Do you know how a telephone, a remote control or a faucet works? We often take these mundane technologies for granted, and forget to marvel their operational logic, or question the underlying conventions. Fuzzy logic is a branch of science that studies non-binary systems: What if the truth value of a statement is not true […]
How are our senses connected to one another? How could we translate touch into sound? The aim of this two-day workshop was to explore the sonification of touch by creating haptic textile instruments. Participating artists and designers learned how to design and construct simple electronic textile circuits using various conductive soft materials and the Arduino […]
In March 2021, I taught a one-week remote workshop for the Graphic Design BA students at the Estonian Academy of Arts. In the context of the workshop, softness was considered both figuratively and literally: By learning about electronic textiles, wearable tech and interaction design, the students imagined and created soft technologies that might offer care, […]
Mutta metsän polkua kuljen kummallista On aurinko vaipuu,on tähdet ja karjojen kellot Kiiluu kautta huikaisten sädekirkas tieni.Muistelen päivin ja intohimon syvyys, suurempi kuin on tuonyksin yössä kuoro jonka tuntee tulen suonissaan ja valaa kastehenki Tulla Tuonen arvoitusta.kunis näämme ne hienot sielut Ken eli hetken, hälle musta multa armasta, ah, sydänjuurihin saakka!ystävät elon suuren, runsaan Häntä […]
Visceral Petting Zoo is a participatory sound performance where a menagerie of cute but creepy creatures come to life. The performance demonstrates the ambiguous relationship between affection and revulsion through the concept of “cute aggression” — a cognitive phenomenon that describes the strong urge to bite, squeeze or otherwise harm particularly cute beings. The audience […]
Artificial life is beginning to form amongst the flotsam and jetsam of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Curious bionic creatures, animal-machine hybrids consisting of junk and debris, crawling ashore with whatever appendages they have, squeal “I’m finally alive!”. I was invited to run a one-week workshop for second year graphic design BA students at Estonian […]
Uncanny Dimple examines the close proximity between the cute and the creepy. Drawing from roboticist Masahiro Mori’s concept of the Uncanny Valley, which explains the eeriness of lifelike robots, my theory of the Uncanny Dimple portrays a parallel phenomenon in the context of cuteness. The robotic creatures inhabiting the soft depths of the dimple demonstrate […]
It’s year 2119. Due to advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence in the first half of the 21st century, most jobs have been automatised, and no longer require human labour. Universal basic income was globally introduced to provide an adequate level of welfare, and most labour now consists of human-intelligence microtasks carried out in the […]
Algorithmic illustration generator that simulates the development of children’s drawings in the so-called cephalopod phase of early childhood. The generator was used to produce illustrations for the Image magazine’s AI-themed number in December 2018.