Here are a few impressions of the second day of the festival.

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Facing Pages is a biennial festival about independent magazines. With a three-day event, Facing Pages (formerly O.K. Festival) brings leading independent magazine makers and aficionados to Arnhem, The Netherlands. The event shows what part the independent magazine currently plays in the development of our visual culture.

Event Location:
Trans 6
6811 HR Arnhem
The Netherlands

We’ll be handing out copies of POSTRmagazine #11: The Legal Drugs issue so if you’re there, come meet us and have a chat. I’ll be the one wearing the Nixon mask.

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In light of the Mike Daisey vs. This American Life/New York Times discussion we’d like to publish our Google story again. We ran this little field report in our first issue. The subject was Media so we wanted to visit the brand new Google data center located in our very own Belgium. This report is what people might consider Gonzo journalism. If they do, we consider that a compliment but more importantly, would you consider this a journalistic article? We’d like to know. Try to find the parts we exaggerated or made up and leave a comment below. You’ll be surprised how factual fiction can be.

We would like to point out that we are not saying that our Google story is in any way as important as a story on a corporation abusing it’s employees in China or that we are investigative journalists.

GOOGLED, APPROVED AND GOOGLED AGAIN: LE BORINAGE
When revolutions collide, you can find us playing golf in Digital Innovation Valley

Digital Innovation Valley truly exists, we can say so because we were there. But contrary to popular belief, the hills of convenience, information and progression are actually an unimaginitive, industrial landscape situated in a run-down area of Belgium called the Borinage. While still being considered as one of our nation’s most impoverished regions, it’s a place where the very last scraps of the Industrial Revolution absurdly collide with the freshly arrived and by many cordially hailed technological era. And where helicopters make daily fly-overs to surveil the area, according to one of its blurred inhabitants. We paid the “economically promising” valley a visit, suspiciously investigating the arrival of one of the largest internet data centers on the Old Continent. We got tailed by arduous security guards, walked knee-deep in the mud and eventually ended up playing ‘le golf du pauvre’ in the shadows of the valley of information technology, where rhum is served abundantly in large soda glasses.

This fine piece of what we would like to call corporate madness meets beautiful simplicity has its origin in 2005, when a representative of an American company called Zenzu registered at the reception desk of a distinguished castle in Garfield Street (Washington DC), currently giving shelter to the Embassy of Belgium. The mysterious company had a strenuous wishlist, mainly consisting of three essential elements: water, space and electricity. To be searched and found on Belgian territory by the local government and preferably in large amounts. The eager, ‘unknown’ bidder —that later on turned out to be none less than the giant internet company Google— specifically demanded a domain counting at least 220 acres, the proximity of water and the possibility to consume 150 megawatt a year, a ridiculous amount that even dazzled Belgium’s main energy companies Electrabel and Elia.

After the Belgian diplomacy forwarded Google’s proposal to the three regions in the country, only the southern part was really taking the bait. The Walloon representatives of the OFI, the Office for Foreign Investors, soon set up a meeting with the people of Zenzu. Undoubtedly unlike what they were expecting, three young men around their thirties showed up, carrying nothing but a backpack. But as relaxed as they looked, the more determined they came through, considering other areas in France and Sweden and juggling with mind-boggling amounts of cash. The private money to be invested would run up to 250 million euro, the amount of tax payer’s money was initially set at 5 million euro. However, the factory that was going to be built, would do something in return, creating about 150 temporary jobs and later on employing about 120 people permanently, mostly vacancies for highly educated people. The negotiations were difficult but the agreement could soon become the symbolic saviour of an economically faltering region.

Saint-Ghislain, January 2009. As the data center was set to open at the end of 2008 in the industrial zone Ghlin-Baudour, we decided a bit of field research on how Google had affected the Borinage couldn’t cause any harm. After all, this is Google we’re talking about, the company with one of the strongest brand names of this spanking new century. And it’s making a triumphal entry in a region where generations after, people are still suffering from the closing of the coalmines such as the Grand Hornu that once employed about 1,500 people. The perfect spot for a brand that has established itself as the most prominent name on the information highway; gathering the world’s information through a search engine. What can go economically wrong with a company that even makes it possible for you to explore the bottom of the ocean on your computer or to virtually visit almost every location in the world? Oddly enough, Google Maps, the ingenious online tool that recently enabled the Palestinian political party Fatah to find Hamas’ target locations, somehow couldn’t help us on our search for a data center of almost one square kilometre. Google is literally publishing the entire world and facilitating freedom of information, but when it comes to sharing information about themselves, the company seems to be veiled in silence and secrecy.

