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_ Head of Interfaculty: Joost Rekveld
Coordinator BA: Jan Peter van der Wenden
Coordinator MA: Horst Rickels

ArtScience teachers:

Robin Deirkauf
Cocky Eek
Frans Evers
Edwin van der Heide
Michael van Hoogenhuyze
Kasper van der Horst
Michiel Pijpe
Robert Pravda
Joost Rekveld
Horst Rickels
Joel Ryan
Sanne van Rijn
Taco Stolk

Guest teachers:

Boris DeBackere
Crit Cremers
Erwin Driessen
Cathy van Eck
Bas Haring
Mateusz Herczka
Adil Hussain
Taeke de Jong
Paul Koek
Yannis Kyriakides
Maarten Lamers
Martijn Padding
Dick Raaijmakers
Mike Reinierse
Remko Scha
Paul Slangen
Maki Ueda
Maria Verstappen

System administrator: Nenad Popov

Faculty Biographies for the year 2008 - 2009
Robin Deirkauf
Robin Deirkauf, MA 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 an ancient, primordial pictorial power, mixed with modern constructivist elements and colored according to the intense light 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. In 1987 the paintings based on this alphabet were shown at the exhibition Word and Image at the Museum Hedendaagse Kunst in Utrecht. Since then his research has focused on the possibilities this alphabet has for computer applications. The first result was presented in the form of an interactive installation, enabling visitors to transform their name into color code at the exhibition of electronic art, which was presented by de Foundation for Information Science and Art in De Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam at the occasion of Remko Scha’s Jacquard lecture in 1988. In 1989 Deirkauf was invited to join the faculty of the newly founded Interfaculty Image and Sound for which he developed the introductory courses Sense Interference and Human Interfaces. His contributions to the collective projects Die Glückliche Hand – Geöffnet, Mondriaan’s Promenoire, Scheuer im Haag, Cooking The Universe, Superville and Sonic Acts consisted of monumental stage sets designs that extend to the architecture of the building where the productions took place. In 2001 he was the first Interfaculty teacher to contribute to the program Master of MediaTechnology 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 physical sensors and controllers of digital systems. During the last decade his artistic research focusses on applications of his color code alphabet in architectural and theatrical contexts. From 1995-2000 he worked for the Almere Binnen prison where he designed the corporate image based on color code. Together with the detainees the interior of the prison was decorated on the basis of the color code matrix. The results of the project were documented in the film Behind Doors, which he created with Kasper van der Horst. Presently, he is studying robotics, 3D stage design modeling and simulation of actor’s movements to create a pilot presentation for a monumental theatre version of the epic Gilgamesh – He who saw Everything. This production is prepared with Paul Koek’s company De Veenfabriek, for which he created another corporate image based in color code. In 2004, their collaboration resulted in a first prototype of a Geoman robot projection, which was presented at the Midsummernigth in the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam.

Erwin Driessens
The Amsterdam based artist couple Erwin Driessens, MA and Maria Verstappen, MA have worked together since 1990. After their study at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and the Rijksacademy Amsterdam, they jointly developed a multifaceted oeuvre of software, machines and objects. Their research focuses on the expressive possibilities that physical, chemical and computer algorithms can offer for the development of generative processes. Driessens and Verstappen participated in numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums, they give lectures and presentations at universities, art academies, festivals and conferences in the Netherlands and abroad. In 1999 and 2001 their Tickle robot projects have been awarded first prize at LIFE, an international competition for Art and Artificial Life.

