Jamwaving Alkmaar March 2007

In JAMWAVING we gather news about the phenomenon of the TRAFFIC JAM. The central question is 'WHAT MOVES US?'.

By making eye contact and wave to every single cardriver we check the atmosphere in all the cars, lorries and busses that went pass by at rush hours. The different ways in which people respond, gives us an insight in the script these cars are involved in. It shows how people relate to the situation they are in, to us and to eachother. It helps us getting an insight in the possibilities, disadvantages and advantages of the traffic jam. It is a new form of participatory journalism I recently started to develop.
See for our findings: www.orbino.nl.

For the month of March we are residents of Orbino, an artlab situated in the middle of a traffic junction in transition. During the two years of this process of transformation, eight artist are invited to reflect on the situation, I am one of them.
I connected my residency to an invitation of the HKU (school for finearts, Utrecht) to give an six weeks intensive about interdisciplinay art to an international group of 25 students.

One month in advance of moving to Orbino we started to research the phenomenon of the traffic jam in and around the student town of Utrecht. Research topics we choose were:
1. possibility of making a local radiostation for cardrivers
2. principles of flashmob
3. Traffic signs worldwide
4. economics, old and new around trafic worldwide
5. activities of people in a traffic
6. alertness/concentration drop in traffic, causes and remedies
7. the fastened velocity of the brainwaves in modern live from 13 to 30 hertz (13 hertz is the speed inspiration starts working)
8. installations on the road (what do roadactivities look like ?)
9. rules and laws around traffic which can limit our possibilities
10. billboards and other advertisements along trafficroads
11. traffic and global warming

All duos (a Dutch and an international student) took a subject and started doing live experiments in the traffic jam, took questionnairs at gasstations and did research the internet. The findings were published in a virtual newspaper by each duo so the information was shared in between ourselves and could be shared with the rest of the world.
All duos (a Dutch and an international student) took a subject and started doing live experiments in the traffic jam, took questionnairs at gasstations and did research the internet. The findings were published in a virtual newspaper by each duo so the information was shared in between ourselves and could be shared with the rest of the world.

As a result of the questionnaires we developed and the research we undertook, it appeared that driving in a traffic jam is not such a nightmare as often is assumed. You have some time for yourself which you can use for a variety of possible actions. Based on the outcome of the research we created a traffic jam cd, where among others one can listen to a lesson in traffic jam flirting, where fitness exersises for in the car are programmed and one can enjoy a 15 minutes track in cursing on the traffic.

PRESS CONFERENCES
Every friday afternoon from 16:00 until 17:00 we organize a press conference to share our latest news in the form of videos, performances, exhibition and photos to both a local and an invited audience who can also ask questions. The press conferences are held in and around Orbino.
Here Lorenza, an Italian art student from Torino mixes the view from Orbino with her drawn vision of the world as a result of her research of the relation between traffic and global warming.

As part of the press conference the traffic jam cd is played in my car parked next to the slow moving and stopping traffic to give the real experience.

Noord Hollands Dagblad
3 april 2007 door Eveline Rosloot.

'Last sunday was the closure day of the artproject of Hellings. Her farewell wave was received by some cardrivers with frowning eyebrows or responded by a cautious handwave, but the majority waved and hooted back enthousiastically.'

The last press conference where visitors and journalists get themselves the experience of JAMWAVING

audio at www.orbino.nl

audio:Introductie
audio:Filefitness deel 1
audio:Filefitness deel 2
audio:1001 dingen
audio:Fileflirten
audio:Kankeren op de file
audio:Filevriend

Movies at www.orbino.nl

movie:Impressie
movie:1e persconferentie
movie:Filevrienden
movie:Goedemorgen snelweg
movie:First contact
movie:1001 dingen om te doen
movie:3e persconferentie
movie:column 'File'