Nele Brökelmann — coordinator, teacher
Cocky Eek — teacher, coach
Arthur Elsenaar — teacher, coach
Kasper van der Horst — teacher, coach
Eric Kluitenberg — teacher, coach
Marisa Manck — coordinator, study coach
Robert Pravda — teacher, coach
Maya Rasker — ad-interim head of department, teacher, thesis supervisor
Taconis Stolk — head of department
Marion Tränkle — teacher, coach
Coralie Vogelaar — teacher, coach
Nele Brökelmann (coordinator, teacher)
Nele Brökelmann is an artist, writer and researcher. Deeply intrigued by the human need for structures of meaning, the perpetual search for and fabrication of meaning are recurring themes in her practice. These human made structures, and mental and worldly concepts create (physical) borders and either/or thinking which Brökelmann continuously seeks to challenge by playing with the experiences and concepts of distance, repetition and parallelity. This finds its form in diverse media such as performative installations, situations and actions, writing and video. Brökelmann exercises creating space for ambiguity, wandering in thought, and approaching the beings in and of our environments otherwise.
Apart from her artistic practice, Brökelmann writes for the contemporary art magazine Metropolis M, curates and moderates the filmscreening series Matters of Being at the artist initiative iii in the Hague, and has developed a research into artistic processes De Octopus together with the writer’s platform and artist in residence Witte Rook (Breda, NL).
Brökelmann holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from St. Joost in Breda (NL) and a Master of Music from the ArtScience Interfaculty in the Hague (NL).
www.nelebrokelmann.com
Cocky Eek (teacher, coach)
Cocky Eek studied Fashion Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts and graduated in 1993 with a final collection ‘Fashion is so ugly you have to change it every half year’. She did her Master degree European Fashion and Textiles Design in 1994 (FR/IT). After her studies she realized several experimental ‘wearable’ collections presented amongst Le Salon des Jeunes Stylistes in Hyeres (FR). Meanwhile she worked as a guest teacher (HKU, Rietveld Academy and Konstfack -Stockholm).
From 1999 – 2002 she collaborated with designer Maria Blaisse, investigating form and material in relation to the moving body, resulting in the Kuma Guna series (nominated by the Dutch Design Award). Together they gave a number of master-classes (MA European Fashion & Textile Design, the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Salzburg, and the Curtin University of Technology in Perth).
Since 2001, Cocky Eek has been an active member of FoAM [Brussels]. In close collaboration with scientists, and media-designers she did the spatial designs for responsive environments as Tgarden, TxOom and TRG (presentations include V2 and Ars Electronica 2001). Since the millennium her work has been mainly revolving around lightweight spatial compositions and her favorite media have become wind and air. This resulted in floating or flying experiments or large, voluminous forms. Her Human-Kite performances with Patrick de Koning were shown along various coastal lines, such as the Oerol Festival (NL) and the International Kite Festival in Weifang in China. She is co-founder of FoAM [Amsterdam 2005] whose main focus is the topic of human-plant inter-relations. One of their sprouts Boskoi, a project on urban foraging received an honorary mention Prix Ars Electronica 2011, was presented at ISEA and implemented in many local community’s. In 2012 she created Sphaerae, an inflatable multi-dome pavilion for immersive and synaesthetic experiences (presented at Ars Elctronica, TodaysArt festival 2013). With Schweigman& she develloped two contemporary theater pieces; Frame (presented in Shanghai 2012) and Blaas (Oerol, Torino, Boulevard, Utrecht 2013).
www.cockyeek.com
Arthur Elsenaar (teacher, coach)
Arthur Elsenaar is an artist, electrical engineer and facial hacker. Since 1993, Elsenaar has investigated the computer-controlled human face as a site for artistic expression. He holds a Ph.D. in Art and Design from Nottingham Trent University in the UK for his thesis entitled “Facial Hacking: The Twisted Logic of Electro-Facial Choreography.” Elsenaar’s work has been shown at many internationally renowned conferences, festivals and institutes such as Ars Electronica, ISEA, DEAF, SIGGRAPH and MIT Media Lab. In 2008, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam acquired the algorithmic facial choreography work “Face Shift” for their permanent collection. He has been a core member of the Institute of Artificial Art in Amsterdam whose work received several awards; a Prix Ars Electronica honorary mention (1997), the Leonardo Award for Excellence (2003) for a paper on the history of electric performance art. For his most recent work, Elsenaar received the Technarte Best Speaker Award (2012) in Bilbao, Spain.
www.artifacial.org
Kasper van der Horst (teacher, coach)
Kasper van der Horst studied photography at the School of Photography in The Hague. During his studies he developed an interest in video, computer animation and computer graphics and started his own studio, Sparks.