Cocky Eek
Cocky Eek, MA studied fashion design from 1989-1993 at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (MA in 1994). After her studies she realized four fashion collections shown at le Salon des Jeunes Stylistes, Hyeres and Moda Mas, Amsterdam. From 1994 to 2001 she was a guest teacher at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, at the Konstfack; University College of Arts and Design in Stockholm and at the Art Academy of Poznan, Poland. From 1999 to 2002 she gave design projects for the 'MA European Fashion and Textile Design', taking place in Paris, Utrecht, Bruxelles and Southhampton and at the class 'Finding Form' in collaboration with Maria Blaisse at the International Summer Academy of fine Arts in Salzburg. Since 2001 she is part of the collective Foam, Bruxelles where in close relation with scientists, technicians and mediadesigners she designed three lightweight responsive environments; In 2001 "Tgarden" was presented at V2, Las Palmas, Rotterdam and Ars Electronica Festival, Linz. In 2002, "TxOom" was presented in Torino, Italy and in Greath Yarmouth, UK. In 2005,"TRG" was presented at Kibla, Maribor, Slovenia. In 2004 she did her suspended kite performances at the International Kite Festival at Weifang, China and in 2007 for the Cinese Birdmanshow at Changsa City, China. In 2005 she initiated the foundation Foamlab, Holland and this small collective was seen with the astronaut re-enactment of 1968 at the Kunstvlaai, Amsterdam. Cocky Eek lives and works in Amsterdam.

Frans Evers
Frans Evers, MA studied developmental psychology and experimental psychology at the University of Amsterdam. Upon earning his MA degree in 1979, supervised by Prof. Nico H. Frijda and Dr. Emiel van Moerkerken he initiated the research project Experimental Synesthesia, concerning the influence of sound on visual perception. During the late ‘70s and early ‘80s he played synthesizer in the electronic improvisation group ROY G. BIV, which was founded by visual artist Robin Deirkauf for the realization of the multi-media art project PHASE III. In 1980 Evers began lecturing at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and in 1982 he wrote the article series From Sound to Color for the Dutch magazine of modern music, Vinyl. In 1984 he received a Fulbright Grant enabling him to continue his research in the U.S., first as a visiting fellow to Yale University in New Haven 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. In 1986 he continued his work as a researcher and educator at the Sonology Department of the Royal Conservatoire, where he initiated innovative courses on the subjects of art and new media, and music psychology. With Dick Raaijmakers he founded the center for audiovisual media, CAM (1987-88) and developed with him the course The Language of Image and Sound for the Aula Lecture series which he created with curator Locher in the auditorium of the Haags Gemeentemuseum (1989-1993). In 1989 the Interfaculty Image and Sound was founded, a partnership of the Royal Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Art. In 1993 the Interfaculty received a major grant by 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 theatre for the new Image and Sound curriculum. This resulted in some remarkable ‘open form’ music theatre productions directed by Dick Raaijmakers and Paul Koek, and in the collective environmental event Mondriaan’s Promenoire which he initiated and directed in 1994. In the same year, together with Pierre Ballings, he created a structural collaboration with club Paradiso in Amsterdam by founding the Sonic Acts festival (which presented its XII-th edition in 2008), to offer the Interfaculty’s students a professional stage for showing the results of their artistic experiments. Since 1997 Evers 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 Master of MediaTechnology program of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. This collaboration triggered the Interfaculty’s new direction towards the exploration of the new domain ArtScience. The results of Evers’ experimental and theoretical studies on synesthetic perception and creative synesthesia have been communicated and published in dozens of public lectures, articles, books and media presentations in the Netherlands and abroad. In 1995 the book Muziekpsychologie (music psychology) was published, an international handbook on musical development, Presently, he is working on the completion of his doctorate thesis: The Language of Image and Sound - Synesthesia in Science, Art and Art Education.

Edwin van der Heide
Edwin van der Heide, BM studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire, 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 performing 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 and 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 architectural 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 award-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 a 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 (1997-2002) and the Son-O- House in Son en Breughel in 2004. Besides continues his performance practice by developing new forms of kinetic laser sound- light sculptures, which he presents as Laser Sound Performances.

