Koert van Mensvoort (born 9 April 1974) is an artist, philosopher and scientist best known for his work on the philosophical concept of Next Nature.
Academic
Van Mensvoort was the head of the Next Nature Lab at the Industrial Design Department of the Eindhoven University of Technology, a position he has held from 2003 until 2015.[1]
In 1997 Van Mensvoort received a Master of Science degree in computer science, specializing in computer graphics from the Eindhoven University of Technology. In 2000 he completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. In 2008 he was Visionary in Residence at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Van Mensvoort received a doctorate from the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2009 for his thesis What You See Is What You Feel.[2][3] Van Mensvoort is the founder and director of the Next Nature Network, a design-and-think tank based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Projects
Van Mensvoort works in many different media to materialize his philosophy. Most of his multi-media projects are concerned with how technology becomes so omnipresent, intricate and uncontrollable we start to perceive it as a nature of its own. Notable projects
The book Next Nature: Nature Changes Along With Us[4] with Hendrik-Jan Grievink. Scientific American magazine wrote in a review that “next nature can give us a new vocabulary and a new philosophy to see and design the world.”[5]
The Rise and Fall of Rayfish Footwear[6] online film project on the fictional company Rayfish.com[7] that offered personalized sneakers crafted from genetically modified stingray leather.
The NANO Supermarket[8][9] a mobile exhibition featuring nanotech products that might be on the market within the next ten years.
The Datafountain,[10][11] is an internet-enabled water fountain connected to money currency rates.
The documentary Daddy! The Woods Smell of Shampoo,[12] exploring the intimate role media play in our society: how the media have become fundamentally part of the cycle through which we create meaning and it effectively becomes impossible to distinguish media from reality.
The Fake for Real memory game[13] on the tension between reality and simulation.
The online interactive dance film Drift,[14] featuring a dancer without a body but kinetic points in space, dance and choreography by Nancy Mauro-Flude.
The Biggest Visual Power Show, a pop conference held in Amsterdam, Zollverein and Los Angeles.
Books
Van Mensvoort has co-authored numerous books and publications.
Next Nature: Nature Changes Along With Us,[4][15] edited and designed by Koert van Mensvoort and Hendrik-Jan Grievink. The book examines people’s notion of nature and how the image of nature as static, balanced and harmonic is naive and up for reconsideration. Where technology and nature are traditionally seen as opposed, they now appear to merge or even trade places.
^ abMensvoort, Koert Van (September 14, 2010). What You See Is What You Feel: On the simulation of touch in graphical user interfaces (9783838325514): Koert Van Mensvoort: Books. Lambert Academic. ISBN978-3838325514.
^ abNext Nature: Nature Changes Along with Us: Amazon.co.uk: Bruce Sterling, Kelly Kevin, Peter Lunenfeld, Koert Van Mensvoort: 9788492861538: Books. ASIN8492861533.
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