Architempo /~ alok b. nandi design.architempo.net

The video of Pecha Kucha Brussels Vol.01 is on line and can be seen on the website of Ebuco, digital production house:
http://www.ebuco.be/pechakucha

Open Sauces has to be postponed. Major family reason for Maja. All participants are with her. Courage. No other words.

The Pecha Kucha Brussels premiere was a real-life “experience” about {creativity*conversation}, and did attract the audience - venue was full full full. Thanks to you all for being there, the speakers did a great job, thanks to the partners for the in-kind support (see partners tab on the top of the page of pechakucha.architempo.net/brussels) and Namahn for the seeding. Duvel and Cafe Belga allowed the conversations to flow. Great.

Some are already talking about this event. Do let us know your feedback, as well as links to sites about this (blogs, flickr, …). Let us tag this with “PechaKuchaBrussels”.

Should you wanna be a Pecha Kucha speaker, or support the evenings to come, contact Alok Nandi via the form on Architempo.

Speakers of Pecha Kucha Brussels Vol.01 were:
Bud Blumenthal - choreographer & dancer
Thierry Brunfaut & Dimitri Jeurissen - BaseDesign
Aureia Harvey & Michael Samyn - Tale of Tales
Jan Kriekels - Jaga Radiator Factory
Giovanna Massoni - independent curator “Table Talks”
Francis Metzger - Ma² / Metzger et Associés Architecture
François Pachet - CSL Sony Lab Paris
Paolo Pellizzari - photographer
Peter Scholliers - historian on everyday life and food
Diane Steverlynck - designer

The others could not make it for health, family or personal reason. More soon. Stay tuned and check http://pechakucha.architempo.net for updates and next events.

300+ persons have registered for the premiere of Pecha Kucha Night Brussels. Be there early.

This evening benefits from the logistical help of partners like ecocode.net for the programming of the application managing the images displayed, Projectiondesign for the projector, Gstory.be for the graphical execution of the poster on site, alternative-event.be for the audio and co.

Duvel is providing a surprise as well as Design Brussels.

Partners of Pecha Kucha Brussels include Crosstalks/VUB, Best of & Design September, Convergences, Ebuco, Flanders Fashion Institute, Quinze & Milan and Duvel.
Namahn provides the seeding for the first season.

See you there.

This Nov. 20th is the premiere of Pecha Kucha Brussels.
More than 300 persons have registered [double vs. expectation].
It is spreading …
Stay tuned and check http://pechakucha.architempo.net

Open Sauces … on food and coding

22 November 2007, 6PM - 11PM
FoAM, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34 Quai des Charbonnages, Brussels, Belgium - RSVP (places are limited) -> before 2nd of November 2007 to [info @ fo.am]

FoAM and the Guild for Reality Integrators and Generators invite you to a synaesthetic dinner, to jointly sample, celebrate and debate the future of food.

Food is a nutritious and delectable product of our reciprocal, sustaining relationship with the environment. It is also one of the oldest cultural expressions, rooted in hospitality and sharing. As the gastronome Brilliat-Savarin noted three centuries ago, “the discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.”

Open Sauces will unfold in a sequence of experimental courses, matched with drinks, improvised music and esteemed guests. While savouring the foods, the guests will be engaged in table conversations, sharing experiences, recipes and ingredients needed to demystify cultural, environmental, technical and ethical aspects of contemporary food systems. From molecular gastronomy to fair trade, from permaculture to
food-tracking, from open source to open sauces, we will blend seemingly unrelated elements of our food chain. In an era riddled with
environmental and cultural anomalies, these transdisciplinary and trans-local connections will become one of the keys to our survival, as
individuals, communities and species.

With: Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Sher Doruff, Ann Light, Stefan Magdalinski, Alok Nandi, Sneha Solanki, Wietske Maas, Matteo Pasquinelli, Kate Rich, Femke Snelting, Maki Ueda, Allison Zinder and other local and trans-local food enthusiasts

Chef de cuisine: Maja Kuzmanovic
Sous-chef: Nik Gaffney
Chefs de partie: Cocky Eek, Theun Karelse, Lina Kusaite
Sounds matched by: Stevie Wishart
Cocktails: Pieter de Wel
Wines: Crush Wine

Hostess: Maggie Buxton
Maitre d’: Rasa Alksnyte

Alok Nandi just convened the conference by Prof. Raymond Trousson at Mundaneum, Mons, Belgium, where they talked a.o. about the difference between “utopie” and “utopisme”. It was all in French:

