Because of the pandemic last year, most cultural events took place via Big Tech platforms such as Zoom or YouTube. The fact that these platforms are made for business, and not made for culture, has influenced our event experience in many new ways. Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI) is a cultural centre in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, focused on architecture, design, and digital culture. HNI often has the role of being a stage or a central hub at the intersection of these different fields. When the pandemic hit, they felt that it was important for them to continue to fulfil this role online as well. The result is the platform Enter—a digital art-inspired website where you can meet with people about research projects, organise public events, or just hang around.
We met Florian van Zandwijk, project manager of Enter, in Enter’s Coffee Room to talk about the development and ambitions of the platform. Watch our conversation here: