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Virus Explores Cultural Frontiers
"I'm learning more organising the Virus Festival
than I ever did studying Industrial Engineering and Management
Science," says this year's programmer André Malotaux.
He and a number of other students have taken the year off to organise
TU/e's annual cultural festival Virus. A special grant from TU/e
made it possible for them to do this.
 About 6000 people from inside and
outside the university are expected at the one-day festival on
May 20. This year Virus features 58 acts and events, including
all kinds of music, dance, theatre, film and literature. It will
take an especially fit person to sample even one third of what's
on offer. "We've tried to explore the farthest corners of
what's available," Malotaux continues. "I think we now
have a really broad and interesting program. The groups we've
booked are not all well known, but they are all on the cutting-edge
of their various fields."
Eccentrics
Just a few of the bigger names programmed are: The Young Gods,
an eccentric Swiss band influenced by electronica, hardcore techno,
neo-metal, psychedelic pop etc. etc.; Jan Vayne, a Dutch master
piano player who breaks through all the existing borders between
classical and popular music and who is planning to play TU/e's
pipe organ; Irish singer/song writer/poet Andy White, chosen best
singer/song writer by the Irish press over Van Morrison and Bono;
popular French house singer/song writer Bertrand Burgalat (for
the first time in the Netherlands); Bora Bora with exotic rhythms
from Rio de Janeiro; El Fish & Roland from the Belgian Blues
scene.
Also expected are a number of dance performances, including modern
dance group Krisztina de Châtel and a breakdance battle
between various breakdance groups. There are eleven films planned,
mostly in English. Some are from China, Japan, Germany and the
Netherlands. Only these last are not sub-titled. After the main
program ends around 10 p.m., various parties with all kinds of
DJs kick-off.
While talking to Malotaux and his collegue Jolien Kooijman, who
is head of the Virus team and responsible for sponsoring, a call
comes in from the manager of Green Lizard, one of the main acts.
Singer Remi has to go to hospital this week for an emergency operation
on his vocal chords. There is no way he can make it on May 20.
There is some joking about booking a heavy metal band from the
cancelled Dynamo festival, but solving this problem in just over
a week will be a real challenge for the team. One day later they've
solved the problem by booking an Dutch band called Johan.
Idealistic
The Virus team consists of six full-time organisers, a number
of interns from other places such as a student of Music Management
in Tilburg, about 15 active volunteers and 40 further volunteers
who offer a more limited amount of support. The team is a mixture
of TU/ers and outside volunteers and interns. The core team switches
every year because hardly anyone can afford to take more than
a year off their studies for Virus.
"Working on Virus is a very idealistic job," says Jolien
Kooijman, a fifth year Technology and Society student. "The
idea is to bring young people not only students in
contact with a broad selection of the culture of our time."
"Virus has to be invented again every year by each new team
of organisers," Kooijman says. "The people working intensively
on Virus really learn a lot. In the beginning we were all a bit
timid about phoning companies to ask for sponsoring or other help.
We got over that quickly. Organising Virus is also a challenge
because of the number of different things you learn about. Booking
bands and other entertainers of course, but also hiring stages,
finding light and sound equipment and experts, finding sponsoring
and working with printers."
The price of tickets to Virus is 20 guilders if you buy them beforehand
and 25 guilders on May 20. This is very cheap in comparison to
similar festivals. TU/e and a number of sponsors help keep the
price down. The first events start at 1 p.m. Virus closes down
for this year at 2 p.m. The acts/events are planned in the Auditorium,
the main building, the chemistry buildings and the grounds between.
Cursor is publishing a map and a full program in a special edition
next week./.
The organising Virus-team. Photo: Bram Saeys
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Virtual Campus Online
TU/e's virtual campus 'Virtue' went online this Monday. Anyone
with a TU/e acount can login at www.virtue.tue.nl and tour the
three-dimensional campus in Eindhoven. Chat, visit city hall,
student associations, the Bunker and much more.
