Sacha Jérôme Kagan
AIDA Rotterdam
GW Milieubeleid Rotterdam
2002
IEP Bordeaux
2002/2003
Young People and cultural
communication about
Sustainability in Rotterdam
France :
Directrice de Mémoire: Joan Mendès-France
The Netherlands :
Scientific Supervisor: Hans Dieleman
Internship administrative Supervisor: Miriam van der Wees
1
I want to whole-heartedly thank Hans Dieleman for his guidance, his advices, his
commitment and his continuous help all along this internship. I thank Miriam van der Wees
for her advices and supervising. Thanks also to Joke Heijstek for her help, and to Guldane
Doymaz in helping me out in inviting the participants to the workshop following this report.
Finally, I thank all the interviewed persons who gave me some of their time gracefully.
Without all these people, the internship and this report would not have been made possible.
I thank Mrs Mendès-France for her help and advices as Directrice de Mémoire and for
her continuous support.
The Internship was organized in the framework of atelier AIDA, a collaboration between the
City of Rotterdam, the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and the Technische Universiteit Delft.
Internship administrative director: Miriam van der Wees (City of Rotterdam, direction of the
Environment, Communication Adviser)
Internship Scientific director: Hans Dieleman (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Erasmus
center for environmental studies)
© Sacha Jérôme Kagan 2002-2003
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
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Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections and with the Front-Cover Texts being
“Youngsters and Communication about Sustainability” or “Young people and cultural
communication about Sustainability in Rotterdam”. A copy of the license is included in the
appendix entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". [The Appendices have been removed
from this version of the report. Please visit the GNU website to read the License.]
The pictures reproduced here are under the copyright of their respective owners, and thus are
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them is possible (except under permission from their respective authors).
2
Table of Content
Introduction ........................................................................................ p. 4
Chapter One: Art as communication on Sustainability .............................. p. 9
Art as a medium for communication on Sustainability
Art communicating Sustainability: the different art-forms
p. 10
p. 13
Chapter Two: Young people and Youth Culture in Rotterdam ................... p. 32
Dutch youth today
The desires and needs of young people, age-wise
Youth Culture and its subcultures
Youth Culture in sociological perspective
Portraits of subcultures in Rotterdam
Subcultures: transversal interests
The Net Generation
The Youth Culture of ethnic minorities in Rotterdam
The Urban Feel
p. 33
p. 36
p. 38
p. 41
p. 43
p. 51
p. 56
p. 61
p. 66
Chapter Three: Cultural projects and organizations for Youth Culture in
Rotterdam ....................................................................................................... p. 67
Graffiti: Art and lifestyle
Art from Youth subcultures
Exhibitions in MAMA
Art & Pleasure (Boijmans Museum)
The Kunstbende
The R Festival 1997
Other organizations and events
p. 68
p. 72
p. 74
p. 78
p. 79
p. 80
p. 83
Conclusion and Recommendations ................................................................ p. 88
Youth Culture and Communicating Sustainability: Conclusion of the Analysis
Recommendations to the Milieubeleid
p. 89
p. 97
Postface........................................................................................................... p. 100
Bibliography ................................................................................................... p. 101
(The Appendices have been removed from this version of the report)
3
Introduction
This report is the result of an internship from June to August 2002, for the MilieuBeleid of the
Gemeentewerken Rotterdam (The Department of environmental protection of the municipality), in the
framework of AIDA (Atelier voor Interactieve Duurzaamheid Activiteiten, a Sustainability ‘thinktank’ co-organized by the Gemeentewerken Rotterdam, the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and the
Technische Universiteit Delft). The initiative of the internship was taken by Hans Dieleman, with
whom I followed courses in Environmental Management and in Art & Sustainability as part of a
European Erasmus exchange-program in 2001/2002.
The key assignment guiding this report was to analyze which cultural mediums, more
precisely which art-forms could be used to communicate with Young people about Sustainability. The
municipality of Rotterdam, in the framework of local agenda 21, wanted to improve its
communication strategy around the issues of Sustainability in Rotterdam. Especially, the
communication-adviser of the MilieuBeleid, Mrs Miriam van der Wees, felt that Sustainability, as it
was presented in the local agenda 21 framework, would not effectively reach young people. She
wanted to find a way to involve young people efficiently, in order to influence their very behavior.
The scientific director of the internship, Dr. Hans Dieleman of the Erasmus University, wanted
to address this issue in the perspective of his unique sociological research and teaching about the
relationships between Art and Sustainability. He wanted to apply and adapt his findings to the specific
case of Youth Culture in Rotterdam.
I was supposed to address these issues and deliver comprehensive elements of strategy which
would be used soon after: The MilieuBeleid was actually preparing a 5-years-plan to develop
Rotterdam as a Sustainable City. In three months time, I simultaneously ran a number of interviews
with key social actors in Rotterdam and a bibliographical research (focused on Dutch Youth Culture
and on Art and Sustainability). During the third month, I synthesized the results in an analysis and in
recommendations to the MilieuBeleid, which are both presented here1.
In the following lines, the interest of these issues will be presented. First, an overview of the
polysemy of the concept of Sustainability will be given, followed by a strategic approach to the more
specific concerns of fostering environmentally friendly behavior in daily life. A first look will be given
at the properties of Art as a medium for communication, and the progression in the stream of the
subsequent analysis will be described.
Sustainability
A critical reader would first wonder why Sustainability is worth making the effort to
communicate about. While it is not in the scope of this analysis to explore the political and
philosophical problematic lying behind this question, nor to remind the reader of the environmental
and social issues awaiting remedies, a basic overview of the concept of Sustainability needs to be
taken.
Sustainability is indeed a complex concept with multiple dimensions. The most
comprehensive description of Sustainability was given by the UN Brundtland Commission2:
“Humanity has the ability to make sustainable development – to ensure that it meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [… and]
sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all […] Sustainable development is not a
What happened after I gave in my recommendations to the MilieuBeleid… is described in the postface.
Our Common Future, From one Earth to one world, The World Commission on Environment and
Development, McGraw Hill, New York, 1987 (p. 8-9).
1
2
4
fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change [..] made consistent with future as well as
present needs.”
Thus, Sustainability refers to a vision of the future and to the dynamics of a reasoned selfdevelopment of society:
For David A. Munro, for something to be sustainable, “it must be worthwhile” socially,
economically and ecologically, and “to characterize an activity as sustainable, or to refer to
sustainability, is to predict the future”3. This approach to Sustainability was popularized under the
slogan “People, Planet, Profit” in the late 1990’s.
Thus, Sustainability is not a concept merely limited to the economic scope of sustainable
development, but an open, paradigmatic concept which engulfs social and environmental dimensions
altogether, in a systemic whole.
But according to Stephen Viederman, Sustainability cannot be a value-neutral definition, as it
“is a vision of the future that provides us with a road map and helps to focus our attention on a set of
values and ethical and moral principles by which to guide our actions […] Science cannot tell us what
should be, and that is the key issue of sustainability.”4. He quotes Einstein as saying that “we cannot
solve the problems that we have created with the same thinking that created them”, and he adds that a
systems-thinking is necessary because “the problems of sustainability are systemic in nature”.
For Viederman, Sustainability implies a humility principle (“we should recognize the
limitations of human knowledge”), a precautionary principle (“When in doubt […] move slowly and
think deeply”) and a reversibility principle (Do not make irreversible changes”).
These principles are starting to be implemented in a growing number of sector-related policies
(such as transports, food production, energy, and various industries) since the 1990’s.
But their scope goes beyond those specific policies; these are the building blocs of a common
platform which claims to engender a comprehensive policy, and a synthethic world-vision, that can be
summed up in the following model:
Hans Dieleman gave a synthetic model of the dimensions of Sustainability. He defined five
dimensions:
- Ecological (non-depleting, non-polluting).
- Economic (based on appropriate and cleaner technologies with a longer term orientation).
- Social (social equality, liberty, solidarity and democracy through community
involvement).
- Spiritual (involving a sense of belonging to the “whole”, a holistic paradigm).
- Esthetical (based on the sense of beauty).
Sustainability is thus at the heart of a nexus of inter-penetrating issues that involve economic
orientations, political choices, social values and even the cultural foundations of contemporary
societies.
In communicating about Sustainability, one should not forget the richness of the content of
such a concept. However, one should also not forget to address specific sector-related issues in the
promotion of Sustainability. Specific issues provide the non-negligible advantage of giving hard
ground to an otherwise abstract and general idea.
Environmentally friendly behavior
One such specific issue directly concerns the MilieuBeleid: the everyday environment-related
behavior of the inhabitants of Rotterdam (and among them, of young people). An environmentally
David A. Munro, “Sustainability: Rhetoric or Reality”, in ed. T. Trzyna, A Sustainable World.
Stephen Viederman, “Knowledge for Sustainable Development: What do we need to know?”, in ed. T. Trzyna,
A Sustainable World.
3
4
5
friendly behavior in the everyday life of each and every western individual is indeed essential to the
achievement of concrete goals linked to Sustainability (such as energy-use reduction as promoted in
the Kyoto protocol). An essential element in the dynamics of Sustainability is that individual actions,
when added up, can achieve tremendous results, and can effectively “change the face of the world”.
According to the Triade-model of Poiesz5, an environmentally friendly behavior takes place
only if three preconditions are fulfilled:
- The person must have the willingness to show this behavior, being interested in the results
of an environmental behavior: a motivation.
- The person must have the ability to show this behavior (physically, financially, mentally
and materially):a capacity.
- The person must have the possibility to show his behavior, thanks to external
circumstances: an opportunity.
For an environmentally friendly behavior to take place, motivation, capacity and opportunity must
be simultaneously relatively strong for a certain person at a certain time. Moreover, concerning
motivation, social dilemmas have to be coped with:
A social dilemma is a situation in which individual interests are in contrast to collective interests.
Choosing for the individual interest is attractive, but harmful to social well-being and thus to the
individual too ultimately. Social dilemmas become problematic in the situations where technical
solutions do not bring an ultimate solution, where large groups of people are concerned, where
individual involvement is essential to the achievement of any solution and where the necessary efforts
do not bring direct individual rewards. Sustainability is a perfect example of such a situation.
Two types of social dilemmas have been identified by economists. The prisonner’s dilemma
means that is it always advantageous to make an individual choice at the expense of others, whatever
the number of other people concerned. But if everyone makes an individual choice, everyone ends up
worse-off. The free-rider problem means that an individual choice is always advantageous if enough
people choose for the collectivity. But if everyone makes an individual choice, the collective good at
use will not be sustained and this will jeopardize the very existence of the individual choice.
A number of factors influence the individual decision in situations of dilemmas: the group-identity
(the larger and more heterogeneous the group becomes, the less one feels concerned by groupinterests), the time-horizon and spatial horizon (the longer the distance between cost and benefit, the
lower the motivation to assume those costs), the visibility of the behavior (motivation grows when one
can be praised by others for his actions) and the effectivity of the behavior (when the influence of
one’s behavior grows relatively to the dimension of the collective situation, motivation grows)6.
Concerning sustainable behavior, Viederman suggested after Finger7, “that only environmental
action, with values of equity and justice, lead to environmental behavior. Environmental experiences,
linked to fear and anxiety and awareness about environmental problems do not appear to translate into
environmentally responsible behavior.” It is therefore necessary to foster, beyond awareness,
identification with sustainable behavior.
Thus, to promote environmentally friendly behavior, one has to foster not only knowledge, not
only concern and awareness, but also identification with Sustainability. The expected behavior needs
to be desired by the target-individual as an attitude to be proud of. This leads us to the second
preliminary wonderment of our critical reader: Why should we use art as a means of communication
on Sustainability?
5
Th. B. C. Poiesz, Gedragsmanagement: Waarom mensen zich (niet) gedragen, 1999.
Miriam van der Wees, (after Poiesz), personal communication.
7
M. Finger, When knowledge is inaction: Exploring the relationships between environmental experience,
learning, and behavior. Paper available from author at IDHEAP, B.P. 209, CH-1257 Croix-de-Rozon,
Switzerland, 1993.
6
6
Art as communication
Art is often dismissed by journalists and self-proclaimed interpreters of the so-called public
opinion, as the esoteric expressions of the creative outbursts of lonely individuals. On the contray, Art
is a powerful vehicle for exploring, developing and questioning shared cultural values. In that sense,
Art can play an essential role in the development of Sustainability-related values among a population
sharing a common culture.
To understand art as a medium conveying some meaning, psychologist Annelies van MeelJanssen8 identified four levels (or frames9) of meanings:
- A representational level of very direct but very superficial meaning, with an literal link
between the signifying and the signified.
- A thematic level conveying a link with an existing outside source of inspiration for the artwork.
- A multiple level of meaning conveying complex and obscure significations linked with
abstract or ambiguous sources of inspiration (such as mythologies).
- An expressive level of meaning conveying a feeling through the expressive and esthetic
intrinsic qualities of the art-work.
Meaning of the first type can easily be communicated. Meaning of the second and third type
can be communicated, depending on the knowledge of the individual. Meaning of the fourth type can
be directly communicated, although not systematically.
These different types of meaning conveyed through art have no objective content that can be
arbitrarily chosen by the artist or anyone else. Rather, they have a potential of subjective contents
experienced through the contact with the art-work by an individual. Not to say that any meaning can
be experienced (far from it); the art-work offers a meaning-beam, part of which can become a shared
experience. Moreover, different types of meaning can interact and reinforce each other in the
experience of art.
Through the meaning-beams of the arts, new perspectives can be given on alternative realities,
beyond those squared by rationality.
Art thus could have tremendous potentials for the development of a Sustainable Culture
among young people in Rotterdam (and elsewhere).
Stream of the analysis
In the first chapter, the relevance of Art as a medium for communication on Sustainability will
be further explored, and the various properties of the processes at play will be presented.
Yet another question pops up: How can a communication about Sustainability, using the arts,
be relevant and meaningful for the young people of Rotterdam in 2002?
8
Annelies van Meel-Janssen, Understanding the message in visual art, paper for the XXVI INSEA World
Congress, Hamburg, 1987. See also Kees Olff, “Is Kunst Communicatie?”, in Beeldende Vorming, 103, 11-1987
(p. 20-22).
9
Although van Meel-Janssen wrote about levels of meanings, I think it is more appropriate to evoke frames of
meaning: One passes from one level to the next in a quasi-linear way, whereas one can perceive one or many of
the possible frames of meaning in art, without there always being a clear-cut succession from an outer-layer to an
inner, ‘true’ layer.
7
Starting with a marketing perspective giving an insightful overview of the motivations of
young people, one nevertheless has to think further, into a sociological analysis of Youth Culture, to
truly understand the dynamics at play in the young people’s identifications to given social values.
One way to look at communication to young people stems from a Marketing-perspective10
focusing on the motivations of average young people:
Marketing-research on Young Public has been extensively done for the Television sector.11 It
can give us a few hints on the young people’ motivations for watching a TV-show, and more generally
for paying attention to a message:
One transversal motivation is education, which includes learning about things (about how
society is working and how the world is going) and learning about myself (the second case concerning
the youngster more intimately in his/her search for identity and being essential in the self-development
of one’s personality)12.
Another motivation that young people readily recognize is escapism and amusement. Young
people are in search of pleasure, and find it through attention given to extreme but realistic situations
with a notion of rapid movement: fast motion, fast action, continuously renewed excitement (arousal
being in itself a motivation). The possibility to identify oneself to a character personifying the program
makes the message much more enjoyable. Identification is also a background motivation that plays in
the self-development of one’s personality.
A minor motivation of Young people is the search for information (merely 10% are giving
much attention to information-programs)13. Young people like short, concentrated and meaningful
information. Information has to be accessible, not to go too deep into specific subjects, and must be
visually attractive. Obviously explicit and educational information is not attractive.
Television-research also shows an important pattern: the main motivation shifts from one to
another theme depending on the context, and especially on the time in the day: in the morning, one
looks for some information. During the day, opportunities for escapism are not to be missed. In the
evening, amusement is almost the only preoccupation…
These few insights however fail to provide a sufficient grasp on the processes of identitydevelopment among young people. Thus, in the second chapter, a closer look will be given at the
dynamics of Youth Culture, highlighting both its variety and its shared properties.
Youth Culture is much more than a sociological construct in Rotterdam: It is materialized in a
vivid cultural life that offers many opportunities for further developments.
In the third chapter, youth culture in Rotterdam will be described as it is expressed today,
“alive and kickin’ ”, through cultural activities across the city. In the process, cultural organizations
relevant for young people (and eligible as partners in communicating Sustainability) will be identified.
But the most critical question to be addressed in this report is the one that lies beneath the
original assignment for this internship: How could the arts allow a communication with Young people
about Sustainability that would affect their behavior, their consciousness and lead to an effective
change-process? Answering to that question will be the challenge that the conclusion of this report
will face, envisioning how the evoked mediums for communication could be put to work in
Rotterdam.
10
For more insights, see the appendix on the assumptions of Marketing to Young people.
A.M. Rubin, Television usage, attitudes and viewing behaviors of children and adolescents, in Journalof
Broadcasting, Vol. 21-3, 1977, and Pim Castelijn, The Young and the restless, onderzoek naar de
programmering van de publieke omroep ten aanzien van jongeren en de behoeften van deze doelgroep, Erasmus
Universiteit Rotterdam, 1999.
12
P. Vierkant, Televisiekijkers in Nederland. Een onderzoek van het televisiekijkgedrag van de Nederlandse
bevolking, Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Meppel, Krips Repro, 1987.
13
NOS Kijk en Luisteronderzoek, Jeugd en Jongerenonderzoek. Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar kijkmotivatie,
1997.
11
8
Chapter One:
Art as Communication on Sustainability
Art is a highly suitable medium for communicating about Sustainability. It
is the very yeast of a social inquiry beyond rationality which questions our way
of life, our values and our identities. Art brings awareness, enchants and
empowers. These and other artistic processes show us how effective Art can be
as a change-catalyzer towards Sustainability.
It is not surprising then, to find that all over the world, many artistic
projects and creative cultural activities have played in many different ways with
essential dimensions of Sustainability.
9
Art as Medium for Communication on Sustainability
Melita Rogelj14 clearly identified an important problem arising with the traditional
communication of environmentalists (to the general public, and that also counts for young people):
“Increasing public awareness awareness proved to be very difficult and the response rate to events
organized related to issues concerning sustainability was usually low. I often experienced frustration.
It felt very difficult to initiate change. On the other hand, people I talked to individually did care, but
were not passionate about the available channels for expression. They found it very hard to relate to
the more radical and usually very depressing messages coming from the environmental community.
They had a hard enough time focusing on solving the many more immediate problems of their own
everyday life, including those that encompass a great variety of economic and emotional issues. Why
add on additional problems that are not so immediately visible? […] To move toward a more
sustainable future with great joy and enthusiasm, there must be something that we hope for, an
appealing and alluring vision that draws us.”
The concerns of Melita Rogelj made her look for an answer on the field of art. This desire to
look further is nevertheless not shared by all environmentalists, as implicitly shows the interview of
Bauke de Boer15 who can’t see a good communication about Sustainability outside of a ‘serious’
rational context…
Why should we put the emphasis on art in our search for meaningful means of communication
with young people about Sustainability? Does art have special ‘powers’, do artistic activities induce a
deeper motivation than a traditional use of rational discourse? I will shortly try here to give a
theoretical answer to these concerns, prior to exploring specific cases. Most of the reflection here has
been put together by Dr. Hans Dieleman of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.
As Hans Dieleman puts it: “Artists play various roles in social arenas of production and
reproduction. Art is a diverse complex of activities and products that explore, shape, form, construct,
test and challenge images, mental models and definitions of reality. […] In all of its forms, the arts
affect society in a specific way. Compared to scientists, politicians and social activists, artists have
specific capacities and powers to conceptualize and problematize societal issues. They do have
specific capacities in communicating about their concepts and orientations. Art touches upon the ‘nonrational’ aspect of life, such as tastes, perceptions, emotions, feelings, as well as convictions, values
and (non-articulated) worldviews. In exploring the role of arts in change processes towards sustainable
development, one common denominator can be found in and can be characterized as ‘beyond
rationality’ ”16.
In his approach, Dieleman first identifies static and dynamic elements in the concept of art. He
then explores how, through these elements, art shapes a ‘social sculpture’17 contributing to the social
construction of reality.18
14
Melita Rogelj, Beautiful world, a bridge between the Arts and Sustainability, The Sustainability institute,
2000, available at http://sustainer.org/community&culture/BeautifulWorld.html .
15
See the interview with Matthijs van Muijen and Bauke de Boer.
16
Hans Dieleman, Theoretical orientation of the Art & Sustainability Project, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam,
2001.
17
The social sculpture is a vision of art developed by the German artist Joseph Beuys. Hans Dieleman gives a
good synthesis of this vision: “Social sculpture is an interdisciplinary and participatory creative process for the
creation of form and content, based on an anthropological definition of art (art is not a separate sphere in life but
an integral part of it) and on a social construction definition of society (art refers to the creative potentials in
everybody and every human being is seen as an artist, responsible for the shaping of a democratic and
sustainable social order).”
18
Hans Dieleman, Art & Sustainability, International program, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University
Rotterdam, 2002. This section summarizes the main points that the course raised concerning the potentials of art
10
Art is a form of inquiry19: It is a way to investigate and explore reality in an intuitive way,
allowing for a materialization of a corner-stone in a search process. Art as inquiry has the ability to
investigate multiple dimensions of reality such as social relationships, moral values, philosophical
concepts and properties of physical materials. Art and the artist thus have to deal with a broad social
context, as they are operating at an interface between paradigmatic worldviews and as they are
questioning and creating fundamental units of semiosis20, acting consequently as “mediators for
change”21.
Art, as seen as an environmental and social inquiry, consists of three elements, which are
simultaneously: present in the art-work: art objects, art systems and art processes. Art as an object can
provide a sense of enchantment, providing an immediate experience of a desired state of reality.
Enchantment can lead to empathy (an aesthetic experience that breaks down the distinction between
subjective feelings and objective reality) and/or abstraction (the determination of the essence of
something, of its universal qualities)22. Art as a system echoes and precedes the complexity of social
reality, the art-work being not an object reducible to a commodity but a system (next to and in others
systems, in the sense of systems-theory) with no clear borders23. Art then interacts with its context: it
involves the artist in society (as a protester and a problem-solver), it connects art-objects to their
environment, and it puts art-works in a temporal perspective (the artist having an intuitive ability to
perceive essential contemporary changes in society). Art as a process is both a mental process and a
social process evolving in time and experienced as such (for example in a performance), with at its
core a concept or idea.
Art contributes to the social construction of reality because it brings an awareness that goes
beyond rationality. In its own unique way, art thus engages a commitment to envisioning and
reframing the world. This awareness and commitment are brought through processes of enchantment,
detachment, empowerment, subversive imagination and healing.
Enchantment, as discussed above, is essential to countering the effects of the disenchantment
of the world caused by the rational societies of bureaucratic states24 and their utilitarian modernist
paradigm.
Art can bring detachment from routines, prejudges, convictions and norms. Art can confront
us to persisting routines that are not desirable when looked upon, and art can ‘unfreeze frozen frames’
(constructions of reality involving emotional attachments).
Art can give a different kind of experience that changes one’s self-image and perceived
capacities to exercise influence and make a change. Such an empowerment can reduce uncertainty and
inhibitions, and can bring a redefinition of one’s relationship to the world.
The latter is closely connected to the ‘healing’ property of art, reducing fear and stress induced
by the social context, and literally liberating the person through the incorporation of aesthetics in
society (aesthetics having the potential to improve life conditions and increase feelings of well-being).
Art unleashes imaginative powers that both envision the present state of the world as a mirror
and remind us of desires that have been buried in our modernist paradigm. The ideas generated in
as a medium to explore the dimensions of Sustainability. It is taken out of personal notes made during the course
and of course-material.
19
For a detailed research, read Margaretha Bijvoet, Art as inquiry, Interdisciplinary aspects in American Art
after 1965, doctoral thesis, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, 1994.
20
Barend van Heusden and Arjo Klamer, “The value of culture: a dialogue”, in The value of culture, ed. A.
Klamer, Amsterdam University Press, 1996.
21
In M. Bijvoet, p. 16.
22
On empathy and abstraction in art, read David Morgan, The Enchantment of Art, Abstraction and Empathy
from German Romanticism to Expressionism, Valparaiso University, extracted from Internet.
23
In some cases, art is not even identifiable anymore as a specific work or system inside society, but as an
integrated and integral part of urban life, integrated in human activities (as is obvious in the cases of architecture
and design).
24
See Max Weber about disenchantment, but also Georeg Ritzer, Enchanting a disenchanted world, Pine Forge
Press, 1999 (especially chapter 3).
11
fictions by the subversive imagination of art can lead to a cognitive resistance to the prevailing
ideology of progress through wasteful economic development.
An art that would be neither subversive nor detached from the institutions that promote it from
within the conventional social system would loose much of its value and fall into a propaganda that
young people would eventually despise and denounce. This is why much freedom must be kept for the
art-work to find its own signification (and for the young people to engage in a symbolic activity25).
Art in its relationship to Sustainability has been the subject of various debates as well in
Europe26 as in the USA27. In Rotterdam, next to the research of Hans Dieleman, the CBK is
particularly interested in the subject (making it one of its priorities for 2001-2005), and organized on
October 31st 2001, together with the Stichting Kunst en Milieu, a round-table in Las Palmas about “art
and sustainability”28. The round-table, chaired by Maarten van Wesemael and Ineke Schwartz (art
critic), welcomed Adriaan Nette (artist29), Rolf Engelen (artist30), Adri Huisman (artist), Eckart
Wintzen, Natasha Gerson (writer and journalist) and Lisette Smits (from the Utrecht art-organisation
Casco). Recently, the CBK has asked Hans Dieleman to give in a report and recommendations on Art
& Sustainability.
Melita Rogelj sent out a questionnaire by e-mail to a selection of artists and sustainability
practitioners around the world, about the relationship Art-Sustainability. Out of the answers received
in early 2000, a few points emerged31:
“Art can help to interpret and represent Sustainability. […]Sustainability needs vision,
alignment, purpose, character and habits. It needs an inspirational expression and more
communication that conveys ideas, feelings, and actions together. The visibility and the emotional
impact of the issues related to sustainability need to be related to positive messages rather than the
doom and gloom of environmental "armageddonists."”.
“Art facilitates the education of children about sustainability [because it] imparts a true
understanding of what sustainability truly is [and] reconnects humanity to nature”.
“Art is a means for communicating ideas about sustainability [by] engaging people [and]
capturing the beholder’s attention. […]Arts can make dry information and numbers standout, be more
personal, and most importantly, change the 'perceptive location' of someone absorbing the
information.” Arts can “facilitate symbolic experience, […] fostering consciousness”.
But “the language that is currently used to describe sustainability is not accessible to [artists].
Sustainability is not the best word. It is not an "art" word. The word should perhaps be "resurrection"
(bringing life to something or bringing back to life), or at the very least, "regeneration." It is very
important to have many artists working with the sustainability movement and to assist them in finding
more ways to present sustainability concepts. Sustainability is far too policy oriented.”
It is then clear that artistic means and the potentials of creativity to be found in youth culture
can provide powerful ways to communicate about Sustainability with young people, and even more, to
explore and extend, together with them, the dimensions of Sustainability so that it spills over and
escapes from the area of administrative rhetoric, allowing for a larger appropriation by the young
people and the general public.
25
As seen in the chapter on youth culture.
For example, an exhibition on Art et Environnement was organized in Bordeaux in early 2002.
27
For example, Melita Rogelj, Beautiful world, a bridge between the Arts and Sustainability, The Sustainability
institute, 2000.
28
www.cbk.rotterdam.nl/bkor/2001/artsurvgesprek1.shtml
29
He is now the boswachter (guardian) of the Bentwoud, a forest that for now only exists in plans.
30
Rolf Engelen, during the project A dog in the Backyard, made a performance in which he taught people in the
street how to re-use old bottles and create new objects instead of throwing them for recycling. He also offered a
second chance to plants abandoned in trashcans, taking care of them and selling them for adoption.
31
Melita Rogelj, Beautiful world, a bridge between the Arts and Sustainability, The Sustainability institute,
2000.
26
12
Art communicating Sustainability: The different art-forms
Virtually all art-forms can be and actually have been mediums for communicating about
Sustainability and exploring the dimensions of this concept. Here, specific examples are given out of a
wide variety of art-forms. All these examples are relevant for young people, from the streetsubcultures to the Mainstream, including Art-students. The cases presented here go from traditional art
forms to more contemporary arts, to social-cultural creative activities.
Painting:

Murals:
All around the world, in cities and suburban areas, outdoor wall-paintings (murals) and graffiti
evoke many social issues relevant for the local communities, and among them are issues of
Sustainability. Examples are innumerable: Wall-painting by school-children and rehabilitation of an
illegal dump-site in Tunisia32, a “Roving Mural of Sustainability” for community-creativity where
everyone can “express [his/her] meaning of sustainability” at the University of Alberta, Canada33, a
mural at the St-Francis Center Peace Garden at Denver, Colorado (by ‘Seeds of Sustainability’)34, a
mural at the famous World Café in San Diego, California35, a community mural project in Sydney36,
the mural at the Cambridge Road Estate Community Garden in Kingston (Great-Britain)37 or that
project in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where the ‘Avtex Brownfield Redevelopment Site’, a former toxic
waste site, was rehabilitated. Let’s give some attention to this last example:
“Students [of Allegheny College, with Amara Geffen, coordinator of the art and environment
minor] completed a large mural that celebrates the history of the region; the creative design for the
mural was developed by Laura Penman. Spanning across a 33x17-foot wall, the mural depicts the
industrial history and remediation of the site and promotes the promise of environmentally restorative
industrial practices. Recycled furniture for the space was constructed entirely with discarded materials
found at the former Avtex factory, incorporating pieces of regional history into the tables and chairs
used by the workers. In addition, the space features historical photographs and other items - suitable
for display in an art gallery - that depict the process of the former industries at the site. […]The mural
was painted on recycled gypsum board, fastened with wood that is certified as sustainable. Even the
carpet runner is recycled - and yet the room is aesthetically pleasing at the same time.” 38

Punk critical graffiti-drawings:
The drawings by contemporary new Punkers in Rotterdam are very critical of the social consensus
around consumerism and of the current lack of utopia, apart from the commercial artificial dreams
which the ‘graffers’ ridicule in their drawings full of irony. These art-works are more thoroughly
described in the third chapter about organizations and events in Rotterdam (among the activities of
Mama) and in the interview of Jeroen Evenaerts. One can also browse through the many images of the
Mama-catalogue named Hard Pop.39
32
See http://www.gtz.de/dokumente/AKZ/eng/AKZ_2002_Rio_plus_10/Tunesien_E.pdf
See http://www.international.ualberta.ca/iweek/03-prior.htm
34
See http://www.eoncity.net/earthlinks/Garden.htm
35
See www.theworldcafe.com/listeningtogether.html
36
See http://reflect.cat.org.au/lists/cff/msg00030.html
37
See www.london21.org/ default.asp?strRequest=projects&project=cambridgeroad
38
See http://www.alleg.edu/news1/releases/2001/february/greenroom.html
39
Available at Mama.
33
13
Photography:

Jean Arthus Bertrand: The Earth from Above
In 1995, the French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand started a ‘survey’ of the state of the Earth
on the eve of the twenty first century. About his work, one can read on his web-site: “This in depth
sum of work testifies to a geographical and historical reality through images that may be disturbing or
striking, but are always pregnant with meaning. Earth From Above is not a mere geographical
inventory. It constitutes a human and ecological testimony. With the firm conviction that only proper
knowledge makes for efficient cure, Yann endeavours to bring his own contribution to our knowledge
of the planet. He shows us what it looks like today, its many beauties and awesome vastness as well as
the often problematic imprints man leaves upon it. […]Yann's images have a humanising quality about
them: they show men and women, the marks they imprint upon the Earth _ be they positive or
negative. […]Yann's work sets itself in the larger perspective of a testimony for the future, a record to
be completed by others.”
The book and exhibition made out of
this work have yielded great public
interest. The book soon became a
bestseller40. More than 9 million people
visited the outdoor, free exhibition
around the world. Many children
spontaneously sent drawings to the
author. The related website adresses
issues of Sustainability41.
40
More than 2 million copies sold.
See http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/us/photogra/index.html and also
http://www.dansleposte.com/site/programmes/yab/index.htm (video, in French).
41
14

UNEP photo contests: Focus on Your World
In 2000, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) held the 3rd International
Photographic Competition on the Environment42. The competition was open to anyone, regardless of
age, sex, religion and nationality, who had a photograph that captured the diversity of the environment
and the people of our planet. 16,650 photos from 7,877 participants across 160 countries were
received. The winning photographs were shown around the world through travelling exhibitions.
Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the UNEP, said about the project: “As we work towards a
sustainable future, we need a common language that can instantly touch hearts and minds.
Photography is that common language, a creative act that gives colour, expression, and a human
dimension to our scientific findings. When used to convey environmental messages, photography can
provoke thought, leading to positive action and change.”
Poems:

Anita Dunham: International PopSlam!
Pop Sustainability launched a spoken word campaign in October 2000 with a poetry slam of 20 local
performance artists held at the PopLoft in Chelsea, NYC. The PopSlam MC, Andrea Atsuko-Dunham,
traveled to Rotterdam for the Culture Capital of Europe celebrations in May 2001 to articulate how the
arts can communicate directly to the heart of the issues of sustainability: “I think that a lot of different
people have very different ideas of what it would be given who they are and who they consider their
communities to be. I think it's unique for similar reasons, because everyone has a voice and something
to say. And I think the more authentic that voice is, the more it truly is what is speaking through youno matter what aesthetic-it will resonate with people. [… She wants people] to understand that the
process of loving themselves is inherently revolutionary. And understanding their own power and their
relatedness to everyone else on this planet is what will really shift how we approach solving the
problems of the world. […]When I first started researching my thesis a year and a half ago, I did a
websearch and came up with something like 300 hits for "spoken word poetry." Yesterday I did a
search and came up with more than 1,500,000! Unbelievable. And you see these commercials with
people doing their spoken word-esque thing. I know there's a lot of projects in the works by some
heavy hitters in the entertainment industry, so it's definitely about to blow up. I don't know that I say it
worries me. I think I have such faith in people's true voices that there will always be a space for people
that walk the path of their vision and guidance.”43
Music:

Manic Street Preachers (for example: a design for life) :
The Manic street preachers have established themselves as one of the most important bands in
the UK today, leaning over the rest of Europe. Twelve years ago, they declared their intention to be the
biggest band in the country. They took an alternative and revolutionary style as their signature. In
2001, they made a provocative visit to Fidel Castro. They claim to fight, through their songs, against
Royalist teenagers, apathy and American cultural imperialism, to name a few They are also very
critical at politically correct humanitarian heroes. Here’s what they said about the Dailai-Lama: “I’ve
nothing against the Dalai Lama at all, it's just the way that, I actually think that sometimes he doesn't
realise that he's being used as a kind of celebrity charitable cause. If you're talking about human rights,
Tibet is a theocracy, there is no vote, it's all based on divinity. I'm not saying the Dalai Lama's bad, but
if you actually intellectually look at it, there are really no human rights in Tibet anyway because no42
43
See http://www.oneworld.org/media/gallery/unep/intro.html
See http://thinkpop.org/html/178podium_stories.asp
15
one has a vote. It's just those kinds of things, it's just the way America promotes its own view of
human rights. America destroyed its indigenous population less than 200 years ago. You don't really
hear a band singing about that. The fact is that they're now sat on reservations drinking themselves into
oblivion. It's all about just offering a different side, you know, not everything I say is true, half of it's
bullshit. But it's really important to offer a different perspective I think.”44
One of their song, "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" shot straight to the top
of the UK singles chart to become the Manics' first number 1 single, and it became a hit in the
Netherlands in 1998, being interpreted as a call against violence in the streets (with a strong sense of
Sustainability). Another song, “A design for life”, gives a more positive image of a sustainable future,
and is quite popular too.

