Creativity & Conscious Change
A C-Words Creative Conversation with Thijs Biersteker, Ecological Artist
February 2021
Thijs and I first met when we were both on the design category jury of the ADCN Dutch Creativity Awards in 2015. We immediately hit it off and I particularly enjoyed hearing his perspectives on the various entries we were asked to rate. At that point Thijs was already in the early stages of exploring the possibilities of being an interactive artist. Over the course of the subsequent years its been both fascinating and exciting to see his career develop as an artist specialising in ecological art installations, addressing some of the huge topics challenging humanity today.
In February 2021 I caught up with Thijs to discuss his unique approach to his work, how he is fusing art and science together to enable humanity to ‘feel facts’ and why he believes teaching is an obligation we all owe to the future.
Tell us about the first time you realised you were creative.
Everyone is creative. Because they both were I think my parents raised me to believe this is not a unique state of mind. So after years of 4’s and 5’s in class I moved to Graphic design school where I received an 11 ( on a scale of 10 ) in the first year.
What was the path that led you to what you’re doing now creatively?
In retrospect I would say I searched for a long time to find where my talents were most needed, in combination with being in pursuit of my own creative freedom. I found this in being an ecological artist. While being on the road towards this point it was just hard work, luck, great partners, keeping focused and waiting. Did I say hard work?
Describe how you work professionally.
Do you prefer to work alone or in collaboration?
Everything is an ecosystem, also the creative process. In this process I’m both singular in concept creation and collaborative in process.
Where do you find inspiration?
All the work I do is built in collaboration with scientists and researchers — they are the biggest influence on my work. When I read scientific articles and my mouth falls open, that is most of the time the kickoff of something new.
Who are your creative heroes?
Have they influenced your work in any way?
The more heroes you meet the more disappointed you are. The same goes for goals. I guess I started to migrate towards the scientists and find my heroes inside nature. (Did you know there is a snail that can use photosynthesis to live? Or seeds that only sprout after a forest fire? )
Following a formal art academy education, you started a career as a commercial Art Director, working within a number of Dutch advertising agencies. What was the ‘eureka moment’ that led you to relook at your career trajectory and follow a different direction as an interactive artist?
I studied graphic design, then fell in love with the fabric of ideas and did art academy with a major in advertising and a minor in fine arts. I always had the idea I needed to explore the beautiful simplicity of a focused idea. I believe they are the seeds of change. So that drove me into the corner of advertising. I don’t regret the time I spent training myself in simplifying complexity, but I did starting to regret the negative impact on the world my work had. Selling sugar water, feeding alcohol addiction and fluffing up footwear is a karma killer in the long run. I was really scared to return to art. Although I loved it, I was stuck on the singularity complex of an artistic genius. So I guess after working on my own work with others I found this utterly bullshit and was ready to take a bit of a jump to create what I actually wanted to make. Impactful work about the impact we have on our planet.
We first met on design category jury of the ADCN Awards in 2015. At that point you were already exploring the possibilities of being an interactive artist and had received some recognition for this early work. How important were those early moments of press exposure in getting you established as an interactive artist? And how supportive have the Dutch creative community been towards your work?
I guess my time and work and awards at Wieden+Kennedy did a lot of the lifting in the Adworld. I think, just like everyone else, the press attention around my first artistic projects overwhelmed me, from Wired to Donald Duck it got some press shine. It surely strengthened my confidence that I might pull it off to carve out a more autonomous path for myself and help the world with my talents. Today when people introduce me as an ecological artist I still feel a bit of surprise, humbleness and the ongoing insecurity that goes with having no client to blame for failure, only your own capabilities.
Soon after meeting at ADCN I invited you to give a talk at VBAT about your work. The talk was highly inspiring for the creative team with one particular project standing out for me, the fantastic Interactive mirror reflecting people in real pieces of ocean plastic called ‘Plastic Reflectic’. I assume this was your first large scale project with a focus on an environmental issue? What triggered you to visualise environmental issues in your work? And how did people react to this somewhat confrontational interactive kinetic installation?
(This is the longest question I’ve ever been asked! ). The work Plastic Reflectic was indeed a turning point. I’d just came back from a year travelling around the world , seeing the most remote jungles and oceans filled with plastics, polluted soils and destroyed by environmental issues. Before this I was Creative Director at OAT shoes, a biodegradable sneaker brand, and Creative Director at Better Future Factory, a waste to product studio.
Through this work I discovered what I thought was the best use of my talent and artistic practice. I found my voice and haven’t looked back since. The regenerative shock reaction of people to the “old” problem of ocean plastic through the confrontational nature of the artwork has taught me a lot about what kind of issues I like to tackle. The hard, complex and dumbed down ones.
Once you’d made a decision to pursue a path as an ecological artist how easy or difficult was it to find ‘clients’ willing to help you realise your creative ideas? Bearing in mind the subject matter of much of your work how careful are you in investigating the background and green credentials of potential commissioning clients?
I don’t work for clients. Myself and my teams work with commissioners, museums , venues , events and the occasional brand as a collaboration if it enforces the goal. But we have a simple rule. No presentations > conversations. The subservient nature of client relationships is what creates less iconic and more mediocre work in the end, there is enough of that in the world. Staying within budgets, having a great studio process but maintaining creative freedom is something that helped me a lot with pulling off enormous projects. As we are building the studio, our material choices and impact measurements are taken into account and we expect the same from our partners. I loved how Foundation Cartier in Paris helped us in calculating the impact of our work and helped in creating an environmental friendly working environment.
Much of your work is composed of custom-built installations, harnessing technology to realise your creative ideas as often beautiful visual outcomes. I assume this involves a lot of research and development and a multidisciplinary team? What has been the most difficult creative project to realise and why?