TU/e is the first in the Netherlands to go online with a virtual
campus, where all sorts of activities can be undertaken in 3D.
Anyone logging-in is automatically taken to the 'Koepel', a central
meeting place in the virtual world. From there, you can travel
to the Bunker, shopping centre Plaza and TU/e itself. Choose an
icon to represent you and stroll the virtual landscape and meet
other virtual TU/ers.
Virtue is not a finished product, it is meant to keep developing,"
says student assistant Wouter van der Molengraft. "We're
still experimenting and plan to keep that up for a while yet."
Big Party for 25th Anniversary
FSE
Student association FSE (Federatie Studieverenigingen Eindhoven)
is planning a big party for their 25th anniversary on May 16 in
the Hollywood disco in Dommelstraat. FSE is planning to sell 800
tickets. They cost 7,50 each and are available from the student
associations. Everyone at TU/e is welcome at the party.The Fantastic
Silver Event, as the party is called, will be the first in a series
of annual parties, that promises to be as big as the Auditorium
party in the European Week. Party-goers can dress in silver clothes
if they like, but this is not obligatory.Student associations
have been looking after the interests of students for years in
the area of education, but at TU/e other issues have also become
important. This is why FSE was founded. Getting grants for the
organisers of student associations is one of the federation's
many activities. FSE also loudly protested the loss of the cast
point on TU/e campus. Now another bank has recently installed
an ATM. The party next week is also meant to get FSE more publicity.
The English Page is written by Paula van
der Riet. She can be reached at engcur@stud.tue.nl.
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Createch to Start in September
Students from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering,
Computer Science, Applied Physics and Biomedical Technology are
knocking themselves out once again for the annual Createch design
competition. The participation of Architecture students is still
uncertain. Philips set-up Createch early in the nineties because
Dutch industry found that there were not enough engineering graduates
and those there were were hardly ever attracted to design. The
three Dutch universities of technology took over the organisation
a few years ago, because they view the competitions as supplementing
their education programs. Students must use their expertise and
creativity during the competition. At the same time, the students
are expected to gain results despite their different majors. Groups
competing for the best and most original design at TU/e consist
of students from different departments. "Last year that was
sometimes difficult, but you try to put yourself into the shoes
of your fellow designers," says Esther Martens, Biomedical
Technology student and one of the organisers of Createch 2000.
more because of the participation of Biomedical Technology,"
says Martens. A new assignment will be given for the finals in
November.
Arabic Student Party
The multi-cultural student association Mosaic is organising a
special Arabic student party on Thursday May 17. There will be
live Arabic music by the Noujoum Bourgone band. DJ Mo will also
take care of some of the musical entertainment. Location of the
party is café Apendans (opposite NS-station on the city
centre side) and starts at 5 p.m. Entry is f 12,50. There will
be no alcohol served during the party, but everyone is welcome.
Neuro Symposium
Biomedical study club Protagoras and the IEEE Student Branch Eindhoven
are jointly organising a symposium on Thursday May 17 on 'Electrical
Neurostimulation' in the Blauwe Zaal. A number of interesting
speakers from the field have been invited. Electrical neurostimulation
is the generating and processing of nerve impulses in the human
body using electrical circuits.100 to 200 participants are expected.
TU/ers Online with Dinner List
for Student Houses
Many student houses have problems because they don't know who
is doing the cooking and who will actually be present for dinner.
Tim Bertholet, a student of Electrical Engineering and his house-mate
Bart Hoeijmakers also used to encounter this problem daily. Until
a year ago, when they invented an online dinner list. This is
now available to all student houses through www.eetlijst.nl. The
problem was quickly solved. Using a list of names of the house-mates
posted on the Internet. Anyone coming to dinner or planning to
cook just signed in from his or her place of work or study. After
a year of testing, Hoeijmakers decided to make the Dinner List
available to other student houses. His plan became reality a fortnight
ago and www.eetlijst.nl went online.
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