Previous Challenges

On this page you find previous challenges of the course ISP innovation through art & design.

1. Artwork @ EAISI building Neuron 

Challenge owners: Martijn van Boven + EAISI

Summary

The Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute brings together all AI activities of the TU/e. Top researchers from various departments and research groups work together to create new and exciting AI applications with a direct impact on the real world. All this in close collaboration with our students and representatives from industry.

EAISI recently moved to the Neuron building. To create better visibility as an AI institute, they would like to have an interactive artwork that shows the possibilities of AI.

Together with artist Martijn van Boven and the help of Team Ignite and NEURAL. you will work on an appealing work of art with integrated AI and lighting design through research, prototyping & testing.

Martijn van Boven is a visual artist with a focus on experimental films and computer-generated art. His work is expressed through installations, films, collaborations with composers, and cinema performances. Martijn was also Head Design Art & Technology at ArtEZ University of Applied Sciences and did extensive research on media archeology.

Team IGNITE is a student light design studio, focusing on displaying the potential of light for societal impact. To achieve this, they have set up a community with design and engineering students from different backgrounds and different educational institutions. Their ambition is to educate the creative engineers of the future by bridging the gap between design and technology through light design.

Evolving from Fruitpunch AI for Health, NEURAL. is a dynamic team delving into AI's unexplored domains. Their collaborative endeavors, initially rooted in healthcare, have now expanded to include new areas such as creative technologies, showcasing the broad and versatile impact of AI.

2. Innovative technologies for the entertainment industry

Challenge owner: Jack Smale

Summary

After decades of working worldwide as a highly experienced creative producer in the entertainment industry, Jack is surprised that innovative technologies are not used much more in concerts, theater shows and sports competitions. For example, the huge space above the heads of the audience during a major event is almost never used, so he created autonomous flying balloons with light effects (pictured), which were eventually used by the band MUSE for their world tour.

Jack has several projects and ideas that you can participate in (see for example his RXD project below) and is also open to new creative ideas with innovative technology.

Jack Smale, President of The United States of Entertainment (USE), is an all-round producer in the entertainment industry. He has been involved in producing and initiating projects such as The MTV awards, the musical Soldier of Orange, U2 Sarajevo and MUSE’s world tour.

3. Unveiling the Spectrum of Light & AI

Challenge owners: Team IGNITE & NEURAL.

Summary

For this semester, two top TU/e student teams will bring in a challenge that ignites their collaboration. Their mission: to merge the worlds of data-driven insights (including live, global, and interactive sensing) with the artistic expression of interactive light art. Central to this open challenge are questions like: How can the elusive nature of light and AI be transformed into a tangible, interactive installation? What new experiences emerge when we explore perception - both human and machine - in the context of AI and light? And can an AI-driven system autonomously create a captivating light-based experience? The outcome is still open and will be determined with the students in the first part of the semester.

Team IGNITE is a student light design studio, focusing on displaying the potential of light for societal impact. To achieve this, they have set up a community with design and engineering students from different backgrounds and different educational institutions. Their ambition is to educate the creative engineers of the future by bridging the gap between design and technology through light design.

Evolving from Fruitpunch AI for Health, NEURAL. is a dynamic team delving into AI's unexplored domains. Their collaborative endeavors, initially rooted in healthcare, have now expanded to include new areas such as creative technologies, showcasing the broad and versatile impact of AI.

3. Objects with Agency 

Challenge owner: Fillip Studios

Summary

Dancers are experts in moving their bodies in an expressive and meaningful way. They can use their bodies to tell stories, convey emotions, and explore ideas. What if dancers could also use objects with agency in their dance? What if these objects with agency could inspire, guide, or even direct dancers? In this challenge we explore the way we can create objects that have agency and can interact with dancers on stage.

Fillip Studios is an art and design studio with the mission to create impact through wonder and is founded by artists Roos Meerman and Tom Kortbeek. The studio collaborates with universities, institutions, museums and commercial companies, and the work of Fillip Studios is shown across the world.

1. Biomimetic Acoustic Robots 

Challenge owner: Matteo Marangoni

Summary

Artist Matteo Marangoni created a series of works which connect sound, music and space, by creating artificial creatures inspired by how animals interact and communicate through sound. Recently, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic, he has moved his work from indoor settings to outdoors and became fascinated by how his robots interact directly with nature. In his project Komorebi (with Dieter Vandoren) a swarm of robots makes music together in response to the shadows of trees moving in the wind. In presenting Komorebi, it became apparent how his work can help people feel deeply connected to the change that is constantly taking place in nature, and the work also helped reduce stress and foster a sense of well-being. From this experience he became interested in exploring how his artificial creatures could not only interact with the weather and vegetation, but also include interaction with animals. Matteo is interested in how current developments in AI could be used not only to simulate human intelligence, but to connect to other forms of intelligence on our planet, with the ultimate aim to seek a more balanced relationship between nature and technology.

