Artificial reef in the North Sea, photo Udo van Dongen.
Last week Van der Eijk won the Bio Art and Design (BAD) award, worth 25,000 euros. She hopes her art will raise awareness. ‘The human impact on the North Sea is huge, but we don’t know exactly what effects we have. I want to give people an experience which will sensitize them to that.’ Researcher and diver Joop Coolen of Marine Research is going to record sounds for her and measure vibrations in the North Sea. Marine Research does other research on sound as well – on the effects on sea life of ramming piles into the seabed, for example.