“Like all our data centres, the St-Ghislain centre will process and store information that enables us to power a range of our services”

Nevertheless our intuition and a GPS-system carrying the little information we could find, lead us to what we thought of as a good base to start our search, close to the industrial zone Ghlin Baudour. After we did a bit of wandering around, a gigantic and completely fenced off, domain alongside the river attracted our attention. It was accessible only through two small, supervised gates, and our attempts to find out whether this bulking buidling was or was not the infamous data center were swiftly extinguished by a very grumpy and very silent security guard, who kindly obliged us to change tactics when we arrived at the second gate. When asked if we were at the right location for our appointment at the Google data center, the guard confirmed our presumption by answering “Maybe”. But he wouldn’t enlighten us any further, nor would the security car that tailed us when we were defying the natural barriers surrounding the center. It almost made it impossible to take some decent photographs. Digital Innovation Valley didn’t seem very hospitable to us, untill we got charmed by Google’s neighbours: a little farmhouse called Pic & Plat, almost looking fairy-like in the hillock landscape.

“In these modern times, privacy no longer exists”

What initially looked like a prestigious hideout for bored Google moguls playin golf, appeared to be one of the authentic diamonds of the area. Inside the rural tavern, the elderly people present didn’t seem to have any clue of the activity going on in their backyard. They hardly paid attention. “What is the exact purpose of this Google building?”, a middle aged man would ask us when we informed about the data center. More important were the first served beers of a bleak day, after which a significant number of economically ignorable, local elderly started to collect their equipment, went on to the playground and played their favorite game, La Crosse en Plein. A traditional sport, deviated from golf, that barely turns up any search results when Googled and clarifies the mistery of this data center even less.

“Like all our data centres, the St-Ghislain centre will process and store information that enables us to power a range of our services”, Google spokesman Al Verney answered later on. “But we’re currently still constructing the facility. It’s a big project and although we’ll be in construction for some time to come, we expect to be operational as scheduled. The final scope of the project —both in terms of scale and economic impact— will be determined over time, but we’re providing employment for a significant number of people during the construction phase, and expect to continue investing in people for a range of positions as the facility develops.”

A lot of questions remained. What kind of information are we specifically talking about? Will these humongous servers even be used to carry any information and if so, will it make us any smarter? Maybe these weird constructions are predestined to store incriminating nude pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Boring, an American couple that recently sued Google for invasion of privacy after a Google Street View spycar illegally drove down their private driveway and took a bunch of 360-degree, both pan-and-zoomable pictures of their home and swimming pool? “In these modern times, privacy no longer exists”, Google would argue after the Borings lost their battle against the internet giant that seems to be attempting to spy on the entire planet. Will they state the same comment when Pic & Plat has to make room for digital innovation as well?

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Who knows what to take two of in a world of expiring patents and renewed marketing strategies for the kind of pills that can take the gloom out of a depressed rhino – if said rhino had somehow managed to find a prescription. Oh yes, the newly emerging mental marketplace offers a lot of high-powered medication for a lot of disorders whose symptoms sound a little vague to say the least. Some would say that treating ADHD with Ritalin is the medical equivalent of pulling out weeds with a rocket launcher. Others argue that problems like depression and relational disorders are often caused by social issues and shouldn’t be medicalized since drugs don’t tackle the actual root of the problem and instead focus on a quick fix to get you to the next stop.

In our next issue, POSTRmagazine brings you a look into the 900 billion USD market that is the pharmaceutical industry. We will shed some light on why some drugs are legal while others are smuggled into the country in homemade submarines and armored car convoys – even as the death penalty looms in some of the more dissuasive regimes in the world. We take a look at an aspect of our evolution – the power to heal ourselves – and how we have used it to improve our public health. Consider it a self-diagnosis – based on hard work & research and fueled by conspiratory paranoia & delusions of grandeur.

