I make dance performances, photos and the occasional video or multi-media project. I also do research, read a lot of books and digest a lot of information in the form of academic papers, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, documentaries and images of all kind. I am an image junkie and an information addict. For several years I worked as a quantitative analyst and risk manager with an investment bank. I love dark chocolate, dark bread, tea and ice creams. I used to know C++, Visual Basic, Actionscript 2.0, Pascal and Matlab.
I'm currently an associate researcher in the department of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience at Tilburg University. In 2001 I was a visiting scientist and artist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 2005/6 I was a visiting professor in the Dance Unlimited program of the Arnhem School of Dance, a post-graduate course in choreography. Together with my students we studied different ways of cointegrating critical theory and dance practice.
I was born in the year The Beatles broke up and Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix died and on the same day of the year as Andy Warhol was born and Velázquez died. I am about 2 meters or 6'6" tall and weigh 86 kg, weather permitting. I studied econometrics (or mathematical finance if you prefer), philosophy and literature at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Leiden (both The Netherlands) and University College London.
An artist to me is first and foremost someone with a curious mind, a mind that is constantly probing the world and uses whatever medium to express this curiosity. In that sense to me it doesn't make any difference whether I do research, create a dance performance, make photos or videos. This is also why I prefer to say what I do rather than what I am.
My research applies insights from philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, mathematics and sociology to the study of art in general and dance and choreography in particular.
Recently the gap between my research interests and artistic work on the one hand and my work in finance on the other, which had long been separate endeavours, has been shrinking, as I've become more and more interested in globalization, urbanism and emerging markets.
My artistic work arises from the friction between my formal interests in structures and patterns and my predilection for "dirty realism". In 2004 I created a full evening choreography for the former Ballett Frankfurt, now The Forsythe Company, Communications from the Lab. I'm currently working on a number of projects in which all of my current interests will come to the fore.
I have presented my work and research at festivals and conferences in Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Berlin, New York, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Porto, Cologne and various other cities around the world.
This site is an incomplete record of my work and ideas. As with all my work it is a continuous work in progress. If you want to know more about me, check out the various entries in my blog from which you can infer more about me than I'd like you to know.
If you've got any comments, questions or suggestions regarding this site, my work, my research or any other aspect of my life, do not hesitate to contact me. Either send me an email or shout as loud as you can.