Colonial Infrastructures #6: Resisting Knowledge Erasure
Saturday, April 18, 2026
As part of the Colonial Infrastructures series, this 6th edition will focus on knowledge under duress and its circulation in times of repression. How do we gather to disseminate knowledge that was erased and dispersed? Considering destruction and censorship as acts of colonial force, Resisting Knowledge Erasure will focus on efforts of circulating knowledge via shadow libraries, fugitive archives, infoshop repositories, and other unsanctioned collections.
Common Knowledge x Varia
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Join us for an informal conversation between members of Common Knowledge and Varia.
Extratonal Ecuation #8: Envisioning Online interfaces
Saturday, April 4, 2026
During this workshop we will take a deep dive into existing online audio platforms, such as Soundcloud, Spotify and Bandcamp. While listening and sharing each other's music or sounds, we imagine an online community of enjoying each others sound files and sharing the process of their making. A community for listening to each other through tender ears and curiosity.
Extratonal Infrastructure #27
Friday, April 3, 2026
It's time for another Extratonal Infrastructure on a Good Friday! It will involve soundscapes made by field recordings, voices, electronics, DJing, glitch, malfunction, atonality, guitars and coding. Sounds will be voiced from queernees, black culture, autoimmunity and grief.
Counter Coloniality Study Group: is AI in the room with us?
Friday, March 27, 2026
Varia's Counter Coloniality Seed organises a Study Group in 2026. We (usually) meet on the last Fridays of the month, from 14 - 16/17h, in Varia.
Extratonal Special #7 @ Eiland van Brienenoord
Saturday, March 14, 2026
This year, the Platform for Extratonality is organizing a series of programs in collaboration with some of its favorite artists. Our next guests are the interdisciplinary duo The Postpeople, with whom we'll be creating a very hot festival on the Brienenoord Island.
Extratonal Infrastructure #26
Friday, February 20, 2026
This year, the Platform for Extratonality is putting together a series of programs in collaboration with some of its favorite artists. Our next guest is interdisciplinary musician Bernat Boronat, with whom we will explore several extended techniques.
AFNR Team Broadcast
Thursday, February 5, 2026
The AFNR team sat down to discuss their own interests and relationships to the subjects and themes we're discussing with our interviewees.
Repair café
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Our repair cafe is a moment to hang out together and learn how to repair our own small electronic equipment, such as computers, audio equipment, printers, etc.
AFNR x Rural Technology
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
The fourth show in a series of radio broadcasts that examines rural technology.
Biocraft with household organic waste. Make, shape, grow.
Sunday, January 18, 2026
A workshop turning household organic waste into fungus powered biobased stuff.
B(r)oilerplates for Fictionality
Saturday, January 17, 2026
In the third installment of ‘B(r)oilerplates for Fictionality’, we turn our attention to the fictive in relation to poetry. Our guest Çağlar Köseoğlu will guide this session through the work of Lebanese-American poet and artist Etel Adnan. A central point of reference will be *The Arab Apocalypse*, Adnan’s poetic response to war and imperial violence, which continues to resonate amid the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
Extratonal Infrastructure #25
Saturday, January 17, 2026
A new year full of extratonality is knocking at the door. We start things off with our 25th infrastructure event
Biocraft with household organic waste. Make, shape, grow.
Sunday, January 11, 2026
A workshop turning household organic waste into fungus powered biobased stuff.
Maisa in Webland: Detouring UX Destinies - Book launch and workshop
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Join us for the launch of the book *Maisa in Webland: Detouring UX Destinies* by Maisa Imamović which will be preceded by a workshop with her.
AFNR x Rural Technology
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
The fourth show in a series of radio broadcasts that examines rural technology.
Extratonal Extravaganza #3 - Another round around the sun
Saturday, December 13, 2025
The end of the year is near! As per tradition we will celebrate in style by organizing an extratonal extravaganza. A selection of special friends and guests will perform a variety of 10 minute acts. There will be snacks, drinks and good times all around, while we look forward to the future of extratonality!
AFNR x Rural Technology
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
The third show in a series of radio broadcasts that examines rural technology.
'Why Read Together?' Publication Launch
Saturday, December 6, 2025
After a year of reading sessions organised in different spaces throughout Rotterdam; After many hours spent perched behind our laptops, writing, editing, 3d sculpting, designing, debating word-choices in the comment sections of online documents; After a month of tensely awaiting the arrival of our companions, our small but abundant books, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our publication ‘Why Read Together? On Companions, Co-conspirators, and Breathing Words’, published with HumDrumPress.
Geographies of Return and Death Cafe
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Geographies of Return brings together two practices that trace the contours of memory, loss and landscape; mapping spaces where the personal meets the historical, outlining the processing of grief.
Colonial Infrastructures #5
Sunday, November 30, 2025
As part of the Colonial Infrastructures series, this 5th edition will focus on knowledge under duress and its circulation in times of repression. How do we gather to disseminate knowledge that was erased and dispersed? Considering destruction and censorship as acts of colonial force, Resisting Knowledge Erasure will focus on efforts of circulating knowledge via shadow libraries, fugitive archives, infoshop repositories, and other unsanctioned collections.
School of Algorithmic Solidarity
Sunday, November 30, 2025
In this session, the eeefff collective presents the conceptual foundations and recent fieldwork of The School of Algorithmic Solidarity, an itinerant research project established in 2022 to explore emotions and affects shaped by technologies, the possibilities of solidarities in dispersed situations, to critically investigate digital colonialism and value extraction, to elaborate new circumstances through social experimental site, co-acting and collective ways to imagine - to aim towards 'infrastructures of imagination'.
Extratonal Infrastructure #99699
Saturday, November 29, 2025
The Platform For Extratonality invites a number of their favourite artists to curate their own extratonal takeover. First up: NDNMK Solutions, the softest power!
London Permacomputing Club: Literate Programming Workshop
Sunday, November 23, 2025
During this session we will discuss the role of code as a tool for communicating methodology to human audiences. Through practices of Literate Programming and explanatory storytelling, we will explore the forms of the 'repair manual' and the relationships we form with our functional possessions.
Extratonal Education #8
Friday, November 21, 2025
Come and learn how to make cozy pillows with Riccardo Santalucia, using hand crochet techniques - no hooks required - and sharing stories in the process. If you’ll make more than one pillow, consider donating it to Varia for a great cause
Extratonal Infrastructure #22
Friday, November 21, 2025
Following in the footsteps of Riccardo Santalucia's pillowmaking workshop we will test its results during a second offering of cozy drones. A wide range of extratonal drone artists will help you get comfortable and sink into a wonderful world of cushions and padding.
B(r)oilerplates for Fictionality
Saturday, November 15, 2025
Horta in the Dark is a speculative writing workshop inspired by the Star Trek episode Devil in the Dark. Together with Marjolein van der Loo, we’ll explore how empathy and imagination can bridge encounters with the non-human.
Homemade Computer Club – What is a File?
Friday, November 14, 2025
The Homemade Computer Club is a gathering of people curious about what a homemade computer can be.
Queer Bar Night
Thursday, November 13, 2025
The 🔮 Queer Bar Night in Varia 🔮 is a sibling queer bar of the Vereniging Poortgebouw. This one will be run by some queer Feministas and Varia neighbours who are joining forces for more queer bars in the city to come together 💜
Self-Medicated Practices
Sunday, November 9, 2025
The second public moment of this research thread will focus on (mostly Western) herbalism—the rootstock of what we now call conventional medicine. For this event we invite the Garage School of Medicine.
Self-medicated practices publication
Sunday, November 9, 2025
This publication accompanies the self-medicated practices research thread in Varia, and is built in two parts: on diy medical devices and on herbalism and other alternative medicinal practices.
Biocraft with household organic waste
Saturday, November 8, 2025
In this session, we will talk about the human-centered specificities and differences between initiatives doing stuff with technology (gossip, folklore, craft, aesthetics, scenes). In order to discuss them we propose a plastic-fictional etymology of these 5 words as a game to explore and map the multiple natures of 'doing things with technology'.
Palestine Cinema Days 2025 | When I Saw You
Sunday, November 2, 2025
On November 2, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Film Lab Palestine are organising over 500 Palestinian film screenings around the world.
Doodle Dabble Emo-Pancake Brunch
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Join Doodle Dabble for a brunch and have a bunch of fun making delicious emo-pancakes!
TROPICAL MORDOR
Sunday, October 26, 2025
**A MICROFESTIVAL** of tropico-digital fever dreams, unpacked. **A LECTURE** by journalist Alan Robles on the underdocumented microhistories of how the Philippines shaped the world's digital culture wars. **A MONSTERCLASS** on troll hunting—for femmebots only—facilitated by Alan and Clara Balaguer. **A GIFT SHOPPE** for revolutionary merch and other publishing rarities from JMS Legacy Foundation and comrades. **AND MERYENDA** brought to you by post-colonial hospitality culture.
Rural Technology
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
The second show in a series of radio broadcasts that examines rural technology.
Common Dirt
Friday, October 17, 2025
Together with Expeditie Ratterdam, we'll be exploring Charlois to observe rats in their familiar surroundings. Maarten Bel and Niek Hilkmann will open the conversation between humans and rats, shedding light on our complex relationship in all its facets and from different perspectives.
Rural Technology
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
The first in a series of radio broadcasts that examines rural technology.
B(r)oilerplates for Fictionality
Saturday, October 11, 2025
In this session, we will talk about the human-centered specificities and differences between initiatives doing stuff with technology (gossip, folklore, craft, aesthetics, scenes). In order to discuss them we propose a plastic-fictional etymology of these 5 words as a game to explore and map the multiple natures of 'doing things with technology'.
Extratonal Infrastructure #21
Friday, October 10, 2025
As part of Halte Charlois, the Platform Voor Extratonaliteit is organizing its first pub crawl through the many cafés of Charlois. Along with the iconic duo Veneman and De Groot, we'll explore the quintessential Dutch phenomenon of 'smartlappen' (sweet songs).
Pibliothèque workshops
Saturday, September 20, 2025
For 2 days, Lionel Maes and the research group Les nouveaux habits du colportage (Alexia de Visscher, Alice Néron, Léonard Mabille) will be running a workshop on an offline, local and collaborative tool of sharing digital books
After Summer School @ Varia
Friday, September 19, 2025
Join the After Summer School 2025! During theAfter Summer School (18–21 September) over 20 public classes will take place throughout Rotterdam, presenting the city as a hub for knowledge that deserves to berecognized and included in the city development. How can we change the city by looking,listening, writing, archiving, collaborating, activating, researching, designing, and walking differently?
Community technology from below
Thursday, September 18, 2025
fauno is a software developer, organiser and worker-owner at Sutty.nl). His work and activism focus on investigating, re-thinking, adapting, modifying, and implementing ecological and resilient technologies, especially autonomous, collectively managed infrastructure. On Thursday evening, September 18th, we will have an informal show & tell. We will be learning about fauno's work, and have space for discussion & dinner afterwards. Everyone is welcome to join!
