Research Catalogue

From the intersection between Sign Language and dance, choreographer Laisvie Ochoa, is exploring the feeling of loss. In a duet with Dennis Massar, and using material developed with Anneloes van Schuppen, the work presents a visual expression of movent that seeks to honor what her mother left her.

COLLABORATIVE MUSIC CREATION: leading conservatory students in musical creation processes This research is about the development of active autonomous creativity among conservatory students in classical departments. In this exposition I will discuss the nature of collaborative creation processes, and critically investigate my own role as a coach and facilitator of these processes in order to better understand how ideas are being generated, developed and ultimately shaped into a performed piece. The investigation will be illustrated with a selected number of projects I have been involved in during the years 2017-2020.

This exposition proposes “artistic ecosystems” as a speculative framework for understanding creative processes shaped by interspecies collaboration and posthuman thought. The entry explores how art involving non-human agencies challenges anthropocentric norms and redefines authorship, participation, and temporality. Through a personal selection of immersive, site-specific, and ecological works by artists such as Westendorp, Eliasson, Huyghe, and Denes, the author outlines the beginnings of a doctoral research trajectory. These projects exemplify sympoietic, open-ended modes of creation, positioning performance and art-making as a fragile, relational ecosystem of human and more-than-human entanglements.

Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023 MA Interior and Architecture The emergence of the internet and smartphones has transformed communication and human relationships, expanding the range of communication and diminishing the importance of time and space. However, despite the increase in the number of relationships, social problems caused by loneliness and isolation are also on the rise, and people now tend to prefer personal space. This phenomenon raises important questions about the changing meaning and value of relationships in modern society, as well as the role of spatial design in addressing these challenges. This project aims to understand the desires of modern people regarding relationships from a spatial perspective, given the increasing number of one-person households and the issue of loneliness. Especially, this project explored the sensory aspect of communication through 'spatial experimentation' which is being faded while indirect communication is increasing. By utilizing nonverbal communication as a foundation, several spatial tools were employed to induce communication centered around movement, tactile sensations, and olfaction. Based on interviews conducted during spatial experiments and various psychological and sociological research, a concept of a virtual communication space prioritizing sensory connection was devised. In this virtual space, time and space are shared. The boundaries that separate spaces are flexible, opening and closing, allowing individuals to sense and communicate with each other through their senses. While modern communication often begins with the exchange of information and linguistic interaction, in this virtual space, communication starts with movement, friction, noise, or scent occurring in the shared physical environment. The boundaries that distinguish spaces are composed of various forms of curtains, which can open or close depending on the specific needs. These flexible boundaries allow each space to become a personal area or a shared area, depending on the circumstances.

Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023 BA Photography With the recent cultural emphasis on the pursuit of happiness, the expression of negative emotions seems to be neglected. The impact of not valuing and integrating emotions that can be viewed as negative can be detrimental to one’s well-being. There seems to be a widespread denial or suppression of such emotions that, eventually, can lead to problems such as self-esteem problems, depression, anxiety, etc. This has led to the urge to better understand what this observation is based on. How do you dress? What parts of your life do you share? What version of yourself do you show? Do you show the socially acceptable version or the raw and authentic version of yourself? There seems to be an unspoken rule that dictates how people should behave and portray themselves in front of others, showing only the positive aspects of their life. Taking this concept to a photographic level, I have encountered this scenario many times. You walk up to somebody and ask if you can take a picture of them. Their body tenses up, they rise tall and proud, and their smile stretches from ear to ear. They suddenly seem to be the happiest they have been all day, just for the picture. This is also the reality of social media. Once you open the app you are sucked into a wonderland. Posts and stories of people seemingly living their best lives, travelling, smiling, flexing, and comparing themselves to a #FAKEBODY. This makes me question what power photography holds in this day and age. In what ways could photography be used as a tool used to suppress our emotions instead of allowing us to express our true feelings? Through the use of chaptersation and personal stories, this thesis is presented by different emotions. By doing this, my aim is to create awareness and highlight the emphasis of emotions, making the reader question their own feelings and emotions, taking what resonates and helping them to tap into into their own body.

Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague 2023 BA fashion and textile Imelda Marcos was the First Lady of the Philippines for 20 years. She is an image of wealth (ill gotten) and the display of wealth. She is real and not real, her possession of wealth is real and not real. The image display of fake wealth by Imelda is not isolated, it is the humour of contemporary culture ‘fake it til you make it’. It is also fuelled by our daily life in the consumption of technology. Instead of criticising these behaviours of displaying fake wealth, we embody them somehow, it intrigues us to the extent of making films such as on Netflix ‘Inventing Anna’ and ‘Tinder Swindler’. ‘Generation fake wealth’ is a group of people whose goal is to portray having abundance in wealth despite their financial capacity. It is this extravagance in life that excites reality. This research will look into the diverse areas of thoughts and great people of our time. It will traverse to different ideologies such as: postmodernism, social capital, the search for beauty in this troubled times and political identity. They are important because they discuss the complex intertwining of realities, the reality itself and its possible multiple copies. The intangible commodity is the image; the image is a reflection of reality but not the absolute truth which we assume to be real. Social media is the main platform for portraying our alternative reality and its discrete influence