Todd van Hulzen visualizes, designs, manages and builds environments and attributes for the Film, Television, and Museum industries. He has also done work in interior design, themed entertainment, retail display, monuments, restoration, urbanism and fine art.
RECENT ACTIVITY
Now designing the permanent exhibit for the regional agrarian museum "Broekerveiling".
(July 10, 2011)
The Museum Broekerveiling showcases the phenomenon of the Dutch agricultural auction, an institution originating in the 19th century as a product of cooperation by independant produce farmers in the watery regions of the Province North Holland. Centered around a historic "water-borne" auction house, where auction lots are proffered by boat and are bid on using the "Dutch auctioning" technique, the Museum Broekerveiling has expanded its capacity and is now a center for agrarian history and culture of the entire region. In its new visitors' center, the Museum is creating a permanent exhibition, using collection items, multimedia, archive and interview film footage, and animated maquettes to give the visitor an expanded, comprehensive and fun experience.
Todd will be working on this project for the coming year, creating concepts and designs, and directing the physical completion of the exhibit.
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Now designing the inaugural exhibit of the National Archives of the Netherlands.
(July 10, 2011)
Het Nationaal Archief (the Dutch NationalArchives)is the largestarchival institution in the Netherlands. It oversees over 600seperate archival collections and is, in a sense, the memory of the Dutch people. In 2012 it will be opening its new 800 square meter exhibit space in The Hague with an inaugural exhibit 1001 Stories. This will consist of a "festival" of stories and narrators, each with a separate pavillion/theater.
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Illustrations for an exhibit presentation in Comic Book format.
(March 10, 2011)
The only possible excuse to ever use the Comic Sans letterface: in a comic book. This was a proposal for a children's line withing a larger museum context. Even though we don't have the project yet, I was really excited about these pages.
If you go to the linke, be sure to right click on the images to open them in a larger format in a new window.
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Score! Todd van Hulzen and Museumstudio win a prest-igious award for Museum Broekerveiling.
As we described in an earlier post, we were nominated for an "InternationalMuse Award", the prestigious award presented by the American Association of Museums, in the category of "Multimedia Installation" for our work at the Broekerveiling, the floating action house. Considering the competition, we are very pleased with our Honorable Mention. Following is the text from the association website:
HONORABLE MENTION:
Museum Broeker Veiling - 'The Auction Day'
Museum Broeker Veiling, Broek op Langedijk
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Museumstudio, Amsterdam & Todd van Hulzen Design
Judges said:
The most ingenious part of this project lies in its combination of the real-sized model, camera, and projector to create a unique story-telling platform, presenting the main characteristics of the very museum and cultural distinctiveness of the locale. Elaborately designed music score, narration and atmosphere not onlyconveythe general idea of what the museum is to address but also create a visiting experience of profound richness for the audience.
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Installation opens for the exhibit "Gold" at the Museum Catherijne Convent in Utrecht.
June 15, 2010)
The third unveiling this year is "Goud" (or Gold) at the Catherijne Convent in Utrecht. The Catherijne Convent is the museum of eccliastical heritage in the Netherlands, and by extension also a podium for the ritualistic and medieval. It is known for its innovative exhibits on popular customs and spirituality. For the exhibit "Goud" (gold in Dutch) the Catherijnenconvent and the Museum of Money invited Todd van Hulzen and the Museumstudio to create an installation in the lower hall on the subject of the real value of gold. The fashion designer Aziz Bekkaoui created an associative and fashion-oriented exhibit on the second floor.
Our point of departure was a tiny block of gold 3mm × 3mm, which we repeated 165 million times on the walls of the exhibit space, representing the total amount of historically mined gold in the world. Inside a "golden temple" we projected an interactive display highlighting the real allocation of gold in the world: for example, which proportion of all gold went worldwide towards jewelry each year. Another interactive display allowed viewers to try to match displayed amounts of gold with the value of a certain object of desire. We also created a "golden altar" which permitted viewers to try to actually pick up a 12 kilogram bar of gold with one hand. Easier said than done.
