Jelle van der Ster

Jelle van der Ster is founder and general director of SETUP in Utrecht. SETUP is a media lab that investigates the machine within the human. Drawing on the free thinking space of the arts, they develop new and alternative perspectives on the role technology plays — and the role it should play. In 2025, SETUP launched the Facebook Museum to make a world after social media tangible. In its projects, SETUP looks for an uncomfortable smile: projects that first provoke a laugh or a sense of wonder, but just beneath the surface also touch on sensitive, difficult, and recognisable subjects. Jelle has a background in game design and literary studies. After watching Federico Fellini's 8½, he hung up his own artistic ambitions and decided to make those of others possible instead.