Research project

Radio Explorations

Radio Explorations

Experimental research project that combines machine learning tools with design of data observatories: web-based interfaces that facilitate searching and navigating across the digital archive of radio signals. Inspired by the feminist critique of technoscience, data observatories enable one to navigate the signal space from a situated position.

My competencies: Project leader, Design of interactions

Data observatory: Descriptions online at https://radioexplorations.ch/descriptions/

Data observatory: Descriptions online at https://radioexplorations.ch/projections/

Radio Explorations visualization

Tools

• Jupyter notebooks
• sompy
• js

Infrastructure visualisation

Cloud Cosmogram

Cloud Cosmogram

Cloud Cosmogram considers logistical relations of data centres as speculative media of the transformations of labour and social relations. Accompanying "Cloud Cosmogram" essay by Maya Indira Ganesh and Johannes Bruder, published in DATA FARMS, 2019

My competencies: Design, Diagramming, Visualization of complex systems

http://cloudcosmogram.space/

Data center: the architectural explosion diagram as one of three Cloud Cosmogram axes

Tools

• Rhino
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator

Interactive installation

The Lungs of the Internet

The Lungs of the Internet

The Lungs of the Internet is an interactive installation that demonstrates how wireless networks inhabit physical space. It appears to be breathing in the rhythm of data packets transmission through different kinds of infrastructures (Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth).

My competencies: Object design and construction, Design and programming of interaction, Hardware design, Production

Installation at ART@IGF exhibition, UN building, Geneva

Motors moving the elastics

Elastics

View from the side with people

Tools

• Python script
• Android app
• Server-based PHP
• Arduino, Arduino shield
• Modified servo motors (continuous rotation)

Interactive objects

Diskohedron

Diskohedron

Diskohedron is an interactive light object - a spatial animation of programmable light. Composed from thirty light surfaces, it forms a colourful rhombic triacontahedron. Diskohedron displays images and abstract light behaviours in a unique, ineffable way.

My competencies: Object design and modelling, 3D printing, Assembling, Production

Diskohedron lamp

Diskohedron at "Community in Progress", with Kevin Rittberger, Cornelia Sollfrank, Gordan Savičić, and Philipp Lammer, HeK, Basel, January 2016

Diskohedron at "Community in Progress", with Kevin Rittberger, Cornelia Sollfrank, Gordan Savičić, and Philipp Lammer, HeK, Basel, January 2016

Diskohedron construction

Tools

• Rhinoceros
• Sketchup
• Simplify3D
• 3D printer
• Lasercutter
• Reflow oven

Android app

Connect or Not

Connect or Not

I designed and helped develop an Android application that serves as a location aware network traffic counter. Connect or Not captures smartphone’s usage of cell towers and Wi-Fi traffic exchange, which it then localises using indoor positioning systems based on Wi-Fi fingerprints and BLE beacons. The application was used to gather data for Connect or Not interactive spaces.

My competencies: Interface design, Interaction design, Wireframing, Project management

Connect or Not UI

Connect or Not indoor positioning interface

Tools

• Android Studio
• Balsamiq
• Invision
• Inkscape
• HTML/CSS

Interactive spaces

Connect or Not

Connect or Not

I designed and constructed an interactive spatial structure that interprets Wi-Fi networks and cellular conversations through movement. It works as an interactive architectural skin reshaping the space it entangles. The visitors interact with it indirectly, through devices they use to connect to the Internet, which I defined as "out-bodied" interaction.

My competencies: Object design, Interaction design, Programming of microcontrollers, Network sniffing

Connect or Not at Espace Arlaud, Lausanne, 2012

Scaled model

Connect or Not detail

Connect or Not detail

Tools

• Python
• tcpdump, aircrack-ng
• Arduino IDE
• AutoCAD
• Lasercutter

Stage Design

Cyborgame

Cyborgame Stage Design

In collaboration with La Manufacture and french theatre director, Gildas Milin, I worked with members of the SINLAB on interactive stage elements that would bring technology in the center of a play. The project engaged experimental displays and live manipulation of text on stage.

My competencies: Design of retroprojection systems, Interaction design

Cyborgame performance, Gildas Milin and SINLAB, La Manufacture, 2013

Retroprojection system

Retroprojection system

Cyborgame performance, La Manufacture

Tools

• Python
• AutoCAD
• Lasercutter

Teaching experience

I have a rich experience in teaching design practice and theory, as semester projects, theoretical seminars and design studios for bachelor and master students, as well as doctoral seminars. These experiences formed the base for practice-based methods that contribute to contemporary design and media theory, working across new materialist, feminist data-science and media studies epistemologies.

Make/Sense PhD Programme practice-based curriculum in art and design. FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel

Inclusion/Exclusion. Being Noise - a series of collective transformational exercises with images, sounds, text and networks, aimed at developing a shared understanding of noise. FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel Bachelor seminar 2021

Landscape. Framing, Strolling, Browsing - Reporting on Humboldtean explorations of landscapes. FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel. Bachelor seminar 2021

Landscape. Framing, Strolling, Browsing - Reporting on Humboldtean explorations of landscapes. FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel. Bachelor seminar 2021

Architectonics of Noise - Inversion of Site Analysis. Master Studio in Architecture, working in a situated and careful way with that which is found on a site, evocative of other places. TU Vienna, Master in Architecture, 2017

Architectonics of Noise - Inversion of Site Analysis. Master Studio in Architecture, working in a situated and careful way with that which is found on a site, evocative of other places. TU Vienna, Master in Architecture, 2017

Skills taught

• Design studio
• Architectural studio
• Site analysis
• Critical design
• Visualization
• Complexity reduction
• Reflection on design-related concepts and terms
• Thesis writing in architecture and design

Workshops

Workshops

Workshops

I gave a number of workshops on topics ranging from design of unpleasant objects in public space, construction of dye sensitized solar cells, and capturing activity of wireless networks. Permanently searching for innovative and alternative teaching approaches, I have been able to test methods like role playing, design fiction as well as a hands-on approach using rapid prototyping tools.

Connect or Not workshop on tangible interaction with Wi-Fi in Zavod Kersnikova, Ljubljana

Unpleasant Design workshop on design of urban furniture with agency, AMRO Linz

Solar workshop on DIY production of dye sensitized solar cells, Cellsbutton Festival, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Solar workshop on DIY production of dye sensitized solar cells, Salzburg

Eat It! Rule-making workshop for a city-building game, Museumsquartier, Vienna

Skills taught

• Iterative design
• Rapid prototyping
• Programming microcontrollers
• Basic network analysis
• Soldering
• Ethical design
• Design of urban furniture

Books

Books

Some of my work has been dedicated to publishing books on collaborative research and artistic projects.

My competencies: Writing, Prepress, Project management

Unpleasant Design book

Brasilia - Suburban Dystopia and Shopping as a Soap Opera

Dvoriste Zgrade (Courtyard)

Tools

• Scribus
• Indesign

Rapid Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping

The projects I am working on often require the use of prototyping tools, such as lasercutting, 3D printing and CNC milling. Here are some of my experiments.

My competencies: Everything from A to Z

3d printing

I own a 3D printer since 2012 and I am using it since then for several experiments.

Stanford bunny + Duplo adapter

Replacement handle for a fridge

Replacement handle for a fridge

Module for a rhombic triacontahedron

Settings optimisation

laser cutting

Laser cutting pieces for a larger object

Assembling an object from laser-cut pieces

Laser etching images