Jakob Kudsk Steensen

Jakob Kudsk Steensen (born 1987, Denmark) is an artist working with environmental storytelling through field immersion, 3D worldbuilding, spatial sound, and large-scale installations. He creates interpretations of overlooked natural phenomena in video, photo, audio, game and virtual reality formats. Key collaborators include musician Arca, Composer and Musical Director for the Philip Glass Ensemble Michael Riesman, Ornithologist and author Dr. Douglas H. Pratt, Architect Sir David Adjaye, South Korean pop band BTS, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the Natural History Museum, Berlin, among others.
Jakob's project Berl-Berl at ARoS Museum of Art in Aarhus was first commissioned by Light Art Space for Berghain's exhibition hall in Berlin. His project Liminal Lands was commissioned by the LUMA Foundation for the Prelude exhibition at LUMA Arles in 2021, and in 2020 Catharsis was shown at Serpentine Galleries as part of Connect BTS, an initiative by BTS. He received the Serpentine Augmented Architecture commission in 2019 to create The Deep Listener with Google Arts & Culture and Sir David Adjaye OBE. He is the recipient of the best VR graphics at the 2019 Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival, the Prix du Jury (2019) at Les Rencontres Arles, the Webby Award - People’s Choice VR (2018), and the Games for Change Award - Most Innovative (2018), among others. He has shown at Sundance Film Festival, Geneva International Film Festival, British Film Institute, South by Southwest, and Tribeca Festival. 
==Early life and education==
Steensen graduated from the University of Copenhagen with an MA in Art History. He also holds a degree from Central Saint Martins in Fine Arts with focus on Art and Science, and a BA in Art History and Visual Culture from Aarhus University with a focus on Emotions and Technology. 
His first work was in creating virtual landscapes. As the Lead Developer and Art Director of Tree VR (2016), he won the Lumen Art Prize, Lumiere Award, Unreal Dev Grant, Games for Change 'Most Innovative' 2017, Webby Award and the Telly Gold Award. Following this, his studio grew in size to make large-scale video and VR works and installations. 
==Work==
Steensen’s artworks combine technology with months of nature-based fieldwork to form large-scale immersive video and VR installations, which explore the relationship between psychology and landscape. Steensen takes photos, videos and sounds from the natural environment, and combines these to create a new 3D worlds using the video game platform Unreal Engine. Steensen's projects are collaborative, involving contributors across art, music, poetry, writing, gaming, ecology, and biology. Steensen’s installations are adapted to the architecture and environment, and use spatialised, generative sound and light systems. 
===Tongues of Verglas / Les Langues de Verglas (2022)===
Tongues of Verglas / Les Langues de Verglas documents a glacial tongue at the Arolla Glacier. The project is a slow moving continuous video that travels across perspectives. The artwork was commissioned for the MIRE Project by Fonds Cantonal D’Art Contemporain, Geneva and was displayed in Chêne-Bourg station as part of a group show across Geneva's metro. An additional text documenting the fieldwork experience of the trip was commissioned by the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation for the World Weather Network. The artwork showed in Yet it Moves! at Copenhagen Contemporary in 2023.
===Berl-Berl (2021)===
During 2020-2021, Steensen created Berl-Berl, a project exploring the folklore of the wetlands around Berlin-Brandenburg. The project was commissioned by Light Art Space and shown at Halle am Berghain, Berlin. The piece was created in collaboration with Berlin’s Natural History Museum and vocals by Arca. Berl-Berl also hosted an operatic and dance performance by Pan Daijing. A book was published in coordination with the Berlin exhibition, featuring writing by curator Emma Enderby, art historian Barbara London, scholar Alenda Chang, artist and researcher Dane Sutherland, and poetry in response to the world of Berl-Berl by Precious Okoyomon and Johannes Helden, as well as a conversation between Steensen and the director of the Berlin Natural History Museum, Johannes Vogel. Berl-Berl was shown as a solo show at ARoS Museum of Art in 2022
===Liminal Lands (2021)===
In 2020, Steensen was commissioned by LUMA Arles to create Liminal Lands. The project is based on a year of fieldwork in the Camargue wetlands in Salin de Giraud. Liminal Lands was first shown at Luma Arles for the Prelude exhibition, with video, VR, and floors infused with salt and algae. Liminal Lands is available on Steam in VR. 