Caregivers Unite
Saturday, September 13, 2025
A series of semi-public meetings of cultural workers who are also caregivers.
Futile Data. Cold War Current: Artist talk with Francis Hunger
Friday, September 12, 2025
Francis Hunger’s practice combines artistic research and media theory with the capabilities of narration through installations, video essays, radio plays, performance. Currently he co-teaches the class for Emergent Digital Media at the Academy of Visual Arts, Munich and is co-editor of Carrier-Bag.net.
What would a socialist database look like? Cold War Current: Speculative worksession with Francis Hunger
Friday, September 12, 2025
This worksession takes political commentator Aaron Bastani's naïve call for a “Fully Automated Luxury Communism” serious and conceptually investigates how today's capitalist production databases could be converted to socialist databases.
Vakbond Precaire Netwerken
Sunday, September 7, 2025
VPN is an apprenticeship-based technology school for radical organizers. It offers an IT curriculum to otherwise underserved communities and organizations advancing social justice causes. We train politically self-motivated individuals who aim to set up and maintain digital infrastructure for themselves and their communities. We stand for direct action and mutual-aid, to end our dependence on technology monopolies. We work in the here and now towards a grassroots alternative for digital technology and society.
Extratonal Infrastructure #20
Saturday, September 6, 2025
The Platform for Extratonality comes back from its summer rest with an evening full of poetry, noise, magic, vacuum cleaners, vocals, older media, field recordings and arabic maqams.
How to Organise? Open Call
Friday, September 5, 2025
Are you in a collective based in or around the Netherlands? We would love to host you for a learning session around 'How to Organise?'.
Money Talks
Friday, September 5, 2025
‘Money Talks’ is a form of tools sharing that plays with the format of a talk show to converse about the tricky topic of money.
Miscalculating Risk: Everyday Complicity
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Continuing the Miscalculating Risk series (Policing Technologies in The Netherlands and Supermarket Surveillance) together with Sanne Stevens, in this session we will focus on the increasing militarisation of everyday practices through their dependence on the Big Tech industry. We will look more closely into the mechanisms of imperialism and colonisation inherent to Microsoft products and discuss ways to organise in our homes, our work lives, and in institutions, towards divestment from these complicit technologies.
Varia prints SomeTimes 6
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Varia prints all the news that can fit in *SomeTimes*. In this (sixth) Some Times issue, we trace the slow pulses and tangled contradictions of Seasonal Computing. A year haped by breakdowns and recalibrations, by small gatherings and structural questions. We start with a member text, Ode to Our Discomfort, that unsettles the tired gospel of “growth through discomfort,” naming the violence in asking the already-exposed to shed more safety. What does comfort mean when some never had it? What does risk require, and of whom?
Common Dirt Map - Presentation
Sunday, July 13, 2025
Get to know the common dirt of Charlois: from the neglected patches of earth around the plane trees to the communally managed facade gardens. On the 13th of July, we will present a map that takes you along some of the most fascinating pieces of urban nature that the district has to offer; from the Arie Berkelaarpad to the Kromme Zandweg and beyond. Together we will look at how nature finds its way between buildings and pavement. Let's go for a walk!
Haunting the Network: Gendered Surveillance and Media Memory. How can visibility become a trap? with Nabila Ernada
Thursday, July 10, 2025
In this presentation, Nabila Ernada will share research exploring postcolonial surveillance, feminist resistance, and the architectures of visibility in Indonesia, from the weaponised image of Gerwani (a feminist group violently disbanded in the 1960s) to contemporary forms of algorithmic control.
Extratonal Open Mic #1: Voicing Complexities
Sunday, July 6, 2025
We are thrilled to invite you to our first Voicing Complexities Open Mic! Come to share a small performance, sound piece, poem, insight connected to unheard knowledges, under represented mediums, internalized voices. Come with something you are working on and would like to share with a welcoming audience.
Poetics of Computing Open Call
Saturday, June 21, 2025
An Open Call to join an intimate collective exploration group to meet and practice together three times, each 3h long --on Saturday 21 June, Saturday 12 July, Saturday 13 September-- with refreshments being served.
Free your e-reader!
Sunday, June 15, 2025
A calm, friendly workshop about jailbreaking your e-reader, a way to remove restrictions and take back some control over a device you already own.
Cold War Current Listening Session: a sonic training for conspiracist cultural workers
Friday, June 13, 2025
We are excited to announce a joint venture between The Institute of Cognitive Prosperity and NDNMK Solutions! In celebration of this new partnership, there will be a free showcase of some of our newly developed methods for cognitive maximisation and transcorporeal hemisphere synchronisation.
Night of confusion
Monday, June 9, 2025
Inviting you for a gathering of improvisations, philosophies and uncertain manifestations designed to charge the varia space with layers upon layers of fun. Between these layers we might find both practical and theoretical questionings concerning technology, art and especially sound making, challenging experiences of time, representation and love.
Extratonal Education #7: Voicing Complexities
Sunday, June 1, 2025
The workshop is a public moment of the artistic research "Voicing complexities", which questions gender classifications through sound. As a starting point, we will listen to public sound libraries and data sets. We will observe their categorisations and the narratives they reinforce. Later, together with Mitsitron and Ester Venema, in a safer facilitated space, we will record (our own) sounds of exclusion
Extratonal Infrastructure #19 - The Cozy Drone
Saturday, May 24, 2025
The Platform For Extratonality invites you to an evening full of cozy drones to sink into. We provide the ideal setting
Self-medicated practices DIY devices
Sunday, May 18, 2025
In this session, we will look into DIY methods of making medical tools more accessible, demystify the way they work, make it easy to repair and source materials and keep track of data for personal use.
Marginalia
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Join us for a workshop on writing in the margins using Marginalia an open-source and free, collaborative article annotation and publishing platform. This platform foregrounds non-linear, messy, entangled knowledge creation using annotations, hyperlinks, scribbles, and more. It is for those seeking online space for communal learning, wild experiments in reading and writing, and intervening into the text to make room for themselves in it. The workshop will be led by Arran Lyon, a creative technologist/coder, computer scientist, hacker and Senka Milutinović, a designer, researcher, writer. Both are a part of the ARK collective and have an interest in storytelling and knowledge creation with technology.
Doodle Dabble 2025
Saturday, May 3, 2025
Doodle Dabble is back! With story books, casset tapes, and a recorder!
Extratonal: Multispecies Festival
Friday, April 25, 2025
How do flowers, plants and animals think about karaoke, ceramics and newspapers? During this two-day multispecies festival, the platform for extratonality explores different ways to give other species a place within the creative field.
Cozy Writing Jam
Monday, April 21, 2025
Join us for a relaxed evening where musicians and writers create side by side. The idea is simple
Common Dirt Map - Try-Out
Sunday, April 20, 2025
Get to know the Common Dirt of Charlois with the help of the Common Dirt Map. From the Arie Berkelaarpad to the Shared Grounds behind the Gouwplein; you can find them all on the map!
Colonial Infrastructures: Hair as Global Commodity with Yi Zhang and Bo Wang
Saturday, April 19, 2025
During this Colonial Infrastructures worksession we will continue investigate systems of commodity, processes of labour and assembly, and global import-export relationships through the intimate object of hair.
XPUB Declarations Special Issue Launch
Friday, April 18, 2025
Hello! during a 3 months Special Issue, XPUB investigated the questions asked by the Declarations artistic research: on the poetic materiality of the CSS web-standard and its visual-political-cultural impact on our practices. On the 18th of April we welcome you at Varia to present our works!
A Color With A Body And A Place with Karla Claudio
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Boricua artist Karla Claudio hosts a talk, film screening and workshop about Caribbean dye plants and their colonial histories.
Extratonal Special #4.2: Illustrations
Saturday, March 15, 2025
The Platform Of Extratonality invites you to a two-day celebration of graphic music. On Saturday, March 15, we explore the interaction between illustration and music at Roodkapje.
Extratonal Special #4.1: Graphic Scores
Friday, March 14, 2025
The Platform Of Extratonality invites you to a two-day celebration of illustrative music. On Friday, March 14, we organize an evening with three lectures/performances on graphic notation at Varia.
performative script reading USHERING IN SOME ALTERNATE EGOS
Friday, February 14, 2025
A performative script reading by Antye Guenther and Philippine Hoegen. What started as a flirtatious and whimsical exercise in collective script writing, developed into a collaborative exploration of our loves, fears and desires regarding work and research…
Social in the Media get together
Friday, February 7, 2025
If in the light of recent events, you've been curious to look into alternative social media that doesn't run on an ad-based model, or is a big-tech owned walled garden, or if you are curious to meet other people who have accounts on the fediverse and beyond, please feel welcome to join us on the 7th of February where we'll explore some alternatives to dominant social media and get started sharing in a more convivial manner.
WATER OF LOVE by and with Valentina Vella
Friday, January 17, 2025
A Performance + Open Book with Q&A with the participation of
Breaking Down Whiteness
Thursday, January 16, 2025
On January 16 we will start with Breaking Down Whiteness, an awareness raising study group about internalised racism. It will be a peer-to-peer working space for and from white people, where we will work with Layla F. Saad's book “Me And White Supremacy” and follow the learning framework set out by the book over the course of 7 weeks.
Investigative Journalism workshop
Sunday, December 15, 2024
This workshop will begin with a presentation by Naima Cornelia on the methods behind the story, what questions to ask, where to find those answers, and how. and then a hands-on session where we will discuss different ways to tackle a research question. We start by seeing what information we can find online, try some google-search techniques, see what we can dig up and go from there.
Extratonal Extravaganza #2 - Celebrating 2 Years of Extratonality
Saturday, December 14, 2024
The end of the year arrives soon, but the end of extratonality is nowhere in sight. To celebrate another year full of extratonal milestones we once again organize a celebratory cabaret with a fine selection of extratonal artists!
Game & Watch: Movie Night with Balay Habi Collective
Friday, December 13, 2024
Our final Game and Watch series will conclude in a movie night, where we will be happy to host you for a screening of "Walang Rape sa Bontok" (Bontok, Rapeless) from Habi Collective..
New Members for 2025
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
We are looking for new members to join our collective space, Varia.
Declarations Pen Pals
Friday, December 6, 2024
Dear CSS writers, web-artisans and declarative artists, Declarations is organising its first meetup at Varia in Rotterdam. Declarations is an ongoing artistic research project into the poetic materiality of the CSS web-standard and its echoes on design and artistic practices. For that occasion we decided to focus two days on CSS inside emails.
Game & Watch: Indigenous representation in Videogames
Friday, December 6, 2024
During this Game & Watch we will collectively play two contrasting videogames to consider how Indigenous narratives are shared and considered in gamified realms. We will examine the representation of Indigenous peoples as well as the roles they are cast in the videogames 'Never Alone' and 'Sid Meier's Colonization'.
Solidarity Network(ing)
Sunday, December 1, 2024
We want Varia to be used by people who live in the neighbourhood. Is it already happening but we've never met you all together, we'd love to have a moment to formalise how this can work for everyone. With conversation and food we want to set up ways to organise and coordinate the access for Varia. How can we help each other across our extended solidarity networks? What are our responsibilities to one another and how can we communicate clearly? This is a gathering to share our expectations and needs for this space that we (can) all use.
