Art & Science Seminar: Koert van Mensvoort

After a welcome by NIOO-scientist Ruth Schmidt, Van Mensvoort will start with a seminar entitled 'New view on nature and technology' followed by a discussion. Can we grow our meat of the future? What is Next Nature about? Is it possible to express ecological value in a coin?

Come and find out! Visitors are welcome. And if you would like to continue the conversation, please send us an e-mail to register for a special 'discussion lunch'. Registration is free, but the number of places is limited.

About Koert van Mensvoort

It would be hard to overestimate the impact humans have on life on earth. Just think of climate change, urbanisation or genetic modification: there's simply no such thing as truly pristine nature anymore. Especially in a country such as the Netherlands, where every square metre of land has been meticulousy zoned.

Much of what we call 'nature' is in fact culture: neatly raked over, landscaped and sold in packaged form. At the same time, our technology has reached such a level of complexity that a new, man-made kind of nature has come into being: financial crises that spin out of control, traffic meltdowns, computer viruses...

Where we originally deployed technology to free us from nature's wild forces, its own dynamics now mirror that of nature: as wild and unpredictable as ever.

Dr. Koert van Mensvoort shows us how easy it is for new technologies to go from being uncomfortable and uncanny to feeling familiar or even natural. And what lessons engineers, inventors, designers, architects, marketeers and politicians can learn from this.