About

About Matthijs Kamstra

Creative developer, Resident Hacker/Artist at Fonk.amsterdam

But I have other "titles":

  • graphic designer
  • illustrator
  • papertoy engineer
  • paper artist
  • creative developer
  • Haxe speaker/enthusiast
  • klooier (!)
  • api-artist
  • resident-hacker
  • resident-artist
  • Team lead
  • Lead Front-end

Social

You can follow me on my social accounts:

Current Articles

Hacker in Residence: [mck] // Volume 2: Artist vs. Hacker by Matthijs Kamstra

This is the second installment of the story of the Hacker in Residence project. This project empowers Fonky creative developer, Matthijs to allocate time to making art, motivated by curiosity and creativity rather than by a business objective.

Other People’s Side-Projects 2: Paper Toys by Tanja de Bie

A series of interviews about people and their side-projects. I was the second person interviewed.

Free your mind, occupy your hands

Hacker in Residence: mck by Lydia Kooistra

A series about the Hacker/Artist in Residence: me! It's the first article in a series that will follow me in my journey.

Human after all? by Sean Hangel

We at Fonk have a couple of slack-bots helping us. I wrote most of them.

Bots

I am Grumm: my first papertoy Grumm has its twitter account, it just spits out (cross-stitch) wisdom and random generated images

Pixxel Bot: Based upon an idea from Dave Bollinger, this bot creates little pixel robots

Exhibitions

  • Urban Paper Shows (Los Angeles – Arnhem – Tokyo – Kansas)
  • AMS*DIY Urban Arts Festival (Amsterdam)
  • Sneakerness (Amsterdam)
  • Big Book Festival (Warsaw)
  • Kunstsommer (Arnsberg)
  • SHOVE IT! (Des Moines)

Publications

  • Urban Paper (HOW Books, 2009)
  • Il Love (internet magazine, 2009)
  • Algemeen Dagblad (dutch newspaper, 2009)
  • Luna Magazine (Germany, 2010)
  • Papertoy Monsters (Workman, 2010)
  • Paper Robots (Ullmann Publishing, 2014)
  • Papertoy Glowbots (Workman, 2016)

Presentations

  • Haxe
  • Papertoy
  • Resident Hacker
  • Pitch 3 APE projects
  • Extended Elevator pitch APE (Braenworks festival)
  • Innovation (pro-active)
  • Comfortzone (understand learning)
  • Being serious about side projects
  • Ivy Lee (productivity)
  • What happened after Braenworks?
  • Haxe and Creative Coding

Books

Urban Paper: 26 Designer Toys to Cut Out and Build by Matt Hawkins

Papertoy Monsters: 50 Cool Papertoys You Can Make Yourself! by Brian Castleforte

Paper Robots: 25 Fantastic Robots You Can Build Yourself! by Nick Knite

Papertoy Glowbots: 46 Glowing Robots You Can Make Yourself! by Brian Castleforte

Bio (by others)

I find it difficult to write a bio about myself, so I asked others to write one for me...

This way it's more fun!

Great bio by Astrid Poot, the Head of Family & Children familie van fonk:

Grutte Pier was an infamous Frisian rebel leader and pirate, born in 1480. He challenged the established of the era and tried to reclaim justice for the people with fierce dedication. Matthijs is our very own Grutte Pier. He is big, yes he is.

But his Pier-ness shows especially in his brave and chronic playful attitude towards working and making. He hacked our very own bot that helps us prepare lunch and has a fully automatic alter ego on Twitter that is always sharing awkward and funny thoughts with his fans.

Matthijs uses code as a paintbrush, as an artistic tool to achieve creative goals. This – next to his superhero size - makes him a fine partner to work with. Crazy is good, laughing is important, and tech is a human tool.

And one in Dutch, by the Co-founder of Fonk Niels de Keizer:

Matthijs is nieuwsgierig. En zijn nieuwsgierigheid kent geen grenzen. Dat maakt dat hij altijd op de rand leeft van de mogelijkheden. Bots die brood bestellen, robots van papier en 3D printing van mini werelden. Matthijs is de hedendaagse kunstenaar en zijn palet is de technology. Met zijn werk inspireert hij de mensen om zich heen. Hij bouwt aan een mooiere wereld. Hij snapt dat alles begint met een doel, plezier en (samen) iets maken!