Dossier 0: Archive

I write this as the chanting of demonstrations from neighbouring streets echo above the city of Khartoum. Just shy of five months after the June 3rd 2019 massacre dispersed the sit-in area, demonstrators have yet again taken to the streets of Khartoum to protest the lack of response to the killings. The sounds of the chant—freedom, peace, and justice!—drawing us all together. The ‘sit-in’ was an area occupied by protestors in Khartoum that was located across from the army headquarters; the location chosen by protestors to make clear their anti-military governing and call for change. The sit-in ran from the 11th of April 2019 until it was forcibly dispersed, in the early hours of the 3rd of June 2019, by use of deadly force from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—culminating in the killing of more than 700 individuals, in what is called the Khartoum Sit-in Massacre.

Artist Nora Welgraven (aka Yung Nora) uses humour and absurdism to deal with expectations, clichés, and stereotyping in society. She rejects political correctness and creates a character that tries to free themselves from the norm of being a woman and the cultural prejudices and stereotypes that come with it. Nora showed us her Internet in …

Damn, Honey is the positive, feminist pamphlet of Marie Lotte Hagen and Nydia van Voorthuizen. In their podcast and book(s) they discuss topics that today’s women have to deal with and they call to do what you feel like doing. Marie Lotte and Nydia showed us their Internet in October. These are the images they …

Ah, to be young and have your music. To have been sixteen in 1962 and to upset your parents with The Beatles’ ‘Love me do’. It was so fresh and bold, so current and cool. I always considered myself lucky to have been the perfect age for Nirvana’s Nevermind. I remember vividly —or perhaps I …

In March of this year, Mark Zuckerberg announced that “[o]ver the last 15 years, Facebook and Instagram have helped people connect with friends, communities, and interests in the digital equivalent of a town square. But people increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room.” While this is of course …

Yamuna Forzani a queer activist who expresses her vision of a queer utopia through clothing design. With her glitchy knits she plays with traditionally gendered elements to craft a “post gender” world where everyone can wear whatever we want. Yamuna showed us her Internet in June. These are the images she encountered and she’d like …

In 1905, philosopher George Santayana famously wrote that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. He claimed that when experience is not retained, what remains is a perpetual infancy. Discussions about the internet suffer from this too, despite its young age. Could it be that the hot topics of today are …

Sjef van Beers is an artist whose work focuses on technology and the internet. He looks for loopholes in the digital media we use on a daily basis to dissect and rearrange them. This month The Hmm invited him to show us his Internet. “The internet was outraged when moving image of a new CGI Sonic …

A balaclava-clad insurgent hitches a ride across the desert landscape of Takistan: “I grew up in the slums of a village close to here, before the UN came and took all the resources and raped and murdered our women and children…We need to find some powerful friends that can help us get guns.” In the …

Brian Elstak is a visual artist, illustrator, painter, children’s book writer and a connector between all sorts of creatives and storytellers. This month The Hmm invited him to show us his Internet. “I love when a work of art gets you talking for hours. I felt ‘Us’ touched on the U.S. and classicism in a …

In the age of double tapping, 15 second stories, and infinite scrolling, Instagram’s influence on the museum experience seems undeniable. Many of the articles addressing this influence are focused solely on the negative effects of the ‘selfie-obsessed’ behaviour of the twenty-first century museum visitor—stressing the dangers of selfie sticks, discussing the increasing number of visitors …

There has been a great deal of controversy about the new EU Copyright Directive. Much of this controversy has focused on the famous “article 13”. If you listen to the opponents of the proposal, it is the end of the internet as we know it. The internet where everyone can communicate with everyone, without permission, …

Esther Crabbendam hosts the pop culture podcast De Vierkante Ogen Show, is a campaigner for digital rights organisation Bits of Freedom and is tweeting as @ezsther and @kortschrijver (for your daily fix on tweet-length stories). Esther showed us her Internet in February. These are the images she encountered and she’d like to share with you. …

Nicola Bozzi is a freelance writer and PhD student at the University of Salford, Manchester. His research deals with social media tagging, identity, and the globalisation of stereotypes. These are the images he encountered this month and he’d like to share with you: “Since his first YouTube hit Gummo (it was only 2017) Bushwick rapper …

Derk Over is a creator interested in the fantasies that we create for ourselves. Derk was our image editor in November and shared multiple types of fantasies and expressions. These are the images he encountered this month and he’d like to share with you: “The sexual voyeur website “RealLifeCam.com” hosts 25 apartments that are hooked …

As an image researcher Elki Boerdam analyses and rearranges images for her artistic practice. She also works as an image editor for de Volkskrant. Elki was our image curator in October. These are the images she encountered this month and she’d like to share with you: “These images are part of the work ‘Two donkeys …

Laurens Otto is a curator, art critic and the co-director of the Bureau for Cultural Analysis. He is currently setting up the magazine RESOLUTION which will investigate how the digital image has started to format reality itself and was our image curator in September. These are the images he encountered this month and he’d like …

Manique Hendricks is a researcher, writer, art historian and curator, specialized in post-internet art. She’s part of the nomadic art platform Sugar Pop Institute, works for LIMA media art platform and was our image editor in June! These are the images she encountered this month and she’d like to share with you: “This image was …

Daniel de Zeeuw is currently completing his PhD at the University of Amsterdam, on the politics and aesthetics of anonymity in contemporary media culture, art and activism. These are the images that, according to him, are worth a closer look. “This year is Marx’s 200th birth anniversary. This month we also commemorate the events of …

This month we asked Cyanne van den Houten (Telemagic) which images she thinks say something about the times in which we are living. Think of her as your guide through a crazy world saturated with images. “Did you know that the cellphone (flip-phone) was born on the Starship Enterprise? Mister Spock had a ‘communicator’ that …

This month we asked Studio Harris Blondman which images they think deserve a closer look. Think of them as your guide through a crazy world saturated with images. “We collect images about how technology changes the way we see things. This Nikon P900 Superzoom shot by Claus Eckert is a great example. The recording beautifully …