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Thijs van Loenhout

tekenen , schrijven , samenwerking , Media , interactief , Experimenteel , Digitale technologie , Design

Thijs van Loenhout (he / they) is a game maker, multimedia artist and pen plotter enthusiast from the Netherlands. With a background in mathematics and computing science, Thijs transitioned to combine this with arts, completing an MA in Experimental Publishing from Piet Zwart Institute in 2025.

Their practice focuses on making games: poetic, reflective and societally aware interactions, forming intimate experience that explore questions of identity, accessibility and structures. This exploration is carried on in different media. Writing, drawing, performance or printmaking, Thijs moves between these freely, critically aware of the tools used and often working in collaborative settings.

Thijs has co-founded Pen Plotting Party, an artist collective working with pen plotters to to build a community of care and skill sharing around obsolete media. They have hosted workshops and events internationally. Thijs also creates visual and performative works with plotters, and writes software to engage with these machines.

Veluwe
Veluwe - Veluwe is a 2-player cooperative card game about folklore from the Veluwe. The game features 18 illustrated cards, is meant for quiet, reflective moments, and is an exercise in location-based games. Veluwe is published at the independent games platform itch.io and can be downloaded for print-and-play at: https://thijsoid.itch.io/veluwe
Veluwe
Veluwe - Three instances of the game Veluwe during play.
Pen Plotting Party
Pen Plotting Party - I co-founded the artist collective Pen Plotting Party, which uses pen plotters to build a community of care and skill sharing around obsolete media. We have hosted workshops and events internationally, including in Rotterdam and Brussels, for up to 50 people. Collaborating with various collectives and institutes is central to our work, for example with OSP, and with WORM for Rotterdam Art Week. Recently we were featured in a publication on workshop based practices by 530 Typeclub. Next to my collective work, I create visual and performative works. I also write software used to interact with these machines.
Benches
Benches - Benches is a game poem about the public benches of Rotterdam. It is an open letter to the municipality regarding the hostile architecture they employ to control public space. This game marks the beginning of a broader artistic inquiry into urban game poems, investigating our relation to public space and the position of play, curiosity and reflection in a fast, digital and individualized society. Benches is published at the independent game platform itch.io and can be played at: https://thijsoid.itch.io/benches
Human Parser
Human Parser - Human Parser is a pen and paper text adventure game. It explores dissociation through the languages of parsers, connecting questions of personal identity, the virtue of the obsolete, and 'living with a manual'. Human Parser is an embodied game in which players parse each other as a durational performance. It has been showcased as part of the 2025 XPUB graduation show at Buitenplaats Brienenoord, where it was accompanied by a performative ritual. The game and accompanying thesis can be found here: https://humanparser.thijsoid.com/
Human Parser
Human Parser - The Human Parser game is accompanied by a manual: my master thesis. This text intimately explores dissociation, the virtue of the obsolete, and living with a manual through the lens of interactive fiction. Itself a text adventure, the text is navigated nonlinearly through poetic prompts. The thesis along with the game can be found here: https://humanparser.thijsoid.com/
Jitterbots
Jitterbots - Jitterbots is a daily comic about nervous robots combining poetry and illustrations. This project explores themes of mental health and dissociation with sincerity and humor. After the 75-day run of the original comic, the collection was also presented in the forms of an illustration book and a poster. Originally published on https://www.instagram.com/jitterbots/

Pen Plotting Party: Ice Cream Assembly Line

Datum:
Locatie: WORM, Rotterdam

During Rotterdam Art Week 2025, the Pen Plotting Party was part of WORM's Crème de la crème event. They installed an assembly line of pen plotters, through which participants could plot their visual ice cream.

Human Parser

Datum:

Human Parser is a pen-and-paper text-adventure game for 2 players. It explores dissociation through the languages of parsers. Through these parsers, this project connects questions of personal identity, the virtue of the obsolete, and living with a manual. As an embodied game, players parse each other as a durational performance.

Human Parser was exhibited at Buitenplaats Brienenoord as part of the XPUB graduation show and published independently.

https://humanparser.thijsoid.com/

Pen Plotting Party with OSP

Datum:
Locatie: Meyboom Artist-Run Spaces, Brussels
In samenwerking met: OSP

Together with the Brussels-based collective OSP (Open Source Publishing), the Pen Plotting Party collective organized a Pen Plotting Party celebrating new experimentations with these obsolete technologies. In an open workshop we exchanged methodologies, projects and ideas.

Pen Plotting Party with XPUB

Datum:
Locatie: XPUB Studio, Rotterdam
In samenwerking met: XPUB

The Pen Plotting Party's first event, a pen plotting party, celebrated the emerging practises around these machines within XPUB. The party featured a zine release, various games and plotter experiments and some talks, all wrapped in an open workshop format.

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