I guess all have their challenges. But I’m so lucky to work with great talents. The most interesting ones are the unexpected ones..
For Voice of Nature, talking about climate change in China was a bit of a challenge. We had to pull in some political love from the Dutch Embassy cultural department that came in and shook hands. Or when we had to transport a 7meter long fragile work ( Econtinuum ) and had to rent a 40 meter truck to outbalance the bouncing of the road. Those are the nice things when you think back.
The biggest challenge we now face is the impact we are creating while creating and we are working hard to get it the best it can be, so we can teach others.
I love the simple but thought-provoking terminology you use to describe your work as an ecological artist. What particularly stands out for me is that you fuse art and science together to enable humanity to ‘feel facts’? How has your collaborative process between art and science developed over time? And tell me about the first time you witnessed people ‘feeling facts’ upon interacting with one of your installations.
The more topics I touched the more I noticed I did not know a damn thing about them. So I guess I did what everyone should do, reach out to a scientist who knows everything there needs to know about the topic and ask them. It takes some time to be comfortable being the least informed person in the room. They are studying these topics with their talent, I make it accessible through mine. I see it as a big part of my work to find the emotion in their statistics, the intellectual accessibility in their dry papers. When we work together — science and arts — I believe we can move towards a society that is way more balanced.
You say that modern society is in ‘cognitive overload’ through the endless torrent of information we receive daily and that your work aims to use art to make big facts small. In your opinion which one of your installations best illustrates this statement and why?
Wither. It literally makes a whole Amazon into a 1m2 version. 1m2 slice of jungle that disappears at the rate of actual deforestation. Using the data from deforestation watch groups we can make the work disappear at the rate of actual deforestation.
In 2018 you collaborated with graphic design legend David Carson on an installation controlled by combining peoples brainwaves called ‘Mind Over Matter’. How did this fantastic collaboration come about and what did you both contribute to the design process?
ADCN’s head honcho, Dinesh, called me to see if I wanted to work with David. As someone who shaped my design input as a young surfer (and a below average skater) I loved the idea. The concept, technology and motion was my side, he did the composition of the graphics.
As a prolific artist, how do you maintain your creativity to ensure the strongest ideas and highest standard of output?
If someone has a good answer on this, please send it over! I think the more “prolific “ you become, the harder you must work to allow yourself to make mistakes, to find the time to fuck up things, to force yourself to fiddle. It’s the luxury of just playing around and doing things. That I do miss a lot.
Do you ever suffer from bouts of ‘creative block’, where you find it difficult to get your head into a free-flowing creative space? If so, what methods, processes, exercises or activities do you use to unblock yourself?
I always think of a really simple thing. An idea comes in two seconds. Only you never know when that two seconds will come, so don’t sweat. Take your challenge and read, walk, think and read some more. The creative collision will happen once your mind is full of the topic you want to create work.
In your opinion can anyone be trained to become creative or is it simply something you are born with?
I honestly don’t know. Everyone is creative in their own way. A mistake I make a lot is to assume everyone is creative in their approach.
Depending on how you look at it being ‘creative’ can be viewed as either a gift or a burden. Whilst creativity enables us to somehow produce the previously unimagined it isn’t always something you draw on at will.
What are your thoughts on this?
I think it’s both, like anything good in life. I think the creative process is both.
I teach at the TU Delft and Vu and explain the “death valley of craft” to them — that going from idea to end product is one big hellish valley, but in the end its worth it. It always is.
You’ve crafted a distinctive and powerful signature in your work without becoming formulaic. How do you keep your work fresh and exciting for yourself?
I like using tools such as A.I. or generative coding — input by sensors and external data to let the work “live” beyond my presence as a maker. After spending months on a project it’s great to still be surprised by your own work as it takes a life of its own. I like coming into a room where my work is situated and it changed completely in ways I could not imagine. Its the same as working with amazing talents; they bring your work to a level that you get excited again.
You currently hold a teaching position at the Delft University of Technology (NL) and a Fellowship at the VU university in Amsterdam. How important is it for you to be an educator and what are you teaching?
I believe teaching is an obligation you owe to the future. If you reach a certain level there is no excuse, you need to start your feedback loop in society.
At the TU I teach Arts Ethics and Empathy. My main focus is to make sure the hardcore biochemical engineers know how to present their groundbreaking, world changing research in a way that resonates with the world. At the Vu, I’m lucky to help shape the creative direction of the broader course for hundreds of students.
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the majority of us to re-address the way we work with negative and positive consequences. One of the surprisingly positive results, suggested in WeTransfer’s Ideas Report 2020, is that many of us have actually been more creative during the pandemic. As a creative how have you been coping during the pandemic, has it led to new creative activities and what important lessons have you learnt that you will take forward in the future?
Me. Personally. I got scared. The first months of 2020 I spent on a party with people from Wuhan during the World Economic forum in Davos. Two weeks later at my TED talk in Boston I met the WHO Covid-19 lead doing a talk about how to buckle up. 4 weeks later the first lockdown hit us. I guess I was lucky to have a few brave commissions, but creatively I’m still in recovery mode. It made me humble and it showed us as a society that we can change rapidly if we want — skillset needed with the upcoming challenges of climate change.
And finally: What’s next for you creatively?
This first week of 2021 I was asked to develop a bridge in Amsterdam, to create a work about renewable energy and to build a new landscape work where we are planting a mini forest. In the studio we are building a work about the impact of the internet usage. It’s a good ride already.
About the author:
Graham Sturt is an English Creative Director based in Amsterdam.
Originally from England, he lived and worked in London for more than a decade before relocating to Amsterdam in 2007 to follow his passion for Dutch design.
