“By actively imagining the future, we may be able to practice at it and develop not only ideas and projects but critical cultural responses to the new and the unknown.”

Kristina Andersen is associate professor at the Future Everyday cluster of the Department of Industrial Design. Her work is concerned with how we can allow each other to imagine our possible technological futures through digital craftsmanship and collaborations with semi intelligent 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 visions of the unknown?

Andersen was based at STEIM for 14 years, she was part of the Making Things Public art research program at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and lead the Instruments and Interfaces master’s degree program at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. She is a longstanding advisor of the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, and currently acts as expert reviewer for H2020, ICT and FET for both application and project reviews. Andersen co-chaired the CHI art 2018, CHI Design paper track 2019 and 2020, and DIS pictorials 2019.

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, Department of Industrial Design in Copenhagen. She has collaborated widely with national and international research institutes, cultural organizations and industry as researcher, engineer, lecturer and mentor. Andersen was initiator, principal researcher and work package leader on GiantSteps - a collaboration between music research institutions, manufacturers of software and hardware for music production and performance, R&D companies and music practitioners funded by the European Union. She has taught widely and ran the combined MA between STEIM and Sonology from 2011-17.  

• Gerrit Rietveld Academie
• Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatoire in The Hague
• Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie

Partners in (semi-)industry

• STEIM

Expertise area(‘s): CA

Squad: Crafting wearable senses


Research focus, projects I’d like to coach:
“My main topics are Research through design, post human research methodology, but part of this is centered around Mating and the notion of collaborating with systems and things.”

What is your vision on education/coaching?
“I am feeling very strongly that I am working inside a community, collaborating is essential for me. I am interested in coaching challenged based learning. It is important that students find their own focus. It is important that there is a good balance between support, advice, and more critical feedback. 


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?”

Exemplary projects of students I coached:

T.M. (Tyana) Hendriksma (B3.2): STND OUT
See demoday platform

M.E.A. (Marleen) Janssen (B3.2): LA FUERZA
See demo day platform

M.A. (Mirthe) Visscher, I.G.M. (Iris) Camps, V.C. (Verindi) Vekemans (M1.1): MIS: THE MARTIAN INNOVATIVE SUIT
See demo day platform

J.M.L. (Jori) van der Kolk (M1.2): MOAS: COMBINING DIGITAL MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES
See demo day platform

C.J. (Lotte) Sluijs (M1.2): UNCOVERING NATURE'S NARRATIVE
See demo day platform

Kristupas Gabrielaitis (FMP): Poetic Everyday
See demo day platform