In 1988 he was invited to teach video at CAM, and a year later to become a teacher at the Interfaculty Image & Sound, where he first taught analogue video and, since 1993, digital imagery. During his classes at the Interfaculty students started to develop moving digital graphics, resulting in some of the earliest VJs and visual musicians who created visuals and moving images that accompanied DJ acts, shown during the Sonic Acts Festival in 1994. During the collective research projects he often works with a small group of students on special visual effects that relate in delicate ways to the general theme of the project. In 1998 his research on dynamic video projections resulted in an astounding contribution to the closing night of the Holland Festival in Paradiso. For the ArtScience curriculum he developed many introductory courses on the subjects: Freestyle Video, Image & Sound (with Robert Pravda) and MetaMedia (with Taco Stolk). Next to these courses van der Horst organised many video workshops and collaborated on almost all of the large-scale projects at the Interfaculty. The resarch project “Structet : Building Music” in 2006 was one of the most successful performances in the Todaysart festival that year and it is the only project in the festival ́s history that was invited again, in 2011.
Since 2010 van der Horst has been directing multi screen installations for Rockheim, the museum for Norwegian pop music in Trondheim. He also designed 3d avatars for the interactive part of the museum. His work engagements range from established art institutes to broadcast and commercial media production. He directs and produces audiovisual projects. As a multidisciplinary art and technology advisor Kasper works with students, art-collectives and media-companies.
Eric Kluitenberg (teacher, coach)
Eric Kluitenberg is a theorist, writer, curator, educator, and advisor working at the intersection of culture, media, and technology. He was head of the media and technology program of De Balie, Centre for Culture and Politics in Amsterdam (1999 – 2011). He taught theory of interactive media and technological culture for a variety of academic institutions, including the University of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam, Academy Minerva Postgraduate Studies in Groningen, and he was a scientific staff member of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He teaches media and cultural theory at the ArtScience Interfaculty, University of the Arts, The Hague, and the Interactive / Media / Design program of the Royal Aacademy of Arts, The Hague.
Recent publications include The Book of Imaginary Media (2006), Delusive Spaces (2008) and the theme issues of Open, Journal for Art and the Public Domain, “Hybrid Space” (2006), and “(Im)Mobility” (2011), Legacies of Tactical Media (2011), Techno Ecologies (2012), (Re-)Designing Affect Space (2017).
Next to an extensive series of festivals and public events he was project leader for the practice based research trajectory “The Living Archive” at De Balie (2004 – 2010). In 2013 he was a research fellow at the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Currently he is Editor in Chief of the Tactical Media Files, an on-line documentation resource for Tactical Media, and is co-editing together with David Garcia a substantive anthology of Tactical Media to be published by MIT Press.
Marisa Manck (coordinator, study coach, teacher)
Marisa Manck studied Cultural work at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and proceeded to work as a project-manager at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam where she managed in-house production for big festivals like the Drum Rhythm festival and put effort in professionalizing cultural entrepreneurship on this unique site of industrial heritage. In the following years she produced several exhibitions and events at W139. As senior project manager at the Dutch Theatre Institute and Museum, Marisa produced several exhibitions and programs. After the Theatre Institute had to close its doors due to government budget cuts, she started studying at the Master of Education department at the HvA. Besides attending classes, she continued working for several smaller projects.
Robert Pravda (teacher, coach)
Robert Pravda studied engineering from 1987 through 1991 at the Technical University of Novi Sad (former Yugoslavia), after which he dedicated himself to making music in experimental underground circles. His interest in the interdisciplinary arts brought him to the Interfaculty Image & Sound, where he earned his degree in 2002. In 2001 he started WEIM, a workshop for his fellow students on electro-instrumental music. When he became a teacher at the Interfaculty, this workshop was transformed into the electronica improvisation ensemble RecPlay. During his studies he concentrated on building instruments for multimedia performances and making algorithmic compositions for spatial sound and light installations. His examination project, the sound-light installation 5x5x5, was awarded with the visitor’s prize of Shell’s Young Artist Award.
Recently he has been developing new musical and light instruments, performing in many formations and contexts, and he worked as composer and sound designer for several theatre productions.
www.sonicutopia.net
Maya Rasker (ad-interim head of department, teacher, thesis supervisor)
Maya Rasker made her debut as a novelist with her prizewinning novel Met onbekende bestemming (Unknown Destination, 2000). Next to a commissioned theatre play (Collateral Damage, 2002), she wrote Rekwisieten (Props, 2003), Xenia (2005) and De vleugels van Ikara (Wings of Ikara, 2008). Translations of her work appear in the United States, Germany, Spain, Turkey, Russia and Hungary.
