Kristina Andersen is associate professor at the Making with... cluster of the Department of Industrial Design. Her work is concerned with how we can allow each other to imagine our possible futures through digital craftsmanship and collaborations with machines in the context of material practices of soft fiber-based things. How can we innovate, design and act around that which is yet to be imagined? Who gets to drive innovation processes? And how can we reframe our methodologies to include the complex cultural, political, and personal aspects of life? Can we approach this through making (and thinking) about technology, communities and materials as a way to construct the unknown?

Andersen is a longstanding advisor to the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, Dutch Design Awards, NWO and EU. Andersen has been paper chair for CHI, and co-chairs the DIS steering committee.

Kristina Andersen obtained her PhD from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, her MSc degree in Virtual Environments from University College London, and her Candidature (MA) from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, Industrial Design. She has collaborated widely with national and international research institutes, cultural organizations and industry as researcher, engineer, lecturer and mentor. Andersen was initiator, and PI on the EU-funded project GiantSteps and coordinated and lead the EU funded project TRIP as PI. She has taught widely and ran the combined MA between STEIM and Sonology from 2011-17.  

Expertise area(‘s): CA

Squad: Crafting wearable senses


Research focus, projects I’d like to coach:
“My main topics are Research through Making, Digital Craftsmanship, and the notion of collaborating with systems and things.”

What is your vision on education/coaching?
“In Crafting Wearable Senses, we are dedicated to supporting students to pursue design and research ideas within the broader scope of research through design, complexity of attention and soft and flexible things. We expect students to be self-directed and focused, and we encourage commitment and excellence. We expect students to define and execute projects that take their origin from the following terms:


-Making and Crafting, we are committed to making as a method of research and investigation.
-Soft Things, we encourage work that is soft and flexible.
-Machines, we believe that industrial design is anchored in a deep understanding of machines of production.
-Realisation, we encourage students to not only investigate a concept, but to realise it as an engaging interactive system in an embodied manner.
-Sensing, we encourage students to work with sensing technologies.

But also:
How can we innovate, design and act around that which is yet to be imagined? Who gets to drive such innovation processes? And how can we re-frame our methodologies to include the complex cultural, political, and personal aspects of everyday life?”