All teachers involved in the ArtsScience curriculum have, without exception, strong ties to the Royal Conservatory, the Royal Academy of Art, and Leiden University due to their often long lasting contributions to the Electronic Studio, the Institute of Sonology, the Center for Audiovisual Media (CAM), the Interfaculty Image and Sound and the Master of Media Technology program. Despite their divergent backgrounds all share an interest in creating multi-, inter- and meta-disciplinary art forms, which has resulted in the presentation of their work as a product of fine art, literature, multimedia installations and performances, and theater. They also share a fundamental and deep involvement with music and sound; almost all of them are experienced as composers, performers, and/or improvisers.
Thanks to these common interests and experiences it has been possible to achieve some extremely innovative, large productions in the fields of music theater (Die Glückliche Hand - Geöffnet, 1993, Scheuer im Haag, 1995, The Man with the Hammer, 1998), sound art and environmental art (Fort Klank, 1993, School for Soundmen, 1994, The Promenoire van Mondriaan, 1994, Sounds, 1999, Het Wevershuis, 2005), live electronica (Sonic Acts Festival, 1994-2004), and multimedia manifestations (The Language of Image and Sound, 2004, and Superville, 2005).
The faculty biographies appear in descending order corresponding to the length of involvement in the innovation and development of the educational curricula leading to the new domain ArtScience.
Frans Evers
studied developmental and experimental psychology at the University of Amsterdam. Upon completion of his studies, in 1979, he initiated the research project Experimental Synesthesia concerning the influence of sound on visual perception. In 1980 he began lecturing at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In 1984 he received a Fulbright Grant enabling him to continue his research in the U.S., first as a visiting fellow and later as a research fellow with Professor Lawrence E. Marks in his reaction times studies on interacting cross-modal dimensions at the John B. Pierce Laboratory at Yale University (New Haven).
In 1986 he continued his work as a researcher and educator at the Sonology Department of the Royal Conservatory, where he initiated innovative courses on the subject of art and new media, first in the Center for Audiovisual Media (CAM), which he founded with meta-composer Dick Raaijmakers, the Aula Lecture series which he organized with curator Hans Locher in the Haags Gemeentemuseum, and in 1989 by initiating the Interfaculty Image & Sound, a partnership of the Royal Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Art. In 1993 the Interfaculty received a major grant by the Innovation Fund of the Dutch Council for Vocational Education (HBO-Raad) to develop new courses and research projects in de fields of the media arts and music theater for the new interdisciplinay Image & Sound curriculum. In 1994 he initiated a structural collaboration with club Paradiso in Amsterdam, in the form of the yearly Sonic Acts Festival to offer students a professional context for their personal experiments during their studies. Since 1997 he has been advisor to most of the national Dutch art foundations.
In 2001 he was invited to contribute to the founding of the new Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University/ Since then the Interfaculty collaborates with the program Master of Media Technology of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The results of his research on creative synesthesia and educational innovation have been communicated and published in dozens of public lectures, articles and books. Presently, he is working on the completion of his doctorate thesis: The Language of Image and Sound - Synesthesia in Science, Art and Art Education
Kasper van der Horst
studied photography at the School of Photography in The Hague. After his studies he became interested 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 in 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 the birth of the first VJ’s and visual musicians who created visuals and moving images that accompanied DJ acts, which first showed up 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 nigth of the Holland Festival in Paradiso (Amsterdam). For the ArtScience curriculum he recently developed new introductory courses on the subjects: freestyle video, image & sound (with Robert Pravda) and metamedia (with Taco Stolk).
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 nigth of the Holland Festival in Paradiso (Amsterdam). For the ArtScience curriculum he recently developed new introductory courses on the subjects: freestyle video, image & sound (with Robert Pravda) and metamedia (with Taco Stolk).
Next to these courses he has been organizing video workshops for the Royal Conservatory’s Steve Reich Project with Robert Pravda (2003), for the Royal Academy of Art’s TPG Fashion Show with Daniëlle Kwaaitaal (2004), for the project The Language of Image & Sound - Cooking the Universe with Frans Evers, Dick Raaijmakers, Horst Rickels, Robin Deirkauf and Jan Peter van der Wenden (2004), for the 2Days Art Festival in The Hague with Robert Pravda (since 2005), and for the multimedia manifestation Superville which was produced by the Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts at the occasion of the celebration of the 86th lustrum of Leiden University with Paul Koek a.o. in The Scheltema in Leiden (2005).