Extratonal Infrastructure #17: Dianaband, Vegetable Wife with Jae-hyung Park and Lucija Gregov
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Join us for a new episode in the extratonal infrastructure series - the extra in Rotterdam's cultural life. Be on time and it is fine!
Game & Watch: Cold War Ideologies
Friday, November 29, 2024
The times of Cold War seem long gone, yet they significantly impact present cultural ideologies that repeat and evolve in contemporary creative production. This evening gathering is the starting point of a series that tries to expose the influence of the Cold War across present day narratives, technologies and geopolitics.
Whine, Dine and Decline
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Whine, Dine and Decline is a dinner and conversation around the local foodscape of the Netherlands and it's potential future in the context of climate change.
Miscalculating Risk: Supermarket Surveillance
Sunday, November 17, 2024
In continuation of the Miscalculating Risk
Vernacular Echoes: Sounds and Collective Expressions
Saturday, November 16, 2024
What is the role of the vernacular in sound knowledge and modes of organisation? Knowledge and information organisation are deeply powerful acts, which relate to how we envision the world. This event further develops an ongoing thread about the ways the vernacular (re)orients language and technology and generates other forms of knowledge sharing and organising. Khamoosh is a participatory artistic research project that mediates conservation and restoration by exploring the sonic heritage of Iran through recorded sounds of everyday life; sounds less heard or even silenced. Golnoosh and Maryam, two members of Khamoosh, will begin by presenting how Khamoosh as a process-based project operates, and share insights to their own roles within the Khamoosh community.
Extratonal Infrastructure #16: QOA and Primeiro
Friday, November 15, 2024
November is home to multiple interventions by The Platform For Extratonality. During this intermediate music event we welcome QOA and Primeiro, two artists with a tendency to enthrall through elemental improvisations.
Homemade Computer Club - Session #02
Friday, November 15, 2024
The Homemade Computer Club is a gathering space for those curious about computers.
Poetic Calm Coding
Monday, November 11, 2024
The first Calm Coding session in November will be dedicated to poetic gestures in computing which have the potential to reconfigure these controlled operational spaces. Through conversation and experiments, this session will softly start a research thread around this topic, for which we welcome you to bring ideas and experiments of what poetic computing could mean, what it could do and undo.
Common Dirt (Autumn Edition)
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Get to know the shared land of Charlois; from the neglected patches of land around the town squares to the communally managed street gardens. During this autumn walk, we'll explore together how nature finds its way into Rotterdam's urban landscape.
Palestine Cinema Days Around The World - Naila And The Uprising
Saturday, November 2, 2024
In 2023, Film Lab Palestine had to postpone their Palestine Cinema Days festival. Instead of celebrating cinema in Palestine, they brought Palestine to the world in 86 cities, across 139 venues, spanning 41 countries. November 2nd marks the day the Balfour Declaration was signed, and in an effort to amplify Palestinian voices, we are joining Palestine Cinema Days Around The World and are screening Naila And The Uprising directed by Julia Bacha.
Extratonal Special #3: Sound Is Political
Friday, November 1, 2024
We are moved to invite you to our 3rd Extratonal Special
Listening To The Cracks
Saturday, October 26, 2024
"Listening to the Cracks" is a research project that explores the often-inaudible sounds of urban nature. Together with Matthias Hurtl and Yoana Buzova, participants will engage in a listening session in Gouwplein, Oud-Charlois, to uncover voices and frequencies that are typically overlooked or dismissed as nuisances.
De Beweging 010 Launch
Sunday, October 20, 2024
On October 20 from 10:30 to 14:00 in the Gemaal op Zuid we will come together in Rotterdam for the first meeting of the 010 movement. The goal of the meeting is to get to know each other and discuss how we can work together to reclaim our city.
Homemade Computer Club - Session #01
Friday, October 18, 2024
The Homemade Computer Club is a gathering space for those curious about computers.
Calm Coding x PrePostPrint Local Meetup
Monday, October 14, 2024
F/LOSS publishing tool users, unite! If you're curious to explore Free/Libre and Open Source Software to make publications and layouts with, or have already worked with these tools and are looking for ways to exchange with others, please join us!
Common Dirt (Seedy Friday)
Friday, October 11, 2024
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.
Solarigraphy
Sunday, October 6, 2024
Diana Pankova will share her work and process on 'Solarigraphy - a hand-crafted technology aimed at the star(s)', teaching us how to make your own camera out of a beer can (or any light-tight container)! During this workshop she will share a specific way of capturing sun, that anyone can do, but most don't even think about. You can bring your own empty beer can (or not empty so you can have it for a drink later!)
Semi-True Interpretation of Fictionality Part III: The Fun-DING Body-ody-ody led by Toon Fibbe
Saturday, October 5, 2024
For the last session in our Fictionality Series we invited artist Toon Fibbe, who proposed to turn our professional selves into (drag)characters, with Anna Delvey serving as our guide and teacher, but not without looking at the (fictional) performativity of funding bodies first...
Extratonal Infrastructure #15: Nightshift, (S)LOW FREQUENCIES and Become Hees Black Cod
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Every month, The Platform for Extratonality gives the latest musical tendencies a stage at Varia. For October we have invited three groups that will challenge your dreary mindset. With the help of sunny improvisations, they are bound to disperse the autumn clouds for a while!
Track, Manage, Store?
Sunday, September 29, 2024
This workshop is a point of entry into a broader discussion looking towards new tech that is making it ever more simple and accessible to 'capture nature in a single click'. During the workshop we will explore digital conservation techniques and their impact, while considering how digital conservation techniques might shape the future landscape.
Varia prints SomeTimes 5 on Seasonal Computing
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Varia prints all the news that can fit in *SomeTimes*. The fifth issue is dedicated to the temporary, the not quite ready yet, the flourishing, and the almost over. Our public programme in 2024 is titled Seasonal Computing. This issue of SomeTimes is dedicated to Seasonal Computing and all its seeds, apple-cores, mini-pears and the flourishings and wiltings that have happened and will soon come to be.
Calm Coding x PrePostPrint Local Meetup
Monday, September 23, 2024
F/LOSS publishing tool users, unite! If you're curious to explore Free/Libre and Open Source Software to make publications and layouts with, or have already worked with these tools and are looking for ways to exchange with others, please join us!
Extratonal Infrastructure #14: Nina Ryser, taupe, Jason Kolàr and Rio Vaupes/Uapes
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Extratonal Infrastructure is back for a second batch of irregular musical performances in the heart of the south of Rotterdam. Join us on the 4th of September for a dizzying array of notes, pauses and passes as we once again welcome the latest extratonal tendencies to varia.
Trains Always Bring You To The Future
Friday, August 9, 2024
Join us for a celebration moment of our extratonal resident Ål Nik’ end of art residency! She will share her sonic experiments and creations from the last 3 weeks.
Miscalculating risk: Policing Technologies in the Netherlands
Friday, July 12, 2024
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 (Summer Edition)
Sunday, June 30, 2024
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.
^ x Varia
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
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.
Semi-True Interpretation of Fictionality (Series)
Thursday, June 20, 2024
This is the second of three installments wherein we collectively would love to further explore 'fictionality' in its various critical potentials to tell alternative/yet untold stories. This time we want to focus on **NEOLOGISMS**
Colonial Infrastructures: on Containerisation. Bike tour around Rotterdam Port with Yeon Sung and Czarina Calinawagan
Saturday, June 8, 2024
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.
☆ noiserr 26-5 ☆
Sunday, May 26, 2024
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.
Doodle Dabble
Friday, May 24, 2024
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.
Extratonal Infrastructure #13: Nene Moné, VJ Varvara, Manu Louis, Yannis Patoukas, Nicolás Kliwadenko and Brandnetel
Friday, May 24, 2024
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.
Colonial Infrastructures: on Fashion with Chinouk Filique de Miranda and Denzel Veerkamp, with Misha Bleijs, Madeleine and Nathan Schotvanger
Saturday, May 18, 2024
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.
Common Dirt (Spring Edition)
Friday, May 17, 2024
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.
Extratonal Special #2
Saturday, May 4, 2024
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.
Queer Bar Night - Special Edition: Queer Workers' Karaoke
Thursday, May 2, 2024
The 🔮 Queer Bar Night in Varia 🔮 is a sibling queer bar of the Vereniging Poortgebouw.
Extratonal Education #5: Undead Printer Hacking Workshop
Saturday, April 20, 2024
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?
Extratonal Education #4: Live coding jam session with Mitsitron & Magda Arques
Friday, April 19, 2024
Live coding jam session is a performative evening to experiment with live coding together.
Queer Bar Night
Thursday, April 4, 2024
🔮 Queer Bar Night Varia 🔮 starting in April as sibling queer bar of Vereniging Poortgebouw
Peripheral centers and feminist servers
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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.
Semi-True Interpretation of Fictionality (Series)
Saturday, March 23, 2024
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 Presents: Sunrise With Sea Monsters
Thursday, March 21, 2024
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.
Stock Taking Sense
Sunday, March 17, 2024
In this text, we report on the first stage of the Tool Sheds fellowship that Varia is participating in at Het Nieuwe Instituut. During this fellowship, we focus on Varia's public-facing digital channels of communication and access to the collective infrastructure we maintain.
Extratonal Infrastructure #12: Lottie Sebes, Davide Luciani, NDNMK Solutions and Birds WG
Friday, March 15, 2024
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!
8m Counter Cloud Gathering
Friday, March 8, 2024
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](https://varia.zone/8m/).
noiserr resurrection {noise reading & listening & etc. group}
Friday, March 1, 2024
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.
Extratonal Education #3: Oud-Charlois PCB-Dérive
Saturday, February 24, 2024
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!
Extratonal Special #1: Someone's Trash Is Someone's Treasure: The (Dis-)Harmonics Of Waste
Saturday, February 24, 2024
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!
Anti-colonial tech: a conversation
Friday, February 16, 2024
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.
Extratonal Infrastructure #11: Vida Vojić, Laura Agnusdei, Bernat Sanjuan and Hollowmist
Friday, January 26, 2024
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
Digital Discomfort: Read-Write-Chaos
Friday, January 19, 2024
The Digital Discomfort Working Group proposes a one-day gathering to collectivelly engage with the questions and praxis of discomfort aesthetics as a potential form of contemporary (techno)political resistance.
Extratonal Infrastructure #10: Extratonal Extravaganza - Celebrating 1 Year of Extratonality
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Extratonality comes with many milestones. To celebrate one full year of extratonality at Varia, we're organizing a celibratory cabaret on the 14th of December. During this event we're going to look back at the many highlights of our programme this year and lay out our plans for 2024. There will be food, extratonal cake and short performances by several members of the extratonal community.
