IDFA DocLab presents: Humanoid Cookbook
With IDFA 2018 only two weeks away, we are very pleased to present the 12th edition of IDFA DocLab, our acclaimed new media program. Under the theme IDFA DocLab: Humanoid Cookbook, we invite artists and audiences to re-imagine the age-old ritual of sharing a meal, taking the dinner table as a metaphor and platform for exhibiting new art forms. From live dinner shows combined with immersive theater and artificial intelligence to a ten-day exhibition designed like a virtual restaurant, DocLab: Humanoid Cookbook features more than 30 interactive documentaries, live events, sensory experiments, and interactive dinner performances. Today, you can see the full program online.
Read the press release here.
DocLab Expo: Humanoid Cookbook
This year’s DocLab exhibition is designed as a restaurant for digital art. On the menu are more than 30 interactive documentaries, culinary performances, and interactive experiments involving human behavior and technology. Visitors are invited to play with artificial intelligence, immerse themselves in the VR Cinema, and taste alternative recipes for the future. Projects in the exhibition include world premieres of Anagram’s collective VR installation The Collider: Chapter One; Ali Eslami’s surreal False Mirror; a four-person AI installation by Shirin Anlen (I Have Always Been Jealous of Other People’s Families); and a disruptive social experiment on your phone (The Social Sorting Experiment by Steye Hallema). The exhibition is co-produced with De Brakke Grond.
DocLab Live Interactive Dinners
Inspired by the first technology invented by humans, fire for cooking food, DocLab: Humanoid Cookbook features a unique series of pop-up dinner parties. Renowned chefs and artists have put together three menus, combining immersive theater, artificial intelligence, and interactive storytelling. These are A Dinner with Frankenstein AI by interactive artists Lance Weiler, Rachel Ginsberg and Nick Fortugno – a two-course dinner for flesh-and-blood humans, with artificial intelligence as a host and discussion partner; Leaked Chef’s Table by artist Gabriela Ivens – a menu based on the deeply personal recipes discovered in the Panama Papers, John Podesta's emails, and other online leaks; and Eat | Tech | Dinner Party by food artist Emilie Baltz, interactive artist Klasien van de Zandschulp, and chef Matthias van der Nagel – an unpredictable futuristic feast of digital technology and old-fashioned good food.
DocLab Live Events
Alongside the interactive dinners, DocLab: Humanoid Cookbook features a selection of interactive live events in the cinema, the theater, and the planetarium. Among these are DocLab Live: Artificial Stupidity and DocLab Live: Assorted Revolutions – evenings at De Brakke Grond featuring presentations and performances by new media scholar William Uricchio (MIT), AI artist Ross Goodwin (1 the Road), and the Smartphone Orchestra.
Part of IDFA’s new program IDFA on Stage, £¥€$ is a ground-breaking immersive theater game show by Ontroerend Goed, inviting the audience to replay financial crises using their own money.
Initiated by Paradiso Amsterdam and musician Jacco Gardner, DocLab Live: Jacco Gardner’s Somnium is a unique sensory journey through a musical dream world. This launch event for Gardner’s third album takes place in the ARTIS Planetarium.
DocLab Interactive Conference
The annual DocLab Interactive Conference brings together digital pioneers, artists, and thinkers for a day of inspiring presentations, visions of the future, and collective experiments at De Brakke Grond. This year’s conference features visual artist and author Sophia Al Maria, interactive artist Samantha Gorman, immersive theater pioneers Ontroerend Goed, multimedia artist Rahima Gambo, publisher and curator David Desrimais (Jean Boit Editions), and many others.
Tickets & information
DocLab: Humanoid Cookbook takes place from November 15th to 25th across various venues in Amsterdam.
The Exhibition runs from November 15th-25th at De Brakke Grond. Opening hours are 09:00-23:00 from Nov 15th-24th, and 09:00-18:00 on Nov 25th. Admission is free. On-site reservations may be required; some installations have varying opening hours.
The DocLab Live Interactive Dinners are on November 17th & 18th at De Brakke Grond and Mr. Kitchen. Seating is limited: book your tickets here.
The DocLab Live Events run from November 15th-23rd at De Brakke Grond, Splendor, and ARTIS Planetarium. Check out all the details and get tickets here.
The DocLab Interactive Conference takes place Saturday November 17th, 10:00–17:00 at De Brakke Grond, Grote Zaal. Read more.
The DocLab program is made possible by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands, CLICKNL, The Netherlands Film Fund, Google, ARTE, Diversion, Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Flemish Arts Centre De Brakke Grond. DocLab Research Collaborations: MIT Open Doc Lab and The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Eat | Tech | Dinner Party is realized with support from the Filmfund DocLab Interactive Grant. A Dinner With Frankenstein AI is co-commissioned by IDFA and the National Theatre Immersive Studio. IDFA on Stage is supported by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. DocLab Live: Jacco Gardner’s Somnium is an initiative by Paradiso and Jacco Gardner, presented in collaboration with IDFA DocLab.
