Action>Reaction – Sjimmie Veenhuis (2017)

In 2017, Sjimmie Veenhuis was commissioned to create a work of art for the Noorderzon Festival. He created the light sculpture Action>Reaction, an interactive installation of 1000 illuminated switch buttons with which you could create your own work of art. A few months after the festival, the artwork was on display at the Vismarkt from 1 to 4 November during the Let’s Gro Festival. In Action>Reaction, Veenhuis playfully reverses the relationship between the artist as the maker and you as the viewer. By moving the switches, you could create your own patterns and illustrations, or change someone else’s work. According to Veenhuis, Action>Reaction symbolises the increasing virtual experience of reality and the current ‘on-demand culture’. He wondered: are we still aware of the use of a switch? What does it mean to turn something on or off?