Dutch | 1984 | Amsterdam
Roelof Knol is a visual artist based in Amsterdam. In his immersive, interactive installations Knol plays with perceptions of the audience, challenging their ideas about what is real and what is not. He uses a diverse range of technologies in order to create his works while adopting minimalist aesthetics, allowing simple geometry to guide his choices.
By blending the boundaries between physical reality and fiction he invites the audience to rediscover their relationship with space, each other, and themselves in a playful and uncompelled manner.
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/ THE SPACE IN BETWEEN
2023
Interactive installation, 14 x 9 meter
Sound by: Don Diablo
[Exhibited at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA)]
Technology has the capability to bring people together, but it can also isolate and divide us. It is this contradiction that interests artist Roelof Knol in exploring the types of spaces we inhabit and how we navigate within them using interactive technologies.
He constructs spaces where personal and communal moments can happen simultaneously, thoughtfully creating an encounter where participants can feel connected in a unique shared experience.
the space in between is a playful, interactive, audiovisual experience that invites the viewer to explore their relationship with digital and physical spaces. The artwork responds to movement in real-time, creating a dynamic network of shared pathways generated by the participants. The digital traces left behind allow you to form bonds with others or choose to disconnect and walk your own path. It is a place where you can seek connection or find the absence of it.
This new artwork features a soundscape created in collaboration with Don Diablo.
video impressions
/ RIPPLES
Ripples is an interactive installation that explores the notions of interconnectivity and impact we have on our environment. By engaging with the installation, viewers are invited to step into a reciprocal relationship between themselves and animated lines, where both are influencing and shaping each other in real time.
External movements set in motion delicate digital light ripples, blurring the boundaries between the physical and the digital in a dynamically intertwined movement of connection.
Adaptable to its physical environment, Ripples is an experience responsive to its surroundings. The lively lines adjust effortlessly, synchronizing with the energy of the space and the pace of its inhabitants.
/ CONNECTED
Roelof Knol’s Connected plays on the theory of proxemics: the branch of knowledge that deals with the amount of space that people feel it is necessary to set between themselves and others.
There are four different kinds of the distance involved in physical face-to-face interactions: intimate (0-0.4m), personal (0.4-1.4m), social (1.4-3.5m) and public distance (>3.5m).
In the installation, audience finds themselves at the intersection of the projected lines on the floor.
Together with thier neighbours, people create new patterns and form new connections. Visitors are invited to navigate through the different modes of space, joining together in a ritual of connection comfortably and safely before moving through space as one.
Each visitor is represented by an interactive visual projected on the floor. Together, they form new networks of connections between the visitors who will navigate through the exhibition.
As personal space becomes shared space, Connected sets the tone of the exhibition by examining the type of space we inhabit, while inviting visitors to refamiliarise themselves with being around others, comfortably and safely.
video impressions
/ VERVE
The relational fabric of life is undoubtedly complex, comprised of multiple layers unfolding within the realms of social interactions, cultural contexts, technological developments, and our personal inner states.
Daily, we shape our relationship with the world by engaging with other people in various environments. Even though this process defines us as human, it can sometimes feel alien and unfamiliar. It takes time to get along with it and find the confidence to show up in front of others. New encounters and situations are exciting and require courage to make yourself visible.
Verve is an interactive installation. The seemingly lifeless light projection transforms into a kind of animated entity, playfully reminding us of the vulnerability of being alive while exposing ourselves to the outside gaze.
This friendly light creature inhabits the space, filling it with its radiance and sounds inviting the audience to get to know it, to connect, and to play. Shy and careful at first, it will slowly reveal itself, gently crawling from its shell, responding to the attention of the audience.
The installation skilfully uses technology to visualise the never-ending tension between the desire to be seen and the fear of being found.
video impressions
/ MOULD
2023-ongoing
Interactive installation
Collaborative research with choreographer Anastasija Olescuka
[Copenhagen / Amsterdam]
In fall of 2023 I participated in a laboratorium, a project leaded by Anastasija Olescuka, where through combination and interconnection of dance, mycology and cybernetics which studies the topic of moulding our life practices and experiences individually and collectively in order to reshape, relearn and unlearn.
The laboratory involves four dancers with backgrounds in breaking, hip hop, house and popping, scientist mycologist Renee Jung, music producer Turkman Souljah and hopefully you. The laboratory is not a pre-project or research for a specific performance, but a research of a theme and a life form, as well as exploration of possibilities of the artistic material and collaborations between different fields nationally and internationally.
This research looks at unlearning from a perspective of mould - biologically as well as philosophically. By nature, moulds intended purpose is to break down organic materials. Without mould the circle of life would not be complete. Shedding our skin in order to let new skin come out. Breaking down thoughts, body and movements to understand the past and how it affects present and future. Studying this human/nature discourse.
Mould as much as our thoughts and actions can be toxic, hazardous, problematic, and as a general headache, it can warn about danger. On the other hand, it is also an intelligent self-organised organism, also, without mould, no life saving penicillin. Through this human-nature interaction Anastasija sees the possibility to put egocentricity away and listen carefully and learn from another form of intelligence, study it’s whys, how’s, and where bouts.
video impressions
/ LOOK INSIDE
trailer
You’re alone as you enter a house—a house belonging to someone you don’t know. Your only guide is the voice coming through a pair of headphones, inviting you to look around. How far do you go?
Look inside is an interactive audio experience - using just a phone and some hidden beacons. You are all alone in a house with just a pair of headphones and a voice guiding you, created by Nadja van de Weide. I was the technical artist, closely helping Nadja van der Weide with all technical aspects/decisions.