Varia prints SomeTimes 4
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Varia prints all the news that can fit in *SomeTimes*
LIBRARIAN SWARM (Fuzzy Mirror Solidarity Network for Palestine)
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Calling all amateur, professional, and aspiring librarians (or anyone who wants to help out)! Librarian Swarm is a collective effort to turn a bibliography spreadsheet on Palestine into a free digital library for public self-education. This digital harvest will be hosted with open source software on several shadow libraries.
Doing the Dishes and then Revolution
Saturday, December 9, 2023
Doing the Dishes and then Revolution is an event in two parts on doing things collectively.
Biotope Charlois: Winter Walk
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Get to know the Biotope of Charlois; from the rats in the Maas to the bats in your cavity walls. Together we will investigate how nature makes good use of Rotterdam's urban planning and technological infrastructure to make the city their home. Ecologist André de Baerdemaeker will guide us through Charlois and its surrounding area, from the derelict Wielewaal to the docks of the Waalhaven, to see what thrives between the asphalt and concrete.
Sometimes Not Available feat. Transfeminist Digital Care Network
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Sometimes Not Available considers the need for interrelation and support for existing feminist server efforts, and for connecting around collective practices of developing, hosting and implementing tools and methods that reflect local needs, interests and conditions. On the 30th of November we will be joined by The Transfeminist Digital Care Network who will share their work.
PrePostPrint Local Meetup
Friday, November 24, 2023
F/LOSS publishing tool users unite! On Friday 24 + Saturday 25 of November we're organising a gathering in Varia.
Sometimes Not Available feat. la_bekka
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Sometimes Not Available considers the need for interrelation and support for existing feminist server efforts, and for connecting around collective practices of developing, hosting and implementing tools and methods that reflect local needs, interests and conditions. On the 23rd of November, Inés and Martu from la_bekka will join us in discussing these matters.
Extratonal Infrastructure #9: Rebetiko Against The Machine, athinx, Illusory Essay of Noise, The Salty Sebastians and dj broodje
Saturday, November 18, 2023
'Extravagant', 'extragalactic', 'extralogical' or 'extratonal'; by adding the prefix 'extra' we indicate something 'non-ordinary'. Get ready for another exceptional evening in Rotterdam Charlois with performances that go beyond our common understanding!
HTML Zine Club
Saturday, November 11, 2023
HTML Zine Club is a workshop making a personal-scope of web publication. Webzines, like print zines, are personal, story-based publications, but can also be made interactive and nonlinear through code, using basic programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and a bit of JavaScript (if you like!). In this workshop, an artist Nami Kim will lead participants who have little to no coding experience on how to craft their own webzines, centred around programming with care.
Palestine Cinema Days - Stitching Palestine
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Film Lab Palestine are not able to host their yearly festival this year; “Palestine Cinema Days”, so the film festival will instead be hosted all over the world through different groups. In an effort to amplify Palestinian voices, we are screening Stitching Palestine directed by Carol Mansour at 8:00 p.m. at Gouwstraat 3, Rotterdam.
Colonial Infrastructures Worksession with Yasmine Boudiaf and film screening with Riar Rizaldi, Simnikiwe Buhlungu and Tessa Mars
Friday, October 27, 2023
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.
Dysfluent Issue 2 Magazine Launch
Saturday, October 21, 2023
The launch of Dysfluent Issue 2, a magazine about people who stammer.
Statement of solidarity with the people of Palestine
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Statement of solidarity with the people of Palestine
Extratonal Education #2: Demystifying the Æther with Matthias Hurtl (MTHS)
Friday, October 13, 2023
During the second edition of the Extratonal Education workshop series, we explore the world of electromagnetic waves and their ubiquity in our lives, together with Mathias Hurtl (MTHS). After being introduced to special hardware and Software Defined Radio, participants will acquire radio signals from different frequency bands. The workshop is free; afterwards there is a vegan dinner.
Extratonal Infrastructure #8: Christof Migone, Matthias Hurtl (MTHS) and the Postpeople
Friday, October 13, 2023
The question of extronality concerns not only 'how', but also 'where'. With both eyes open, this extratonal event will focus on acoustic tools to locate sonic oddities and performative gestures, from endoscope cameras to satellite receivers.
Varia prints SomeTimes 3
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Varia prints all the news that can fit in *SomeTimes*
Extratonal Infrastructure #7: So-Fi, Joris Anne, Lyckle de Jong and DJ Thor Kissing
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Extratonal Infrastructure is back from the holidays. With a freshly charged battery, we continue the second half of our extratonal program of 2023. This time our event is dedicated to the New Dutch Naïvity, which means Dutch-language pop music for a new era!
Varia Afhaal: Stock Exchange
Friday, September 15, 2023
Varia Afhaal are thematic gatherings based around the common experiences, everyday technologies and home economics of food preparation.
Performance Night
Saturday, August 26, 2023
PERFORMANCE NIGHT organised by Alaa Abu Asad, Merve Kılıçer and Ulufer Çelik.
Rotterdamse Belhuizen
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Belhuizen (call shops which in The Netherlands functioned also as internet cafes) are places where access to technology has been made possible through the practical acquisition of knowledge related to specific usages, as most shops are operated by diaspora members connecting community members from within and outside of Europe. For migrant populations in Rotterdam, they are points of entry to local internet infrastructure, which enables the pursuit of everyday life.
Varia Afhaal: Chip Shortage or Chips on Demand
Thursday, July 6, 2023
Varia Afhaal are thematic gatherings based around the common experiences, everyday technologies and home economics of food preparation.
Gardening as Electricity Making
Saturday, June 24, 2023
We invite you to 'Gardening as Electricity Making', a workshop that celebrates the interplay of soil, electricity, life, and the internet.
Extratonal Infrastructure #6: Janneke van der Putten, Mitsitron and Toine Horvers: richtingen/kwartet
Friday, June 16, 2023
Extratonality is a vocation. As such, it requires a voice. This is why Extratonal Infrastructure invited several experimental vocalists to look into the many afforandances of the vocal cords. Join us for our final event before the summer break!
COVERT TECHNOLOGIES #1: FOAMING
Sunday, June 4, 2023
a drag workshop w/ Anne Ampersand | Marko Gutić Mižimakov
Extratonal Education #1: SuperCollider Audio Synthesis Workshop with Kauê Werner
Saturday, May 27, 2023
In the first edition of the Extratonal Education workshop series Kauê Werner will give an introduction to sound synthesis with the programming language SuperCollider. No previous knowledge is necessary! Just show up with a laptop & headphones and have fun. The workshop is free and after the workshop there will be a free vegan dinner.
Extratonal Infrastructure #5: Conjunto Media Luna, Kauê Werner, Mitze Apocalipze & Chucho Vinilo and AnikaTheAbsurd x Vitrinekast Soundsystem
Saturday, May 27, 2023
Extratonality not only transcends disciplines, but also understanding. The May edition of Extratonal Infrastructure is dedicated to the unknown and the elusive. With a program consisting of Colombian Cumbia and cutting edge experimentation this edition will prove to be another step towards extratonal synergy.
Calm Coding
Monday, May 22, 2023
A lowkey social hangout for those who like to write computer programs in the company of other people.
New Members
Saturday, May 20, 2023
We are looking for new members to join our collective space, Varia.
Clothes Swap
Thursday, May 11, 2023
B.Y.O.Clothes, shoes, accessories, all garments you want to exchange are welcome in our clothes swap evening! There will be mirrors and concealing curtains to try on your possible new wardrobe.
Extratonal Infrastructure #4: Marlene Fally & Mehrnaz Khorrami, Ragnar Árni Ólafsson & Luke Deane, M_oo and Post-talk
Saturday, April 29, 2023
In our imagination everything appears different than it really is! This premise is a fundamental part of an extratonal understanding. In april extratonal infrastructure will once again invite exceptional artists to Varia in order to approach the concept of extratonality from even more unexpected angles than before. Put on your work and dancing shoes for an evening beyond your wildest imagination!
South Explorer 2023 Varia Radio Relay
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Varia joins south explorer for the 2023 edition Varia will fill the ether on the PMR Band with reports on neighborhood activities, random chatter and South Explorer updates. Experimental loempias, kombucha fizzzzes and cocktails will also be served
Varia prints SomeTimes2
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Varia printx all the news that can fit in *SomeTimes*
Launch of Performing Patents Otherwise: Archival conversations with historic clothing inventions
Saturday, April 15, 2023
This event launch will start with a performative reading and activation of the online platform 'Performing Patents Otherwise'. It will follow with a series of conversations on its making process, from the data collection and curation to how the interface facilitates access to these datasets while encouraging critical interpretation and discussions. We will also showcase the short video documentation of 'I, Martha Gowans,' a performance for two sewing machines, a voice and a computer based on a clothing patent filed by Martha Gowans in Dundee in 1903.
Sharing Programming Knowledge with Kit Kuksenok
Saturday, April 1, 2023
In this workshop, Kit draws on their research in software engineering education and experience in technical pedagogy to host a space to share experiences of how we navigate programming knowledge. They ask
Read & Repair - Innards of technology with eeefff and Danny Tirthdas van der Kleij
Thursday, March 30, 2023
From August 2022 to April 2023, Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronica Depot hold Read & Repair events on the last Saturday of every month. For this month, we will be exploring the theme Innards of technology with eeefff and Danny Tirthdas van der Kleij
Hosting with others
Friday, March 24, 2023
This publication is a transcription of a conversation that took place at AMRO 'Debug'. It was organized by servus.at at afo architekturforum oberösterreich, to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas about the practices of art hosting and cultural providers such as the ones managed by many of the members of the festival community.
care for code - documentation session
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Let's write some code documentation! For your new coding project, for the cryptic library you downloaded recently, for a script that you want to share with others! Enter the documentation sessions. Two hours where to sit with source code and write something about it.
Extratonal Infrastructure #3: Mik Quantius, Parasnol & Ruisvogel
Friday, March 17, 2023
Extratonality comes in many consistencies; some clear and fresh as a bottle of spring water, others hazy and thick as mud. The third edition of Extratonal Infrastructure is dedicated to these parameters, with performances by Mik Quantius, Parasnol and Ruisvogel. Everyone is welcome!
A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers (ATNOFS) publication
Monday, March 13, 2023
A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers (ATNOFS) is a collaborative project formed around intersectional, feminist, ecological servers whose communities travelled between each other in 2022 to share and extend their knowledges through live gatherings. From these six sessions, a publication gathering resulting materials, thoughts and reflections was made.
Narrowcast (publication)
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Made by the Varia BroadCats team (aka Broadcats ˚ᆺ˚) Narrowcast publication is a manual that records the history and genealogy of the streaming space of Varia called *Narrowcast* from around 2020 until 2023.
International Trans★Feminist Counter-Cloud Strike: Dancing in the ruins of Big Tech
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
On March 8th join us in dreaming and dancing in the ruins of Big Tech! On this day, we will be having conversations on how to minimize our use of cloud-based applications, discussions on the implications of the cloud regime, reading, streaming, broadcasting, sharing food, and dreaming up alternative methods of otherwise exuberant joyful survival, while connecting to other transnational striking networks.
Sensible World Of Soccer - Varia Cup 2024
Thursday, March 2, 2023
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!
