Gijs Leijdekkers creates engaging films and experiences

Within my employment at tinker imagineers, I was part of the core team behind the BBC Earth Experience. This immersive experience, with bespoke narration from David Attenborough, features breath-taking footage from Seven Worlds, One Planet, projected on multiple multi-angle screens using the very latest digital screen technology. My initial creative vision as lead spatial designer was that the monumental projection walls should be slanted towards visitors to create comfortable viewing angles. This approach resulted in a large sculptural landscape with exciting sight-lines and an adventurous visitor experience. When further exploring the space, the visitor discovers smaller immersive zones dedicated to life in water and micro-life. This was an epic dream project to participate in - collaborating with the world’s best creatives and technicians. Two editions of this project were built as temporary structures: in London (Earl’s Court) and in Melbourne, Australia. Watch a project overview video. © tinker imagineers

Within my employment by tinker imagineers, I was one of the core creatives behind museum Tirpitz in Denmark. I was the exhibition/experience designer of the most amazing object in their collection; a huge canon bunker from WOII that could had shot its 600 kg grenades into warships 50 kilometres away! We emphasize the feeling of being inside a war-machine with careful lighting and interactive sound-design. Using interactive projections we show ghostly appearances of the machine that was not yet finished when the war ended, and tell all supporting stories through an audioguide. © tinker imagineers

Within my employment by tinker imagineers, I was one of the core creatives behind museum Tirpitz in Denmark (architecture by BIG Architects). I was the experience designer of an epic 4D projection-mapping show in which the museum room darkens, and we take the audience on a 7-minute trip through 200.000 years of life around Denmark’s western coast. My role was designing this experience, from paper-prototyping to storyboard to opening, and included the direction of actors, composers, technicians and visual-effects-artists. In 2020 the museum already welcomed its 750.000th visitor! Watch a short interview with me here. © tinker imagineers

‘Creative technologist’ is the best way to describe my role for Mediamuseum Beeld & Geluid while employed by tinker imagineers. My colleagues had created an iconic vision for the Media Reactor: a stream of moving media that connected everything in the museum. I was asked to use my creative-technical approach to find a way to realize this ambitious installation within budget. I decided to experiment with ‘diffusing’ pixel LEDs, which allowed us to create a huge amount of m² of media canvas in a unique style, with frames intersecting where the media is crystal clear (using projection). Since 2023, the 300-meter long media river flows through the museum. Watch a project overview video. © tinker imagineers

I collaborated with Company New Heroes and Het Zuidelijk Toneel on a beautiful theatre show: a fairy tale for adults about inequality. We collaborated with 25 young lead actors - one local actor for every performance. Countless hours of interviews of very honest children speaking their mind about the world were edited to be projected onto the scenography. During the show the audience helped the single child actor to turn the show in motion. Directed by Bas van Rijnsoever. I designed and co-constructed the interactive kinetic scenography and designed the media-content.

Within my employment by tinker imagineers, I was responsible for one major experiential show-zone of Chocolate Nation, a ‘Belgian chocolate experience’ in downtown Antwerp. We created a huge fictional machine to visualize the manufacturing process of chocolate; from bagged bean all the way to dripping melted chocolate. The creative process started with rough sketches of steampunk principles to visualize production steps. Resulting in a detailed animated 3D-model and a full 4 minute show simulation in Virtual Reality (VR). From there on the construction was a 1:1 conversion of my 3D-model to reality; an amazing process to behold. Employing a multitude of show-techniques such as lighting, 24-speaker audio, smoke, scent, shadow projections, projection mapping and complex kinetics, we were able to deliver a very dense and engaging 4-minute experience to the visitor. Construction, showcontrol and av-hardware by Flink, sound design by Walvisnest. Video of the full visitor journey. © tinker imagineers

At the site of Denmark’s largest refugee camp from World War II, BIG architects (Bjarke Ingels Group) turned the former hospital into the 1.600 m² museum FLUGT. Within my employment by tinker imagineers I was the spatial designer of two galleries. The first gallery is an introduction where visitors sit down in an infinity mirror room where international statistics and news items fade to the personal stories. A next gallery features an overwhelming spatial composition of screens with video footage of people fleeing, with museum objects being exhibited in showcases at the rear. © tinker imagineers

Within my employment by tinker imagineers, I was the lead spatial designer on a 500 m² experiential space, located inside the T2 training campus. We concepted a 3-hour interactive live-show, focused on getting kids (age 10 - 18) excited about STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). We designed an interactive creative workshop space; a kind of science center 3.0 meets sci-fi cleanroom meets minecraft. Central in the space an abstracted metropolis emerges and the surrounding pixelated landscape houses five thematic workstations. The game-play is focussed on improving the fictional city’s quality by employing modern technological solutions. While problem-solving, the audience learns about creating solar panels, designing a smart grid and programming a kinetic floor amongst others, using a combination of tactile and digital exhibits. After finishing our design process, the project was tendered internationally. Subsequently, we collaborated with the talented teams of the Yipp (interaction design), Bruns (construction), and Ata Tech (hardware and lighting). Video of construction. Video of the visitor experience. © tinker imagineers