Michael van Hoogenhuyze
Michael van Hoogenhuyze, MA, studied Art History at Leiden University. Since his graduation in 1975 he has worked as an art historian and art history teacher, contributing to many curricula and working as school manager for many years. In 1985 he wrote with Peter Koopmans on their ideas of an alternative approach to art history by publishing the brochure "Inleiding tot de Kunstgeografie" (introduction to art geography). 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. He participated in a project of Jan van der Pol, "IOEYA BFG ZNQD KWTRL HMJD", for which he translated Horapollo’s Hieroglyphica from Greek into Dutch. In 2002 this book was exhibited together with 195 prints in the Graphical Museum in Groningen and Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden. And in 2004 he collaborated with Frans Lampe and Michel Snoep in their project "De Wereld als Bron van Avontuur" (The World as a Source of Adventure) which was exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. Since 2002 has been several times dramaturge for the ZT Hollandia music theatre productions Fitness, Grond and Dark which were directed by Paul Koek. In 2004 and 2005 he studied the life and work of David Humbert de Superville, who wrote a theory on the expressive power of lines and colors, hundred years before Kandinsky and Mondriaan published similar ideas resulting in pictorial grammars of abstract art. The results of his research formed the basis of the multimedia manifestation Superville in The Scheltema in Leiden in 2005. In 1993 he started teaching at the Interfaculty Image and Sound where he teaches different subjects concerning the theory of art, and where he contributes to the collective projects with art historical analyses of the research themes. In 2004 he was assigned a lectorate on the research area "Art as a Source of Knowledge". For this, he interviewed former students of the Royal Academy of Art and investigated the different stages of the academy’s history of curriculum innovation in the 20th century.

Kasper van der Horst
Kasper van der Horst studied photography at the School of Photography in The Hague. After 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 and 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 recently developed new introductory courses on the subjects: Freestyle Video, Image and Sound (with Robert Pravda) and MetaMedia (with Taco Stolk). Next to these courses Van Der Horst organized video workshops for the Royal Conservatoire’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 and 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 in The Scheltema in Leiden by Paul Koek, Michael van Hoogenhuyze and Robin Deirkauf (2005).

Paul Koek
Paul Koek, BM studied percussion at the Royal Conservatoire 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 improv music ensembles, such as Loos, and worked together with such artists and composers as Peter Greenaway, Heiner Goebels, Bob Wilson, Fred Frith, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Dick Raaijmakers, Martijn Padding and Cornelis de Bondt. In the early 80’s he became attracted to theatre and started his research into new forms of music theatre with his own group, the Ned Rok Ensemble. In 1987 he joined Hollandia, the theatre group founded by Johan Simons in 1985, where he developed his musical approach to theatre direction resulting in Hollandia’s co-directorship in 1993. In 1990 a long and intensive collaboration began with Raaijmakers that resulted in the development of new forms of ‘electric music theatre’. In 1991 Koek became a teacher at the Interfaculty Image and Sound where he and Raaijmakers started to develop their approach to electric music theatre with the faculty and the students, resulting in major collective productions during the following years (Der Fall Depons, 1993, Die Glückliche Hand – Geöffnet, 1993, De Val van Mussulini, 1995, Hermans’ Hand, 1995, and Scheuer im Haag, 1995). In 1997 Koek founded The Veenstudio. In this laboratory, which at the start was a part of Hollandia, he continued his research into new forms of theatre 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. This approach resulted in Ongebluste Kalk (1999), De Val van de Goden (1999), Judith (2000), Film (2001), Grond (2002), Fitness (2002), Inanna (2003), Sentimenti (2003), Dark (2003), Dédé le Taxi with theatre group Antigone from Kortrijk (2004) and Escamotage with Forum Neues Musiktheater der Staatsoper in Stuttgart in 2005. In 2001 Hollandia had merged with Het Zuidelijk Toneel, which was renamed into ZT Hollandia. This not only resulted in an unprecedented, Europe-wide success of the company’s productions, but it also raised the actors’ and creative team’s needs to search for new artistic directions and ways, after almost twenty years of close collaboration. In 2005, after Simons had become director of NT Gent in Belgium, Koek founded his own theatre company, The Veenfabriek. Later that year the City of Leiden offered The Veenfabriek the first occupancy of a new cultural venue, The Scheltema. The Veenfabriek is a now music theatre ensemble with young artists who have produced an avalanche of their own pieces as well as pieces under the direction of Paul Koek. One of the high points so far was the performance of their version of Euripides’ The Suppliants, in the ancient Epidaurus open-air theatre in Greece. The Veenfabriek has produced experimental music theatre productions and multimedia projects with artists and scientists, such as Superville (2005), in order to catalyze the new discourse between artists and scientists. A collaboration between Paul Koek and philosopher of technology John Heymans in 2007 resulted in the weekend "Sensation On Sound", with a.o. David Behrman, David Toop and Laurie Anderson. In 2008 he will be directing "Light is The Machine', a collaboration with Martijn Padding, Joost Rekveld and Theun Mosk.