Robin Deirkauf
studied publicity and design at Academie Artibus in Utrecht after which he continued his studies at Ateliers 63 in Haarlem. His paintings of that time are characterized by a mix of constructivist elements combined with the bright colors of the Caribbean where he grew up. After this period he turned to a more formal and conceptual way of analyzing the image, resulting in the development of a matrix used to create a pictographic alphabet consisting of primary colors and forms. Since then his research has focused on the possibilities this alphabet has for computer applications.
In 1989 he was invited to join the faculty of the Interfaculty Image & Sound for which he developed the introductory courses Sense Interference and Human Interfaces. His contributions to the collective projects usually consist of designing monumental stage sets that extend to the architecture of the building where the productions take place. In 2001 he was the first Interafculty teacher to contribute to the program Master of Media Technology of Leiden University. To offer the university students a place where they could work with their hands, he founded the interface laboratory LabLand in the Royal Academy of Art, where university students and art students can do small research projects to study the characteristics of new and old materials for the creation of new controllers.
During the last years his artistic research focusses on the realization of his color code alphabeth in a theatrical context. For this he is studying robotics and 3D stage design modeling and simulation of actor’s movements to create a pilot presentation for a theatre version of the epic Gilgamesh – He who saw All. This production is prepared with Paul Koek’s studio De Veenffabriek, which resulted until now in De Veenfabriek’s graphic house-style in color code, and in his first Geomen robot projection which was presented at the Midsummernigth project in the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam in 2004.
Horst Rickels
studied piano construction at Grotrian-Steinway in Braunschweig and worked in that function at Bechstein in Berlin. After this he studied music in Kassel where he composed ballet and theater music for the Staatstheater. In 1972 he started studying electronic composition at the Royal Conservatory. From 1973 he worked as a composer for the theater group Proloog in Eindhoven. In 1983 he earned his degree in music theory at the Brabants Conservatorium with a thesis on the dialectics of Brecht's texts and Eisler's music. During the next years he formulated new principles for multimedia theater, resulting in Van Gogh's Laatste Oor and The Simulated Wood, among others. Supported by a grant from the Fonds voor Scheppende Toonkunst he focused his research on the development of sound objects, sound sculptures and sound installations.
The central question of his research is how the principle of instability of tuning-systems, pictorial structures and performance practices can be made the central theme of art works. Another important aspect of his research is the study of special qualities of sound in relation to the natural and artificial environment. As a sound artist he has shown his works in many countries and at international festivals. Often he has participated in projects that aimed at transforming outstanding places into a soundscape, such as Fort Klank in 1994 in which he, Dick Raaijmakers, and Walter Maioli transformed an old fortification into a monumental musical instrument. Since 2002 he coordinates the Image and Sound specialization of the masters program Creation, Research and Development.
Next to his lecturing at the Interfaculty and the Design Academy in Eindhoven he has shown his works as a sound artist in many countries and at international festivals. In 2005 he presented his own work together with a selection of student’s work at Krakow’s Audio Art Festival. Presently he is working on sound installations in Zaandam en Neerpelt and on a film documentary series on people working with the elements earth, fire, water and air.
Paul Koek
studied percussion at the Royal Conservatory where together with Louis Andriessen and others he founded the ensemble Hoketus in 1976, as a reaction to the upcoming minimal music from the U.S. Next to this he played in different new music and free improvised music ensembles, such as Loos, and worked together with such composers as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Dick Raaijmakers and Louis Andriessen. In the early 80's he became attracted to theater and started his research into new forms of music theater with his own group, the Ned Rok Ensemble. A few years later he became artistic director of the theater group Hollandia. In 1990 a long and intensive collaboration began with Raaijmakers that resulted in the development of new forms of electric music theater.
In 1991 Koek became a teacher at the Interfaculty Image & Sound where he and Raaijmakers shared their approach to theater with the students and other teachers, resulting in major productions during the following years (Intona, Der Fall Depons, Die Glückliche Hand – Geöffnet, Hermans’ Hand, Scheuer im Haag). In 1994 he founded the Veen Studio. In this laboratory, which was a part of Hollandia, he continued his research into new forms of theater on the basis of musical skills, musical laws and musical worlds. During the creative process he developed a new form of directing in which he searches for a balance between image, light, sound, voice and movements based on musical ideas.
