A Conversation with MADTech Tutor Ruud Akse

FMI Graduation Show 2026 Interview Series

By Olivia Niuman

Ruud Akse is a core tutor of the MADtech (Media, Art, Design & Technology) program, which he has been a part of for nearly two decades. I asked Ruud to share some insight into the MADtech department and the work of some of the students graduating this year. 

Having seen many cohorts of students come and go, Ruud has a long-term perspective on how the institution, the exam structure, and the artistic systems of students develop hand in hand. “We have, sometimes, two years of only people working with sound, other times only with videos and more computer-based, other times it's more really with robots or sensors, that sort of thing, and otherwise only for the Internet.” 

Often, students come from very technical backgrounds: graphic design, IT, software or video game design. “But they miss this kind of freedom because they’re in these rigid systems where you have to do this or you have to do that. So with MADtech, we are looking for people who are thinking a little bit different, seeing other possibilities” 

He sees having students from different educational backgrounds beyond the fine arts as a strength of the program; this year’s graduating students also come from a wide range of education and professional backgrounds, skills and interests. I asked Ruud if despite this (or maybe, because of it) he noticed any specific places where the practices overlap. 

“Atharva Gupta and Eryn Bosma, for example, are both looking for things they find on the street, to reuse it and make a different thing out of it. They have sort of the same kind of attitude, but a totally different mindset.” 

What’s the different mindset? “Atharva is, for instance, more interested in sound and the software behind it. With the software you can direct it, but at some point the software sort of takes over, so it’s a different structure. Eryn is more interested in how to reuse household things to give them another meaning.” 

“Riley Huang is totally different in this sense. Their research is about longing for a kind of rock star feeling, and this idea that you have to be young to get famous, so there’s a sort of tragedy to it.” 

I was curious if Ruud also saw a connection between Riley and Maika Sontrop, who also makes video and performance work rooted in her Krump dance background but also related to notions of ego and identity. “Absolutely; Maika comes from a totally different context. She has a very keen eye for simple, subtle details about how people are moving their fingers, how they eat, and their mouth is changing.” 

We talked about how the conceptual layer is often the thing that students develop the most over the trajectory of the course. For Ruud as a teacher, it is important that the students are able to pinpoint how they want to engage in the world artistically. For example: “Say you work a lot on a computer. So that can be web-based, but also maybe in software or in photographs or in animations. That’s only the beginning to understand, okay, what kind of artist am I?” Working with a computer and engaging with the computer as a philosophical structure are two different layers of an artistic system. 

There are eight MADtech students graduating from the program this year, and while they have different materials, working methods, and conceptual concerns, they all share a creative way of thinking that Ruud believes is central to the program. “We don’t believe in using any specific kind of software, but in the way of thinking about the software. It’s a way of thinking about new media, and that’s something that I see in all of them.”  

The MADtech students’ graduation work, along with the other three departments at the Frank Mohr Institute, will be on view at the A-Kerk in Groningen from 25-28 June, 2026. For more interviews, information, and details about the students and their graduation work, keep an eye on the event page on our website and follow us on Instagram.