Role
- I am a Senior Lecturer and practice-based researcher with an interest in the overlap between film and fine art.
- Module leader of the 1st year module Experimental Practice where students learn about the history of avant-garde film and art and develop practical skills in this area.
- Module leader of the 3rd year major film project where students produce a short film (experimental, fiction, documentary, or hybrid).
- Tutor for life drawing classes, open to all students in the Nottingham School of Art & Design.
Career overview
I previously worked at the University of Edinburgh as a postdoctoral researcher, focussing on the interaction between light and space. I then worked as a freelance sound designer and filmmaker, before teaching sound design and experimental film at the Edinburgh College of Art and Liverpool John Moores University.
Research areas
My research is predominantly practice-based and interdisciplinary. In my work I respond to human/non-human interactions and ecological debates. Born in 1984 in the Netherlands, I studied at the University of Amsterdam, UNIS in Svalbard, the University of Bristol and finally in Edinburgh, where I completed a PhD and postdoc in Cosmology at the Royal Observatory, supervised by Prof Catherine Heymans, Scotland’s Astronomer Royal, and cosmologist Fergus Simpson.
From 2014 my films have reached an international audience at major film festivals, such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Zinebi, Full Frame, Ann Arbor, and Festival du Nouveau Cinéma. Since Graminoids (2014), a short film co-directed with Dr Demelza Kooij, I continue to investigate cinema’s position in an ecological context. My sound- and installation art have featured at Sonica in Glasgow, The Edinburgh International Festival, WRO Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw, FACT in Liverpool, MMCA in South Korea, and Aichi Triennale in Japan.
I am involved in several projects, including:
- Wolfpark, a feature length documentary film directed by Dr Demelza Kooij, for which I am sound designer and music composer.
- Voicing Trees, expanded cinema project by me and Dr Demelza Kooij.
- Ashes, a feature length documentary film directed by Kieran Gosney and Yulia Kovanova, for which I am sound recordist and sound designer.
Publications
Koens, L. and Kooij, D., 2018. Creative use of voice in non-fiction narrative film: an examination of the work of Peter Mettler. DOCUMENTARY FILM AND THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE, p.151.
Koens, L. A., B. J. Maughan, L. R. Jones, H. Ebeling, D. J. Horner, E. S. Perlman, S. Phillipps, and C. A. Scharf. "The WARPS Survey–VIII. Evolution of the galaxy cluster X-ray Luminosity Function." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 435, no. 4 (2013): 3231-3242.
Course(s) I teach on
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Undergraduate | Full-time | 2024COURSE
Filmmaking - BA (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/art-and-design/ug/next-year/filmmaking
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Undergraduate | Full-time | 2023
COURSE
Filmmaking - BA (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/art-and-design/ug/ba-hons-filmmaking