WARNING: POSTRmagazine #11: The Legal Drugs issue may cause erratic behaviour, insomnia, heartburn, severe depression, epileptic seizures, psychotic episodes and explosive diarrhea. Always consult your physician before reading.

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If the more pessimistic interpretations of the Mayan calendar are right, we have less than a year before all of us become molecular building blocks in the great circle of life again. How will it happen? Who knows! It could be any given horrifying scenario you can come up with, ranging from atmosphere-scorching solar storms and planetary geomagnetic reversal (categorize as Cosmic Judgment) to mass epidemics, killer virusses or WWIII (file under Immanent Justice). The fact is, your Life as you know it may get burnt, flooded, shot, hurricaned, tsunami-fucked, vaporized or meteor-struck to tiny, tiny bits – anywhere within the next 11 months & 3 weeks. Well, either that, or Man will boldly step forward into new Age of Civilization & Transformed Consciousness where all of us will enter into the Fifth World to reach awesome new levels of spiritual enlightenment. Makes us a bit undecided about going to Vegas to spend the dwindling rest of our lives drinking, snorting and fornicating with whatever won’t sue us. Tick, tock – tick, tock.

Whatever the case may be, you can count on the professionally paranoid & conspiratorially gifted staff at POSTRmagazine to get to the bottom of this before you have to find out firsthand. For example, when a tsunami, hurricane or meteor storm hits your backyard. Or when you see your fingertips stretching out before you into infinity before your molecules get sucked into Sagittarius A* – the supermassive (that’s a word of science, by the way) black hole that gapes at the center of our galaxy. Sounds like a blast, wouldn’t you say?

So what can you expect while you wait for the world to end along with your dreams of attaining profound existential fulfillment? First-off: a full report on which drugs are legal for you to procure and ingest while slaving away your last year on Planet Earth. Stay tuned for more Doom, Depression & Despair in POSTRmagazine #12: The Legal Drugs Issue!

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So go out and check if there’s a gift cerficate in your copy, if not try your luck again and grab another copy. As soon as you find a gift certificate stop wasting time and get your ass down to the WeSC store in Antwerp to claim your discount!

WeSC Concept Store
Lange Klarenstraat 29
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium

If you’d like to go to the WeSC birthday party in Antwerp, RSVP on their Facebook event page.

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Our latest adventures in subjective journalism took us right to the place where we excrete all the crap on this here planet and beyond. That’s right, in our celebratory 10th issue of POSTRmagazine we’re talking tons of trash. Why? Because the trash disposal business is a dirty one. In a world of shady deals, the trash game is the bottom business to be in. Its existence and profitability are guaranteed. Credit analysts called the industry ‘recession-resistant’. Its dirtiness is implied by its very nature: we’re talking about a product that no sensible being wants to touch, let alone buy. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it and in the free market model, they will charge you whatever they want for doing it. The landfill has become a goldmine for those who don’t mind getting a little dirty.

So let’s just say we didn’t waste our potential producing this piece of recycled matter. We hope you enjoy reading this edition of POSTRmagazine and remember to recycle it if you do decide to throw it away.

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As I was browsing through the list of external websites I noticed the Clear magazine link. I know Clear Magazine because it is made by the people behind Bright magazine, a dutch technology magazine that looks great and has good quality content. Clear magazine is a platform, meaning a magazine and website, made for Vodaphone that focusses on mobile trends and innovation. But why did people visit the POSTRmagazine website from the Clear magazine website? Where did this sudden rise in visitors come from? I clicked the link and was taken to the Nalden’s Crowd section on the Clear magazine website. I recognised the familiar face of Nalden, entrepreneur extrordinaire from Amsterdam and the man behind Wetransfer and his latest brainchild Kuvva. Not a man to take lightly to say the least.
So great was my surprise to see POSTRmagazine on Nalden’s list of innovators this month. Bam! We made it to number five on the list of projects he supports. There’s Instagram at number six and 22tracks at number 4 so we’re in very good company amongst some awesome projects.

A major shout out to Mr. Nalden for the support and the honor.

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Thanks to the people of N°13 for hosting this event at their pop-up bar.

Here are a few pictures of the night © Sam Lieveld & Evelyne Copers.

And a short video made by REC Radiocenter

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