Michiel van Bakel

beeldhouwen - fotografie - video - ecologie

"When I look around, I see a lot of technology that aims to constrain reality in predictability, by categorizing and automating. I want to use technology to evoke wonder and transcend reality and predictability.

I like to visualize things that were previously unseen and in that sense enrich my experience of reality. That is for me the incentive to make use of experimental video and animation techniques. Devices such as cameras, scanners and image processing algorithms I see as an extension of my senses. With these tools I manipulate images that are like anchors in time for me, but also images from my urban backyard: my condition urbaine.

In the same manner as a sculptor gives his material form through interventions in 3d space, I construct my videos in time. Recurring themes are examining human perception, experiencing time, disorientation and instability. "


Panorama Tata – a plumed serpent’s view - The blast furnaces of Tata Steel slowly turn in unsettling false colors. Wavelengths that human eyes cannot normally see, invoking an alien viewpoint: the world as seen through the eyes of the plumed serpent. Sound: Roel Meelkop Image: Michiel van Bakel More @ https://www.michielvanbakel.nl/panorama-tata
What Wide Web? - A forest of power pylons towers over soil and green at the surreal wasteland of Rotterdam Maasvlakte. For some years Wood Wide Web is the magic phrase to describe the web of roots, fungi and bacteria helping to connect trees and plants to one another. We can ask ourselves: are industry and nature evolving more into co-existence? more info: https://www.michielvanbakel.nl/what-wide-web/
BOGWATERS Short experimental film - Two canals in Dutch nature reserve De Peel run parallel to each other for miles. The camera moves across the surface of the water and accelerates to fly from one canal to the other. Imagining a totally different perception such as through the eyes of the dragonfly, which perceives different wavelengths and can ‘see’ many times faster -up to 200 images per second!!- than a human. More info: https://www.michielvanbakel.nl/bogwaters/
P-9830 - Short experimental film. ‘Time is in the eye of the beholder’ A short animated film around Port number 9830 where industry and nature meet -at the Maasvlakte, Rotterdam. it had its world premiere at IFFR 2021 more info: https://www.michielvanbakel.nl/p-9830/
Cyanotype Sanatorium Zonnestraal - ‘Ultra slow’ photographic images made with glass cameras, with a focus on modernist Dutch architecture. Exposure times up to 5 hours on paper cyanotype ‘in camera’. The cyanotype emulsion is applied with japanese haké brush on paper. More: www.michielvanbakel.nl/glass-camera-cyanotypes/
Walk-in Camera Obscura - Together with the glassblowers of the National Glass Museum, Van Bakel investigates the optical properties of glass. The result: glass cameras, a life-size walk-in camera obscura and various 'water lenses' that breathe new life into ancient techniques.
Michiel van Bakel - Video (2020, loop, 4', UHD, stereo) inspired by the painting David and Batseba (David and Bathseba) by Lucas Gassel (around 1538). Technique: Animation of composited pointclouds from photographs. Read more at https://vimeo.com/405421562/2bff4c7fdc
Michiel van Bakel - An experimental investigation into the optical possibilities of the traditional craft of glassblowing. Together with glassblowers Geir Nustad and Josja Caecilia Schepman and others at the Glaslab Leerdam. Supported by Mondriaan Fund, stichting Stokroos and Nationaal Glasmuseum Leerdam. https://www.nationaalglasmuseum.nl/