In 2005 he founded his own theater company, The Veenfabriek, for which he received a four-year grant from the Dutch government thanks to the positive advice of the national Council of Culture. In 2005 the city of Leiden offered The Veenfabriek the first occupancy of the new cultural venue, The Scheltema. Since then he produces experimental music theater productions and multimedia projects with artists and scientists in order to stimulate the new discourse between art and science, initiated by the new Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University.
Michael van Hoogenhuyze
studied Art History at Leiden University. Since his graduation in 1974 he has worked as an art history teacher, contributing to many curricula. Additionally, he has been a school manager for many years. In 1993 he started teaching at the Interfaculty Image & Sound and contributed to the collective projects with art historical analyses of the research themes.
Next to his work as a teacher he is active in areas where art criticism and the reflection on art are transformed in actual contributions to the creative process. In this way, for instance, he participated in a project of Jan van der Pol, IOEYA BFG ZNQD KWTRL HMJD, for which he translated Horappolo’s Hyroglyphia from Greek into Dutch. In 2002 this book was exhibited together with 195 prints in the Graphical Museum in Groningen and in the Lakenhal in Leiden. He has also been a dramaturgist for a number of music theater productions of ZT Hollandia under the direction of Paul Koek. He ardently collects stones and fossils, plays street music with his accordion and refuses to make a difference between high and low culture.
Since 2002 he is a member of the think tank of the Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts of Leiden University. In 2004 he was assigned a lectorate to study and teach in the research area Art as a Source of Knowledge. For this, he interviewed fifty former students of the academy who formerly had studied painting at the Royal Academy of Art, and investigated the different stages of the academy’s history of curriculum innovation in the 20th century.
Klaus Baumgärtner
studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel. In his art practice he uses different media to create small sculptures often consisting of natural materials that are transformed into art pieces by making a minimum of adjustments to their original form. He knows a lot about plants and even more about trees. The branches he uses are carefully selected. Sometimes he helps the trees to grow the branches in a form useful to his art. In this way he tries to express a line of non-verbal, visual thinking, which he himself considers an iconic way of reasoning in which he plays with meanings. He cuts cans, bends copper, hammers on lead, and casts forms in bronze, aluminum and plaster. In his lessons he teaches students a number of methods by which they can record their initial ideas. The objective is to teach students to discover their own sketching methods to facilitate the development of their own projects.
Joost Rekveld
was part of the first group of students to subscribe to the Image & Sound course in 1989, after he followed the International Sonology course at the Royal Conservatory. He developed a special taste for the history and contemporary practice of experimental film and since then he has been making mainly abstract animation films and kinetic installations. In 1999 his film #11, Marey - Moiré won the Grand Prix for non-narrative animation at the Holland Animation festival. Along with his work as a filmmaker and visual artist he is active as a musician in the ensemble Farabi, where he plays ney, tanbur and dutar. In 1995 he was invited to teach at the Interfaculty Image & Sound.
For his animated films he develops his own tools, often based on ideas taken from abandoned side paths in the history of science and technology. For some time his research has been expanding into different directions, practically in the direction of making light environments, compositional systems and software, as well as theoretically into the direction of geometry, crystallography, and the history of perspective and optics.
His interest in the spatial aspects of light recently triggered a shift away from filmmaking and towards more architectural and theatrical forms. He curated programs for various film festivals and organized the conference and film program of Sonic Light 2003, a festival devoted to light art. In 2004 he created the program 4D for the Dutch filmmuseum: an exhibition, a series of screenings and lectures investigating the heritage of the modernist and utopian ideas of the 20th century avant-garde.
Edwin van der Heide
studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatory, graduating in 1992. The central theme of his work is the interaction of sound and space. Although musical qualities and musical language are being used in the development of his work, it is hardly ever presented in the form of a concert, since his work often takes the form of an installation, an environment, or a new kind of live performance. Already in 1989 he had started performaning with custom build sensor based instruments. This lead to a form of music with a strong physical approach and an emphasis on sound itself. The formation of the Sensorband in 1993/1994 was a continuation in this direction.
