Ingmar König

About


The Interior of the Campfire, and its Interface
We build interiors to live and work in. In doing so, we tend to forget that we are animals.

We added screens to these interiors, first as a passive escape, then started bringing those with us everywhere we went. The screens became less passive, as their interactive interfaces started substituting for interiors, allowing us to get lost in them, detouring in their endless hallways.

As computing sheds its screen, we need to think about how we experience digital space for interaction, so that it enhances the experience of our direct environment, instead of allowing us to escape it — in the same way that an interior does not need to close off our connection to our habitat.

Rather, on the contrary, the first interior we created was not defined by its physical confinement, but by its epicenter. The Campfire gave us warmth, protection, a place to tell stories and to learn how to listen, while the smoke stung the eyes of those who sat too close. It was our first constructed environment as a species.

Today our global source of heat is The Cloud — not a soft, puffy aerosol, but a dense, hot, beeping structure. Not built for proximity, but hidden from sight and mind, only to be interacted with on a daily basis through a multitude of interfaces.

We have entangled ourselves with what we built, and in my work I try to tell stories about our struggles as human animals, interacting with this entanglement.

Previous


A sculpture can only ever inhabit one place in space — that limitation pushed me toward building installations instead. I wanted the visitor to be able to navigate the work itself and by their presence become part of the work.

With industrial scent machines, I infected Art Brussels in 2016 with Plague. Placed inside a closed off fumigation tent that resembled a covered to-be-revealed-sculpture, they dispersed their different smells unknowingly onto the public, their aerosols landing on them, as they carried them further through Art Brussels and onto their day. Four different aroma's alternated to subconsciously evoke nostalgia (cola candy flavour), the unknown (space ship), the luring (the perfume of an apparel store) and the appaling (airplane crash).

"König focuses on the arena of fear that is often connected to the unknown and the worry about the dangers that lay ahead. Some of the defining strands of fear that König explored connect to the disquiet and unidentified danger of radiation and virus infections. While our sensory receptors are unable to help us establish its extensiveharm, it is often long term or life threatening." Source (2016)

Plague - Art Brussels

From there I started to grow an interest in closing the work off entirely — making the visitor long for an entrance rather than granting one. Their is an something inside us that makes us walk over the next hill, fueled by the promise that we can reward ourselves with the view from there, Not much different how we can keep scrolling on our devices, in search of the next satisfyable insight or perspective.

So I started creating works from this notice, and for Unfair I installed an interrogation room. Inside this work, called Bystander, I created actual clouds that gently touched a floating rectangle as they moved by. Red and green wingtips lights of an airplane blinked inside lighting up the clouds, as a rumbling sound of an airplane was audible. On the floating rectangle, with 16:9 dimensions only subtitles appeared: interrogation questions of airport customs taken from a popular realitty TV series. Leaving the answers of the interrogated blank, but keeping the timing. The room could not be entered.

Bystander - Unfair Amsterdam

A smell was dispersed from the room, together with the clouds that could be seen leaking through an air vent, luring people towards the mirror. It could be viewed through a one-way mirror, and only when one would hold their hands between the glass and their eyes, closing off any reflection. A work easy to be missed on purpose.

Bystander - Unfair Amsterdam

My interest in creating works as experiences of the body longing for space, grew. I wanted to built upon my practice and deepen it with a more rooted Master's. To understand the constructed environment, and more precisely the interior. So I enrolled for Interior Architecture Research & Design at the Piet Zwart Institute.

There I researched and created, broadening my academic and architectual knowledge. and wrote my Master's thesis on the experience of space-time and the interior of a crash link. During my studies I created several works that played with the notion of perceived time as space.

Touchdown - 8min interpolation

Crash - 5:32 machinima videoloop

I graduated in 2020, during a full Covid lockdown — with no physical exhibition allowed, my graduation work became an online piece: a challenge to make something of real weight (or length in time) while staying under a megabyte in size. Everyone was sending gigabytes back and forth for online meetings, so I wanted something that kept the Cloud cool while still challenging the receiver. I wrote a 15-minute animation purely in HTML and CSS that pushed the receiver's CPU and GPU — an extended thought on constructed space from a cinematic angle, moving through shifting chapters. My favorite was the chapter where I thought out loud about the fog in Silent Hill.

