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- Roya Aghighi
ROYA AGHIGHI
Designer in residence
SUPERVISOR
Roya is a multidisciplinary designer holding two industrial design degrees from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Canada and Iran University of Science and Technology. Through her practice she aims to highlight the critical role of design in shaping human behaviours. Being a multidisciplinary designer, she activates the gap between various fields and aims to push the borders between traditional academic disciplines to explore and introduce alternative future possibilities.
She has been exploring with materials as the fundamental element to re-imagine the role of designer as well as shifting the emphasis from product to process. She believes that focusing on materials could shape a new way to experience the world and how we position ourselves within it. Roya has been one of the material activist designers-collaborating with material engineers, scientists and biologists at University of British Colombia for past years to activate bio-design practices in Canada. She was speaker, Panelist and her work was presented in various exhibitions and conferences such as: Fashion Colloquium-Arnhem Netherlands 2018, Vancouver Design Week-2018, Pollima Material Revolution-Los Angles 2018, Bioneers conference-Los Angles 2018. Roya currently is a designer in residence at Material Experience Lab working on application of living textiles in design practice and researching its impact on human interactions with clothing.
CURRENT Project
IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MATERIALS EXPERIENCE LAB
The adoption of fast fashion has had disruptive effects on environmental, social and behavioural factors globally. The drastic increase to the environmental impacts of textile waste and fast fashion consumption urgently need to be addressed. The fundamentals of our global/economic fashion industry need to be restructured beginning with the destructive nature of our current mainstream relationship to clothing. This dynamic has significant consequences. Fashion consumption has become a passive act, and we no longer care for the longevity of our clothing. Clothing is often disposed long before it reaches its expected life. The negative impacts of textile and fashion industry from environmental aspects are far greater than what it could be seen on the surface. From the 500,000 toxic nano-fibres that are released into water every time we wash our clothes, to the enormous carbon emissions emitted through both the production and disposal of our clothing, fashion has become a compromise that comes at a huge human, social, and environmental cost. What if clothes were alive and photosynthesized?
- Raphael Kim
Raphael Kim
Postdoctoral researcher - Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Supervisors
Prof. Dr. Elvin Karana
Raphael is a postdoctoral researcher and designer engaged in critical explorations of bio-technology in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): Through making, growing, writing, and speculating, Raphael strives to continue unpacking the social and cultural implications of considering living agents – namely microbes and DNA – as computational materials for interaction.
Following his Master’s in Design Interactions from Royal College of Art in London, Raphael gained his PhD from Queen Mary University of London. His thesis (2020), titled Effects of Microbial Integration on Player Experiences of Hybrid Biological Digital Games, investigated ways in which distinct microbial materiality could be harnessed into design processes towards enhancing playful experiences of human-computer interaction. Outcomes of the research, along with his latest studies on viruses and DNA, have been published at major international academic venues (e.g., ACM CHI), where he plays an integral role in the growth of Biological-HCI and Microbe-HCI; an emerging set of communities with a special penchant (and curiosity) for artefacts with molecular, organic, microbial turns.
Raphael has previously taught at the Royal College of Art in London, serving as a visiting lecturer for MA. Design Interactions and MA. Innovation Design Engineering, delivering modules, workshops, and tutorials with special focus on biotechnology and biodesign. Utilizing his prior professional laboratory experience – which includes working as full-time research assistant for Roche Pharmaceuticals R&D (Switzerland), Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (Japan), and Baum Lab at Imperial College (UK) – Raphael brings an added, first-hand biotechnological grounding and insight towards supporting and leading his design students.
Current Project
EVOLVING MATERIALITY OF DNA AND IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERACTION DESIGN
With advances in technology, storage of digital artefacts as DNA molecules is likely to become mainstream in the near future. Yet whilst the emerging technology is poised to address the environmental issues surrounding excess global data production, the social and cultural aspects of how we would use the technology remain largely unexplored.
This research project aims to address this gap, using material-focused approaches. It first acknowledges the fact that the mechanics of the emerging technology would shift our current material understandings of DNA: Not only is DNA a naturally occurring molecule that carry genetic information packaged within living cells, DNA can also be synthetic, a carrier of digital information, and embeddable within both the living and non-living artefacts. The qualitative research will unpack the new materiality of DNA in further detail, and identify its potential implications on how we might design and experience DNA artefacts.
