Reinier Feijen

Work

Digital Art: Rafaël Rozendaal

Over twenty years of turning an artist's concepts into precise, interactive browser artworks — plus the websites and exhibition software around them.

  1. everything always everywhere .com by Rafaël Rozendaal
  2. Home by Rafaël Rozendaal
  3. Rendering of a work by Rafaël Rozendaal on a large building facade in Toronto at dusk
  4. Tool for selecting and previewing Rafaël Rozendaal's works on exhibition devices, showing a grid of works
  5. Stretch by Rafaël Rozendaal
  6. Gears by Rafaël Rozendaal
  7. much better than this .com by Rafaël Rozendaal
  8. looking at something .com by Rafaël Rozendaal
  9. stagnation means decline .com by Rafaël Rozendaal
  10. nothing ever happens .com by Rafaël Rozendaal

Context

For over twenty years, I’ve translated Rafaël Rozendaal’s artistic concepts into interactive browser-based works. What starts as a simple visual idea becomes a carefully tuned experience, where motion, timing, interaction and performance all matter. The collaboration also extends to exhibition software, creative tools and websites that bring the work to audiences around the world.

Digital artworks

Translating artistic concepts into interactive browser-based experiences. A work starts as a still, two-dimensional sketch; motion, timing, interaction and how it responds to any screen size still have to be found. I build versions with adjustable parameters, so Rafaël can explore and fine-tune the work himself, until it behaves exactly as he intends, visually flawless and moving as smoothly as possible on any device.

Exhibition and installation software

Software that supports presenting digital art in physical spaces, from MoMA in New York, Museum Folkwang in Essen and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to large building facades from Toronto to Seoul. It has to run unattended: start straight into the work whenever a device boots or restarts, and stay up for days without errors or slowdowns. It also handles which works are shown and how — randomisation, syncing, parametrisation — again with Rafaël at the controls through simple configuration files.

Tooling

Around the works I build tools that let Rafaël work independently: from frame-perfect recordings at any resolution and selecting and previewing works on location, to all kinds of scripts that support our day-to-day collaboration.

Portfolio websites

Over the years the artist’s website has gone through many versions, from custom WordPress themes and plugins to the current newrafael.com, built with React and TypeScript and integrated with the Ethereum blockchain. Minimal but precise.

Technical challenge

Visual precision and interaction that must behave identically across browsers, screen sizes and decades of changing web technology — from Flash to the blockchain.