STRP - ways to visualise biological data

STRP Biënnale, one of world's ten leading festivals on creative technology, incited the curiosity of 30 000 visitors over a period of 10 days this year. Both well recognised scientists and talented young makers present their work at this event. It offers the audience the chance to experiment various scientific themes and see the result immediately. I was part of the crew team this year.

Figure 1. Let's make sense of the future now

Man and machine are connected more and more by systems that translate the sensory information into digital command lines. The key to a successful connection between man and machine is the interaction method. Physics and engineering play an important role to design new and more efficient ways to translate for the machine what the body understands through biological pathways what the environment input states. The future of technology depends upon discovering new forms of interaction.

Video 1. STRP project documentation from Milan van Belle on Vimeo.

This subject is not easy for the audience to embrace. For this, a simple and very popular app (The Particle Party) was designed to track in real time, with dots, the movement of a person in front of a screen. The time allocated was short, and the trace is saved by the user as a photograph.

Figure 2. Celebrate our senses at the Particle Party

"We will keep adding new sensors and senses to the things we make. Of course, everything will get eyes (vision is almost free), and hearing, but one by one we can add superhuman senses such as GPS location sensing, heat detection, X-ray vision, diverse molecule sensitivity, or smell. These permit our creations to respond to us, to interact with us, and to adapt themselves to our uses. Interactivity, by definition, is two way, so this sensing elevates our interactions with technology."

( Kevin Kelly, 2016 )

Design your world

In October of each year, Dutch Design Week takes place in Eindhoven. The biggest design event in Northern Europe presents work and ideas of more than 2500 designers to more than 275 000 visitors from home and abroad. In more than a hundred locations across the city, Dutch Design Week organises and facilitates exhibitions, lectures, prize ceremonies, networking events, debates and festivities. Last year I was part of the organising crew for the event.

Figure 1. My participation at the training for the new crew members

An average family owns at least 200 000 objects, from a paper clip to a toaster. Rarely we ask ourselves where these items came from, how they are made, or how we can make them more suitable for our needs, or more presentable. This event organises a series of interviews and presentations from top designers and new talents in the field that answer some of these questions.

Video 1. Presentation of Martijn Paulen, director of Dutch Design Week

In the past, the designer created new products and then various marketing techniques were used to sell the product to the customer. This method doesn't work anymore. Nowadays the customer's needs are put in the center of attention of the designer from the beginning of the creative process.

Video 2. Presentation of Martijn Paulen, director of Dutch Design Week

As consumers, we are losing sight of the complex world behind the products and services that we use every day. One of the main organisers of this exhibition, designer Bas van Abel, researched the market of smartphones that we all possess nowadays. He asked himself what should be the balance between the financial and the other values when it comes to product development. He asked himself also which is the role of a designer: to simply design the final product without thinking of the costs for the materials and for the production process, or to consider all the aspects before applying for a patent. He chose to develop a sustainable telephone of his own, the Fairphone, that takes into account all aspects, from human, to material costs, and production pipeline.

Video 3. Presentation of Bas van Abel, ambassador for Dutch Design Week

Technology develops more and more nowadays, quicker as the time passes by, and the automatization process of everything around us increases in use each day. We rely more and more on technology for more and more of our daily tasks. With the use of improved technology, one may complete more daily tasks nowadays, and the things around us adapt better to our needs with the use of technology. Nevertheless, there is always a balance between the human factor and the use of technology, a balance that is harder and harder to keep in mind with the increase of speed in our lives.

Video 4. Presentation of Maarten Baas, ambassador for Dutch Design Week

Each one of us can make time to better understand the products and services that we use every day. Increased knowledge of these details makes us more capable to make responsible decisions in our lives. A responsible consumer, if not even a designer, can make this world a better place to live.