and contexts. Centered around a series of intense dialogues and in-conversations, this strand aims to unpack key issues relating Durational approaches to Participatory Praxis, Collaboration and Play, Communities and Social Engagement, Organizational Models and Networks, Critical Writing and Pedagogy.

To register go to: info@blauwehuis.org

For more info go to Blue House / +31(0)6-3859 5379