Book launch: Cyberfeminism Index
Sunday, February 12, 2023
On February 12 at 5 p.m., Varia will host the book launch for designer and editor Mindy Seu’s Cyberfeminism Index. The event will feature a performative reading by Seu, a casual conversation with audience members, and light refreshments.
Extratonal Infrastructure #2: Eric Kinny, Tisa Neža Herlec & Friso van Wijck
Saturday, February 4, 2023
The search for extra tonalities continues! Join us for the first event of the year including performances by Eric Kinny, Tisa Neža Herlec & Friso van Wijck. A trip around the world, for which you only have to travel to the Gouwstraat!
Toward a Minor Tech
Thursday, February 2, 2023
Varia has been invited to work on the production of the 12th edition of this *Peer-reviewed Newspaper*, a publication series of research/PhD workshops investigating contemporary digital culture. The newspaper is made within a wiki-to-print environment and will be presented during the Transmediale festival on Thursday 2nd of February.
Read & Repair - Who has the key? with Vijai Maia Patchineelam and Gordon Douglas
Monday, January 16, 2023
From August 2022 to February 2023, Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronica Depot hold Read & Repair events on the last Saturday of every month. For this month, we will be exploring the theme Who has the key? with Vijai Maia Patchineelam and Gordon Douglas.
More-than-computational reflections (in the form of a report)
Monday, December 19, 2022
In 2021, Ania Molenda and Andrea Prins contacted us about a project they are doing called Beyond The Essay, where they are researching forms of online reading and writing with a specific focus on the essay in the field of architecture critique. Within the Beyond the Essay meetings, we proposed three scripts to engage with text in collective situations that respond to existing computational artefacts, namely tags (`__MAGICWORDS__`), indexing formats (`x-dexing`) and word2vec (`word2complex`).
Fine Art End Term
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
This radio show presents a collection of audio pieces made by second-year students of the Willem de Kooning Academy Define Art major!
Remnants of Future Voices
Saturday, December 10, 2022
In this workshop we will explore ancestral cosmology through the figure of the clone in artificial voice technologies. The workshop will experiment with artistic approaches to future and past-oriented dialogues using voice avatars of ourselves and others, considering the implications of creating a clone that may speak to generations beyond our own lifetime and say things we have never said.
Push to Talk Partyline
Thursday, December 8, 2022
During a 3-day hands-on workshop we'll investigate license-free radio as a low-tech and low-power medium for keeping in touch with each other. We want to look at radio as a medium that you can participate in instead of consuming it. We'll explore the aspects of locality and community present in radio.
Extratonal Infrastructure #1: Zad Kokar, Vanita & Johanna Monk, TBA (joak)
Thursday, December 1, 2022
On Thursday, December 1, three musical performances will introduce all extratonal tendencies. Experience them together with Zad Kokar, Vanita & Johanna Monk and TBA (joak).
Streaming with Infrafem (Radio Alhara, Pukllasunchi, Clara Balaguer, Varia Broadcasts)
Friday, November 25, 2022
Join us through the radio waves this early Friday evening for a discussion about radio practices of the Palestinian station Radio Alhara, who have just celebrated two years on the air, and Pukllasunchi, who organise a radio for Andean children, amongst many other things, in Peru.
Streaming with infrafem IRL (after thoughts)
Friday, November 25, 2022
Through the making of Varia's Narrowcast, Varia got in touch with a network of groups and collectives that are building their own digital infrastructure or are interested in exploring alternative ways of doing things together online. The platforms and online spaces started to feed cultural and social processes throughout the pandemic in 2021. Varia took part of this cultural development by hosting online tools as part of the collective infrastructure of the group, but also by sharing knowledge and playful methods.
Feminist Hack Meetings #7 - FHM sits & eats around Mutual Aid
Thursday, November 24, 2022
For our last meeting of this year FHM is hosting a dinner party! We will be hanging out, eating together and connecting with local feminist/LGBTQAI+/community-oriented groups and persons in Rotterdam.....
Colonial Infrastructures Worksession with Arthur Asseraf and Miriyam Aouragh
Friday, November 18, 2022
This two-day 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.
Read & Repair - Dissecting the Game with NDNMK Solutions and Lídia Pereira
Friday, November 18, 2022
From August 2022 to February 2023, Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronica Depot hold Read & Repair events on the last Saturday of every month. For this month, we will be exploring the theme Dissecting the Game.
Ex Machina: Auto-magically
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Technology and magic, two words that at first seem to clash with each other. However, they share some common ground. On December 16th at Varia become a technomancer and use your phone as a magic wand to explore our cyborg publication.
Zine camp 2022
Saturday, November 5, 2022
Come hang out and check out our publications at Zine camp 2022!
Radio Activity - I smell Patchouli
Friday, October 21, 2022
I smell Patchouli. Every hippie wears it. Radio Activity stream!!! A scent based radio broadcast. Smell you later!
Publishing Partyline
Friday, October 14, 2022
Join us for the Publishing Partyline on the 14th and 15th of October, to dive into the dependency relations that are being formed when working with web-to-print techniques, between designers-and-tools and between tools-and-standards.
Concert: Burger Service & Thor Kissing
Friday, October 7, 2022
Friday, October 7 promises to be a beautiful day. Two Dutch-singing pop talents (Burger Service and Thor Kissing) are going perform in Varia and that is certainly something!
Booklaunch: Volumetric Regimes
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Join us to celebrate the launch of the paper edition of *Volumetric Regimes: Material Cultures of Quantified Precence*, a book compiled by Possible Bodies (Femke Snelting en Jara Rocha)!
Plaintext Protocol Partyline
Friday, September 16, 2022
On the Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th of September 2022, we are hosting the Plaintext Protocol Partyline, in which we will explore and experience plaintext protocols as a communication medium.
Read & Repair - Poetry and Finance feat. Sara Hamadeh and Toon Fibbe
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
From August 2022 to January 2023, Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronica Depot hold Read & Repair events on the last Saturday of every month. In September, we will be exploring the theme Poetry and Finance. The READ will be guided by Sara Hamadeh and the REPAIR by Toon Fibbe.
Concert: KRAMP + Bloedneus & de Snuitkever
Friday, July 22, 2022
On Friday, the 22th of July, Varia will once again host an evening of music. This time with KRAMP (who will present his new release on Bergpolder Records) and Bloedneus & De Snuitkever. It's been a while!
Read & Repair - Vegetality and Virtuality feat. Georgiana Cojocaru and Bérénice Staiger
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
From August 2022 to January 2023, Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronica Depot hold Read & Repair events on the last Saturday of every month. In August, we will be exploring the theme Vegetality and Virtuality. The READ will be guided by Georgiana Cojocaru and the REPAIR by Bérénice Staiger
Walk of Fame - The Return
Friday, July 8, 2022
On April 4, 2022, after 32 years of existence, the Rotterdam [Walk of Fame](https://www.walkoffame.nl/) came to [an end](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzB803YeGWc). The last sixty tiles of this well-known star sidewalk near the Metroplein and Ahoy were dismantled. Since then, Rotterdam has been missing one of its most noticeable landmarks. Fortunately, we managed to retrieve one of these special tiles. On July 8, at the start of the summer holidays, the tile of none other than Shrek will be reinstalled on the corner of Gouwstraat and Wolphaertstraat. Everyone is welcome at the green unveiling at 7 p.m. sharp. There will be snacks, drinks and music.
Varia x d12n LIMITS hub
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
We're delighted to invite you to our LIMITS-hub, an open and informal gathering moment taking place during the [Eighth Workshop on Computing within Limits](https://computingwithinlimits.org/2022/) this June 21st/22nd. As this year's LIMITS will be taking place online, we are setting up a hub, to have a physical space to meet. Come along to watch the conference together!
Hold & Release Partyline
Friday, June 10, 2022
Calibre remains to be popular among amateur librarians and digital libraries. Over time, the software was supplemented by many new features and plugins. Now, we want to revisit the digital library as an extensible space, and step back into the imagination of the library as a generative and social environment.
Feminist Hack Meetings #6 - How about access?
Saturday, June 4, 2022
This FHM session is for us to reconsider the accessibility of online realms. We will learn about this in two parts, first through a guest talk from artist-design duo MELT, who will share their research and practice around accessibility.
Graanschuur tarwewijk: documenta 15 pre-pre-preview
Friday, June 3, 2022
As you may already know, a number of Rotterdam-based artists & hackers are busy working on projects related to documenta 15. These projects are happening in collaboration with ruangrupa, the artist collective from Jakarta Indonesia who are running the artistic direction of documenta this year. As documenta 15 approaches, we'd like to have a moment to eat together, share what we're up to and discuss over some drinks. It can also be a moment to focus on our local ekosistem.
DAAP x Varia public workshop
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Join us for an open and free workshop on Sunday, May 29th 11am–4pm, at Varia and learn more about the Digital Archive of Artists' Publishing and how you can start using this resource, too!
Hunting Mosquitos (research-in-progress)
Friday, May 27, 2022
This evening, Angeliki Diakrousi will present the *Hunting Mosquitos*, a research in progress on 'The Mosquito', a technology used in hangouts in Rotterdam, that emits high-frequencies to deter the youth from loitering in public space.
Infraschool Open Day
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
You are warmly invited to the launch of the Infraschool, an experimental peer-to-peer learning project that aims to explore local community infrastructure, co-operative organisation and digital tools.
Streaming with InfraFem
Friday, April 22, 2022
Streaming With Infrafem is a moment of exchange of communal strategies, infrastructural knowledge, and design choices starting by redefining the notion of *streaming*. We will explore ways of 'streaming' to each other by listening, waiting and responding, both through text (for example via collaborative editors), through audio (for example via the streaming audio/video servers), and other means.
Varia prints SomeTimes
Friday, April 22, 2022
Starting from today, Varia will print all the news that can fit in *SomeTimes*
A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers (radio broadcast)
Saturday, March 26, 2022
*A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers* (ATNOFS) is a collaborative project of Varia, LURK, Constant, HYPHA, Feminist Hack Meetings and ESC formed around intersectional feminist, ecological servers. In the first session at Varia during the weekend of March 26 and 27, we will focus on tools and methods to make space for understanding what feminist publishing infrastructures could be.
Feminist Hack Meetings #4 - One family plenty connections
Saturday, December 18, 2021
With Sofia Boschat-Thorez. Do you have regular conversations with family and friends outside the Netherlands using intant messaging, like Whatsapp, or Facebook groups or an other application? Have voice messages, stickers and video calls become your main mode of communication with them? Come for a tea and a discussion about how we all use these apps, how they have changed the way we interact with each other, what we find useful about them and what more we wish they could do. All together we will make a small publication with everyone's contribution.
The User Condition #04 - 'Losing Your Data is Good for You' - with Dave Young
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Experienced users might be surprised: nowadays it is totally possible to use a computer device and have no clue whatsoever about files and folders. While the file/folder paradigm is still foundational within computers, it is increasingly buried under layers of smart interfaces: search boxes, automatically curated collection, phone manager apps, etc.
