[ISEA2015] Institutional Presentation: Joris Weijdom & Kaisu Koski – Media and Performance Laboratory: Learning by doing, making by playing, sharing by performing

Institutional Presentation Statement

Keywords: Creative process, art education, interdisciplinarity, interface, mixed reality, performance, rapid prototyping

The Media and Performance Laboratory (MAPLAB) at the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht (NL) is an innovative learning and research environment, focusing on creative processes involving performativity and interactive technology. The MAPLAB projects engage art students and educators, professional artists, and various external partners in disciplines such as theater, dance, puppetry, music, and visual arts. These projects typically combine the MAPLAB core activities of education, research, and technological development, stimulating students and professional practitioners through rapid prototyping and agile development learning modes. In addition, MAPLAB trains educators to guide creative processes in technologically enhanced environments.

  • Joris Weijdom Utrecht, The Netherlands. Joris founded MAPLAB in 2012. He is responsible for the research subjects and – methodology and the ongoing development of the Performance Engine tools. His core focus is connecting people, means and methodology in practise-led co-creative research processes. His background being 3D computer animation, he loves to combine real and virtual environments and enabling the creation of interactive mixed-reality experiences.  Joris is always looking for the ‘inter’ in everything: inter-disciplinarity, inter-connectivity, inter-action and inter-faces. He learned from experience that sharing ideas and concepts through ‘sketching’ an interactive mixed-reality environment is a powerful and effective approach for creative research, design and development. Being able to quickly manifest ideas through interactive spatial prototypes stimulates experimentation and possibly true innovation. maplab.hku.nl
  • Kaisu Koski, FI/NL, graduated from the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland and the Amsterdam School of the Arts, where she studied media and performance arts. In 2007, Kaisu earned her doctoral degree by defending her dissertation on interactive performances at the University of Lapland. Her art practice is intertwined with academic research, focusing on the dialogue between art and medicine and the methodology of arts-based research. Kaisu is currently affiliated as a research fellow with the HKU Research Center Performative Processes (RECPEP).

Full text (PDF) p. 1031-1032