Below is a selection of my projects and builds per academic year, plus extracurricular.
Extracurricular
Christmas Tree Soldering Workshop
Together with HaHaHo, I’m creating a number of soldering workshops for Library Neude in Utrecht. These workshops have to be accessible for people who don’t have a technological background but who would like to learn more about soldering. The workshops progress in difficulty so that a learning line is created: participants can develop their skills […]
Media Deck
This media deck sprung from my desire to have all my media buttons in one convenient place, especially for online meetings during the corona lockdown. I had been wanting to work with Cherry MX keycaps and reverse-mounted LEDs for a while, so this was the perfect opportunity to design a PCB that incorporated those components. […]
Moduli DIY Modular Light Kit
Moduli is a modular light kit that makes full use of the reflective, canvas-like, properties of white PCBs. With Moduli, I wanted to explore how LED light can be mixed to create gradient patterns and I chose PCBs as a medium because this seemed a new application area. I went through multiple iterations and I […]
Lotus Light Sculpture
This Lotus is based on the Lotus I created for the course Sensors for Physiology: https://www.vectorious.nl/lotus/. I really like the aesthetic of the first Lotus, but I wanted to make the electronics inside part of the sculpture. The base became a PCB that contains most of the components. The flower petals I kept the same: […]
Meshy LED
For the Signify Challenge, Iris Bekkers and I created Meshy, which is a soldering pattern for creating 3D freeform LED sculptures. These sculptures can be controlled by an Arduino with 6 columns turning on and off. The challenging part of this build was not the soldering, although it was quite difficult to freeform solder the […]
PCB design
For the course Sensors for Physiology, I dove deep into PCB design with KiCAD. I had previously used KiCAD to create schematics for the course Creative Electronics, but I hadn’t really explored its PCB capabilities. Surprisingly, I found PCB layouting to be quite addictive. My main drive behind wanting to create my own PCB’s was […]
Freeform Soldering
In the summer of 2019, I was inspired by Mohit Bhoite‘s freeform electronics sculptures because of the unique aesthetic of freeform soldering. Bhoite kindly provided some tutorials and a template on his website and Instagram-account, so I was able to quickly try out some of his designs. Experimenting a little with existing designs allowed me […]
Java and JavaScript Art
Being a student assistant for Creative Programming in year 2 rekindled my enthusiasm for creating programmed art. This time around, I wanted to expand my knowledge beyond Processing to also include JavaScript, and in particular the P5 library. I’ve particularly enjoyed coming up with mathematical algorithms that would create interesting patterns. In this way, I’ve been […]
Cat LED strip toy
As a kitten joined our household in the summer of 2019, I decided to build a cat toy consisting of a running LED for the cat to chase. This was a far more difficult project than I initially expected because cats turn out to be extremely picky. The programming and the electronics were fairly simple, […]
Soldering video manual for Meet je stad!
In the summer of 2019, I became involved with the Meet je stad! soldering workshops held in the Neudebieb in Utrecht. Due to corona distancing measures, I felt less effective as an instructor/facilitator, so I decided to create a soldering video manual so people could see how to solder tricky bits. I created these two videos […]
Mira Robot
Mira Robot sprung from the idea of using a 7-segment LED display to show facial expressions. I first saw an application of this in the Chintoo sculpture by Mohit Bhoite. This led me to explore how much emotion I could convey by just using four 7-segment LED displays. Mira is Spanish for ‘look!’, which I […]
3D-printed foam board parts library
Early on during Exploratory Making, I got the idea of creating a 3D-modelled parts library to speed up and enhance the exploratory making process. After the course, I decided to go forward with the idea and create the library on Thingiverse, taking care to make everything open source. To achieve this, I programmed the parts […]
Open-Source Phone Tripod
In quartile 3, I started recognising the importance of taking good pictures of my explorations and models. I also wanted to improve my 3D modelling skills in OpenSCAD as I’m dedicated to using and promoting open-source software. To combine these interests, I modelled a phone holder tripod first in Fusion 360 (as the point-and-click environment […]
Year 2
Bachelor project 2: Mouscle
Mouscle is a computer mouse that slowly changes shape to prevent RSI symptoms.
Lotus
For the course Sensors for Physiology, I created Lotus, a respiration device that aims to lower stress through guided respiration exercises. The device measures heart rate through PPG sensing and provides users with a target heart rate to work towards. Lotus uses three channels for visualisation: fading LEDs that visualise breathing in and out; a […]
Automatic Lifting Crutch
For the course Engineering Design we created a telescopic crutch over the course of 9 weeks that can help people get up and sit down, for example in chairs or on their bed. The crutch is designed to be used indoors during recovery from a leg fracture, for example. We’ve received some interest from an investor […]
Video Game Music
For the course Design for Games and Play 1, our group created a multiplayer partygame in a retro eighties style. To complete the eighties atmosphere, I composed a few midi tunes in www.onlinesequencer.net that would echo that time-period. While creating the first pieces, I noticed that I very much enjoy composing music in a sequencer (previously […]
Year 1
Biodegradable shoe
For the course Creative Mechanical Engineering, Anna Leeman and I designed a shoe that would be biodegradable through its choice of materials, such as PLA and cotton. The shoe had to follow certain requirements and constraints so that it could be worn and would also feel comfortable for the wearer. We created this shoe in roughly […]
Design Sketching
In addition to taking Exploratory Sketching, I’m trying to develop my own visual style, and part of that for me is design sketching. For me, sketching is a medium to communicate and explore ideas. However, especially the latter is difficult for me, as I tended to go for (photo)realism in my drawings. As course Exploratory […]
Project 1 – Office Plant
In semester 2, I had my first chance to work on a project and was thus given more freedom to explore what I love about design. My first explorations were into smart materials as I’d chosen the project ‘Smart to Touch’. This led me to origami folding, laser cut auxetic patterns, and actuating those by […]
Exploratory Making
In quartile 2, my main focus was to improve my skills in the area of Creativity & Aesthetics. This is why I chose the elective Exploratory Making. In this course I learnt a lot about aesthetics and about expressing quality in form and interaction. Initially I was afraid that this would be my weakest area, […]
Etch-a-Sketch
In quartile one, I focused on developing my skills in programming and electronics. The expertise area I am most interested in is Technology & Realisation, which I why I dove into the course Creative Programming. For the final project, I created an electronic Etch-a-Sketch as it allowed me to develop and combine my skills in […]