Rene Beekman received his art education at the AKI art-academy in Enschede (the Netherlands). He followed composition classes with Gerard Grisey & Jonathan Harvey at IRCAM in Paris (France) in 1998, the 'Computer Music Workshop, MAX/MSP & Pd', at the State University of New York in Buffalo (U.S.), Department of Music, by Miller Puckette, David Zicarelli, Zack Settel, Erik Ona, Cort Lippe & Ron Parks in 1999 and the 'Max/MSP Summer School' at Berkeley University (U.S.) by David Wessel, Matthew Wright, Adrian Freed, Richard Dudas and Leslie Stuck, in July 2001.
His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Austria, China, Finland, Switzerland, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia and the United States among others.

His sound works have been released on cds in the UK at the Audio Research Editions label and have been broadcast on radio in the Netherlands and in the U.S. His videotapes have been broadcasted on television in the Netherlands, Germany and Latvia.
Beekman has collaborated with composer and musician Bruce Gremo, with whom he performed in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium)  and New York (U.S.). Together they developed the concept of a multiple computer performance instrument 'Route', which received its premiere at the World Wide Video Festival in Amsterdam in 2000. Since then, the concept of 'Route' has been developed into the collaborative projects 'Talkative Gods' (2000) and 'Mutable Surface' (2001). Both were performed in New York (U.S.). In the fall of 2001 Rene Beekman collaborated with Xavier van Wersch on 2 performances for DotNu, a series run by Paradiso in Amsterdam and V2_ in Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Since then they have performed again in Amsterdam, The Hague (the Netherlands) and Kiev (Ukraine).

Beekman has done artist-in-residencies at Harvestworks in New York (U.S.), Experimental Television Centre in Owego, New York (U.S.) and Art Today in Plovdiv (Bulgaria).
His work is included in a public video-collection in Nagoya (Japan) and is distributed by Montevideo in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and the Kitchen in New York (U.S.).
Beekman has published in 'Lier en Boog, Series of Philosophy of Art and Art Theory', co-organised the 'That Media Thing' symposia in Amsterdam and given workshops in Bulgaria and in Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Beekman is part of the team that established the Digital Arts Masters programme at the National Academy of Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he currently teaches.
 
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Photo: Victoria Knysh