Michiel Pijpe
Michiel Pijpe, BA, BM graduated with distinction in 2005 at the ArtScience department at the Royal Conservatoire and Royal Academy in the Hague. Briefly studied at the dutch art institute (MA) in Enschede. Studied narrative techniques and style procedures for film at the University of Leiden (2002 2004) Michiel Pijpe has been working with video during his education and is working on an ongoing project involving liquid experiments for film wich he started in 2003. His development as a performance artist started in 2001, specializing in visual art performances in various productions and coproductions. In recent years his ‘on stage’ activities have shifted as he started designing light for theatre productions as well as directing his own pieces. Besides his artistic work he is also active as a teacher in a school for psychiatric children.

Robert Pravda
Robert Pravda, BA, BM 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. In 2001 he started WEIM, a workshop for his fellow students on electro-instrumental music which later. 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.

Dick Raaijmakers
Dick Raaijmakers, PhD studied piano at the Royal Conservatoire where he graduated in 1953. From 1954 till 1960 he worked as a composer and sound engineer at Philips research laboratories (NatLab) where he composed popular electronic music and film music. In 1960 he was one of the founders of the Studio for Electronic Music at Utrecht University, which later became known as the Institute of Sonology. In 1966 he founded the Electronic Studio at the Royal Conservatoire. Until 2005 Raaijmakers has been lecturing at the Royal Conservatoire’s Composition Department, Sonology Department, CAM, the Aula Lecture series and the Interfaculty Image and Sound. Presently, he advises the ArtScience faculty on questions regarding how to continue the process of permanent innovation of the curriculum. Thanks to Raaijmakers‘ ideas on the ‘open form’ approach to the creation of art and his interest in fundamental and formal aspects of composition, and the teacher’s and student’s openness to his working method, it has been possible to achieve some extremely innovative, collective productions in the fields of music theatre and total art based on a collective approach: Rehearings (1967-69), Book III – The New Media (1988), Die Glückliche Hand - Geöffnet, 1993, Scheuer im Haag, 1995 and in the field of sound art, environmental art and multimedia manifestations: Fort Klank, 1993, School for Soundmen, 1994, Mondriaan’s Promenoire, 1994 and The Language of Image and Sound - Cooking the Universe, 2004. Using a similar working method, he created with theatre group Hollandia and Paul Koek (who had done a solo performance of Raaijmakers’ piece Hey- Hey! In de fabriek in Eindhoven in1990) the ‘electric music theatre’ productions Intona (1991), Der Fall Depons (1993), Der Stein (1994), De Val van Mussolini (1995) and Hermans’ Hand (1995). Although primarily a composer and teacher of electronic music, Raaijmakers has gradually embraced other media of artistic expression, including the visual, theatrical, cinematographic and literary genres, in order to present the theme of art and technology in ever new ways. As a guest curator of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague he put together the exhibition, Anti qua musica, in 1989 for which he created the installation Tombeau de Glenn Gould. From 1957-1967 Raaijmakers composed electronic works: the 5 Canons, Flux, and Ballade (Erlkönig). In 1969 he created so-called instruction-works for string ensembles, in which the relationship between tone and tone-production was