The Institute of Network Cultures
11 July, 15:00
The Co-op in Your Head: How to Sustain Cultural Publishing as a Commons?
NL Amsterdam
HumDrumPress and Sepp Eckenhaussen warmly invite you for this plotting session toward economically sustainable, cooperative models for cultural publishing. Join us at Post-Office in Amsterdam on July 11th! One of the reasons that many people are enamored by cultural publishing is the seemingly friendliness of the publishing economy. One needs only ‘a bit’ of money to produce a book, yet selling copies can cover production costs and – who knows? – could even relieve the precarity of its producers. For cultural workers who are used to writing a funding application for every project, this seems like a welcome relief from the funding cycles that dominate their lives. But reality is cruel. Even with bigger, more established cultural publishing houses in the Netherlands, most book projects are only rendered (im)possible by the decisions of funding committees or deep pockets of an author. In this dominant model, cultural publishing houses function as service providers. Authors are expected to deliver a manuscript alongside a bag of money in order for a project to receive the green light. From there, the publisher arranges the production: from proofreading and design to printing, and, finally, distribution. Dictated by funding or institutional bodies, these projects are usually accompanied by strict and fast-paced deadlines, and are, ironically, driven by sales numbers as the most important ‘impact metric’. As we know, the neoliberal state and the market are often inseparable, and the cultural publishing industry is no exception to this. So, here’s the situation. HumDrumPress have been attempting to develop an alternative to this model by practicing cultural publishing as ‘a commons’. The economic base of the commons is neither public funding nor the market, but the community (or commoners). However, while HumDrumPress now have some ideas and experience in how to do this, they haven’t quite yet figured out what this alternative model looks like precisely in economic terms. The desire and the root of the thought is there… but what are the concrete actions that can guide towards the desired outcome? This event is a kind of public brainstorming & exchange forum for those interested and active in DIY publishing economies, in general, or in HumDrumPress as a case study and practice, in particular. We will look at different possibilities for cooperative financing and decision-making (think: membership and subscription models, Substack and Patreon initiatives, cooperative or co-working models), note: not as a theoretical exercise, but with real numbers and real people with real publishing (in the broadest sense) projects. Could it be that to develop a publishing commons, we need to trust the coop in our heads? The revolutionaries of May ’68 in Paris warned people against the ‘cop in their head’ – the internal voice that tells one to obey law and order, stop in front of a red traffic light, and pay at the self-check-out, even if no real cop is watching. The coop in our heads is the positive inverse of this cop – the internal voice that calls for acts of solidarity and mutualism, even when no one is watching. What material infrastructures should we build to foster this coop in our heads? Practicalities Location: Post-Office Cooperative, Hoofdweg 403, Amsterdam Date and time: Friday, 11 July 2025, 16:00-19:00 Registration: This event is free of charge. Please RSVP to hello@humdrumpress.com Catering: Drinks and snacks will be served, please feel free to bring some - the more the merrier! Collaborators and Support HumDrumPress is a small-scale independent publisher based in Rotterdam and Berlin. It was founded in 2021 by Amy Gowen and Wibke Bramesfeld, revise each stage in the traditional publishing cycle to make our publishing processes as communal, open-access, and multi-vocal as possible. HumDrumPress work with methods such as open book events, collective editing, collaborative design, logbooks, and open-access publishing, and are committed to activating the knowledge contained in a publication far before and long after it takes on material form. This event is part of the economic cycle of the HumDrumPress research project ‘Expansive Publishing Strategies’, which experiments with what inter-dependent, inter-connected, sustainable, durable, and networked models for ‘publishing’. It is also the Open Book event for Sepp Eckenhaussen's forthcoming book Goodbye Poverty Jetset: Art Beyond Precarity (working title). This event functions as a local get-together of the project Shared Visions: Building a Sustainable and Inclusive Cooperative for Visual Artists in Europe. It is supported by a large community of practice, including Caradt, Post-Office, and the European Union. Cover image: installation shot of Maria van der Togt's Hard Copy Soft Copy
The Hmm
24 September, 17:30
The Hmm ON the Animal Internet
NL Amsterdam
Some say that the Internet is made of cats (there’s even a song about it), but cats are far from the only creatures popping up in our online spaces. Sharks swim between Internet cables, the Doge meme has increased breeding of the Shiba Inu, and petfluencers amass millions of followers while spreading animal advocacy. Researchers use AI to decode whale language, and some are even building a dog Internet for video calling owners and furry friends. Join us at The Hmm ON the Animal Internet, where we’ll be joined by six artists, researchers, and makers who’ll help us explore Internet culture beyond our own species and map the impact of the Internet on other animals. We’re excited to have Jeanine Kornmann from Dierenopvang Amsterdam (DOA), the largest animal shelter in the Netherlands, help us put together a wonderful programme for this evening. Stay posted further down on this page for more information on speakers and the programme. 🗓 Date: Wednesday 24 September 2025 📍 Location: DOA, Ookmeerweg 271, 1067 SP Amsterdam ⏰ Doors open: 19.00 CEST 🕗 Program starts: 19.30 CEST 🎟 Tickets: on-site €8,- / on-site student discount €5,- / online livestream €5 ♿️ Accessibility note The event location is accessible and has an elevator and an accessible toilet. During the event we can provide live closed captioning for those who need it. Please reach out to us via info@thehmm.nl if you are joining on-site and have either of these access needs so we can accommodate you. If you are joining online via our livestream, live captioning will be available as one of the streaming modes. 💙 This event is kindly supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, and the Cultuurfonds.
