Kristina Andersen
Research
Kristina Andersen’s research is an ongoing exploration into making objects as a method of both thinking about and imagining ideas. This process is ultimately designed to facilitate the manifestation of innovation, technology and thoughts. We imagine the moment of discovery as standing on the edge of darkness, squinting, leaning forward toward that-which-cannot-yet-be-seen. Just as souvenirs act as tangible links to our past, can we create objects that connect us to this unknown? Can we bear witness to the process itself? The questions raised by this line of enquiry will be investigated through the building of experimental and explorative devices. These devices are then evaluated and tested within a theatrical methodology, as if they indeed were what they say they are. In this manner we can build up an array of possible futures and their dystopic or idealistic possibilities. Through this ‘practicing at the future’ we investigate our ethics and cultural responses to the new and the unknown. The heart of innovation must be recaptured, explored and shared amongst us.
Biography
Kristina Andersen is a researcher and storyteller based at STEIM in Amsterdam. She is primarily concerned with how we can allow each other to practice at the future through the making of new exploratory objects. To do this she works with electronics and reclaimed materials to create unusual objects and workshop experiences experiences. She holds a Cand. Arch. [wearable computers], a M.Sc [tangible objects in virtual spaces], and was a research fellow at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IT). She is a Founding Research Fellow of the Research Institute in the Converging Arts & Sciences (ICAS) at the University of Greenwich. She has been a mentor at DasArts, a thematic project leader at the Piet Zwart Institute/ MA in Media Design, an honorary visiting design fellow at the University of York and she has designed and hosted countless workshops. She was mentor and senior researcher at the Patchingzone and teaches the combined MA between STEIM and Sonology in Den Haag as well as maintaining her own practice.