Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022
BA Interactive Media Design
I was born and raised in The Netherlands, a country that is seen and communicated as a rich and prosperous country where you can be yourself and over/underwhelm yourself in the lowlands paradise. But what if you don’t always feel like you belong in it?
When you don’t feel like you fit the frame or archetype, it can feel like you go through hell. In my case, it’s the archetype of my neurodivergence (PDDNOS/ADHD) vs the neurotypical mindset. The Netherlands shares its low geological position with the Nether-Hell from Dante Alghieri’s Inferno. Starting from that position and looking at The Netherlands through that lens, my thesis is in a constant zigzag between hell on earth and hell in fiction but also targeting the archetypes like demons / sinners / the location of hell, the feeling of hell and the acceptance of hell. When you don’t fit in a frame that is shaped by a certain status quo, you seek comfort in the damned. The Damned are the poor, lame, sick and the blind. The reader is challenged to look at sins and taboos through a lens of politics, policy and pop culture. Who is the decision maker and why would one follow? into eternity. When it comes to the status quo, the question is stopped with the answer: “Because we have always done it like this.” He who pays the piper, calls the tune.
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