Category: event

In light of the increasing use of data-driven policing technologies, how can we understand and find ways to address the impact of their deployment? As surveillance technologies become more and more entangled in everyday life, what are our possibilities of response? Who or what are the key players in these considerations? Sanne Stevens and Jair Schalkwijk will join us to unpack these questions.

Common Dirt is an ongoing series of events organized by Varia, in which we take a critical look at the cross-connections between biology and technology in Rotterdam. During this summer excursion we will investigate the workings behind identification apps, such as ObsIdentify and Pl@ntNet. We will start in the garden of het O'tje, next to Attent.

The ^ collective will be visiting Varia at the end of June. This visit is a follow-up from last November, when a few Varia members visited ^ in Ireland to take part in the Irish Design Week, and get to know the collective and their local network. During their time in Rotterdam, we aim to re-explore our local landscape, infrastructure and networks informed by our different migration backgrounds, focusing on our solidarity network, paths of access to local resources and the support structures that sustain the cultural sector in Rotterdam. On Tuesday the 25th, we will have a day of collective reflection and a chance to get to know ^, where everyone is invited to discuss and have a drink.

The 13th edition of Extratonal Infrastructure will focus on the concept of exaltation. In our understanding music can be a means to elevate spirits to a higher level. In May, the platform for extratonality invites a number of artists to varia who have dedicated themself to this cause through dynamic rhythms, decontextualized juxtapositions, spontaious improvisation and unified chaos.

Noiserr is an expanded Reading and Listening and Doing group focused on sound, and specifically, noise and noise philosophy. We read, act, think, sniff noise and the noise related and then we Talk or Do something about it in a Group setting.

This worksession intends to be a moment of collective learning, to make tangible invisible colonial mechanisms of hierarchy and oppression that are prevalent in everyday communication technologies, yet often difficult to comprehend.

Doodle Dabble is a workshop for children to dip their toes in the pond of Varia. It is an invitation to observe and jump in different puddles of the space. Let's move our bodies, play games, and doodle around! As part of Varia's Accessibility Seed research thread, Varia is opening its space with an intention to learn from children how they intuitively find their ways to access spaces and reside in multi-language situations with playful manner. Happening every last Saturday of the month, it is one of the three repeating workshop series (25th May, 29th June, 27th July) with a guest artist Chaeyoung Kim.

Printers are one of the biggest frustrations that modern technology has brought us. During the second Extratonal Special event, the platform for extratonality turns these frustrations upside down. Together we explore the hedonic performative aspect of exceptional printers.

This worksession intends to be a moment of collective learning, to make tangible invisible colonial mechanisms of hierarchy and oppression that are prevalent in everyday communication technologies, yet often difficult to comprehend.

The 🔮 Queer Bar Night in Varia 🔮 is a sibling queer bar of the Vereniging Poortgebouw.

Common Dirt is an ongoing series of events organized by Varia, in which we take a critical look at the cross-connections between biology and technology in Rotterdam.

In this workshop, we explore the inner workings of printers. With a DIY and DIWO approach and by hacking and modifying obsolete printers we find different uses and meanings for them. Is there a printing beyond having driver problems? Can we repurpose e-waste printers in something beyond frustration?

Live coding jam session is a performative evening to experiment with live coding together.

🔮 Queer Bar Night Varia 🔮 starting in April as sibling queer bar of Vereniging Poortgebouw

Peripheral centers and feminist servers investigate multiple approaches to the conditions of serving. It interrupts the endless flow of data that fuels the economy, exposing the cracks and gaps of the techno-scientific paradigm imposed on society. Where commands are executed, connections made, trust exchanged, and resources shared.

This is the first of three installments wherein we would love to collectively explore 'fictionality'. Coming from fiction, becoming adjective and then noun again, what could fictionality mean? Why and how does this notion continue to be relevant in our contemporary times of post-truth, post-facts and widespread anecdotal questioning of scientific knowledge? What kind of imaginary power does fictionality have? And how could engaging with the porous space between fiction and non-fiction help to envision other kinds of presents and futures?

Dead Web Club invites you to join the first of our Dead Web Cinema Club events, where we put the glowing beam of the projector on the topic of data, servers, hard drives, online forums, and virtual worlds.

According to the meteorological calendar, March is the first month of the year. However, for extratonality there is no beginning or end. Like an Ouroboros, our efforts consume themselves, only to breathe new life into our expressions. This infinite alchemical cycle is present everywhere in the work of the artists we have invited for the 12th edition of Extratonal Infrastructure. Join them on their travels on the cosmic roundabout!

After 4 years of waiting, Varia will finally host the 2024 Cup of the classic football game, Sensible World of Soccer. Become a goal scoring superstar hero!

Noiserr is an expanded Reading and Listening and Doing group focused on sound, and specifically, noise and noise philosophy. We read, act, think, sniff noise and the noise related and then we Talk or Do something about it in a Group setting.

On the 8th of March, Varia will open its doors for the 8M Counter Cloud Gathering as part of the Transnational, Anti-Colonial, Trans*Feminist Counter Cloud Action Day.

This workshop deals with the discarded electrical junk of the residents of Oud Charlois. Together we will search through the garbage on the streets to filter out the electronic waste!

Every 2 months, under the name 'extratonal special' the platform for extratonality will invite artists and thinkers to investigate particular extratonal themes and subjects in and around Varia. Our first special programme is dedicated to the (dis-)harmonics of waste. Discover your inner trash!

During the event, participants will share modest proposals for moving networks and political engagement away from toxic cloud environments. From Counter Cloud Action to Digital Discomfort and trans*feminist servers, the techno-disobedient practices they share will unsettle computationally mediated depletion, activating paths towards anti-colonial tech.

With renewed vigor, Extratonal Infrastructure returns with a fresh program for 2024 that continues to stretch musical paradigms. During our first event of 2024 we won't reveal all of our plans just yet, but rest assured: we will demonstrate the latest extratonal trends. Whether that happens with clarinet, drums, saxophone or rain, beautiful things await us!