explored: Nachtmuziek, Schaakmuziek, Kwartet, Kwintet, De lange mars. From 1967 till 1972 Raaijmakers developed Phono-kinetic objects, a trio of ideophones scaled up to museum requirements and displayed in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1971 and in 1973 in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. In 1976 De grafische methode tractor was created, followed in 1979 by De grafische methode fiets: works intended for presentation in an auditorium, inspired by the work of the French researcher of motion and film pioneer, Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904). In 1977 he developed a series of models of electro-chemical batteries with primary electric archetype-forms for presentation at museums. In this year as a result of the death of Mao Tse Tung he created Mao leve! (Long live Mao!): “an audio-visual exercise in artificial sentiment”. From 1981 till 1984 he designed and realized a series of ‘versions’ (operations) for tape, film, theatre, percussion ensemble, museum and performance based on a single theme: Nightowls, one of the first sound movies made by Laurel and Hardy (1930): Shhh!, The microman, The soundman, Ow! and Come on!. This series has been performed in the Holland Festival 1984, in which Raaijmakers was the ‘featured composer’. In 1983 he developed Ping-pong, a stereo- radio-report of a table tennis game between the composers Louis Andriessen en Cornelis de Bondt. In 1984 the performance Extase (in memoriam Josine van Droffelaar) was realized. In 1984/1985 he designed an eight-part artwork of glass, transparent film and mechanical motion devices, for the Rijkskantorengebouw in Arnhem. In 1985 he designed an artwork using neon and color technique for the new building of the Stedelijk Conservatorium in Groningen. In 1978 the literary journal Raster-6 published Raaijmakers’ essay De kunst van het machinelezen (The art of machine reading) concerning the artistic, that is visual, aspects of the appearance of technical constructions in our world. Since 1979 Raaijmakers has been preparing a book dealing with the visual representation of motion with the help of technical devices. Part I, De Methode (the method) was published by Bert Bakker in Amsterdam in 1985. In 1984 Raster-29 published his essay De val van Mussolini (Mussolini’s Fall) . Since 1989 he works on the publication of the Kleine mechanica van de open vorm (a preview of several chapters appeared in Raster-50, -58, -60, 1990-1992). In 2000 the Orpheus Institute in Ghent published the book A Brief Morphology of Electric Sound in Cahier “M”, the collected writings of the Orpheus Institute. In 1985 Raaijmakers received the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize by the Amsterdam Art Fund for his performance piece Extase. In 1992 he was awarded the Prize for Visual Arts by the Foundation for Fine Arts Amsterdam. In 1994 he received again the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize, now for his compositions Die Glückliche Hand - Geöffnet and Der Fall/Dépons. In 1995 he was awarded the Ouborg Prize by the city of The Hague for the remarkable way he unites different forms of art. In 2004 he was awarded the Johan Wagenaarprijs for his entire oeuvre. In 2005 Raaijmakers was offered a honorary doctorate by Leiden University for the unique way his art expresses his particular view on the potential of technology to understand the perception and creation of sound and image, as seen from an artist’s point of view. In 2008, Joke Brouwer and Arjen Mulder of V2 Publishers edited a monumental monography on Dick Raaijmakers work. An edition of his collected writings is in preparation.

