April 25, 2018

Kristina Andersen Seminar

Kristina Andersen from the Eindhoven University of Technology (and formerly of STEIM in Amsterdam) will be visiting QMUL. She’ll give a seminar introducing some inspiring ideas and investigations combining design, HCI and the arts.

Abstract

“First, you build the machine, then it tells you what it’s for. A machine is only a kind of magnet for attracting Use. That’s why we say things are Useful - because they are all full of the Use that chose them to perform itself.“ (Valente, 2013)

How can we make research trajectories for a kind of knowledge that takes its origin in artistic and designedly practise? I would like to propose some strategies for making use of material exploration, physical making and the construction of things to provide us with an opportunity to think about and make around the the unknown, to build ideas that addresses technological matter, and potentially guide the way we tease out the new and unexpected, from the everyday and the mundane.

Bio

Kristina Andersen designs objects and experiences to explore ideas and notions of the unknown. A central element of her practise is workshop-like experiences that expose everyday desires as drivers for ideas. They employ familiar, mundane materials - such as candy and cardboard - through which several planes collide: the possible, the unknown, the feared and the desired. These processes are aimed at allowing a broad range of knowledge to materialise as interdisciplinary knowledge, which belongs to no one. The outcomes range from requirement engineering, technology prototyping, to the making of work about technology, rather than of technology. She holds degrees in Industrial Design, Virtual Environments, and wrote her PhD on “magic machines”. She was a researcher at STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam for 15 years, and now works in the Future Everyday group at Industrial Design at TU Eindhoven as well as maintaining her own practice.