Some background
& context

During my exchange at MICA last semester, while I didn’t get to dive into any computation classes, I did attend a talk by Vera van Desyep and Yehwan Yen Song that shifted how I think about human-machine interaction. Song’s work was all about adding a playful twist to the web, inviting users to physically engage with digital spaces through unconventional interactive elements. As for Van Desyep—being part of MIT Media Lab’s Future Sketches group—her projects like Skeletext and the hacked knitting machine have always inspired me, so hearing her speak in person about her upcoming projects was a truly exciting and motivating experience.

I also picked a seminar/lecture class called data,arts and society, while on exchange, which covered topics related to artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data visualization in art, design, and digital culture. It was really insightful and the discussions we had in class always got me thinking more about the topics after i got home. In this class I was introduced to a lot of new media artists in the lectures like Hito Steyerl, Refik Anadol and Sougwen Chung. I was really interested in sougwen chungs work- D.O.U.G - which explores human robot collaboration while making art. I ended up writing my final essay on this topic as well.

Internship

One of the most exciting things that happened to me this year was getting an offer for a creative technologist intern position at design bridge and partners, Singapore. I was lucky to have a really experienced and great mentor- Paola Demechiles who not only put up with my inexperience in the tech field patiently, but also guided me with references to get better at problem solving on my own while coding.

During my internship, I contributed to a number of fun projects like a generative logo and type tool for Vodafone, an audioreactive motion tool for forest carbon on touchdesigner, as well as an interactive website for Accumulate. All these projects were a great learning experience for me not only in terms of work culture and the branding industry here in singapore but also in terms of technical skills and coding.