SCOOP’s art exhibition Hoe samenwerken werkt (How Collaboration Works) made its debut at the 2026 Lowlands Science Festival, where it welcomed around 2,000 visitors.
Presented in collaboration with postdoctoral researcher Dr Esmee Veenstra and the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the artworks invited visitors to reflect on how to build a more cooperative society. The exhibition and the research behind it were featured in New Scientist, including an interview with Dr Veenstra.
Over the past two years, SCOOP has worked with artists Quita Felix and Maartje de Goede to translate research on sustainable cooperation into two interactive artworks. In Spillover, Felix explores how small actions can ripple through a community in unexpected ways. In De Noodzaak, de Goede imagines a prep store for collective resilience.
Together, the exhibition explores the different forces that shape cooperation. Collaboration is about more than achieving a shared goal. In times of crisis, our expectations of each other, the social norms that guide our behaviour, and interdependence can all influence how we work together.
Following its debut at Lowlands, Hoe samenwerken werkt was presented at the SCOOP-SOCION Annual Conference at Kontakt der Kontinenten in Soesterberg. The exhibition is now continuing its tour of the Netherlands, with its next stop at Biblioteek Neude in Utrecht (7-20 September).
Follow the exhibition schedule here.
