From 27th through 29th of March, a master class on contemporary art of lighting is run by a Dutch lighting designer Henk van der Geest. The focus of the master class is on constructing optical effects by digital as well as low tech technologies and working towards creating the desired image on stage. The master class is attended by both MA as well as BA students.
Henk van der Geest
Henk van der Geest started his career in the lighting department of Netherlands Opera and developed from technician to lighting designer by practice. Because there was (and is) no lighting design education available in the Netherlands he organised his study by visiting lighting designers through the United States. Upon his return he started a self-employed lighting design business in the Netherlands.
He has lit hundreds of productions in the fields of opera, dance, drama, musical and grand scale open-air / site specific productions.
At some point he was introduced to architectural lighting, more specific to lighting museums and exhibitions. Among those he is lighting the collections of the Rijksmuseum, the van Gogh Museum, Teylers Museum, Mauritshuis etc. Among those he was commissioned to light the worlds most expensive piece of art: ‘For the Love of God’, the Diamond Skull of Damien Hirst, exhibited in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Experiencing the lack of education in the field of the ‘art of lighting’, he founded iLo, an institute for Lighting Design that is providing coaching for emerging lighting designers; for people that already made their first steps in the lighting-field, confronted with artistic challenges that they never realized from the beginning of their career.
Henk van der Geest is combining theatrical and architectural lighting design with educating but all comes back to one artistic vision of his work. He is approaching all projects from the dramaturgic, to ensure that the content of the lighting is matching with the context of the subject. When you light a Rembrandt painting, you need to know his brushes.
Henk van der Geest served one term in the EC of OISTAT and is head of the Lighting Design Working Group of that association. He has received the prestigious ‘Frits van den Haspel Award’ from the VPT for his achievement in lighting in the Netherlands.
www.henkvandergeest.nl