Joost Rekveld
Joost Rekveld, BA, BM was part of the very first group of students to subscribe to the Image and Sound program in 1989, after he had been following the international Sonology course at the Royal Conservatoire in the year John Cage was visiting. For a number of years he focused on practical and theoretical investigations into experimental film and for a long time he has been making mainly abstract animation films and kinetic installations. In 1999 his film "#11, Marey < - > Moire" won the Grand Prix for non-narrative animation at the Holland Animation festival. His subsequent films have been shown worldwide and have won several honorary mentions. For making his films he develops his own tools, often inspired by the lesser frequented byways in the history of science and technology. His interest in the spatial aspects of light also manifested itself in a number of light installations he has realised, which were shown in various countries. Recently he has become increasingly implicated in activities that resemble cybernetic systems, artificial life and robotic swarms. Apart from his independent work, he has been active as a scenographer and projection designer for several dance and theatre projects, mainly with ensemble The Veenfabriek and dance company Emio Greco | PC. These projects included music theatre pieces such as Superville and Escamotage, opera’s such as Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice and MacRae’s Assassin Tree (both commisioned by the Edinburgh festival) and collaborations with amongst others IRCAM, Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Asko Ensemble. As a curator he has been curating experimental film programmes for a number of festivals worldwide, specializing in the history of abstract film. In 2003 he was the guest curator of the film and conference programme of that year's edition of Sonic Acts: Sonic Light, completely devoted to light art. In 2004 he curated a big programme for the Dutch Filmmuseum dealing with the fascination of artists for scientific concepts and scientific imagery. In 2007 he made an installation for the MUHKA (Antwerp) relating the morphology of historic moving image machines from the Vrielynck Collection to Kazimir Malevich' philosophy of objectlessness. From 1996 he has been teaching experimental film, editing and animation at the Interfaculty Image and Sound, later followed by courses in algorithmic composition. For the ArtScience curriculum he developed courses on amongst others "Pattern and Visualization" (with Joel Ryan), "Robotics" (with Robin Deirkauf). "Memory Theatre" and "Mental Spaces" (with Michael van Hoogenhuyze). Since 2005 he has been teaching the "Machine Mediated Vision" course at Mediatechnology. Since 2008 he has been the head of the ArtScience Interfaculty.

Horst Rickels
Horst Rickels, MA 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 theatre music for the Staatstheater. In 1972 he started studying electronic composition at the Royal Conservatoire. From 1973 he worked as a composer for the theatre 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 experimented with new principles for multimedia theatre, resulting in Van Gogh’s Laatste Oor and The Simulated Wood. After this, supported by a grant from the Fonds voor Scheppende Toonkunst, he started focussing 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 sound qualities in relation to the natural and artificial environment. Often he has participated in projects that aimed at transforming special 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. Presently, he is working on sound environments and installations and is creating soundtracks for documentary films made by his daughter Jiska Rickels. In 1989 Rickels was invited to teach at the Interfaculty. Presently, he teaches the introductory course Diagonal Montage, and the research project Embodied Time. Since 2002 he has been coordinating the ArtScience masters programme. Next to his lecturing at the Interfaculty he teaches at the National Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam.

Sanne van Rijn
Sanne van Rijn studied classical ballet and photography. Later she attended the Interfaculty for Image and Sound at the Conservatory in The Hague. In recent years she has staged various performances, first with ZTHollandia and later with NTGent, including This Is How I Give My Cat a Pill (Zo geef ik mijn kat een pilletje), Let’s be Firm (Laten we flink zijn) and Gradually Zero (Langzaam tot nul). In her work, Sanne van Rijn devotes herself to the extraordinary in the ordinary. ‘She carefully juxtaposes a minimal action with a minimal sound, with a minimal image, with a minimal movement, forcing the viewers to review and change their way of looking and listening, to review and change their perception of time and space. Under this transparent fabric lies silence.’ In 2000 Sanne van Rijn was awarded the VSCD Mime Prize and the Incentive Prize for Drama by the City of Amsterdam. Swan Lake (Zwanenmeer) was selected for Het Theaterfestival 2002. La Sylphide and James as well as Hey Presto! You’re a Bear! (Ik wil dat jij een beer wordt!) were nominated for the VSCD Mime Prize in 1999 and 2007. As a performer she worked with Forced Entertainment, Christoph Marthaler and Johan Simons. In 2004, she was invited to teach at the Interfaculty, where she presents and directs the research group Alter Ego together with Taco Stolk.

