Smart cinema
www.smartcinema.net In the new location of SMART Project Space in Amsterdam six small cinema halls are being constructed. Via the community website Smartcinema.net visitors can search for films and specify which film they want to watch on the big screen. When there is sufficient zest a hall is being reserved and everyone interested receives an e-mail with the time and location. First in Amsterdam, later in film clubs all around the Netherlands. This way Smartcinema.net creates a platform for alternative cinema, film makers and film fans. Films in the alternative circuit are usually shown only a couple of times on a big screen, at a festival or exhibition. Smartcinema makes films accessible by working with streamed trailers and a smart search system that maps out the visitors’ preferences and is able to recommend specific titles this way. And because it’s digital a film can already be shown on a big screen and be profitable with only 16 visitors in the house. SMART Project Space is an international stage and laboratory for modern visual arts. The new building, a former physics laboratory, will contain studios, exhibition spaces, a place where children can play and experiment, a restaurant, and the six cinema halls. With the help of Digitale Pioniers the website Smartcinema.net is being realized, a strictly separated part within the big overall construction project.
Final products
Five months proved to be too short for SMART Project Space to start up Smartcinema.net. The project was being overlooked in the organization of the construction. Next to this, one chose for keyworxs software, an open source CMS which offers many possibilities for multimedia and realtime multi-user use. This software connected really well, but the developments around this software, with important upgrades, slowed down the implementation. Thus Smartcinema.net doesn’t exist yet, but will be launched by the end of 2005. The help of Digitale Pioniers eventually resulted in a cooperation with other film theatres to realize a new system of reservations, and the concrete agreement that three Amsterdam based cultural institutions will offer their films via Smartcinema.net. Far advanced talks with other parties are still going on. The community modules have been realized and adaptations were made for streaming media on keyworxs software. These will be made freely available. Contact www.grr.nl for more info. Peutz Thomas Space Project Smart ---++>
