Janneke has discovered the website of the 'Royal Music Machines' exhibition and wanted to visit it. The museum is 50 years old now and because of this anniversary they collected all the very famous and rare clocks and music instruments from all over the World and introduced them for the public.
Janneke had some prejudices from her childhood that museums sometimes could be very boring… BUT definitely not this one. :)
The machines themselves are already amazing but what makes the visit really entertaining is the style of the guides. They are very enthusiastic and motivated, they do everything for visitors, even singing to show how the old street music machines worked in the past. To tell the truth she could get good money with it because she was doing very well. ;)
It's funny to think that these clocks and music machines were made just people wanted to be entertained in every way. There is a music machine which contains not only a piano but also 3 violins inside so it's like a whole orchestra in one machine without any human presence.
You can even see a small sailing ship with some drummers and soldiers on it. Rudolf II of Habsburg ordered this piece to scare his best guests during his luxurious dinners. How he did is something that you should find by yourself! The temporary exhibition is open till 30/07/2006.

Janneke brought Jip to the national museum of  automatic clocks.
Jip became over excited. There were clocks with animals and little figures moving everywhere. The guy who was showing us the pieces talked with Jip a few times, explaining him things about those extraordinary toys for rich people in the past.
Jip was really amazed by a Russian czarina's clock, made with a bunch of little tiny pieces of glass rotating that were looking like water… woooaaa… amazing!
Then we went to the other section of the museum, were they showed us automatic music machines. There were mostly pianos... playing without anybody pressing the tabs! You could actually see the tabs going up and down! That was done thru metal discs, or rolls of paper with little holes, where the music was "programmed"... Jip started to think about his computer, and the cd he uses to watch Japanese cartoons.. and well.. the concept is the same!
Actually the girl who was showing us the things was really energetic and nice.. so sometimes you couldn't really tell if Jip got over excited for the toys or for her.
So... Jip's suggestion is to go there without hurry… and don't forget to take a ride on the pedals music machine! ;)

We were preparing to host visitors in the Babel on the 6th floor. Everybody was a bit busy to making exhibitions, showing new things so I was just walking around when my eyes were attracting by some photos on the wall. Wow! This is something different!

                                                            
I wanted to know more about the pictures and also the person who made them. So I decided to start my “series” about young artists in Utrecht with Petra Warrink.
She will be a graphic designer pretty soon when she will get her diploma from the Art Academy (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht) in this June. Nowadays her topic is THE LANDSCAPE, especially the link between the landscape, people and culture…

She was already interested in this topic in 2003 and created a very impressive photo exhibition for her school exam. Actually you can travel with her through the whole country without moving.
She chose one of the thickest part of the Netherlands and took photos in every points where the latitudes meet the longitudes. She had 32 points what means 32 pictures on one line heading to north.

This exhibition is a good chance for a foreign person to know better the Netherlands but could be even interesting for Dutch people because it can break some prejudices what they think about their country. It happened with the creator herself because she thought that the Netherlands is a very crowded land, full of cities and the result of this small “photo survey” was that almost 2/3 of the pictures show nature, agricultural lands and animals….

There was a second big conclusion of this project. Namely if you think that you can go everywhere in your country and take some nice photos you will be very disappointed. Holland is much more closed than you would think.
For achieving the project she even had to convince some hunters with guns that she is also kind of hunter but instead of gun she works with a camera:)

Or another time she had to assure an old couple that for taking picture about a piece of nature behind their house they do not need to clean all their backyard…

To find the connection between the landscape and people you should come to the Babel on 22-24 June and walk around. See you here:)!

Where are we? We are in a magical building…

Here, the elevators go up and down by themselves and they decide where to stop. You can only change floors with the elevators, so you can’t be in a hurry!
This building is called the Tower of Babel. A place where nowadays art is the Lord. Artists work and exhibit here and they can totally understand each other. Even though they might use different dialects, the common language is the same; their wish to express themselves, their thoughts and reflections on the world around us.

Once in a while the elevator stops at the 13th floor. There you find yourself in another world with a different smell, sound and color. A unique piece of nature in the centre of Utrecht. A beach at the same height as where the birds fly.
When you close your eyes it is as if you are on a beach. You take a big breath and you can actually smell the salty air of the ocean and hear the sound of waves and if you take your shoes off, you touch the sand and shells with your feet. It’s almost real.

As you open your eyes again, you discover that the reality is different. You are on your own beach high in the air and you see how the city lives far below you. Trains, boats, cars and bikes are crawling. People of all cultures are passing below you. You are out of the composition, you are in another space. You finally get a chance to slow down and think…

After this experience you will look at the city from a different perspective. You leave your footprint in the sand and depart from the beach by elevator...