===Catharsis (2019)===
Catharsis is a video project based on old-growth forests in North America. The project was commissioned by the Pinchuk Art Centre (Kyiv) in 2019. It was also shown at Serpentine Galleries as part of Connect BTS, an artistic program by BTS, the South Korean pop band. 
===The Deep Listener (2019)===
The Deep Listener is a Serpentine Augmented Architecture commission with Google Arts & Culture and Sir David Adjaye OBE. It combines AR and physical sculptural elements installed throughout Hyde Park to increase awareness of the local wildlife.
===RE-ANIMATED (2018)===
In 2018, Steensen created RE-ANIMATED: a live simulation of the environment of the extinct Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird based on Kauai, Hawai'i. The piece was made in collaboration with the Natural History Museum in NYC, ornithologist Douglas H. Pratt, and Michael Riesman. RE-ANIMATED was shown at Venice Biennale as part of the Future Generations Art Prize in 2019, and at Tranen Contemporary Art Center in 2018. 
===Aquaphobia (2017)===
Aquaphobia is a VR and video artwork connecting inner psychological landscapes to exterior ecosystems. The 3D world of the project was based on fieldwork around Red Hook, Brooklyn, and was inspired by conversations with local in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Originally made in VR, Steensen also published Aquaphobia as a short, 7 minute first-person poetic artwork on Steam in 2023. 
===Primal Tourism (2016)===
Primal Tourism is a multi-user VR and video artwork based on the island of Bora Bora in French Polynesia. The artwork explores the relationship between tourism, science fiction, escapism, technology and speculations on future climates.
The island of Primal Tourism was the virtual host space for Serpentine Galleries' 'Artist Worlds' series, where speakers could take part in shared conversations on environmental thinking and worldbuilding as 3D avatars, broadcasted in video format. 
Additional projects of Steensen's include Re-Wildling (2018), Terratic Animism (2017), Pando Endo (2017), Dome of Gated Ecologies (2017), Tree VR (2016), A Cartography of Fantasia (2015), and Utopian Tourism (2013). 
==Conversations==
Steensen has discussed his practice at institutions including Serpentine Galleries (in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, and within the 3D environment of his project Primal Tourism for ‘Artist Worlds’ talks), Central Saint Martins, South by Southwest, Royal College of Art, the World VR Forum, Manchester International, Light Art Space (as part of their Interspecies podcast), Jepson Center for the Arts, CLICK Festival (DK), COPENX Tech and Cultural Conference, Tranen Center for Contemporary Art, Creative Techweek NY, and more. 
==Festivals and Awards==
Steensen has been the recipient of awards including the Future Generation Art Prize (RE-ANIMATED), Games for Change Award (Tree VR), Niio x AI Art Prizes (RE-ANIMATED), Best VR Graphics from Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival (RE-ANIMATED), Prix du Jury at Les Rencontres Arles (RE-ANIMATED), Webby Award (Tree VR), People's Choice VR (Tree VR), Telly Award VR Gold Award (Tree VR), Best Location-Based VR from Lumières Award (Tree VR), and Finalist for the Lumen Art Prize (Tree VR). 
His work has displayed at South by Southwest, Tribeca, Sundance Film Festival, Miami Art Week, Sonar Festival, VRHAM, BFI London Film Festival, Ideal Festival, Geneva International Film Festival, Trondheim Biennale for Art and Technology, Microwave Festival, 'To Your Eternity' Biennale, UABB Art and Architecture Biennale, Immersive Tech Week, CPH:DOX, STRP Festival and more. 