Sunny Day Real Estate:
While Sunny Day Real Estate, an influential and important indie rock band since the early
'90s, is not overtly political or issues-oriented, its guitarist, Dan Hoerner, is an advocate of ecological
preservation and these concerns gave the tone to albums like The Rising Tide (2000). Dan Hoerner:
“It's just a response to my environment. I think the most beautiful thing that exists on the earth is the
flora and fauna. There's such a wonderful diversity and wisdom... I just don't see anything that human
beings are making that comes close to the beauty of the natural world. Living out here, I've watched
the destruction of the natural resources. Every spring the loggers flock out here and rape some other
part of the forest nearby... Just to watch logging happen... I would encourage people to hang out in a
piece of forest land for a week prior to its being cut, and watch the loggers come in with their yellow
machines and chain saws and totally destroy it. I often ask myself, "Why wreck it?" And the answer is
greed. So I'm sure that I have that response when I write lyrics, and that comes through in the music
and what I put into Sunny Day.”45

Band Aid:
“One of the most interesting phenomena of the mid-eighties was the recurring trend of benefit
singles and concerts. The social consciousness of the music industry has never been higher. For the
first time, rock musicians tried to use their power for the greater good of all mankind. Through BandAid, U.S.A. For Africa, Live Aid, Farm Aid, Hear 'n' Aid, Artists Against Apartheid, and Amnesty
International, musicians called out to their follower to make the world a better place. All of this can be
traced to one man: a fairly successful pop singer from Dublin, Bob Geldof, lead singer of the
Boomtown Rats. After watching a BBC documentary on the famine in Ethiopia [in October 1984],
Geldof decided that something must be done about it and he could try to do something about it. With
assistance from Ultravox lead singer and guitarist, Midge Ure, Geldof wrote "Do They Know It's
Christmas?" Then with the help of the entire English pop community and their record companies, the
song was recorded and released. It quickly became the all time best selling single in British history.
[… Geldof said] "We should try to have the most important rock artists of the last twenty-five years on
one stage.... It's going to be a global telethon.... Because people are dying....” It was evident that this
was going to be the biggest concert of all time. From Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium
in Philadelphia, it was projected that over 2 billion people would see the live seventeen hour
broadcast. A video link was going to bring shorter sets in from Melbourne, Vienna, the Hague,
Moscow, and Cologne. David Bowie and Mick Jagger even recorded a version of the Motown classic
"Dancing In The Streets" just for the day. […]Geldof even encouraged some artists by telling them
that others had agreed before he had even talked to them.”46
The main concern of that mega-event was to generate as much money as possible in any way
possible. Live Aid had no demographic market. Anything to get any amount of money from anyone
44
http://year2000-2001.studentdirect.co.uk/index.cgi?section=guide;edition=mancunion;week=23;article=1417;action=read
45
See http://www.thinkpop.org/html/255radio_stories.asp , also http://www.danhoerner.com and
http://www.sunnydayrealestate.com .
46
http://www.echoes.com/rememberaday/liveaid.html
16
was its aim. It was estimated that over $100 million was donated to the Band Aid Trust. More than
70,000 people packed Wembley Stadium for the concert, which was watched on television by 1.4
billion people in over 170 countries worldwide. Ten years later, in July 1995, the BBC broadcasted
more than 6 hours celebrating the event and showing a documentary on Ethiopia47. Webistes
celebrating the event were updated until 2000, proving that this event had a long-lasting effect on its
audience48.
Dance:

Sustainability: The Dance of Life
Dancers from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School (Michigan, USA) choreographed and performed a
four-movement dance reflecting four stages of economic history: pre-agriculture, agriculture,
industry, and the current transition to sustainability. The dance was accompanied by music written and
performed by an off-stage student musician from Ann Arbor Community High School. The promoters
of that event remarked: “The in-class support and assessment tools provided to teachers through the
Sustainability Education Project enables students to demonstrate learning in ways that reflect their
individual talents and learning styles.”49
Theatre:

Forest Dance: Environmental Theatre and Street Theatre
Forest Dance is a Canadian association promoting the use of theatre “as a tool for promoting
environmental awareness.”50 Particularly, Forest Dance promotes street Theatre, a contemporary form
of ritualistic and playful performance mixing theatre, dance, circus, painting, poetry, sculpture,
launched originally in France in the 1980’s (Cirque nouveau)51. “The reintegration of ritual into this
style of theatre, has brought about an interesting revival: the reactivation of audience participation.
This communal experience encourages gestural storytelling which can be reintroduced into everyday
life. This use of the whole-person can be a creative and effective way of reawakening our connecting
with the Earth and us as a natural part of our environment.” They support initiatives such as52:
- Headlines Theatre - Theatre For Living: An empowering theatre following the lead of
Augusto Boal (see Forum Theatre below).
- Cliff Productions: “Cliff Productions develops and performs community-based spectacles
which address issues such as environmental protection, women's rights, homophobia and
HIV prevention. We work with community members to construct and perform with giant
puppets, masks, music and fire. Performances are often out of doors, in parks, on the water
or at events[…]”
- Mortal Coil Performance society: “Since its inception in 1990, Mortal Coil Performance
Society has captured imagination with extraordinary costumes, compelling dance, stilts,
drumming, and other-wordly vocal harmonies. Imagine flying with a majestic bald eagle, a
hugely oversized insect devouring its dinner and samba dancing frogs!”
- Weogo Yongre Carrefour Canadien International - Solidarité Canada Sahel : “Canadian
Crossroads International is a non-governmental international co-operation organisation
which facilitates cross-cultural exchange. CCI is presently working in collaboration with the
program Solidarite Canada Sahel to educate the Quebecois public, and particularly youth, on
the United Nations International Convention to address the problem of Desertification. They
47
http://www.oneworld.org/tvandradio/live_aid.html
The Band Aid Trust still exists. Its address is: c/o J P Kennedy & Co, 42 Southwick Street, London, W2 1JQ
See http://www.charitiesdirect.com and search “Band Aid Trust” for more info.
49
See http://www.co.washtenaw.mi.us/depts/EIS/susted/studentwork2.html#dance
50
http://www.forestdance.org/mission.htm
51
http://www.forestdance.org/contemp_str_theatre.htm
52
http://www.forestdance.org/env_theatre_report.htm
48
17
-

have created a 60 minute performance which is divided into five sketches that deal with
desertification as well as look at local environmental realities. A second project, for all ages,
brings together 25 young people who are committed to development education. They play
clowns, spectators, property owners, the military, the excluded, accomplices and storytellers
who all take their place in the world stage to look at the relationships which exist between
Northern consumers and small enterprise in the South. This is a street spectacle using giant
puppets, which will take place in Montreal, under the auspices of the Vues d'Afrique
celebrations.”
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’s Earth: Ecotheatre Production written by Zara Quail
(work in progress): “The author's script draws on James Lovelock's Gaia theory. She is
inspired by a concern for the natural environment combined with her love of music and
theatre. The drama department of Herschel school in Cape Town are performing a play
based on the script.”53
Forum-Theatre (Formaat)
Created by Augusto Boal in Brasil forty years ago, Forum Theater is growing in Europe since the
mid-1980’s. It is a theatre with communities and not for communities. “The participants make their
play(s) about issues they have identified as most important to them and their community. The
participants do the work, empowering themselves and finding both an individual and groups voice in
the process - often identifying issues that restrict the development of both themselves as individuals
and the community as a whole. Forum Theatre is a unique type of participatory theatre. The play that
develops out of the workshop is usually quite short - perhaps 5-10 minutes in duration. It is run once,
so the audience can see the situation and the problems presented. The play builds to crisis and stops
there, offering no solutions. The play is then run again, with audience members able to "freeze" the
action at any point where they see the character struggling with the central problem. An audience
member yells 'stop!', comes into the playing area, replaces the character s/he sees as being in struggle,
and tries out his/her idea. We call this an 'intervention'. The Forum Theatre event is vibrant and
empowering for all concerned.”54
Forum Theatre is only one of the forms of the Theatre of the oppressed, together with Image
Theatre and Invisible Theatre. “Image Theatre is a series of exercises and games designed to uncover
essential truths about societies and cultures without resort, in the first instance, to the spoken language
- though this may be added in the various 'dynamisations' of the images. The participants in the Image
Theatre make still images of their lives, feelings, experiences, oppressions; groups suggest titles or
themes, and then individuals 'sculpt' three-dimensional images under these titles, using their own and
others' bodies as the 'clay'. Invisible Theatre is public theatre which involves the public as participants
in the action without their knowing it. Several actors rehearse a scene which they then play in an
appropriate public space; the scene usually involves an unexpected subversion of 'normal' behaviour
within that particular society. In reaction to the incidents in the scene, the public becomes involved in
an argument, usually aided by a couple of "agent provocateur" actors mingling with the public and
expressing extreme and opposite reaction to the events of the scene.”55
In Rotterdam, since 1999, the company Formaat actually uses Forum Theatre56 to foster the
debate about socially controversial themes. One of their centers of interest is “Jeugd en open
samenleving”57. Formaat is the only major ‘theatre of the oppressed’ in the Dutch-speaking part of
Europe. In 2001, they realized 150 performances.
53
http://www.forestdance.org/zarasreport.htm (The script is available on the web page).
http://www.forestdance.org/headlinestheatre.htm
55
Augusto Boal Rua Francisco Otaviano 185/41 CEP 22080, Ipanema, Arpoador Rio De Janero, Brazil. Also:
78/80 Rue de Charlolais, 75012 Paris France. See the newsletter : Metaxis (supported by the Ford Foundation).
56
For more info, contact Stichting Formaat, Herman Bavinckstraat 334, 3063 RP Rotterdam, info@formaat.org.
And www.formaat.org
57
Stichting Formaat, Jaarverslag 2001-2002. A more detailed description of the activities of Formaat is given in
the third chapter of this report. Formaat publishes a newsletter: Under Pressure.
54
18
Cinema:

International Environmental film festival, Paris:
The festival was created by Bettina Laville in 1982. In Berlin or Tokyo too, both cities where an
environmental film festival is organized yearly, this cinematographic genre is now part of the
programs intended for a large
public. In 2001, the festival in
Paris presented 86 films: “Be they
from India Brazil, Canada, Japan,
from Bhutan, Germany, England,
Argentina, United States , Spain
or France, the competing films
from 17 countries have been
selected both for the quality of
their filming and for the way man
and his environment-linked issues
have been treated.” These films
were fictions, documentaries,
reportages and animation films.
Since the late 1980’s, a growing
number of film directors and
producers engaged into what has
become a new market in the filmindustry. In Paris, “a data bank —
including about 1500 films to date
— was put together. It is widely
consulted (programming of the
first environmental film festival in
Turkey,
'Planetary
Garden',
Exhibition in the La Villette
Centre in Paris, the city of Angers,
etc.)”.
“Audio-visual means and cinema movies constitute the absolute support for mass environment
awareness. Consequently, a large number of festivals offer the wider scope of thematic or generic
productions from all over Europe. Some tackle the subject through nature or wildlife. Others such as
RIENA (the International Environmental Film Festival), consider environment from the angle of
“lasting development ” and bring ecology, economy together with the social side, to the subject. A
network of the main European environmental films has been created [The Environmental Films
Festivals Network], upon the initiative of Prince's Awards Foundation – the foundation of the
European Environmental Agency.”58
In the USA, Pop Sustainability organized several smaller-scale sustainable film-festivals in NewYork: What's Love Got to Do With it?" was a one night only short film festival developed in June
2000 “to connect the nature of human relationships with the goals of a sustainable planet.
Empowerment, equality, community, respect, enduring, friendships and soul mates, children, family
and happy homes, abusive relationships, battered wives/husbands, co-dependency were all topics for
consideration.” In June 1999, the Youth AlienNation Film Festival included “several highly acclaimed
shorts, features and documentaries by the best of the new underground, street and mainstream
independent filmmakers. Issues of urban youth, their perspectives on life, family, relationships and
future opportunities were interspersed with spoken word poetry by several local youth.”59
58
For more information, such as the contact-addresses of other European festivals and the complete program of
the Paris festival, see http://www.filmenvir.org
59
See: www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/events.html
19
Video:
Regularly, video-clips are used for advertisement by environmental companies. By instance,
Greenpeace60 proposes on its website a fiction-video called Speak Out : “Directed by Julien Temple,
this video offers a stunning depiction of two possible futures – a world devastated by global warming
and nuclear threat, or one powered by the force of the wind.”

Witness: Video for human rights:
Through the use of digital video technology, four full-time staff members and 30 to 40 volunteers
run www.witness.org, a non-profit organization co-founded by singer Peter Gabriel and based in New
York City that supports the work of human rights activists, internationally. Activists are encouraged to
capture human rights violations as they occur, and produce documentaries through the use of digital
cameras and editing software provided by the organization. They begin learning the basics of film,
such as the use of a camera, and what kind of shots to include in certain types of documentaries, in an
intensive day-long training program, or through detailed training manuals. They receive feedback for
their work, an editing process that improves the technical and strategic aspects of film. The
documentaries are used, often supplemented by written reports, in screening for the public on a
grassroots level, in news broadcasts, web broadcasts, as evidence in legal proceedings, and even to the
United Nations, which often results in feedback from the UN, a country’s government, and even
directly from the group that is shown violating human rights. “If you give a camera to someone, they
can really mobilize countries and the world to take action”, says Sam Gregory, Witness program
coordinator.
Computer Art:

Flash (websites):
Websites using Flash animations are definitely trendy and attractive, since a few years.
Environmental organizations have taken notice and thus propose creative Flash animations on their
web sites. Greenpeace proposes animations and screensavers. In the summer 2002, the Dutch branch
of WWF (WNF) is launching an e-card campaign for the Johannesburg summit. 6 different e-cards
(provocative and humorous flash animations) are proposed to young people visiting the website (or
watching Music-Television channels). They can add a personal message and send the e-card to their
friends and to the ‘world leaders’. The e-cards have been designed by 6 Dutch companies61. In
addition to this, WWF Netherlands and nWave Pictures have created a three-dimensional film that
‘highlights the issues faced by our planet’. The film will be previewed at the Johannesburg IMAX
theatre during the conference.

Virtual ecosystem: ALE2:
In this multimedia project from Hiroshima (Japan), a sort of game of life takes place. “ALife
Ecosystem 2(A L E 2) is a virtual ecosystem which has more than 500 ALife(Artificial Life) creatures.
Each creature has DNA datum, and they can eat food/other-creatures, move, bear children with
Genetic Algorithm (GA) and die... In this way, they are evolving every day. […]You can see what's
going on in ALife Ecosystem every hour. It evolves by 1 step per hour.”62 Visitors can become
members and name some of the creatures. They can also download ALife Tank Screen Saver; it is “a
60
http://www.greenpeace.org/multimedia/
http://www.ijsfontein.nl/ , http://www.laika.nl/ , http://www.lust.nl/home/index4.html ,
http://www.lollibomb.nl/ , http://www.thefactore.com/ and http://www.zappwerk.nl .
62
See http://alifegarden.com/index.html
61
20
new type of screen saver which has 50 of ALife creatures look like ALE. They always move on your
machine, eat others, bear children and evolving!”

Computer games: Sim Life:
This is a commercial computer game, put
out by Maxis in 1992 (the same people that
did SimCity, SimAnt, SimEarth and The
Sims). The idea is to build an ecosystem, by
designing animals and plants to put into it and
then letting them run around have sex, die,
etc., with evolution and mucking around from
god (you). Being a commercial program, its
very slick, with nice graphics and animation,
sound effects, full color maps of the game
world, and a well- written manual. To make a
creature, you give it a number of attributes
such as what types of food it eats, how it
moves (swim, fly, walk), what type of movement pattern it has, how long it takes to reach maturity
and start having kids, and many, many more (probably over 50 characteristics total, many of them
continuously variable). You also have some control over weather, the terrain in your world, how
quickly evolution happens, and other factors.
The producers of SimLife refer to it as "The Genetic Playground." The game allows users to
explore the interaction between life-forms and environments. Users can manipulate the genetics of
both plants and animals to determine whether these new species could survive in the Earth's various
environments. Players can also create new worlds with distinctive environments to see how certain
species (earth's species or their own) fare within them. SimLife gives the player the power to: create
and modify worlds, create and modify plants and animals at the genetic level, design environments
and ecosystems, study genetics in action, simulate and control evolution, change the physics of the
universe in your computer.63
SimLife is a really enjoyable game; one could easily spend hours playing it. It brings ecology and
genetics to life. Unfortunately, no renewed version was released since years.

David Claerbout: Present:
For Present, his first computer-based work, Belgian artist David Claerbout offers viewers the
choice of three flowers, an amaryllis, gerbera, or red rose, to implant on their computers for
approximately one week. With its progression from bloom to decay, and eventual disappearance, the
flower manifests the rhythms of a natural lifecycle in a virtual environment where time normally lacks
organic reference.
“The video footage used for the project was shot over a period of time equal to each flower's
lifespan; whenever the icon is clicked, the flower shows itself in a light appropriate to the local time.
Not only is the flower's duration unknown in advance, but since one cannot speed forward nor go
backward, one is forced to view the flower in the real-time progression of its natural cycle.
[…]Extending the natural metaphor, after the flower is gone, a "seed" remains, which can be used to
send a flower as a gift to someone else, complete with a message from the sender.”64

SMS Text Messaging Game Development:
“ Pop Sustainability partnered with Parsons School of Design in New York City in January of
2002 with the objective of developing a game that can be played with the hottest new mobile
63
One can also visit http://www.bensinclair.com/web/simlife.html
See http://www.diacenter.org/claerbout/intro.html and download a flower from
http://www.diacenter.org/claerbout/chooseflower.html
64
21
technology while promoting understanding and engagement in creating a more sustainable world. This
Parson's team and its advisors have expertise in game theory, technical development, graphic design,
Internet design and marketing and communications. The completion of the design and pilot-testing
phase will be May 2002. This game is a global awareness-raising tool for implementation through the
broadest array of technology platforms in the US and internationally and we intend to release it at the
Johannesburg Summit.”65
Fashion:

Desfile de Moda Sostenible:
In November 2000 in Barcelona, a member-organization of Pop Sustainability, The Pop Catalunya
team, produced a fashion show of designs created from ecologically friendly and recycled materials.
Six local fashion designers showed pieces from their collections and nine students from the Escola
Profesional de la Dona learned about sustainability by developing their garments for this show. Hotel
Rivoli, Barcelona's first green hotel provided the luxurious space in their location near the Ramblas.
According to the organizers, “the media turned out in full force and the local station BTV created a
one-minute report about the event.”66 This event brought the attention of the public on the opportunity
to value and appreciate eco-clothing

Forthcoming project by Hanno Lans:
Hanno Lans has a rich experience in promoting Sustainability to young people. He is Projectcoordinator of “Draag eens wat anders III” at the Nationale Jongerenraad voor Milieu en
Ontwikkeling. He has since 2001 his own clothing-mark, XL-R8. He also has his won company, Hanno
Lans Duurzaam Ondernemen, working among others for the Ministry of VROM. In December 2002,
he organizes a high-brow Sustainable Fashion Event in Amsterdam, in the Beurs van Berlage, with
four international designers and eight Dutch designers.67
65
See http://www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/interactive.html
See http://www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/events.html
67
See the Interview of Hanno Lans in the appendices.
66
22
Installations (inside/outside):

Hole in the Earth project:
Within the Dog in the Backyard campaign68 (part of Rotterdam Cultural Capital of Europe 2001),
a project called “Hole in the Earth” (Gat in de Aarde) was proposed by the new-media artist Maki
Ueda from Tokyo69. A virtual hole would be made with real-time video-connections through the
Internet, installed at two
antipodes of the earth.
“If someone looks into
the hole, she or he would see
the sky of the other side of
the earth. What you could
see in the hole is not only the
sky but also the landscape,
people living there, and their
faces. You can even have a
conversation with them
through this virtual hole.
[…] A transition in the
perception of the earth
always has a relation to the
technological development
as invention of telescope,
survey technique, sailing
technology,
space
technology, and so on […]
How could the Internet
inspire people and their daily
life? […] Would it make a special reality for this neighborhood?” The other side of the hole would
move to Havana, Jakarta, Shanghai, Mumbai, Capetown, etc., according to the wishes of the people
living on this side of the hole. For sure, such a project exploits to its full potential the social value of
Internet as a ‘global village’ calling for ‘global concern’.

Honda 98 (Mama):
The Honda 98 Trash installations in Rotterdam are more thoroughly described in the third chapter
about organizations and events in Rotterdam (among the activities of Mama) and in the interview of
Jeroen Evenaerts.
68
Ed. Hans Abelman, A Dog in the backyard, Achterkanten vand de Culturele As, het werkboek, Centrum
Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam, 2001.
69
It was not materially realized in the city (Diergaardesingel was evoked), but will be around Spring 2003.
23

The Clock of the Long Now:
Artist Danny Hillis has teamed up with Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, musician
Brian Eno, filmmaker David Lynch and others to create a 10,000-year mechanical clock. This "Clock
of the Long Now" ticks once a year, chimes every hundred
years and on the millenium sounded two great gongs. The
8-foot tall sculpture is composed of Monel alloy, Invar
alloy, tungsten carbide, metallic glass and synthetic
sapphire. The works consist of a digital-mechanical system
that self corrects by synchronizing with the noon Sun. And
this is just the prototype. The longterm vision is to create a
large-scale clock tower that will house a library. Brand
wrote of this goal, "Such a clock, if sufficiently impressive
and well engineered, would embody deep time for people.
It should be charismatic to visit, interesting to think about,
and famous enough to become iconic in the public
discourse. Ideally, it would do for thinking about time what the photographs of Earth from space have
done for thinking about the environment. Such icons reframe the way people think."
“The Clock of the Long Now employs one of the essential qualities of art: the ability to
communicate an idea simply. Icons were initially used to communicate ideas to a largely illiterate
public. Medieval stained glass windows, for example, illustrated the bible for a congregation who
couldn't read it. And in this way, the 10,000 year clock acts as an illustration for a society where any
plan more than a year is considered "longterm." The clock acts as a balancing corrective to this shortsightedness. It is a mechanism and a myth.”70
Conceptual Art:

Thierry Mouillé, La Fondation Mouvante:
The young French artist Thierry Mouillé wants to found a movement on unstable bases, in a
fluctuating and chaotic world. He celebrates universal movement and unstability, and he foresees, with
his radical symbols, a “world without roots”. He is nothing like a Romantic being nostalgic about
Nature, he rather wants to construct a new world on the
ruins of nation-states.
Here is one of his conceptual works: a proposition to
human beings (1994)71: On December 31st, 1999 at 59
minutes past 11 pm and second 59 GMT, approximately 6
billion individuals blow westwards, provoking a tiny
increase of the speed of the rotation of the earth, to modify
it orbit of some millimetres. The logic of that ‘proposition’
draws to the absurd and the derisory, while it opens a hope
for art as a creator of social links and social change which
could destabilize the globe! The artist’s irony reminds us
that art is powerful when it keeps its distance with any form
of certainty.
70
See http://www.thinkpop.org/html/265gallery_stories.asp, and www.longnow.com
The text being originally in French, I made a quick translation, which may not be recognized by the artist if he
were to see it.
71
24

Elena Simons, Wonder:
Elena Simons, a young conceptual artist from Amsterdam, studied at the Rietveld Art Academy.
With her own company, Wonder, she presents herself as an Ideas-Maker and wants to make the world
better, referring to a change towards Sustainability. She describes her own style as “un-orthodox, silly
and nice”. On her website72, she presents some ideas playing with symbolic values:
- The last cigarette: “In a nice little box lies the last cigarette. Put it in the drawer ‘till you’re ready
to quit. Your last cigarette, which is a bit longer than a normal one, clearly draws the line between
smoking and non-smoking. It reduces the chance to have a little bit more. For sale in gift-shops,
around the end of the year.”
- Loot: “One prints the word loot on a new colourful trash bag, and spreads it all over the city.
Anyone who wants to clear his/her attic or closet and to put useful things in the garbage can, can use
this loot-bag now and then. People can rummage in the neighbor’s bag. Stuff which no-one wants,
leave anyway with the dump truck.”
- The Why-Machine: “The Why- machine is hidden somewhere. Each time a child, a journalist or any
curious person asks "Why..?", the machine says "Well, why indeed?"”
Performance Art:

M Burger: Burgers zijn niet grijs:
“The one loves black, the other one prefers white. And sometimes one chooses green”.
The Milieuburger was proposed in the Rotterdam R’Uitmarkt 1999 and again in May 2000 in the
Artoteek Schiedam, by the Stichting Kunst en Milieu73. This burger is made of organic bread, falafels
and fresh vegetables. Selling this burger was the occasion to organize a performance promoting
sustainable food in a party-atmosphere.

Woesteland festival:
From the 15th to the 21st of July 2002, the Woesteland Festival took place in the Amsterdamse Bos
(the forest to the south of the city)74. This event was co-organized by the association Woesteland and
by the Jongeren Milieu Actief. A few dozen young people lived in the forest for one week, following a
variety of creative workshops… On the last day, all what had been created was shown to the public in
a big performance with theatre, dance, music, short films, photo-documentaries, graphic arts, organic
vegetarian cooking, philosophy, poetry and Land Art. All of this was made possible through a team of
artists with diversified experiences who guided the young people. Young people (16 and older) could
participate in this challenge for 75 euros (including food and shelter for the week).
Creative social events :

Recyclaedelic party:
In October 1998, In New York, Pop Sustainability organized a retro Halloween party featuring
reduced, reused, and recycled costumes. “Recycladelic celebrated the come back of reused garment
trend. Guests had the opportunity to compete for one of four prizes: the "use less, have more fun" most
72
See www.bewonder.nl
In collaboration with the Groene Passage and the bakery Ad van der Westen.
74
See www.woesteland.nl/festival.htm
73
25
reduced costume, the Austin Powers Award for the "grooviest reused costume", the "hippest costume
made of recycled materials", and the "That's not your mother, Baby, that's a man" award.”75

Sustainable parties :
In October 1999, Pop Sustainability organized in New York and Barcelona a Global Halloween
Party: It “connected mega-nightclubs in Barcelona and New York City through the internet to share
the American holiday that most epitomizes the celebration of expression, diversity and creativity-the
Halloween parade in the east Village of New York City. Spain also celebrated this day but very
differently. During the live transmission, experts spoke with guests about sustainability, the social and
environmental aspects of costumes, and the spirit of the holiday.”
In November 2000 in New York, London, Barcelona, Ulaanbaatar, Hartford and San Francisco,
Pop Sustainability organized a Pop Party: “A worldwide event that raised money and awareness about
the leadership role of youth in democratic societies and the evolving democracy in Mongolia.
Thinking globally and acting locally, each city's party host used the occasion to support a local charity
in addition to the Zorig Foundation in Mongolia which advances democracy in the country. The result
was an event that connected young people from all locations to ThinkPop.org and a variety of
sustainability-related organizations all using the night to celebrate the powerful role of youth in
democratic societies.”
In May 2001 in Rotterdam, Hans Dieleman and his students of the Erasmus Universiteit
Rotterdam organized CommoNature. The first European sustainable concept party engaged the
students of the "Art and Sustainability" class and attracted the interest of students campus-wide. At the
culmination of the campaign, -an on campus party-students visualized the concept of sustainability,
using various art expressions such as music, movies, slide projections, and a group painting.
Hanno Lans coordinated the Engage Extreme event76. In Utrecht, on August 18, 2000, the
association Engage! Tactical Media organized this dance party centered on Climate Change, at the
time of the ‘Introductiedagen’. The participants were invited to “Celebrate the pleasures of global
warming! Dance on a melting ice rock, cool down in the desert cafe lounge. Drown in rising sea
levels.” The experience included ‘tech-artistic environment’, ‘dance interventions’, ‘non-stop 28k
cinema’, a cocktail bar and ‘challenging bites’.
The poster, as shown below, mentions: “The tempest (22:00-06:00): Live on stage: Human Beings
(techno). DJ's: Sander, Eva
(AKU), Bongra (jungle, drum
'n bass - Ekko/Tivoli),
Flipjack (big beats, drum 'n
bass - hugging), Djazzmin
(drum 'n bass, hiphop, AXL).
Desert Café (18:00-06:00):
Culture Shocking Dinner
Experience: Taste difference!
At 18:00/19:00/20:00 DJ's:
The Hipster (exotica - Electric
DFX) Su* (r&b, hiphop Impakt/Vismarkt).”
“Engage!
Tactical
Media is a political and
cultural medialab. We develop
innovative interactive media
productions, we stream video,
we consult progressive organizations on media strategies, and we collaborate on technologically savvy
75
76
http://www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/events.html
www.hannolans.nl/doc/view-110.htm
26
cultural events. We work a lot with non-profit organizations, such as environmental organizations,
cultural centers, community media centers, as well as national broadcasters and festivals. Our events
and media productions take place on the edge of culture, political activism, technology and media. We
like to use cutting edge media technology for idealistic goals, and we are empowered by the
conviction that new media, if used creatively and innovatively, have the power to reach the people and
realize change.”77
On May 12th 2000, Hanno Lans organized a Street-Party in Utrecht, together with d’Omtrapper (a
group of bikers demonstrating monthly against the difficulties encountered by bicycle-users in
Utrecht), celebrating its third year of existence78. Two sound-systems with DJ’s (techno and dance)
were installed in a truck and a van riding through the city with a few hundred people; afterwards, a
party was organized with free food (by Food not Bombs). This ‘streetrave’ was reported on local TV
and on Internet a few advices are given to organize a street-party79 in one’s own neighbourhood.

Ego Travels:
This ‘travel agency’, opened on May 24th, 2002 during a sustainable party named “Is the world big
enough for you?”, proposes a set of ego-trips to the visitor and questions the values and consequences
of one’s lifestyles on a global world. This project was developed by Hans Dieleman and his students80
in Art & Sustainability at the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam in 2002. Ego Travels is a social
performance inspired by the ‘Social Sculpture’ of Joseph Beuys. A number of travel-agents and
fortune-tellers help the participants (with a ‘travel-guide’) in booking a journey of self-discovery
through which the participants often realize that their initially chosen lifestyle is not sustainable:
Various ego-trips are proposed and advertised, from the Yuppie lifestyle to the Homeless adventure,
with various options (food, housing, job, sport, clothing, transportation, leisure and of course
holidays). The costs of the various trips are defined in terms of eco-socio-footprints81, assessing the
ecological and social costs of one’s ego-travelling choices.
“Ego Travels approaches Sustainability in terms of organizing one’s own life. Sustainability is
about personal objectives and goals, and about realizing certain goals within given institutional
arrangements. The project will emphasize that every individual has a certain freedom to define his or
her own definition of reality (with questions such as “what is valuable for me”) and will develop a
model to communicate this message.”82

The Spitfire Tour:
The American initiative Spitfire “aims to increase student concern about important social and
political issues -- and, more importantly, encourages activism and grass-roots involvement -- through
performances at colleges. Created by a group of friends in the music industry, including former Rage
Against The Machine singer Zach de la Rocha, the tour uses an interactive approach, employing a
mixture of spoken-word dialogues, videos, poetry, and acoustic performances. An eclectic mix of
speakers use these various mediums to explore topics ranging from AIDS education (Rosie Perez) to
deadbeatfathers (Everclear's Art Alexakis) to environmental issues and the benefits of industrial hemp
(Woody Harrelson). The tour, which hits campuses each fall, has a rotating legion of presenters that,
for any given performance, may include former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, Spearhead’s
Michael Franti, Ice-T, Perry Farrell, former MTV VJ Kennedy, Indigo Girl Amy Ray, Andy Dick, and
77
More info on www.engage.nu Engage! Tactical Media was founded in January 2000 by Gerbrand Oudenaarden
(gerbrand@oudenaarden.nl), as a sequel to his company Oudenaarden New Media Productions.
78
www.hannolans.nl/doc/view-140.htm
www.hannolans.nl/doc/view-839.htm
80
(including myself)
81
The calculation is freely inspired from the ‘ecological footprint’, developed in 1995 by Prof. William E. Rees
(University of British Columbia, Canada), as a metaphor of our impact on earth. Categories of human
consumption are translated into areas of productive land required to provide resources and assimilate waste
products.
82
ed. Hans Dieleman, Travel Guide, Ego Travels, Rotterdam, 2002.
79
27
former MTV Loveline co-host Dr. Drew Pinsky. Since its inception in 1998, Spitfire has grown from a
tour into a non-profit foundation that encourages student activism year-round. The tour's web site,
originally used solely for promoting the tour itself, now contains links to organizations such as
Amnesty International, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting, and provides guidance for volunteering in the local community and sending e-mail to local
representatives. […]Reaction to Spitfire has been overwhelmingly positive. The amount of available
performers has grown steadily from year to year. "Many of our speakers have been doing this for a
long time, and many longtime presenters have encouraged friends in their respective industries to
participate," Haynes said. "It turns out that most people feel this type of event should have happened
years ago."”83.

The Bet84:
What was ‘the bet’? On November 11th 2000, a big demonstration took
place in the hall of the Ministry of VROM in The Hague. Minister Pronk
signed the bet, against young people (Stichting TheBet and Jongeren
Milieu Actief) who announced that they could save 8% CO2 in six
months with a minimum of 2500 young participants. The event was
reported on the Jeugdjournaal. The idea of betting was about stopping
the endless talking that characterizes political decision-making, and
starting to act right ahead ( niet praten maar doen). It took off
successfully in 1999 in Germany85 and then spread in 16 European
countries in 2000, various groups of young people betting that they could
meet the requirements of the Kyoto protocol much faster than the authorities… If the Dutch young
people succeeded, Minister Pronk would pay an info-center and a big party for all of them, but if they
lost, they would have to transport all the ministers in rickshaws for one week! To achieve the goals, all
recipes (low-enegy light-bulbs, double-sided printing, etc.) and creative ideas were tested, contests
were organized in schools, anti-advertisement stickers were put in the streets, a monthly prize was
attributed to the most effective group and another one to the most creative group of young people. The
bet ended on May 11th 2001. It was a success: 4154 participants reduced their use of CO2 by as much
as 19% (447 168 kg of CO2). On the website, advices are given for young people to continue saving
energy86.

