WORM is a

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

based non-profit foundation and a multi-media alternative

cultural centre A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Africa * ...

focused on experimental,

new media art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of new media, electronic media technologies. It comprises virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robo ...

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

and

underground art Underground art is any form of art that operates outside of conventional norms in the art world, part of underground culture. This can include essentially any genre of art that is not popular in the art world, including visionary art and stre ...

, primarily music and movies. WORM is funded by the Triodos Bank and part of the culture nota 2009–2012 from the Dutch government. The foundation has received the Pendrecht Culture Prize and its venue is part of the Rotterdam culture plan. WORM organises festivals and concerts and movie nights, and runs an independent record label and a radio station. Part of the organisation is a media lab and a music studio, which run free artist in residence programmes for artists and

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

ians. Experimental musician Lukas Simonis is the programmer of the artist in residence programme for the music studio. The studio has a collection of experimental musical instruments built by Yuri Landman. Artists that have been in residence at WORM include Tujiko Noriko, Toktek, Machinefabriek, Nancy Mauro-Flude, Jørgen Teller, One Man Nation, Blevin Blectum, Kevin Blechdom, Joe Howe,

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar wh ...

, Lucas Crane, Jim Xentos, Knull, Ben Butler and Mousepad, Colin Black, Harry Taylor (Action Beat), Stignoise, Hovatron, Martijn Comes, Danielle Lemaire and others. The foundation also has a shop with left field music, art house movies and books about subjects related to the cultural focus of the organisation and strong links to computer subculture

hackerspace A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sci ...

. The cooperative at moddr_ developed the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and hotglue.me. Individual people involved designed and developed those projects. The organisation co-operates closely with

International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

, Poetry International, Incubate, State-X New Forms, Museumnacht.Kultprom
/ref> WORM was based at the Achterhaven until 2010. In 2011 it moved to the centre of Rotterdam and is currently located in the building formerly used as the Nederlands Fotomuseum (Dutch Photo Museum) at the Witte de Withstraat.

Comparable Dutch avant garde centres

* Het Apollohuis * Extrapool * OT301 * STEIM * V2 Institute for the Unstable Media

References

External links

Official website of WORM
{{Authority control Music venues in the Netherlands Culture in Rotterdam New media art