Personal, Reflective and Artistic Students’ Initiatives

As part of the course, students design an initiative of their own choosing through which they express their hopes and concerns in a personal, creative, and often artistic way. In this space, a few students courageously share their initiatives—offering insights that may support or inspire further reflection. The course is taught by Dr. Valentina Tassone in collaboration with Dr. Martijn Duineveld, Daan Buijs, performing artists Anna van Diepen and Suzanne Prak, and guest speakers.


Initiative by student Elettra Giampaoletti
Elettra engaged into the creation of a video:Remember Eva. Through this artistic expression she wishes to stimulate an empathetic bond between people and nature. In the video, current human society is identified with the metaphor of the astronauts as a glorification of modern rationality. Once they land back on earth, the astronauts feel out of place, alone and lost. Eva (nature on earth) has a severe voice and she will speak to them to make them acknowledge the difficult times we live in. But Eva is a mother and as such her voice is caring and comforting too. The astronauts will take a step back, reconsider their actions and finally are able to re-connect to their mother.

Watch ‘Remember Eva’:

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Initiative by student Yorran Bosma
Yorran shares his reflections about humanity living on a planet that can no longer sustain its never-ending growth, and how he found meaning in sustainability despite a lack of faith in humanity. In this video essays, he bravely communicate his thoughts and experiences. His reflections are inspired, among others, by the American poet Charles Bukowski where a focus of the video essay is put on his words “Humanity, you never had it from the beginning”. Yorran expresses his lack of faith in humanity as a whole, and worries about the state of our planet. Such reflection, however, enabled Yorran to find meaning in sustainability, to experience a renewed sense of responsibility and personal purpose in life.

Watch ‘Humanity, you never had it from the beginning’:

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Initiative by student Tessa Stroeken
Tessa has created a song, “There is fire”, representing a call for action. Through her song and related video, Tessa would like to express her concern for the ongoing socio-ecological degradation. The first sentence: “there is fire in the sea”, is an analogy for the climate crisis that is almost too big to comprehend and to consider possible, like a fire in the sea as something not possible or hard to imagine. After this, the song sketches other “fires” in the world that the human society should deal with. On the other hand, Tessa is also providing a message of hope and inviting towards communication and action for more regenerative futures.

Listen to the song “There is fire”

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