Niki Smit is a multi-award winning director of interactive and experiential art. He is co-founder / creative director at Monobanda, where he explores and expands the boundaries of play and embodied interaction. Additionally, he is director at ExploreDEEP, where he creates meditative, breath controlled VR experiences.
His work focuses heavily on researching and developing new forms of playful behaviour. His passion lies in creating projects that connect the human body, physical space and the virtual world in surprising ways, creating meaningful embodied experiences that fills the space between art, science and mental wellbeing.
He has collaborated and lectured with numerous international organizations, universities, research groups and museums. Notable awards he won are the Dutch Directors Guild award for Best digital Storytelling 2020, and the prestigious Special Jury award SXSW2024.
We all use media to self medicate. We binge watch, we game, we immerse ourselves in other worlds to relax, escape and forget. We are instinctively drawn to play to make ourselves feel better. But play is more than entertainment. Play is a survival mechanism all mammals learn to adapt to the world around them.
In his talk on November 21 at Nieuwe Veste, creative director and game designer Niki Smit will explore how psychology and science can guide us to create art that engages, supports growth, and helps us navigate our daily emotions.