Immersive Night: A Festival Within a Festival!

Carolien Teunisse (Deframe) takes you on a mesmerizing journey through the invisible world of fine dust with “Air in Sight.” Four unique 3D data visualizations reveal how air quality changed at four significant moments in 2024—each linked to a major climate-related event in the Netherlands.

The data, sourced from the Samen Meten Data Portal of the RIVM, is brought to life through immersive visuals of fine dust concentrations and temperature variations. But this experience goes beyond sight: sound artist Shoal translates the measurements into a layered auditory landscape. Numbers become sound, patterns turn into music—allowing you to literally hear the air.

Step into this breathtaking fusion of science and art and experience the impact of air quality like never before.

For all color routes, Lux 7: 19:00 – 19:30

This performance is in collaboration with Schemerlicht.

This generative documentary is inspired by the mythical Chimera—a creature composed of different parts, forming something entirely new. It evokes both memories of a half-forgotten past and a premonition of an uncertain future.

During his residency at Radboud Heritage, Genee developed a philosophical and anthropological framework to explore the thought processes of leading scientists, designers, and lecturers at the university. He searches for a shared thread that connects these diverse disciplines.

In this first phase, Chimera poses a fundamental question: How far can we dissect our reality—its objects, spirits, senses, interactions, and contexts—before its essence fades? And what new ideas emerge when we reassemble these scattered puzzle pieces?

Original music and sound: Jean-Marc Eck
Computational design: Willem Kempers
On-location sound: Tim Marsman
Additional cinematography: Tom Simington

For all color routes (walk-in event), Latijnse School: 18:30 – 22:00

Planktonium Live is a journey to a hidden universe, a live performance in which the smallest organisms play the leading role. Filmmaker Jan van IJken adapted his enchanting film Planktonium (with a lot of new footage) into a live version, together with artist/musician John van Oostrum (de Veenfabriek / Touki Delphine). They subtly bring the small but oh so crucial underwater ecosystem of plankton to life.

Microscopic recordings reveal a fascinating diversity of plankton species—spinning, crawling, twirling, and floating in endless forms. Are they bioluminescent mollusks, alien spacecraft, shimmering gemstones, or human cells?

This visual spectacle is enhanced by an immersive soundtrack, composed and performed live. You’ll hear underwater recordings of icebergs, ocean waves, and aquatic life, creating a truly unique sensory experience!

For all color routes, LUX 7: 20:15 and 21:45

In this stunning audiovisual installation, artist Julius Horsthuis takes you on a journey into a new world—a timeless and immersive experience, free from the rush of everyday life.

In this unique environment, we discover how everything is connected. Visitors travel through images of our recent past and Horsthuis’ vision of the future—a future where nature and mathematics merge as a source of inspiration.

With mesmerizing digital art, based on infinite fractal patterns and extraordinary shapes, Geometric Properties reveals how mathematics influences the world around us. It invites reflection and sparks a sense of wonder about existence.

For all color routes (walk-in event), LUX 6: 19:30 – 23:00

Thinking about the future can often feel abstract and distant. But that changes the moment you take part in Ancestors.

This interactive experience takes you on an exciting, collective journey six generations into the future. Using your smartphone and AI, connections are made between you and others in the space. Together, you’ll face the challenges of tomorrow and discover how collaboration is essential to creating a better world.

Participants are immersed in a playful yet profound experience that brings people together in an entirely new way.

To participate in Ancestors, attendees are asked to bring a fully charged smartphone. They will also take a selfie to share with others as part of the experience.

For the orange and blue routes, Mariënburgkapel: 19:45 & 21:30

A revolutionary fusion of film, interaction, science, and cocktails. Hosted in the Latin School, a 16th-century building in the heart of the city!

What if a multimedia performance didn’t just tell a story but allowed you to literally taste history? In Drinking Brecht: An Automated Laboratory Performance, Sister Sylvester delves into the political power of ‘scientific theatre,’ drawing inspiration from none other than Bertolt Brecht.

Starting with a stolen cap from the costume collection of Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble, this one-of-a-kind experience sparks a captivating biohacker experiment. By combining forensic techniques and archival research, Sylvester attempts to trace the cap’s past wearers. But that’s just the beginning: the audience is actively involved in an unprecedented experiment—the creation of the very first documentary… in a cocktail.

Drinking Brecht: An Automated Laboratory Performance is presented in collaboration with Onassis ONX. Don’t miss this extraordinary fusion of art, science, and activism!

For the green route, Latin School (Stevenskerkhof 2): 20:00 and 22:00.

In this program, you will experience two short films using a 360-degree VR headset.

Texada: “Some days fly by, while some weeks feel endless,” says a worker on the Canadian island of Texada. The human perception of time is relative, yet it stands in stark contrast to the timescale of the limestone we extract—a rock that carries the history of the Earth itself.

The virtual reality documentary Texada juxtaposes these two experiences of time: the human and the geological. The visuals shift between shots of the island and abstract animations, while island residents reflect in voice-over on their lives and the vastness of time: “We are merely a small twig on the great tree of life.”

Play Life: Play Life is a virtual reality film based on the paintings of Lithuanian artist Algis Krisciunas. Using modern computer graphics, his works are brought to life in a three-dimensional virtual world. In this nearly 30-minute film, Krisciunas’ paintings transform into stories, unfolding through choreography, directorial choices, and a soundtrack composed by the artist himself. The film also features a conversation between a man and a woman about the passage of life, filled with nostalgia and memories. It was produced by an international team of film and animation professionals.

For the yellow and red route, Joris Ivens Hall (LUX): 19:45 & 21:45.