In 1995 he was invited to teach at the Interfaculty Image & Sound and since 2003 he also lectures at the Master of Media Technology program. In 2003 he was one of the curators of the Sonic Light festival for which he initiated collaborations between musicians who composed special programs for the dodecaphonic sound-system specially installed in the Paradiso for this occasion. Since some years he developed an interest in sonic space, which resulted in his approach of aa arhitectural space as an instrument and to approach the human senses and the perception of the audience by composing the spatial experience using sound. Over the years the focus of his work has shifted to sound installations, interactive installations and sonic environments. The performance aspect is still present in part of the work but his emphasis has shifted to use the characteristics of the environment.
He composed the soundtrack for Joost Rekveld's prize-winning film # 11 and together with artist Marnix de Nijs he created the installation Spatial Sounds that was awarded in 2001 with the Honorary Mention Prix Ars Electronica. Recently, Lars Spuybroek and Edwin van der Heide won an intimate competition for a permanent installation at the Kop van Zuid in Rotterdam. Whispering Garden (2006) is their third collaboration, since the realization of the Water Pavilion at Neeltje Jans in (1997-2002) and the Son-O-House in Son en Breughel in 2004. Besides these interactive sound installations, he continues his performance practice by developing new forms of kinetic laser light sculptures, which he presents as Laser Sound Performances.
Taco Stolk
studied at the Interfaculty Image and Sound where he earned his degree in 1996. During his studies he developed a conceptual approach to the creative arts that is based on a meta-disciplinary point of view, resulting in the work in progress Wlfr.
In 1998 he was invited to teach at the Interfaculty Image & Sound. In his MetaMedia lessons he stresses that the choice of a certain art medium in itself can be viewed as an artistic statement that has to be integrated in the creative process. By this approach he wants to stimulate the use of uncommon or totally new media in the arts. To achieve this he presents a theoretical framework in which the characteristics of the new media are discussed from the points of view of conceptual art and cultural philosophy in courses for the art students and for the students of the Master of Media Technology program, as well.
In 2001 he founded the ExtraFaculty in which students of all departments of the Royal Academy of Art are offered projects that pass the boundaries of their disciplines.
Mateusz Herczka
studied Fine Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore) where he graduated his Bachelor with a Cum Laude in 1993. Since then he works at the intersection of art, artificial intelligence, bioscience and performance. His computer videos and installations have been shown at art spaces and festivals, including V2_ (Rotterdam) and Tate Gallery (London). He has deviced the Preiser Movement System and applied it in different contexts – most notably in the critically acclaimed Me and You..
Since 1999 he collaborates with Sweden’s main choreographers such as Örian Andersson and Cristina Caprioli with works performed by the Royal Swedish Ballet, Helsinky Theater, Carte Blanche, Andersson Dance Company CCAP and others, at locations throughout Scandinavia, Europe and the U.S. The most recent collaboration – t.cap with Christina Capriosi – was unanimously lauded by critcs after its premiere at Dansenhus in August 2004. He has toured with Staffan Eekto to festivals like Aerowaves (London) and BIT (Bergen). As VJ, he has performed at several electronica events with Pole, Mikael Stavöstrand, Andrea Tilliander and others, and has produced videos for Gonzo Circus and Mille Plateaux.
Since 2001 he is a lecturer at Willem de Kooning Academy (Rotterdam). In that year he and his students were invited to attend to the conference The Art of Programming, which was part of the Sonic Acts festival in Paradiso (Amsterdam). There he learned about the collaboration between the Interfaculty, Sonology and Mediatechnology and decided to continue his studies to earn a Master degree. In 2005 his examination piece 44\13 received the highest possible grade and a Cum Laude qualification. Since then he is lecturing the at the Interfaculty ArtScience the introductoy course Mind Mapping together with Klaus Baumgärtner.
Paul Slangen
studied Theater Sciences at Utrecht University. Since 1991 he has worked with Theater Group Hollandia where as a dramaturgist he has contributed to the realization of many performances since 1997. In 1999 he was invited to join the Interfaculty Image and Sound, for which he developed the course Masters of the 20th Century with Michael van Hoogenhuyze and Horst Rickels. In this course the work of a variety of leading artists, who can be considered as the forerunners of the interdisciplinary art forms of today, is presented and discussed. Thanks to the team teaching scheme discussions are often aroused in which teachers and students exchange their points of view. Through this awareness is created of the different perspectives from which the appreciation of the arts arises. Next to this he is developing the course Writer's Block for students who want to improve their writing skills.
