Marcel Kampman » Heroes

Maurice Mikkers

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:49:55 +0000

I got to know Maurice in my role as coordinator and facilitator for the study Interactive/Media/Design at the Royal Academy of Art as a well-informed, enthusiastic, energetic, hard-working and talented student. Always in the know on everything out there in the field of technology or the technology enabled world. It’s great to see him develop over the years and in search of finding his form, using his camera and photography skills to do so. His photography helps him on two levels: in meeting the right people and in thinking in stories, what you can see in his work. I’m happy to facilitate possibilities form him that help him finding himself in his form. Working with him is a giant pleasure. You should too!

Bjorn Eerkes

admin — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:35:39 +0000

I just recently finished —another— project with Bjorn. We go way, way back. Back to the day we had to do our admission exam at Academy Minerva, School for Fine Art & Design in Groningen. Admission exams are in fact quite boring and impersonal — at least, in Groningen they were. Hopefully they changed that since then. You had to show up at a certain time, hand in your work, wait, wait, wait and when it’s your turn you got 10 minutes max to tell a little about your work. And then you have to wait some more. And at the end of the day you hear if you’re admitted or not. This is one of the main reasons we do things differently at I/M/D now. Anyway, while waiting we started talking, found out we had some things in common and had a lot of fun the rest of the day. And we got admitted and even classmates. Since then we did a lot of projects together and that actually never changed until today where we collaborated on the Johan video.

Alfons Dolsma

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:42:48 +0000

Putting Alfons in this Heroes list feels like sharing a secret ingredient. Actually, he should be everyone’s secret ingredient. Alfons and his family own a small firm with the most high-end equipment to transform any building, car, space or a simple sticker into something nice, just how you want it to be. They are true craftsmen who only go for the highest quality, being in business for over 40 years, but always invested in the newest technologies. Jan, his dad is just as brilliant. He started the firm, painting cars by hand. You should see their photobooks from the 70’s and 80’s they have, with pictures of most of the projects they did. So nice.

Alfons always helps me out on projects, I think for over 15 years already. From prototyping book covers, simulating silk-screen prints, making miniature models of cars as if they would be life size to building expositions, transforming spaces and whatever is needed. Knowing the Dolsma family dramatically enriched my capabilities as a designer. And they are truly nice people as well.

Pieter Spinder

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:37:01 +0000

If you want to make the world a bit better, start with yourself. If you don’t know how to do that, start with Pieter. I was introduced to Pieter by Itay Talgam at Picnic in September. According to Itay, we had a lot in common. And we do. And what couldn’t be better is that I learned Pieter was involved in the Dutch department of Koaspilots, one of the studies that —if I would have known earlier— I would have wanted to follow. And also used as one of the studies as an inspiration for I/M/D. He simply wants to learn students to be a kid again. And now he is starting something new: Knowmads. We’re going to do a lot more in the near future than having great conversations.

Roel van den Berg

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:36:47 +0000

Roel transforms everything and everybody around him. Brands, companies, agencies but most of all: people. And the greatest thing is: Roel is just Roel, a genuine, warm, kind, radiant, sincere human being. I first met him when I worked at …,staat and again later when I worked at Fabrique and now have the pleasure of working with him frequently.

Amazing. Yesterday, I had a meeting with him to transform education, a topic that we both are deeply passionate about. At that table were three other people. Ellen of course, but also two others. When they introduced themselves, their story linked back to the time they worked with Roel at the places where Roel worked. And now, they work for themselves and work with Roel again because they liked what they did when working with him. Powerful. I think the secret is that you always work with him and never for him.

Made me think about a small video that is on the Disney Tinkerbell dvd as an extra, that Susa also enjoys very much. It’s a story about the role of elfs, how they are responsible for the things unseen but noticeable, how they turn winter into spring. Magical. Obviously, Roel is not an elf. He is a tall 52 year old guy, that climbs the Matterhorn or Mont Blanc frequently, but in a way he makes me always feel like spring when it’s winter. Yes, he can.

Ritzo ten Cate

admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:11:33 +0000

At Mastermundo 2009 Ritzo decided not to do his talk, while he was invited as a speaker. Thank god he didn’t. He decided he wanted to do things with lots of people. Because he likes things with lots of people. And he became a hero in a day.