Sciences, techniques et bonheur, de l’utopie à l’anti-utopie
Par Raymond Trousson, Professeur émérite de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles
Dans le cadre de l’exposition “Utopia, de l’Atlantide aux cités du futur”
Le jeudi 20 septembre à 20h
Au Mundaneum

Quand et comment les sciences et les techniques, si présentes dans les utopies et dystopies modernes, font-elles leur apparition dans ce genre littéraire ? Absentes dans les récits de l’antiquité, elles se manifestent dès la Renaissance, mais étroitement reliées à la religion et à la métaphysique et, sauf chez Francis Bacon, ne conditionnent en rien le mode de vie de la Cité. Jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, mis à part “L’An 2440″ de Louis-Sébastien Mercier, les utopies peuvent tout au plus contenir des informations sur un savoir encore interdit, le genre romanesque autorisant, par sa fantaisie avouée, des propos inacceptables ailleurs.
La perspective devait se modifier à partir de la révolution industrielle. Nombreuses sont alors les utopies qui, jusqu’à la fin du XIXe siècle et au-delà, manifestent le culte de la science et de la technique, encouragé par le développement du scientisme et du positivisme. Toutefois, dès 1846, se fait jour une approche pessimiste du phénomène. Après être apparues comme libératrices, sciences et techniques se font asservissantes, mécanisent l’humain et ouvrent la voie à la contre-utopie, dont les exemples sont nombreux, de Zamiatine à Huxley.
Dès lors, la problématique concerne essentiellement une éthique. L’utopie en vient à s’interroger sur l’utilisation d’un savoir déshumanisant et sur les méfaits d’une technique que ne régit aucune morale et se trouve inféodée à un système politico-économique néfaste. Le retour, à la fin du XXe siècle, vers une certaine forme d’utopie positive, portera condamnation sur l’illusion d’un progrès indéfini et la promesse d’un « bonheur » grégaire ignorant des valeurs essentielles.
Raymond Trousson

Raymond Trousson, professeur émérite de l’Université libre de Bruxelles, est l’auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur les grands auteurs du siècle des Lumières. Dans le domaine de l’utopie, il a publié plusieurs éditions critiques de textes classiques et est aussi l’auteur des “Voyages aux Pays de nulle part. Histoire littéraire de la pensée utopique” (3e édition, 1999), des “Religions d’Utopie” (2001) et de “Sciences, techniques et utopies. Du paradis à l’enfer” (2003).

Dans le cadre de l’exposition “UTOPIA, de l’Atlantide aux cités du futur”, du 20.04 au 28.10.2007.

The new season is on, with weekly radio chronicles by Alok Nandi for Inde Hebdo Paris-based Radio BFM. More via http://www.mahanet.com

A collaborative multiple media project has just been launched in Australia, at the University of Technology Sydney.

a_m_m_s: akasha, ma, mu, sunyata
concepts of Asia - Zen, Buddhism, Tantra - interfacing new technologies practices

This is an investigation by Ajaykumar and Alok b. Nandi of processes in new technologies in relation to philosophic, aesthetic and artistic ideas. Akasha, ma, mu, sunyata have multiple resonances, including emptiness-presence, interval, void, space-time. Interventions, installations and publications will enable questioning of the apparent contemporary necessity of ‘inhabiting’ technology in sensible spaces.

a_m_m_s is an acronym for akasha_ma_mu_sunyata.
Akasha, a term in Sanskrit, signifies a space that has presence, amongst other meanings. It corresponds in part with the Japanese term ma, which has multiple resonances, including space-time, an emptiness that has presence, interval, and pause. The Japanese Zen term mu signifies void or nothingness, and has correspondence with the Sanskrit term sunyata, which also could be understood as void or nothingness.

Ajaykumar is an artist and academic at Goldsmiths University of London and Alok Nandi is an independent writer, director and designer.

Open Sauces : on food and coding.
Demystifying the production, distribution, presentation and consumption of food in a degustation dinner, with matched artists, including Kate Rich, Stevie Wishart, Femke Snelting, Alok Nandi and others.

Alok Nandi will talk about Fresh Food Frozen Cities, which was launched in Delhi in March 2007, as part of Taltala Tales, in the design conference Doors of Perception.

22 November 2007, 18:00 - 23:00
fo.am, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34, Brussels, Belgium.
Organized by http://fo.am, Maja Kuzmanovic and fo.am team.