Visual artist & Researcher
Bio & Info
Installation views
Line of Sight coming soon
contact@stijnterpstra.com
@stijnterpstra
Bio & Info
Installation views
Line of Sight coming soon
contact@stijnterpstra.com
@stijnterpstra
Stijn Terpstra (b. 2000) is a visual artist, spatial designer, and interdisciplinary researcher based in the Netherlands. He holds a BA from St. Joost School of Art & Design (Breda, The Netherlands) and an MA in Comparative Arts and Media at Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). His practice explores the aesthetic and political conditions of contemporary media as both material infrastructures and systems that govern perception. Drawing on artistic and scientific methodologies, he critically navigates the entanglements of technology and nature, working with photography, writing, moving images, and found media.
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’
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’
2025 / Geologies of Violence, AESTHETICS OF NON-ALIGNMENT, Kunstlicht Vol. 45, no. 3-4, (expected)
2025 / NRC, “Als een tomaat tegenstribbelt” report on Noorderlicht: Machine Entanglements, featuring Through the Opera Glass, August 9.
2025 / Through the Opera Glass, Noorderlicht Biënnale: Machine Entanglements (Catalog)
2023 / The Annihilation of Space and Time, Zero Feedback
2022 / Blurring the Lines (Catalog)
2025 / NRC, “Als een tomaat tegenstribbelt” report on Noorderlicht: Machine Entanglements, featuring Through the Opera Glass, August 9.
2025 / Through the Opera Glass, Noorderlicht Biënnale: Machine Entanglements (Catalog)
2023 / The Annihilation of Space and Time, Zero Feedback
2022 / Blurring the Lines (Catalog)
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
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
Bio
Stijn Terpstra (b. 2000) is a visual artist, spatial designer, and interdisciplinary researcher based in the Netherlands. He holds a BA from St. Joost School of Art & Design (Breda, The Netherlands) and an MA in Comparative Arts and Media at Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). His practice explores the aesthetic and political conditions of contemporary media as both material infrastructures and systems that govern perception. Drawing on artistic and scientific methodologies, he critically navigates the entanglements of technology and nature, working with photography, writing, moving images, and found media.
For inquiries:
contact@stijnterpstra.com
+31 (0) 6 25 20 13 20
@stijnterpstra
Stijn Terpstra (b. 2000) is a visual artist, spatial designer, and interdisciplinary researcher based in the Netherlands. He holds a BA from St. Joost School of Art & Design (Breda, The Netherlands) and an MA in Comparative Arts and Media at Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). His practice explores the aesthetic and political conditions of contemporary media as both material infrastructures and systems that govern perception. Drawing on artistic and scientific methodologies, he critically navigates the entanglements of technology and nature, working with photography, writing, moving images, and found media.
contact@stijnterpstra.com
+31 (0) 6 25 20 13 20
@stijnterpstra
Info
The project Through the Opera Glass has been selected for inclusion in the upcoming edition of Noorderlicht Biënnale 2025: Machine Entanglements. The work will be on view at Museum Belvédère from July 12 to September 7, 2025.
In 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.
NRC, “Als een tomaat tegenstribbelt” report on Noorderlicht: Machine Entanglements, featuring Through the Opera Glass, August 9.
In 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.
NRC, “Als een tomaat tegenstribbelt” report on Noorderlicht: Machine Entanglements, featuring Through the Opera Glass, August 9.