Identity

Presenting a collaboration with Anika Greyling to Queen Maxima

I aspire to be an interactive material designer specializing in creating programmable materials. My journey began with a foundation in wood and metal working, evolving into making responsive and interactive materials. This process reflects my ambition to make materiality the focal point of interaction and move away from traditional interfaces.

First and foremost, I am a maker. In all my design processes, thinking through making has been present. I find it important to understand the qualities of materials, and the manufacturing processes that allow for these qualities to be best communicated. I am competent at using both Material Driven Design and Research through Design to combine traditional fabrication techniques with state-of-the-art research to embed responsive qualities into materials.

My interests in materiality developed through my desire to improve the quality and finish of my work, whether it be prototypes or finished products. I am competent at leveraging materials, finishes, and processes to aid the final execution of my work and use these to create distinct identities and aesthetic experiences.

I thrive in interdisciplinary environments where I can draw on diverse expertise to bring ideas to fruition. My learning-oriented approach helps me bridge gaps between disciplines, fostering collaboration. I contribute a strong vision to group projects, providing clear direction. To ensure my vision remains flexible and inclusive, I actively seek out feedback and critique, preventing myself from becoming too fixated on a singular perspective. I am an effective visual communicator, allowing me to communicate and present my work across different disciplines.

I have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and always look for ways to apply my growth as a designer to business practices. I have started Ipsum Studio, a custom fountain pen brand in which I actively apply new competencies that I developed throughout my education.

In the future, I am committed to further exploring materiality by combining my expertise in Industrial Design with a deeper understanding of Material Science. I will be following a premaster in Material Science engineering at Delft with the intent of doing a double master in Material Science and Industrial Design once it has been completed. This academic journey will equip me with the necessary knowledge and skills to make a design-led contribution, allowing programmable materials to transition from material science laboratories to everyday context prototypes.

Vision

Designers of the future need to embrace interactive materiality. Current interfaces are too reliant on visual mediums, that have been shown to have negative impact on physiological and psychological parameters (See research). Having grown up in a generation where the advent of digital screens coincided with our cognitive development, I am cautious about the over-implementation of these digital interfaces. I envision a future where smart materials, programmable materials, and tangible interfaces not only supplement digital interfaces but eventually replace them altogether

In my vision, I believe interaction will be embedded into the traditional every-day materials that make up our surroundings such as wood and textiles. Which means the way we interact with them will also change. In the future we will shift to communicating data through multiple modalities, aligning better with our biological pathways, and ensuring a healthier connection with technology. These tangible interfaces can harness the unexplored benefits of full-body interaction, moving expression away from visual mediums to more diverse and holistic methods.

I am inspired by the work of researchers such as Cindy Kao at Hybrid Body Lab at Cornell, who create multimodal interfaces for on-skin applications. These interfaces utilize a combination of materials and fabrication techniques to turn body parts into sensing systems. For example, SkinLink introduces reconfigurable on-skin electronics that allow users to intuitively adjust circuitry directly on the body. I believe this work can be augmented by researching smart soft materials that can be actuated, allowing for feedback within these systems. Integrating programmable smart materials could enhance the functionality and user experience of on-skin interfaces, pushing the boundaries of how we interact with technology in a more natural and embodied manner.

Ultimately it is my dream to leverage my expertise in working with materials which we use on an every-day basis, linking high-quality execution, design and advanced materials and learning trajectory to become an interactive material designer.