De Johannesbrug:
On Saturday August 31 2002, the MilieuDefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) organized on
the Dam in Amsterdam (together with 30 other organizations) a manifestation with theatre, music,
speeches, information, a live-connection with Johannesburg (UN-Summit) and the construction of the
Johannesbrug… a symbolic bridge to Johannesburg and further, to Sustainability, on which
participants and visitors were able to write, paint or copy and paste their personal messages to WorldLeaders, on the theme “Handel kent grenzen”87.
The organizers at Milieudefensie encouraged participants to prepare (art-)works to hang on the
bridge, and if possible to organize themselves mini-exhibitions in their own neighborhoods, showing
in advance what they would bring to Amsterdam.88 The organizers were open to any creative idea and
eager to discuss propositions by participants: “Alles kan”.
83
http://www.thinkpop.org/html/257radio_stories.asp
More info on www.thebet.nl
85
Project Die Wette, by Friends of the Earth Germany.
86
http://www.thebet.nl/archief/doeiets.htm
87
“Bouw mee aan de JohannesBrug”, Informatieblad Globalisering en Milieu, Juni 2002, MilieuDefensie,
Amsterdam.
88
“Lokaal aan de slag met de JohannesBrug”, Informatieblad Globalisering en Milieu, Juni 2002,
MilieuDefensie, Amsterdam.
84
28
Subversive advertisement:

Adbusters:
Adbusters89 is a model of creative resistance to corporate consumerism and the “brainwashing,
greenwashing” ideology that it promotes. Adbuster publishes a magazine and a website, and regularly
organizes campaigns subverting the icons and symbols of big companies or governments, unveiling
their hypocrisy and unsustainable behavior. Adbusters distributes its provocative images, animations
and videos around the world:
“We are a global network of artists, activists,
writers,
pranksters,
students,
educators
and
entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social
activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to
topple existing power structures and forge a major shift
in the way we will live in the 21st century. […]We try
to coax people from spectator to participant in this
quest. We want folks to get mad about corporate
disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and
any industry that pollutes our physical or mental
commons. […]We believe culture jamming can be to
our era what civil rights was to the '60s, what feminism
was to the '70s, what environmental activism was to the
'80s. It will alter the way we live and think. It will
change the way information flows, the way institutions
wield power, the way TV stations are run, the way the
food, fashion, automobile, sports, music and culture
industries set their agendas. Above all, it will change
the way meaning is produced in our society.”90
During the Earth Summit 2002 in Johannesburg,
Adbuster is organizing Jo’burg Jam, with the slogan “Rethink, Rise-up, Resist”.91 It is an occasion for
them, through their ‘Culture Jam’, to condemn past developments: “Ten years ago we were busy with
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and saving the world by "shopping green". Optimistically, we trusted our
governments to act in our interests. Naively, we allowed the private sector to monitor itself.
Meanwhile, many of us stood aside as an exploding, global casino economy launched a decade of
unprecedented consumerism. At the cusp of the new millennium, a critical mass began to see where
our market infatuation was taking us: into governance by trade agreement, with civil democracy
replaced by an elite boardroom politics. […] At the 1992 Earth Summit, environmentalism was just
reaching the crest of a wave. Since then, it has fallen back. In many ways, mainstream
environmentalism today remains disjointed from the new activism. It praises "green" business while a
generation of activists fight corporate power. It shies away from a challenge to consumerism while
fighting to regulate consumerism's terrible social and environmental costs. Its fights are good ones, but
it has lost the kind of vision that can truly change the world. At the same time, a less-recognizable
environmentalism takes the streets at every global justice gathering. It is expressed in the activists
themselves, thousands of people who have connected their individual ecological footprints to
corporate power, consumer culture, and First World arrogance. The chemistry between the public
social justice movement and its personal ecological politics is revolutionary. But our crises are too
severe for the environment to remain a junior partner in global activism. Johannesburg may not be a
flashpoint, but it could be the tipping point towards a new green movement. Radical ideas are
emerging, imagining a world totally transformed.”

The Fashion files:
89
See http://adbusters.org/home/
See http://adbusters.org/information/foundation/
91
See http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/43/articles/joburg_jam.html
90
29
On the website www.fashionfiles.nl, one can read about how industrial clothes are produced, how
the workers are exploited by multinationals and how the environment is also polluted in the process.
An insight into the background of one’s favorite clothing is given in the section Achtergronden, with
supporting facts and pictures. Especially, the ravages of cotton-industry are explained clearly. A touch
of subversive humour is introduced with false advertisements in the fashion of Adbusters. Additional
sections about news and a mailing-list will soon be added to the
website. The Fashion Files is
not only a website, it’s also a
2 hours workshop given to
young people following the
MBO. Each pupil is shown
videos, works in a group with
one file and is finally given a book
to read on. The workshops are
animated by young people92. The
Fashion Files is a cooperative
project from four organizations:
Jongerenorganisatie
CNV,
Schone
Kleren
Kampagne,
Nationale Jongerenraad voor
Milieu en Ontwikkeling and
Jongeren
voor
alternatieve
Handel (JaH!).

www.memefest.org:
Here is how the newborn (created in 2002) Memefest organization presents itself: “Feeling the full
force of consumer consciousness and information overload lately, culturally-savvy students from
Slovenia have responded with a call to explore the power that targeted ideas (memes), have to spin the
social fabric. As a semi-virtual space and festival, Memefest intends to generate and release helpful
memes which may bring some balance back into a brand-crazy world. After calling for responses to a
text on branding from Communications, Sociology and Design students in Slovenia and abroad, the
festival's first competition has a gallery ready for the viewing. […] According to Memetics theory, a
meme is a: "contagious idea that replicates like a virus, passed on from mind to mind. Memes work the
same way genes and viruses do, propagating through communication networks and face-to-face
contact between people." […] From the point of view of Memetics theory, the mass media is presently
the most sophisticated engine for the dissemination of Memes since it exposes potential carriers to an
incredible volume of memes daily. In an information society, modern battles are fought less with
weapons and more with ideas. Since Memes can influence behaviour and change culture, they are the
new weapons which are used to establish and dethrone ideologies.” 93 On its website, Memefest
presents works on commercial icons and symbols (images and videos).
“De kosten van de workshop zijn 65 euro (exclusief de reiskosten, korting mogelijk voor kleine
jongerenorganisaties).Wilt u dat wij 'The Fashion Files' voor uw jongeren verzorgen, of wilt u meer informatie
ontvangen, dan kunt u contact opnemen met de Jongerenorganisatie CNV, tel: 030-2913715 fax: 030-2964907
Of mail naar workshop@fashionfiles.nl.” For more info, visit the websites of the project and of the participating
organizations.
93
See www.memefest.org
92
30
Design:

