In May and June 2026, Intermatter is hosting Dutch artist Janne Schimmel as artist in residence. Janne Schimmel's residency project takes a second-hand 2007 Novint Falcon haptic controller as its starting point. Though the device was designed mostly to simulate gun violence, Janne is interested in what happens when that same sense of digital tactility is turned toward care. Drawing on Karin Ehrnberger's writing on the gendering of consumer electronics and Mierle Laderman Ukeles' Maintenance Art Manifesto, the project replaces a game's usual progression system with the act of brushing someone's hair. Alongside the digital hair simulation, Janne has begun a durational practice of brushing people's hair in person and having conversations with them.
Janne Schimmel (NL, 1993) is a Dutch artist based between Antwerp, Belgium, and Arnhem, the Netherlands. His practice concerns itself with the inner workings of both hardware and software, which he deconstructs physically and digitally, exposing the frameworks that determine how we think about technology as a society. Schimmel is interested in how the rapid innovations in the fields of AI, immersive gaming and the decentralization of computer software and hardware can be understood and applied in a sustainable and humane way, connecting these developments to the historical coping mechanisms and rituals that dealt with change and transformation.
His work consists of sculptural works and installations that combine traditional crafts such as mold making and metal casting with new technology’s such as 3D sculpting and game design. By juxtaposing these seemingly material opposites Schimmel aims to soften the dichotomy between what is hand made and what is the machine produced.