The interactive works
Halls that change by sensing your movement.
André Gerwing — CC BY-SA 4.0 · L Manju — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Unknown — CC0
Nxt is the Netherlands' first museum devoted to new media art, opened in 2020 in a former television studio in Amsterdam Noord, north of the harbour. The exhibits are not paintings or sculpture but environments: whole darkened halls filled with projection, sound, light and sensing that respond to a visitor's movement and presence. You enter the work rather than stand before it, and the work changes because you entered it. The wide industrial space and high ceilings are a condition of this kind of art. Exhibitions are temporary and change once or twice a year, so the content differs entirely with when you come — check the programme. Getting there is part of it: a free ferry from behind Centraal Station to the northern bank, then a walk or short bus, through one of the fastest-changing districts in Amsterdam.
Halls that change by sensing your movement.
Crossing the water is part of the experience.
Asterweg 36, 1031 Amsterdam
Eye FilmmuseumThe Netherlands' national film museum, in a sharp white angular building on the 10 minutes walk4.3
A'DAM TowerA tower on the north bank of the IJ opposite Amsterdam Centraal, Shell's former 11 minutes walk4.5
Amsterdam Centraal StationAmsterdam Centraal is the first thing most visitors see, and a building worth lo17 minutes walk4.6
The Basilica of St NicholasThe Basilica of St Nicholas stands directly opposite Centraal Station, the first21 minutes walk4.6
The SchreierstorenThe Schreierstoren is a stone tower of 1487, among the last surviving pieces of 21 minutes walk4.4The northern bank of the harbour, once shipyards and heavy industry, and cut off from the city because no bridge reached it — the ferry is still the only link. After the yards closed, artists and studios took over the empty buildings, and the area became the city's alternative art centre: the Eye film museum, the lookout tower with its swing over the edge, the NDSM district with its murals, and Nxt. The ferry is free and the crossing takes five minutes.