A collecting system for waste electronics and electronic equipment:
Designer Suzanne de Vries (AIDA Rotterdam) has
developed in 2002 a collecting system for waste
electronics and electronic equipment (WEEE): “The
municipality has in corporation with AIDA designed a
new collecting system, which makes it easier for the
consumer to bring back the WEEE and for the dealer
to collect those. The collecting system is like a
cabinet; the old equipment will be exhibited in the
shop. For consumer it is possible to tell their story
about their old product. This is really fun because the
story will be recorded and shown in the cabinet at a
little television. If the dealer is selling televisions the
video will also be shown at all the televisions in the
shop. The dealer can use this way of collecting to
compete with other dealers. The consumer gets the
feeling that he is famous. But most of all the collecting
system shows that the WEEE is not only waste, it is a
memory to the former user and it will be for the
next.”94 This design uses the power of narratives and
of new media to deliver a personal experience
gratifying the act of recycling.
Different art-forms have different properties. The examples presented here do not belong to a
same communication strategy. They can be viewed in one of the four following perspectives:
- Some of them make use of arts as forms for communicating prefixed social or environmental
messages. This is particularly the case for Band Aid, but also for some of the murals (especially when
the content is decided upon by an institution which then orders some people to execute a mural ‘about
it’), for the Fashion files, for the ‘Witness’ videos, for the works by Greenpeace and for the WWF ecards campaign.
- Others integrate Sustainability into the art-form and the artist’s work, letting the arts create their
own contents and give their own definitions of Sustainability: This is the case for the Engage Extreme
Event, Honda 98, the clock of the long now, the hole in the Earth, sustainable Fashion, Claerbout’s
Present, and Dunham’s Popslam.
- Yet another way is to realize bottom-up projects involving the people as participants shaping
together both the form and the content, and not merely observers or consumers of the arts. This is the
case for the Johannesbrug, Ego Travels, the Recyclaedelic party (and similar Do-It-Yourself
activities), the Woesteland Festival (for the full-week participants), graffiti Punk-art, and Forum
Theatre.
- Others, such as Thierry Mouillé and Elena Simons, use art to radically question all assumptions,
including those in the concept of Sustainability, the exchange resulting then in more questions than
answers and in an invitation to further inquiry.
If the arts are adequate media to communicate about Sustainabilty, are they relevant for young
people anyway? As will now be seen, young people attach much importance to the creative
expressions of youth culture, and the arts, in certain forms used by youth culture, definitely have a
key-role to play in the self-development of young people.
94
Suzanne de Vries, personal communication, AIDA, August 2002.
31
Chapter Two:
Young people and Youth Culture in
Rotterdam
While it is possible to draw a picture of the cultural life of an average
Dutch youngster with statistics, such a quick portrait falls short of explaining
the complexity of the cultural life of young people, which depends on many
variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, local community, peer-group, etc.
To understand the dynamics of Youth Culture in Rotterdam, a sociological
analysis is much more insightful. It sheds light on the processes and the
structures which foster the creation and use of cultural objects among young
people.Subcultures are at the heart of these processes, while other phenomema
such as Internet and the creolization of diverse ethnic cultures also play an
important role. They all contribute to the current development of an original
and fluid Youth Mainstream Culture in Rotterdam: The Urban Feel.
32
Dutch Youth today
General overview:
Young people between the ages of 12 and 24 represented in 2000 15.4% of the Dutch
population (12-14: 3.6%, 15-19: 5.8% and 20-24: 6%)95.
The long period of secondary education (compulsory until 16 in the Netherlands) gives the
opportunity for the young Dutch pupil to be most of the time in contact with fellow young people.
Meanwhile, the offer of cultural products and services for the youth is extended and the
cultural industries put a heavy pressure on the consumers of this specific market.
Between 1995 and 2000, the amount of free-time young people are enjoying is declining, from
41 hours per week in 1995 to 36.8 hours in 200096, mainly because more young people are working.
Young people go out more than 20 years ago, but their favorite leisure takes place at home
(television, video games, and internet). In 2000, 90%97 use a computer at home (72% in 1995) and on
average they spend 3.4 hours per week on it (1.9 hours in 1995). Watching TV takes less time than
before (10.7 hours per week in 2000 for 13.1 in 1995). Going out takes 2.4 hours per week in 2000
(3.3 hours in 1995), including 1.7 hours in cafés and 0.4 hours for culture. The time spent for
socializing has been proportionally increasing for the past 20 years. The most popular activities are:
watching TV, making social contacts, going out, doing sports, reading (1.4 hours per week in 200098
and decreasing) and various hobby’s.
The 12-15 years-old do the most sport and gather at sports events. Overall, 67% of the 12-14
practice a sport99, 57% of the young people visit sport contests in 2000 (59% in 1995) and on average
they do sports 2.6 hours per week (2.9 hours in 1995), for 83% of them in a club. The two most
popular sports are swimming and skating. More generally, young people move more and more, for 8.4
hours per week (sport, walking and biking) in 2000 against 8.2 hours in 1995 and 7.8 in 1990.
Among cultural activities, going to the movies is most popular, followed by Pop concerts. In
1999, 79% go to the movies, 29% go to Pop, Jazz or Musical concerts, 31% go to Museums and 23%
go to the theatre (including 7% to ‘cabaret’). The older one gets the less amateur artistic activity he/she
practices (except for photography). In 2000, 12% of the young people are volunteering in culture and
sport organizations (they were 15% in 1995)100.
45% of the Youth in the Netherlands are getting bored during their free time and complain that
there is not enough to do in the neighborhood. 12% think that the existing institutions are designed for
specific groups and do not concern them.
For 16 year-olds and older, going out (cafés, cinema, parties) and social contacts are the most
important activities.
In 2001, the use of Internet is widespread among young people. 61% of 20 to 24 years-old are
connected. The proportion rises to 71% for 15 to 19 years-olds and 73% for 12 to 14 years-old.
Among 20 to 24 years-old, the Net is mainly used for e-mailing (70%), visiting selected web sites
(60%), surfing websites (58%) and searching information for studies (36%). Among 15 to 19 yearsolds, the Net is mainly used for e-mailing (68%), surfing (58%), searching information for school
(53%), chatting (52%), visiting selected web sites (49%) and sending SMS’es (46%). Among 12 to 14
95
CBS, gegevens 1 januari 2000.
Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau, Trends in de Tijd, October 2001.
97
94% for 15-19 years-olds and 96% for 12-14 years-olds (Qrius, Jongeren 2001, Altijd met elkaar verbonden,
onderzoeksbureau Qrius, Amsterdam, september 2001.)
98
This does not include reading on computer-screens.
99
Qrius, Jongeren 2001, Altijd met elkaar verbonden, onderzoeksbureau Qrius, Amsterdam, september 2001 (p.
76).
100
Considering overall volunteering, the Youth is the least active group in society, since the 1970’s.
96
33
years-olds, the Net is mainly used for surfing (54%), chatting (51%), e-mailing (50%), searching info
for school (49%) and visiting selected websites (43%)101.
Almost 70% of the Youth say they are part of a youth-group or ‘peer-group’. Young people do
a number of activities in the group, and feel safer being in a group. The group is also a forum for the
evaluation of others and the development of friendships. The average size of a group is 12 members,
and the group meets more than once per weeks (everyday for 36% of young people). The most
important activities of the group are chatting, having fun and sticking together (72%), going out (51%)
and doing sport (30%). The group is united by common preferences for a given subculture or just a
given music-style and by complementary opinions and interests. Some groups share common beliefs
and passions, while other groups are much more pragmatic and only share superficial expressions
required to do something together102. The Internet, especially chat-rooms and Messengers (ICQ,
Yahoo Messenger, MSNMessenger), is intensively used103 to keep communication flowing among the
group even when members are temporarily separated. It is also a way to learn to know others better
and to see them whenever possible104.
In 1997, the favourite musical styles among young people were Hardcore House (Gabber) and
Happy Hardcore (27%), top 40/50, Pop and Disco (20%), Techno (7%), Soul and R&B (7%) and Hard
Rock (4%). 35% of the young people had other preferences. Punk and HipHop attracted little groups
(but have seemingly grown in size since). Since 1997, Gabber House has lost popularity. According to
the surveys realized by Qrius, the popular music styles among young people aged 12 to 19 in 2001
were R&B for 40% of them, Dance (including House) for 40%, rock styles for 33% and especially the
Hit-parades for 75%105. Among young people aged 20 to 24 in 2001, it was the Hit-parades again for
68%, R&B for 42%, Dance for 32% and Hard-rock for 15%.
In 2000, young people listen much less to music on radio than before (5.6 hours per week, against 9
hours in 1995) and only 4% still listen to public radio (29% in 1995)106.
Young people keep the same preferences for a given artist 3 years long (2.1 years for 12 to 14
years-old, 2.9 years for 15 to 19 years-old and 4.8 years for 20 to 24 years-old).
Religion and politics don’t play an important role in the Dutch youngster’s life. Half the young
people have no preference for any political party, but most of them have political opinions: In a 1997
survey, the first concern young people had was about pollution of the environment, almost three
quarters agreed that “there’s too much abuse of the social services” and 87% thought that minimum
wage should not be lowered107. More than half of them say they have a belief, but most of them don’t
give much meaning to it, with the exception of young Turkish and Moroccans who are Muslims and
give their faith an important role in their life.
In the 1997 survey, the most quoted values were ‘a happy family-life’, ‘having and raising
children’, ‘developing yourself’, ‘earning a lot of money’, ‘acquiring knowledge’ and ‘independence’.
Values such as democratic participation, balance of powers and equality were losing ground.
Generally, we see that in the recent years material values have gained more importance than social
values.
Young people in Rotterdam:
101
Qrius, Jongeren 2001, Altijd met elkaar verbonden, onderzoeksbureau Qrius, Amsterdam, september 2001 (p.
40-41).
102
F.J. van der Linden and T.A. Dijkman, Jong zijn en volwassen worden in Nederland. Een onderzoek naar het
psychosociaal functioneren in alledaagse situaties van Nederlandse jongeren tussen 12 en 21 jaar, Nijmegen,
1989 (p. 375-376).
103
Qrius, Jongeren 2001, Altijd met elkaar verbonden, onderzoeksbureau Qrius, Amsterdam, september 2001 (p.
11).
104
In Qrius, p. 13.
105
In Qrius, p. 19-20.
106
Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau, Trends in de Tijd, oktober 2001.
107
Bureau Inter/View, Jongeren 1997. Generatie op afstand, Amsterdam, 1997.
34
The patterns mentioned above have to be put in the perspective of the composition of the
Youth in Rotterdam108:
As of the first day of 2001, 5.8% of the Rotterdam inhabitants are 10 to 14 years old (34 274
persons), 5.8% are 15 to 19 years old (34 292 persons), 7.3% are 20 to 24 (43 415 persons) and 8.8%
are 25 to 29 (52 589 persons).
Among the 0 to 14 years-olds, 37 583 (36%) are of Dutch ethnic background, 12 510 (12%) of
Surinam, 13 314 (12.7%) of Turkey, 11 549 (11%) of Morocco, 5 315 (5%) of the Antilles and 4 020
(3.9%) of Cabo Verde.
Among the 15 to 24 years-olds, 32 037 (41.2%) are of Dutch ethnic background, 9 251
(11.9%)of Surinam, 7 714 (9.9%) of Turkey, 6 233 (8%) of Morocco, 3 764 (4.8%) of the Antilles and
2 655 (3.4%) of Cabo Verde.
108
Source: www.cos.nl (Statistisch Jaarboek Rotterdam en Regio 2001)
35
The Desires and needs of Young people… “Age-Wise”
American researchers Acuff and Reiher determined 7 variables helping to determine the needs
and wishes that young people have109: the age of the target-group and its upper and lower limits, the
gender (and the proportion of each gender in the target-group), the phase in the psychological
development, the phase in the development of cognition, the dimensions (cognitive, physical,
emotional, social and moral) of the experiences of the youngster, the learning-style of the youngster
(more visual or more verbal) and the personal experience of the young people with equivalent
products.
Acuff and Reiher give a helpful psychological portrait of the young consumer, in early
adolescence (13 to 15) and in late adolescence (16 to 19). Let’s start with the 13 to 15-years-old
consumers:
At the age of 11, most of the brain is fully developed (almost fully, concerning emotional
responses); a 13-years-old adolescent is able to solve logical and abstract problems, to control
impulses and to develop empathy. He/she then can see a problem from different points of view, and
evaluate and synthesize them. He/she looses interest in simple problems, interpreted as “childish”, and
despises products without a minimum of complexity.
13 to 15-years-olds are generally morally ‘conventional’ in transition to ‘post-conventional’:
They think by themselves and thus can contradict the conventional morale, subsequently shifting
towards the preferred norms and values of a given subculture. The young adolescents are yet not able
to attach themselves to totally new conventions (‘post-conventional’). Nevertheless, they are
constantly exploring what is good and bad and who to identify to. Therefore, they strongly reject
adults and cultural products that show young people as a unified group, and they appreciate when the
differences among them are acknowledged and valorized by the cultural products. This does not mean
that they dislike discussing general issues that are common to all young people, such as personal
relationships and ethics, on the contrary.
13 to 15-years-old young people are in need of identity, sexuality and self-opinion (thanks to
success and acceptance in the eyes of others). In terms of products, they turn to the ones that are not
explicitly designed for young adolescents but rather the ones designed for young adults. In terms of
perceptions, they go for ‘sight bytes’, ‘sound bytes’, reality-fiction, high emotionality, speed and
variations. In terms of humor, they like slapstick, black humor and bizarre abstract humor.
From this portrait of the 13 to 15 years-old consumers, Pim Castelijn110 concluded that they
denigrated both cultural products that evoked their own childhood and associated them with children
and cultural products that directly and too obviously addressed identity-crisis and uncertainty. He
advised developers to think of concepts with a complex content, recognizing the full cognitive
development of young adolescents. The perspective and the style of the concept must be thoroughly
abstract and meaningful. The use of a humor going against taboos and evoking sexuality and violence
would be attractive to them. If characters are to be created, they should be young adults in a realistic
context (not too much fantasy and not simplistic).
Differences between boys and girls are obvious: boys play more video-games and enjoy more
listening to their type of music. Girls enjoy more creative hobby’s such as dancing. Girls invite each
other at home while boys rather gather outside or in public spaces. Nevertheless, most activities are
commonly appreciated: watching TV, going out, being fan of a sport-hero and going to pop-concerts.
According to Acuff and Reiher, late adolescence is a different matter. 16 to 19-years-old
young people experience three essential evolutions:
109
D.S. Acuff and R.H. Reiher, What kids buy and why. The psychology of marketing, New York, 1997. Their
conclusions are based on 15 years of studies on hundreds of children and young people of different ages.
110
Pim Castelijn, The Young and the restless, onderzoek naar de programmering van de publieke omroep ten
aanzien van jongeren en de behoeften van deze doelgroep, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, 1999, p. 92-93.
36
In this period, the prefrontal lobe develops itself tremendously (except in some cases of
emotional trauma, drug-use or lack of physical love; then the prefrontal lobe remains underdeveloped). The development of this brain-part is essential for the higher cognitive functioning such as
thinking about one’s own way of thinking (reflexivity), increased empathy and tighter control of one’s
impulsive reactions. It also helps creative problem-solving and future-planning. The development of
the prefrontal lobe creates a buffer between stimuli and responses, and an under-developed prefrontal
lobe leads to a lack of control over emotions and reactions.
The hormonal venue of puberty brings strong psychological and emotional impacts on
adolescents, and around the age of 16, these changes being mostly over, young people turn to social
development and think about their future while they are able to sustain adult relationships with others.
Time passing, the mobility of the adolescent increases. At the age of 16 one can have a moped,
and a car at 18. Many 16-years-olds (especially in Netherlands) already have a part-time job and learn
to take responsibilities, while they envision their professional future. Independence has a strong
meaning for them, and they completely left childhood behind.
16 to 19-years-old adolescents express the need to do things by themselves, to solve problems
themselves. They express more and more their own thoughts and need less and less recognition from
others. They are able to think seriously about complex matters and engage into philosophical inquiry
(if encouraged to do so). Their moral consciousness becomes richer, more post-conventional (thus
more creative) and they can develop their own esthetics. They are able to appreciate all forms of
humor, taking distance with slapstick and easy-lousy humor and preferring more subtle forms of
humor and plays on words.
According to Pim Castelijn, 16 to 19-years-old young people are in search of adult cultural
products, more especially pop-music items (MTV, TMF, DJ’s and VJ’s, etc.). They have a preference
for innovative and controversial concepts and contents (thus despising strongly consensual and overused concepts), especially when breaking remaining taboos. Some young people, though, are
conservative. But generally, they are much more in favor of stylistic experiment than the younger
adolescents. They like complex situations111 and contexts.
Late adolescence appears to be the life segment when boys and girls show the less differences
from each other and appreciate generally the same cultural products.
111
Castelijn takes the example of X-files and Twin Peaks as examples of complex intrigues attracting
adolescents, p. 97.
37
Youth Culture and its subcultures
Sociologists, since Parsons, identify Youth along two parameters: Young people are less
dependent than children, but not yet fully ‘independent’ adults. They are more responsible than
children, but not yet so much as adults are supposed to be.
Free time, leisure, is what makes Youth Culture special. It’s in their free time that young
people experience their independence and make their own choices. It’s through their free time that
they build up a behavior, specific values and preferences.
Society at large recognizes nowadays that young people in search of identity experiment new
behaviours in groups setting up their own rules and modus vivendi; to a certain extent this is a socially
acceptable and even rewarding attitude. This was not the case 40 years ago, when new generations
started to affirm their own values by claiming to decide for themselves on how to use their free time
and what to make out of their lives.
It is now appreciated that young people test by themselves their creativity, their ability to
organize themselves and their social values, and that they develop their individuality (which is highly
rewarded in modern liberal democracies) through personal choices and free will. The youth culture is
accepted, ethnologists would say, as a necessary rite de passage.
A functionalist would say that the function of a youth culture is to help young people solve
problems, giving sense to their social experiences through the development of new values and the
production of new activities.
Different subcultures can exist because young people can experience the same problems
differently, or because the powerlessness of young people can be stronger for some groups. Especially,
young people from lower social classes will feel the problems more heavily, being disadvantaged by a
lower economic capital; they will also be more dependent on alternative subcultures: having less
cultural capital112, they have lesser chances to achieve status through school. More generally,
unsuccessful pupils will be more active and identify more in subcultures than others. The choice of
one specific subculture then depends on the social environment of the youngster. Young people
therefore do not have a uniform relation to the social structures, and it is thus wiser to approach the
Youth Culture through its subcultures.
What does a youth culture involve for the group it draws apart?
-
Values, norms and beliefs.
Rituals and behaviour-codes.
Symbols and icons.
In a complex modern society such as the Netherlands, moreover in a multi-cultural city such
as Rotterdam, some cultural features are more or less widely shared while others are specific to a
group. These features are overlapping on each other, and thus the concept of “subcultures” helps
visualizing distinctive groups.
Youth subcultures can be based on gender, social class, ethnic background, religion and/or
local (or other) attachments. What they obviously share is the range of age marking the transition
between childhood and full adult independence. In Netherlands, we can assume the range to go from
11-years-old to somewhere in the early twenties (21), but that does not mean that identification to the
youth subculture never concerns people below or beyond such lines. The core of the Youth, as targetgroup, is commonly identified as the young people from 13 to 19 years-old.
P. Bourdieu, “The forms of capital”, in J.C. Richardson, The handbook of theory and research for the
sociology of education, Greenwood Publishing group, 1986.
112
38
The “mainstream” youth culture concerns higher middle-class youth and draws the majority of
young people towards conservative consumption-oriented behaviour. It valorises commercial icons
produced by the mass-media and cultural industries, but it does not draw a strong sense of community
among its members. On the contrary, it supports the cultural values of the Market: individuality and
competition.
The alternative youth subcultures concern a variety of more specific groups, striving for their
differentiation from the mainstream culture, from older generations’ subcultures and from each other.
They thus design their own signs, symbols and lifestyles to show off their identity to others and to
communicate their membership to the community. A youth subculture thus draws its members
together, allowing a feeling of “mutual understanding” among total strangers.
Young people are intrinsically socially marginal, being fully integrated neither in the
economic nor in the social structure, which are designed for adults. Even in the institutions designed
for them by the authorities (education, clubs, Television ‘Omroep’), the decision power is held by
adults. The answer to this marginality is to fix one’s own goals and evaluate one’s behavior according
to them, not according to the rules of the adults’ society. Then, successful compliance has nothing
marginal anymore, and the Youth group keeps control. Success and retribution do not take the
materialist form of the market-democracy. The subcultures do not offer materialist solutions to the
young people. They offer ideological and/or magical solutions113.
The lifecycle of a subculture:
Once it appears, a youth subculture does not live a steady long life. It can soon disappear with
the aging or boredom of its members, or it can be embedded into the mainstream, depending on the
amount of interest that the media show in it and the (im)possibility to commodify its symbols
(allowing then its industrial diffusion). In the latter process, the most culturally value-added elements
are rejected, since commercialism leaves no room to singularity. A later revival of the subculture, in a
renewed form, is however possible.
To avoid this latter process, the production of cultural symbols in subcultures is somehow
esoteric: A hardcore of young people gives form to the subculture, launching the idea and developing
the style. They attract sympathizers by direct, personal contact, followed by hangers on. Some
members ‘embody’ the cultural capital of the subculture, with its specific codes and practices. Others
just “hang on” to the objectified cultural capital attached to objects symbolizing the subculture (they
may not integrate all of its value-system). The hardcore tries to keep the subculture away from the
mainstream, and therefore those who become too open and commercial are despised as sell-outs.
The subculture also affirms its strength through the refusal of other subcultures. The distaste
for other subcultures’ s lifestyles, music and values can gear up to rivalry and animosity. A young
person choosing one subculture soon starts despising others’ subcultures. This trends generally
smoothes down along the mainstream-ing of the subculture
In a project such as ours, we should not try to mainstream-ize a subculture completely, but
respect its singularity as an ethnologist would. We should also work with the subculture and not
devalorize it. A fragile balance has to be found between respecting a subculture and opening its
member to an active consciousness of sustainability putting them in motion .We should keep in mind
that efforts targeted at subcultures will have multiplicative effects, since subcultures are a major source
of inspiration for the mainstream fads and fashion.
The lifestyle of a youth subculture:
113
Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, Resistance through rituals, London, 1976 (p. 47).
39
The lifestyle materializes the identity proclaimed by the subculture. The style is made up of
three essential elements:
- The image, the visual appearance of its members (clothes and fashion, hair, ornaments and
accessories).
- The attitude (the gait, facial expression and pose).
- The ‘slang’, with its vocabulary and pronunciation.
Following the lifestyle proves one’s identity and belonging both to the group and to outsiders.
Members thus invest much attention, time and money to their style, and adapt their patterns of
consumption to it. More generally, the lifestyle affects their leisure, their claimed opinions and
positioning in society and the organization of their personal life. The lifestyle can at least be seen as a
nice way to socialize and party, but it can go so far as involving an explicit vision of society (and be
strongly linked to the values of the subculture).
One can identify himself to ideal-typical idols and/or to the lifestyle of his group, the ultimate
goal being to build a personal identity. If we want to reach young people, we must take care of the
core elements of the process of identification and self-development (which sociologists would include
in the process of socialization). The trick is that ideal-types point at trends, with a short life-cycle and
a permanent need for the social worker to update his information, the first to know being the young
people in the target-group or young people in another country about to spread their subculture.
Youth subcultures are a typical western phenomenon, embedded in the consumption society
and its ideology of enjoyment, promoting hedonism through consumption and wasting. The cultural
industries foster continuous consumption of new lifestyles, ‘style-surfing’. According to Ellen Sinke,
Communication scientist: “Young people can change style overnight. They dress in Punk when they
are pissed off and dress snobbish when they feel stiff”114. This is true only for superficial followers of
subcultures (the hangers on). This trend is witnessed by the research presented in 1993 by the
Amsterdam association Alexander, counting precisely 95 different styles115. Nevertheless, a few true
subcultures exist at a time, with the older ones surviving here and there, and for the members of these
subcultures it is not desirable to ‘surf on styles’.
Another typical characteristic of contemporary youth subcultures is that the differences from
one subculture to the other are thin, and their styles are increasingly ‘unisex’.
114
115
In Gertjan van Schoonhoven, “Jeugd van tegenwoordig”, Elsevier (1997).
Het is saai als het de hele tijd hetzelfde is, Stichting Alexander, Amsterdam, 1993.
40
Youth Culture in sociological perspective
In the 1920’s, the Chicago school of Sociology stated that subcultures provide the key to an
understanding of deviance as normal behavior in the face of particular social circumstances. The study
of Youth subcultures flourished after the Second World War, accounting both for delinquency and for
style-centered youth cultures.
Researchers based at the Birmingham Center for Contemporary Cultural Study (CCCS)
defined subculture as a form of class-resistance, a collective symbolic response to the conditions of
class: Far from signifying working-class youth’s “assimilation into a unified teenage consumer
culture, the emergent style-based subcultures, while indeed indicative of newly acquired spending
habits, also symbolized a series of responses on the part of working-class youth to the socio-economic
conditions of their class-position”116.
For one of these researchers, Phil Cohen, “the latent function of subculture is this_ to express
and resolve, albeit magically, the contradictions which remain hidden and unresolved in the parent
culture… [Each subculture attempts] to retrieve some of the socially cohesive elements destroyed in
their parent culture and to combine these with other class fractions symbolizing one or other of the
options confronting it”117.
CCCS theorists have proposed two main approaches in understanding the cultural work
performed by style in facilitating forms of subcultural resistance: According to Willis, style-centered
resistance depends on the homology between the particular type of object of consumption and the
range of values that it is intended to represent118. On the contrary, Hebdige rejects the concept of
homology because the assumption of “a transparent relation between sign and referent, signification
and reality” is over-simplistic119. Hebdige prefers the concept of polysemy: an object generates not
merely one meaning but a range of meanings, or rather a potentiality to alternative meanings.
Angela McRobbie has criticized the work of the CCCS on subcultures on the basis that the
model gives no attention to girls, indeed absent from subcultural groupings until the 1990’s and still
marginal since. McRobbie argued that “girls find alternative strategies to that of the boys’ subcultures
[…] constructed around the territory available to girls, the home and bedroom”120. McRobbie also
noticed later that within the spheres of fashion and dance, girls and young women effectively used
style as a form of resistance, showing in public a sexual challenge to mainstream fashion and
eroticism121.
Another criticism concerns the class-centered theory of subcultures, focusing on the workingclass. Many contemporary subcultures are clearly not instigated by working-class youth122. For
example, most Punk-creations were originally generated among the art-school avant-garde.
Also under-estimated were the local variations in youth’s response to music and style. As
Waters put it: “geographical specificity is a factor in subcultural studies that cannot be overlooked
[and consequently] works need to tone down their stress on the universality of subcultures, and make a
concerted effort to focus on… regional subcultures”.123 According to Bennett, one should look at “the
116
Andy Bennett, Popular music and youth culture, MacMillan, New-York, 2000, p. 18.
Phil Cohen, “Subcultural conflict and Working Class Community”, Working papers in Cultural Studies 2,
University of Birmingham, 1972, p. 23.
118
P. Willis, Profane culture, Routledge & Kegan, London, 1978, p. 191.
119
D. Hebdige, Subculture: the meaning of style, Routledge, London, 1979, p. 116-119.
120
A. McRobbie and G. Garber, “Girls and subcultures: an exploration”, in S. Hall and T. Jefferson, Resistance
through rituals: Youth subcultures in Post-war Britain, Hutchinson, London, 1976, p. 219.
121
A. McRobbie, Gender and generation, MacMillan, London, 1984, and Postmodernism and popular culture,
Routledge, London, 1994.
122
J. Benson, The rise of consumer society in Britain, 1880-1980, Longman, London, 1994. Quoted by Bennett
in Popular music… p. 23.
123
C. Waters, “Badges of half-formed, inarticulate radicalism: A critique of recent trends in the study of
working-class youth culture”, International labour and working-class history, 19, 1981 (p.32).
117
41
regional variations and local levels of significance that such styles acquire once they become more
widely available as commercial products”124.
An alternative to subcultural theory has been modeled around the concept of lifestyles125. The
origins of the concept date back to Weber (for whom the lifestyles of social groups manifested their
status). Subsequently, for Simmel and Veblen, lifestyles were actively constructed by social groups
and gave them distinction through the appropriation of particular commodities. Lifestyles show
consumption-behaviors that are inter-connected, while subcultures (or at least their cores) are
theoretically more separated from the wider consumption-society. Lifestyles are supposed to be more
fluid, open to influences and less determined by the socio-economic background of their members. It
is consumerism that offers lifestyles the different alternatives in which they dive, temporarily escaping
from reality. Being structurally subjugating, exploitative and alienating in the perspective of
subcultures, consumption is superficially and temporarily enchanting and emancipatory in the
perspective of lifestyles. Also, the theory of lifestyles has learned from the criticism pointed at
subcultural theory, and thus embeds the idea of a polysemy, materialized in local collective cultural
meanings given to cultural artifacts and systems: “Young people take the cultural resources provided
by the popular cultural industries and use the prescribed meanings attached to such resources as
templates around which to construct their own forms of meaning and authenticity” (Bennett). “Global
commodities” are put into motion in “local scenarios”.
The subcultural theory, updated by the input of the criticisms mentioned here, has a strong
interest in understanding the processes at stake in the creation of cultural values and beliefs by a core
of specific young people, and in the development of rituals and behavioral codes among their
followers. But to understand how these subcultures are popularized into the mainstream and reach the
masses on a global scale, through specific icons and symbols, the theory of lifestyles has a strong
point. Lifestyles indeed characterize the cultural life of what one would call the surfers (those who
surf on alternative subcultures as well as on the Mainstream Pop culture, picking up what they like and
keeping what becomes meaningful to them).
In the following sections, the major youth subcultures of Rotterdam in the last 20 years are
presented. Some, like Hip Hop, are more popular nowadays than others, like Punk, but they all still
have a relative influence on the lifestyles of young people in Rotterdam, in 2002.
124
125
Andy Bennett, Popular music and youth culture, MacMillan, New-York, 2000, p. 24.
In Bennett, p. 25-27.
42
Portraits of subcultures in Rotterdam
Rasta’s
In the 1970’s, the black music-culture (Soul, Funk, Reggae) attracted young creoles from
Surinam, the Antilles and also some Dutch young people. Especially, the Rasta’s formed a subculture
with its own music (Reggae), religion (Rastafari) and a black consciousness celebrating African roots
(harbouring the colours of Africa: green yellow, red and black). This subculture originated in Jamaica
in the beginning of the 20th century from an original pan African Christian religious movement. In the
1990’s, the Rasta’s subculture has entered the mainstream (superficially of course), while its values
are still coherent and meaningful for its plain members:
The best-known recognition-sign of the Rastafaris is the hair ‘dreadlocks’, together with a cap
and camouflage clothing. This outfit has yet become fashionable in the 1990’s among the mainstream
youth and dreadlocks have become somewhat common. Yet, according to its members, Rasta
belonging is something “from inside” and thus they denigrate the importance of the dreadlocks.
Reggae is a fluid, peaceful dance music, and “when you listen to Reggae, you automatically
follow the rhythm”126. The texts focus on God and the bible, love, daily life in the ghettos, racism and
politics. DJ-mixing is part of the show.
The Rasta’s value-system insists on self-determination and a holistic communion with oneself,
others, nature and God. It glorifies Africa as the cultural roots of the whole Humanity. “Green is the
Nature of Africa. Yellow is the Gold of Africa. Red is the blood that spilled over Africa” and Black
the People of Africa. The original Rastafaris interpret the Bible in favour of the black people and
evoke a black Messiah, impersonated at a time by the Ethiopian king Haile Selassie. Some Rasta’s
even show black racism. European Rasta’s are in favour of a looser spiritual life-philosophy that can
be adapted and transformed by individuals: “You always have a gift. Find your gift and then go on
further with it”. Through his choices and his self-knowledge the individual can give meaning to his
life: “What are you doing? What do you want to do? ... You will live what you create”.
Rasta’s aim to sustain better relationships between black and white cultures, and they are nonviolent by principle. “Every Rasta loves children. They speak the truth, they are wise”. Rasta’s have
respect for all living-beings.
Apart from reggae-festivals and koffieshops, Dutch Rasta’s meet in ‘theehuizen’. They smoke
marihuana and other herbs, but don’t drink alcohol. Many are vegetarians or eat itar (‘healthy food’).
For foreigners, the Rasta’s can be a support. “I don’t give up, I stay myself. There is always a way for
me. I believe in my own culture, in my Rasta and in myself”.
Metalheads
The hardrockers or metalheads appeared in the US in the 1970’s. The oldest musical variant
was called ‘Heavy Metal’ (a heavily amplified guitar rock). The lyrics are often sombre, marked by a
fascination for the dark side of mankind, drawing on horror and gloomy heroic-fantasy symbolism.
Metal is mainly a music-culture, metalheads listen to music and talk about it all day long, always eager
to attend to a live-concert. Training on the guitar means a lot to them (and is a necessity to play at the
high speed required for this type of music). “A day without music is a day without life.”127 To keep
126
Quotes are taken from an interview with Hesdy Blank, owner of a Rastafari theehuis in Venlo, 24/08/1999, in
Jong! 1950-2000.
127
Interview with Anton Visser (black metal, Spijkenisse), 15/06/1999, in Jong! 1950-2000.
43
informed about the last trends and the live-concert, the Dutch metalheads read the magazine
Aardschok.
From a small subculture, they have grown into a wide, international movement, always more
eccentric, harder and louder:
They developed their own dance, head-banging. Their clothing is inspired by the Hell’s
Angels motor bickers: skinny jeans, nailed jacket, black leather boots and a T-shirt with the name of a
metal-band (or bloody imagery) on it. They often wear tattoos and have long hair (“Without long hair
no head-banging” 128), and adopted piercing in the 1990’s. For girls, heavy black and white make-up is
a must. Metalheads make their own clothes (sewing pentagrams and satanic symbols on their jackets)
or buy them at special shops such as Black Widow in Rotterdam, an important city for the Metal
subculture in Netherlands.
The metalheads were originally white men from popular classes, but they started to melt in the
mainstream in the 1980’s, developing many sub-styles then to maintain their own identity: trash,
speed, deathmetal (sometimes crossing over with punks). The glammetal, with glamrock and more
extravagant style, attracted many female followers, some males then heading in the 1990’s towards
Black metal, an aggressive variant with icons taken mainly from horror, black magic and medieval
gothic symbols, and lyrics focusing on death, suicide, war and violence. Generally, the Metal
expresses the torn-apart consciousness of post-modern existence in a capitalist state, breaking the
taboos of politically correct notions of good and evil and giving a conflictual vision of society.
The metalheads are against: against the bourgeois, against the law, the police and rules in
general, against authority and against religion. They interpret the lyrics symbolically as an act of
revolt. They claim to be social, anti-racist and non-violent. They are often fatalist: “If you look around
you, you see that evil rules the world. That’s the reality and you can do nothing about it, so fuck the
world.” At festivals, discussions turn around good, evil and power, with no room for romance and
lovers.
In 1994, the Dynamo Open Air festival in Eindhoven attracted over 80 000 people; it was
thereafter limited to a maximum of 40 000 allowed visitors. Dynamo is the most famous metal festival
in Europe.
Hard rockers have prejudices against mainstream Disco and Reggae music, and prefer Punk,
Hardcore, HipHopers and Skaters. They show animosity against Gabbers and Skinheads, “because
they discriminate”. They also despise people who “make reality nicer than it is”. After the late
downfall of Gabbers, is Metal coming back in 2002? A popular band in 2002 is Rammstein from
Germany.
Punkers
The Punk subculture appeared in Netherlands in 1977, coming from white US and UK art
students. They purposely tried to fight the conformist hippie mainstream culture by showing an ugly
and aggressive image Punks soon had their own art-forms around graffiti and gluing. They share their
music and dance preferences with the Metalheads. Punkers are still a contemporary phenomenon
(“Punk is not dead” was one of their slogans in the 1990’s), but much weaker than in the 1980’s. The
Punk is a middle-class white subculture, and attracts more boys than girls.
Punkers wear second-hand clothes they fix up and combine with black leather, metal, garbageplastics, strips and bracelets. Girls often wear mini-skirts. Punkers often have tattoos, piercing, and
dyed hair and are partly bald. The clothing-code is very important and wearing a suit means betraying
one’s Punk identity. Punkers have a doctrine of DIY (do-it-yourself), even for piercing, and avoid
anything commercial. They therefore teach each other different crafts and techniques. They emphasize
128
Interview with Anton Visser (black metal, Spijkenisse), 15/06/1999, in Jong! 1950-2000.
44
on one’s creativity and authenticity but mistrust esthetics. They sometimes live in groups and squat
empty apartments (which often were used as political meeting-places), organizing themselves against
the owners and the police. One example was the Wolters Noordhof Complex in Groningen (which had
a café, a vegans restaurant, a feminist café, a concert-hall and a bookshop), until it was dismantled by
the police in May 1990.
Punkers write their own hand-made Fanzines (Fan-Magazines), with an anti-design style:
hand-writing, low-quality photocopies, chaotic gluing. The best-known in Netherlands have been
Aambeeld (Enschede) and Koekrant (Amsterdam).
Punks are pessimistic anarchists, almost nihilist: “No more future” was the slogan in the
1980’s. They participate in leftist and anti-racist activities and like to express their political stance in
public whenever possible: “Fuck the system”. In the 1980’s, they were known for putting up
barricades and fighting the police, which they still do in rare occasions. They are fighting against
nuclear energy, racism, religion, materialism, capitalism, the police and the Monarchy. They valorize
personal autonomy and individualism.
Next to the ideological Punkers, there are also now younger Pretpunkers who say they are
against everything, mock the hardcore ‘vegetarian’ Punkers from the 1980’s and just want to use drugs
and get drunk. There is strong animosity between the two groups.
Punkers also refused the company of Skinheads in their concerts and have had since then great
difficulties with them. Punkers see themselves as people who improve society, and thus despise the
aggressive lifestyle of Skinheads and their values. They see mainstream Disco culture as childish and
empty-headed.
Punkers have inspired many other groups (such as Alto’s, see later). In the years 2000, a new
identity of New-Punkers or Hard Pop is emerging, more self-critical and ironic.129
Skinheads
The skinhead subculture came to Netherlands short after the Punk, after 1979. The Skinheads
were originally English white males from popular classes, showing pride for their social status. They
have always been very marginal in Netherlands.
Their clothing is borrowed from the traditional English worker: shoulder straps, jeans, heavy
working-shoes (Doc Martens) and bald heads. They also wear army-clothing and tattoos. They share
with Punkers a preference for piercing, bier and pogo (a dance form consisting of frenetic jumping and
hitting each other). They do some graffiti. Their music is ska or skinhead-bands (close to punk music)
and carries lyrics with their political opinions. They sing them together during concerts.
Skinheads are always extreme and violent in their political views, be they communist, racist or
neo-nazi. They refuse contact with other cultures, especially reggae and HipHop, and fight against
immigrants.
Skinheads give high praise to “hard work”, as one of the values of the working-class they
identify to. Skinheads with opposing political views hardly get along with each other, but there is a
strong feeling of male friendship among members of a given subgroup.
New Wavers, Hardcore, Straight-edgers and Alto’s
In the 1980’s, the Punk gave rise to four new youth sub-cultures.
129
See in Chapter 3, the section about Punk Art in MAMA, and the interview of Jeroen Evenaerts.
45
New Wave appeared around 1980 and is less aggressive and less critical than the Punk. New
Wave puts more emphasis on music (everyone has his own guitar and plays in a band) and
sophisticated black clothing, self-made, second-hand or bought in special shops (such as Krokus in
Rotterdam). New Wavers don’t do graffiti, despise competition and don’t want to bother anyone. New
Wave is a white subculture as much as Punk. Some New Wave music bands became mainstream
millionaires (The Cure, U2, Simple Minds, Nick Cave, etc.). Integrated into the Mainstream in the
course of the 1980’s, New Wave soon disappeared as a subculture.
In reaction to the New Wave, the Hardcore Punkers want to keep a strong ideological line
and to become radical activists. Their music is a cross-over of Punk and Metal. This subculture, close
to the original Punk, has a longer life than the New Wave, but very few members nowadays.
After 1980, the right wing of the Hardcore split into the Straight Edge, refusing the nihilism
of original Punk and condemning its free use of sex, smoking, drugs and alcohol. The taboo on alcohol
is especially strong: “You cannot say, I am straight, and then drink a biertje”130. They are vegetarian or
veganist. They often engage into animal-defense actions and care for the environment. Straight-edgers
want to give a positive example to others. They give themselves strict rules for life and hope so to
make the earth a better place by forming a “chain of strength”. They criticize the consumption-society,
and their relative optimism allows them to take interest in politics. Some of them resort to strong
action (interpreted as non-violent disobedience or as limited use of violence). They meet mainly at
concerts, and dance a lot there (in the way Punkers do). Their music is a punk-metal with elements of
mainstream pop-music. The lyrics highlight the values and rules of Straight Edge and the strength of
‘standing together’. A Punk Straight-edger singer and novelist lately quite popular is Henry Rollins,
from US.
Straight-edgers dressed like the Punkers in the 1980’s, more like Skaters and Hiphoppers in the 1990’s
(Sport shoes, large trousers, T-shirt with a slogan). They like to subvert commercial symbols, using by
instance the word Vegan with the Nike-logo. Girls choose a ‘natural’ style (little or no make-up,
natural hair-color, T-shirt). Straight-edgers are likely to go to other subcultures’ concerts and parties,
claiming to be more ‘tolerant’ than others. They communicate a lot with one another via e-mails (as
most mainstream young people now do). Straight Edge is mainly a white movement.
Alto’s are higher middle-class young people. The Alto’s made their subculture out of different
subcultures, forming a recognizable little group in the end-1980’s and 1990’s. From the Punkers they
took the anarchist slogans, the pogo-dance, piercing, dyed hair, DIY131 and second-hand clothes. From
the old-times Hippies they took the word ‘peace’, the long hair, the flowers, the preference for lowbudget, long critical discussions about society and soft drugs. They adopted the rasta dreadlocks,
colors and T-shirts. Alto’s put the emphasis on being critical about fashion and the commercial
mainstream. In Rotterdam, their favorite clothing-shops are Black Widow (the metal shop) and Cheap
Fashion. In the 1990’s, they took up the PLO132 scarf: “I had it on day and night, also in class,
everyone walked with a PLO-scarf”133. Alto’s drink cheap red wine and smoke joints. Their musical
preferences mix folk, rock, hardcore and metal, with singers like Björk quite popular and taste for
older music (the Beatles, The Doors, Velvet Underground). To dance on, they appreciate Jungle (a
combination of rock, punk and house with a fast rhythm, but also a new subculture as hybrid as
Alto’s). Alto’s meet in parks, on squares or at home, and sometimes in cafés and coffeeshops.
Discotheques are taboo and cinema’s too expensive.
Alto’s are pessimistic, cynical and depressive. They are passive and definitely don’t want to save the
world. Many want to be creative but have no plans for the future. Girls and Boys are equal, with a
feminist awareness. The group pressure is there but Alto’s deny it to protect their individuality. Alto’s
tolerate House and Techno but despise the ‘racist’ gabbers; they don’t understand the “flipped”
Satanism of Metalheads and dislike their destructive attitude.
130
Interview with Sammy Dirksz, 15/06/1999, Rotterdam, in Jong! 1950-2000.
DIY = Do It Yourself (see Punkers).
132
PLO for Palestine Liberation Organization.
133
Interview with Chantal Hermes, Breda, 30/06/1999, in Jong! 1950-2000.
131
46
HipHoppers
HipHop appeared in Netherlands after 1980 and is still strong today. This subculture was
coming from the South Bronx, New York (where it started around 1975134). In Netherlands, white
young people took part in HipHop right from the beginning, although the majority was and still is
black. HipHop is in process of becoming fully mainstream since the 1990’s.
The HipHop is a street-culture with three main elements: the music (rap), the dance (electric
boogie and break-dance) and graffiti. In each of these activities, HipHoppers have a strong competitive
spirit and valorise hard training. They organize or improvise contests.
In HipHop music, the DJ was at first free to ‘scratch’ the music and be thus very creative
himself. But the real star has become the rapper, thanks to his ingenious use of rhythmic spoken text.
Some texts are inspired by a machist vision of the black ghetto-culture. But most texts now speak of
love and social relationships, attracting a feminine audience and the participation of ‘bitches’ in songs.
Rap sometimes involves a political awareness, inspired by Malcom X. The creative play with language
has spread in everyday speech. Dutch HipHoppers developed their own slang, a mix of original
American slang, Sranang Tongo (Creole-Surinamese) and Dutch.
It is very important for a HipHop dancer to develop his own style, with his own sequences of
figures. He can thereafter allow himself freestyle (improvisation). Freestyling earns him respect, and
thus others make sure that he is really improvising. Respected freestylers are the ‘natural leaders’ of
crews. Break-dancers give performances in commercial centres, on public squares, without formal
preparation (but with much training) and without asking. The complaints of shop-keepers amuse the
break-dancers who see in it the stiffness of bourgeois middle-class. Break-dancers avoid drugs,
alcohol and smoking, unlike the Gangstarappers smoking Marihuana and white rappers keen on bier.
The graffiti is even more a protest-action, seen as a mark of identity and a graphic “gift to the
Rotterdammers”, and leads to conflicts with the police. It consists of tags (signatures) and pieces
(multicolour complex images), and should be in a public space open to everyone. Graphing is seen as
an adventurous nightly activity, as one tries not to get caught by the police. It is also a team-work with
division of task and preparatory drawings discussed in the group.
Their clothes are characteristically ‘ghetto-chic’, with big golden accessories (nowadays,
rather expensive watches) and sport-clothing from famous brands (Kappa, Puma, Adidas) seen in US
movies about HipHop135. It can also be large jeans, baseball jackets and metal plates with names on it.
Some show their cultural roots (along with the values of black consciousness): they use the ‘African
flag’ or the flag of Surinam. Since the 1990’s, clothing becomes more popular (less ‘ghetto-chic’ and
more sweaters) and some HipHoppers even wear second-hand dumped stuff. Some have dreadlocks,
since the band De La Soul took up this Reggae fashion, and HipHop girls dye their hair in red, yellow
and brown. Recently, tattoos and piercing have started to appear.
Break-dancers love to possess a lot of clothes and be fashionable because it gives them
‘energy’: “Als ik iets nieuws aan heb, dans ik twee keer zo lekker” 136. Some of them even travel to US
to buy the latest fashionable brand from New York!
Video clips from US are an essential source of information and inspiration to Dutch
HipHoppers. Together with HipHop films, video clips have a strong influence on all the aspects of the
lifestyle and foster changes. Magazines are less influential, except to read about new slang-words.
Some take inspiration from the bible and the books of Malcom X.
134
Concerning the origins of Rap, one can think about the Last Poets, a revolutionary musical group close to the
Black Panthers in the end of the 1960’s.
135
The most influential one was Beat Street (1984).
136
Interview with 010 BBoyz, Rotterdam, 17/08/1999.
47
HipHoppers meet each other on the streets. “Especially in the summer everyone would go
everyday to the Doelenplein… hang out there some time”137. HipHop attracts young people from
Creole-Surinamese, Antillean, and Cap-Verdian origins, and a few whites, Moluccans and Moroccans.
They experience HipHop as a real-life school, teaching them discipline, passion and motivation.
There’s rivalry among HipHop bands and city-quarters groups, literally mimicking the gangs
in American ghettos. “At one point you had something like each quarter against the others: West,
Noord and Zuid… That was for real, not a joke anymore”. In the end of the 1980’s, the violent lyrics
and actions of the gangsta rappers fighting each other gave a negative image of HipHop.
In the 1990’s however, the HipHop subculture smoothed down. Many black young people
turned to bubble, R&B and Ragga (computer-Reggae), but since a few years they massively come
back to HipHop and break-dance. HipHop, R&B and Reggae now openly cross-influence each other.
HipHoppers rarely experienced contact with other youth subcultures, apart from a few fights
against Skinheads and xenophobic gabbers.
Skaters
In the mid-1980’s and 1990’s, the Skate subculture came to the Netherlands, from United
States. Its central element is a sport… skating. Thus, the most important activity and everyday subject
of discussion is about finding new complex figures and tricks. Skaters have therefore a competitive
spirit, but without any aggressive behavior: the atmosphere must be relaxed and friendly. Since the
mid-1990’s, some girls (the wannabe’s) have started to hang around in skate parks. Skate culture
unites poor and rich, black and white young people.
Skaters train and show their skills in the streets, on squares and in commercial centers. In
Rotterdam, popular places are Leuvehaven-Blaak and the “shopping-center Oosterhof”. They are in
conflict with the police for skating around shops: “You’re not allowed to skate. In their eyes, you spoil
the public space… I’ve been put in jail 5 times for skateboarding. But who are you hurting then? The
pavement…”138. They are allowed to meet and practice in the half-pipe of WestBlaak in Rotterdam
city-center. To mock those who complain about them training in the streets, they call themselves
‘social disease’.
Skaters have their own magazines and fanzines about their favorite sport, such as Skate Rock,
and Social Disease in Rotterdam.
Drugs and alcohol do not get along well with sport. But after skating, some skaters enjoy bier
and joints, while others are straight-edgers.
The clothing style is not uniform. Much of its characteristics have been borrowed from
Hiphop: sweaters, wide baggy trousers, cap. Everything except the shoes has to be oversized,
especially the T-shirt or shirt. Clothes have to be convenient, to skate with, and hair is better short.
Some have tattoos and piercing. The fashion-signals come from professional US skateboarders.
Skaters give a lot of attention to their board. Each has its board-graphics (under the board), white a
great diversity of themes. Choosing one special graphic is a kind of public statement.
Skaters are individualist and tolerant. They don’t have their own musical style, but have a
preference for rap, with openness to many other styles. Most skaters are young: They begin as ‘apies’
at 11, and loose the faith around 20. The skate subculture is open to anyone who wants to join, but it’s
harder for girls to actively take part. The atmosphere fosters lasting friendships. Skaters also feel
connected to the world, since anywhere they go they are confident that they will find skaters and
immediately understand each other.
137
Interview with Tommy Hammann (break-dancer Dynamic Rockers/ rapper Time Drillers/ producer-mixer
TDLC Rotterdam), 17/08/1999, in Young! 1950-2000.
138
Interview with Gijs La Rivière, Rotterdam, 13/07/1999, in Jong! 1950-2000.
48
Skaters are open to other youth subcultures. They regret the lack of friendship between
subcultures, and distrust the media which “should let youth cultures go their way” . Talking about
society at large, skaters have a positive attitude: “The future? I am optimistic, you have to remain
critical, but you can do things and change things yourself, make things better. I believe a lot is about to
change, especially in the Arts. There are so many creative young people now. Sure.”
House: Acid, Techno, Gabber, Trance, Jungle
Coming originally from black and homosexual minorities in US (like Disco in the 1970’s),
House reached the Netherlands around 1987. The core of House is a fast and loud electronic music
designed for dance, with no singing and little if any voice. The DJ’s are the big stars. The most
important activity is partying and dancing all night in discotheques or in original spaces like empty
factories, bunkers and tunnels. In Rotterdam, the most famous place for such raves was the
‘Energiehal’ until 1996.
The first variant was Acid House (120 BPM139) in the end of the 1980’s. They were called
‘Disco-hippies’, because of the use of psychedelic colors, bandana’s on the head, hallucinatory drugs
and the slogan ‘peace and love’. But they didn’t show the revolutionary momentum of former hippies.
The ‘disco’ stood for the importance given to one’s outfit, the free sexuality and the attraction for
visual effects (stroboscope, black light). Acid attracted the homosexuals and the fashion-makers, and
got many opponents in the mainstream. House parties were forbidden in 1989 in Amsterdam. Acid
made a come-back after 1991, with a close variant named Goa-Trance in the end of the 1990’s, but
competing with other variants… The Fashion in Acid House later turned to buying expensive JeanPaul Gaultier clothes.
Techno (120-140 BPM) has a widely different atmosphere than Acid. The style is more
futuristic, cold and tense. The colors turn to fluorescent and silver. Techno music is abstract and
minimalist, often made for listening as much as for dancing, and has become very popular on the
European level in the mid-1990’s.
The most popular and specifically Dutch House variant after 1989 is the Gabberhouse or
Hardcore (160-300 BPM). It has been very strong until 1998, its center being Rotterdam, and a few
signs of its come-back may be showing in mid-2002 although most Rotterdam young people now say
that ‘Gabber is dead’, while it is becoming popular outside of the Netherlands. The first gabbers were
little-educated white men. Gabbers like extremely loud and fast music, made their own dance, the
hakkûh and their own wild parties, the raves. Gabbers have a uniform appearance: expensive
Australian training-suit, AirMax Nikes shoes, bomber-jacket and a bald head.
Gabbers had their own magazines such as Strobe (1995) and later Thunderdome and
Powerbeat.
Gabbers are known to have an aggressive behavior and to use a lot of drugs (ecstacy and
speed). Gabbers hate altogether skaters (‘feel better, destroy a skater’), alto’s (‘better ten alto’s under
the grounnd than one on the street’) and straight-edgers. They don’t fight Skaters though, because
Skaters don’t react to provocations. They rather fight Hiphoppers if possible.
There are two types of gabber: the first type is strongly racist and chauvinistic, attacking nonwhites in the streets, and even fighting against gabbers from other cities or even other quarters of the
same city. The second type is less violent and gathers in parties called ‘gabbers against racism’.
A Happy or Mellow hardcore (165-180 BPM) appeared in Amsterdam as an alternative
Gabbers have met strong opposition from various groups, especially the ‘Front Anti Gabber’
(appeared in 1996 on Internet), and the ‘Evangelische Omroep’.
A new variant of House appeared in 1994 in London and spread after 1995 to the Netherlands:
Jungle (150-160 BPM). It combines Techno and Ragga (electronic Reggae), and offers a softer
139
BPM = Beats per minute, determines the speed of the bassdrum.
49
alternative lifestyle to Gabberhouse. The clothing is cheaper and often second-hand: “Jungle is not
commercial-oriented”140. T-shirts with a very childish imagery are popular. The hair is a playground,
with a preference for dreadlocks and a pledge for creativity in style. Jungle is a hybrid style open to
change.
House parties always have to be renewed, and the organizers each time choose a new theme:
“Each time creating a new world.”141 The themes can be political or anecdotal. Gabbers preferred
themes turning around aliens and horror. The themes are no more than a façade, a nice set-up for yet
another night of hedonistic “self-kick”.
Almost Mainstream newbie’s: Superboer, Normalo, Netjes
Superboer is a subculture that recently appeared in big cities and manifests itself on Saturday
evenings. Its members take no drugs but drink bier. They wear jeans, a lumberjack blouse and armyboots (‘the Nikes of the peasant’). The hair can be short or long but has no ‘style’. Superboer’s don’t
have developed their own musical style, but many say their preferred band is the Pop group
Normaal.142
Normalo quite simply refers to the lifestyles of those… who do not recognize themselves in
any of the other subcultures. Normalo’s wear Levi’s jeans with a shirt or a blouse and sport-shoes.
They like sports and are pragmatic. Many young “allocthones” (foreigners) adhere to the Normalo
lifestyle, to try to assimilate to the Dutch youth, and do not give themselves the ‘luxury’ of
experimenting. If one accepts this group as a subculture, it would be the largest one… but this ‘style’
is only a manifestation of the integration of new members into the Mainstream.
Netjes, kakker, bal or lullo… These different names refer to a subculture which rejects most
of the characteristics of other lifestyles: No sport-clothing, no piercing, no oversized-clothing, no
flashy colors. The hair is ‘normal’ and well taken care of, short or long. One wears clean Levi’s jeans
and leather-shoes. In sum, it is the very style that most other young people adopt when they become
adults!
140
Interview with Sietske Atsma, Amsterdam, 31/05/1999, in Jong! 1950-2000.
Interview with Joost van Bellen, house-dj RoXY Amsterdam, 22/06/1999, in Jong! 1950-2000.
142
Pim Castelijn, The Young and the restless, onderzoek naar de programmering van de publieke omroep ten
aanzien van jongeren en de behoeften van deze doelgroep, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, 1999.
141
50
Subcultures: transversal interests
The general Style:
Some subcultures appreciate that their style-attributes be hand-made or at least transformed by
one’s creative crafts: It is especially the case for Metalheads, the different subcultures of the Punk
family, especially the Alto’s in the last years (and also for Acid House but it has disappeared by now).
These groups thus don’t appreciate over-consumption and other young people’s obsession for
expensive new clothes. They can thus be interest in sustainable ways to re-use second-hand clothes
and make them fashionable or original with one’s own provocative creative input.
Other subcultures prefer to buy their style-attributes, but prefer to have them cheap, be it new
or second-hand. This is the case of Jungle and Trance in House, of Rasta’s and of some Alto’s and
Punkers. Sustainable Fashion could thus reach them if it allowed for a commercial follow-up and
diffusion of its creations, not because these young people are fond of shopping but because they
wouldn’t spend too much time on making their own clothing
The last group of subcultures finds pleasure and recognition in buying expensive new clothes
and attaches importance to trademarks: Gabbers, Skaters, Straight-edgers, HipHoppers, Skinheads and
Glam-Metal (and many Mainstream young people in the last years). These groups would see more fun
in the subversion of famous trademarks and their logos.
The aesthetics:
Most metal-heads, Punkers, Skinheads, Gangsta-Rappers and Gabbers have a wild, rough,
unpolished style. They thus wouldn’t appreciate neat nice little designs which would be proposed to
them. Punkers, Alto’s and Metalheads even look for ugly-looking outfits.
Trance-House, Alto’s, Rasta’s and Black-Metalheads have a nonchalant, somewhat exotic and
nostalgic aesthetics (and New Wavers did too). Nonchalant too but more in a sportive way are Breakdancers, Straight-edgers, Skaters, Gabbers and Jungle-House.
HipHoppers, Rasta’s, Gabbers and many mainstream young people in the last years combine
the previous taste with a fad for ‘ghetto chic’, showing off wealth.
The expected appearance:
Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, HipHoppers and Gabbers expect to look like strong and
aggressive. On the contrary, Rasta’s, Skaters, Alto’s and Straight-edgers want to be seen as nice and
friendly.
Jungle, Trance, Skaters, Alto’s and HipHoppers take it cool and want to show that nothing
surprises them ‘cause they are blasé.
Rasta’s, Punkers, Skinheads, Gangsta-Rappers, Straight-edgers and Alto’s want to show in
public that they are politically concerned and ready for action, that they have ideas (and even
ideologies).
Elements of clothing:
The Blue-jeans is shared by Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, GangstaRappers, Straightedgers, Alto’s, Skaters and all House subcultures, and all subcultures without any exception enjoy
wearing T-shirts.
Apart from this, some subcultures look for workers-clothing (Acid-House, Skaters, Straightedgers and especially Punkers) and workers-shoes such as Doc Martens (Punkers, Skinheads and
Alto’s).
51
Military-style clothing is popular among Rasta’s (camouflage, belt and army-cap), Metalheads
(leather pilot-jacket, belt and boots), Punkers (same as Metalheads), Skinheads (leather jacket,
Bomber-jacket, camouflage, belt and army-cap), Alto’s (army-parka), Gabbers (pilot-jacket,
camouflage) and House-Jungle (Bomber-jacket, camouflage).
Many of the recent subcultures enjoy sport-styled clothes, especially the Skaters, Gabbers,
Jungle-House and Break-dancers (Sport-shoes, training-suit, baseball-cap and sweater), but also
Trance-House and Punkers (sport-shoes), Alto’s and Metalheads (sweater), Straight-edgers and
Gangsta-Rappers (sport-shoes, baseball-cap and sweater) and Skinheads (baseball-cap and sweater).
Gangsta-rappers take much of their fashion-inspiration from ghetto-life: hood, heavy golden
ornaments and jewels, wide oversized trousers and weapons, and have spread this style to Skaters,
Straight-edgers, Jungle-House and Skinheads. The wide oversized trousers have become quite popular
in the mainstream youth by now.
Some subcultures get inspiration from non-western clothing: Rasta’s use sandals and African
ornaments, Metalheads wear Mexican boots, Punkers took up the Palestinian scarf, Straight-edgers
appreciate oriental ornaments and Alto’s and Trance-House wear folklore clothing, eastern and Indian
styles, the Palestinian scarf and flower-patterns.
Besides all that, the horror-theme ornaments are shared by Metalheads and Punkers, while the
extended use of buttons and metal are common characteristics of Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads and
Alto’s. Bothe Metalheads, Punkers, Alto’s and Skaters like to wear ‘destroy’ clothes (being visibly
torn apart).
Tattoos and piercing can be found on Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, Straight-edgers, Alto’s,
Skaters and all the House-subcultures.
Drinks and drugs:
Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, GangstaRappers and members of all House subcultures are
bier-drinkers whereas Alto’s are more wine-drinkers.
Rasta’s, Breakdancers, Skaters, Straight-edgers Gabbers and Jungle’r’s are fond of cold-drinks
and energy-drinks (which have become very popular in the mainstream by now).
Some HipHoppers, Straight-edgers, Skaters, Trance and Jungle’r’s do not use any drugs; some
GangstaRappers and Skaters take soft drugs. On the contrary, it is usual among the House subcultures
to use ecstasy, speed and hallucinatory drugs. Soft drugs are popular among Rasta’s, Metalheads and
Punkers. Some Skinheads and Punkers take hard-drugs such as heroine.
Preferred mode of transportation:
Gabbers find nothing nicer than having their own personal noisy transportation, a moped. This
preference reveals a search for individuality and independence but also a distinctive drive to ignore
others. Gabbers don’t like having to use public transportation.
On the contrary, Punkers, Alto’s and Skaters are unconditional user of the public
transportation and of bikes (which does not mean that they always accept to pay for public
transportation: in their eyes, a public service should be free143, and it is also quite thrilling to take the
risk of being caught).
Dance:
Dance is a very important element of the Rasta, Break-dance, Straight Edge and House
subcultures. For all of them except the Rasta’s, but also for GangstaRappers, Skinheads and Punkers,
dancing has to be an intense, exhausting, prolonged activity allowing one to lose his/her inhibitions.
… That is, paid by taxes; which point of view I personally support as student in political sciences: The notion
of ‘public service’ is completely torn apart in Dutch contemporary society, giving little ground to the idea of
Public Good… In this case we see that where Mainstream Youth loses notions of Public Good, a few subcultures
still express that ideal through attachment to free public transport.
143
52
Break dancers are the most acrobatic of all, and their dance-form is the most advanced, being even
studied now by some recognized contemporary dancers all-over Europe.
HipHoppers and Gabbers prepare and enact organized choreographies. Rasta’s, HipHoppers,
Alto’s, Trance and Jungle’r’s find it essential that one expresses his/her personal creativity.
Music:
The hardest and fastest music is the privilege of Metalheads and Gabbers, followed closely by
Jungle, and then by the rest of the House-music, Punk, Skinheads and Straight Edge. On the contrary,
Rasta’s, old-style Heavy Metal, some Punk-music, some Trance-House and most HipHop music have
relatively softer and slower rhythms.
Metalheads, most Rasta’s, Punkers, Skinheads and Straight-edgers prefer music featuring
songs and real instruments, whereas House-music, HipHop and Ragga exclusively make use of
electronic music, synthesized, sampled and mixed.
Rasta’s, Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, GangstaRappers and Straight-edgers put meaningful
messages in the lyrics and give attention the sense of these messages, whereas for Break-dancers and
House’r’s the message is absent (otherwise it would stop the desired “flow” of sound) and lyrics are
not appreciated.
Performances:
A lot of attention is given to the performance of musicians in concerts among Metalheads,
Punkers, HipHoppers and Straight-edgers, while in the House subcultures it is the DJ who gets most of
the attention.
A few special effects are systematically used: For Metalheads and Gabbers, the atmosphere of
the performance must be defined through a theme-décor .Metalheads and House’r’s also like to spread
smoke among the public, to include lightshows and sometimes to project psychedelic images.
Graphic arts:
Graffiti-painting is a creative activity shared by Punkers, Skinheads and HipHoppers, the last
ones being generally the most colorful and creative in it.
Original collages and flyers are often made up among Punkers, GangstaRappers, Straightedgers and House’r’s.
Posters are the specialty of Rasta’s and Metalheads.
Literature and spoken arts:
Homemade magazines and ‘fanzines’ are created by Rasta’s, Punkers, Skinheads, Straightedgers, Skaters and Gabbers. Apart from this, all subcultures are fond of commercial magazines, with
the exception of Punkers, Skinheads, Straight-edgers and Skaters.
Punkers often write poems, while (Gangsta)Rappers and Rasta’s like to play and improvise
with language (creating ‘freestyle’ rhymes).
Enjoyable activities:
Walking around in the streets is an enjoyable activity for Punkers, Skinheads, Break-dancers,
Alto’s, Skaters and Gabbers.
Chatting about anything, especially about the philosophical enigmas of life, is pleasurable for
Rasta’s, Punkers, Straight-edgers and Alto’s. Gabbers and Straight-edgers spend a lot of time chatting
on Internet (and most mainstream young people do so too nowadays).
53
Dancing for fun is appreciated by almost all subcultures but not by Skaters and
GangstaRappers. Listening to music is a universal characteristic of youth subcultures.
Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, Straight-edgers and Alto’s are fervent concert-goers, while
members of HipHop and House subcultures are fervent discotheque-goers.
Watching videos, especially video clips, gives a kick to Metalheads, Skinheads, HipHoppers
and Gabbers.
Creative activities:
Most Rasta’s, Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, HipHoppers and Straight-edgers make music
themselves. Breakdancers and Gabbers regularly show their abilities in dance performances. Punkers
and HipHoppers also give much of their time to graphic arts and write their own texts Skaters and
Punkers often make up their own little newspapers spontaneously.
Social/political activities:
Punkers are known to organize playful political actions in the tradition of Hippie Happenings,
although it happens less often as the number of Punkers has decreased. Together with Skinheads and
Straight-edgers, they are also eager to participate in demonstrations. Punkers, Straight-edgers and
Alto’s often have political discussions.
A greater number of youth subcultures write, listen to and appreciate political texts and
slogans: Rasta’s, Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, GangstaRapers, Straight-edgers, Alto’s and Skaters.
Nevertheless, no youth subculture has any interest in participating in the regular political
process through elections.
Meeting-points:
Some subcultures most often have their members gather in public space: in the streets, in
parks, in stairs of public buildings, on the beach, etc. This concerns mainly the Punkers, Breakdancers, Alto’s, Gabbers and Skaters.
Most subcultures like to meet in ‘going out’ places such as Discotheques, cafés, snackbars,
concerts and “jongerencentra” (community-centers). The only exception is Skaters.
Others rather meet their pals at home or at some private place, and these are mostly Punkers
and Alto’s.
Social origins of most original members:
Metalheads, Skinheads, Gabbers and some Straight-edgers, Skaters and HipHoppers come
originally from white male youth of low social classes.
Most Rasta’s and HipHoppers come from black male youth of low social classes.
Punkers, Alto’s, Trance’r’s, Jungle’r’s and some Black-Metalheads, Straight-edgers, Skaters
and HipHoppers originally come from the middle-class.
Jungle, Skate and HipHop are the most racially and socially open and diversified subcultures
of all.
Group-organization:
Some subcultures are likely to see the groups of members being organized in gangs or bands
with a leader and a clear division of tasks: HipHoppers (both Break-dancers and GangstaRappers),
Gabbers and some Punkers follow this model.
All the other subcultures (Rasta’s, Metalheads, Skinheads, Straight-edgers, Alto’s, Skaters,
Trance, Jungle and some Punkers) have an anarchist model of social organization, with groups based
on friendship, no real leaders and everyone invited to participate in everything.
54
Life-values:
Competition is essential for Skinheads, HipHoppers (all Break-dancers and GangstaRappers),
Skaters and Gabbers.
Strong Responsibility for each other (and for society) is an important value for Rasta’s,
Skinheads, HipHoppers, Straight-edgers and Gabbers.
Honour and Respect are central values for HipHoppers and Gabbers.
For Alto’s and Acid-House, one must be nice with everyone (they like the originally Hippie
value of Love for Humanity).
The value of the Individual and of personal autonomy is at the center of the value-systems of
Rasta’s, Punkers, Alto’s, Skaters, Trance and Jungle.
Forms of Hedonism:
Almost all subcultures, except Skaters and Straight-edgers, put an emphasis on enjoying the
pleasures of life such as sex, drugs, drinking and going out.
Some subcultures, mainly Skinheads, HipHoppers and Gabbers enjoy over-consuming all
kinds of goods and have a materialistic, unsustainable idea of hedonism.
Optimistic ideas:
For Gabbers, Trance and Jungle House’r’s, modernity is a good development and new modern
technological stuff is a-priori good and appraised.
Straight-edgers and Acid-Houser’s are convinced that that a positive revolutionary change
within society is at hand and that they can do something about it.
For Rasta’s, Acid-Houser’s and Alto’s, love wins over everything else and breaks all barriers.
More generally, Acid-Houser’s, Straight-edgers and Skaters are moderately optimistic about
Society.
Pessimistic ideas:
Punkers and Skinheads have a negative character: according to them, nothing is good or
useful.
Rasta’s, Metalheads, Punkers, Skinheads, GangstaRappers, Straight-edgers and Alto’s have a
somber, uncertain vision of the future. The same ones, apart from Straight-edgers and Rasta’s, are
putting their fingers on the dark side of human existence. For most Metalheads (Trash, Death, Speed
and Black-Metal), Skinheads and Gabbers, it takes the proportions of a horror-scenario.
Alto’s are inclined to find life itself heavy and difficult.
Background ideologies:
Skinheads and Gabbers have taken up a nationalist-chauvinist ideology.
Punkers, Skinheads, Alto’s and Skaters draw their subcultures from an anarchist, antiauthoritarian background.
An anti-materialistic and anti-commercial ideology transpires through the subcultures of
Rasta’s, Metalheads, Punkers, HipHoppers and Alto’s.
Rasta’s, HipHoppers and Alto’s are also influenced by the Black awareness and Black Power
movements from the 1960’s.
Rasta’, Punkers, Straight-edgers and Alto’s have taken up the concerns of environmentalists
and are thus giving much attention to environment and its pollution. Some of them have therefore
become vegetarians.
55
The Net Generation:
Young people of the Net-Generation (N-Gen) spend less time on television and more time on
computers connected to internet. In 2002, these young people between the age of 5 and 25 are no
longer the passive receivers of a broadcasted communication, but the clickers of a new interactive
medium. Internet is used by young people for entertainment (games, movies, music), learning,
communicating (Chat, ICQ and equivalent ‘messengers’, e-mails), organizing themselves (homepages
and community-websites144, discussion-lists, forums, newsgroups) and getting information (about
products on sales and special events).
According to Don Tapscott145, “When children control their media, rather than passively
observe, they develop faster. […] Time spent on the Net is not passive time, it’s active time. It’s
reading time. It’s investigation time. It’s skill-development and problem-solving time. It’s time
analyzing, evaluating. It’s composing your thoughts time. It’s writing time. […] Nowhere are mores
roles available to explore than in cyberspace.”
What is so special about Internet? Previous communication technologies, especially
broadcasting, are unidirectional, centralized and hierarchical. They reflect the values of their corporate
owners, while the receivers are relatively passive observers: Communication is done to them and not
by them. On the contrary, Internet is interactive and distributed in a hardly controllable way. It reflects
the values of its users, and among them the young people who participate in the creation of content.
Any information can be instantly commented on. “On the Net, children must search for, rather than
simply look at, information. This forces them to develop thinking and investigative skills […] Further,
children begin to question assumptions previously unchallenged. On the Net, there is a great diversity
of opinions regarding all things and constant opportunities to present your views. This is leading to a
generation which increasingly questions the implicit values contained in information.”146 A striking
example of this is the popularity of the website Disinformation.com, launched in 1996147.
According to Howard Rheingold, “virtual communities” are developing among young people:
“social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on public discussions
enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.”148
When does this process take place? According to the research led by Don Tapscott at the
Alliance for Converging Technologies, interest in Net-based communications usually starts around age
11 for girls149 and 13 for boys. “The Net seems to provide a vehicle to explore the self and for children
to establish themselves as independent, self-governing individuals”150.
144
According to the interviews done by Qrius (Qrius, Jongeren 2001, Altijd met elkaar verbonden,
onderzoeksbureau Qrius, Amsterdam, september 2001), most Dutch young people don’t know about webcommunities and see it as something for adults. I do not agree with this analysis by Qrius. Maybe communities
are not yet fully developed because the Netherlands have been somewhat late in the adoption of Internet
compared to the USA, and in the Netherlands parents often limit the amount of time young people can spend on
Internet. The trend towards more web-communities should soon come to the Netherlands too.
145
Don Tapscott, Growing up Digital, The rise of the Net Generation, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998 (p. 7-8).
146
In Don Tapscott, p. 26.
147
To have an idea of the diverse critical universe developing there in virtually all directions, visit
www.disinfo.com .
148
Howard Rheingold, Virtual communities: Homesteading on the electronic frontier, Harper perennial, New
York, 1993 (p. 5).
149
Tapscott makes an interesting remark about girls: “The internet has made computers much more interesting
for girls. Girls’ group play is dominated by the pattern of building villages. A computer that can’t communicate
with other computers lacks the necessary tools for building community, and therefore isn’t seen as a toy or a
means of having fun.” (p. 62)
150
In Don Tapscott, p. 56.
56
There are two categories of discussions on the Net: synchronous and asynchronous.
Synchronous discussions refers to chat-rooms where immediate exchanges of information take place
between the people present in the virtual room. An overwhelming majority of N-Geners consider
chatting as their favorite activity on the Net, but around the age of 15-16 and towards the end of
adolescence, “talking just for the sake of talking loses its appeal” and young people then prefer
asynchronous discussions, typically via online forums organized around specific topics.
Young people also create e-zines on the web, which present various thematic contents
(writings, comics, pictures, sounds) in a creative way, with humor and criticism. “The electronic zine
provides information through articles, accepts feedback and original submissions that turn readers into
authors and provides the communicative opportunity that strengthens the feedback loop. Overall, they
provide a portrait of the culture of interaction – the antithesis of broadcast culture.”151
What does all this imply for their Youth-Culture? “A new youth culture is emerging, one
which involves much more than just the pop culture of music, MTV and the movies. This is a new
culture in the broadest sense, defined as the socially transmitted and shared patterns of behavior,
customs, attitudes and tacit codes, beliefs and values, art, knowledge and social forms.”152
Looking at the most active Internet users among young people, Don Tapscott identified ten
153
themes in the emerging N-Gen culture:

