Alex let me join V2_ at the time when I was a student in Rotterdam and ever since he was present in my life -- at V2_ events, at Ars, Transmediale and most recently at a party at Weise7 where both Alex and Angelica partied with us until 4am.
Many times Alex encouraged me and showed me the right direction as a mentor and his experience in starting and running V2_ was always a huge inspiration, for all of which i can only say - THANK YOU ALEX Danja On 31/12/2018 07:13, Andreas Broeckmann wrote: > Alex Adriaansens, artist, curator and long-time director of the > Rotterdam-based V2_Organisation, V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, passed > away yesterday, 30 December 2018, after several years of struggling with > cancer. For over thirty-five years, Alex was active in the field of art > and technology, as an initiator, an organiser, and as an advisor. His > influence on many of us was enormous. He projected an amazing, > passionate engagement with art and with the ways in which new > technologies impact society. Perhaps even more importantly, he was one > of the most gentle, friendly and optimistic people I can think of. This > optimism, coupled with a clear vision and a strong sense of urgency for > what needs to be done, fuelled his work and put the V2_ Organisation, > and many of the projects that Alex was involved in, among the most > influential initiatives in new media art since the 1980s. Now he leaves > behind his wife, Angelica, and will be missed immensely by many others, > as a friend and colleague, mentor, and as one of the guiding spirits of > a whole international scene. > > Alex Adriaansens was born in 1953 (on Valentine's Day) and studied at > the art academy in Den Bosch from 1972 to 1976. In 1981, he, together > with Joke Brouwer and a whole group of artists and activists, set up the > artist collective "V2" which became, in 1986, the V2_Organisation, > Institute for the Unstable Media. The organisation grew and moved to > Rotterdam in 1994, developing a regular program of exhibition, > performance, festival, workshop and publication activities, which it > continues after Alex, due to his declining health, passed on the > directorship to Michel van Dartel last summer. > > In the course of more than three decades, many of the now hotly debated > topics of digital culture – from interactivity and virtual reality, to > social media and artificial intelligence – were pioneered in > exhibitions, conferences and book publications by V2_, under the > directorship of Alex Adriaansens and Joke Brouwer. Alex was not an > egocentric leader, but a deeply social, collaborative animal who, rather > than insisting on this or that, stimulated things to evolve and to > happen. This turned all the projects he was involved in into permeable > platforms in which he would collaborate to achieve the best possible > results, piloting ideas and concepts which would often reach the > mainstream media and art circles only years later. The 1987 "Manifesto > for the Unstable Media" remains a crucial document of the critical > avantgarde spirit that infused the early years, insisting on the > necessity to engage the new electronic and digital technologies both > aesthetically and politically. > > For Alex, whatever the situation was, there was no other way than to go > on, to imagine the next step, to push ahead. In this moment of loss and > sadness, there is nothing better to do in his spirit. Pause, mourn, and > press on. > > Andreas Broeckmann > > > (There will probably be a funerary service on 7 January 2019 at 11:00 > hrs in Rotterdam.) > ______________________________________________ > SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe > Info, archive and help: > http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre