Dutch entrepreneur tunes into the futurGenius for self-expression

Dutch entrepreneur tunes into the futurGenius for self-expression A Dutchman wrote the check, and he gets to pontificate at a hatchery for new-media arts in Emeryville

At the Ex'pression new-media arts school in Emeryville, people are gathered around a large conference table to soak in the words of multimillionaire benefactor Eckart Wintzen.

"The West and East must come together and spread a different way of being happy," Wintzen intones, eliciting nods from his appreciative audience. "If the East simply copies the West, it's going to be disaster."

The 62-year-old Dutchman, who runs a venture capital firm from a castle in the woods in the Netherlands and underwrote the cost of Ex'pression, is using guru-speak to say that China's increasing demand for consumer goods will lead to hundreds of millions of new cars and environmental catastrophe.

But Wintzen -- who is simply called Eckart around the school -- could muse on just about any topic and generate smiles from the Ex'pression folks. It's like having a visit from the eccentric uncle who drops by after writing a check for $28 million.

"Like a lot of people in his position, he can kind of . . . put forward what he's thinking," said Gary Platt, 48, a recording industry veteran who is the president and daily operations chief of the 65,000-square-foot school in Emeryville's tech district.

Packed with top-of-the-line audio and digital equipment and emphasizing hands-on experience and immersion in new media, Ex'pression is kind of like Wintzen himself: high end, forward thinking and totally, absolutely committed to commercial enterprise.

Wintzen says his support of the school, which opened in 1999, is part of a grand scheme to participate in the "immaterial economy," a concept that must have sounded sexier during the eruption of the Nasdaq than it does in plodding ol' 2002.

Still, the entertainment techies of the future are flocking to the vibrant converted warehouse on Shellmound Street. Between 30 and 50 students are admitted to the school every two months, specializing in sound, animation or Web-design tracks.

Platt, sounding like a concert promoter, said there are a few seats open for the June program. The August program, he said, is sold out.

And why not? For the $32,950 fee -- less than the price of a year at Stanford -- Ex'pression students work with the best equipment available and enjoy instruction and guest lectures from some of the Bay Area's most accomplished professional rock musicians.

Jack Douglass, a producer who has worked with John Lennon, Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones, teaches a class called the Psychology and Etiquette of the Recording Session. Bon Jovi, Alan Parsons and the Calling have recorded at the school. Rock stations KFOG and the former Z95 have broadcast occasional concerts.

"Gary had this dream of doing a media school, and that fit in with my vision of the economy of the future," Wintzen said. "We are creating the operators of virtual wealth."

For Ex'pression's older, more conventional rivals, such as the Center for Electronic Arts, San Francisco State University's multimedia program and the Academy of Arts, this kind of competition is worrisome.

"We call them the 'Beast from the East,' " said Murray Powers, director of the Center for Electronic Arts. "We start out with drawing and have a much more traditional approach. They flood rock stations with ads, they do high-end audio and they have a ton of money. It's a total immersion into your wallet."

But Howie Stein, the facilities manager for Zoetrope studios, has hired Ex'pression students for internships and says he is impressed with their drive and ambition.

"They structure their curriculum and academics to simulate the real world," Stein said, "It's a marathon atmosphere. You've got to be focused, or you're wasting your time and money."

That is an attitude the worldly and wealthy Wintzen can relate to. An engineer by training, he made his fortune by selling a software company to the Dutch conglomerate Philips in 1996, then founded Ex'tent Green Venture Capital with the proceeds.

The firm funds a wide range of activities: immune system research, chemical- free gardening supplies, a car-sharing program in Amsterdam, a communications consultancy and the Ben & Jerry's ice cream franchise in the Benelux countries, among many others.

They are all ventures easily identifiable with the hippie capitalist in worn jeans, spectacles and floppy vests. Ex'tent -- "Eck's tent" -- is broad minded but practical.

His next big thing, he says, another step toward the immaterial economy, will be the video phone. Wintzen is working with a Dutch bank to develop it.

Then, perhaps, it's on to China, where he sees trouble on the horizon.

"The Eastern economy is dominated by Western economic thinking, which, I think, is bad news," Wintzen says. "In China, everyone has a telephone, and now, everyone wants a car. That will be a great burden to the planet."

Can the Chinese get in the tent? Can the long-suppressed capitalist tendencies of a billion people jibe with Wintzen's prescription for a happy planet?

"Let's still be happy, still be wealthy and not ruin the planet!" Wintzen exclaims, bidding Ex'pression goodbye for this visit and flying back to the castle.