Matthijs Munnik [NL]

Matthijs Munnik is a media artist who is based in The Hague, the Netherlands. His work often involves both performances as well as installations, often based in science.

After studying at both Academie Minerva in Groningen and the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, he went on to win the Artist & Designers 4 Genomics award for his Microscopic Opera project and was nominated for the kunstlicht award 2010. Come 2014, he has become a well-known name in media art, primarily due to his series ‘Common Structures‘ and ‘Lightscape’, which both challenge the sensory limits of the beholder. He has been featured recently at both Today’s Art and Sonic Acts festivals.

Matthijs Munnik’s lightscapes, for example, are not something that can be adequately described in words. The content is abstract: a sensory overload of colours is fed into the retina, which struggles to deal with the intensity and frequency of the colours and thus starts creating patterns and new color combinations in an attempt to deal with it all. In short: the visuals you’ll see aren’t really there; it’s what your brain creates to cope with the madness. It is thus not just a view of pretty colours, or something reminiscent of a psychedelic trip; it is a peek behind the curtain of the retina, the way the eyes process information. This lovely mind space is combined with a soundtrack to create an immersive and hypnotising world.

Motherboard’s Mik Maes interviewed Matthijs (in Dutch) about the work and went in a little deeper. If you’ve had enough of words, head over the right and have a look for yourself, but be warned: due to the nature of this work, it must be seen in real life to be truly experienced…