After a long day, everybody was kind of wasted. And we decided collectively not to do the performance at the Spuiplein. It missed out on a lot. We decided to do a final session with Itay and then call it a day and together enjoy the TodaysArt festival instead. The majority of people joined in for the closure session. To see if we could get something to work. We ended up standing in a big circle, with Itay in the center, challenging the group to do things. Almost nobody felt like doing much. All ideas ended up in more collective ideas. And not in music but in ‘noise’ as Itay calls it. Screaming and shouting, but nothing structural, nothing really creative. So at a certain point we were doing a wave by voice instead of hands. At that point, Ritzo came in. With a phone in his hand. That he had ANP on the phone, the general Dutch press service. He told me that I had to explain Mastermundo. So I did. The lady on the otherside ended the call with: ‘Can you ask Ritzo to call me back, to share if the record attempt succeeded?’ ‘Okay.’ Then we hung up. ‘What record attempt, Ritzo?’ So he explained.

Vocal Domino. A record attempt Vocal Domino. Which was similar to the voice wave we were already doing. So, we tried to find a way to do that as a group, define the rules, the how, etc. Then Ritzo received a sms message: we made it to the AD. It was national news now:

Den Haag doet recordpoging ‘vocal domino’
DEN HAAG (ANP) – Op het Spuiplein in Den Haag vindt zaterdagavond een recordpoging ‘vocal domino’ plaats. De Israëlische dirigent Itay Talgam hoopt zoveel mogelijk mensen op de been te krijgen die achter elkaar een toon uitstoten. De recordpoging maakt deel uit van een chaosconcert, waar ook een improvisatieorkest deel van uitmaakt.

De actie vocal domino vindt plaats in het kader van Mastermundo, een jaarlijks terugkerend samenzijn van kunstenaars. Zij proberen in de Hofstad in één dag iets moois te creëren. De organisatie roept via blogs en twitter zoveel mogelijk mensen op zich tegen half elf ’s avonds op het Spui in Den Haag te melden. ,,Je hoeft niet per se te kunnen zingen”, beklemtoont dirigent Itay Talgam.

Hij rekent op tussen de duizend en vijfduizend deelnemers aan de recordpoging.

It was exactly what the group needed. Apparently need to have an incentive to participate. A lot of laughs and a bundle of energy. It became a group instantly. After agreeing to go for it at 10.30pm we rounded up, packed our stuff and finished the day at the auditorium of the KABK.

When I brought Itay to his hotel, I bumped into Olof van Winden, the director of TodaysArt and explained him what the situation was. We arranged a guerilla beamer set-up, contacted the social web godfather Roeland P. Landegent who was in control of everything social web at TodaysArt and we spread the word. In the restaurant the rules were made up. What is Vocal Domino? How does it work? Who is presenting it? What should be visible on the screens? Mark Ridder joined to make the screens and then left to make all the arrangements. So cool. The rest is history:

And such a great ending for the day. When we started the day, we had no clue where we would end up with. It was truly building an airplane while flying. And we had a great flight. For a large part, thanks to Ritzo.

Itay Talgam

admin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:22:43 +0000

Story follows.

Dagan Cohen

admin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:08:23 +0000

I met Dagan because I wanted to meet Dagan. Marco de Boer of Artmiks and then also facilitator at I/M/D accepted a place in the board of the ADCN. The place of Dagan. He spoke highly of Dagan. And since I value Marco’s opinion highly, I looked Dagan up online and based on what I found, I saw enough common ground to meet. So I sent him an email.

It was one of this magical moments. We met for lunch at 11. And it simply was a great energetic moment, likemindedness at first sight. It felt like continuing a conversation even though we hadn’t met before. Dagan is simply great. Creative, passionate and visionary straight from the heart. Since then we meet often, have great conversations on how to change the world, one world at the time.

Jan Menses

admin — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:01:20 +0000

On 2 May Jan Menses died at the age of 67. And with that, a small piece of me. If I remember it well, I first met Jan when I worked in a copy shop. I was I think 18 or 19. He was a friendly older man, always busy copying stuff, apparently busy doing projects. Art projects. He came by often, to make project proposals, books, etc. And he also needed a small bit of design like type set in a specific font. I was intrigued. I still painted and drew a lot, since I was in the first year of graphic design at Minerva. But his specific drawing style and his ideas I liked a lot. And that became clear quite soon. He had a background in advertising and that was so visible in his work and thinking.

We kept in contact ever since. For my internship, I decided not to go to an agency, because I already did a lot of work besides school. But asked Jan if I could do my internship with him, to work on my conceptual capacity. What followed was a period where I made a lot of conceptual work like Residue from a nearby past and also helped on the projects Jan was working on, like the Millennium Emergency Hospital. It was great and it helped me a lot.