N-Geners have a strong sense of independence. They are active while seeking
information on the Internet and while creating information on their homepages. This
fosters creative autonomy and independence from the Institutions, which traditionally
were relied upon to give information.

N-Geners are characterized by an emotional and intellectual openness: “Self-expression
is a priority”. Homepages have a content “that blurs the distinction between private and
public lives [which are altogether] open to criticism”. 15 years old Reanna Alder154:
“That’s what true communication is. It involves vulnerability”.

N-Geners feel socially included in the world: “The Internet is encouraging kids to move
from a national to a global orientation, a global awareness”.

N-Geners value freedom in expression and self-development: Here again, Reanna Alder
hits the point: “It’s already been deeply rooted into my being that I have the freedom
and responsibility to educate myself. No one has the right to hide information from me.”

N-Geners have a direct, pragmatic and creative approach to innovation. “The online
world is like an empty canvas. […] They are moving on to the next activity,
independent of whatever tools developers are currently working on”.

N-Geners soon have a feeling of maturity: Compared to baby-boomers who “have spent
their lives obsessed with being youthful”, N-Geners “insist that they are more mature
than adults expect”. When on the Net, their age is not revealed, giving them the
opportunity to experience non-discrimination.

The interactivity-process encourages investigation. It is hopeful, given the potential
influence of virtual worlds (and among them simulation games) on their world-views:
For example, in Sim City, if you raise taxes it will lead to riots155… It is thus essential to
reinforce this theme, encouraging criticism and hacking.

N-Geners want immediacy. “Responses are instant”, thanks to real-time systems. Thus,
these young people “expect things to happen fast, because in their world things do
happen fast”.
151
In Don Tapscott, p. 84.
In Don Tapscott, p. 55.
153
In Don Tapscott, p. 68-76.
154
During his research, Don Tapscott
155
A critical issue that could be addressed by young people would be to develop computer games based on the
assumptions of Sustainability rather than the conservative ‘Public Choice’ assumptions of games such as Sim
City.
152
57


