Research Catalogue

The aim of this PD project is to bring artists and citizens together with each other and their environment, and collectively explore how the wordless voice can be a means of communication. Artists leading this project bring understanding from the multiple fields in which they are working – music, theatre, visual arts, and circus. In addition to the collective exploration of connection, the objective is to propose a methodology (which combines and develops from a range of existing methods and is provisionally termed “Resonant Cycles”) and investigate if it can have a transformative impact on the subjectivities of the individual participants. The project involves interventions in the field of performing arts with the goal of modeling less language-dependent and more inclusive, sensory-rich experiences of cross-disciplinary creation and performance. It invites a holistic and immersive experience of performing arts that brings the physical voice to the forefront and prompts reflection on the essence and meaning of vocal sound regardless of language, and the way that sound itself functions as a means of communication.

The research subgroup SPACES OF ARTIST EDUCATION focuses on exploring the relationships between artists’ pedagogies, educational spaces, and learning environments in artist education. The key interest of the subgroup is to investigate how different spaces influence, facilitate and regulate interaction, communication and ways of teaching and learning both at art universities and in non-institutional settings. The subgroup aims to gather colleagues from diverse artistic disciplines and research backgrounds to discuss the spatial, material, bodily, performative and institutional aspects of teaching art practice, as well as their connections with educational policies, relations of power, traditions of artist education, and the very ideas about pedagogy and didactics, mastery, knowing, art, creativity, resources, accessibility, space and place.

This project is practice-based research that investigates a practice model for sympoietic musicking in the field of contemporary free improvisation and comprovisation. It is driven by my interest in socio-musical sound engagements, particularly the relational connections between humans and instruments (physical material objects and electroacoustics). I explore this relationality with sound-energy-movement continuums with tools based on embodied, and movement-based practices for listening, interpreting and responding.

Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022 BA Interactive Media Design Absorbed by squares and straight lines, I am separated from my nature. By producing and consuming, we waste natural sources, till the point that the Earth can’t keep up any longer. What can we learn from the billion-year-old underground network of nature? Fungi might be mostly invisible but ever-present to feed, defend and break down all we ever are and will be. In the house as an ecosystem, I image a space for harmonious orchestrated chaos, connecting life and mediating resources embracing all streams by collaborating with fungi to understand that we are more than one.

Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022 MA Interior Architecture (INSIDE) The most valued value of architecture, houses, interiors today is on an aesthetic level: we appreciate what we see. That can be the shape of a building or the material used. What is missing in the discourse on (interior) architecture are the other senses while they might have more impact on the users.  I find myself adding this extra step in the process of designing a space based on the user experience. While we now look at the space with hygiene and durability in mind, I wonder how to bring along this sensations into the experience of space. And how this step can provide a comforting, healing or stimulating environment.  With a series of sense enhancing objects I would like to reintroduce tactility to spaces where there is a demand for tactility through texture, touch and sensations. Choice of materials will influence how a space is experienced which in turn could affect how users deal with their emotions. As a designer, I feel the urge to address this emphasis of material choice and in this way contribute to a sensorially fulfilling experience for the user and add this extra layer of comfort/support through an exploration of materials and textures. 

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.