Joel Ryan
Joel Ryan, MSc studied both Physics and Philosophy. As a graduate student at UCSD and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography he worked as a researcher with Henry J Menard, head of the US Geologic Survey and at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, designing instrumentation to calibrate environmental energy models. In Philosophy he was a graduate student of Herbert Marcuse (1970), Richard Popkin and Alfred Hofstadter (1976). Though music was a steady stream it only came to the foreground in the late 1970s, when he studied classical guitar with Mexican composer Jose Barroso (1963) and sitar and voice with Ravi Shankar (1967) and Amya Dasgupta. In the California of this time he was able to hear and meet musician like John Coltrane, John Cage, Harry Partch, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Pauline Oliveros, and Terry Riley. The joy of this music and their commitment to performance immunized him to the spell of the international style. He joined the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College to study electronic music and received a degree in composition under Robert Ashley. Via his work in physics he had a direct link to the hacker culture of Silicon Valley at the moment when the personal computer was just emerging (1978) and he joined up to make digital signal processing software for sound. (prototyping an early digital audio work stations for Atari/ Warner 1983). Convinced of the possibilities of the computer for a personal music he moved from California to New York and then to Europe (1985). There joining up with George Lewis he evangelized for a live performed electronic music first in Paris at IRCAM then in Holland at STEIM and the Institute of Sonology. The resistance among modernist composers to a strong conception of performance is deep and it is only recently that it seems hard to imagine electronic music any other way. For electronic music his contribution has been striving to be digital within the sphere of authentic musicians. His work is inventing mathematical renderings of music and acoustics. Typically this involves collaborating with a virtuoso to create a virtual instrument that both play. He imagines music as a relation to sound in the present moment. While interaction usually starts with sensors tracking bodily mechanics, for him the microphone has provided the most fruitful connection. The microphone anchors these speculations in real acoustic space and guarantees a link with musicians. In addition to composing for chamber musicians and improvisers, he has worked extensively in theatre making music for William Forsythe and Ballet Frankfurt, and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Musical partnerships have included Evan Parker, George Lewis, Frances Marie Uitti, Joelle Leandre, Barry Guy, Malcolm Goldstein, Jon Rose, Agusti Fernandes, Noel Akchote, Paul Koek, Thom Willems and Michel Waisvisz.

Paul Slangen
Paul Slangen, MA studied Theatre Sciences at Utrecht University. In 1991 he started working with Theatergroep Hollandia where, in collaboration with Hollandia’s directors Johan Simons and Paul Koek, he developed his qualities as a dramaturge. Together with them he initiated and discussed ideas, concepts and plans for the best way to communicate the content and meaning of the pieces, and watched the interpretation and consistency of the way the meaning was structured while the piece was developed. He was responsible for the dramaturgy of many of Hollandia’s pieces, including Menuet, Industrieproject 1: KLM Cargo, De Bitterzoet en Twee Stemmen. In this period Hollandia became well known for presenting its site- specific work on quite unusual rural locations like glasshouses, scrap yards, and abandoned factories. Since 1997 he co-directed Hollandia’s new artistic direction, which was initiated by Paul Koek by introducing an approach, based on transforming old Greek and modern German repertoire into new forms of music theatre. In 2001 Hollandia was renamed into ZT Hollandia after its merger with Het Zuidelijk Toneel in Eindhoven. There he contributed to the production of Bacchanten, Vrijdag, Sentimenti, Richard III, Seemannslieder and Fort Europa. In 2004 ZT Hollandia’ artistic team decided to split up. Since august 2005 Paul Slangen continues his work as a dramatist with Johan Simons, who became the new director of the theatre company NT Gent in Belgium. With Paul Koek, who started his own company De Veenfabriek in Leiden, he produces new music theatre on a yearly basis. In 1999 he was invited to join the Interfaculty Image and Sound, for which he developed the art history course Masters of the 20th Century with Michael van Hoogenhuyze and Horst Rickels. During this course, the pioneers of the interdisciplinary art forms of today are presented and discussed. Next to this, he is one of the mentors of the first year BA students.