Double publication launch: Learning How to Walk While Catwalking and Vernaculars come to matter
Friday, December 17, 2021
XPUB and Varia are delighted to invite you to this double launch of the publications *Learning How to Walk While Catwalking* and *Vernaculars come to matter* on Friday the 17th of December.
Radio Activity - a Wireless Orchestra
Friday, December 17, 2021
Second year students from the Willem de Kooning Academy's Define Art major, together with Yoana Buzova and Angeliki Diakrousi explore the deviant potential of creating their own broadcasting infrastructures and utilizing it as a space for sharing and making work, but also to make things public.
Vernaculars Come To Matter
Friday, December 17, 2021
What is the role of the vernacular in language and technology? Vernaculars come to matter brings together a range of stories and practices that address this question. In this publication, the vernacular appears in the counterdictionairies and formatterings of language; as a plurivocal remix bringing together recycled skills, diskarte practices, and humble templates; at eye level in the reverse diasporic circulation of Dutch-Turkish street photography; as an ongoing struggle with bureaucratic rigidity while transitioning gender or name; as a way to navigate the Leftove.rs archive of MayDay Rooms, where the ephemera of radical, anti-oppressive, and working class movements requires a very particular attention; or in the attitudes of photo editing software, such as ImageMagick, manifested as software culture.
Ch◉re◉graph◦ng C◉d◦ng ↭ ↝ tales from real-time collaborative audio-visual coding ↜
Sunday, December 5, 2021
An event dedicated to sharing experiences and on-going projects that explore different modes of collaborative live coding with a focus on audio-visual composition.
'Dear [neutral] language, (...)'
Saturday, December 4, 2021
In this worksession WordMord will present their investigations of how coding can destabilise traumatic language. The group has also invited Allisson Parrish to conduct the workshop 'Creative Writing with Computers, Noise and Mulch'.
Read & Repair - Community Memory feat. Elodie Mugrefya and Amy Suo Wu
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During October and November 2021, we will be exploring the theme Community Memory. For November, the Read will be guided by Elodie Mugrefya and the Repair by Amy Suo Wu.
pad-publishing @ zine camp
Sunday, November 7, 2021
During this workshop we will experiment with models of resonant publishing using Etherpad and web2print techniques, in which actions of writing, processing and lay-out making continuously cross each other.
Feminist Hack Meetings #3 - Feminist Futurotopixs: inventing feminist technologies
Saturday, November 6, 2021
Spideralex will introduce us to Feminist Futurotopixs. This workshop will enable participants to dream, invent and desire together feminist technologies. They will invent narratives, speculative fiction and radical imaginaries that work as alternatives to existing oppressive or dystopian models. The workshop is oriented at co-designing stories and creating new worlds as processes to imagine and dream together about feminist desired futures.
Read & Repair - Community Memory feat. Sofia Boschat-Thorez
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During October and November 2021, we will be exploring the theme Community Memory. For October, the READ will be guided by Sofia Boschat-Thorez.
Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano + Dachen Bao @ Varia with a screening of ~~~~ by Sami Hammana
Friday, October 29, 2021
Juan Pablo will share his research on the Atlantis-2 submarine cable and its landing site in Conil, a small coastal town in the south of Spain filled with ruins of colonial and information infrastructures. Dachen Bao will share his research conducted as part of the self-organised collective 'Chongqing Work Institute'(重庆工作研究所). The second half of the gathering will open a space to collectively reflect on infrastructures as contentious production and mediation of reality, proposing a collective mode of research on media technologies that operates from a relational and networked proximity.
The User Condition #03 - With Anaëlle Beignon
Thursday, July 29, 2021
The third episode of The User Condition series will take place just before the holidays! On the 29th of July, French designer Anaëlle Beignon will discuss with Silvio Lorusso about design approaches that take into account the use of obsolete devices.
Feminist Hack Meetings #2 - Polyphonic Radio Ensemble
Saturday, July 24, 2021
Let's create a radiophonic piece together! Reni Hofmüller will introduce us to radio and the idea of catching the waves artistically and technically. We invite you to join a radio improvisation work, by using and adapting the time- and material structuring method of the Polyphonic Ensemble. Through this collective radio work, we will engage with a techno-feminist approach.
Relearn 2021 curved
Thursday, July 22, 2021
This year's edition will take place in and focus on Rotterdam. We aim to explore the importance of self-organisation and the use of experimental tools to build alternative systems and economies within the urban fabric of Rotterdam.
Blue Links - XPUB Graduation Show
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Blue is the sky, blue is the ocean. Blue is our mood (sometimes). Blue are the paths that have not yet been followed. Varia hosts this year's graduation show of the master Experimental Publishing (XPUB), Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam.
Read & Repair - The Automated Body feat. Katarina Jazbec and MELT (Loren Britton + Isabel Paehr)
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During May and June 2021, we will be exploring the theme The Automated Body. The text selection for Read in June was made by Katarina Jazbec and the Repair is hosted by MELT.
Digital Solidarity Networks - How can we rethink digital infrastructures in terms of capacity and care?
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Notions of scale, usability, collectivity and agency play an important role in generating possibilities for technological self-determination in an attempt to imagine computational infrastructures differently. How can we imagine technological attitudes that don't rely on data extractivist models? How do we make space to reconsider the figure of the user? And what if digital tools can be adapted to the specificities of each situation? For the third event, we will be joined by TITiPi (Miriyam Aouragh, Seda Gürses, Femke Snelting, Helen Pritchard) who will speak about infrabels.
Read & Repair - The Automated Body feat. Angeliki Diakrousi
Sunday, May 30, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During May and June 2021, we will be exploring the theme The Automated Body. The text selection for Read in May was made by Angeliki Diakrousi.
Digital Solidarity Networks - What are lessons learned from alternative, decentralised or federated infrastructures?
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Notions of scale, usability, collectivity and agency play an important role in generating possibilities for technological self-determination in an attempt to imagine computational infrastructures differently. How can we imagine technological attitudes that don't rely on data extractivist models? How do we make space to reconsider the figure of the user? And what if digital tools can be adapted to the specificities of each situation? For the second event, we will be joined by LURK (represented by Aymeric Mansoux and Roel Roscam Abbing) who will speak about lessons learned from alternative, decentralised or federated networks.
Digital Solidarity Networks - How can we reconfigure digital networks across timelines and communities?
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Notions of scale, usability, collectivity and agency play an important role in generating possibilities for technological self-determination in an attempt to imagine computational infrastructures differently. How can we imagine technological attitudes that don't rely on data extractivist models? How do we make space to reconsider the figure of the user? And what if digital tools can be adapted to the specificities of each situation? In this presentation, Dušan Barok will briefly discuss their genealogies, varieties and dilemmas.
The User Condition #02 - With Brendan Howell
Monday, May 17, 2021
Time for the second episode of The User Condition series! On the 10th of May, artist and reluctant engineer Brendan Howell will converse with designer without qualities Silvio Lorusso about – *ominous soundtrack* — N E T S T A L G I A.
Plaintext Partyline
Saturday, May 8, 2021
On May 8 (Saturday) & May 9 (Sunday), Plaintext Partyline explores the modest space of the rigid X-Y axis of plaintext. Varia members and friends spend a weekend exploring this old, but not old-fashioned technology. Various outcomes will be presented online and in the windows of Varia.
Read & Repair - Sense-full Pedagogy feat. K MacBride and Yun Lee
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During March and April 2021, we will be exploring the theme Sense-full Pedagogy. The Read session for April is hosted by K MacBride and the Repair session is led by Yun Lee.
Read & Repair - Sense-full Pedagogy feat. Supreme Connections
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During March and April 2021, we will be exploring the theme Sense-full Pedagogy. The text selection for March was made by Varia Library group member amy pickles.
The User Condition #01
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
What are the conditions for a computer user to gain agency, defined here as the ability to evade automatisms? What is the user’s horizon of autonomy within a built world made of software programmed by somebody else, when its logic is made inaccessible in the name of convenience?
FHM #1 - Feminist Servers: Backups, migrations, and other painful stories
Saturday, March 13, 2021
The work session focuses on the migration of mailing lists between an old and a new server ran by feminists involved in the Systerserver project. The work session is co-hosted together with [Mara](https://psaroskalazines.gr/) and is made up of two parts. The first part is a technical hands-on backup/migration process and the second is a discussion around the connections between feminist servers and the travel path of this migration.
Read & Repair - Wireless Imagination feat. Agustina Woodgate and Dennis de Bel
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During January and February 2021, we will be exploring the theme Wireless Imagination. The Read session for February is hosted by Agustina Woodgate and the Repair session is led by Varia group member Dennis de Bel.
Read & Repair - Wireless Imagination feat. Danny van der Kleij
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In 2021 our Read & Repair sessions will be paired, we will take two months to explore one theme. During January and February 2021, we will be exploring the theme Wireless Imagination. The text selection for January was made by Varia Library group member Danny van der Kleij.
Read & Repair feat. Minimal Viable Learning
Sunday, December 13, 2020
How can minimal technologies maximise a learning experience? What could 'minimum' 'viable' 'learning' be? During this Read & Repair, we will explore minimal viable forms of learning with **Etherpad**. Etherpad is a collaborative text editor that is often used within the practices of Varia members and their peer networks.
Read & Repair feat. Christina Karagianni and Anita Hrnić
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. Each session of Read & Repair is looking at a different text, sometimes guided by a guest. The guests for this edition are Christina Karagianni and Anita Hrnić.
The first expedition Into the Shepard Zone
Sunday, October 4, 2020
This will be a strange evening, during which the wet, dark and yet undiscovered basement of Varia comes to life and transforms every audible sound into a shepard tone.
Varia in het Otje – Ipanema, Unruly Strings and Tino
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Summer has passed and autumn has arrived. To keep in touch with the times Varia has invited several musicians to the garden of the Otje to contemplate on the passing of the seasons. To what extent does the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis, away or toward the sun, influence their music? Let’s find out on the 4th of October!
Wet Signal Voice Gardens (launch & event)
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
An event exploring the hierarchies, difficulties and politics of voice in the digital domain, arranged for the launch of web-based artwork Wet Signal Voice Gardens by Kari Robertson.
Read & Repair - Neoliberalism with Dutch Characteristics: The Big Fix Up of the Netherlands and the Practice of Embedded Cultural Activism
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. In this next edition we are reading the text *Neoliberalism with Dutch Characteristics
Magiun magazine & Fizz club launch
Saturday, September 19, 2020
Join us for an afternoon of food! Alice Strete presents the new food magazine Magiun and Varia announces the start of a new open membership food and fermentation club. Expect Kombucha, sourdough bread, ASCII art and other tasty treats.
Century 21 Calling - We Got The Room Until Noon
Saturday, September 12, 2020
Join us for an educational Century 21 Calling screening. Learn how to keep your face to face meeting from turning into full-on anarchy!
BPW Rotterdam Woonspreekuur
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Please feel welcome to join us for an evening of discussion, co-learning and reflection on the housing situation in Rotterdam, our rights as tenants and how we can support each other to work towards solutions for more safe, secure and affordable housing.