Phosphor start

After graduating, I started to dive into coding. Beyond HTML and CSS, I picked up JavaScript and eventually C#, growing enthusiastic about Unity and Blender — building environments without material resources. Where I once made mostly physical installations, I became increasingly drawn to the immaterial: text and code. At the moment, I'm writing a novel, whenever I have time to write. I'm always looking forward to new ways of working.

Detourist - Atmospheric Spatial Proximity Puzzle Game (in Development)

Master of Interior Architecture
Piet Zwart Institute
(cum laude)


Bachelor of Fine Arts
Utrecht University of the Arts
(with honours)


collaborations Jasmijn Visser – Berlin | JITIVI – Bangkok | Yiyang Lui – Shanghai | Nest – The Hague
teaching Willem de Kooning Academy - Lecturer - Bachelor students, year 1-4 of Advertising & Beyond '22-'25
skills 3D modelling and animation, game development, project management and building physical art installations and exhibitions with digital interfaces.
tools Blender, Unity, C#, Python, Kicad, Custom PCB design, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Arduino, EPS32, After Effects, Premiere, Davinci, Final Cut, Photoshop, Illustrator, Zbrush, Sketchup, VScode
languages Dutch (native), English (fluent), German (advanced)
awards Finalist Creative Hack Award - WIRED | Alumni Research Award - MIARD | Shortlist Piet Bakker Prijs - HKU
stipends PRO Invest - Stroom | Jong Talent + Opdrachtgever - MondriaanFonds | Jong Talent - MondriaanFonds | Contemporary Art Fund - Outset
solo Stroom Ondertussen - Stroom | Contraband - Galerie Gabriel Rolt | Detourist - P///akt
group Shifting Weathers — Villa Heike Kunstverein | Under Matters - Cookies HQ Rotterdam | Loophole - Roodkapje Rotterdam | Reading Picture - Chunart Museum Shanghai China| Happy Like Yesterday - Nest The Hague | Misfit Love - Galerie Gabriel Rolt Amsterdam | On Observation and Construction - Chongqin Air China | Concept Store - Nest The Hague | Piet Bakker Prijs - AcademieGalerie Utrecht | Oktoberfest - Hotel MariaKapel Hoorn | Let There Be Light - Nest The Hague
residencies Freizeit Normal - Ampelhaus | Oktoberfest - Hotel MariaKapel
fairs Art Brussels - 1 HOUR SOLO | Art Rotterdam - Represented by Galerie Gabriel Rolt | Art Rotterdam - Mondriaanfonds Prospects & Concepts | Unfair Amsterdam | Unfair x Christie's Auction
reviews Metropolis M - Nostalgie in een.. - George Vermeij | Metropolis M - Invest Week #5 - Bob van der Sterre | Metropolis M - Misfit Love - George Vermeij | Metropolis M - Spel/Buitenspel - Julia Steenhuisen | Metropolis M - Interne Logica - Tessa Verheul
Curriculum Vitae
Version march 2026
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Creative Direction
Across 13 years of professional experience — partially from my own practice, partially working alongside others in a range of environments — I've moved fluidly between roles: designer, developer, artist, teacher. This breadth has made me resourceful and proactive, with strong problem-solving abilities and the overview to bridge disciplines that don't always speak to each other — front- and backend, design and the arts, concept and execution. I've mastered a wide range of software and digital environments along the way, not as a collector of tools, but because each project asked for a different one.

I bring four years of experience as a lecturer at the Advertising & Beyond Department at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam — guiding students in translating concepts into executed work, and giving direction and critique across a wide range of creative and technical outputs.

At the moment, I am looking for a new environment to bring this overview to — one that is creatively and intellectually challenging, and that needs someone comfortable moving between disciplines rather than staying inside one.



Meanwhile

The Weather Has Been Cancelled
Videogame as art installation. Story and concept by Jasmijn Visser, game development and 3D animations by yours truly.


Botanist
Horror novel which I am writing in between other work. Contact me if you are interested in proofreading.


Wander
Unique handheld device with embedded interactive fiction that will only come out in a limited edition of 15. Narrative, Concept, Design, Development, Hardware, Electronics, Software all by Ingmar König. More information and pre-order soon available at irhk.games. Currently in development.


Detourist
proximity reaction game. In development, long term project. For more information and a trailer, visit the Steam page.


esC
immersive interactive device. nonvisual handheld with spatial-audio.

Contact


Reach me via Email if you have a question or want to collaborate. Or connect with me via one of the following platforms:



If you would like to support the development of Detourist, then please Wishlist on Steam, thank you in advance!