About the challenge owner: Matteo Marangoni is an artist and community organiser interested in sonic rituals, DIY media and applied utopianism. His artistic practice focuses on creating spatial experiences probing the relationship between subject and object. 

2. Shaping Sunlight

Challenge owner: Jólan van der Wiel and Chris Kievid

Summary

We live in a time when there is more and more building in height. Close together. With that comes a lack of sunlight. With this research project, we want to contribute to possible solutions in the future to use (and control) natural daylight and sunlight as much as possible and optimize the experience. This artwork is not just an aesthetic innovation, but a prototype for a larger ambition, to transform the indoor environment to a more sustainable, natural ambiance through special optics tuned to the solar cycle.

With this, we hope to take a step towards a healthier living environment by reducing use of artificial light, artificial shading and cooling.

About the challenge owners:

Jólan van der Wiel leads a collaborative design practice that conducts artistic experiments within multiple themes and environments. He works closely with architects, scientists, fashion designers, brands and institutions, such as Iris van Herpen, Benthem Crouwel Architects, Volvo Cars, the Metropolitan Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.

Chris Kievid combines interaction and architectural thinking across domains to foster social activism through impactful design. Previously, Chris was also the design and creative leader at Studio Roosegaarde, where he led the development of projects from conception to realization and led the assembly and management of a diverse, interdisciplinary design team.

3. Innovative technologies for the entertainment industry

Challenge owner: Jack Smale

Summary

After decades of working worldwide as a highly experienced creative producer in the entertainment industry, Jack is surprised that innovative technologies are not used much more in concerts, theater shows and sports competitions. For example, the huge space above the heads of the audience during a major event is almost never used, so he created autonomous flying balloons with light effects (pictured), which were eventually used by the band MUSE for their world tour.

Jack has several projects and ideas that you can participate in (see for example his RXD project below) and is also open to new creative ideas with innovative technology.

About the challenge owner: Jack Smale, President of The United States of Entertainment (USE), is an all-round producer in the entertainment industry. He has been involved in producing and initiating projects such as The MTV awards, the musical Soldier of Orange, U2 Sarajevo and MUSE’s world tour.”

1. Remote Experience Design

Challenge owner: U|S|E –Entertainment Business

Summary: Remote Experience Design (RXD) is the online remote-control experience that allows users worldwide to explore the world in an environmental way while learning and having fun. With remote-controlled vehicles, you can go on a journey of discovery, full of challenges and adventures. RXD enables you to explore the jungle live (to scale), but the setting could also be the Moon or Mars.

In this project you can work on prototyping with vehicles, inventing and engineering special effects -such as rain & fog, mechanical bridges, and augmented animals, or work on scenery challenges like landscape and scaling. Are you in for an adventure?

Description: You can find the long description here.  

2. Dommel – Future of urban nature

Challenge owner: Municipality of Eindhoven

Summary: KnoopXL, a large area around the city center is part of a major transition and will become the beating heart of Brainport Eindhoven. A project within is the Dommel River, which has been compromised by the city's growth. Widening the banks of the river around the (rail)road tunnels will give nature more space, allow biodiversity to grow, and connect habitats of animal and plant species.

Within this challenge, you can explore and design this area with ShapeReality's AR/VR capabilities to support participatory processes to turn the opposition of nature & city into positive action. How do we optimally increase biodiversity? Can we build an observatory so people can
enjoy a piece of wild nature?

The ultimate goal is a booth during Dutch Design Week 2023 where visitors can try out scenarios using AR/VR. Who knows, you may be designing a piece of future Eindhoven...

Description: You can find the long description here.

3. Living Auxetics

Challenge owner: Fillip Studios

Summary: In this challenge you explore the possibilities of the combination of two new and innovative technologies: soft robotics and randomly generated auxetic structures. 

Auxetic behaviour in materials creates endless design possibilities. Inspired by nature we will explore the application of a machine learning tool that is capable of creating randomly formed auxetic structures in the development of soft robotics. Can we create new machines with unexpected behaviours that can adapt to their environment?

In this project, you can work on designing and prototyping a variety of applications and objects.

Description: You can find the long description here.

4. Helium Filled Objects

Challenge owner: U|S|E –Entertainment Business

Summary: When you visit a concert hall, stadium or large theatre, you often see immeasurable unused space above the audience. That's the vast playing field of Helium Filled Objects, and in this challenge, you can start experimenting with designs and technologies to contribute maximally to the concert, theatre play or sports game; a choreography with coloured light balls that match the stage lighting plan, spaceships flying around, or floating fishes to create an underwater experience.

In this project you can work on designing and prototyping the objects, lighting effects or systems & controls. Who knows, maybe you'll join us(e) on a world tour in the future!

Description: You can find the long description here.