Emma Vos wint Hannie Schaftprijs 2026

Design student Emma Vos won the Hannie Schaft Prize at the opening of the academic year. Emma has designed an interactive installation that allows visitors to feel and experience emotional neglect within parent-child relationships. “We’ve come to believe that parents are always good for their children, but that is certainly not the case.”

Text: Jan Willem Kerssies (Hanze)

“Emma has, in a technically very skilful way, transformed an abstract and painful subject into a tangible, artistic installation. The project is rooted in psychological theories and personal experiences, making the absence of something that leaves no physical traces palpable,” states the jury report. The interactive installation was Emma’s final-year project. She explains how the idea came about: “I hadn’t been in touch with my parents for a while. You get a lot of reactions from people who find that surprising. ‘How can you not be in touch with your parents?’ they would sometimes say, without knowing the context. When it comes to parents, everyone has an opinion. There are many more people who are affected by this, so I felt the subject deserved more attention. That turned out to be justified, given the number of reactions afterwards. We’ve decided that parents are always good for children, but that’s certainly not the case.”

White children’s bedroom

Emma’s final-year project was on display at the Minerva Art Academy's Graduation Show. She explains the design: “I designed a white children’s bedroom. The colour white was deliberately chosen to convey the clinical and cold nature of emotional neglect. The room consisted of several parts. Upon entering, an old telephone would ring. Visitors were first given an explanation of my final-year project and then presented with a menu of options. You could choose, for example, to tell your own story or listen back to someone else’s story. In this way, I wanted to give people a voice they’ve never had. You could also play a Wii game. I programmed this game so that you couldn’t win. My aim was to convey the feeling that it isn’t the children’s fault, but the system’s. On the bed sat a large teddy bear called Berend. I built a skeleton inside the teddy bear so that its arms could move. That way, Berend could give hugs. The teddy bear was physically present, but emotionally absent. Just like parents sometimes are. In the room there were also Lego bricks made with a 3D printer, but the pieces didn’t fit together properly. If you tried to build something with the bricks, the structure kept collapsing. My aim was to show that sometimes you don’t get the right building blocks from home.” 

Overweldigende reacties

Emma received an overwhelming response during the Graduation Show. “Sometimes people who came in had to step out of the room for a moment because it was all a bit too much. I had lots of good conversations during the Graduation Show. For example, I spoke to a father who was no longer in contact with his daughter. He was curious to know how a child experiences this. Beforehand, I’d felt that people didn’t understand me, but that’s not the case at all. My final-year project offers a sense of recognition and validation, and I’ve received that in return from visitors too. My parents, with whom I’m now back in touch, came by twice. They didn’t go into the subject any further; they were mainly just very proud that I graduated with a 10 and a 9.5. My father told one of my friends that he had no idea where the idea had come from. That might sound a bit harsh, but I had actually expected that reaction. I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is just how it is.” 

New project

Emma hadn’t expected to win the Hannie Schaft Prize. “I was just happy to be in the final three; I really didn’t expect to win.” As the winner of the Hannie Schaft Prize, Emma will receive two thousand euros. “I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with the money. It will definitely go towards a new project. I’ve just started the Master’s in Media, Art, Design & Technology at the Frank Mohr Institute. I still need to come up with a new project to use the money for.”