Publications
Kim, R., Linehan, C., & Pschetz, L. (2022). Navigating Imaginaries of DNA-Based Digital Data Storage. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-15). https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3501911
Kim, R., Pschetz, L., Linehan, C., Lee, C.H., & Poslad, S. (2021). Archives in DNA: Workshop Exploring Implications of an Emerging Bio-Digital Technology through Design Fiction. In Academic Mindtrek 2021 (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1145/3464327.3464966
Kim, R. (2021). Virus as Quasi-Living Bio-Material for Interaction Design: Practical, Ethical, and Philosophical Implications. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-7). https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3451770
Kim, R., Pataranutaporn, P., Forman, J., Lee, S.A., Riedel-Kruse, I.H., Alistar, M., Vasquez, E.S.L., Vega, K., van Dierendonck, R., Gome, G., Zuckerman, O., Vujic, A., Kong, D.S., Maes, P., Ishii, H., Sra, M., & Poslad, S. (2021). Microbe-HCI: Introduction and direction for growth. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3450408
Välk, S., Chen, Y., Kalossaka, L., Kim, R., Mougenot, C., Pschetz, L., Ramirez-Figueroa, C., Sayuti, N.A.A., & Sommer, B. (2021, December). Narratives in Biodesign: Bridging Methods, Processes and Tools. IASDR Conference 2021. Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Gough, P., Forman, J., Pataranutaporn, P., Hepburn, L-A., Ramirez-Figueroa, C., Cooper, C., Vujic, A., Kong, D.S., Kim, R., Maes, P., Ishii, H., Sra, M., & Ahmadpour, N. (2021). Speculating on biodesign in the future home. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-5). https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3441353
Kim, R., Thomas, S., van Dierendonck, R., Bryan-Kinns, N., & Poslad, S. (2020). Working with nature's lag: Initial design lessons for slow biotic games. In International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1145/3402942.3409790
Kim, R., Thomas, S., van Dierendonck, R., Wood, C., & Poslad, S. (2020). Toward growable computer games: insights from biotic game ideation workshops. Interactions, 27(2), 82-85. https://doi.org/10.1145/3378563
Kim, R. (2020). DNA as digital data storage: Opportunities and challenges for HCI. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 225-232). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60700-5_29
Kim, R., & Poslad, S. (2019). Growable, invisible, connected toys: twitching towards ubiquitous bacterial computing. In Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019 (pp. 1-9). https://doi.org/10.1145/3363384.3363387
Kim, R., van Dierendonck, R., & Poslad, S. (2019). Moldy ghosts and yeasty invasions: Glitches in hybrid bio-digital games. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6). https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3312895
Kim, R., & Poslad, S. (2019). Augmentable experiences in hybrid biological digital games. Acoustic Space Journal, 17, 165-173.
Kim, R., & Poslad, S. (2019). The thing with E. coli: Highlighting opportunities and challenges of integrating bacteria in IoT and HCI. arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.01974. https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.01974
Kim, R., Thomas, S., van Dierendonck, R., Kaniadakis, A., & Poslad, S. (2018). Microbial integration on player experience of hybrid bio-digital games. In International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment (pp. 148-159). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16447-8_15
Kim, R., Thomas, S., van Dierendonck, R., & Poslad, S. (2018). A new mould rush: Designing for a slow bio-digital game driven by living micro-organisms. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-9). https://doi.org/10.1145/3235765.3235798
Kim, R. (2015). Fungal indices. In C. Arozqueta, & R. Azaola (Eds.), Future mirrors (pp. 11-14). Modelab.
- Clarice Risseeuw
CLARICE RISSEEUW
PhD Candidate – Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Supervisor
Dr. Holly McQuillan
Dr. Joana Martins
Clarice is a PhD candidate at the TU Delft, exploring the potential of flavobacteria’s living colour as responsive medium. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design Engineering as well as a master’s degree in Integrated Product Design from the same university. During her studies in Delft and an exchange program at the NTNU, Norway, she was more and more attracted to bio design as it was the perfect way to combine her passions for design and nature. She started working with flavobacteria during her graduation project, in which she characterized, captured and communicated this organism’s vivid structural colourations. Afterwards, she joined Materials Experience Lab as a biodesign researcher of Caradt to continue her research. Still amazed by this beautiful microorganism, Clarice has now returned to the TU Delft as a PhD candidate, supervised by Prof. Dr. Elvin Karana, Dr. Holly McQuillan and Dr. Joana Martins.
