Jakob Kudsk Steensen

Jakob Kudsk Steensen, a “digital gardener” from Denmark, brings together physical, virtual, real, and imagined landscapes in mixed-reality installations. He creates location-specific artworks that tell stories of overlooked ecosystems and forgotten natural histories. He is concerned with how imagination, technology, and ecology intertwine, investigating how people relate to the climate on a psychological and emotional level. Much of Kudsk Steensen’s work is rooted in the sociological idea that we no longer live in an era where the future can be predicted based on the past, and that technology and nature are transforming faster and more drastically than we are able to grasp. His works are created through collaborations with artists and scientists, including Michael Riesman, musical director of the Philip Glass Ensemble; architect David Adjaye; and both the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Natural History Museum in London.

The artist has participated in numerous residencies, from Luma Foundation in France to La Becque in Switzerland, and from Bemis Art Center to MASS MoCA in the US, allowing him to develop and construct his new geological universes over months of extensive research, collaboration, and field work. Kudsk Steensen was a finalist for the Future Generation Art Prize at the 2019 Venice Biennale, and he was the recipient of the Best Production Design award for RE-ANIMATED (2019) at the Cinequest Festival for Technology and Cinema; the Prix du Jury (2019) at Les Rencontres Arles; the Webby Awards—People’s Choice VR (2018); and the Games for Change Awards—Most Innovative (2018), among others.