An entirely new Natural History Museum will open its doors in Copenhagen. Tinker Imagineers won the international tender to design almost 4.900 m2 of exhibitions, that cover the entire history of our planet, from its formation to the present day. I was part of the winning competition team and became member of the core creative team as one of the museum’s lead exhibition designers. The new museum will open it’s doors in the coming years. © tinker imagineers

Within my employment by tinker imagineers, I was lead (experience) designer of the renewed Airborne Experience, which is an 800m² immersive exhibition that was originally designed by my colleagues in 2009. The renewal encompassed some new scenographic areas, more cinematic lighting and better articulated human figures. But most noticeable a completely new AV-approach including an ambitious 60-speaker sound design and more immersive use of projected media. After experiencing a rough trip aboard a glider plane, the visitors disembark into the panoramic Dutch landing meadows. Soon they experience how the initial optimism turns into heavy fighting as they hit into resistance when trying to take the Arnhem bridge. The visitors behold the horrors of the final resistance that took place in the area around the museum itself. Finally they join the soldiers when fleeing back over the Rhine river… Construction by Kloosterboer Decor, AV hardware/showcontrol and lighting design by Rapenburg Plaza, sound design by Walvisnest, animation market garden by Lieke Milder. © tinker imagineers

Close to my place of birth a very ambitious creative project was initiated; the immersive art maze Doloris Meta Maze. Berlin based art collective Karmanoia were the creative lead on this 400m² permanent art installation, in which I got involved after an open call for artists. I ended up creating one of the 40 rooms; a subtle experience in which the guests witness a flock of fireflies living inside a peaceful forest. It was a great experience to design, build, program and compose music for my permanent site-specific artwork which has been enjoyed by thousands of visitors. The visual aspect of my project is generated live; even when spending hours inside my room you will not see the same ‘firefly dance’ twice. The Meta Maze is a truly unique art-experience - I strongly recommend visiting. Thanks to Stroom Den Haag for financial support. After the success of the Tilburg Meta Maze, a second location opened in Utrecht in 2024: the Doloris Anoma Maze. On this new maze I was creative consultant and spatial designer: combining artist’s room designs into a complex maze structure.

At live-shows of electronic band Yukon Club I am the 3rd band-member: not creating sound but playing my system to both generate the visuals and control the lighting. For this project I coded my own VJ and DMX-lighting software from the ground up (in Processing and PureData). Our show in Paradiso Amsterdam was the pinnacle so far, but more to come! Video of our live show on 3FM national radio.

Nachtgloed was an innovative site-specific projection installation for ‘Into the Great Wide Open’, a small (7.000 visitors) but very popular Dutch festival. Using animated projections we effectively turned a forest into a huge 3D-display and breathed the forest to life. Combining the illuminated trees with calming soundscapes, we immersed the audience into surreal atmospheres. Collaboration with Gregor van Egdom, who was responsible for the projection-system and logistics.

Fedde van Erk, Sander van Hooijdonk and I designed a float for world’s largest and UNESCO-protected flower parade in Zundert. Using theatrical devices like sound and the illusion of light we recreated the childhood memory of having a monster below your bed. A team of over 100 volunteers of district Klein Zundert constructed the design in a towering size of 9 metres tall and dressed the float with thousands of dahlia-flowers.

I was invited by The Artbutchers to create a site-specific installation for De Aanschouw, a series of weekly mini-exhibitions since 2001 (!) in Rotterdam. I am always experimenting to find surprising ways to combine my disciplines. The process of creating ‘Perpetuum 100’, was an action-reaction between video and motors, resulting in this ‘kinetic video sculpture’.

My studio-workshop is a laboratory without rules. A space where I can experiment, follow my curiosity and inspiration, and express myself in a wide variety of mediums.

I am a regular collaborator in the project team of installation artist Mickey Yang when realizing complex immersive installations. Many of her projects are time-based - involving multi-channel video, multi-channel audio and carefully synchronized kinetic elements. In these projects I bring in my skills as spatial designer, filmmaker, showcontrol/kinetic expert and project management. This video shows the project ‘Upaya’ and it’s making-of video, and this video shows ‘Closed Eyes’.

Museum Catharijneconvent, our state museum of religious art, hosted a 6-month exhibition on how Pieter Bruegel’s art shaped the modern archetype witch. Part of the exhibition-design by Platvorm, was a room in which visitors could join a witch on a nightly broomstick flight above the city of Utrecht. I took the project from there to create a themepark-worthy experience; creating a stereoscopic film, composing a soundtrack and engineering electronics to add synchronized 4D wind-effects and showlighting.