Joel Ryan
studied physics, switched to philosophy and studied some time with Herbert Marcuse, one of the leading philosophers of the 1960’s. Though early taken by modern music he pursued his musical interests outside the academy. Later he began to fabricate electronic instruments with the help of the hacker artists and the garage engineers of what was becoming Silicon Valley. He is a pioneer in the design of musical instruments based on real-time digital signal processing. He works as a live electronic musician in the world of improvised music with George Lewis, Evan Parker, and Joëlle Leandre, in the theater world with William Forsyth’s Ballet Frankfurt and at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
He is a member of STEIM in Amsterdam, teaches in the Sonology Department of the Royal Conservatory and the Interfaculty Image & Sound / ArtScience. Recently he contributed to the V2_ workshop Making Art of Databases by developing a course on music visualization. He presently contributes to the new courses and research groups in the fields of generative art (Pattern, Visualization, Sonification and Composition, and Making Art of Databases), and interactive art (Interactive Sonic Spaces).
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 and Sound, where he earned his degree in 2002. During his studies he concentrated on building instruments for multimedia performances and making algorithmic compositions for spatial sound and light installations. His examination project was awarded with the visitor’s prize of Shell’s Young Artist Award. Since then he has participated in exhibitions in The Netherlands and abroad.
In 2001 he started WEIM, the workshop of electro-instrumental music, resulting in the electronica improvisation ensemble RecPlay, consisting of Image & Sound / ArtScience students who perform in various venues. After his examination he was invited to continue this activity as a teacher of the introductory scourse image & sound with Kasper van der Hortst, and the research groups Interactive Sonic Spaces and Genius Loci. Next to this he teaches the academy wide offered introductory course Sound
Jan Peter van der Wenden
studied Image & Sound, after he had been working as a television program maker for the local broadcast station of The Hague. During his studies his research focused on interactive multimedia installations. To deepen his knowledge regarding the connections between art, science and technology he was a student of the Master of Media Technology program at Leiden University where he earned his degree in 2003.
After his studies he worked as a video maker in the Polyvinyl Big Band, an international collective of DJ’s and VJ’s. He was a member of the production team that organized the Sonic Acts festival, and was co-editor of the conference book The Art of Programming, an international conference on the programming of art that was held in 2002. Next to this, he has contributed to many exhibitions in which his installations were shown, for instance at the Dutch National Media Institute, Montevideo in Amsterdam and in the MNAC / National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Rumania.
In 2004 he was invited to become study coordinator and lecturer for the Interfaculty Image & Sound, and to assist students who want to conduct research in the interfacing laboratory, LabLand, which he initiated with Robin Deirkauf. In 2005, together with sound designer Joel Ryan and linguist Crit Cremers he initiated the research group on generative art, Making Art of Databases as an innovative contribution to the new ArtScience curriculum
Sanne van Rijn
studied classical ballet from 1981 to 1988 at the National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, after which she studied photography at the School of Photography in The Hague, where she earned her degree in 1992. From 1992-1996 she studied at the Interfaculty Image and Sound, where she developed short performances based on movements taken from daily life.
After her education she played with the British ensemble Forced Entertainment in the 24 hour-long performance piece Who can sing a song to unfrigthen me? And with ZT Hollandia she created De Val van de Goden and Taslit among others. She also developed, first with the Gasthuis in Amsterdam and later with ZT Hollandia in Eindhoven, a number of performances, including Zo geef ik mijn kat een pilletje, Let’s be firm en Gradually Zero. In 2000 she was awarded with the Theater Stimulation Award by the City of Amsterdam and the Mime Award by the United Boards of Directors of the Dutch Theaters and Concert Halls. In 2001 she and Paul Koek created the performance Zwanenmeer with inhabitants of a home for the elderly. This performance was selected for the National Dutch Theater Festival in 2002.
In 2004, she was invited to contribute as a guest teacher to the research group Alter Ego which, since then, she is leading together with Taco Stolk. Since the season 2004-2005 she is working with theater ensemble NT Gent where she develops her own work and participates incidentally in the company’s productions such as in Christopher Marthaler’s Seemanslieder.
