Coding Art / Design Thinking (PDF)

An artist by training, Yu Zhang finished her PhD in 2017 on the theory and artistic practice of interactive technologies for public, large-scale installations. She approaches visual art with mixed reality installations and projections, sensor-based interactives, and computational arts. She roots her artistic intent in the symbolism of Asian traditions and transforms the artistic unpacking of drama and cultural signifiers into experiences of interactivity and connectivity that ultimately bridge artistic expression and audience experience. She uses systems design toolkit, to realize a complex multifaceted experience playing with the spatiotemporal context of the audience's interaction with the installations when digital and physical converge. Starting from interactivity, she constructs layers of different connections between artist, artwork, audience, and the environment to express how far such connectivity can impact and reshape the structure and relations of objects, space, and time within a dynamic audience experience. Apart from her artistic research and practice, Yu's teaching experiences cover over ten years and a board space including traditional classrooms and design-led project-based learning activities.

Mathias Funk is Associate Professor in the Future Everyday group in the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He has a background in Computer Science and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (from Eindhoven University of Technology). His research interests include complex systems design, remote data collection, systems for musical expression, and design tools such as domain-specific languages and integrated development environments. In the past he has worked in research positions at ATR Japan, RWTH Aachen and he has been Visiting Researcher at Philips Consumer Lifestyle, The Netherlands. He is also the co-founder of UXsuite, a high-tech spin-off from Eindhoven University of Technology. He has years of experience in