HKU University of the Arts Utrecht

Sanctuaria Aquatica

finalist project

Fenna Hofstede

Sanctuaria Aquatica is a willow-woven insect hotel designed to protect and support life in the shallow waters of the Netherlands, where ecosystems face threats from pollution, shelter loss, and climate stress. Providing food, shelter, and nesting spaces for birds and small aquatic animals, it creates a safe haven that encourages local biodiversity. The willow branches root and grow, fostering new foliage and habitat. This project emphasizes the power of local action, showing how small efforts to support “small neighbors” in nearby environments can rebuild connections between people and nature, promoting care and resilience within the community.

The Cry of the Sea

Nonfinalist project

Zenna Molenschot

The Cry of the Sea is an immersive installation project that explores the emotional and environmental impact of human activity on marine ecosystems. Inspired by research on overconsumption, ghost nets, and biodiversity loss, the project evokes emotions ranging from helplessness to awe. The installation combines collected synthetic fishing nets with biomaterials made from algae—crafted using homegrown spirulina and agar—to create a tactile contrast between the artificial and the organic. Designed to partially decompose, the work highlights the persistent legacy of plastic waste. Through light, scent, and scale, the project invites viewers to reflect on their ecological footprint and relationship with the sea.

The Understory is an interactive installation that reveals the hidden life of fungi through responsive visuals, sound, and movement. It invites visitors to engage with the underground world of mycelium networks—systems vital to soil health, ecosystems, and environmental balance. Often overlooked, these fungal networks are made visible and audible, creating an intimate encounter with our unseen neighbors. As participants move through the space, the installation responds, allowing the mycelium to "speak" and share its wisdom. The experience encourages empathy, curiosity, and stewardship, reminding us of our interconnectedness with fungi and the importance of nurturing the living systems beneath our feet.

Grasstronaut

Nonfinalist project

Eline van der Steen

Grasstronaut invites us to see Earth with the same awe and reverence we often reserve for distant planets. Through a symbolic “spacewalk” on Earth—wearing a spacesuit made from grassroots—the project encourages a renewed connection to our home planet. It challenges the politics of space exploration, questioning who gets to leave Earth and why, while prompting us to look not only upward but also downward, at the overlooked potential of the ground beneath us. Grass becomes a powerful material and metaphor—transformed into ink, juice, clothing, and paper—revealing the poetic intersections between nature, science, and the act of reimagining Earth.

Fragment I: Porosity

Nonfinalist project

Fatemeh Bagheri, Anya Palamartschuk, Yixin Xu

Fragment I: Porosity is a performance installation exploring the transformative potential of bioplastics as both material and metaphor. Biodegradable biomaterial skins—capable of being reshaped and naturally decaying—serve as containers and portals to bodily narratives. Drawing from queer ecology, glitch feminism, and collective embodiment, the performance reveals personal and shared stories beneath these temporary skins. The work creates an ephemeral archive of identity, decay, and connection, blending performance, nonlinear storytelling, and material experimentation. This evolving ecosystem of skin and heritage expresses queerness, temporality, and tenderness, inviting audiences to witness the fluid boundaries between body, environment, and narrative.

The Life of Electronics

Nonfinalist project

Sen van der Heide

The Life of Electronics explores our fast-paced consumption of electronic devices and challenges the notion that newer is always better. While sustainability gains attention, many still upgrade to the latest models unnecessarily—despite older devices often functioning well with minimal repairs. This project highlights the longevity and value of older electronics by restoring vintage sound equipment, demonstrating that performance doesn't always degrade with age. It critiques industry tactics that fuel overconsumption and encourages a cultural shift toward repair over replacement. Through this work, the project aims to inspire greater appreciation for existing technology and promote more sustainable, repair-focused habits.

Nature’s Retina

Nonfinalist project

Zoë Klein

Nature’s Retina is an artistic research project that gives the threatened Amelisweerd forest a way to "see" and be seen. In response to the proposed expansion of the A27 Highway—echoing the ecological violence of 1982—the project equips the forest with metaphorical eyes. Using phytography, soil chromatography, chlorophyll printing, and spectrographs, the artist captures fragmentary glimpses through a non-human lens. Blending scientific and artistic methods, Nature’s Retina challenges standardized ways of seeing, proposing alternative, embodied perspectives. It asks: what stories are overlooked by purely quantitative data, and how can we include non-human witnesses in the urgent narrative of ecological crisis?

Weg naar Wad

Nonfinalist project

Sara Marie Huisman

Way to Wad is a contemplative visual journey through the Groningen countryside, where daily cycling trips to the Wadden Sea dike become a meditation on place, pace, and perception. Created in early spring 2025, this over 9-meter-long artwork unfolds in blue lines, tracing a path through vast fields, dikes, and salt marshes. The project explores how landscapes shape inner experience, inviting reflection on slowness, resistance, tailwinds, and attention. As the artist documents this solitary route, Way to Wad becomes both a personal and collective invitation to pause, observe, and connect with the quiet stories held by the land and road.

No Access

Nonfinalist project

Jari Deelstra

No Access is an interactive sound-based installation that highlights the harmful effects of human recreation near bird breeding areas. While a walk through nature may seem harmless to us, repeated disturbances can cause chronic stress in birds—leading to nest abandonment, undernourished young, and long-term habitat avoidance. Installed in the secluded corners of Landhuis Amelisweerd, the project features a mechanical bird whose behavior responds to the presence of visitors. By making human intrusion audible and visible, No Access raises awareness about the critical need for undisturbed breeding zones and invites reflection on the invisible impact of our movements in shared ecosystems.

Instructors 2025

Shirley Niemans works at the Centre for Creative Technology at HKU and is part of the Art, Technology, and Ecology project group. She developed and ran Lab Pastoe, a new experimental space for materials research and crossovers between techniques, and currently works on the redevelopment of the HKU Biolab. She holds a BA in interactive art and music (KABK and KC, The Hague), and an MA in New Media and Digital Culture. She recently graduated from the BioHack Academy at Waag Amsterdam and is exited to be part of the developments around bioArt, biodesign and circular making.

Kas Houthuijs has a background in neurobiology and biomedical sciences, but his real interest is in the interdisciplinary field of art and ecology. Real innovation happens where the visions of different fields can question and enhance each other. At HKU he teaches BioLab for Designers as a course and at the Waag Future Lab in Amsterdam he teaches the BioHack Academy. Kas believes that artists and designers have great responsibility in the sustainability transition, and he tries to aid this goal through education.

Than van Nispen As a master in both Music and Biology Than van Nispen lectures on both the domains of composition in context, like film and game music, as well as biological and ecological approaches to art, music and sound. Than is a lecturer and researcher at HKU School of Music and Technology where he lectures mostly on Sonic Interaction Design, (interactive) composition in contexts and art & ecology. He is also a music composer for (interactive) live concerts, (art)games and interactive installations.