==Selected Exhibitions==
* Tongues of Verglas / Les Langues de Verglas in 'Yet, it Moves!' at Copenhagen Contemporary, 2023
* Berl-Berl: The Singing Swamp at ARoS Museum of Art, Aarhus, 2022
* Liminal Lands in 'Every Kind of Wind: Alexander Calder and the 21st Century' at Nahmad Contemporary, NYC, 2022
* Liminal Lands in Reference Festival x Selfridges, 2022
* Serpent of Water in 'Seeing the Invisible' at Jerusalem Botanic Garden + 12 sites worldwide, 2022
* Catharsis in 'Utopia' at La Forêt Magique, Lille, 2022 
* Tongues of Verglas / Les Langues de Verglas for Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation x World Weather Network, 2022 
* Tongues of Verglas / Les Langues de Verglas for the MIRE Project, Chêne-Bourg metro station, Geneva, 2022
* RE-ANIMATED in 'In Search of the Present' at Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, 2022
* Aquaphobia at Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, Shenzhen & Hong Kong, 2022
* Aquaphobia in The First Beijing Biennial, Beijing, China, 2022 
* Liminal Lands at Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Spain, 2022
* Berl-Berl at Halle am Berghain, Berlin, 2021
* Liminal Lands in 'Prelude' at La Mécanique Générale, Luma Arles, France, 2021
* Primal Tourism in 'Shaping the Invisible World' at Haus der Elektronischen Künste, Basel, 2021
* Catharsis for BTS Connect, Serpentine Galleries, London, 2020
* Primal Tourism in 'How to Make a Paradise?', Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2020
* RE-ANIMATED in 'Potential Worlds I: Planetary Memories' at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, 2020
* Primal Tourism in 'Comme un Parfum d'Aventure' at Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, 2020
* The Deep Listener, Serpentine Galleries, 2019
* RE-ANIMATED at the 2019 Venice Biennial for the Future Generations Art Prize, 2019
* Catharsis at the Future Generations Art Prize Exhibition, Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, 2019
* RE-ANIMATED at Tranen Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2018
* Aquaphobia in 'Imperceptible Affairs', Meta.Morf, Trondheim Biennale, Norway, 2018 
* Aquaphobia, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley CA, USA, 2018 
* Terratic Animism, for Times Square Midnight Moment, NYC, USA, 2017 
* Primal Tourism, at BRIC, New York NY, USA, 2017 
* Terratic Animism in 'Affect Bodies', BRIC Biennial, Brooklyn NY, USA, 2017 
* Domes of Gated Ecologies in 'Styles and Customs of the 2020s' curated by DIS Magazine at Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh PA, USA, 2017 
===Residencies===
2022: Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Stromboli, Italy
2021: Callie’s, Berlin, Germany
2020: Luma Arles Foundation, Arles, France
2019: La Becque Artist Residency, La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland
2019: Art_React, Azores, Portugal
2017-2019: Mana Contemporary Art Center, Artist in Residence, Jersey City NJ
2017 - 2018: Member, NEW Inc, New York NY
2018: Harvestworks, New York NY
2017: Artist Alliance Residency, New York NY
2016: Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Omaha NE
2016: BRIC Residency, Brooklyn Media Arts Center, New York NY
2016: The Studios at MASS MoCA, Assets for Artists, North Adams MA
2015: AADK Spain, Aktuelle Architektur Der Kultur, Blanca, Spain
==Notable Press==
'The Poetic Art of Jakob Kudsk Steensen', The Economist 
Interspecies Podcast by LAS: Ep 6 - Imagining the Interspecies (Part 2) - In Conversation with Stanley Qiufan Chen
“An Artist Just Transformed Berlin's Berghain NIghtclub Into an Eerie, Immersive 3D Swamp" - Artnet News 
"Jakob Kudsk Steensen Digitises the Swamp - and Restores it in a Magnificent Museum Presentation" - Kunsten Nu 
Barbara London Calling: 2.02 Interview with Jakob Kudsk Steensen 
The Apollo 40 under 40 Art & Tech Podcast: The Art of Gaming (Conversation with Ian Cheng)
How VR Can Bring Us Closer To Nature: Wallpaper Mag 
"I built a world that everybody could feel connected to": Interview for Louisiana Channel by the Louisiana Museum of Art, Denmark
ARTE, "Le bonheur malgré la crise": A day in the Camargue Wetlands with Jakob Kudsk Steensen
Lonely Planet, "New York unveils its piece of the 'Connect, BTS' global art project"
Category:1987 births
Category:People from Denmark
Category:Danish people
Category:University of Copenhagen alumni
Category:Aarhus University alumni
Category:Artists