Current Project
The PhD research focuses on exploring the potential of flavobacteria’s living colour as responsive medium. Bridging microbiology and design, we aim to take flavobacteria out of the lab and develop a living responsive material able to communicate through vivid colourations. Here we envision soft interfaces that can be activated by the user, offering unique possibilities for interaction design.
- Jiwei Zhou
JIWEI ZHOU
PhD Candidate - Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Instagram: @jiwei_zhou_ @the_tea_recipes
SUPERVISORS
Prof. Dr. Elvin Karana
Prof. Dr. Elisa Giaccardi
Dr. Zjenja Doubrovski
Jiwei graduated from Tongji University in Shanghai with Bachelor of Engineer in Industrial Design. She then completed “Design for Interaction” master track and obtained Master of Science at Delft University of Technology. Throughout her growth towards a designer and a design researcher she has been fascinated with materials and their relationships with people. Her bachelor thesis developed a clay-like material from tea waste from the tea industry in her hometown Sichuan in China. In her master thesis, in collaboration with Diana Scherer - who developed Interwoven textile grown from plant roots, she explored the potential of digital bio-fabrication with plant roots in weaving three dimensional artefacts (supervised by Elvin Karana and Jun Wu). As a designer she aims to create things that bring new perspectives and inspirations to both people and our society.Jiwei’s design practices usually departure from novel materials, with a special focus on emerging experiences and social implications they bring to human society. Her main research fields are bio-based materials, “growing design” and “living artefacts”.
Current Project
“HABITALITIES” WITH LIVING ARTEFACTS
As a PhD candidate at the Materials Experience Lab of Delft University of Technology, she studies "habitabilities of living artefacts". To raise critical questions about our social relationship with living materials, her current design practice investigates mediums and ways to augment the expressions of well-being of photosynthetic micro-organisms that are in a mutualistic relationship with humans, thus promoting "habitabilities" for both humans and our living cohabitants.
- Holly Robbins
Holly Robbins
Ph.D. Candidate - Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Supervisors
Holly Robbins is a PhD candidate of Industrial Design at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) where she works at the intersection of social sciences, humanities, and design. Her work focuses on shaping relationships with data-intensive objects (those connected to the Internet and that collect data) that are based on reciprocity. Holly’s work explores how design approaches can express the im/materiality of these objects- where the materials of these technologies can be just outside our grasp such as code and algorithms. Specifically, she explores how traces can serve to support the relationship between people and the im/material qualities of these objects.
As a part of TU Delft’s ID Studio Lab and the Connected Everyday Lab, Holly uses a research through design approach. She collaborates closely with students, professional designers, and companies to put her conceptual and theoretical work into designed objects.
Current Project
DESIGN WITH (AND FOR) TRACES
As technologies become more and more complex, the tasks that they perform become masked in an effort to make them more usable. However, what’s lost with this masking is the ability to understand how they work and the role that they play in our lives. This is especially worrisome with connected objects that have the additional capabilities of harvesting data from people and for its connectivity to the Internet. This leads to overconsumption, disposability, and ethical concerns.
This research project is the PhD research of Holly Robbins and considers how we can change the relationship that we have with connected objects and people. It uses traces as a design approach to engage people in the task the technology performs as well as in situating the technology in our lives. Traces have the potential to communicate the relationship between person and object which occurs with both digital and physical materials. This has implications for ethics as well as sustainability.
Publications
- Robbins, H., Giaccardi, E., Karana, E. (2016). Traces as an Approach to Design for Focal Things and Practices. In Proceedings of NordiCHI’16: 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. October 23 – 27, 2016, Gothenburg, Sweden. ACM, 2016.
- Robbins, Holly; Elisa Giaccardi; and Elvin Karana. “Politics of Impermanence: Traces of Use as a Design Strategy for Technologies.” Workshop: Things Fall Apart; Unpacking the Temporalities of Impermanence for HCI. NordiCHI’16: 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. October 24, 2016, Gothenburg, Sweden. ACM, 2016.
- Robbins, Holly; Elisa Giaccardi; Elvin Karana; and Patrizia D’Olivo. (2015). “Understanding and Designing with (and for) Material Traces.” Studies in Material Thinking 13(01).
- Robbins, Holly; Elisa Giaccardi; and Elvin Karana. “De-Commodifying the Device: A Materialist Design Approach for Communication With and Through Connected Objects.” Workshop: The Future of Making: Where Industrial and Personal Fabrication Meet. Critical Alternatives 2015. Aarhus, Denmark. August 2015.