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Todd van Hulzen and Museumstudio nominated for a Muse Award.
May 5, 2010)
We are really proud to be nominated for an "International Muse Award", the prestigious award presented by the American Association of Museums, in the category of "Multimedia Installation" for our living, mechanical dioramas at the Broeker Auction Museum (Broekerveiling). The awards will be announced on May 23 at the AAM Museum Expo in Los Angeles.
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"Master the Universe!" at the University Science Museum of Utrecht unveils a radical new exhibit in a ground-breaking decor.
(April 27, 2010)
After Months and months of hard work and brow-mopping production, Todd van Hulzen and the Museumstudio are proud to show to the world our groundbreaking exhibit on theoretical particle physics and the man who mastered it. The conceptual vehicle of the show is "the Theoretical Spaceship" captained by Nobel Prize winner and physics professor Gerard 't Hooft. The decor was constructed using electroluminescent technology. Instead of traditional halogen lighting we stretched more than 2 kilometers of electroluminescent wire in intricate looping designs. All of the text panels are lit by paper-thin E-L sheets. The play of light and dark has a slightly disorientating effect, which we quite like. In addition to this, a number of our other installations work on the senses: the inclined "Shuttle", the rotating light-tunnel of the "Scale Generator", and the Fresnel lenses and monitors of the "Communication-Wall". See below for a description, and see the pictures to judge for yourself.
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Project for the Hermitage Show "Matisse to Malevich"
(February 11, 2010)
For the blockbustwer exhibition, "Matisse to Malevich: Pioneers of Modern Art from the Hermitage", Todd was asked by the Museumstudio to help create a space for a multimedia installation, or as they like to call it in their vision-statement, "a dream machine". (www.museumstudio.nl) The venerable museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia has a new annex in Amsterdam.
From the Hermitage website: "Outstanding works by Matisse, Picasso, Van Dongen, De Vlaminck, Derain and many other contemporaries of theirs will be seen in a magnificent display from 6 March 2010 to 17 September 2010 at the Hermitage Amsterdam in the exhibition Matisse to Malevich."
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A Space Ship rises at the University Museum of Utrecht
(February 1, 2010)
The first designs and the first bids are in for the next big project, an exhibition about the extremes of science in the world of theoretical particle physics. Guided by the Nobel Prize winner, Gerard 't Hooft, young students are introduced to a fascinating and puzzling world of quarks and muons, light-speed, black holes and fractals. Todd has worked intensively with the Museumstudio to come up with an engaging concept and an exciting environment. The result is a "vessel for exploring the edges of science." In short, a space ship made of light.
Opens April 24, 2010, Universiteitsmuseum Utrecht.
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Fantastic Mr. Fox nominated for 2 Oscars. Wins Best Production Design at the National Society of Film Critics Awards
(January 10, 2010)
In 2007 and 2008 Todd designed miniature environments for the stop-motion animated feature Fantastic Mr. Fox directed by Wes Anderson. Todd worked in London with Production Designer Nelson Lowry to create the marked style that is getting so much attention. We can say it paid off, as we all love to bask in the residual glow of critical acclaim. Congratulations to Nelson on his NSFC award!
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Opening of "NewtonMania" at Museum Boerhaave a Great Success.
(December 20, 2009)
After 6 months of hard work, the ambitious exhibition about the influence of Isaac Newton in the Netherlands has finally come to fruition. The Opening was the most crowded on record, which befits a local "blockbuster". After speeches and toasts by Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft (physics 1999) and a bit of interpretive dance, we cut the ribbon on a colorful and egaging show.
For this exhibition Todd used the theme of church architecture and mood to highlight the quasi-religious reverence in which Isaac Newton was held in the 18th century. Additionally this gave us the chance to use light and glass —specifically, stained glass— to illustrate the life of Newton and his 3 greatest Continental disciples, Boerhaave, 's Gravesande, and van Musschenbroek. See photos on the Boerhaave page. PAGE LINK
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