A collaboration with Theatre of Wrong Decisions - a collective that responds to sensitive issues in today’s world through short videos based on sculptures by Ingrid Rollema, underlined by still-relevant quotes by Shakespeare. In Groningen we took the opportunity to make a large video-installation inside the Tschumi-pavilion - a unique pavilion for public display of video-art. Projection technology provided by BeamSystems.

The permanent exhibition ‘Papiria’ in the children’s books museum is a vivid, atmospheric experience. Six thematic caves, like the cave of love, adventure, and silliness, contain collection objects and RFID-controlled games. Employed by design-studio Platvorm I participated in the materialization of the design. Next to my work as junior spatial designer, I functioned as 3d-2d workflow specialist, which involved writing a proprietary Vectorworks script in order to ‘unwrap’ all printed surface and accurately design the 2 kilometres ‘ribbon’ of prints that went onto the sawa-landscape. The exhibition received the Cinekid ‘Best New Media production’ award.

Inside the Bartholomeus hospice in downtown Utrecht, guests are invited to step aboard our timemachine. The adventure takes them through 650 years of history, starting in 1367, when the first stones of the hospice were laid. The animation, with surround sound and synchronized show-lighting, is composed out of parts of many archival paintings and photos. The project was a collaboration with a talented team: illustrator/animator Hilde Buiter, composer Robert Jung, voice-over by Ingmar Heytze and show-technology by Flink. The permanent exhibition was opened by queen Maxima, so she was the first to take a ride in our experience.

My experience in computer graphics comes of great use when designing. It gives me the ability visualize the audience experience, and to create engaging imagery to sell and communicate my ideas. I also offer these skills on freelance basis.

For my Master of Arts Narrative Environments (Central Saint Martins) final project, I developed and tested an alternative methodology for narrative filmmaking where the story grows from the visuals instead of vice versa. I created miniature fictive environments which inspired actors to play out a spontaneous narrative. These improvisations were documented, and served later as the basis of a green-screen shoot. Using visual effects, the footage was finally combined with the original fictive world. This resulted in the short film ‘Blok’, in which a man is looking for the source of a heavenly voice in an uncanny world…

A touching story of a girl who receives a long distance call from her dad… Started out as a cinematography and sound design exercise, but turned into an ambitious project. This project is a great case study my ideal creative process: patiently working with a small team and a creative DIY-approach to achieve high quality production value. The film will be available online soon.

Director’s cut of an internal commercial for an international telecom brand. Produced by L-A-D-A (Caviar Amsterdam), camera by Carline Hansen, post by The Compound, voice-over by Jeremiah Fleming, music in collaboration with Boudewijn Boon.

I participated in a Loopdeloop animation challenge with the theme ‘frog’. In my animation the fairy tale frog and the well-known retro game are joined in an endless loop. This was a nice little project to experiment with frame-by-frame animation and to experiment with 2D in combination with a physical set.

With my studio being located in the governmental district of the Netherlands, I was asked by the Supreme Court - my former neighbours - to make a film marking their move from a historic palace to a modern building by KAAN architects. The film was the centrepiece of the Royal opening ceremony. The original soundtrack is written by Maarten Feteris - the president of the court.

Compilation of shots from Blok, Ika, Eva and a music-video for The Quaint. Gradually the separate films will become available for viewing online.

A commercial for funeral director Bas Poelstra. Music by Mattie Poels.

Combined director’s cut of several commercials for international sportswear-brand AGU. This video is the result of 8 days of shooting in Italy and Austria with a total of 10 models. Will be available online soon.

Several years of atmospheric photography.

The legendary Yamaha CS-80 (1975) synthesizer is heard in the music of Vangelis, ABBA, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Paul, McCartney, Hans Zimmer. For many musicians, owning this iconic instrument is a dream that’s out of reach - both financially (€60.000+) and in terms of required maintenance. While today’s software-based (VST) replicas sound remarkably close, the true spirit of the CS-80 only comes alive when you have all controls at your fingertips. That’s why we created the “Poor Man’s CS-80” — the PM-80, featuring 75 dedicated faders and a ribbon controller, offering an inspiring hands-on experience. This is a project I initiated, and is in development by GLT Audio. Go to the website for more information.

I often use my music-skills in projects, but in my personal projects I create music through improvisation. I took classical piano-lessons at a young age, then getting into piano-improvisation and composition to extend my creativity into music. I later expanded my studio with electronic (analog) and acoustic instruments to experiment and develop a warm hypnotizing sound, influenced by artists like Vangelis, Keith Jarrett, Sigur Rós, The Cinematic Orchestra, Portico Quartet.