About

BARTALK is a multidisciplinary lecture/performance/storytelling series curated by Yun Lee, James Parnell, and occasional guest curators. Events take place in different bars in The Hague and online as a podcast. We also organize accompanying events such as workshops, game nights, and screenings.

The series started in 2015 as a platform for artists from different disciplines to share work and research in an informal setting. Since then, the series has opened up to guests from a broader range of disciplines. 

Past guests include:

Masha Ru (edible earth), Timebank.cc (sharing economy), Catherine Feliz (inheemse tuinbouw), Thorn Vineyard (drag king), Fazle Shairmahomed (decolonizing rituals), Manuel Beltran (big data), Clyo Rospy (historian, shibari), Aurélie Lierman (composer, radiomaker), Olave Nduwanje (storytelling), Disnovation.org (cultural warfare), Jonathan Reus (live-coding), Marian Markelo (Winti-priestess), Margherita Soldati (tactile research), Ruben van de Ven (emotion recognition AI), Marsha Wischers (cosmetic surgery), Natalia Papaeva (language loss), Marcela Torres (martial arts, performance), Lux Venérea (comedy), en Tristam Vivian Adams (ASMR, media-theory).

format

Each BARTALK is themed and consists of four 15-minute long presentations by guests from different backgrounds.

These presentations can take any form (performances, speculative lectures, demonstrations, live interviews) as long as no PowerPoints are involved. 

Each presentation is followed by up to 3 questions from the audience.

Photo by Hans Poel - BARTALK#17 Future Historians

Mission

BARTALK’s main mission is to bring different worlds together to connect seemingly distant constellations of knowledge, approaches, and life experiences. We do this through public presentations, workshops, and podcasts to engage with audiences on different levels. BARTALK events gather individuals from different backgrounds to build community around curiosity.

Our objectives are:

  1. To revalue different kinds of knowledge and include knowledge produced outside of professionalized disciplines.
  2. To provide a platform for experimenting with presentation formats beyond the standard lecture.
  3. To provide a platform for people in (and outside) different disciplines to share research on similar topics
  4. To facilitate conversations between presenters and audiences of various backgrounds

Ultimately, BARTALK is a model of knowledge-sharing as community-building.

Photo by Hans Poel - BARTALK #16 Sensory Ecologies

Partners