Read & Repair - The Means of Communication as a Means of Production
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. This Sunday we will dive into a text written by Raymond Williams in 1978, called *The Means of Communication as the Means of Production*.
Subject: Writing with(out) gestures!
Saturday, August 29, 2020
This Saturday, Joseph Knierzinger will present ongoing investigations into the combination and modification of ancient media and rediscovered methodologies!
Dat Conference stream - solarpunk, the decentralised web and peer-to-peer technology
Thursday, July 30, 2020
We're streaming talks from DatConf at Varia for a little while. Feel welcome!
Read & Repair feat. stone throw - session 2
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month, the Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. Varia is hosting a special edition of *Read & Repair* that will be split into two(!) collective reading and conversation sessions. One will be online and one will be in our physical space, as a series of events to discuss matters of abolitionist technology & community-driven systems of accountability, while generating anonymous, consensual debris for *stone throw*, a temporary online work to share our resources and reflections.
Read & Repair feat. stone throw - session 1
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month, the Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. Varia is hosting a special edition of *Read & Repair* that will be split into two(!) collective reading and conversation sessions. One will be online and one will be in our physical space, as a series of events to discuss matters of abolitionist technology & community-driven systems of accountability, while generating anonymous, consensual debris for *stone throw*, a temporary online work to share our resources and reflections.
Read & Repair feat. Digital Solidarity Networks
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month, the Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. This Sunday, we will turn to Digital Solidarity Networks, a recent ongoing collective initiative around digital tools that don't follow an exploitative business model.
RE#SISTER: Corporeal Whispers - Stream
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Corporeal Whispers is a composition for remote collaboration, based on the idea of "The Exquisite Corpse", a surrealist game, a protocol that plays with concealing and revealing, collectively creating the yet unknown drawing of a body.
3 Adventures in the Ether
Friday, June 19, 2020
Welcome to *3 Adventures in the Ether*, a text-based adventure game to be played on Varia's windows. There are three possible starting points: LIVE STREAMING, VIDEO CALLING and INSTANT MESSAGING. Once you select one for the start of your adventure, you will be faced with a multiple choice question. You play by picking one of the options and following the instructions, which will lead you to the next question, and so on and so forth.
Niek Hilkmann - Groeten uit Charlois (Stream)
Friday, June 19, 2020
Lend your ear to a special broadcast from Charlois, dedicated to an upcoming album by Niek Hilkmann and presented by Jacco Weener.
Read & Repair feat. Deaf Republic Reading
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month, the Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. This Sunday, Amy Pickles is organising some loose exercises and scores for reading and discussing collectively an excerpt from Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic.
Century 21 Calling - Gone Surfing - Stream
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Tune in for another online version of Century 21 Calling. Let's explore the information superhighway together!
We hope this email finds you well* - a radio drama series
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Writing an email is not dissimilar to writing a script. On Saturday, Varia hosts a livestream of scripts and scores written and performed based on a series of emails.
Century 21 Calling - Party Line - Stream
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Tune in for an online version of Century 21 Calling on the topic of telecommunication and conference calls. Join 'the party line'!
Sensible World Of Soccer - Varia Cup 2020 - Postponed
Saturday, March 21, 2020
**Due to the current circumstances the Varia Cup will be postponed. We'll keep an eye out for a new date to compete.** Become a goal scoring superstar hero at the Sensible World of Soccer Varia Cup 2020! It's time to bring the classic football game to the south of Rotterdam. Varia will be host to both an amateur cup as well as a pro cup - anyone can play!
Radio on the radio - Online Stream
Saturday, March 14, 2020
**Due to the current situation and public health concerns the event will not be public in the physical space of Varia but will be STREAMED online**. Radio on the radio is a live, intermittent radio program with performances that in one way or another discuss radio. It will feature descriptions of radio tools, unboxing and unpacking of radio hardware, radio silences, interviews about radio, radical radio noise, radio-active female monstrosities...
Feminist Hack Meetings: Servers
Saturday, February 29, 2020
The Feminist Hack Meetings are a series of informal research meetings and workshops that aim to explore the suggestions, urgencies and potentials of feminist hack & tech initiatives.
Read & Repair feat. readings & listings: open licenses edition
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Every last Sunday of the month, the Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. This Sunday, we are joined by Manetta Berends, who will host the first edition of a *readings & listings* session around open licenses.
Ctrl-Alt-Save
Friday, February 21, 2020
Ever had a hard-drive crash? lost data? cloud back did not really backup? Time Machine did not have a past do go back to? Many questions around backup and data storage exist and many issues need to be resolved. From large database to a small personal collection, data storage affects everyone and many so-called solutions exist but are they really solutions?
Heath Bunting - in conversation with the Voluntary Fire Brigade of the Apocalypse
Monday, February 17, 2020
Heath Bunting visits Varia to share his past and present projects against control systems, in conversation with Florian Cramer and the Voluntary Fire Brigade of the Apocalypse.
Alles Flex? Call me Intern, City Dragon
Saturday, February 8, 2020
A screening of the documentaries 'Everything Flex?' and 'Call me Intern', both of which look at the consequences of the ongoing flexibilization of both housing and work. In addition, Sam Kreuk will present his musical solo project City Dragon. An evening full of documentaries, debate and a music!
Read & Repair feat. The Bootleg Library
Sunday, January 26, 2020
The Varia Library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open every last Sunday of the month. This Sunday, we're joined by The Bootleg Library, a shared digital and physical library of bootlegged texts.
Feminist Hack Meetings
Saturday, January 25, 2020
The Feminist Hack Meetings are a series of informal research meetings and workshops that aim to explore the suggestions, urgencies and potentials of feminist hack & tech initiatives.
BPW Rotterdam Huurdersspreekuur + Meet and greet
Monday, November 25, 2019
Bond Precaire Woonvormen (BPW) organizes another round of their *tenant consultation* plus *meet and greet* at Varia on Monday the 25th of November. You are welcome to join us for an afternoon and evening of discussion, co-learning, reflection on the housing situation in Rotterdam, our rights as tenants and how we can support each other to work towards solutions for more safe, secure and affordable housing.
Music: Niek Hilkmann, Vulva, Rowan Van As, G. de Singer Songwriter and DJ Wanneer
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Another musical night at Varia! Join us for an evening full of singers, songwriters, noise and cardboard!
Century 21 Calling - Camp Century
Saturday, November 9, 2019
With Donald Trump's eagerness to buy Greenland, a new spotlight have been put on this island. However, it is not something new for Greenland to be in the centre of international geopolitics. With the melting of the ice sheets, new trade routes opening and a huge amount of mineral, oil and gas deposits, a new rush for the artic has started.
Entreprecariat: Everyone Is an Entrepreneur. Nobody Is Safe. Mini Book Launch
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Join us for an image roulette session: together with Lìdia Pereira, Silvio Lorusso will randomly dig into his research directories to exhume entreprecarious memes, illustrations, screenshots, artworks, etc.
THE SOCIAL IN THE MEDIA: On Digital Interdependencies (Varia Visits ODD)
Monday, October 21, 2019
A report of Varia visiting ODD in Bucharest
Floppy Totaal
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Floppy Totaal visits Varia for another round of dual-layered action. At 'Floppy Totaal: Double Density' you can join members of the Floppy Kick music label during a live recording and publishing workshop in the afternoon. The subsequent evening program is filled to the brim with performances by Kisszántó and Eoforwine, presentations and conversations with Joak and Jason Scott and a long distance contribution by Michael Ridge.
One evening, Two launches, Three takes
Saturday, September 28, 2019
We are all very glad to invite you to the launch of the second issue of **Networks of One's Own
BPW Rotterdam Tenant Consultation Hours + Meet & Greet
Monday, September 23, 2019
Join us on Monday the 23rd of September for an afternoon or evening of discussion, co-learning and reflection on the housing situation in Rotterdam, our rights as tenants and how we can support each other to work towards solutions for more safe, secure and affordable housing.
Music: Able Noise, Goldblum and Piyojo
Saturday, September 14, 2019
A new season has arrived; time for some fresh concerts at Varia! Kicking of the second half of 2019, we organize an event where three stirring acts will show their craft.
Century 21 Calling - Crystals Go To War
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Century 21 Calling is back; still showing archival industrial films, corporate infomercials, TV reports and historical documentaries that shaped the imagination of tomorrow and hold them up to the light of the present.
Bibliotecha, building and maintaining an off-line digital library
Saturday, July 6, 2019
Bibliotecha is a toolkit to maintain local off-line digital libraries. With it, communities can create and share collections of digital publications in their local area. Technically Bibliotecha relies on a small single board computer (such as a RaspberryPi) running free and open source software to serve digital publications on an open Wi-fi hotspot. Using a laptop, phone or tablet visitors can connect to it and books can be retrieved or donated via the browser. Since it is a low-power device you can power it with a USB powerbank and take it with you everywhere.
Relearn 2019 curved
Friday, June 7, 2019
This year's edition of Relearn takes the form of multiple sessions, spread over the (bezier) curve between (possibly Amsterdam)-Rotterdam-Brussels-Paris. This Relearn session in Rotterdam is the first control point on the curve.
Activating an archive
Friday, May 31, 2019
At the end of last year, **De Player** approached **Varia** to develop a web-publication for their Pushing Scores project archive. The project investigated the state of the arts of composing scores in a contemporary environment and spanned over 2-3 years.
BPW Rotterdam Tenant Consultation & Introduction
Monday, May 6, 2019
Please feel welcome to join us for a day of discussion, co-learning and reflection on the housing situation in Rotterdam, our rights as tenants and how we can support each other to work towards solutions for more safe, secure and affordable housing.
Century 21 Calling - Safety First
Saturday, April 20, 2019
During the fifth screening of our Century 21 Calling series we will take a look at how to stay safe in an insecure world. Rules change over the decades; What was once seen as a completely safe thing to do, is now extremely deadly. How do you stay safe in the traffic? What are the dangers around the office? Where can your children play safely? These questions and many more will be addressed during this informative evening.
Open Day @ Varia
Saturday, April 13, 2019
During the next edition of [South Explorer](http://southexplorer.nl/) Varia will host its second annual open day.
Dear Cultural Intitiative, there is an Elephant in the Room
Friday, April 12, 2019
Addressing our digital dependencies as self-organised spaces.
The Network We (de)Served, (XPUB Special Issue #08)
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Dear guest, we traveled from home to home by bicycle, setting up homeservers. As friends and companions on this Infrastructour, we studied our routers over drinks served by our hosts. Where possible we installed our servers in our homes, in other cases we had to depend on another member of the group.
The Call Of The Kettle
Friday, March 15, 2019
There is more between heaven and earth than humankind! Therefore, we would like to direct your attention to your fellow 'inanimate' object on the 15th of March. On this day five special acts will showcase their intimate relationship with their sewing machines, toasters, fans and working gloves. All this under the guise of 'The Call Of The Kettle'; the first object oriented music evening at Varia!
Conversas at varia
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
In February, Varia has the pleasure to host one of the nomadic Conversas evenings. Conversas is a series of bi-weekly informal meetings made so that we can get to know each other, share projects, stories or interests.
