Jelle turns everyday objects into instruments
For Jelle Zegers, design does not start with a rigid plan. More important than a fixed goal is curiosity. His projects start with the joy of exploration, discovering what happens when you simply do something. He is graduating from Product Design at ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design Arnhem. There, he explores how everyday objects can be instruments.
Jelle grew up in a musical household, and played the cello and the trumpet for most of his youth. During his graduation year, he has been looking for ways to combine that love for music with his studies in Product Design. He does this by designing and building instruments himself. Not classical instruments, but musical objects that invite you to listen, ask questions about the interaction with your surroundings, and that objectify the following question: ‘can everything be music?’
'It’s a huge luxury to have a place where you can simply make things. Where you have the space to think and to give ideas a real physical form.'
Creating space for your own niche
'It’s a huge luxury to have a place where you can simply make things. Where you have the space to think and to give ideas a real physical form.' That attitude is clearly visible in Jelle’s work. He deliberately explores the edges of his discipline and combines fields that do not naturally come together. That is exactly where he finds freedom.
Fridge instruments and avoidance
For his graduation research Jelle collaborated with Robin Holzhauer from the bachelor's programme Music Theatre. Together with Brecht Hekkema and Thimo Gijezen they created Nog even in de Koelkast, a music theatre performance about avoidance. For the project he created so-called 'fridge instruments'. Instruments not only physically based on fridges, but also on their behaviour and our interaction with these seemingly mundane kitchen appliances.
His work lives at the intersection between art, design, music, and theatre. He works between disciplines, often in collaboration with different artists. The objects he creates are not only about how something looks, but more about the story they tell.
Play as a way of designing
Experimentation and enjoyment form the basis of everything Jelle makes. Not everything has to be perfect or finished instantly. Oftentimes, not having a fixed outcome is precisely what allows new ideas to emerge. “I mostly just really enjoy having fun.” And that is exactly what you feel in his instruments. Jelle’s works invite people to touch, to experiment, and to look (and listen!) again at what music and design can actually be.
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Curious about Jelle’s work? Visit his website: jellezegers.nl
Or come visit his graduation work and performance.
