__about

Harm van den Berg (b. 1970, Amsterdam, Netherlands) is a multidisciplinary artist investigating emergence, complexity, and self-organization in natural systems. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 1996.

His work has been exhibited in galleries and art institutions, including Kunsthal KAdE, Museum Belvédère, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, Netherlands Media Art Institute, W139, Stroom HCBK, Arti et Amicitiae, De Voorkamer in Lier (Belgium), and AC Institute in New York City. He has also performed at various venues, such as Museum De Paviljoens in Almere, Zoo Gallery in Nantes(France), Galeria Klovicevi in Zagreb (Croatia), and the Crossing Border Festival in Amsterdam.

Van den Berg has received grants from the Mondriaan Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, which have supported his research and artistic practice. He lives and works in Amsterdam.

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During a drawing session, something strange happened. With a pencil, I carefully placed small black squares on the paper, connecting their corners. What was supposed to become a simple, stepped diagonal line developed entirely differently. The line took on a life of its own, meandering upward and then downward, as if it had a will of its own. Later, I realized that what had happened spontaneously, beyond my control, in my drawings was a fundamental principle of nature—a phenomenon known as emergence.

Emergence

Emergence refers to the spontaneous formation of new shapes and structures without central control, occurring when many identical elements connect. This process is found everywhere in nature: in the intriguing patterns of a flock of birds, the complex constructions of an ant colony, or the branching of a fungal network underground. To investigate the phenomenon of emergence, I use various media, including drawings and sound works, to reveal the underlying structures of networks and systems.

When I created my first emergent drawings, I knew little about concepts such as self-organization, complexity, or emergence. That changed a few years ago when I started reading scientific literature on these subjects in preparation for a residency at Kunstvereniging Diepenheim through the Mondriaan Fund. Conversations with philosopher Eric Schliesser about self-regulation and a lecture by physicist Erik Verlinde on emergence made me realize that an emergent phenomenon occurs during my drawing process. From that moment on, I delved deeper into this phenomenon, leading to a shift in my work, where processes with emergent properties now take center stage.

Drawings

Since my first emergent experiments, my drawings have become increasingly complex. Using a pencil on paper, I draw small shapes and lines—minute graphical elements that I interconnect. Through repeated patterns, intricate formations and cloud-like structures emerge. As I draw, I alternate graphical elements spontaneously, in a manner similar to automatic writing. The organically grown drawings resemble graphical representations of computer data, fungal networks, or galaxies.

This precise and meticulous way of drawing is very familiar to me. Between the ages of sixteen and twenty, I worked as a technical draftsman for my father, an urban planner and architect. This experience laid the foundation for my highly concentrated approach to drawing. When I draw, I feel connected to nature. I see it as a form of 'empathetic registration.' Through drawing, I experience how visible and invisible connections, structures, and rhythms shape our universe on both micro- and macrocosmic scales through emergent processes.

Sound Works

While my drawings document an emergent process that unfolds during creation, my sound works allow the emergent process to happen in real-time. I achieve this by integrating speakers behind a blank canvas or within a wall, allowing sound to 'move' across the surface. These sound works are controlled by the Emergent Clock software I developed—an algorithm that functions as a mathematical petri dish, spontaneously organizing sounds on the canvas. Spectators witness a spatial sound composition that continuously generates itself anew.

The first sound work incorporating this idea was The Invisibility of Colour, realized in mid-2022 with a development grant from the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts. For this sound composition, I interviewed hundreds of people, asking them which colors they found beautiful or intriguing. I recorded and processed their answers into samples. These spoken colors emanate from twenty invisible speakers behind the canvas, forming clusters that spread across the surface, creating a constantly evolving 'sound painting.'

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