LIVE VISUALS & STAGE CREATIVE
Projections, screen walls and stage visuals
ClientNight of the Lotuseater, Morphula One, Smart ESG Executive Forum, GuatePhoto, Lucie Foundation / MOPLA, 500Photographers, Festival of GamesServicesCreative Direction, Motion Design, Stage Creative, 3D & VR, Original Score, CameraYear2009 to 2025
Light first. Image second.
Summary
In 2009 I filmed a real-time mirror installation at the Festival of Games. In 2012 and 2013, 45-minute projections for photo festivals in Guatemala City and Los Angeles, scored with my own guitars. In 2016, stage visuals for my own band at De Harmonie, Leeuwarden. In 2023 a three-screen stage wall for Climate Week NYC, built in six weeks. In 2025, a Formula 1 stadium in virtual reality, live in Somnium Space. One rule across all of it: a screen at a show lights the performer, the crowd and the room, or it fights them.
Every screen brief asks for content. The real brief is what the screen does to the room. At a show the wall is the brightest thing in the space. It lights everyone in front of it, so it gets designed as light first and image second.
A picture fills a screen. Light fills a room.
01
Night of the Lotuseater, De Harmonie, Leeuwarden, 2016
My band. Our screen.
I play bass in Night of the Lotuseater and directed the projection behind us. Stage visuals for our set at De Harmonie, Leeuwarden, built around the song “Dublin”. Designer and performer on the same stage, standing in the light I made.
Client: Night of the Lotuseater, De Harmonie, Leeuwarden
Year: 2016
Role: Creative direction, stage projection, bass/guitars/synths
Tools: Apple Motion, FCP
02
GuatePhoto and MOPLA
MOPLA trailer. View full projection here.
GuatePhoto trailer. View full projection here.
Two festivals, one archive.
Work from the 500Photographers archive, curated by Pieter Wisse, set in sequence for two 45-minute projections and scored with my own guitars. At GuatePhoto 2012 it screened indoors at La Fototeca, a converted cinema in Guatemala City, as part of DOT.COM: four online platforms on four large screens in one room, beside Lenscratch, Fotovisura and Flak Photo. In 2013 it followed at Pro’jekt LA, part of the Month of Photography Los Angeles, run by the Lucie Foundation. Each had an online trailer.
Client: GuatePhoto DOT.COM, La Fototeca, Guatemala City · Lucie Foundation, MOPLA Pro’jekt LA, Los Angeles · with 500Photographers
Year: GuatePhoto 2012 · MOPLA 2013
Role: Creative direction, motion design, original guitar score
Tools: Apple Motion, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Logic Pro X
03
Smart ESG Executive Forum, Harvard Club of New York
Three screens. Six weeks.
Climate Week NYC set the date. In six weeks I directed the event identity, the stage creative and a synced three-screen video wall in custom formats, plus printed lectern signage and product demos rebuilt for iPads on stage. The product kept shipping through all of it.
Client: Datamaran
Year: 2023
Role: Art direction, stage creative, screen content and sync, video edit, demo production
Tools: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere, Figma
04
Morphula One, Somnium Space, 2025
Pitched it. Then built it.
A Formula 1 stadium in virtual reality, where race history replays from real telemetry on the stadium’s screens. We concepted it in 2022 and wrote the proposals, then built a first version ourselves and shipped it in late 2025. It is live in Somnium Space. I designed the concept, modeled the stadium in Houdini and Blender, assembled it in Unity and made the motion for its screens. Programming in collaboration with a Unity developer based in Copenhagen.
Client: Self-initiated, Morphula
Year: Concept 2022, v1 shipped 2025
Role: Concept, World Building, 3D modeling (Houdini, Blender), Unity build, screen motion design
Tools: Houdini, Blender, Unity
05
Mirror of Broken Time, 2009
The performance, filmed.
Filming light that moves.
A real-time video installation by Matthias Oostrik, the first part of his plplpl.pl series: a mirror of 56 sections, each controlled live to shift the delay and position of the video, scattering the performer across space and time. First shown at the Festival of Games on invitation of the Muziekinstituut MultiMedia (MiMM), later performed at Paradiso, Amsterdam. I filmed the performance on a Sony PMW-EX1, holding exposure between projected light and a moving dancer.
Client: Matthias Oostrik
Year: 2009
Role: Camera
Tools: Sony PMW-EX1
Credits: Concept: Matthias Oostrik. Performance: Laura de Boer. Choreography: Leonie Kuipers. Music: Michiel Mensingh. Design and lighting: Manuel Rodrigues. Camera: Bart Dykstra.
Credits and role
Night of the Lotuseater: Bart Dykstra, creative direction, stage projection, bass/guitars/synth. Leo van der Veen, guitars/bass, Klaas Harm Dijkstra, drums/live sampling
Smart ESG Executive Forum: Bart Dykstra, art direction, stage creative, screen content, edit, demo production. Carina Correia, VP Marketing.
GuatePhoto and MOPLA: Bart Dykstra, creative direction, motion design, guitars. Curation: 500Photographers/Pieter Wisse. MOPLA Pro’jekt LA 2013 presented by the Lucie Foundation, Los Angeles.
Morphula One: Bart Dykstra, concept, 3D modeling (Houdini, Blender), Unity, screen motion design. Programming: Unity developer, Copenhagen.
Mirror of Broken Time: Concept: Matthias Oostrik. Performance: Laura de Boer. Choreography: Leonie Kuipers. Music: Michiel Mensingh. Design and lighting: Manuel Rodrigues. Camera: Bart Dykstra.
