Artdictive Collective: making space for FLINTA* artists

Picture HEDON Sonance / Lie Kietselaer. Floor (left) and Dominika (right), founders of Artdictive Collective

Did you notice DJs at techno events are often cismen? The people behind Artdictive certainly did. They formed a DJ collective striving to promote and support FLINTA * DJ talent. After three events and a string of podcasts, Artdictive has become known in the Amsterdam techno scene as the place to go for quality up and coming DJs. We sat down with founders Dominika and Floor, DJs themselves, to talk about their inspiration, creating safe events and forming a community.

(FLINTA* stands for Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, Agender and * those who do not fit into one of the above-mentioned sexual orientations or gender identities but belongs to a marginalized group)

On a warm and damp afternoon in August, I arrive in the neighbourhood near the national maritime museum at an apartment building. A few stairs up, Floor de Roos and Dominika Karaszewska await in the entrance to a small flat. We soon establish there’s no need to communicate in English, as we assumed before. We take to the streets for a while so our photographer Lie can do a shoot. Then, after exchanging parties we plan to go to next, we settle inside for the interview.

How would you describe the mission of Artdictive?

Dominika: “We want to make people aware of the lack of gender diversity in the lineups of local techno events and do something about it. We don’t think there are more male DJs around, it’s just that the networks of people involved with organizing events consist mainly of cismen. For instance, we heard about a Whatsapp group for promoters and only five in two hundred were women! From our perspective, there are dozens of solid female, non-binary or trans DJs around that don’t get noticed. By giving them a stage, also literally, we make them visible for event organizers. The more FLINTA* DJs make it to the stage, the more aspiring FLINTA* DJs realize they too can make a name for themselves. What we basically do is create our own network.”

What do you do exactly to achieve these things?

Dominika: “We organize our own events, with lineups solely consisting of FLINTA* techno DJs. We want these events to be as safe as possible for everyone attending. We also want them to be immersive experiences, not only a musical experience.We do our own artwork, or to be more precise our friend Josh Dankers designs it, and we have a light show and on-screen visuals that are being made live in sync with the music. Our friend Emanuel Nijkerk does that.”

Floor: “In addition to the events, we record and release a lot of podcasts, almost every week. And last but not least, we make sure the DJs we promote come together, just for fun and a beer but also to learn from each other and help each other.”

What motivated you to start Artdictive?

Dominika: “I had a few bad experiences as a female identifying DJ. For instance, when I was getting ready for a set a guy came up to me and was like ‘what, are you playing here tonight?’ I just asked him what was behind his question.”

Floor: “The past years it appeared to me that at local events, female identifying or non-binary DJs were rarely behind the decks.”

Dominika: “When I was living in Berlin for a while, I came across all kinds of collectives for FLINTA* DJs, and I realized there seemed to be no such thing in Amsterdam. I decided I would try and start a collective myself. I called Floor and she was on board immediately. When corona came around, we had time to think about it and start assembling and meeting DJs we thought were great. We also started DJing and producing tracks at home ourselves. Our first podcasts as Artdictive were made.”

You did three events so far. How did they go down?

Floor: “The first one was at Atelier. The atmosphere was very friendly and open minded. People appreciated the concept right away. The second one at OT301 went very well too. It sold out at the last minute at the door, we were amazed by that. Soon we were asked by Isabelle and Ici Sans Merci from RADION to do a showcase there. Our night was part of three showcases. The other showcases were from the agencies Kromanti and Arcane. It took place one Saturday after another. For us it was a completely different experience compared to our first two events because we didn’t have to do everything ourselves. The artwork, soundsystem and lights were already there. The night was completely sold out, 700 people attended!”

The names of your events are names of minerals, like charoite and rhodonite. What do they mean?

Floor: “The minerals are part of our concept as they appear in the artwork, in our logo. But they also carry a meaning that fits our values. Rhodonite for example stands for reconciliation and friendship.”

How do you ensure your events are safe for everyone?

Dominika: “We encourage visitors to speak out to us when they notice people being bothered or experience unwanted behavior themselves. But we also actively ask our guests how they feel. We walk around all night in recognizable t-shirts asking people what they think about the music, the light show, all aspects of the event. We ask them how we can make our events even more safe for them, especially our genderqueer guests. Furthermore, we require ravers to put a sticker on their phone camera. We absolutely don’t want our guests to appear on social media against their wishes. We have a professional photographer taking pictures, but they only show people anonymously. We post our house rules and values on social media before the event. In the future, we would like to have someone at the door who can selectively accept guests, but until now that hasn’t been possible due to the nature of the event and the venues. You can’t turn away people who bought a ticket when you haven’t explicitly made clear up front that might happen.”

How do you find and select DJs for your podcasts and events?

Dominika: “We find new talent in all kinds of ways; we hear from friends about new DJs, we scour Instagram, we go to events to see if we hear anyone we like. And DJs come to us directly to ask if they can do a podcast or play at our events. Even guys! Musically, we are looking for diversity within the techno realm. For instance, Lanckfeld plays dark, harder techno, whereas SHE/HER has a groovier sound. I like to play hypnotic techno with tribal elements (Dominika plays under the moniker DMNK) and Floor plays a lot of nineties techno, trance and acid. We like to blend these sounds at one event, and the guests seem to like it too. And of course, there has to be a click between us and a new DJ. We want to promote as many DJs as possible. That’s why we don’t want too many residents, because residents take up the spot of an up-and-coming DJ. Now it’s just me, Floor and Kim (SHE/HER).”

What are your plans for the near and distant future?

Dominika: “We are going to do an event in Berlin, with BLVSH, a Berlin collective with shared values. We also hope to do a showcase at HÖR at some point. And we just want to keep doing our events, we hope people will continue to like them. We don’t need them to become much bigger. We hope to preserve the spontaneous community atmosphere we have now.”

Written by André Kamphuis

We asked Floor and Dominika to name three tracks that are special to them:

Darzack & Lacchesi – Stephenson

Floor: “This was my opening track at our showcase in RADION. It had always been my dream to play there! This track is my keepsake from that night.”

Ackermann – Consciousness (Marcal Remix)

Dominika: “I played this one to open my set at Pattern. It’s a good example of the hypnotic style I’ve grown to love recently. Later in the set it becomes more industrial, but I don’t want to play that stuff anymore. I talked a lot about this track with the people at Pattern, why it’s so good. I think it stays interesting despite being very repetitive, because of interesting noises at high frequencies that come and go.”

Space Manoeuvres – Stage One (Shan Remix)

Dominika: “I heard this one at Panoramabar, it made me very happy! The atmosphere, the lights, the music, everything was in sync. I look for inspiration outside of techno, in indie and disco for instance. This is definitely a non-techno track that inspires me.”