POSTPONED | ART SCIENCE dialogue feat. Meiro Koizumi
Join us for an ART SCIENCE dialogue with Meiro Koizumi and Kalliopi Ioumpa, moderated by Klaas de Zwaan, on Thursday, April 23. The event takes place from 4 PM in the VU ART SCIENCE gallery. The conversation forms part of the public programme of On Limits.
The conversation will explore topics approached in Good Machine Bad Machine (2022-2024), looking specifically at the interplay between technological and societal modes of control and the neural paths that underlie social behaviour.
Meiro Koizumi (b. 1976, Japan, Lives and works in Yokohama) is recognized for his experimental video installations and immersive environments. His practice often explores the tension between private emotion and collective psychology, and examines how systems of power—whether political, cultural, or technological—shape the individual. Working across video, drawing, sculpture, and more recently VR and AI, he consistently draws viewers into psychological spaces where fragility, authority, and identity are put to the test. His experimental VR Theater piece “Prometheus Bound” won the Grand Prize in the 24th Art Division of the Japan Media Arts Festival. In 2021, he won Artes Mundi Prize (Cardiff, UK).
Kalliopi Ioumpa is a neuroscientist, visual artist, and mental health counselor based in Amsterdam. Her research lies in individual differences in empathy and prosocial behavior, and in how encounters with culture influence social cognition. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam within the META-MUSEUM project, investigating how art influences neural, postural, and physiological responses. Her art practice, ranging from installations to sculptures and VR, explores themes like memory, the affective atmospheres of spaces, collective grief, and otherness. Through her artworks, she aims to make visible what words cannot through embodied knowledge. Educated in both science and fine arts, she is invested in cross-disciplinary collaborations, artistic research, and alternative ways of acquiring knowledge.
Klaas de Zwaan is Assistant Professor in Media Studies at Arts and Culture department at the faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. His research focuses on the intersection between media and crises, as well as on film as a pedagogical tool.