OCCI
25 October, 18:00
Pretty//Ugly w/ Plus Instruments, Geo, Brorlab
NL Amsterdam
Pretty//Ugly presents: Truus de Groot (Plus Instruments) is returning again to OCCII, this time joined by the no wave funk freaks of Geo and the high energy gabber punx of Brorlab. FFO: Blank City, John Waters, synthesizers, telephones and computers Plus Instruments (solo) (picture by Diana Putavet) Born in Eindhoven but based in the States, Truus de Groot, has been an unsung hero of experimental and underground music culture for decades. Since 1978, she has been involved in the curation of the Plus Instruments project: a project which has inspired innovation across the world of Electronic music alongside a range of collaborators. At the time, the sheer free will for a group such as Plus Instruments was almost unheard of: their performances were largely improvised and their sound captivating. Her profile is low key and Plus Instruments is ever changing. She explains the rotation and progressive nature of the group. “It always comes from my own initiative; I decide who to play with. I believe that gives it new life each time. I was always more into improvisation with a minimal approach, less structured, more groove.” After a successful few years as a band member of cult classic Nasmak and as reigning Queen of the “Ultra” movement, Truus left The Netherlands in 1981 at the young age of 21. She travelled to New York and began to immerse herself in the nightlife and clubs of the city that never sleeps. Within weeks she established a new Plus Instruments line up with David Linton (Rhys Chatham) and Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), this yielded the timeless classic Plus Instruments “Februari-April ’81” which has been reissued numerous times over the years. Through the years Plus Instruments released a number of albums with a host of different collaborators from around the globe. Plus Instruments has been active on the stage and studio throughout these last (almost) 5 decades with no sign of stopping! For this show Truus will perform solo. No worries, she has the energy of a whole band in her. https://plusinstruments.bandcamp.com/album/dance-with-me https://www.truusdegroot.com/   Brorlab (picture by Alfredo Monteleone) In 2023 BRORLAB popped up with their second release "Working Out In Heaven", a totally out of control 12” of modern fuckwave. The A side is seven new songs of their trademark dadaist electronic punk, full of fuzz guitars and sharp nasty beats, with a female vocalist that fits perfectly the Honey Bane – Chitose vocal range and smart attitude. The B side brings bang back to life the 8 tracks from their criminally obscure debut EP, which will make any lover of ear-damaging noise smile with pleasure. All in all an aberrant slice of psychedelic gabber infused punk for the end of time. https://lavidaesunmus.bandcamp.com/album/working-out-in-heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lduUfm2VoM   Geo Post-punk/no wave oddity Geo are like a sentient slot machine: whatever seems happenstance is actually by design, and the more mismatched the moving parts appear, the more their music starts to make sense. Since the Groningen quartet’s inception in 2019, they have built a framework of skeletal agit-funk, cartoonish chromatics and neoteric art punk vignettes – sketching negative spaces where chaos and cacophony can sound perplexingly catchy. After releasing their esteemed EP in 2021, the band has entered its next creative chapter. Out of Body – Geo’s long-awaited debut album – is an oblong snow globe utopia where dancing with two left feet is an actual custom. https://geoband.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-body DJ Just Regards   Presale/door prices adjusted: our events are set up by volunteers in favour of supporting DIY touring acts, but it is getting ever more risky to plan and book events - please support the community and buy your tickets early!