In this thesis I focus on the question - how to maintain or regain a sustainable and autonomous position as an artist? The research stems from the realm of media art, dealing with interactivity, and is the written result of a research that I have been doing the last two years. It represents my current view on the topic. ( English)

I am myself an artist in the realm of media art and to support my practice I have a part time job in the field of engineering. Rethinking this combination made me question how to maintain an autonomous position as an artist in the current climate of neo-liberalism, where budgets and funding are cut rigorously. The issue of loss of autonomy seems to be urgent especially in the field of media art where the struggle of survival is even harder then in most other art forms. At the current the art world tends to be seen as having a parasitical connection to society.
The research is based on theory from various fields. The range of fields is from art and media theory, system dynamics in specific to science in general. A connection is made between the different theories from different fields. These connections are supported by examples from the art world.
As (media) art is a practice of relations, the practice of art should be used to engage science and society. This role of the artist seems to be currently unclear. It would be in the benefit of art, science and society to have a balanced relational dependency between these three autonomies. The research shows that it is possible to see art as a multifaceted practice simultaneously at work in several different registers partly in the domain of art, partly in the field of sciences, and humanities, and still be part of the social construct of everyday life and also having influence on this social construct.