N-Geners have a sharp sensitivity to corporate interests: “The shift from broadcast to
the interactive mentality has been one that has involved turning away from media
monopolies”. Microsoft is often despised by N-Geners as one typical example of such a
monopoly156, and all corporate firms draw suspicion from them. Some N-Geners have
even engaged in the development of GNU157 Linux, an alternative operating-system for
computers which replaces copyright with copyleft158. According to Howard Rheingold,
“heavy-handed promotion is hated. Spamming is extremely hated. People will only give
you their attention if you give them value”159. For Tapscott, “having an authentic reason
to participate – usually hard to achieve by marketers – is also important”.
N-Geners attach value to authentification and trust: Hoaxes are frequent on the web.
Then, “consider the source is almost a mantra among NGeners who get most of their
learning materials from the web. Among the things they look at are writing styles and
production values”. This gives them the skills and awareness to evaluate information
and give their trust under conditions.
What are the consequences of this culture for N-Geners as ‘consumers’ assessing a
cultural product? A few typical characteristics can be pinned down: They want to have a set of
different options, and not to be constrained by a unique way to do or use something. They want to be
able to customize, to personalize the cultural product they use, and in a way, to participate in the
creation of that product. They want to try out many different things and different ways, to be
empirical, to test what it’s about and to be able to change their mind and correct their mistakes. Also,
they don’t accept to pay anything or to engage themselves into something before having tried it out for
some time and judged it.160
Is it possible that through the Net, adolescents have an adequate tool and environment
for the construction of their identities? This is a tough question
According to Erving Goffman161, social interaction is a “performance” shaped by environment
and audience to give others “impressions” which are desired by the social actor. To establish an
identity, individuals create a “front” which allows others to understand who they are. The front creates
an appearance, personality traits and attitudes which unite with the individual’s behavior. In
cyberspace, the elements of the front need to be constructed almost completely by the youngster
(being per se unknown to others). Such fronts are called avatars on the Net. Each youngster is able to
experiment with multiple avatars.
M.I.T. Psychologist Sherry Turkle pointed out that “windows have become a powerful
metaphor for thinking of the self as a multiple distributed system”162. In other words, N-Geners can
develop multiple personalities online. Therefore, “they can also develop the confidence and
knowledge to prepare for better realities”163. That doesn’t mean that young people can do anything
with an avatar and get away with it, since when they switch to a new avatar, they have to start all over
again the process of building virtual relationships. As Turkle says, “continuity is important for
relationships”164.
On a Linux forum in July 2002, one participant called Microsoft “one of the least honorable enterprises on the
planet”.
157
Visit www.gnu.org and www.linux.org .The leader of the GNU project, Richard Stallman, announced in July
2002 : “We're going to have to organize politically, to campaign”
158
“Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the
software”. For more information, visit http://www.fsf.org/licenses/licenses.html#WhatIsCopyleft .
159
Howard Rheingold, Virtual communities: Homesteading on the electronic frontier, Harper perennial, New
York, 1993.
160
In Don Tapscott, p. 185-190.
161
Erving Goffman, The presentation of self in everyday life, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1959.
162
Sherry Turkle, Life on the screen, Simon & Schuster inc., New York, 1995.
163
In Don Tapscott, p. 96.
164
Turkle rightly remarks that the multiple avatars have nothing to do with multiple personality disorder which
results from severe traumas in childhood. On the web, young people are conscious of what they are doing. “They
156
58
The web, ignoring geographic distances, influences the spatial orientation of N-Geners. As
Coco Conn (director of the Net project Cityscape) says in Tapscott’s book165, “It will create a different
matrix in their minds of the world […] Today’s kids are far more aware of the global context. They
know they are a small piece of the whole. They are much smarter in understanding that the world is a
tiny place and they are much more globally conscious.” They know that decisions they take at home,
on their web homepage for instance, may have future implications for people living beyond their
immediate neighborhood and their country.
N-Gen thinking is close to a system-thinking: Previous generations were taught to write their
essays from the beginning to the end, in a linear way. Television-shows for baby-boomers were also
linear narratives going from a beginning to an end. On the contrary, hypertext on the Net is less
sequential: the information is organized into complex arborescent structures. The idea of the “web” is
that pieces of information link to information elsewhere. It helps young people think in terms of interpenetrating structures, fostering a thinking process which has a lot to do with ‘systems thinking’
(essential to contemporary ecology and the understanding of ecosystems)166.
Building a homepage helps the youngster develop self-esteem and self-confidence. It
empowers him/her in the sense that (s)he can stand for his/her hobbies, values and opinions, and
confront them interactively with like-minded and contradicting young people. It gives them a vehicle
for getting credit for what they did.
Technology is not value-free167… What values do the N-Geners share, that will influence
their social and cultural development? As Tapscott points out, the central value of television is
massive consumption. We have learned how the unsustainable consumerist way-of-life is strongly
embedded in the everyday habits of today’s population. Trade-unions, civil-rights groups, social
activists and environmentalists have little voice in the broadcasting system which is in its structures,
ideologically hostile to them. Does the Net, with its interactive property, share this consumerist
ideology? What world-view does the Net propose to N-Geners?
There isn’t one big issue (like the war in Vietnam), nor one fully articulated discourse (like
Mao’red book). But there are clues of a social engagement. Here’s one typical example: In 1993,
Canadian University-students placed a notice on the web, criticizing the activities of PepsiCo in the
military dictatorship of Myanmar and the deals between University administrators and PepsiCo for
exclusive rights on their campuses. The controversy led to a call for boycott of all Pepsi products,
which was also followed in the USA (including Harvard students in 1996). Finally, PepsiCo
announced in January 1997 that it was leaving Myanmar168.
Today’s N-Geners have not developed one strong world-view. They are materialistic, or at
least, are used to high material standards (many new tools have become a necessary part of their lives).
They are suspicious about the ideologies of the 20th century (including capitalism) and they don’t
expect to fulfill idealistic dreams. But they are concerned about being privileged while billions don’t
have the chance to access the Internet and they generally do have fears about the future of the Earth.
They don’t trust governments or corporations to solve those great problems. “You’re on your own” is
rather their motto. Unlike the generation born around the late 60’s and early 70’s, they are not selfabsorbed but on the contrary are in need of connectedness with others (family, close friends, groups,
virtual communities). “They also have a very strong sense of the common good and of collective
social and civic responsibility”169. N-Geners definitely want to help make the world better. Living in
an increasingly multi-cultural environment, especially on the Web where race is ‘invisible’ and where
develop better relationships and more communication with different aspects of their self. […] The Net is not
about splitting off; it’s about acceptance and greater harmony”.
165
In Don Tapscott, p. 101-102.
166
Douglas Englebart, Augmenting human intellect: A conceptual framework, Stanford Research Institute, 1962.
Englebart was the inventor of hypertext and of the computer-mouse.
167
Hans van de Braak, The Prometheus Complex, Man’s obsession with superior technology, Enzo Press,
Amersfoort, 1995.
168
In Don Tapscott, p. 283.
169
In Don Tapscott, p. 287.
59
girls often dominate discussion-groups and online forums, N-Geners have a sense of social justice170,
of non-discrimination and “are as likely to blame themselves as to blame big polluters or companies
exploiting child labor for messing up their planet”171. They are even more likely to put the
responsibility on themselves as they generally mistrust the political process and especially the political
elites. For effective action, they distrust hierarchies and bureaucracies, and they rather trust open
networks where power is shared. Here’s what two young people told Don Tapscott on a forum about
N-Gen values: “I think the Net is probably changing the nature of childhood because it opens the
world to you. You can get information on anything, whereas before I don’t think kids cared that much.
Now I think we are starting to want to care” (Lauren Verity from Australia, 16). “The information
revolution is revolutionizing culture and spurring a revolution [in society]. The upcoming revolution
will not be violent but rather a revolution in consciousness. The globalization of idea is spawning a
global communication, not just among the elite. It is creating a new global awareness and
consciousness, which we need, because things are not the way they should be” (Chaim Lodish, 22).
The strong point of the N-Geners is their ability for critical inquiry: “Questioning things won’t get you
anywhere in today’s world, but in the future, it will be the people who questioned and were ridiculed –
the people who did not ‘understand’ – who will inherit the earth”172 (Matthew MacDonald, 18).
The young surfers of the Net are thus clearly mature enough to be invited to question the
obstacles to Sustainability (and moreover, to explore the value of Sustainability itself) in an openminded way, and “Art as inquiry” is precisely such a way to question our society’s assumptions.
Internet is the first modern media which is both interactive (like the phone) and social (open,
public, like TV), and therefore open to interaction. In this way, it says much more about society:
Television is monocultural, while the Net is multicultural.
If we listen to Don Tapscott, “The digital media is increasingly a reflection of our world –
every view, every discipline, every commercial interest, every repository of knowledge. Because it is
distributed, interactive, malleable, and lacking central control, it is a vehicle for revolutionary change
in every discipline, attitude and social structure. Never has there been a time of greater promise or
peril. The challenge of achieving that promise, and in so doing saving our fragile planet, will rest with
the Net Generation. Our responsibilities are to them – to give them the tools and opportunity to fulfill
their destinies”173.
The extent to which what was described in these few pages will matter also depends on the
degree to which we (policy-makers) allow and encourage young people to use the Internet as a
creative tool for questioning social reality. Post-modernists would qualify the Net as the image of an
inter-connected world without uniting ideologies. In this context, a window of opportunity is open to
Sustainability… as long as Sustainability opens itself to the critical inquiry of N-Geners and fights its
way through the digital arenas of the web. “Through the N-Gen, the Net is becoming a medium for
social awakening”174.
Their sense of “social justice” is much more straightforward and much less perverted than the one announced
some years ago by John Rawls.
171
In Don Tapscott, p. 289. Read also: UNEP/UNESCO Research Project on Youth and Sustainable
Consumption, 2001. Is the Future Yours?; copyright UNEP 2001
172
In Don Tapscott, p. 292-293.
173
In Don Tapscott, p. 13.
174
In Don Tapscott, p. 304.
170
60
The Youth Culture of ethnic minorities in Rotterdam:
Little is known about the cultural activities of young people from ethnic minorities175 in
Rotterdam. Years ago, it appeared obvious that Turkish and Moroccan young people had no Youth
Culture of their own but were totally embedded in the culture of their parents176. But in the 1990’s, as
more young people had spent most of their lifetime in the Netherlands, the cultural pattern changed
and took a double orientation, western and traditional177.
A survey had been conducted and published in 1994 in Utrecht about the cultural and artistic
activities of “allochtone” young people in the city178. It showed that the pattern of leisure-activities of
Dutch and Surinamese young people were very close, while the pattern of Turkish and Moroccan
young people were very close too but quite different from the first group. Moroccan young people
listen less to music and go out less often than Dutch young people, but read more. Moroccan boys read
even more than Turkish boys. Boys spend less time for hobby’s and more for religion (or say, time
spent at the mosque), and Moroccan girls have less friends that the Dutch. Turkish girls are busier with
religion and have less hobby’s than Moroccan girls. But in general, it appeared in that survey that
allochtone young people don’t spend more time with the family than autochthones. Allochtone girls do
go out in fact more often than expected… but mostly to go shopping with friends or family in the citycentre. 66% of the Turkish and Moroccan young people have friends mainly from the same ethnic
background, but that is also true for 94% of the surveyed Dutch young people.
In the survey, young people were asked precisely about their different artistic activities and
visits to cultural institutions. The general picture that came out was that the Dutch young people have
a larger and more intense use of cultural institutions than Moroccan and Turkish young people, while
Surinamese are in between. About two thirds of Dutch boys and one half of all the others (except for
Moroccan girls: only one third179) go to pop-concerts and music-and-dance parties. Dutch girls play
music much more than others; they draw more than Turkish and Moroccan girls and play more theatre
than Turkish girls. Concerning dancing, Dutch boys are the less active, and Moroccan girls dance less
than other girls. But Moroccan girls are the most active about (clay) sculptures. Turkish girls are the
most active with textile. For Surinamese girls, photography is most popular. Among boys, the
Surinamese are artistically the most active of all while the least active are Dutch boys.
The survey showed a correlation for Dutch young people between given active artistic
activities and passive attendance at institutions, while this correlation did not appear for allochtones,
indicating a lack of adequacy to the interests of these creatively involved young people in the actual
offer of the cultural institutions. Meanwhile, the survey also shows that most allochtone young people
have a strong desire to go to the cinema more often, and a (less strong) desire to go to more popconcerts and parties and learn to make photographs. But they need to feel welcomed and to have the
authorization of their parents; also, their budget is limited than for autochthones. For allochtone girls,
cultural activities should be proposed in the neighbourhood, and not in the evening, for them to be able
I am trying not to use here the term ‘allochtones’, often used in Netherlands, because this term is originally
supposed not to include the young people born in the Netherlands. Moreover, the term is used very ambiguously
in Dutch contemporary society and thus is ill-defined.
176
A. Eppink, Turkse en Marokkaanse jongeren in Nederland, Van Gorcum, Assen/Maastricht, 1979. See also
H. Meiburg, “Een andere groep Rotterdammers in de vrije tijd”, in Jeugd en samenleving, 11, 1981 (p. 823-830).
177
R. Feddema, Op weg tussen hoop en vrees. De levensoriëntatie van jonge Turken en Marokkanen in
Nederland,Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel, Utrecht, 1992.
178
Fritz van Wel, Toon Kort, Henk Haest and Ellen Jansen, Jongeren over kunst en cultuur, Cultuurdeelname
van allochtone en autochtone jongeren, Uitgeverij SWP, Utrecht, 1994. The survey consisted of a written survey
sent to 1000 young people, 8 group-discussions with 31 young people and a telephone-survey near 110 cultural
institutions in Utrecht. Out of the young people contacted, three quarters had spent most of their childhood in the
Netherlands.
179
Among Moroccan girls, one out of 2 never went to a pop-concert or a music-and-dance party in their life (also
true for 37% of the Turkish boys), and one fourth never went to the cinema (also true for 14% of the Turkish
girls).
175
61
to come. Allochtone young people would prefer to have activities with young people from the same
age and ethnic background. Practically, allochtone young people rather go to jongerencentra in the
neighbourhood than the big cultural institutions in the city-centre even when these local centres offer a
poor cultural program. Jongerencentra also noticed especially strong gender-oriented herd-effects180.
The survey showed that young people who were actively creative or visited cultural events
generally had a family-member already interested in that field. A negative factor identified was a
feeling of cultural incompetence strongly linked to a rejection of ‘art’ by the friends of the
respondents. Thus, the lack of cultural stimulation from often poorly educated parents (especially the
mother) and sisters/brothers influences negatively the cultural participation of allochtone young
people. But on the other side, their parents also give them, especially for the Turkish young people,
some knowledge of the traditional culture and arts of their origins.
A research on the subject in Rotterdam has been conducted for the IFFR by Bianca Legerstee
and Machteld Berghauser Pont181, after that a survey182 showed that minority-groups, and among them
especially young people, hardly visited the film-festival. The researched focused on the three largest
ethnic minorities (Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese) in Rotterdam. According to the statistics of the
COS (Centrum voor Onderzoek en Statistiek) of the city of Rotterdam, in 2001, out of a total of
181 936 young people being 0 to 24 years old, 21 761 have a Surinamese ethnic background, 21 028 a
Turkish and 17 782 a Moroccan one, which means respectively 12%, 11.6% and 9.8%183.
Legerstee and Berghauser Pont tried to grasp the cultural identities of these young people
whose backgrounds stemmed from Turkey, Morocco or Surinam: As much as the other young people,
they are looking for an identity that they can live with; the main difference being that this identity isn’t
limited by the simple evidence of ‘being Dutch’. In the multi-cultural context of Rotterdam, they are
expected to embrace a process of creolization184. Identity being not an essence but a positioning185,
they often do not choose between the Dutch and their parents’ ethnic identity in a binary way, but
rather mix elements from the western and the migrant cultures. According to Hannerz, the cultural
interaction in the social context of the “form of life”, consisting of many verbal and non-verbal
interactions, takes up an important part of the everyday-life of common people. The trans-national
cultural transmissions that occur lead to the creation of new lifestyles involving behaviours, habits,
uses, images and symbols. Young people are precisely those who are the most open to these new
lifestyles, as they look for their own specific identity. As van Wel and the co-authors of the Utrecht
survey put it, there is no “culture-shock” hitting the young people, but a “culture-shake” mixing easily
House with traditional Moroccan music on the same audio-tape186.
The period when the parents of ‘Surinamese’ young people came to Netherlands lied around
the independence of Surinam in 1975.187 The Surinamese parents have a higher education-level than
Moroccan and Turkish parents. The young people have spent most of the childhood in the
Netherlands; they have been raised and educated in the Netherlands. Their identities reflect the
180
In one case, after one boys subscribed to a cooking-course, only boys subscribed subsequently and finally the
cook-teacher had to face an exclusively male audience of apprentice-cookers! See van Wel et alii (p.53)
181
Bianca Legerstee and Machteld Berghauser Pont, Tussen twee voorstellingen, Een kwalitatieve case-study
naar de cultuurparticipatie van jongeren uit etnische minderheidsgroepen in Rotterdam, IFFR (Rotterdam) and
Katholieke Universiteit Brabant (Tilburg), Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Vakgroep Vrijetijdwetenschappen,
Delft, 1997. This qualitative study focused on the social-cultural biography and the cultural participation of
young people from the Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese ethnic minorities in Rotterdam. Its main source of
information came from 18 semi-structured interviews conducted from May to November 1996; 3 girls and 3
boys from each group.
182
S. Becker, Publieksonderzoek International Filmfestival Rotterdam, IFFR, Rotterdam, 1995.
183
2001 Satistics from the COS available at www.cos.nl
184
Ulf Hannerz about ‘Doubly Creolizing’:
185
S. Hall, Het minimale zelf en andere opstellen, Sua, Amsterdam, 1991.
186 186
Fritz van Wel, Toon Kort, Henk Haest and Ellen Jansen, Jongeren over kunst en cultuur, Cultuurdeelname
van allochtone en autochtone jongeren, Uitgeverij SWP, Utrecht, 1994 (p. 72-73).
187
Most of the information comes from the research of Legerstee and Berghauser Pont.
62
diversity of religions that exists in Surinam (Christians as well as Hindus) but they are not under the
influence of the original ideologies of their ethnic background and what they keep from the old
traditions is the cooking and parties. These young people feel very close to the western culture and
lifestyle. They often identify themselves as closer to Dutch (and especially as Rotterdammers) than to
Surinamese, and those who go to Surinam on Holidays feel like foreigners there. They often agree that
they have a ‘multicultural’ identity.
‘Surinamese’ young girls often go out with friends to discotheques and cafés, they listen to the
radio and sometimes watch television. They watch mainly action-movies and regularly visit cinemas.
They don’t read much.
‘Surinamese’ young boys all regularly go out with friends, are interested in sports, listen to the
radio and watch television (mainly sport and entertainment programs). Their activities are westernoriented: visiting discotheques, following American comedy-series and reading Dutch newspapers.
Surinam oriented activities include: visiting traditional Hindustanis parties and listening to the local
Surinamese radio. They affirm they have no interest for theatre and museums.
The fathers of ‘Turkish’ young people typically came to the Netherlands as ‘guest-workers’.
The other family-members (including the young people if born in Turkey) followed later. The parents
often come from the poor rural communities of central and eastern Turkey and have a very low formal
education188. Islam is taught at home and girls are more protected than boys. ‘Turkish’ girls and boys
are often but not systematically feeling concerned with the religion (few of them pray five times a day
as prescribed in the Koran). The young people have benefited from a higher education than their
parents. They are often under pressure from their parents to restrict themselves to Turkish friends,
especially concerning more intimate relationships. These young people feel they are Turkish more
than Dutch, but when they go to Turkey they experience being rejected as foreigners, not real Turks.
According to Altug Yalcintas, a student from Ankara, ‘Turkish’ young people born in Rotterdam
speak Turkish with a Dutch accent and a poor vocabulary and know little of the Turkish culture 189.
These young people thus do not want to go to Turkey for good. What they appreciate most from
Turkey are the cultural activities (the food and the traditional parties).
‘Turkish’ girls don’t go out often. Some of them sometimes visit cafés or discotheques and
rarely go to the cinema. They often watch television (commercial programs and Turkish television).
They listen mainly to Stadsradio Rotterdam. They read Dutch girl-magazines and Turkish popular
newspapers. They generally like Turkish music and arts and don’t like the museums in Rotterdam.
‘Turkish’ boys go out more often than girls, though not exceptionally often. They are also
more open to western popular music and Hollywood Cinema. Still, many of them exclusively like
Turkish music and spend much more time with the family than going out. They don’t read much of
anything, and they don’t like museums and theatres. Popular places to go out in daytime for ‘Turkish’
boys above 18 are190 the Turkish “Coffee-Houses” where Turkish coffee and tea is served (exclusively
to men) and where long discussions take place with older Turkish immigrants, and the Mosque where
praying is far from being the only activity (songs are sung on some traditional days, political
discussions are often taking place and products are sold by the fundamentalist organizations191).
The fathers of ‘Moroccan’ young people have come to the Netherlands at the end of the
1960’s as ‘guest-workers’ and the family followed them. The parents have generally a low educationlevel, some are even illiterate. The parents coming from the region of the Rif give their children a
much more conservative education than parents coming from Moroccan urban centres. The young
people have benefited from a higher education than their parents. They have the Islamic faith and
some of them even pray five times per day. The young people who are born in the Netherlands feel
188
Interview with Altug Yalcintas.
In the Interview with Altug Yalcintas, and also in Legerstee and Berghauser Pont.
190
Interview with Altug Yalcintas.
191
This is not the subject of this paper, but I noticed from several informants rumors of fundamentalists
racketing shops to then sell the given products at the mosque. Whatever the opinion one has about these
organizations, the methods employed by them to attract young people are preoccupying, especially concerning
the Islamic Jihad.
189
63
more Dutch and western-oriented, whereas those who were partly raised in Morocco feel much more
Moroccan and are traditionally-oriented. Nevertheless, they all appreciate the Moroccan culture.
The free-time of ‘Moroccan’ girls is closely controlled by their parents (especially if they
come from the Rif). When they become independent adults, many compensate by going at last
regularly to cafés and discotheques. If they have a higher education, they visit the cultural institutions
and read many Dutch newspapers. The girls with lower education stay rather at home, sometimes
reading novels, but never visit museums.
Higher educated ‘Moroccan’ boys read Dutch newspapers and like to go out a lot:
discotheques, cafés, and cinemas. ‘Moroccan’ boys regularly watch television and listen to the radio.
They don’t have much interest in museums, theatre and festivals.
According to the study of Legerstee and Berghauser Pont, young people from ethnic
minorities can be categorized in a typology of three categories:
Young people from the first category, or “huiselijke type”, hardly go out at all, spend their
leisure time mainly at home and have an interest for the most popular cultural forms, mainly through
television. They listen to popular music from the country of their parents. These young people have
social relationships mostly with their family and some friends from the same ethnical background.
Some of them are involved in organizations of migrant young people. They show no interest at all for
further cultural activities, especially if identified with western ‘high-culture’. They are strongly
oriented towards the traditional culture of their parents and they are actually most of the time born
there. Their affirmed ethnic identity is often ambiguous. This type concerns Turkish and Moroccans
much more than Surinamese, and it doesn’t concern students in higher education. Among this type,
girls are even more homely than boys, both being faithful to Islam (and having internalized its
constraints) and finding little if any satisfaction in considering new cultural activities.
Young people from the second category, or “populaire type”, visit cafés and discotheques, and
hang around in the city with friends from more varied ethnic backgrounds (they are thus able to create
and adhere to new lifestyles and creolized identities). They are interested in popular cultural forms,
and thus would be more easily reached in the streets and discotheques such as Nighttown than in
museums and theatres (they have no interest in western high-art). They like to participate in ethnic
traditional parties. They often go to cinema to watch action-films and comedies with well-known
actors. They also watch television regularly (films, entertainment, sport, talkshows). This type can be
found especially among the Turkish and Surinamese, but not so often among students. Approximately
half of the young people of this type are born in the Netherlands. They are more or less westernoriented (the more time they spent in the country of their parents, the less western-oriented). They are
religiously less strict than young people of the first type and practically give their freedom priority
over their faith.
Young people from the third category, or “cultureel-populaire type”, often go out and are open
to cultural diversity, appreciating both popular and ‘high-art’ cultural forms, and have friends from a
diversity of ethnic backgrounds. They are visitors of cultural institutions such as museums, theatres
and festivals in Rotterdam. They frequently go to cinemas, cafés and discotheques such as Nighttown.
They watch film and comedy-series on television and listen to western pop music as much as ethnic
traditional music. They read newspapers (Dutch or foreign) and information magazines. They are
mainly influenced by the western culture (but here again, those who spent time in their parents’
country attach more importance to their migrant identity and have a stronger religious faith). Girls
from this type sometimes show a feminist identity in reaction to the traditional culture of their parents.
This type exists mainly among the Surinamese and Moroccans, and consists mainly of students at the
University or a ‘hogeschool’. Since students represent a very tiny proportion of the young people from
ethnic minorities (well under 10%), this type is the smallest in raw numbers.
64
Generally, the higher the education-level, the better the knowledge of available cultural
activities in Rotterdam and the bigger the interest for a diversified cultural participation192. Students go
out more often than the other young people from ethnic minorities. Especially, students are the only
ones that have any contact with high-art institutions. Lower-educated young people identify more
strongly to the popular culture of their parents’ country.
Young people from the ‘populaire’ and ‘cultureeel-populaire’ types are clearly developing a
new identity: an identity with a double-ethnicity which distinguishes them from their cultural
background and their parents’ identity. Social interactions and particularly the level of education and
cultural activities have a strong influence on the construction of their new identity.
The two later types are thus more easily reachable target-groups through cultural activities;
through a mix of western and ethnic popular culture for both types, and through western high-culture
too for the last type. Jongerencentra, as neighbourhood institutions, are more readily accessible to
young people from ethnic minorities than official cultural institutions, and thus should be considered
seriously as possible partners.
192
Curiously enough, this correlation was absolutely not found in the Utrecht survey of 1994.
65
A common ground for Youth Culture today in the Dutch big
cities: The Urban Feel
Up to here, we have explored the diversity of Youth subcultures, but all these subcultures are
not equally influential among young people. In the Hit-parades of early 2002, one can see hear 30% of
Dance, 25% of R&B, 22.5% of mainstream Pop, 10% of Rock and 7.5% of HipHop 193. Out of many
informal discussions with Rotterdam young people, it appears clearly that the Skaters and the HipHop
subcultures have become the most popular in the last years. A look is given here at how the HipHop
and R&B have come to take some space in Mainstream youth culture by 2002:
Contemporary young people have access to a whole set of electronics (Cd-player, radio, TV),
giving them the possibility to surf on various music-styles and subcultures, and inducing a zap-culture
in which they spend only a limited time evaluating something new. In parallel to this, the majority of
young people in Rotterdam have non-Dutch origins. They carry with them a hybrid culture potentially
fuelled by a great diversity of cultural backgrounds. This urban culture is commonly called the urban
feel. HipHop and R&B have become the mainstream cultural (especially musical) mediums through
which this urban feel is materializing. Rap expresses social issues, while R&B is a much more
individualistic, careless music promoting over-consumption of money and free-time. For many young
people, the elements in R&B that they identify to are: feeling, wealth, ethnicity, heterosexuality and a
very neat outlook. Meanwhile, HipHop culture is flexible, adapting to the local context (giving a local
HipHop)194. Break-dance borrows figures from African and African-American dance but also from
kung-fu, taekwando and kickboxing.
The Hip-Hop clothing-style strongly renews with the explicit pride of wearing expensive
brands to impress and impose a social status. Most young people believe then that they embody a
successful ‘American Dream’ and adhere to the consumption-industry. The majority of young people
thus does not follow the minority of new Punkers promoting a Do-It-Yourself mentality and criticizing
the consumption-society195. The main point in which today’s mainstream HipHop does promote Do-ItYourself mentality is in music, with the growing importance of sampling (also a form of zapping
between musical sources).
The own taste and culture of a major part of the young people has to be taken seriously if one
wants to exchange with this group about yet unknown, other cultural experiences196.
An important point in the cultural choices that many contemporary young people make is that
the cultural products presented to them allow a creative symbolic activity197: the youngster creates
something with the art-work he chooses; he/she produces new significations (helpful in the search for
identity). If it doesn’t provide direct starting-points for identification, appropriation and fun through a
social activity, a message or art-work will hardly have any value for the young people.
Rotterdam is not lacking opportunities for Youth Culture to express itself. Let’s look then into
the details: What kind of events and programmes do cultural institutions organize to foster the creative
development of youth culture?
Ariane Vervoorn, “Jongerencultuur”, in Muziek & onderwijs, Jan.-Feb. 2002.
Andy Bennett, Popular music and youth culture: music, identity and place, MacMillan, New-York, 2000.
195
See the article of A. Vervoorn, and the interview with J. Evenaerts.
196
H.O. van der Berg, “De bevrijding van de Esthetiek”, in De knikkers en het spel. Een handleiding voor
effectief beleid op het terrein van jongeren en cultuur, RKS, Rotterdam, 1998.
197
In A. Vervoorn.
193
194
66
Chapter Three:
Cultural Projects and Organizations for
Youth Culture in Rotterdam
Youth Culture expresses itself creatively in many ways in Rotterdam. The
graffiti is a perfect example where young people create by themselves, without
any structured institution organizing their activities.
But Youth Arts from the subcultures have also found their way through the
museums and art-centes. There they can be communicated more easily to other
young people who are not members of the same subculture or who are only
slightly involved in it.
Mainstream young people and Multicultural young people also have a
number of cultural organizations in Rotterdam proposing diverse artistic and
creative cultural activities.
Some of these organizations and activities are presented in the following
pages, providing an overview of the cultural network with which partnerships
could be established.
67
Graffiti: Art and Lifestyle
What does graffiti mean for its makers? What do they think about their ‘pieces’, often accused
of being rough acts of vandalism? Looking for answers, sociologists Ilona Duijs and Jolanda Ermers
from the University of Utrecht carried out 32 deep-interviews, many informal discussions and
‘participative observations’198. They faced many difficulties, given that the actors on this scene are
criminalized and thus distrust people from outside. Nevertheless, their study revealed “not vandalism
but an attractive youth-culture where respect and style play an important role”199.
Graffiti as we think of it today, appeared in the 1960’s in New York City: Gangs started to
mark their territory with the band’s name200. In the 1970’s, the tags were appropriated and spread
around by non-gang-members. Graffiti grew simultaneously with the HipHop movement in New-York
and both were exported outside US in the 1980’s201. In the 1970’s, it became important for each tagger
to have his own recognizable style, and experimentations took place in new forms such as the throwups (big 2-dimensional rendering of a tag), and the pieces (complex, colorful wall-paints including a
tag and sometimes other elements)202. Motivation and respect grew for originality, style and technique.
Taking the risk to go in a forbidden zone and graph a huge piece on a subway-wagon would bring
respect too. In the Subway-stations were organized “writers’s corners”, places to meet and show to
others one’s drawings in notebooks (black books). Crews appeared that shared a style and worked
together203. In the 1980’s, art galleries grew enthusiastic about graffiti and started to sell good pieces
out and show them in their catalogues. One famous case was that of Keith Haring, now gloriously
celebrated at the Boijmans Museum204. This external interest, together with tough repression from the
police, led to a fragmentation of the graffiti-scene. Especially, writers’s corners were forbidden. But
the repression also gave a political weight to the graffiti, then seen as a guerilla-war against the
wealthy authorities of New York.
Graffiti appeared around 1978 in the Netherlands, in the streets along the HipHop culture and
soon also in art-galeries. Dutch graffers didn’t spray in the Subway but on trains205. Dutch literature
first described graffiti as merely vandalism by 16-years-old’s… A subculture was to be discovered,
with its own language and codes: A resistance through rituals206, and not a criminal activity. Graffiti
today counts probably thousands of writers in the Netherlands207. It no longer belongs only to the hiphop culture, being more a ‘cross-over’208 of the different youth subcultures (punkers, skaters, gabbers).
Ilona Duijs and Jolanda Ermers, Terwijl U slaapt…: een stadsetnografische studie naar het schrijven van
graffiti, afstudeerscriptie, Stadsstudies, Algemene Sociale Wetenschappen, Universiteit Utrecht, 1998.
199
Ilona Duijs and Jolanda Ermers, “Graffiti, een jeugdcultuur met stijl”, in Jongeren en Kunst, speciaal nummer
van TIAZ, Uitgeverij SWP, Utrecht, 1998.
200
D.D. Brewer and M.L. Miller, “Bombing and burning: the social organization and values of Hip Hop graffiti
writers and implications for Policy” in Deviant Behavior, 11, p. 345-369, 1990.
201
W. E. Perkins, “The rap attack, an introduction”, in red. Perkins, Droppin’ science: Critical essays on Rap
music and Hip Hop culture, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1996.
202
J. Ferrel, Crimes of style: Urban graffiti and the politics of criminality, Northeastern University Press,
Boston, 1993.
203
H. Cooper and M. Chalfant, Subway Art, Thames & Hudson, London, 1984.
204
Heaven and Hell, exhibition in the Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam, May 05 th to July 31st 2002.
205
A. van Hees, “Graffiti, de ‘mooiste’ criminaliteit die er is”, in red. I.H.J. Starmans, Niet alleen
normvervaging: achtergronden van de belangrijkste vormen van criminaliteit en overlast in het openbaar
vervoer, Smeets & Etman, Eysink, 1995.
206
I. Duijs and J. Ermers claim firmly that definition of graffiti as a subculture, in the sense defined in S. Hall
and T. Jefferson, Resistance through rituals: Youth cultures in Post-war Britain, University of Birmingham,
1975.
207
According to Duijs and Ermers, Terwijl U slaapt… (p. 30); this is an estimate, there being no statistics.
208
Interview with Jeroen Evenaerts.
198
68
Duijs and Ermers asked graffiti-writers about their opinions about graffiti as vandalism.
According to the Dutch law, graffiti is a punishable form of damage to public or private property
(kladvandalisme). But for the authors, nice graffiti has nothing to do with vandalism and is a part of
the image of a city. Only a few tags, when sprayed on private property, are seen a vandalism. One
author, Zeus, said to the researchers: “The objective is in most cases not to bring damage. The damage
is much more an unexpected effect. It is part of the means and not of the goals of graffiti”.
Among the diverse forms and styles of graffiti, the tag is most often considered as vandalism.
Indeed, taggers care less about quality and beauty than about tagging everywhere as much as possible,
and the tag has to be done very quickly. Taggers are 12 to 16-years-old209 young people210. Throw-ups
are bigger than tags and more complex but also quickly done and generally in 2 colors; they are
appreciated by taggers but despised by more quality-oriented ‘graffiteurs’211. Graffers doing Throwups are 16 to 20 years-old on average. Quickpieces take 15 min. to make, being the big stylish
signatures of the piecers. Masterpieces are big, multicolor, complex graffiti’s, with a background and
figures around the name; they take at least 3 hours to make (with a big chance to get caught) and cost a
lot (needing 20 spray-paint cans). Masterpiecers don’t make tags anymore; they are 18 to 30 years-old
(23 years-old on average) and some of them enter art schools to begin a creative career.
In the recent years, given the increase in repression against graffiti’s, the new trend is
to write on stickers at home and then stick them in the streets and public spaces212. This is leading to
new stylistic developments around stickers… According to Jeroen Evenaerts of Mama, “the stickers
are very popular at this moment. You see a lot of young people make their own stickers. You can see it
always outside. You can see that it’s a graffiti form. And that’s very strong in this moment.”
Duijs and Ermers also asked about graffiti as an ‘art-form’. Most graffiti-writers didn’t see it
as ‘Art’, though. It’s not about making art, it’s about being valued inside the graffiti-scene for making
something beautiful and risky. Graffiti is seen as a hobby which takes unexpected proportions.
Graffiti-writers believe that one earns money with art and that art lasts, whereas graffiti only costs
money and the author doesn’t know how long a piece will remain somewhere; ‘art’ lays on a canvas
whereas graffiti is outside in the streets. Graffiti is more underground than ‘art’, one author only
knowing the others through their tag-names; it is therefore difficult to know which person did what
piece. Moreover, graffiti is not allowed by society whereas ‘art’ is praised and revered.
What does graffiti mean then for them? The people interviewed by Duijs and Ermers
characterized it as a ‘way of life’. It means nightly activities (instead of going to the nightclub),
collecting videos and magazines about graffiti and taking photos of good pieces. “You are well-known
without people knowing that it’s you… You become an addict of that […] at one moment your whole
life turns around it”.
One can still interpret graffiti as an underground art-world with its own rules. As respondents
often said, making a beautiful piece gives a feeling of satisfaction. Moreover, a minimum standard of
quality is necessary to enter the scene. It is essential to gain respect, through originality and continuity
in one’s own style. One can be admired either for exquisite quality of few pieces or for having made
many pieces all over the city, or else for having made pieces in risky places such as train-depots. On
the other hand, one only gets a bad reputation by spraying on other graffiti’s, on cars, art-works or
monuments, churches and graveyards.
Another similarity with ‘art’ is that one wishes to have his own corner in the city, and all
respondents would like to have their own ‘legal wall’ to paint on. Furthermore, a ‘legal wall’ is a
privileged place to meet each other and thus attracts many graffiti-writers on day-time. Thus, Duijs
and Ermers advise policy-makers to multiply ‘legal walls’ and publicize them as open-air workshops
209
Jeffrey Castelein, Het graffitibeleid van Stad Gent, driesporenbeleid: verwijdering, opsporing en educatie
(http://www.graffiti-jeugddienst.be/), Gent, 1999.
210
They make up the majority of graffiti-writers, and they often quit after one year of practice.
211
Jeltje van Nuland, Graffiti, Kunst of vandalisme?, Afstudeerproject, Culturele Maatschappelijke Vorming,
Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 2000.
212
In Jeltje van Nuland (p. 23) an in the interview with Jeroen Evenaerts.
69
and museums for the alternative young people. Former State Secretary of Culture Van der Ploeg also
called for a better appreciation of popular youth culture and especially graffiti.
Since it exists, graffiti has known many stylistic developments. Styles get discussed in
underground magazines such as Bomber and Fuck off and on Internet. Today, these styles inspire
video-art, illustration and typography213. Jeroen Evenaerts gives his personal on this point: “I’m now
36, and all those people who were very enthusiastic about graffiti they have now jobs like
advertisement, graphic business, the art scene, and they have almost all the same basic interest in
graffiti, as they had as young people. A lot of them take that interest with them… Like this architect,
Mark Maurer, he used that fascination of graffiti in his work. If the graffiti is still strong? Yes! Maybe
stronger than ever.”214
Apart from fun and addiction, why do young people write graffiti? Obviously graffiti
improves one’s ego, spreading one’s tag-name all over an anonymous city, and graffiti fulfils artistic
motivation. It is also a way to go against the official structures of society and question established
values and authorities. “These graffiteurs hold more faith in their tags or pieces than in their
democratic voice which is soon forgotten by politicians”215. Others just want to add a little colour to
their dull grey neighbourhoods of concrete and put some art in the everyday life of the people.
“Graffiti are only one among the many ways to express oneself in the social arena, but they
nevertheless play a role in the complex development of public opinion. […] Professor Kruithof
(University of Gent) rightly points at graffiti as one of the few means of expression which allow
people to do whatever they want; all the rest is channelled. According to Kruithof, people have a right
to such means of expressions. Moreover, it delivers unexpected material. There must be some
unorganized space where people can freely express themselves with graffiti (and other creative
forms).216”
Graffiti is for the sociologist a signification-holder, because it sheds light on cultural attitudes
and conflicts. Via graffiti, messages can be brought that are non-existent in other media, filling in the
cracks of the official communication-structures217.
A few cities in Netherlands and Flemish Belgium have organized original action-plans around
graffiti. In Gent and Maastricht, a clear difference is made between graffiti as art and graffiti as
delinquency: The education-centres play an important role of prevention and information, while many
legal walls are offered for graffiti. In Utrecht, a number of legal walls have also been installed. The
results appear to be encouraging, legal graffiti taking over the illegal one and many individuals and
companies even now asking to get nice masterpieces on their walls… Masterpiecers have proven to be
more efficient than police and social workers in giving younger taggers an incentive to move towards
better artistic quality instead of tagging everywhere. Most other cities relying solely on repressive
action have known little success218.
In Haarlem, Gent, Tilburg and Katwijk, the authorities have ordered masterpieces to be
painted (the costs being charged to the wall-owner219) where the walls were already tagged or needed
some colours. Taggers respected the work done there. In Tilburg, an association (Stichting Attak)
offers jobs to talented young people, selling their services to companies interested in having a
masterpiece on their wall220.
The important ingredients for a successful ‘legal wall’ are: to let young people choose which
wall to legalize, offering them visible public walls which can be sprayed on and admired freely at any
213
In Jeltje van Nuland (p. 23).
Interview with Jeroen Evenaerts.