- Robbins, Holly. “Disrupting the Device Paradigm: Designing for Mutual Praxis in Connected Objects.” Participatory Innovation Conference 2015. The Hague, The Netherlands. May 2015.
- Giaccardi, Elisa; Elvin Karana; Holly Robbins; and Patrizia D’Olivo. (2014) “Growing traces on objects of daily use: A product design perspective for HCI.” Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems. ACM, 2014.
- Alice Buso
Alice Buso
Ph.D. Candidate - Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
SupervisorS
Prof. dr. Elvin Karana
Prof. dr. ir. Kaspar Jansen
Dr. Holly McQuillan
Alice Buso is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, researching Animated Textiles. Her PhD aims to unveil the potential of Animated Textiles for novel experiential and performative possibilities through the lenses of Materials Experience. Alice is originally from Italy, where she obtained a BSc in Product Design from Politecnico di Torino. In 2017 she moved to the Netherlands to pursue the MSc in Integrated Product Design at TU Delft. After graduation, she started to work at the same university as a researcher, extending her master’s final project on soft robotics for comfort applications. During this period, she developed an interest in understanding how emerging technologies and materials can be merged with design.
Current Project
DESIGNING ACTIVE EXPERIENCE PATTERNS WITH ANIMATED TEXTILES: AN EXPLORATION OF PERFORMATIVITY
This PhD research introduces Animated Textiles as an overarching term for textiles that are active, adaptive and autonomous not only through computational elements (e.g., sensors and actuators) but also through their inherent chemical, structural, or biological qualities. Thus, Animated Textiles expands the current definition of Smart Textiles, considering both the smartness of digital or physical components and the intrinsic mechanical qualities of textiles as equally significant in their final expression and function.
This PhD aims to investigate the experiential potential of Animated Textiles, with a focus on their performativity, i.e., actions and performances a textile material elicits from people. Seamless connections between the material qualities and performativity, referred to as active experience patterns in materials experience (Giaccardi and Karana, 2015), can help Animated Textiles to be more easily assimilated in our everyday lives, as part of our daily practices, and keep them remain relevant for a longer time. Accordingly, Alice poses the questions: How do we design for certain actions in Animated Textiles? What role do textile qualities, both digital and physical, play in the interaction with Animated Textiles?
Publications
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Buso, A., McQuillan, H., Jansen, K., Karana, E. (2022, June). The Unfolding of Textileness in Animated Textiles: An Exploration of Woven Textile-Forms. In DRS International Conference 2022, 25 June-3 July, Bilbao, Spain. [accepted]
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Buso, A., Scharff, R. B. N., Doubrovski, E. L., Wu, J., Wang, C. C. L., & Vink, P. (2020, May). Soft Robotic Module for Sensing and Controlling Contact Force. In 2020 3rd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) (pp. 70-75). IEEE.
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Buso, A., & Shitoot, N. (2019). Sensitivity of the foot in the flat and toe-off positions. Applied Ergonomics, 76, 57-63.
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- Anouk Zeeuw van der Laan
ANOUK ZEEUW VAN DER LAAN
Ph.D. Candidate - Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London
Supervisor
Dr. Marco Aurisicchio
Dr. Elvin Karana
Dr. Valentina Rognoli
Anouk is a PhD Candidate at the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. She received her BSc. and MSc. in Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. Anouk developed an interest for materials and why materials that can last centuries, are often selected for disposable products used for minutes. Her MSc thesis was material-driven and aimed to investigate opportunities for the use of waste materials, such as waste coffee grounds [1]. After her graduation Anouk continued to work with a Material-Driven Design approach in the development of new materials in collaboration with Innventia. To better understand the mismatch of material lifetime and product lifetime, Anouk joined the Kraft Heinz Company to learn about materials in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. She worked in continuous improvement, packaging procurement and packaging R&D.
Publications
Karana E., Barati, B., Rognoli V., Zeeuw Van Der Laan, A., (2015). Material Driven Design (MDD): A Method To Design For Material Experiences. International Journal of Design, 9(2), 35-54.
Zeeuw van der Laan, A. and Aurisicchio, M. (2017) ‘Planned Obsolescence in the Circular Economy’, in PLATE conference 2017, pp. 446–452. doi: 10.3233/978-1-61499-820-4-446.
Material is a Medium. It communicates ideas, beliefs, approaches; compels us to think, feel and act in certain ways; enables and enhances functionality and utility. Materials Experience emphasises this role of materials as being simultaneously technical and experiential.
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