On Tuesday 5 May, Namahn presents a somewhat larger than usual event. We'll have three distinct happenings: a lecture by a best-selling author, a concert with a very special instrument and a videogame show.
All of this takes place in the Namahn space in central Brussels.
16:00 - 16:15
Arrivals
16:15 - 17:15
Scott Berkun: a talk on the myths of innovation
Much of what we know about innovation is wrong. That's the bet Scott takes, as he romps through the history of innovation and creative thinking, dispelling the mythologies we've constructed about how we got here. This fun, interactive talk, loosely based on Scott's best-selling book, will help you recognize the myths, understand their popularity (even if you don't believe in them), and explore how to apply lessons from true innovation history in your own work today.
Scott Berkun is the author of two bestselling books, Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation. Scott was a manager at Microsoft from 1994-2003, on projects including Internet Explorer, Windows and MSN. His work as a writer and public speaker has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired magazine and on National Public Radio. He has taught at the University of Washington, regularly contributes to Harvard Business Digital, and has appeared as an innovation and management expert on MSNBC and on CNBC.
17:45 - 18:15
HUS: Decap etc.
In his newly founded post-rock band "HUS", Walter Hus confronts the motor power of this gigantic computer-controlled Decap organ with Maarten Jan Huysmans' hyperkinetic beats and Brecht Ameel's moody guitar lines. This results in a feverish world of sound that reaches out to Giorgio Moroder's disco, Ligeti's clusters and the highway-trance of Neu!.
Walter Hus is one of Belgium's leading composers. In the eighties he became internationally known with his group Maximalist!. Their music became the soundtrack for a new generation of Belgian choreographers and theatre directors such as Anne Teresa Dekeersmaeker and Wim Vandekeybus. After his Maximalist! years, Hus went solo. He composed for any combination of instruments, from piano solo to grand orchestra, and wrote and produced six operas. His music can be heard in films by Peter Greenaway and Dominique Deruddere. Hus is also the founder of Decap-lab: an experimental environment of computer-controlled organ units, developed by the Decap organ builders.
Walter Hus is artist in residence at Namahn.
18:30 - 21:00
Tale of Tales: emotionally rich interactive entertainment
Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn will introduce their project to create elegant and emotionally rich interactive entertainment. Three videogames will be set up in different areas of the Namahn space for the public to play, while the authors provide running commentary.
Tale of Tales is an independent game development studio founded by media artists Auriea Harvey (US) and Michaël Samyn (BE) in 2003 and located in Ghent, Belgium. Harvey and Samyn first collaborated on many websites and internet artworks under the flag of Entropy8Zuper! Their work was awarded with the San Francisco MOMA Prize for Excellence in Online Art in 2000.
Harvey and Samyn have devoted their lives to the creation of elegant and emotionally rich interactive entertainment. Since 2003, they have been using game technology for this purpose. Their “The Endless Forest” is a multiplayer screensaver where everyone plays a deer. In “The Graveyard” you play the role of an elderly lady who visits a cemetery. And their new project “The Path” is a short horror game inspired by Little Red Ridinghood.
18:45 - 21:00
Food
Served by Vive La Nourriture.
The Namahn event on 5 May 2009 features Scott Berkun with a lecture on the myths of innovation, a concert by HUS and videogames by Tale of Tales.