Design Commissions
Scenographer Wikke van Houwelingen (of Marloes & Wikke) designed the exhibition Garden of Machines (2015) together with Roel Huisman.
The exhibition Garden of Machines speculates on possible technological developments in the near future and how these will transform our daily lives. The show was conceived as a series of seven chapters, each set in a different world. Contributions from artists and artist-scientists, many of which took the form of small robots, were situated in each of these worlds or environments - from the household to the highway, the forest, ocean transportation and the human body. "I liked the idea of placing these high-tech objects in a world we know - that we're familiar with and understand - in a playful, almost naïve way," says Wikke van Houwelingen. "It was a little like an attic stuffed with junk - for which the third floor of Het Nieuwe Instituut was ideal. We also flirted with the haunted house trope. The design needed to function as an immersive installation, one that totally engrosses the visitor; we had different coloured lighting and moods, and a specially composed sound track. Within this ecosystem, the protagonists were the robots, with stuffed animals cast in the supporting roles." The exhibition was something of an oddity in the programme of Het Nieuwe Instituut, he acknowledges.
"Scenographers take a time-based approach: temporality plays an important role in theatre. Scenography requires intrinsic thinking: lighting, sound, props, scenery and how people move through the set - it all has to be integrated into your design," says Van Houwelingen. He adds that it was refreshing to work in a context very different to the theatre. "In terms of production, there's a different jargon, a different way of working, which clashes, but in a positive way. It shakes up your thinking. It's fascinating to transplant a specific way of thinking and making into a different, 'wrong' world."
When Marloes & Wikke start a new project, they begin with image research, says Van Houwelingen: "We are heavily influenced by visual art. Since our work is relatively abstract, our sets are often autonomous. In the theatre, audiences sit and watch your work for an hour and a half. In a museum, of course, it doesn't work like that: people look at an artwork for a few seconds. In the theatre, the people don't leave their seats, and the scenographer conjures drama and movement through the set design. In a museum, we design static environments; the drama and the story unfold as the visitor moves through the space."
Garden of Machines
The exhibition _Garden of Machines_ speculates on a new ecosystem in which artificial and organic beings learn to live together. In both present and future worlds such as the forest, the kitchen and the motorway, technological developments no longer only serve humankind, but benefit animals and plants. The different ecosystems are based on recent scientific research and the latest technological innovations. Organic and technological creatures form a new, semi-artificial ecology, in which machines learn from plants and animals communicate with each other via the Internet.
Wikke van Houwelingen
In 2006, Marloes van der Hoek and Wikke van Houwelingen graduated from the master's programme in scenography at the same time, and since then they have collaborated with each other and with various directors and designers, mainly in the theatre (eg for Theater Rotterdam, Toneelgroep Oostpool and De Warme Winkel). They have also made installations for the Centraal Museum and Het Nieuwe Instituut, as well as teaching at various academies. Van Houwelingen has been awarded the Charlotte Köhler Prize for theatre makers and visual artists by the Prince Bernard Culture Fund.