ICM 4251 (observatory #5)

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‘ICM 4251 (observatory #5)’ is the latest model in a series of devices built to distort and disrupt habitual modes of perception and realise perspectivistic flexibility.

It was custom-fitted on the border between the interior of a former NS office building and the dynamic wisselspoor area outside. In this singular location, it offers a welcome respite from our old accustomed ways of looking and travelling and allows us to explore a continuous stream of curious perspectives outside of our own.

Featuring light, sound and live performance, ‘ICM 4251’ represents the culmination of a myriad of experiments with various collaborators, peers and mentors, several scenographic expeditions and two years of intensive artistic research.

Artist statement

Hi! I am Thijs, an interdisciplinary designer incorporating visual arts, industrial design and theatre design into my practice. My aim is to engage you, my spectator, in a practice of looking.

My custom-built devices serve as a means to focus, frame, shift or distort perception. In the encounter between spectator, device and the world, observation is manifested and experienced as a complex and relational process.

The work I make and do is about the act of seeing; your seeing. An inquiry into what it means to look at and be looked at. An exercise in perspectivistic flexibility. An ode to curiosity and discovery.

Ambitions

I hope to continue my praxis of researching, designing and making, and to do so on the interface between visual arts, theatre, design and engineering.
I hope to work on projects with others or in a collective or group, where the blend of disciplines I bring to the table complement those of others and can contribute towards a shared goal.

Learned during the studies

The master has offered me a platform to explore and research. I was brought into contact with ideas on spectatorship and experience, with wise mentors from within the course and out there in the field, and with too many interesting practices, spaces and opportunities to count.

List of publications / exhibitions / prices / concerts / shows etc.

Come see Anna and me at 'Unboxed', part of 'Over het IJ' festival. We will present our collaboration in 'tour 3'.