Hello, I’m Reinder.
I’m a creative coder and software engineer based in Utrecht. Currently, I work at Monks (since 2015), where I work on interactive 3D and web projects for global clients. In my spare time, I build platforms that let other people make things with code.
What I’m working on now
Eigen is a privacy-focused, European alternative to Google Workspace where you own your data. Six months in, it has ten apps: mail, drive, docs, sheets, slides, calendar, contacts, chat, kanban and admin. Real-time collaboration where it makes sense, IMAP and CalDAV for external clients, per-user file-based storage. More in the blog posts about building it and six months later.
I’m now looking for the right home for the project: an organization, foundation or company that wants to adopt Eigen, or people with experience growing open-source and public-interest tech projects. I’m not attached to keeping ownership and I’m not looking for money. I want Eigen to exist and to work.
If that sounds like you, or you know someone, please reach out at reinder@eigen.is.
Platforms
I tend to build platforms rather than one-off projects. What they share is restriction (a small API, a single shader, a square canvas). By offering a restrictive environment, I hope to stimulate creativity.
- Turtletoy: generative plotter art, 8000+ users (blog post).
- Dittytoy: code-driven generative music (blog post).
- OneShader: single-fragment shader art (blog post).
I build these for the love of making things. If you want to sponsor me or buy me a coffee, it is much appreciated. More than anything, I value your feedback.
Digital experiments
- Rijkscollection: a virtual museum generated from the Rijksmuseum collection (blog post).
- The RenderQueue: WebGL and WebGPU experiments, made with Johan Holwerda (blog post).
Background
My roots are in the sciences. I studied Physics (master) and Mathematics (propedeuse) at Utrecht University.
In 2003 I co-founded Infi, a software agency, where I spent ten years building the technical foundation of the company. After that I took a sabbatical to coach rowing at international level, including Inge Janssen (Bronze EC Seville 2013, Finalist WC South Korea 2013) and Claudia Belderbos (National Champion W1x). I am an Honorary Member of A.U.S.R. Orca. In 2015 I returned to code and joined Monks.
Some past work: a real-time Wolfenstein ray tracer in WebGL1 (2019), The Uncensored Library in Minecraft (with DDB Berlin for Reporters Without Borders), and third place at JS1k 2014 with a 1024-byte Minecraft renderer.
Contact
Email: reinder@infi.nl. Bluesky: @reindernijhoff.net. Code: GitHub.