Stijn Terpstra
Visual artist & Researcher
Bio & Info
Installation views

Line of Sight coming soon
contact@stijnterpstra.com
@stijnterpstra


Info
Stijn Terpstra (b. 2000) is a visual artist based in the Netherlands. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from St. Joost School of Art & Design (Breda, The Netherlands) and is currently pursuing a Master's degree (MA) in Comparative Arts and Media at Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

Through a research-based approach, his practice explores the entanglement of nature and technology, employing media technologies as starting points for visual storytelling. He examines how systems of visuality, both digital and material, shape our perception of ecological and political realities. Drawing from both artistic and scientific methodologies, he approaches media technologies as intermediaries that structure knowledge and shape contemporary discourse. Working with photography, found footage, and moving images, he constructs visual narratives that critically engage with the traces that reveal the infrastructures behind perception and expose the politics of visibility.

Selection of Exhibitions
2025 / Noorderlicht Biënnale: Machine Entanglements, Museum Belvédère, Friesland

2024 / Kunsthal Gent, Kunst­werkt: PET SHOP, Ghent

2023 / Kunstenaarsinitiatief B93, From Dusk ‘till Dawn, Enschede

2022 / Dutch Design Week, Class of ‘22, Klokgebouw Eindhoven

2022 / Graduation St. Joost School of Art & Design: Now show

2021 / Fotoasiel, St. Joost School of Art & Design (self-organized)

2021 / NS16 Tilburg, Nieuwe wegen, Oude sporen

2021 / Noorderlicht: The Makeable mind, Sugar Factory Groningen (Student open call)

2019 / RUIS. St. Joost School of Art & Design, Online exhibition & Live interview ‘Interne Ruis’

Publications
2025 / Geologies of Violence, AESTHETICS OF NON-ALIGNMENT, Kunstlicht Vol. 45, no. 3-4, (expected)

2025 / Through the Opera Glass, Noorderlicht Biënnale: Machine Entanglements (Catalog)

2023 / The Annihilation of Space and Time, Zero Feedback

2022 / Blurring the Lines (Catalog)


Education
2024-2025 / MA, Comparative Arts and Media Studies, VU Amsterdam

2023-2024 / PMA, Comparative Arts and Media Studies, VU Amsterdam

2018-2022 / BA, Photography and Film, St. Joost School of Art & Design, Breda

2020-2021 / 2BA Photography (Erasmus exchange), KASK & Conservatorium / School of Arts, Ghent

2017-2018 / Preliminary Program St. Joost, Den Bosch / Breda

© 2025 Stijn Terpstra. All rights reservedLast Updated 15.07.2025
Selected Work


Through the Opera Glass
2022In Through the Opera Glass, Stijn Terpstra explores how birds become data, and what this reveals about how we observe the world. His project combines photography, found footage, and data visualizations to visually investigate how they are counted, followed and analysed as data. The title refers to an early birdwatcher’s guide, but here, it’s not binoculars bringing nature closer — it’s technology. We see the different stages of the birds’ lifecycle: how they are followed by GPS, watched through webcams, and bred through the use of genetic technology. They symbolize freedom, yet become part of a system of control and measurement. Terpstra exposes the thin line between observing and surveilling, between admiring nature and seeking to control it. With this work he shows how technology deeply infiltrates ecology, turning even natural bird behavior into endless streams of data.