Christmas at Varia - With adammmmmmmmmmmm and Logosamphia
Saturday, December 22, 2018
A cold wind is blowing through Charlois; leaves are falling from of trees, birds fly to the south and people start waxing their ice skates.
Century 21 Calling - I'd Buy That For A Dollar!
Saturday, December 15, 2018
During our fourth and final screening of Century 21 Calling this year, we will honour the holiday season by taking a look at the development of ‘the shopping experience’.
Welcome to the � Federation - Mastodon and The Fediverse
Saturday, December 8, 2018
What could community-owned social media look like? A public Wtt�F discussion on Mastodon, the Fediverse and translations.
Maximum Velocity
Friday, December 7, 2018
Pitch, timbre, texture, volume, duration and form; These are the secret ingredients to most compositions. The question remains however; Is there also room for something extra? And what could that extra element be? Today we will focus on the concept of velocity by showcasing concerts by musicians working with both speed and movement in their compositions and performances!
Pushing Scores with De Player
Thursday, November 29, 2018
During this evening we focus on the archiving of the Pushing Scores project by DE PLAYERl; A project on the contemporary meaning of the 'graphic score', which has been running for the last 2-3 years. What are the possibilities of graphic scores, in a day and age in which graphic notation is still usually seen as a ‘drawing’, serving as some kind of sheet music?
Druk: An Evening With Cantos Deus & Bohman Family
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Because we can't always keep the pressure on, we've added a musical intermezzo during Woodstone Kugelblitz
Woodstone Kugelblitz: Druk in Varia
Friday, November 23, 2018
Some things are more useful to know than others.
RecycleReduceReuse and where is Repair Workshop (full)
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Over the last couple of centuries rapid changes in technology, economic fluctuation, technological replacement and planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast-growing surplus of (electronic) waste around the globe. An equally growing demand has risen for the re-purposing, repair, disposal and salvaging of this material, generating different methods that each have their own impact on the economy and environment.
Choreo-Graphic-Hypothesis Book Launch
Thursday, November 15, 2018
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Looking Back - Varia Anniversary
Friday, November 9, 2018
It is a rule of life that everything that moves forward, must also one day also look back.
Inter-Planetary File System unearthed
Thursday, November 1, 2018
During this workshop, we will look at the successes, the pitfalls and the potential of this protocol. We will install it, go through the basics, discuss how it differs from other P2P protocols like dat and what types of usage it enables.
Life Hacks: Space
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
What shapes the daily routine of a telemarketing sales agent? How to go beyond the co-working model when it comes to organize a place for collaboration? What's the territorial and political role of furniture within the semi-domestic area of the artist's studio? Are life hacks a form of liberation or yet another burden? Together with author and designer François Girard-Meunier, the WORKNOT! collective (Arvand Pourabbasi and Golnar Abbasi), Varia, the Centre for Everyday Technology (represented by Roel Roscam Abbing, Manetta Berends and Niek Hilkmann) and XPUB (the Experimental Publishing program of the Piet Zwart Institute), we will tackle these and more questions during an evening dedicated to spaces that are at once entrepreneurial and precarious.
The Big Bounce - Century 21 Calling
Saturday, October 20, 2018
During our third screening of Century 21 Calling, we will be taking a look at the development of satellite communications. From the shiny orbs of the 1950s to our present day SATCOM systems.
In the Beginning ... Was the Commandline
Thursday, October 18, 2018
In this workshop we will focus on command line tools in relation to plain text. During the day we will dive into the social-cultural history of the command line interface, explore the materiality of plain text on a computer and discover a wide range of command line tools.
The Key to Casio (and Yamaha too)
Friday, October 12, 2018
In celebration of all casio’s, yamaha’s and other home keyboards worldwide Varia will host an exclusive event called ‘The Key To Casio (And Yamaha Too)’.
Considerate Cake Confection (full)
Thursday, October 11, 2018
In our understanding, food as a commodity finds its most revealing expression in the form of the cake. In this workshop we investigate the history of culinary hegemony by collectively baking a specific sweet recipe that showcases the way we perceive and partake in food today. Not only will we be analysing the origins of specific ingredients and recipes, we will also focus on the political economy and class dynamics that engender taste and ingredient accessibility. The actual confection of this cake will provide us with an opportunity to hack into the requirments involved in such practices and turn the table around.
Concert: Crimson Butterfly, Evamuss and St. Fractalium
Friday, September 14, 2018
Crimson Butterfly (Russia) is a cosmoenergetic alliance of two cats with synths and laptop. Evamuss (Peru/The Netherlands) was a project of the Peruvian Chrs Galarreta (aka: Sajjra, DiosMeHaViolado, Tica, among others alias). St. Fractalium (Russia) St.Fractalium is an audio-visual duo from Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, residents of local cult place Black Ho.
Streaming The Techno-Galactic Guide to Software Observation Stream @ Varia
Friday, September 7, 2018
*The Techno-Galactic Guide to Software Observation* is the obsessive fantasy of optimization turned on its head and stuck to the ceiling of a self-reflecting elevator. It is the ultimate book, with almost 300 pages of dos and don’ts, of forgotten histories and un-inevitable futures, of mindful agile actions and improvisational service architectures, of any and all things that you can and cannot imagine needing in a techno-galaxy.
Concert: Matheus Silva and Theo Krantz Album Release
Friday, August 17, 2018
Theo Krantz is an American artist currently based in New Mexico. Matheus Silva is an electronic artist originating from Brazil.
What Remains - Final Playtest
Friday, June 22, 2018
*It is 1986. You just came home from a skate session when a Nintendo game cartridge falls into your hands. Excited to find out what kind of game is on the cartridge, you visit your friend who just bought a brand new Nintendo console two weeks ago. You plug in the cartridge and …*
What a website can be
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
This website is built with a static site generator. This article delves into the implications of both 'static site' and 'generator' for its design process.
Moving Monument - Presentation
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Long before there were people in Charlois, there was already water. Water is always on the move and always finds a way. Historically, fountains were gathering places that occupied a central place in village- and city life. Often they were installed to commemorate a great battle, a plague epidemic or some other historical event, donated by the municipality or a patron. Unfortunately, Charlois currently has no working fountain. Niek Hilkmann and Anne Kolbe want to remedy this shortcoming and temporarily give Charlois a mobile fountain that is not tied to a single place or interpretation. After an opening ceremony, held on the 2nd June around 13:00, next to Varia, the fountain can be seen during the weekends of the Charlois Speciaal festival, in search of new meaning and appreciation.
Welcome to the � Federation - The Ecosystem is Moving
Friday, June 1, 2018
On the 1st and 2nd of June varia will host 'The Ecosystem Is Moving', a lecture by and worksession with Daniel Gultsch about federated instant messaging, open source software and the sustainability of open systems.
Century 21 Calling - Rising to the High-Rise
Saturday, May 26, 2018
During our second screening of Century 21 Calling we will take a look at the development of the workplace.
Infinite Outwardness
Friday, May 18, 2018
Since the beginning of time, space has captured the imagination of artists around the world. On the 18th of May varia is proud to present ‘Infinite Outwardness’; a music event based on the bounties of space, where several artists will present their idiosyncratic view on space exploration. Ranging from playable space junk to cosmic toilets, this will be an evening to remember!
Wojtek Szustak - Space Junk Workshop
Friday, May 18, 2018
Wojtek Szustak is an electronic intermedialist from Krakow who works with and around music and space junk. In preparation of 'Infinite Outwardness' he will conduct a synthesizer junk workshop at Varia where we will make new electronic instruments from old rubbish we find on the streets of Charlois.
Open Day @ Varia
Saturday, May 12, 2018
On the 12th of May, varia opens her doors and invites you to join an afternoon of informal conversations, workshops and demos. There will be free coffee, tea and software!
Concert: CLM and Maria Violenza
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Varia presents two concerts by three incredible musicians from Italy.
Century 21 Calling
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Once we were all promised a better tomorrow with robots, atomic powered cars and inflatable plastic homes. After the second world war the promises of technology made it seem like everything was possible. However, it seems like much of this optimism might have been a bit premature. Where is the dream of tomorrow now? Do we still dare to dream of the future?
Algologs
Friday, March 16, 2018
Algologs = a 1 + 1 day dialog with algorithmic practices. This two-day event is an extention of Algolit, a workgroup where text-based practices and algorithms meet.
It Is As If We Were Doing Work
Saturday, March 10, 2018
A few months have passed since the 11th issue of the Pervasive Labour Union zine was launched, but the topics that were touched upon are yet to be digested.
Solutions and problems in Extratonality
Friday, February 16, 2018
The 4th International Conference on the solutions and problems in extratonality titled 'Extratonality - Opening Doors Is Not Enough' focuses on an evaluation of practices in the field of extratonality.
New Year's reception
Friday, January 19, 2018
Varia has big plans for 2018! We would like to share these with you during a special New Year’s reception as part of the season opening of the galleries and projectspaces in Oud Charlois. Besides drinks and salty snacks, there will be a special robomop-performance.
34c3 screening session
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
For those that didn't make it to Leipzig this year we're gathering to watch the 34c3 livestream in Varia.
The secret life of machine screenings, season 3
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Technology is everywhere, sometimes it hides its face underneath a mask of everydayness, but we can only guess what goes on in our vacuum cleaner, telephone or copy machine.
Soup & Talk - Inox Kapell
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Varia gets a visit; from Inox Kapell, the insect man from Wespbaden.
The secret life of machine screenings, season 3 (cancelled)
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Technology is everywhere, sometimes it hides its face underneath a mask of everydayness, but we can only guess what goes on in our vacuum cleaner, telephone or copy machine.
homebrewserver.club: calendars session 2
Thursday, November 30, 2017
A second gathering around self-hosted calendars.
Screening: The Secret Life Of Machines, season 2
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Technology is everywhere, sometimes it hides its face underneath a mask of everydayness, but we can only guess what goes on in our vacuum cleaner, telephone or copy machine.
homebrewserver.club: calendars session 1
Thursday, November 16, 2017
A first gathering around self-hosted calendars.
The secret life of machine screenings, season 1
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Technology is everywhere, sometimes it hides its face underneath a mask of everydayness, but we can only guess what goes on in our vacuum cleaner, telephone or copy machine.
Opening Space
Friday, November 3, 2017
After a few weeks of finishing up the space Varia opens her doors on friday the 3rd of november from 20:00 onwards.
homebrewserver.club
Saturday, October 14, 2017
A monthly gathering for those who (wish to) host their own online services from home, rather than using commercial and privacy unfriendly alternatives.
Relearn Rotterdam
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Relearn is a collective learning experiment with as many teachers as it has participants. It is motivated by the possibility to displace parameters of/for research, studying and learning.
Rotterdams electronica depot
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Since many of the independent electronics stores in Rotterdam have permanently closed their doors, it has become nearly impossible to hop on a bike and quickly get some parts. In response to this *Varia* started the Rotterdam Electronics Depot, a community resource where members can purchase common parts parts at cost.