“Art communicates the topics of the time”: How Thijs Biersteker helps us visualise climate breakdown

Your work often involves working with institutions and researchers, so what do you look for in a collaboration? How does the process work in terms of the development of a project and creating something? 

Art has always communicated the topics of the time, from hunting instructions to religion. It has always been a collaboration between knowledge and expression. In my work I reflect on the most important topic of our time: the climate crisis. The data and knowledge has been there for too long without art helping it to resonate in culture. It takes the combination of facts and feelings to provoke action; up until now, we have heard too many facts. 
I look for the most urgent topics of today and aim to make them accessible, relatable and understandable through my data-driven art installations. From UNESCO to the European Space Agency (ESA), the scientists come to our studio and we start with a conversation.
I read about the topic for weeks before they arrive and then we can have an in-depth chat. It’s best when I get an email from a professor asking for my help to bring their facts to the world, such an honour. When working with them and their data I look for the things that make me shout out “WHY THE **** DON’T I KNOW THIS?” Most of the time that comes from having a conversation with one of the climate scientists we collaborate with. Some of their data is so overwhelming and their impact so confronting that it becomes unimaginable. I think we are not only in a climate crisis but also in an imagination crisis. I also think that’s the part that can be solved by art. 

As an artist, how do you translate research and data into an installation?

I think data as art is messy and you can see it in many ways. When I dive into a topic, I spend days or weeks on making the core of my work as simple and bold as possible. I work until the science is solid and the shape of the work emphasises the message we need to communicate in its purest form. For me, my work needs to be aesthetically pleasing and inviting but also boldly clear in its message. 

Do you think artists have a duty to create awareness through their practice? Does interaction with an issue cut through to people in a way cold 

 Art reflects the time where we are in. If you are not working on one of the urgent topics in this crucial tipping point time, then why are you an artist? We as artists have a gift to make the complex compelling and we should use that gift to turn the tide. Facts alone have not done a good job. People are numb to numbers and getting headaches from headlines. I aim to make you a part of the work through interaction and reflection; I believe it makes things personal, and when things become personal people start acting on it. 

In both Wither and Econario, we see plants which are white. In the former, whiteness seems to evoke death through deforestation, but the use of white in Econario seems to be more of a blank slate for the potential situations that we face. What, for you, does the use of white in your work mean? 

Interesting question. I feel white has a neutrality that my work has not. It makes the works approachable while their messages about pollution, and deforestation are not. It’s my mission to make hard, confronting data accessible, a natural colour builds a neutral ground to experience the work in. 

 Likewise, in Econtinuum and Voice of Nature, for example, light is used to bring nature to life in a way we can see, understand and experience. How do you negotiate how you can visualise nature through the technology and materials available to you as an artist? 

 Interesting questions no2! I see technique just as paint. Whatever technique helps me communicate the message the best is the one I will work with. 
These two works are generative artworks, meaning they harvest data from nature in real time and I use that to generate the artwork at that moment. This way it becomes unique, every millisecond, and as it adapts, it will feel alive. Using sensors and real-time visualisations helps us understand the liveliness of our surrounding world and grow more empathy and respect for its beautiful complexity. I love the way work lives and involves us even when we are not there. 

With MB>CO2, we see the impact that our internet usage has on the environment. It’s interesting, yet a little uneasy (or horrifying even) to see how much impact a video call can have, as it is demonstrated through the installation. How do you want your audiences to respond to works like this? (Should audiences avoid sharing it on social media!) 

Everyone should share my work, that is how system change works. Research shows that we as individuals make the most impact if we share our opinions. You make an impact by eating vegetarian, but you make more impact by sharing the reason why you do it with others. 
I think confronted works like this are needed to provoke a simple action: stop streaming so much; stop plastic, and don’t throw your cigarette butts on the ground. The solutions are there, I only need to make people aware. 

Through Woven Studio, your work is made sustainably with material passports, and so on. Do you think there’s a shift in the art world towards being more conscious about how, and what, materials get used? 

The art world is just like the rest of the corporate world talking a lot about this topic. But change is not moving fast enough. At Woven, we are working on this. Based on years of experience working in the circular economy, the team and I have built an enormous knowledge of how to produce sustainable and hi-end. We are now working on an artist framework for material passports that we want to open source by mid-2023. We as an art community can bring inspiration for a better world. If we do that through our art, then that’s great. If we back that up with our material choices, then that makes it doubly great.