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
Let's look at it from a positive perspective. From January on almost most of the physical art of the V2_ archive will be stored on the same floor, most of it even in the same room. Don't get me wrong, this does not mean we've suddenly indexed everything. The physical archive – except for the videotapes, which are indexed – is still basically a stack of boxes and rows of folders, filled with paper, photo's, slides. Some of it valuable, some of it might be considered trash by an outsider. But at least it's now stored together.
Of course, while moving 'new' stuff turned up. Folders I had never seen before, a box full of self-burned CD-roms from the late 1990's, a box with floppy disks, old flyers, and not to forget a stack of old faxes. I'm sure that it could be of interest for someone researching that era. But then, nothing of it is properly indexed. Folders usually contain both things which to me (having a quick look at it) seem historically valuable, and things which should probably have been thrown away at the time. And there are boxes which could have ended up on the archive shelves accidentaly. But one can't be sure by giving it a quick look. And the older the stuff is, the more interesting it seems...
We for now, won't have the time nor the money to bring order to this physical archive. It's in boxes, in folders, it is put away more or less orderly. I know more or less what is there, and also what is not there. (That is the more scarier part... I'm afraid that what researcher might be looking for is exactly not there.)
But it is there, and we will keep it – and when there's time and money, we'll start ordering it.
]]>The history of V2_ goes back to 1981, when a group of artists squatted a building in Den Bosch and started to use it for exhibitions an concerts. Amongst them were Joke Brouwer and Alex Adriaansens. So it is no surprise that each of these three books cover some of the early history of V2_.
No Future Nu by Leonor Jonker is a history of punk and the post-punk DIY-scene in the Netherlands. As part of that it traces the development of V2_ from artist squat to an institute for ‘unstable media’ of international renown, and shows how the DIY-attitude still informs the activities of V2_.
Marijn Haas wrote a biography of Mike von Bibikov, a strange and hard to classify ads-writer, poet, performance artist, and spokesperson of the fake political party De Reagering (a pun on the Dutch word for government, ‘regering’, regeren means to govern, reageren means to react). Previously Haas had already written biographies of Dr. Rat – the now legendary original Dutch graffitti artist – and the Stadskunstguerrilla (SKG, City Art Guerrilla), a group of nihilistic intervention artists around Erik Hobijn. Von Bibikov, who seemingly was hard to miss in the early 1980s, also performed at V2_, for instance on Saturday 18 September 1982. One of his notorious actions took place in 1982 when artists connected to V2_ staged the occupation of the university of Nijmegen as part of a small exhibition, and declared Mike von Bibikov the new rector magnificus. The artists had put up posters with the texts like “Good Morning, this is a coup d’etat”. The atmosphere quickly became unfriendly, the immediate take-down of the exhibition was ordered, and some of the artworks were destroyed. (Later apologies were made by the university).
The third book is Ultra, in which Harold Schellinx minutely reconstructs the Ultra-movement, a kind of Dutch no wave, of which many visual artists (Rob Scholte, Ad de Jong), writers (Dirk van Weelden) and others who were to become important in the Dutch scene, were part. Joke Brouwer features in Ultra, as she was the drummer of one of the most interesting Ultra-bands, Minioon. Schellinx quotes extensively from a 1980 interview with her, in which she, surprisingly, mainly talks about biology and evolution – another ‘seed’ of V2_’s later activities.
The early years of V2_ (then in fact without the underscore) were partly well documented. There are many photographs, folders with press material, year reports and photocopies. A video camera was amongst the first acquisitions of V2_, and some good video footage of concerts and exhibitions survives. As an important hub in the cassette-world, V2_ released sound recordings of events on cassette. The quality of all this material varies (in all respects), and not all events were covered. And yes, at that time there was still a lot of painting going on, also at V2_, and there were many concerts, culminating maybe in 1985 when Einstürzende Neubauten, Laibach and Sonic Youth played at V2_. All of this was before the Manifesto for the Unstable Media – of which a proto-version was published on 31 December 1986.
Though the photographs were already digitized years ago, hardly any of this material was ever published on the archive website of V2_. Over the past few months we have ordered (again) more than 15.000 digitized photographs, scanned the print materials, and digitized old VHS-tapes. A choice from this is accessible on the website. So if you are interested in the Dutch alternative scene, the beginnings of V2_ or the alternative new media 'scene' from the 1980s, take a look at V2_events from 1983, 1984, 1985 – and later.
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.