215
In Jeltje van Nuland (p. 27).
216
http://www.graffiti-jeugddienst.be/
217
In Jeltje van Nuland (p. 33).
218
In Jeltje van Nuland (p. 45-49) and on http://www.graffiti-jeugddienst.be/
219
In Gent, the total cost is 50 €/m².
220
In Jeltje van Nuland (p. 55-57).
214
70
time, and to have enough space for young taggers and older graffers not to cross over each other’s
graffiti. Also, the neighbours and police must be informed and asked to respect the creative activity.
Preventing infiltration of paint with a latex ground is also essential. The wall can be painted in white
regularly, in order to keep the area active and alive. Special weeks with workshops would also
contribute to a successful program221. For instance, Jam sessions with a multi-competition (graffiti,
skate, break-dancing, DJ’s) are very popular among young people in Germany, and bring respect for
each other’s efforts.
The thematic perspective of a wall can be given by the young people or neighbours themselves
in a participatory way, or can consist of provocative questions put right on the white wall, for the
graffers to interpret in their own way… A successful wall can become a forum for young people,
including non-graffers, a centre of awareness attracting young people fed up with commercial imagery
and bored by the rational rule of economics.
One example from Gent222 :
“Garbage at the corner of the street, each day anew. A Turkish guy got
fed up with it and went to the police. This dark corner got cleaned up
and decorated with a colorful thematic graffiti. Since then, the
neighborhood had no more complaints.”
221
222
In Jeltje van Nuland (p. 51).
Many more examples available on http://www.graffiti-jeugddienst.be/
71
Art from Youth (sub-)cultures
Flipside:
In November 2001, the Artoteek of the Centrum Beeldende Kunst (CBK) presented an
exhibition on the history of the Rotterdam Skate-culture223. The aim was to show the richness of this
subculture in Rotterdam, to show a few special places appreciated by Skaters (telling the story of those
places with the help of newspaper articles and photographs). The most famous place that unfolded its
story in the exhibition is the skatepark of Westblaak and its ground-paintings and drawings developed
by Ontwerbureau 75B (and ordered by the CBK).
The exhibition also included a number of colourful skateboards, illustrating how essential
graphic design is to skaters.
‘Reünie’ Bad Boyz Inc. :
Between January 20th and February 17th 2002, the Artoteek of the CBK presented old and new
tendencies of the graffiti style and techniques224. The exhibition gave an account of 20 years of graffiti
in Rotterdam. It also included the particular clothing of HipHoppers in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
It was the occasion for Bad Boyz Inc. to meet again after 10 years of silence. Bad Boyz Inc.
had been a turbulent and famous graffiti group in Rotterdam after 1985, with a hip-hop background.
Its founding members, Jean, Save, Sydoe and Robert van de Kroft became famous thanks to the strips
of the latter. When the Australian-American Diszi joined them, he brought with him the influence of
American Underground-culture. The average age of members was under 20. Their style was rougher
and more obstinated than many international movements. Besides this, that multi-ethnic graffiti
movement was the only one to be developed under the direction of teenagers. Its popularity quickly
grew, attracting not only graffiti-writers, but also DJ’s and HipHoppers. Together they formed the Bad
Boyz Posse, a mostly musical incubator where big names in Hip-Hop Music appeared. But since the
attention shifted from graffiti to music, Bad Boyz fell apart in 1990 and the members followed their
own ways.
Ten years later, they decided to re-unite and produces pieces again, in opposition to the
graffiti’s of the 1990’s and going back to their rougher style. During the exhibition in the Artoteek,
they contributed to the renewal of graffiti, presenting new styles and techniques.
Surfen :
From June 11th to July 6th, 1999, the CBK presented a selection from the thousands of pictures
taken by pupils from seven secondary schools in Rotterdam225. The exhibition Surfen presented the
results of an art-education program organized by the CBK and designer Karin van Paassen, about
clothing-styles and body-ornaments226. Together with trend-makers, the young people aged 12 to 15
tried to find out what roles their clothing-language was playing, which subcultures it revealed and
what it ‘said’ about them personally. Each youngster was given a camera and would portray the
school-mates.
Next to these photos, was exhibited Exactitudes, another series of portraits of young people of
Rotterdam and their lifestyles, by Ellie Uyttenbroek (photographer) and Ari Versluis (stylist). All the
photographs exhibited (from Exactitudes and Surfen) were published in the catalogue Surfen.
223
www.cbk.rotterdam.nl/artoteek/2001/flipside.shtml
www.cbk.rotterdam.nl/artoteek/2002/badboyz.shtml
225
www.cbk.rotterdam.nl/artoteek/1999/surf.shtml
226
The invited teachers were: Fee Arnold (photographer), Eefje de Bruyn (trend researcher), Marieken
Heijwegen (stylist), Sjouk Hoitsma (conservator fashion & textile), Mark Melief (Kinki hair-dressers), Myriam
Mense (fashion designer), Tattoo Piek (tatoo-artist), Marianne Smits (contemporary artist), Isis Vaandrager
(stylist), Theresa Hartgers (fashion designer), Regilio Tuur (owner of The Shop) Ellie Uyttenbroek & Ari
Versluis (stylists/photographers), Sascha Warmenhoven en Babette Venderbos (fashion designers/stylists).
224
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Mijn Rotterdam in 2001:
Mijn Rotterdam in 2001 was a project of the CBK with the project-company “Konings Kunst”,
aimed at pupils of general and technical high-schools in Rotterdam227: Between October 1999 and
January 2000, Rotterdam-based artists worked with pupils in Delfshaven and brought about
enthusiasm for the art-world. Together, they explored what they wanted and what they could do for
it228…
With Çakti Aswan (Aswan Design), two groups worked on designing CD-covers. With
Barbara Helmer and Janine Schulze, another group worked on the re-design of two squares in the
neighbourhood: With Schulze, a general maquette was made (the result of which Schulze was amazed
of) and with Helmer, a wall-paint was prepared. Peter Hofland taught them how to paint the City on
big-format canvas. ‘Architectonic designer’ Arie Schilperoord worked with them on dream-houses for
Rotterdam, convincing two of them to become architects. With Jos van der Meulen, two classes
worked on little gift-objects for 2001. Each of those artists let him/herself be inspired by these young
people in the creation of art-works. The project was presented in an exhibition at the CBK from March
24th to April 25th 2000. The involved teachers later stated that since the project, these pupils have
become eager visitors of art-museums.
The project was re-conducted in academic year 2000/2001 with more high-schools229,
including higher general high-schools (vwo). This time, the number of artists involved grew to 19230.
"What is going to happen in the schools? Pupils are going to design flyers, their own logo’s, a coatrack for the school and a itinerary for youngsters in Rotterdam. They will make big wall-paintings
with a variety of themes such as sport, Van Gogh and virtual news. These activities are inspired by the
program ‘staalkaarten’ of Rotterdam Cultural Capital of Europe 2001. On the basis of the same theme,
four groups will make a youngsters-newspaper (more info on www.staalkaarten.nl). Let me give you a
few more examples: A scale model is made for the decoration of a dream-bedroom, lounge-furniture
and even a brand new skyline in miniature; photographs by Nino Purtskhvanidze will illustrate the
whole process. The project started again in januari 2001 and is part of the courses in plastic art. […]
Finally, all this work resulted in course-material and in presentations in the Centrum Beeldende Kunst
[Contemporary Art Center of Rotterdam]." 231
227
The participating schools were: Christelijk College Henegouwen, Scholengemeenschap Nieuw-Rotterdam
and Maria Regina Mavo.
228
www.cbk.rotterdam.nl/artoteek/2000/00041.shtml
229
The schools this time were: Albeda College, Christelijk College Riederwaard, Groene Delta College,
Lodewijk Rogier college, Marnix Gymnasium, Praktijkschool Zuid, ROC Zadkine, VSO De Rotonde and
Scholengemeenschap Nieuw Rotterdam.
230
The artists involved were: Çakti Aswan, Rini Biemans, Liz Chute, Saminte Ekeland, Eef de Graaf, Stefan
Hoffmann, Margot Hoogeweij, Peter Langeveld, Jos van der Meulen, René Overbeek, Miriam Reeders, Annette
Scheer, Arie Schilperoord, Janine, Schulze, Karin sloots, Jesse Smale, Chris van Steenbergen, en Sabine
Stuurman.
231
www.cbk.rotterdam.nl/artoteek/2001/mijnrotterdam.shtml
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Exhibitions in MAMA
HipHop Grafitti and Public Space, Mama 2000 exhibition:
“Thinking of a Master Plan”
In June-July 2000, Mama exhibited the plans of the following project, together with an
opening-party at Mama (Friday June 16th, 2000) and an after-opening-party at the “good old Scottish
church”232.
“ The design-team DELTA-MAURER-ZEDZ focusses on the borderline between graffiti and
architecture. The team develops a special way of interdisciplinary design, based on their common
attidude related to the sub-culture of hiphop.
Since the late seventies DELTA and ZEDZ are two of the most notorious artists of the Dutch
graffiti scene. They are known for their complex and individual style. Their paintings and reliefs refer
to Japanese transformers and utopian cityscapes. The 3D -aspect is omni-present in their work. It was
only a matter of time the right architect came along, to see this 3D- aspect crystallize in architectural
design. It was no surprise that the partner in this master-sceme became the ‘MAURER Engineering
Architecture and Media’ office. This prize-winning bureau is run by two architects: Nicole and Marc
Maurer. The duo has a strong preference for so-called "media-related-projects" in the field of
architecture. Marc was nominated for the NPS culture-prize for his fusion of Hip-Hop and
architecture. Nicole Maurer was a nominee for the Archiprix (a prestigious prize for young Dutch
architects) for her daring approach and new vision on architecture.
In 1998 the team transformed 'graffiti related images' into ‘graffiti related architecture’ by two
designs: the first was a design for a villa named ‘Masterplan’, by DELTA and MAURER. In the other
‘Zedzbeton’ a graffiti-piece by ZEDZ was blown up by MAURER till a 50 meters long piece of ‘cityfurniture’233. Although the typical forms used by DELTA and ZEDZ still strongly relate to graffiti (the
artists name remains the starting point of each design), the natural hostile attitude of the graffiti-artists
towards the architectural design has disappeared. This confrontation was now transformed into a
fruitful synthesis. The results are amazing as well in content as in form.
The DELTA-MAURER-ZEDZ team was assigned by Rotterdam organization MAMA
(showroom for media and moving art) to develop a pavilion for ‘Rotterdam 2001- Cultural Capital of
Europe’ . The P(avilion)2001 is first of all a fusion of architecture, graffiti, fashion and new media.
P2001 is also a quest for new ways of exhibiting. The plans for P2001 and other blueprints designed
according to the principals of ‘graffiti related architecture’ together with other works by all
participants are on display in MAMA from 16th of June till 7th of august 2000. ”234
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Here’s a few comments from visitors of the exhibition:
"Suuper gutt" - Philip Bolte [Bergisch Gladbach].
"YO, Ga zien deze tentoonstelling!" - André Rosbergen [Rotterdam].
"Na al de kritiek die bestaat om graffiti ,kan denk ik niemand zeggen dat graffitti geen kunst is.deze
tentoonstelling is een goede combinatie tussen het abstrakke van architectuur en het vrije en revolutionair
van de graffiti. Samen verdienen ze mijn complimenten" - A. M. Huerta [Ridderkerk].
"The whole thing is bad-ass. Like Macross Mech fighters or something. It would be awesome if one of the
public spaces could be translated into a new, single unit cubicle design. I'd love to work/live in one.
Amazing." - Stephen Cryan [Berkeley, CA].
232
APEKOOI: Lineup after-openings-party: DUBS (hipperdehop), DENNY-D (Drummerdebase), THOMAS @
URBI&ORBI (gemicol), AT DENKO’S (rauwerdanrauwe rockerderoll). GYZ @ INGSOC (24 bommen en granaten voor die
jarige job!), MAAIKE @ URBI & ORBI (Rome en de Rest), EELKO (klasse! ook voor al uw docudrama’s!) en het
S.W.A.T. TEAM (Arno Coenen & Rene Bosma …L.A, Helsinki, Rotterdam). Entrance after-party: fl. 10,233 Project ZEDZbeton: In cooperation with graffiti-artist ZEDZ, the MAURER office has developed a design for
an urban furniture counting about 50 meters in length. The object could be placed somewhere in a metropolitan
area. It is possible to walk through the object, climb or skate it or simply take a seat. The top view shows the
name ZEDZ. The project was send as an entry to the German ‘Architektur-Internet-Preis’ competition, it was
awarded with the second prize.
234
Mama Web archive (http://masterplan.ooo.nl/introductionE.html)
74
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"Respect to ZEDZ and DELTA. Both keepin graffiti real and at the same time they're inventing somethin'
new. Keep on rollin guys!!!!!!!" - Kai Rohwedder [Hannover].
"Geweldig om te zien hoe toch al zo ondergewaardeerde graffitiartiesten hun 'vlakke' ontwerpen in ruimte
om kunnen zetten. Blijft het bij ontwerpen of is er een kans dat zoiets ook gerealiseerd gaat worden?" - Rob
van Dijck [Breda].
"Eindelijk! Graffiti wordt serieus genomen..! Schitterende site!" - Oker [Rotterdam]
"Wassup! My name is Myke. I think this great for a few reasons. First of all, it's GRAFF! I've been a fan of
the inc crew since I saw the first MESS/DELTA pieces (coincedentaly I write mes one, but this was before I
knew of mess) Anyway. Obviously I find the transition of graff to something perpetualized by steel and
concrete. And I read you can SKATE it! That is dope. It would be a dream come true to skate graff. Good
luck with it. I hope it goes through and I can't wait to peep some flicks of it." - Myke Dye [New York City].
"Me llamo Jordi Ponsa y vivo en Santa Perpetua, u pueblo cerca de Barcelona. Hace solo 1 año que conozco
vuestro trabajo, y desde entonces no paro de investigar webs y revistas donde aparezca alguna referencia
vuestra, mas en concreto de DELTA. Genial! Me fascina el control absoluto de las 3D que puede llegar a
plasmar en una pared con unos sprays..! Soy uno de los miembros fundadores de HIPNOSIS* CLUB, en
Sabadell. (*HIPhop techNO SIStema) Es un club donde intentamos llevar el maximo de cultura tanto
musical como artistica a la gente. Somos jovenes (sobre los 22 años de edad), y nos cuesta, pero seguiremos
adelante!!! Nada mas, seguir con vuestro proyecto! :) Desde España os apoyamos!!!" - Jordi Ponsa
[Barcelona].
"I think its a good idea that takes grafitti into other aspects of a persons life. its a way to make everything
relate" - Tony Frisell [Dublin].
"I think this is great. Let me explain: I do graffiti myself and I give you a lot respect for doing this, because,
this is hard work. The design is really amazing. I like the Increw very much because I work very much with
graphics myself. Respect for realizing this project." - Ben Dressel [Gera].
Mijn mening? Ik vind het fascinerend om te zien hoe twee werelden die in theorie lijnrecht tegenover elkaar
staan (graffiti-cultuur/zakenleven) kennelijk toch raakpunten hebben. Nu was dat met ZEDZ en DELTA
misschien wel min of meer voorspelbaar." - Kirsten Verdel [Rotterdam].
"DELTA en ZEDZ did it again! Ik heb nooit van architectuur gehouden, maar hun stijlen zijn zo
vergevorderd dat ze zelfs een brei-tentoonstelling zouden kunnen ophypen. Zo zie je maar weer hoe
'straatvandalisme' opeens door iedereen gewaardeerd wordt! (nou het stedelijk nog)" - Robin van Riel
[Amsterdam].
Punkers in Rotterdam 2000, MAMA exhibition:
I am a Punker Mama!
From September 15th to November 1st 2000, MAMA organized an exhibition of the new wave
of Punk subculture coming to Rotterdam. Along with the exhibition were organized a performance
(“life operation” by Henri Van Zanten235) and after-openings parties236.
“ USA beginning of the 90's: Punk rock starts to stir up again. The world-wide success of
poppy punk rock bands as 'Green Day', 'Bad Religion' and 'The Offspring' gives the movement a new
impulse. Looking back at the origin of the punk movement, starting in the mid-seventies as an
exponent of Rock & Roll and later exploded when distributed world wide by Mc Laren, Vivian
Westwood and the Sex Pistols, the kids in the nineties discover food for new thoughts towards attitude
and lifestyle in art, design, fashion and of course music.
The end of the 70's: While Holland is still chewing the fruits of the flower power, the city of
Rotterdam experiences a mushroom growth in becoming the most important bastion of punk.
Like this industrial harbour city has to follow tradition, this recent Punk-rock explosion
[around 2000] repeats itself most prominently in Rotterdam. At this moment Rotterdam already has 5
zines dedicated to punk rock, dozens of bands, 4 independent record-labels and 1 store specialised in
punk rock fashion. The number of fans grows larger steadily.
“Friday 15th of September 20:30 sharp the ever-angry-old-man Henri van Zanten will operate upon the
'American flag'. He will shoot 52 stars into the blue field with an alarmgun.” , Mama web-archive.
236 “Aanvang: 0:00 uur - 05:00 uur: Deejays from all over the country will make the WaterFront sweat with a hot
mix of rock and roll from the fifties, sixties, seventies and the underground hits of today. This explains how punk
rock became inspired and what is has brought us today. Nothing can be seen as standing on its own.” Entree:
fl.7,50 Place: WaterFront, Boompjeskade 10, near Maastheater, Willemsbrug” Mama web-archive.
235
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Okay, the movement lives on in a new form: the generation punk-rock 2000. But what really
has changed, apart from piercing replacing safety pin? And what makes Punk truly Punk...? Has the
battle between the classes been settled or does Punk mean just a temporary escape from this brainless
mass-consumer-society? Punk mentality still seems to be an urge to independence, absolute freedom
of expression with the motto: 'Do Whatever You Need To Do' and 'Mind Your Own Business!' Raw,
disposed of all diplomacy and appearances.
MAMA and Stardumb see this mentality in the works of contemporary designers and punk
rock artists. Damn right: Punx Not Dead! Or are some old school punks right when they say punk rock
2000 is nothing more than cheer amusement for a bunch of Happy Rich Kids from Suburbia. ”237
Some interesting features from artists present in that exhibition:
THE LAST SHIT TO COSMETIC INDUSTRY! : Vivisection will be the topic in the 800
'Protest Zeichnungen' by the Austrian Artists Peter Rataitz. Maybe you remember Keine Angst Gratis
Haarschnitt! The audience was invited by Rataitz to get a free hair-cut in MAMA. Instead of looking
in a mirror the visitor watched a monitor which showed animals being tested on for the cosmetic
industry.
KALEIDOSCOPIC VIEW: Forecaster Gyz la Riviere and de talented director Vincent van
Duin produced a video-installation, mixing historical footage with new; J.Rotten in Rotterdam next to
the tekno-nomads Spiral Tribe. Gyz and Vincent present a kaleidoscopic view in their surge for the
core of punk.
EXCELLENCE IN PERFECTION: Exclusive design for mama: Rozema & Teunissen
CAUTION ribbon. This fashion-item designed exclusively for MAMA by Rozema & Teunissen
copies the classic caution-tape used by authorities to close off a scene of crime or accident. The word
CAUTION and the Rozema &Teunissen logo repetitive succeed each other. You've been cautioned
when you wonder "Why did I buy this purposeless fashion-item?…' while receiving a credit-card slip
Well, when a Philippine virus is munching away your harddrive, the scene will look a lot brighter
when your pc is wrapped up in Rozema & Teunissen Caution ribbon. Due to this bad delirious
hangover your hairdresser has ruined your looks, you accentuate this dreadful accident with Rozema &
Teunissen ribbons in your hair.
I'AM SORRY BUT THIS IS FUNNY…. : Iepe T.B. Rubingh proved you can even confront a
whole Japanese nation with its herd-instinct using Keep Out!-tape. After deep research On 11-031999 at nine in the morning he closed off the Hachiko Crossing, the most busily Crossing in Tokyo
and realised his artwork "I 'am Sorry Mister Emperor, But This Is Funny, Said The Joker". In 45
seconds the crossing was taped off, causing a huge traffic-jam Iepe jumped around in his striped Joker
suit:" The Joker is allowed to make jokes about the king but he is never in the position to influence the
king's thinking.'
237
GIMME SOME MORE OF THAT PUNKY STUFF! , Mama web-archive
(www.mama.ooo.nl/punk/EXPOINLEINDINGNEW.htm).
76
THE LOOK OF PUNK: Curious about the look of Punk through the years? Check the flyerwallpaper put up by Roel van Tour, Flyers from 1974 - 2000, starting with rare specimens of concerts
by the Ramones through de Sex Pistols right to the present day (from the collections of Leo X-treem
Stardumb Records en Peter de Raaf en Aziz).
Trash Art in Mama (Honda 98)
After three years of existence, Mama was asked by Ton de Vos, to give a retrospective of their
greatest hits238. The answer, in the form of an exhibition at the CBK from the 2nd to the 24th of
September 2000, was Mama’s Great Asstits. 13 young artists were invited, with styles going from the
Manga and comix to the graffiti and hip-hop, but also DJ’s and Video-artists.
But the most interesting part is what was done by a group called Honda 98, known for its
‘Trash-environments’: They take materials out of the City’s garbage, sorting them out by color and
diverting them into walk-in installations.
Honda 98 realized the physical framework of the Great Asstits exhibition. They called the
used materials they chose het zweet van de stad (the sweat of the City) and they combined them with
artworks. This was the structure of the whole exhibition itself. “The installation gives a timely image
of the life in the ultra-fast ever-changing City’s culture”, describes the website of the CBK239.
Mama already presented an exhibition of Honda 98 in 1998-1999, and keeps interest in this
group having its atelier in Rotterdam close to the Hofplein: “They make beautiful stuff”, comments
Jeroen Evenaerts.
Mama is about to go further in this path very soon: In October 2002, they organize an artistic
performance in Vlaardingen, using ‘afval-woud’ (wood that is commonly thrown away as useless) as
the basic material for a giant-puppet that all the people from the neighborhood will build together. The
organizer Jeroen Evenaerts is very enthusiastic about this project: “We’re gonna build a huge one!
Maybe 10 meters high. And we’re gonna burn it on the street. On the 4th of October we start it, it’s a
big project. We do it like the big festivals you have in Spain […] That’s an old ritual, and we want to
do it also.”
238
239
Interview with Jeroen Evenaerts, at Mama, 04/07/2002.
See www.cbk.rotterdam.nl/artoteek/2000/mama.shtml
77
Art & Pleasure:
How the Boijmans Museum wants to attract young people
Since a few months, Michiel Iersel, at the Boijmans Museum Communication and Marketing
department, prepares a program of events for young people in Rotterdam240. The first event that
marked the introduction of this project was the invitation of the students of Erasmus University to visit
the Bosch exhibition for free on an evening in late September 2001, with free drinks and an
introduction to Bosch by an Art historian241.
But the first event bearing the mark of Art & Pleasure was the ‘Keith Haring event’ on June 6,
2002242: 200 young people, mainly students243, attended the evening (organized in the occasion of the
Keith Haring exhibition ‘Heaven and Hell’). At 20H15, the director of Boijmans Hugo Bongers
presented the “making of Heaven and Hell”. At 20H30, Pieter van Houdheusden presented Keith
Haring (“A meeting with Keith Haring”). Then, at 21H00 people could visit the exhibition and watch
films with and about Keith Haring. Starting at 22H00, a party (around the theme of the ‘Underground
eighties’) was organized in De Blauwe Vis, with a special performance of the graffiti-group Bad Boyz
on the exterior wall of the Blauwe Vis.
Many more events and activities are planned for Fall 2002: “. This fall, we’ll be staging series
of discussions here at the Museum about various topics ranging from ‘ethics in art’, to controversial
art or the restitution of looted art and the aesthetics of art, and the jet set (the art jet set, how much
people earn…). We want to create an environment in this building where people feel free to speak and
interact with each other.”244 The website announces six kinds of activities that will be proposed:
“Meet&Greet” (encounter international artists), “BehindtheSceneS” (Look behind the curtains of
museums, galleries and ateliers), “ShowTime” (exclusive previews of new exhibitions), “ArtSafari”
(Discover the hotspots of the Art scene in Holland and elsewhere), “WorkShopS” (with the collection
and the experts of Boijmans) and “PartY” (with presentations by VJ’s). In particular, Art &Pleasure
aims to organize visits to local artists’ ateliers in Rotterdam, to have exhibitions presented by artists
and critics, to propose excursions to galleries and even private collections, and to foster discussions
about topics such as provocative Art, popular culture and the role of cultural institutions in a
multicultural society. Museum Boijmans aims then to become the ‘meeting-place’ of all young people
interested in Art and culture. On the website, a newsletter and a forum will provide the links to build
up such a network of active visitors.
In the context of the discussions, lectures and workshops of Art & Pleasure, Michiel van Iersel
sees an opportunity to have fruitful exchanges with young people about artists dealing with the
concept of Sustainability245.
240
Interview with Michiel van Iersel, and on internet:
http://boijmans.kennisnet.nl/art%20en%20pleasure/art%20en%20pleasure.htm
241
I was there myself, and can therefore witness that quite a lot of students came, together with workers of the
University, filling the auditorium for the presentation.
242
The event was not free, it was a paying one, on reservation.
243
See the interview with Michiel van Iersel: “The way in which we tried to attract them was by contacting some
people I know from the University: Studium Generale, Erasmus Cultuur and Histartus. [… About who came:]
Mainly students, but not only from Erasmus but also from the Hogeschool, and from the De Koning Academie
[School of Arts]. Some people came from other cities as well, I think 50% from Erasmus and 50% from
elsewhere, and maybe 10% from out of town.”
244
Interview with Michiel van Iersel.
245
Interview with Michiel van Iersel: He gives specific examples such as a workshop about Arte Povera…
78
The ‘Kunstbende’
With the Kunstbende, young people express what they believe art is about. The initiative for
this national contest was started in 1991 at the “Ministerie van WVC”. It is a podium for young people
(13 to 19 years old) to show in public what they did themselves about culture. The medium to achieve
this is a contest in dance, theatre, music, language, design, photo and video, and others. Every year a
theme is chosen. Each contestant will have 5 minutes to present his/her piece. Regional and National
juries give prizes, not mainly for technical qualities but for enthusiasm. To help the young people
prepare their pieces, different workshops are organized.
Here’s what Sjoerde Siemer Sjoerdsma (16), one of the 6000 young participants in the 1998
edition of the Kunstbende, wrote: “Wake up, wake up! This is what Art must yell. Art must wake up
people from their TV-sleep, shake them out of their unconscious person which wanders in our modern,
career-oriented consumption-society. Art must drag you away from the here and now. Just have a taste
of how things could be and throw you back to reality.”
It appeared that young people found ‘high-art’ not authentic enough and they tried to introduce
themselves this lacking ‘authenticity’. They took the contests seriously, working for months on them.
The contests gave expression to all kinds of art-forms, lifestyles and youth subcultures, presenting
themselves on the same stages. Some groups created very contemporary performances.246 What made,
up to now, the success of the Kunstbende? There is no censorship on the content of the pieces, and the
Young people are at the center of the process. Everything is voluntary. Communication is made with
humor, and it is done by young people (benevolent young people and ‘ambassadors’). Former
Kunstbende winners are advertised as kinds of heroes that young people can identify to. Most
important: young people are proposed to “choose themselves what Art is”, to make a point (and not be
taught a lesson like at school).
In 2002, a ‘voorronde’ (regional event) was organized in Rotterdam, at Nighttown on June 1 st.
This year’s theme was ‘action’. There were 250 finalists, 90 pieces in six categories: Dance, Music,
Expo, Multimedia, Language (3rd place awarded to Hasna El Maroudi from Rotterdam with Met
gesloten ogen) and Performance (1st place for Woesh from Rotterdam with Gone with the wind). The
Kunstbende also awarded a public’s prize, a CJP-Talent prize of 450 euros in the category dance
(awarded to Classact from Rotterdam with Sleepy Hollow), and a Boomerang Schoolcard Award in the
category Expo (the winner’s creation has been distributed on 250 000 cards distributed in highscools
all over the Netherlands).
The next ‘Kunstbende 2003’ will be presented on August 25th 2002 at the Uitmarkt in
Amsterdam. As usual, the finale will take place at the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht (on June
14th 2003).
Kunstbende also organizes additional programs, such as the project “cultonline.nl”, a culture
website for young people, with a ‘lounge’ (chat-zone), weekly news, an agenda for going out, a ‘cult
factory’ where (digital) creative work by young people can be exhibited and a ‘campus’ (a knowledge
library where visitors can make and store art-files). The website is updated by a redaction of ten young
people, giving their comments on the cultural offer in the Netherlands. Visitors can also subscribe to
the e-zine. A Hip-Hop contest is currently announced on the website247.
Maarten Lammers, “Kunstbende, kunst of Kunst”, in Jongeren en Kunst, speciaal nummer van TIAZ,
Uitgeverij SWP, Utrecht, 1998 (p. 131-135).
247
For the latest information, visit www.kunstbende.nl .
246
79
The R Festival 1997:
From September 18 to 28th 1997, 61 200 persons visited the R Festival organized by the
Stichting Rotterdam Festivals. That year, the R Festival was focusing on “the Art and Culture of being
young” and was named “Jij… bent eindelijk de baas in Rotterdam!”248 The goal was not merely to
evoke or talk about an ideal Youth, but to work it out for and with young people, for the festival to
serve as a loudspeaker for the cultural desires and needs of Rotterdam’s young people. Also, the
programmers refused to approach the young people as a mass of averaged consumers; they aimed to
draw attention to relations and interferences between youth (sub)cultures and cultural institutions249.
The festival consisted of two elements: the artistic festival itself, and an original researchteamwork by 112 young people who explored the cultural offer in Rotterdam and gave their
recommendations.
The festival materialized the richness of Rotterdam’s Youth Culture250:
- The exhibitions drew in 16 000 visitors in total. Among them, some were relevant for the
young people of 1997: In Mama was presented Game Over, an exhibition about video-games. In the
Nederlands Foto Instituut were shown Kracht, an exhibition of photographs and videos from the
national Kunstbende251 competition (around the theme of “Power”), and Photowork(s) in progress:
constructing identity, with (self-)portraits of Rotterdam young people. At the Nederlands
Architectuurinstituut, the exhibition Kinderworkshop presented the results of the experimental work of
20 children and young people (up to 17 years-old) with the famous Muscovite architect Vladislav
Kirpichev; they created objects from glue, waste-wood and other waste-materials. In the “Museum
voor Volkenkunde” (former name of the WereldMuseum252), one could visit Soaps, a multimedia
exhibition about… TV-soaps around the world; besides, there were a Soap party (dance party) in the
Hal on September 20th with free entrance to the exhibition and boat-trip to the Hal; and in the theatre
of the Museum, were performed Soap extra (discussion with Soap-makers), Cliffhangers (a
competition between Rotterdam comedians and the actors of the Dutch soap Goede Tijden Slechte
Tijden), Terug naar nergens (a Soap-play by young people from the stichting Rotterdam-West) and
Vrouwen in de Soap (debate about the image of women in Soaps).
- The Music-events attracted 3 200 listeners, with Extreme identities X-id (a very varied
program ), Fish (‘Symphonic Rock’), Jonny Lang (Blues), Le Monde du Maghreb (Arabic theater and
Raï), The Mix Jr. (an encounter between contemporary composed music and Dance-music), Move Da
Crowd (R&B) and Turks Feest (an afternoon of Turkish music), all in Nighttown.
- Theater-performances were visited by 12 000 persons. There were AIR in Nighttown (a
rock-mime-musical about past and present idealism), the Beste Rotterdamse Forever Young
Performance Wedstrijd in Theater Lantaren/Venster (a competition for Hip Hoppers, performers,
singers, dancers, rappers and imitators, with a professional jury giving awards) Carte Blanche (to
dancers, as well classical as African and breakdance), Shirtology (a theater-inquiry by 15 young
people and choreographer-director Jérome Bel, about the relationships between language and clothing
on T-shirts (both in Lantaren/Venster), Nights in this City (a theatrical bus-ride around Rotterdam by
the English company Forced Entertainment) and Secret Places at V2 (installation performance made
out of a workshop with Forced Entertainment).
Ed. Gepke Bouma, Jij… bent eindelijk de baas in Rotterdam: projectverslag en activiteitenoverzicht R
festival 1997, Stichting Rotterdam Festivals, Rotterdam, 1997.
249
This was not easy: according to them, the Rotterdam police succeeded in imposing a censorship on the
outdoor presentation of the film Tags of Menna Laura Meijer (about graffiti-creators).
250
Here, I make a selection out of the festival-activities, keeping only what concerned young people, leaving out
what was designed for adults and/or children only…
251
For more information, see the section on the Kunstbende in this chapter.
252
The new name of WereldMuseum was precisely one of the advices given by the young people at this R
festival.
248
80
- Other events gathered 30 000 persons: Among them, young people could have been
interested by Het Album (Everyone was invited in the Nederlands Foto Instituut to bring the
photograph of his/her best Youth-moment), De Avonden van… ( with special guests telling others
about what it really means to be young in a city) in Lantaren/Venster, de finale in Nighttown (where
the plans and advices of the young people-teams (see below) were presented to more than a thousand
people (young people, cultural animators and politicians), together with dance, performances, fashion,
illusion-trics and a building-wide installation called “Heaven and Hell meet on Earth”), the Jong
Creatif platform (where young people followed creative workshops to address social problems ‘till
they made a final show) in the Schouwburg, De kleine zeemeermin (a spectacular version of the Little
Mermaid by Andersen, with music, lightshows, fashion, dance, DJ’s, real sea-lions, mermaids and
fireworks) on the Schouwburgplein, Totally F**ed up! (a video-program about the dark side of young
people, from violence to passivity) in Lantaren/Venster and X-ID (two days of podium for creative
young people such as Dj’s, Street Hockey’s, bands, street-dancers, skaters, climbers, graffers and
Basketballers) on the Schouwburgplein.
To foster a debate with young people, a board was created (with young people from youthorganizations), which organized six workgroups: Check-it Out was the largest group, visiting and
commenting on the offer of cultural institutions. De Reclamemakers evaluated the communication
towards young people of cultural institutions and realized a free marketing-advice on which media to
use to advertise cultural activities to young people. De Werbouwers were asked to look how the city
could be made more attractive for young people253. De Journalisten edited the festival-newsletter, a
program on Stadsradio Rotterdam and the Talkshow De Avonden van… De Creativen prepared the
creative content of De Avonden van… and the Finale. De Party was the group responsible for
presenting the work of all groups in the Finale.
The report of the Check-it out team is quite interesting. Overall, they found that the cultural
offer in Rotterdam did not take enough into account the multicultural factor, while it was too much
concentrated on traditional art-forms and not paying enough attention to the Youth Cultures.
Concerning prices, they asked for larger reductions for young people. They asked for a clearer and
more attractive communication, preferably “written by young people”.
Concerning theaters and ‘podia’, they asked for bundles including several events in different
places throughout the year. That’s exactly what Erasmus Cultuur is now offering to students. They
found that places like the Doelen and the Ro Theater were boring and unattractive (since then, the
Doelen have organized events oriented towards youth lifestyles254). They preferred Nighttown (while
asking for jam sessions open to beginning artists) and the Rotterdamse Centrum voor Theater.
Concerning festivals, they asked for more festivals designed especially for young people, such
as the Dance Parade, and being multicultural, such as the Zomercarnaval and the Dunya festival; they
also asked for more clearly thematic festivals. They found the Wereldhavendagen nice but too much
oriented towards families and children. They also liked the Rotterdam Straatfestival. They liked the R
festival, but asked for more events on the streets.
Concerning museums, they missed ‘more contemporary artists’, more background information
and guidance and better opening-times (in the evenings). They especially disliked the Kunsthal,
“unfriendly, non-communicative and lacking any fantasy’. They also disliked the Nederlands Foto
Instituut, saying it was “more a gallery than a museum”. They found the Maritiem Museum too
technical, not giving enough attention to stories with real humans, and not interactive enough. They
the diversity and quality offered by the Boijmans Museum, but asked for exhibitions made for the
interests of young people. They were positively surprised to discover the existence of V2, which they
found “interesting, surprising and contemporary”. All in all, they recommended that museums involve
young people in the organization and promotion of their activities, and that they open themselves to
more diversified art-forms.
253
Especially, they asked for the Boompjes alongside the river to be made a nicer place.
For example: On July 13th, 2002, the Doelen organized with the ‘stichting Kleurrijk Centrum’, More than the
Future (R&B lifestyle event), a new event for young people supposed to be renewed yearly, with many different
activities simultaneously proposed (a cinema, a R&B discotheque) from 22H15 to 05H00, for 20 euros.
254
81
The Reclamemakers criticized the communication of cultural institutions towards young
people. They called for a better use of Internet255, less month-agendas but more personal contacts (with
distribution of invitations to key-young people), developing and renewing networks. They advised
institutions to use flyers, Boomerang-cards and youth-magazines as media. They criticized a
communication confusing young people with children, and written by ‘insiders’ trying to write for
young people (they recommended to have the texts written by young people, so that they use their own
language). Concerning clubs like Nighttown, they only criticized the attempts to reach “too many
target-groups at the same time”. They concluded that young people had to be involved in the
communication, at least as ‘ambassadors’ (which was done in the following months by many
institutions mentioned above256).
The report and recommendations of young people in the R festival 1997 were valued by
cultural institutions which promised to use them. The advices summarized above did, and still do,
make sense.
255
See now the website www.cultuurinrotterdam.nl, a step in the right direction but lacking forums and
personalization. With a forum, e-cards and other youth-friendly features, see www.dimi.nl .
256
(with the noticeable exception of the Kunsthal which rather seemed to dismiss the criticism)
82
Other Organizations and events
A few other relevant organizations and events for Young people in Rotterdam are listed here
(with no intention whatsoever to be exhaustive). Their addresses (as well as those of organizations
presented in the preceding pages) are given in an appendix.
Events and Festivals organizers:
 Cinema Méditerranée:
Co-organized by the ‘Cinematheek’ of the Theater Lantaren/Venster (with Kadir Selçuk as
Film programmer), Kunststichting Sahne (“a bridge between podia and Turkish artists to reach a larger
public, and an ambassador for Turkish young talents in the Netherlands”) and the stichting Al Kantara
(“promoting Moroccan Culture among Moroccan young people and building a bridge with Dutch
Culture, organizer of Marokkaans dorp at the Dunya Festival, Rif Festival and the ‘Literaire avond
met Marokkaanse schrijvers’”). The Cinema Méditerranée festival took place in 1998 and again in
2001 (from October 10th to 21st), with 45 recent films (but also theater, dance and music) from Turkey,
Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Albania, Croatia, Greece and Spain.257
 Stichting Loeder Events:
During the summer 2002, a number of events are organized by the stichting Loeder Events on
the Museumplein in Rotterdam under the title ZomerPodium. Being targeted at ‘whole-families’, some
of the activities attract young people: The Skate Swing (Saturday evenings in July, with DJ Barend for
the ‘rollerdisco’), The Bollywood Ball (Saturday, august 17th with dance-acts, live music and a film,
co-organized with Stichting Dosti from Den Haag), the Pink Party (gays and lesbians party, August
24th, with ‘Travo Acts’ and ‘Dutch Divas’) and the Pleinbioscoop (August 13 th to September 1st with
the widest outdoor screen in Europe).
Apart from this, Loeder Events258 co-organized other noticeable events, such as:
- The Girls Parade (June 20th 2002 at Nighttown from 16h00 to 22h00) which united young
women from Holland, Turkey, Morocco and the Antilles and promoted their feminine culture, with
“only girls allowed” for an evening of music, dance and debates and also a lifestyle lounge and ‘acts’
(the new name for performances among young cultural activists).
- The Kaskawina Festival (4th edition on June 2nd 2002 at Cream The Club, Schiekade 205)
which promotes Kaskawina Music, an Afro-Surinamese music style dating back to slavery. This is the
most popular Surinamese music among young people (as of 2002)259.
- The MC-Award (Yet to come in the Fall of 2002 in Nighttown, co-organized with Straight
Up), a competition for MC’s (HipHop mainly) in the Netherlands, with in the background a VJinstallation. Educational workshops are also planned.
- The CultuurParade (4th edition on September 14th 2002 in ten different neighbourhoods and a
finale on the 15th in the Witte de Withstraat) is a big party where the young people go out in the streets
to organize the feast; 36 groups will make performances on podia around Rotterdam, competing for
the Big Prize (a professional education in their art-form), the winner of each neighbourhood going to
the finale.
- Loeder Events also organizes multi-cultural workshops around Tambu (An Antillean
traditional music dating back to slavery), Batuque (a Cap-Verdian music with religious origins also
coming from African slaves), Kawina (traditional Afro-American music from slaves in Surinam), but
also workshops like Power (empowering young people with their own cultures, in dance, fashion, DJ,
257
The festival has simultaneously programs in Amsterdam, Den Haag, Dordrecht, Eindhoven and Utrecht. For
more info, see ed. Jacky van Dijk and Kadir Selçuk, Cinema Méditerranée Catalogus, Theater Lantaren/Venster,
Rotterdam, 2001.
258
For more info, visit www.loederevents.nl
259
According to R’uit Magazine, Juni-Juli-Augustus 2002, Stichting R’uit.
83
music, filming, advertising, making décors), Dance Party (a theatre-music-dance workshop about
street-slang, lifestyles and their influence on the young participants’ lifes, co-organized with
Nighttown with a final party-performance there), or On Stage, schrijven op het ritme van de Raï (to
make young people from the Maghreb proud of and creative with their cultural roots) or even Rouw (a
night of drama, rap, music and other arts, for the young people to accept mourning and death, in
Nighttown, co-organized with Stichting Live at Nighttown)
- They also edited the book JR, Jongerenculturen Rotterdam celebrating Youth Cultures along
Rotterdam Cultural Capital of Europe 2001, and a report on traditional allochtone festivities260 in
Rotterdam (Feestdagen samen vieren).
 Solero ZomerCarnaval:
The Zomercarnaval, at its 18th edition on July 27th 2002, is by far the largest one day
multicultural event in Rotterdam, bringing hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, especially
Cap-Verdians, Surinamese and Antilleans, but also Dutch autochthones. Dozens of groups from
Rotterdam ethnic communities and elsewhere parade in the streets with their costumes and
accompanying music-trucks. Each group chooses a theme which is supposed to inspire happiness and
enjoyment. The website proposes to the (young) people to form their own local group261.
 FFWD Dance Parade:
In contrast with the Zomercarnaval, theDance Parade attracts mainly autochthon young people
on the rhythms of Dance and House music262. Big musical trucks with sound-systems, DJ’s and
colourful dancers on them. The Dance Parade took place on August 10th in the 2002 6th edition. All the
big commercial nightclubs oh the country had to be there (even some European nightclubs are there
with a truck too).
 Passionate:
Passionate, ‘organisatie voor nieuwe letteren’, is a cultural organization working to promote
word-arts among youth cultures (‘young people from 16 to 26’ according to the website263). Its
definition of word-art is very wide, including the texts in rap, videos, comic-strips, dance and graphic
art; it promotes multicultural sources of inspiration. Passionate has its own newsletter, and organizes
several events in Rotterdam:
- Geen daden maar woorden: In 2000 and 2001, this festival presented the written arts through
film-screenings and a variety of performances such as dance, music and MC’s. In 2002, the festival
will take place on September 27th and 28th with again many performances and film-screenings, in the
Schouwburg.
- The grapevine: This ‘late night Talk Show’ introduces debates around new developments in
word-arts with guests such as MC’s, musicians, poets, etc. The grapevine regularly takes place in
Nighttown (with free entrance).
- Write now!: A contest for young people, the third edition of ‘write now’ delivered its awards
on March 20th 2002.
 Stichting Dunya:
Stichting Dunya organizes the Western Union Dunya Festival, at its 25th edition in 2002 (May
25-26th ). This multicultural poetry and music festival has grown continuously: “More and more
people liked the idea of listening to and experiencing the ways in which other cultures express
themselves. The project is currently the largest multicultural festival in Western Europe, with more
than 400 artists of national and international renown appearing at the Western Union Dunya Festival.
260
Chinees Nieuwjaar (24 januari 2001), Hindustaanse lentefeest Holi Pagua (11 maart 2001), het Kaap
Verdische San João (24 juni 2001), het Afro-Surinaamse Keti Koti (1 juli 2001) en het Islamitische Suikerfeest
(15 december 2001). Available from Loeder Events.
261
See http://www.solerozomercarnaval.nl/ (in the section get in touch)
262
With the exception of very few commercial Hip Hop trucks attracting a more mixed audience, as I observed.
263
See http://www.passionate.nl
84
Not only poetry, but also music, dance, acrobatics and new forms of storytelling [are] presented. The
festival is not only well-known for its sights and sounds but also for its smells and tastes.”
In addition to the festival, other events are organized, such as the Dunya World Programme all
along the year with six to eight events per month. The Dunya World Programme is presented at the
Princess Theatre, Schiedamseweg 10.
 IFFR:
Among the diverse activities of the world-renown yearly International Film Festival
Rotterdam, the MovieZone Award is an award presented by a young adults-jury invited by IFFR, de
Volkskrant and the Dutch Institute for Film Education. The Euro 2,250 price money is used to
promote the winner among younger audience groups. In 2002, Fat girl by Catherine Breillat (France)
was awarded. The IFFR also promotes the festival towards young people by offering them to volunteer
in the organization and have free access to all the movies, and by organizing many nightly thematic
parties during the festival.
Youth Cultural spaces:
 Nighttown:
Probably the biggest and most active Nightclub working with Youth Cultures, Nighttown
organizes events all around the year, relating to all emerging, growing or renewing youth subcultures