Taco Stolk
Taco Stolk, MA, BM earned his Bachelor degree Image and Sound in 1996 and his Master degree Creation, Research and Development with a Cum Laude in 2003. During his studies he has been developing a conceptual approach towards the creative arts that is based on a meta-disciplinary point of view, resulting in the work in progress Wlfr. Wlfr projects may address any of the five senses, and they make use of a wide variety of media – some of which have never been explored for artistic purposes before. The project fZone (1994) was one of the first generative art projects on the internet – it generated audio compositions from worldwide weather data. After his studies, the Wlfr project has been growing into many directions. 3dTt (2000) uses the teletext medium to generate ambivalent 2D/3D animations. In 2003, he created with Sanne van Rijn and Roy Peters Gradually Zero, an exploration of the beauty of number in a theatre context. The piece was produced by ZT Hollandia and was presented in many European cities, a.o. in Brussels, Glasgow and Münster. In 2004 he realized the project BuBL Space with Arthur Elsenaar. In this project marketing techniques and GSM electronics are used to create a pocket size device that eliminates mobile phone traffic within a defined radius. Next to these concrete projects Wlfr research focuses on the phenomenological aspects of the act of creation. Wlfr projects have been presented at various international exhibitions and festivals including DEAF, ISEA and World- Information.Org. The PARR project, which was started in 2001, is an ongoing quest for nano-esthetics – the smallest possible creational actions. A project currently in progress deals with the creation of new synthetic food tastes. In 1998 he was invited to teach at the Interfaculty Image and Sound. In his MetaMedia classes, ideas on art and media are discussed and practiced from the points of view of concept art and cultural philosophy. In 2000, he founded the ExtraFaculty (xFac), a research facility within the Royal Academy of Arts where students are confronted with the boundaries between the arts and characteristic phenomena of contemporary society. The Wlfr/xFac media project Genetic Design (2003) caused national and international uproar. Since 2001 he has been contributing to the MediaTechnology program at Leiden University. At several occasions he has been invited to lecture, publish and curate debates on the interaction of art and science. For the Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts he wrote a concept for a new bachelor program based on the interaction of artistic and scientific approaches.

Maria Verstappen
The Amsterdam based artist couple Erwin Driessens and Maria Verstappen have worked together since 1990. After their study at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and the Rijksacademy Amsterdam, they jointly developed a multifaceted oeuvre of software, machines and objects. Their research focuses on the expressive possibilities that physical, chemical and computer algorithms can offer for the development of generative processes. Driessens and Verstappen participated in numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums, they give lectures and presentations at universities, art academies, festivals and conferences in the Netherlands and abroad. In 1999 and 2001 their Tickle robot projects have been awarded first prize at LIFE, an international competition for Art & Artificial Life.

Jan Peter van der Wenden
Jan Peter van der Wenden, MSc, BA, BM studied Image and 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 an independent artist, starting with The Blue Man (2000), and as video maker in the Polyvinyl Big Band, an international collective of DJs and VJs. He was a member of the production team that organized the Sonic Acts festival 2001 and 2002, and was co- editor of the conference book The Art of Programming, an international conference on the programming of art that was held as part of the festival in 2002. Next to this, he has contributed to several exhibitions in which his installations were shown: in 2003 at the Spatial Media Special and the exhibition Optical Illusion - Magic in Media Art at the Dutch National Media Institute, Montevideo in Amsterdam, and in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest, Rumania, in 2006. In 2003 he was invited to become study coordinator and lecturer for the Interfaculty Image and 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 Joel Ryan and linguist Crit Cremers he initiated the introductory course and research group on generative art, Making Art of Databases as a contribution to the new ArtScience curriculum.