A professional in writing and educating, Rasker is a strong advocate for the position of writing as an art form and as a source for critical and poetic understanding. As educator, researcher and course designer she was affiliated with, amongst others, the Master Film at the Amsterdam University of the Arts, and the School of Media at the University of the Arts in Utrecht (HKU). At the University of the Arts in The Hague, Rasker is, amongst other things, thesis supervisor at the ArtScience Interfaculty.
From 2010-2012, she followed the research master Artistic Research at the University of Amsterdam. An adaptation of the graduation project was published as A Letter to Foucault (in: Artistic Research and Literature, 2019). In 2017 she entered the PhDArts programme at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University, to investigate the role and position of writing as an art form within artistic and academic research. Intermittent publications include A writer’s oscillations: Beginning as mediating space between origin and destination (TEXT, 2018) and On Fiction and Forensics: A Classroom Investigation on Writing Artistic Research (Lectorate Art, Theory and Practice, 2022). October 2022, she earned her PhD. Raskers thesis Woord en wetsteen. Beschouwingen over schrijven op het snijvlak van kunst en wetenschap (Word and whetstone. Perpectives on writing at the intersection of art and academia) will appear in an English translation in Fall 2024.
Taconis Stolk (head of department)
Taconis Stolk is a conceptualist and metamodernist. He is the initiator of WLFR, studio for conceptualism in Amsterdam. Since the mid-nineties WLFR has been developing metamedia projects and theory concerning the aesthetics of concepts and contextual technology, often at the intersection of art and science.
WLFR projects have been exhibited, performed and published in Europe, the Americas and Asia. They deploy a wide range of media and disciplines. Examples through the years are P.I.A (interactive audio performance for magnetic card readers, 1994), fZone (website generating audio compositions based on weather conditions in the world’s time zones, 1995) PARR (research project on nano-aesthetics resulting in computer generated books and animations, 2000), BuBL Space (pocket device to disable mobile phones, 2002, with Arthur Elsenaar), Gradually Zero (experimental theatre on the beauty of numbers, 2003, with Sanne van Rijn), Genetic Design (media project on art education in genetic modification, 2004), o—o—o—o (project on intention hacking the game of chess, 2010, with ConceptsAssociated), Wf–– (nanotechnology project on creating magnetic fragrances, 2011, with Radboud University Nijmegen) and WLFRGB (video series exploring ‘impossible colours’ by hacking stereoscopic technologies, 2013).
Stolk earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the ArtScience Interfaculty. He lectures at the Interfaculty since 1998. Current other lecturing and consulting activities include MediaTechnology MSc programme of Leiden University (since 2001), STEIM Amsterdam and the Dutch Arts Council. He is a regular speaker and writer on topics related to his practice.
www.wlfr.nl
Marion Tränkle (teacher, coach)
Marion Tränkle is an artist and designer based in Amsterdam. Her work engages systems thinking, cross-disciplinary perspectives, and experimentation. She preferences live-performance as her artistic environment and to constantly negotiate between the carefully constructed and generative processes, between risk and responsibility, and between autonomous performance and human intervention.
She studied architecture at the TU Berlin, hold degrees in Contemporary Dance from the Amsterdam School of the Arts and from the Media Technology program at Leiden University, and was awarded her PhD from the School of Arts, Brunel University London in 2012. Last year she spent focussing on software engineering.
Her stage scenarios and installations have been shown internationally including Thessaloniki Biennale at the State Museum of Contemporary Art, OK Centre for Contemporary Art in Linz, Netherlands Media Art Institute Amsterdam, University of Michigan, Bavarian State Opera Munich, State Theatre Saarbrücken, and the Artefactfestival for Art and Media.
Marion has taught at Universities and Art Institutions in the Netherlands, Canada, and her native Germany. Currently she is associated with the Department of Industrial Design at TU Eindhoven.
www.mariontraenkle.eu
Coralie Vogelaar (teacher, coach)
Coralie Vogelaar is an interdisciplinary artist who combines social science such as behavioural studies with the artistic imagination. Vogelaar investigates the relationship between human and machine by applying machine logic to the human body. Her work manifest itself in the form of performances and video and multimedia installations, for which she works together with experts from various disciplines including data analysis, choreography, and sound design.
Places where her work has been shown include HeK Basel, ZKM – Karlsruhe, Veem House for Performance, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Kunstverein Kassel, Photographers’ Gallery London, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Science gallery Dublin, Noorderlicht Festival, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, MU Artspace, FOMU – Antwerp and Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen. Her performance Emotion Recognition from an Algorithmic Point of View was featured in The Most Iconic Works of 40 years V2 – Lab for the Unstable Media. in 2021 she was nominated for the Prix de Rome.
www.coralievogelaar.com