and lifestyles but also to the two Mainstream commercial cultures of R&B (and commercial Hip Hop)
and of House-Music… There are so many events organized by Nighttown that only a visit to their
website can give an idea of the range of activities. Just one example among others is the International
Breakdance Event (August 31st and September 1st 2002).
 JongerenCentrum Baroeg:
Located in the Southern ring of Rotterdam, Baroeg264 is the place for the subcultures of
Metalheads and PunkRockers. It attracts an audience that goes beyond Rotterdam and reaches a
European dimension (12 000 visitors yearly for 180 (inter)national bands performing). The proposed
events are varied: “Because now Youth Culture means much more than just music, we sometimes use
combinations (think about metal markets or local underground-info + zines, tattoo/piercing meetings,
pro-anti vivisection benefit-concerts for the Animal Liberation Front or for Kosovo, not normal
hardcore hippie-shit, cultural beer orgies, sing-with-the-karaoke-craziness, fantasy-evenings or
whatever you like...)” In a year, around 60 concert-days, 24 dance evenings and 12 diverse events are
organized. According to the organizer Renée Veerkamp, the ongoing slogan of Baroeg is “Baroeg is
the diehard most alternative!!!!!”
 Off_Corso:
Yet another nightclub? Another Jongerencentrum? A cultural centre? No, Off_Corso 265 offers
something more, something very creative, clearly artistic and often experimental266. It is a kind of
cultural laboratory open to the winds of lively subcultures and lifestyles that have a germinating
creativity. Urban HipHop, Rock, House, Trance, unclassifiable DJ-creations, experimental videos,
open Digital Jam Sessions, Sound Architecture and City-lights all have special evenings to seduce and
surprise the eclectic young visitors. Off_Corso is also a space for public debate around culture, as will
be the case on August 29th 2002 (“An evening about the developments in the planning of youth
culture. A group of organizers and artists are presenting a Manifesto with 10 proposals for improving
the cultural atmosphere for young artists and organizers.”) Moreover, Off_Corso is an exhibition space
264
See http://www.baroeg.nl/index2.html
See www.off-corso.nl
266
On its website Off_Corso describes itself as follows: “Off_Corso is a unique multimedia lounge facility in the
center of Rotterdam, providing a physical focus for invisible networks. The project is a 'next generation
entertainment' environment, which is defined by which it is not. You can drink, but it's not a bar. You can
experience art and culture, but it's not a gallery or museum. You can dance, but it's not a discotheque.”
265
85
for urban graphic arts, photos, films and special events such as Reanimate (international festival for
web based animation).
 Now&Wow:
Open every Saturday night, Now&Wow is a multicultural “eclectic” night-club calling itself
“the ultra desirable relax and dance club”. Artistic director Ted Langebach describes the different
events in Now&Wow267: Speedfreaks (every first Saturday of the month) “is West-European but also
Multi-Culti, it’s a lot of things[…] Speedfreaks is a two-step thing […]They brought it 4 or 5 years
ago in London, with Speed Garage and Drum&Bass, and they bring it together. […]That is the real
multicultural thing.” About SoulPunkers (every third Saturday of the month): “is more the Soul
people, with also in the movement of white Soul people and also black Punks, who are interested in
mixed music, I call it neo-eclectic. They mix all kinds of music-styles together, electro, pop-music,
HipHop, House, Techno, R&B. The traditional music is R&B, but it’s too soft, you know… So they
are inspired by new music, by rock music, and they like more the mixed forums, and you see by
SoulPunkers more a kind of DJ style, mixing George Michael with ACDC, Red Hot Chili Peppers and
Techno… Everything is possible.” Flirt (fourth Saturday of the month) is “a kind of neo-romantic
thing […] a multi-cultural ‘multi-darling night’”.
 Calypso:
Calypso organizes different club-nights throughout the year, such as the “HipHop Lounge”
with several DJ’s, the Rollerdisco nights (and rollerskate dance lessons), the ZomerCarnaval AfterParty, Elementz (Dance-music event) and film-screenings.
 Jongerencentrum Frimangron:
The multicultural youth-centre Frimangron lies in the neighbourhood of ‘Middelland’ in
Rotterdam. A diversity of activities is proposed for young people ‘from 14 to 20 years-old’, including
at the cultural level: a music-studio, courses and workshops, parties, ‘cultural happenings’, the Youthradio-broadcasting-music group ‘Music Injection’. Frimamngron, which can welcome up to 200n
persons in its building, is often quoted by other cultural organizations as an active ‘jongerencentrum’.
 Waterfront:
Waterfront is a concert-hall for Pop Music (450 places), a music-café, ten training-rooms for
musicians, four rooms for giving music-lessons and a music-shop. In 2003, a professional studio will
be installed. Waterfront welcomes various national and international bands (on Thursdays and
Fridays) and organizes “dance-acts and dance-nights” (on Saturdays).
 Hal4:
Hal4 organizes and produces programs for young people between 14 and 19 years-old: Mainly
theatre, but also dance and digital media. It aims to maintain a ‘streetwise’ approach close to the Youth
Culture of Rotterdam. It support the Theatre group ‘Rotterdams Lef’ and the event ‘Digital
Playground’ (with multimedia workshops). It also rents its space for other events.
Other organizations:
 V2:
V2, the “Institute for the unstable media”, is a center for media arts that, although not widely
well-known among young people, seduces those who have the opportunity to encounter it268 and who
267
268
See the interview of Ted Langenbach in the appendices.
See the comments of young people in the section on the R Festival 1997.
86
feel close to the Net-Generation269. V2 is interested in the meaning of contemporary technological
developments. V2 mainly produces art-works with the V2-lab, and organizes the festival DEAF270.
 De Popunie:
The Popunie is, since 1985, a foundation for the promotion of pop-music in the south-west
region of the Netherlands. You find their headquarter in Rotterdam. They organise projects for and
render services to pop-musicians, pop-organisations, platforms, municipalities and to all those who are
interested in pop-music. They aim to improve the quality of pop-music and to promote its practice and
its presentation. They organize various music-workshops and events such as United Cultures NL (a
“hunt for talents in multicultural music” co-organized with Waterfront). The Popunie also distributes
subsidies for pop-music projects.
 CBK / Beeldende Kunst in de Openbare Ruimte:
Among its activities, the BKOR headed by Siebe Thissen organized a number of events and
installations linked to outdoor Youth Cultures. Apart from those described in detail in the preceding
sections, one can think of the following projects:
- On October 27th 2000, the National Phonographic 2000 consisted of a performance in the
city-center of Rotterdam by ‘Turntablists’ vested in an van equipped with a Sound-System; a Sound
installation in the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut by the sound-artist and architect Janek Schaefer,
evening performances in Rotown; and ‘Turntablism’ workshops for young people in the V2-lab. One
of the aim of the CBK/BKOR was here to link the ‘high-art’ institutions such as V2 and the NAI and a
creative elements of youth culture.
- On June 4th 2000, artist Olaf Mooij presented during the ‘Rotterdamse Kunstdagen’ his
Discomobiel (a car equipped on its back with many huge loud-speakers heading backwards into the
streets, making of this car a peculiar Sound-Machine for any Pop-Music to be played in the streets).
- The skatepark on Westblaak, constructed after a municipal decision in 1998, had its ground
designed and painted by the Ontwerpteam 75B, with the intention to make it very colourful with a 3Dstyle.
 Cultuurschok:
Cultuurschok no longer exists, but it is still mourned by the writers of the Manifest R2002, and
it was celebrated as a model during the celebration of the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2001. Here is
how the project (started in 1998) was described: “Cultuurschok tries to create an environment for the
younger generation in which they can perform their own art forms. Main goals are: - to stimulate
young people to participate in art forms by organising projects from their point of view; - to help
upcoming young artists by professionalising their works and open doors for them at the art institutions
- to head a youth council, to make them heard in cultural Rotterdam.” Among others, Cultuurschok
organized Zap Nation Rotterdam in the Schouwburg in 1999 (September 11-12th). Cultuurschok
Rotterdam was considered as a “little sister” of the Kunstbende organization
269
See the section on the N-Gen in the 2nd chapter of this report.
270 “The Dutch Electronic Art Festival, is an international and interdisciplinary bi-annual festival organised by
V2_Organisation. DEAF presents an exhibition of interactive installations, WWW-sites, CD-roms and live
performances, seminars, workshops and an academic symposium”
87
Conclusion and recommendations
88
Youth Culture and Communicating Sustainability:
Conclusion of the Analysis
In the introduction of this report, a challenging question was asked: “How could the arts allow
a communication with Young people about Sustainability that would affect their behavior, their
consciousness and lead to an effective change-process?”
In between, the various communicative potentials of the arts have been unfolded and the
creative dynamics of Youth Culture has been explored, with a special attention to its manifestations in
the cultural life of Rotterdam. Yet, that information needs to be put into perspective, if one aims to
develop a new praxis in Communication with the young people of Rotterdam.
How can the insights of this report be useful in a strategic attempt to communicate about
Sustainability? The answer depends on the perspective that one has on sustainability, young
people/youth culture and cultural communication.
1.
Sustainability
 The first orientation stems from the idea that one should replace unsustainable
consumption-habits with sustainable consumption-choices, such as non-polluting
transportation, organic (maybe even vegetarian) food, eco-labels and Fair Trade products.
This shift in consumption by young people could be fostered by a shift in the proposed
icons and symbols of mainstream youth culture and in the cultural products consumed by
lifestyles-surfers.
 The second, alternative orientation stems from the idea that sustainability implies less
consumption and that the needs of young people should be redirected away from
consumerism, towards new social habits. Such a re-evaluation of their uses by young
people could be fostered by a critical development of powerful symbols, icons, rituals and
values at the root of the youth subcultures, better able to question mass consumption than
the mainstream media.
2.
Young people and youth culture
Youth Culture is a means for young people to develop their own identities through
experimenting specific behaviors, values and preferences in their free time. As described earlier in this
document, most young people belong to a ‘mainstream’ culture valuing individuality and competition
and promoting consumption-oriented behaviors, but most of the icons, symbols and codes they use are
actually coming from youth subcultures, groups of young people striving to perpetuate their distinctive
communities.
For all these groups, from the subcultures to the lifestyles, the following observations are
relevant: In 1998 already, philosopher Henk Oosterling 271of the Erasmus Universiteit gave an accurate
account of the dynamics of Youth Culture: “So they stand, squeezed between the child and the adult,
as if in a no man’s land in the middle of life of others. This compels them to take initiative
themselves, to make up experiences with others and to live things: youngsters want – if I may use the
vocabulary of contemporary Art – performance. They embody a process, an existential laboratory,
work in progress, ‘transformance’. They embody the forces which policy-makers are painstakingly
Henk Oosterling, “Lang leve de eeuwige jeugd! Of kan de cultuur een festival zijn?”, in ed. Gepke Bouma,
Jij… bent eindelijk de baas in Rotterdam: projectverslag en activiteitenoverzicht R festival 1997, Stichting
Rotterdam Festivals, Rotterdam, 1997. (Stresses added)
271
89
looking for. But youngsters are of course never themsleves: they are on the way to themselves or out
of themselves.”
The cultural diffusion between subcultures and the mainstream goes as follows: a hardcore
gives form and content to a subculture; sympathizers embody these forms through diverse codes and
rituals; the subculture gets then attention from hangers-on and cultural industries, adhering to some
commoditized cultural productions from the subculture; finally, the media provide a widespread
diffusion to these products which are consumed by lifestyles-surfers. The consumption-behaviors of
the ‘surfers’ are inter-connected, fluid and open to many influences, mainly from the cultural
industries and the local community.
Conceptual model of the cultural diffusion from subculture-hardcore to lifestyle-surf272
Hangers-on
Icons and symbols
Codes and rituals
Surfers
Core
sympathizers
Values
and
beliefs
Subculture
Lifestyle
The icons and symbols created by the Youth Culture in the process have the property of
polysemy: each of them generates not merely one or a few meanings but a potential for many
alternative meanings, materialized in local scenarios.
That polysemy has the advantage to foster a creative symbolic activity on the part of the young
people who create new significations. It thus provides direct starting-points for appropriation and
identification through cultural activities.
What the young people desire and need is to find opportunities for self-identification
themselves in relationship to the elements of contemporary youth culture. Psychoanalysts Erik
Erikson273 was the first to explain the quest for identity as the most important personal achievement of
adolescence and a critical step in becoming a fulfilled adult who knows who (s)he is, what (s)he values
and hopes to pursue in life. In a complex society, the teenager experiences a time of confusion as (s)he
approaches alternative sets of values, goals and directions to choose from. Decisive options are taken
and choices are made at this stage, which will influence the whole adult-life of that person, and that is
why the personal experience of youth culture is so essential to the youngster.
272
This conceptual model is of my own making. It synthesizes the results I considered relevant in the literature
on Youth Culture and gives a dynamic systemic view of the whole youth culture.
273
Erik H. Erikson, Childhood and society, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1950.
90
In this perspective, reinforcing dimensions of Sustainability inside the youth culture is a daring
challenge that, if successful, can integrate Sustainability in the very identities of today’s young people
and help shape the global consciousness of tomorrow. Adolescence being the period when the
individual questions the assumptions having defined his/her childhood, it is the best time for him/her
to create new foundations, new assumptions that better embrace the issues at the edge of today’s
society.
To correctly address those needs expressed by the young people, it is essential to offer them
enough diversity and complexity in the approaches to Sustainability, (without of course blurring the
concepts so much that the signal would be drowned in the noise). Another essential point is to provide
the appropriate tools for young people to effectively participate in the creation of significations, as
early as possible in the process.
In this process of self-development though, the needs and desires of young people evolve
along adolescence, and we can identify two age-categories that need separate attention: The 13 to 15
years-olds despise things that could identify them to children and bear the ‘infamous’ mark of
childishness. They are generally quite conventional and are not attracted by radically alternative
behaviors inducing uncertainty. They have strong needs for self-valorization in the eyes of the peergroup and for differentiation among them. They are looking for highly emotional, fast-paced and
varied cultural contents with a sense of humor (not taking itself too seriously). The 16 to 19 years-olds
are generally more creative and think in the long-term (social self-development, professional future).
Being more independent, reflective and post-conventional, they are more likely to participate intensely
in conceptual inquiry and to develop their own esthetics and values (thus closer to subcultures). They
are looking for innovative and controversial cultural contents with more ambiguity and a subtle
humor.
3.
Cultural Communication
The first type is produced by cultural industries on a (inter)national level while the second
appears in local urban environments (among subcultures particularly). The Media Culture, controlled
by big corporations, reaches huge audiences through massive investments and thus must bring back
massive profits. The Urban Culture reaches specific local audiences in a given social context and
addresses thus specific issues related to a developing identity274. In the first case, ‘gatekeepers’ with
commercial interests filter through the cultural expressions what may sell to a diversity of consumers
at least nationally, whereas in the second case the creators receive a direct feedback from the audience
and thus some room is available for experimentation, questioning widespread habits and values. Such
a systemic inquiry would be hardly possible among Media Culture for a reason well-known in
psychology: the effect of cognitive dissonance (happening when bits of new information cannot fit
into one’s world-view: when they contradict some fundamental elements of the basic assumptions
embedded in the paradigm a person believes in). Defense mechanisms then take place to boost the
cognitive dissonance out (repression, substitution, introjection: ‘the expert knows best’, personal
disconnection: ‘I’m not concerned’, etc.275) The broader the target-community, the less easily
cognitive dissonance can get through. In the consumption-centred Media Culture, Sustainability brings
several cognitive dissonances: Consumerism is opposed by the goal to spare the world. Material
abundance is denied by the actual scarcity of resources. The vision of a self-evident futuristic progress
is countered by a questioning of modernism and an orientation towards paradigmatic second-order
Diane Crane calls for a support to urban cultures because they are in danger, in her view: “While media
conglomerates are expanding to global dimensions, the social structures that supported urban cultures in the past
are being transformed in ways that threaten their long-term survival”. If that is true, then urban cultures per se
have to be fostered in order to insure at least the sustainability of cultural diversity.
275
About those psychological processes which here cannot be reviewed at length, see Anna freud, Das Ich und
die Abwehrmechanismen, Kindler Verlag, München, 1936 (p. 6). See also Peter Gay, Freud for Historians,
Oxford University Press, New York, 1985 (p 163-167).
274
91
changes276. Finally, the irresponsible prolongation of childhood promoted by entertainment (and more
generally by technologism277) is stopped by a thirst for self-inquiry and social engagement.
Given these problems encountered with Media culture, a more sustainable strategy would be
to act at the source of living subcultures on the Urban culture of Rotterdam, with an approach that
could be provocative, anti-conformist, anti-consumerist and personalizing (addressing local issues and
representations).
Here again the words of Henk Oosterling sound particularly relevant: “Edu- and infotainment without
interactivity are not suficient to make youngsters sensible or to heighten their cultural awareness. […]
As long as they [they policy-makers] keep their young consumers at a certain distance, little
involvement should be waited for. If to share actually means to participate, only then can cautious
participation evolve into enthusiastic commitment. […] If institutions become sensible to the wishes of
youngsters, they should also accept, next to their creative energy, the unpredictability of the ecstasy.
[…] Respecting the existential forming-experiment that to be called a ‘youngster’ means, implies the
following: One must let the allergy to ‘better-knowers’ work as to let the adults learn something out of
it.”278
Thus, it is clear by now that a meaningful communication with young people has to be a
participatory process of experience-building, and maybe further of interactive identity-shaping. Such a
communication indeed cannot be planned in advance as to its outcome, because its inner truth has to
be revealed by and through the young people inside the youth culture. There cannot be a fully
predictable outcome, nor can there be a top-down realization of such a communication. Rather, what
can be planned is a propitious environment for a ‘chemical reaction’ such as the one described by
Oosterling to take place. What the Milieubeleid can work on is to develop frameworks providing the
opportunities for such a propitious environment.
Now that we have our information put into perspective, it is high time to answer the
question… How can we communicate to young people about Sustainability ?
At least two ways are available: One cannot communicate in the same way to a subcultural
target-group and to a mainstream audience.
First, how could the Mainstream Youth be reached?
Let’s be clear about one point: Even if the word is unknown to them, many young people do
care about Sustainability. At least, that’s what one can tell from the results of a report by UNEP on the
subject279: In the worldwide survey, 75% of the respondents said that the biggest challenges for the
world in the next years will be “reducing environmental pollution”, “improving human health” and
“increasing respect for human rights”. Just below the 70% line were “reducing differences between
rich and poor” and “reducing child labor”. Asked what is the impact of their consumption on the
environment, 52% evoked “the way they dispose of their waste”, 42% their travels, 41% their use of
water, 29% their energy-use, only 11% their food purchases and 7% their clothes purchases. Asked
about their views on their own consumption, 45% agreed that “it is important for me to have a lifestyle
compatible with that of my friends”; 60% agreed that “people of my age are consuming too much” but
On “second-order changes” in Sustainability, see Hans Dieleman, De Arena van Schonere Productie, mens en
organisatie tussen behoud en verandering, Uitgeverij Eburon, Delft, 1999 (p. 169-173).
277
On the social prolongation of childhood provoked by belief in Technology, see Hans van de Braak, The
Prometheus Complex, Man’s obsession with superior technology, Enzo Press, Amersfoort, 1995 (p.169-171).
278
Henk Oosterling, “Lang leve de eeuwige jeugd! Of kan de cultuur een festival zijn?”, in ed. Gepke Bouma,
Jij… bent eindelijk de baas in Rotterdam: projectverslag en activiteitenoverzicht R festival 1997, Stichting
Rotterdam Festivals, Rotterdam, 1997. (Stresses added)
276
279
UNEP/UNESCO Research Project on Youth and Sustainable Consumption, 2001. Is the Future Yours?; copyright UNEP 2001
92
44% said that “having more would still make me happier”. Finally, asked who should do something to
improve the world, 46% said citizens, 44% said governments, 40% said international organizations,
38% said young people, 36% said ‘myself’ and only 32% said the industry.
As we have seen, the Dutch Mainstream Youth has an extensive use of television and Internet,
goes out in cafés and discotheques for social contacts and regularly visits cinemas and pop concerts.
When on the Net, they ‘surf’ quite often, and thus could visit web sites that are worth surfing: rich,
surprising, quickly downloaded, often renewed and visually attractive enough to come… and come
back280 (Chat-zones for the younger ones and forums for the older folks are essential elements). The
young people should not be targeted merely individually, but in group-units: the “peer-groups” which
stick together and go out together: Opportunities should be given to them to share a Sustainable
lifestyle and to participate together in some activities. Among the available lifestyles in Dutch
Mainstream Youth Culture, House could attract a maximum share of 40% (maybe less, and slightly
older), an equivalent share could be attained by HipHop and R&B (maybe more and increasing), and
the alternative Hard-Rock-Punk lifestyle could attract a maximum share of 15 % (with a 5% basis of
real fans)281. In the case of Rotterdam, HipHop/R&B is especially important (as an urban feel
lifestyle282) because it attracts many young people from diverse ethnic origins (Cabo Verde, Antilles,
Surinam)283.
Religion and politics being unattractive to Mainstream Dutch young people, I would advise
not to directly involve Churches and political parties in the development of sustainable lifestyles. To
remain compatible with the Mainstream, the values put forward should have to do with a “happy life”,
self-development, togetherness (with friends) and “keeping connected” (to the world). The UNEP
report mentioned above recommends to have a “Papa don’t preach” approach (no heavy-handed
moralism), to invite young people to action “without feeling they are sacrificing part of their legitimate
right to live like the others and have fun” and to show them that “sustainable consumption adds value
to your lifestyle”.
Can the MTV model be used?
The entertainment industry delivers to its audience a fantasy-like experience of a dream-like
perfect world, with a utopian style. Entertainment gives its public a taste of what it would be like to
live in a utopian world. The strategy that entertainment in general, and MTV in particular, uses to
achieve this communication goes through 5 categories of codes (identified by Richard Dyer284) which
are ways to escape the limitations of western society:
- Energy is a utopian solution to alienation in urban modern life.
- Overcoming shortage, fictive Abundance is a clear escape from the actual scarcity of
resources in contemporary world and from the uneven distribution of wealth.
- Intensity (authentic experience) goes against the dull predictability and monitoring of
everyday-life.
- Transparency (in inter-human relationships) is a utopian solution to the manipulation of
the consumer through advertisement and marketing.
- Sense of community (belonging) is an answer to the fragmentation of urban life
experienced daily.
280
The best way to develop attractive websites for young people is to have them designed and maintained by
young people. In my personal experience in Web-designing for young people, I have too often noticed that
websites realized by ‘professionals’ do not attract young people (too boring, not enough new techniques, too
clean), in addition to costing much more money and offering a poor maintenance and feedback.
281
Qrius, Jongeren 2001, Altijd met elkaar verbonden, onderzoeksbureau Qrius, Amsterdam, september 2001.
282
In the Urban Feel lifestyle, HipHop (Rap) is more suitable for stressing social responsibilities, engagement
and concerns, while R&B is more suitable for promoting what’s ‘fun’ and ‘cool’ about sustainable consumption.
(By the way, never use the word ‘cool’ directly: it would immediately kill the ‘coolness’ in it.)
283
The downside to it is that this Urban Feel lifestyle actually promotes wealth, pride of wearing famous brands
and being able to consume as much as desired. We deal here with a truly commercial culture.
284
Richard Dyer, “Entertainment and utopia”, in ed. Rick Altman, Genre: the Musical: a reader, Routledge,
London, 1981 (p. 168-171).
93
Entertainment orients this utopia so that it becomes friendly to capitalism and the consumersociety: Abundance becomes consumption, energy becomes personal freedom, intensity becomes
individualism and transparency becomes freedom of speech. Thus, entertainment offers to young
people as an alternative to the limitations of modernist capitalism… the very values of modernist
capitalism.
Why would young people ‘buy’ such an alternative? L. Ripmeester, in his Phd-thesis on
MTV285, says (as many others do and as is repeated at length throughout this document) that
“Adolescence is a phase in which what everyone actually experiences comes to the forefront: a
fundamental uncertainty about who we are, that we try to fill in with a self-chosen identity.” He later
explains how MTV aims to fill in that gap: “I demonstrate that MTV satisfies the youngster’s thirst for
certainty and clear-mindedness about one’s identity, body and feelings, by offering a specific timeexperience, musical identity and its stylistic modelling.”286
MTV puts forward interactive programs giving young audiences the opportunity to expose
their everyday-life, their love-affairs and their own parties (with MTV-music of course)287. MTV tries
as much as possible not to offer a mere spectacle of a performance, but to organize a ritual in which
young people participate, allowing a better identification to and appropriation of the offered cultural
products.
To create the sense of community mentioned above, pop groups do not represent themselves
as colleagues working together but as friends sharing passion for music in a community of style and
fun. The constructed community can then be recycled by MTV and advertisers, in order to attach
specific branded products to the community. One who doesn’t wear the Nikes and drink the Pepsi
doesn’t belong to the community.
According to E. Ann Kaplan288, MTV systematically aims to trivialize and commercialize
youth subcultures in order to eliminate or smooth their social criticism (potentially harmful to
commercial interests) while recuperating their audiences. The subcultural lifestyle is turned into a
consumption-style and its specificities are reduced until it falls into a commercially-viable, thus
standardized, category of consumer. Then only is it in the interest of MTV to spread out this new style
through its music-television channel.
The offered style is used by young people as a token for a distinctive identity: “Since in a
capitalist society one is bounded by one’s position as producer or consumer, for teenagers who have
not yet entered the labour market the only possible resistance or rebellion is through the adoption of
particular styles of consumption, of which dress is the most easily accessible and the most
noticeable.”289
Finally, to give a specific dimension to this virtual utopia (and to control the viewer in this
artificially created dimension), MTV creates a virtual time: “the specific esthetics of MTV (fast cuts,
image-transformation, many close-ups and the fragmented depiction of the body) must be conceived
as the construction of a virtual time”290, an eternally renewed present.
Ripmeester asks in his conclusion whether the young watcher of MTV is the “dupe” of the
commerce. He answers by saying that a positive illusion may be better than the cynical emptiness of
285
L. Ripmeester, Think locally, act globally!: MTV en de jongere kijker, Doctoraalscriptie, Universiteit van
Amsterdam, Esthetiek Film en televisiewetenschap, Amsterdam, 1998.
286
In L. Ripmeester, p. 9.
287
In L. Ripmeester, p. 25.
288
E. Ann Kaplan, Rocking around the clock: Music television, Post-modernism and consumer culture,
Routledge, New York, 1987.
289
Barbara Hudson, “Feminity and adolescence”, in eds. Angela Mc Robbie and Mica Nava, Gender and
generation, Macmillan, London, 1984 (p. 40).
290
In L. Ripmeester, p. 48.
94
‘lucidity’. I would answer otherwise: Another positive imagination, less delusional and more
sustainable, could be fostered. This could be done in two perspectives:
To reach the mainstream young people who often watch MTV, it is useful to know the means
used by MTV, to learn from the experience and their successful strategy, and turn it against the
unsustainable values and practices promoted by commercial culture. This bet has already been taken
by Pop Sustainability in New York291. From what you just read, what is relevant? Well, the five codes
of an entertaining utopia could be used to promote Sustainability: Energy in the emotional attachment
and in the commitment to Sustainability can indeed fight the feeling of alienation. Abundance doesn’t
have to lie in a plethora’s of consumer-products; it can be expressed through an incentive and trust for
creativity on the part of young people and through a joyful re-use and recycling: abundance can be
discovered in what appeared to be ‘just waste’. Intensity could be brought through an authentic, direct
and surprising experience carrying a meaningful image of Sustainability. Transparency can be
effectively achieved through direct local group-action and engagement. A sense of community can
bind the four previous codes together, with a double-community: the community of Rotterdammers
doing something creative “all together”, and more broadly the global community of young people
actively moving towards Sustainability.
The second perspective would be to reach some Mainstream young people indirectly, through
a lasting communication with several youth subcultures.
Now, how could the young people in the subcultures be reached?
Many Young people in the subcultural underground are criticizing the consumption-society
and its waste (especially the Punkers), and they also feel hurt by lacks in social justice. Especially, an
anti-materialistic and anti-commercial ideology characterizes the Rasta’s, Metalheads, Punkers,
HipHoppers and Alto’s. Also, Rasta’s, Punkers, Straight-edgers and Alto’s are deeply concerned by
environmental issues, and some of them have become vegetarians. Through their codes and rituals,
Subcultures are a source of inspiration (also for the Mainstream) giving ideological and/or magical
solutions to the problems experienced by young people.
An essential point in working with subcultures is to ensure that the young people keep control
of what they do, so that they can truly consider themselves as the creators of new (sustainable) values,
code and symbols. Also, this cultural production of values and symbols must allow subcultures to keep
their separate identities: it is not the same Sustainability that must be communicated to each
subculture! A subculture should be able to valorize itself through the elements of Sustainability and to
distinguish itself from the Mainstream. In this perspective, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) activities should be
proposed and controversial subjects be evoked. Metalheads and the Punk family would be interested in
second-hand fashion and creativity. Moreover, subcultures often like to have an unpolished, wild style,
and this should be taken in consideration, not to propose them something neat and nice which they
would find too commercial or politically correct.
In Rotterdam especially, some HipHoppers, Skaters, Punk-rockers292, and Metalheads293 are
active, who could be engaged into such a critical inquiry about Sustainability. They should be invited
to be creative, through the many artistic activities in which they engage (music, dance, graffiti, etc.).
To exchange with them, one can put forward values such as personal autonomy and responsibility,
honor and social good.
On the more global level, it would be interesting to reach advanced N-Geners as a subculture
of its own. As seen earlier, N-Geners do want to participate in making the world better, and what they
need is to have the tools and opportunity for thinking about how they could actually engage a
‘revolution in consciousness’. They would value projects which would be non-hierarchical,
interactive, participative, pluralist and provocative. Thus, such activities on the Net would valorize NGeners as independent, self-governing individuals and would follow the model of the e-zines (which
show creativity, humor and criticism), offering a forum for self-expression. The values that could be
291
The activities of Pop Sustainability are described in details in another section.
See the Interview with Jeroen Evenaerts in appendixes.
293
See “Jongerencentrum Baroeg” in ‘other organizations’ in chapter 3.
292
95
worked on would touch the notions of ‘global awareness’, ‘critical investigation’, ‘open-mindedness’
and ‘authenticity’. “Art as inquiry” would therefore be highly valued if it took an electronic shape.
The case of ethnic minorities is to be handled in a specific way. Part of the young people from
ethnic minorities, especially the Surinamese and those of the ‘third generation’ can be reached through
one of the two strategies mentioned above. The situation is different for 1st and 2nd generation young
people, especially from Turkish and Moroccan backgrounds. Their creolized culture being strongly
influenced by the traditional culture of the country their parents came from, specific cultural activities
must be envisioned in a multi-cultural perspective. Especially, neighborhood Jongerencentra,
Cinemas, local broadcasting and traditional cultural scenarios would attract them. In order to foster a
meaningful exchange about Sustainability, it would be necessary to use values, icons and symbols
taken from their traditional ethnic cultures and to build the inquiry around them.
As one can see, there are number of opportunities for communication that the Milieubeleid can
seize. In the following recommendations, these opportunities will be exposed in more concrete terms.
96
Recommendations to the Milieubeleid
If the Milieubeleid wants to communicate with the young people of Rotterdam, there cannot
be one unique strategy. The communication has to be tailored to specific groups (as we have seen,
different groups have different lifestyles, values, different places where they hang out, and they do not
always want to be with other groups). The main clusters of groups that can be identified today are:
- The autochthon Mainstream (around the culture of House and Dance-Music).
- The Urban Feel or Multicultural Mainstream (around mainstream mixed musics of Hip
Hop, R&B and others).
- The more traditional ethnic cultures.
- The street-subcultures of Hip-Hop and Skaters (around Graffiti, Break-dancing, Rap,
skateboards, etc.).
- The New-Punkers (graffiti, graphic arts, rock, also attracting art-students).
- The subculture of Metalheads (a smaller group, in the upper-layer of the age-group).
Cultural activities communicating Sustainability thus should be organized in their spaces, the
spaces where certain groups of young people spend their free time:
Much attention has to be given to the Public Space (Openbare Ruimte as defined by Siebe
Thissen of the CBK), from the neighbourhood streets to the large squares (Schouwburgplein and
others) and parks (MuseumPark, HeuvelPark, etc.). These outdoor spaces are the places where the
subcultures, and young people in general, hang out and try out new creative activities such as graffiti
or break-dance… An essential medium to work with is therefore the street-arts, and the realization has
to be developed outdoor too (hold the street-arts inside and they will be cooled as in a fridge, loosing
much of their taste for many young people).
The other relevant spaces in which the youth subcultures and lifestyles develop their
creativity, and thus through which the framework for a creative participatory process could be
developed, are cultural centres opened by organizations working on youth culture(s). They can be art
‘show-rooms’ such as Mama, nightclubs such as Now&Wow and Nighttown, ‘Jongerencentra’ such as
Frimangron and Baroeg or multi-purpose centres such as Off_Corso. These places are indeed, as the
new Manifest R2002294 claims, cultural ‘laboratories’ and ‘incubators’ where young creators from
subcultures encounter a young public; these visitors are followers (the manifesto names them
‘wanabees’) as well as lifestyle-surfers (‘zappers’ according to the manifesto).
One important remark has to be made about the content of the communication, for it to gain
the ability to reach effectively the young people:
The message which the Milieubeleid would intend to communicate around will have to be
open-ended: No prefixed content, but an invitation to debate around framing ideas (or memes),
fostering a debate as rich and provocative as possible on the content, by the young people.
The process by which the Milieubeleid should go on after this report can be summed up in two
words: updating and interacting.
First, updating: The Milieubeleid should constantly look into the developments of Youth
Culture in Rotterdam…
294
Manifest R2002, signed by 300 cultural activists in Rotterdam, August 2002. (circulating on Internet).
97
The Milieubeleid, in order to have a basic knowledge about the youth culture, should have
some of its collaborators continuously researching on the field how the youth culture evolves (and not
feel secured by this report, which gives a temporary overall impression but lacks details and will lack
actualisation if no updating is planned). The Milieubeleid collaborators should also look for
opportunities for direct observation of the lively youth culture through visits to youth cultural spaces
and contacts with young ‘ambassadors’. Even more than just contacts, organizing workshops and
having an advisory network would be desirable.
Second, interacting: The Milieubeleid should work together with young people in a
participative way.
The Milieubeleid should have young people collaborating in the realisation of overall
communication-projects. Collaborating young people should also write themselves the
communication-materials about a given event/activity (and choose themselves the media, for example
Boomerang-cards, stickers or Internet). Young people should also participate in shaping the creative
contents of the communication.
For each cluster of youth-groups, there are several ways in which the communication could be
engaged. Here are examples of what it could mean in practice:
For the two Mainstream clusters:
- An ‘environmental’ (or more generally ‘sustainable’) film festival could be popular; were
it to take place in the summer, one could think about the open-air Pleinbios.
- Sustainable parties could be organized in fashionable spaces (think of Hanno Lans, of Ted
Langenbach, etc.).
- Contest-like activities involving creativity on the part of young people could be launched
(think of The Bet, of the Kunstbende).
Concerning such activities for the Mainstream, students could be proposed to be the
organizers, and art-students to be the creators.
For the cluster of Street-subcultures as Hip Hop and Skaters and for the Punk-Art cluster:
- Trash-Art events and exhibitions could be thought of (such as in MAMA)…
- …But most events and activities should take place in the streets, outdoor, in what could be
designed295 as a thematic Freezone (with free graffiti-walls and free break dancing space)
about Sustainability.
- In a freezone or any suitable outdoor space, Jam sessions296 could be organized around
themes linked to Sustainability.
- Creative workshops around sustainable themes could be proposed too.
For the apart subculture of Metalheads, activities could be co-organized with the
Jongerencentrum Baroeg: One example could be an “Apocalypse Earth” fashion-show encouraging
the do-it-yourself culture and the critical abilities of Metalheads.
For the cluster of more traditional ethnic young people, the focus should be on their ethnic
cultural roots and what in these roots could relate them to Sustainability297:
- Workshops could be organized, comparing the Sustainability of the Western and Islamic
cultures, and could include written arts such as poems celebrating the Sustainability of
Islamic culture, at the Mosque (or of Moroccan or Turkish culture and tradition, at places
like Coffee Houses).
295
The design of which freezone could be materialized by AIDA, for instance.
A Jam Session is an event in which various artists perform and compete with various media, here such as
graffiti, break-dancing, raping, turntabling and skating.
297
Also for the Mainstream Multicultural young people, an emphasis on cultural roots is important.
296
98
-
For ethnic cultures such as those of Cabo Verdians, the workshops would rather focus on
the sustainable messages of traditional music and dance.
An essential point, for all young people, is that the examples given here in this report under
the section about sustainable arts could be a source of inspiration for young people to be themselves
creative. In any activity/event to be planned, it should be organized so that the young people have a
real opportunity to be creative themselves while participating and to get thus involved in the creative
content of the activity/event.
As we have seen in this report and as one can particularly see throughout the interviews, the
world of Art and Culture is separated from environment. Artists and cultural activists are not at ease
with a concept such as ‘Sustainability’. Meanwhile, an institution such as the Milieubeleid can
probably not organize by itself cultural events like the ones evoked here. I thus recommend that a new
special body298 be created, which should mediate between these two groups and develop the tools for
the desired cultural communication with young people, and which could then realize such a
communication together with suitable partners.
298
Such as the organization Pop Sustainability in New York.
99
Postface
On August 29th, 2002, I organized a workshop, together with Hans Dieleman, which took
place at the Erasmus University during the afternoon. The workshop, entitled De Kunst van
Jongerencommunicatie (The Art of Communicating with youngsters), would use the results of my
internship and my report as a trigger to be pulled, in order to foster concrete actions.
It was a kind of lobbying-session, and it worked out quite well: a dozen Communicationadvisers from different municipal institutions came to the workshop. We also had the pleasure to
welcome a young conceptual artist from Amsterdam (Elena Simons) and a member of the national
Dutch Youth Board (the Nationaal Jongeren Raad). Miriam van der Wees made a welcome-speech,
Hans Dieleman gave a lecture about Art and communicating Sustainability, and I presented my results
as an invitation to develop a number of cultural activities in the months to come.
Thereafter, the spectators were turned into inter-actors, splitting into two groups for a
brainstorm session: the participants were asked to simulate the organization of one specific cultural
activity. Finally, each group would describe its plan and justify the relevance of the chosen targetgroup, media, content and organization. I filmed the whole workshop and realized a digital video,
which was later sent to each participant299.
The workshop was reported in two long articles: one in Rotterdam in Milieu (sept-oct 2002),
the city’s environmental newsletter, and the other one in Trio (oct. 2002), the magazine of the Faculty
of Social Sciences at the Erasmus University.
A number of concrete cultural projects are already being implemented. The last news I got
from Hans Dieleman in December 2002 state that “a version of the bet300 is starting in Rotterdam, in 6
schools. They will all try to realize energy reduction in a chain-approach, each school for one month.
The bet is with the alderman for the environment in Rotterdam.” As I write these final lines, the whole
process is thus only a new-born project, yet to bloom.
299
The video is available on a CD-ROM upon request. (By e-mail: sachakagan@hotmail.com). Please note that
two thirds of the video are in Dutch and one third is in English.
300
For more information on The Bet, see in the first chapter.
100
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104
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http://www.sunnydayrealestate.com .
http://www.echoes.com/rememberaday/liveaid.html
http://www.oneworld.org/tvandradio/live_aid.html
http://www.charitiesdirect.com
http://www.co.washtenaw.mi.us/depts/EIS/susted/studentwork2.html#dance
http://www.forestdance.org/mission.htm
http://www.forestdance.org/contemp_str_theatre.htm
http://www.forestdance.org/env_theatre_report.htm
http://www.forestdance.org/zarasreport.htm
http://www.forestdance.org/headlinestheatre.htm
www.formaat.org
http://www.filmenvir.org
www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/events.html
http://www.greenpeace.org/multimedia/
http://www.ijsfontein.nl/
http://www.laika.nl/
http://www.lust.nl/home/index4.html
http://www.lollibomb.nl/
http://www.thefactore.com/
http://www.zappwerk.nl .
http://alifegarden.com/index.html
http://www.bensinclair.com/web/simlife.html
http://www.diacenter.org/claerbout/intro.html
http://www.diacenter.org/claerbout/chooseflower.html
http://www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/interactive.html
http://www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/events.html
http://www.thinkpop.org/html/265gallery_stories.asp
www.longnow.com
www.bewonder.nl
www.woesteland.nl/festival.htm
http://www.popsustainability.org/who/accomplishments/events.html
www.hannolans.nl/doc/view-110.htm
www.engage.nu
www.hannolans.nl/doc/view-140.htm
www.hannolans.nl/doc/view-839.htm
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http://www.thinkpop.org/html/257radio_stories.asp
www.thebet.nl
http://www.thebet.nl/archief/doeiets.htm
http://adbusters.org/home/
http://adbusters.org/information/foundation/
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/43/articles/joburg_jam.html
www.memefest.org
Statistisch Jaarboek Rotterdam en Regio 2001:
www.cos.nl
Other websites:
www.disinfo.com .
www.gnu.org
www.linux.org .
http://www.fsf.org/licenses/licenses.html#WhatIsCopyleft .
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