a monochromatic light instrument played through collective presence.
White Space, an immersive installation that transforms negative space into a place where strangers connect.
At its heart, a monolith of intense blue and white light spins on its axis, casting compositions of monochromatic light and generative music that shift and dance among the audience. Responding to pose and position, the sculpture becomes an instrument, played by everyone present at once.
Only by coordinating their positions and synchronising their poses can visitors reach the climax of the installation: illuminating the emptiness that separates them and transforming the negative space into White Space.
White Space is an interactive light installation by artist Matthias Oostrik, who leads its concept, software, and production. Developed under the Harmonic Dissonance Collective, it premieres during Amsterdam Dance Event – Arts & Culture 2026, hosted by ICK Dans Amsterdam.
Composer Marcel Wierckx created the generative music, drawing on his vast experience in audiovisual composition and live electronics. A close collaborator throughout, he also helped shape the interaction and the concept. The ingenious technicians of Yens & Yens engineered the spinning monolith: the idea is simple, the technology behind it anything but. And the research of neuroscientist Suzanne Dikker into human synchrony has been a lasting source of inspiration.
There will be a pop-up performance around White Space by the ICK Next dancers (junior company) on Thursday, 22 October, and at the premiere on Friday, 23 October.
The program also features SMILE, Oostrik’s AI installation that transforms your portrait into an eerily perfect version of yourself.
— Practical information
Which days and times:
Tryout: Thursday, 22 October, from 8pm until 9pm — €5.00 per person
Premiere: Friday, 23 October, from 8pm until 9pm — €5.00 per person
Open: Saturday, 24 October, you are welcome between 4pm until 10pm — Free entrance
Open: Sunday, 25 October, you are welcome between 12pm until 6pm — Free entrance
Location address:
ICK Dans Amsterdam / Space for Dance Art
Rijnlandlaan 3, 1062 MX Amsterdam
Do you have any questions?
Please contact at communications@ickamsterdam.nl.
Please include “White Space” in the subject line.
SMILE is an interactive tech-art installation that turns audience portraits into eerily flawless AI-generated replicas. Using existing AI tools with minimal interference, the work exposes the biases and “super-persuasiveness” embedded in image-generation systems like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion.
Visitors see themselves transformed into hyper-perfect versions smiling back as idealized, almost uncanny beings. The installation critiques how AI often produces not truth, but polished illusions that reflect and amplify societal imperfections.
Drawing on a critical investigation into generative AI, SMILE preserves the inherent biases of these systems in tasks like describing a participant’s race or gender not as technical errors, but as magnifications of societal flaws that need to be brought to light.
SMILE serves as a cautionary reflection on the rising tide of bullshit in technology, politics, and daily life.
Come see your perfect self and question what you see.
Some DJs play for the peak. Michiel Bouwens plays for the night itself, when the floor is wet and the lights are low. Raw, warm, no safety net: records, instinct and a floor he lets go of when he chooses. In his hands an acid cut from ’89 grinds against a track that didn’t exist last week, and suddenly it’s one story. Shaped in the darkest corners of Amsterdam’s queer nightlife, where nothing is fixed except the bass. You come for the music. You stay for what it does to you.
ICK Dans Amsterdam, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Amsterdam Dance Event and Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK)
