The Immunological Orchestra

The Immunological Orchestra: A Lullaby 
Talk with Ramon Amaro, Jort van der Laan and CPR (Charlotte Rooijackers) 
Rijksakademie Reading Room

Entrance free, RSVP here

Join us at the Rijksakademie Reading Room, for the first event of our series ‘Library Nights’. In this first session, we will present a bookshelf around the politics of health and DJ-work (the work of Disability Justice), compiled by the Multi-Vocality Working Group (Het Nieuwe Instituut). 

Researcher and writer Ramon Amaro and  Rijksakademie resident Jort van der Laan will engage in a conversation about a seemingly self-propelling dynamic of acceleration and efficiency, and immunocompromised stop (or not).  

To become ‘dead-and-alive and less product' as CPR does; seawater-blooded macrobiotic tea and spirit, will be served to stomach a more environmental and interconnected self. 
The evening will transition into a more dreamlike narrative of lullabies and their politics, thoughtfully (and thoughtlessly) selected by Rijksakademie residents. 

Dr. Ramon Amaro (@shrtfilm) is Senior Researcher for Digital Culture and Lead Curator of -1, the testing ground and innovation hub for new tools, methods and public uses of digital culture at Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam. His writings, research and artistic practice emerge at the intersections of Black Study, digital culture, psychosocial study, and the critique of computational reason. Ramon holds a BSe in Mechanical Engineering, an MA in Sociology and a PhD in Philosophy of Technology. Before joining Nieuwe Instituut, Ramon worked as Lecturer (Assistant Prof.) in Art and Visual Cultures of the Global South at UCL (London), Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, Engineering Program Manager at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Quality Design Engineer at General Motors Corporation. His recent book, The Black Technical Object: On Machine Learning and the Aspiration of Black Being (Sternberg, 2023) contemplates the abstruse nature of programming and mathematics, and the deep incursion of racial hierarchy, to inspire alternative approaches to contemporary algorithmic practice. 

Jort van der Laan engages with clinical - and more spiritual practices through moving image and language sculptures that are sometimes spoken out loud. His work introduces a kind of distance, hesitation, a de-familiarisation or ‘healing bend’ to rethink what you may have taken for granted before and consider it otherwise.

Works as an artist dealing with language, vegetation, and translation, rooted at the intersections of Marxist-feminisms and postcolonial-discourse. Recent works include 'BOOTY' at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2021); and 'Fl. FLor. Floruit' at Four Sisters Labyrinth (2021), 'Is It Possible to be a Revolutionary and Like Flowers', Nest Ruimte Den Haag (2021) and in 'The Botanical Revolution at Centraal Museum Utrecht (2021-2022). She writes for Studium Generale Rietveld Academie Amsterdam (2013-), does collaborative writing classes, and keeps a politics of vegetation in order to become more dead-and-alive and less product.