I will always remember him as that man, didn’t matter where you bumped into him, that had a pile of papers under his arms, being up to something new. Another great plan. And I hope that when I will be 50+ I will do the same.

Howard Komproe

admin — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:37:49 +0000

Inmiddels gaat het al weer een stuk beter met mijn broer. En weten we ook wat nou de aanleiding was van de beroerte. Oja, ik heb het eigenlijk altijd over ‘broerte’, is een stuk makkelijker dan ‘de beroerte van mijn broer’. Hij had een een scheurtje in zijn halsslagader, waarschijnlijk ontstaan door hard remmen in de auto, waarbij de gordel een fikse tik op de nek heeft gegeven. Iets wat volgens mij iedereen wel eens heeft gehad en je verder dus ook niet bij na denkt. Maar er kan dus bloed gaan samenklonteren en als propje je hersenen in knallen.

Vlak nadat gebeurd was had ik Howard Komproe aan de lijn, vertelde ik over wat was gebeurd en geloof me dat het toen echt slecht was. Verlamming, etc. En iemand die 35 is hoort geen beroertes te krijgen. Ik belde Howard om te vragen of hij misschien iets opbeurends kon zeggen. Hij is immers beroepsgrapjas.

Ik kende Howard eigenlijk voornamelijk als de man in het leeuwenpak van de Postbank commercials, zoals denk ik heel veel mensen. Ik leerde hem kennen voor een project wat ik deed en hij de host van was. Nadat we dat samen hadden gedaan, raakten we aan de praat en toen bleek al snel dat hij veel meer is dan alleen maar de Postbankleeuw en grapjas. Hij vertelde over de projecten die hij deed, waarbij hij comedy inzet om mensen in moeilijke posities te helpen, ook veel kinderdingen. Ik was aangenaam verrast. Waarom wist ik dat niet? Nou is het op zich nogal makkelijk om dat niet te weten, aangezien je van tv-mensen nogal makkelijk een eenzijdig beeld hebt, namelijk van alleen van wat je ze op tv hebt zien doen. Maar wat me raakte was dat hij zijn talent gebruikt om mensen te helpen. Om bijvoorbeeld in jeugdgevangenissen jongeren te helpen om door middel van comedy beter bespreekbaar te maken wat ze hebben gedaan, enz.

Sindsdien hebben we regelmatig telefonisch contact. En dus ook tijdens broerte. Dus toen ik hem vroeg of hij wat opbeurends wilde inspreken op mijn voicemail zodat ik dat broer kon laten horen op een goed moment, vroeg Howard of hij hem niet gewoon even kon spreken. En toen hebben ze een half uur zitten ouwehoeren. En dat deed mijn broer zichtbaar goed, wat toen echt heel fijn was.

Howard deed de belofte dat wanneer hij in de buurt was met touren, dus in de buurt van Meppel, dat hij dat zou laten weten. Vorige week, inmiddels weken later, kreeg ik een smsje van hem. “Veenendaal, Leeuwarden of Enschede? Welke is goed te doen voor broer? Ik regel 2 vrijkaarten.” Wat goed! Alleen allemaal wel dik een uur uit de buurt, maar iedereen heeft altijd al moeite om Meppel een plek te geven op de kaart in hun hoofd, dus waarom hij dan niet. Trouwens, wat is dat eigenlijk, dat iedereen uiteindelijk Emmen onthoudt in plaats van Meppel? Dat het toch al ver weg is? Komt het door de dierentuin? Dat je ‘zo’ in Duitsland zit? Hoe dan ook, Howard sms-en. Of hij dan ook niet toevallig in Zwolle staat, of Steenwijk, of Hoogeveen of misschien zelfs Meppel want ook daar hebben we vaak theater. Zelfs gewoon Youp en verder iedereen. In het geval van Howard was het roepen van de eerste drie plaatsen best logisch, want daar stond hij geprogrammeerd ook al reist Comedytrain het hele land door. Dus smst hij: “Er is wel een gig in Hedon (Zwolle), maar ik sta dan zelf niet in de line-up. Kan ff kijken of iemand wil ruilen.” Moet niet gekker worden. Even later laat hij weten dat hij heeft geruild en iemand anders zijn Toomler (Amsterdam) gig doet, hij Zwolle. Dat is toch ontzettend lief? Vind ik wel.