Bastiaan Schoof
Bastiaan Schoof has been a senior lecturer in lighting and light design at the University of Arts Amsterdam since 2016. He is also one of the members of the Dutch Institute of Light Design (iLo). He participates in the Canon II lighting design working group and the lighting technology working group. He will serve as the expert researcher for this project, drawing on his expertise in light, light design, and education.
Bastiaan began his career with lighting in theatre while studying in Groningen. At that time, the newly built University Theatre was ready and in need of volunteers. It all started with a simple question: “Do you want to help for two weeks in the University Theatre?” Obviously, he said yes, and it lasted a bit longer than two weeks.
He joined a group of volunteer students in a theatre equipped with six ADB PC’s, a couple of ADB Fresnels, six Strand Pattern 23’s, two ADB dimmers with six channels, and an ADB manual lighting console. Alongside a manual six-dimmer system with levers from the 1970’s, as sometimes more than twelve channels were needed. It was 1989.
After a year experience with lighting, he was asked by a theatre festival from the art academy to assist a theatre performance, made by Finnish theatre students. A year later, he was invited to work for the NNT, the professional touring theatre group in the North of the Netherlands. That was the start of his professional career in the world of lighting for theatre and live events. First in and around Groningen and from 1999 in and around Amsterdam. Today, Bastiaan works in various fields of the lighting world. He serves as a teacher, workshop leader, light designer, maker, expert researcher, and curator for light art
Since 2016, he has been a senior lecturer in lighting and light design at the department of Design & Technology at the University of Arts Amsterdam. Prior to that, he worked as a teacher in vocational education in Amsterdam from 2003 until 2016.
With his extensive knowledge of education, he was involved in three EU education projects: since 2015 in the ETTEC project focused on safety on stages, since 2021 in the ESSENCE project, contributing his expertise on competencies, and in 2023 and 2024, he participated in the TEBEVAT project, another EU initiative for the validation and recognition of prior learning.
In addition, he is a light designer for location-based theatre. In recent years, he has primarily focused on creating light art in public spaces through his Happy Tunnel project, which has resulted in five permanent light artworks in Amsterdam.
Bastiaan was also instrumental in the launch of the Amsterdam Light Festival in 2012, where he worked for almost ten years. He founded the team responsible for building and installing the artworks, utilizing the operational methods typical of a technical theatre team. He has helped, advised, and selected locations for approximately 300 light-artworks, overseeing projects from existing pieces to the development of ideas and concepts through to installation.
In 2021, he founded his own light art exhibition in Utrecht, titled “I Light U,” where he serves as the artistic director and curator. Additionally, he advises other light art projects and festivals.
He is also involved with the Dutch Institute of Light Design (iLo), where he organizes several expert talks each year. Currently, iLo is part of the Canon II project. Together with Isabel Nielen, he will serve as the expert researcher for this project, drawing on his expertise in light, light design, and education.
More about Bastiaan in Dutch: article in the alumni university magazine of the University Groningen:
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