Curiosity has defined much of my life choices, from my inner physicist wanting to better understand the world and its intricacies, to my designer alter ego that is curious about how utilizing and applying different perspectives and knowledge can give opportunity to novel solutions and experiences. I am captivated by technological advances and likewise continuously strive to broaden my knowledge and skills. Central to this are key values of adaptiveness, versatility, and fearlessness, highlighting the importance of having courage to approach unfamiliar knowledge areas and in turn transform them into new skills and strengths. I believe exploring and expanding into the unknown is essential for navigating the complexities and uncertainties of modern day challenges.

Through my multi-disciplinary background as applied physics and designer, I combine three modes of thinking to approach problem-solving i.e., system thinking—to understand and identifying complex networks and relations to contextualize and scope the problem and design space, creative design thinking—applying empathy and explorative approaches to identify new opportunities for convergence and solutions, and abstract computational thinking—developing solutions through algorithm- or data-enabled intelligent product design. These three modes of thinking provide me with adaptive perspectives throughout my design process to tackle diverse problems and inform my work of design.

Throughout my creative process I take inspiration from diverse and at times seemingly dual perspectives, disciplines, and/or knowledge areas. Therein I value collaboration and multi-disciplinary perspectives at the boundaries of research areas and favor unique perspectives that work towards disruptive ideas and applications. Rather than seeing actants such as nature and technology as opposites, I am intrigued by their duality and rather curious of what will emerge from their convergence or amalgamation. As a result, I see myself as an opportunist as well as connector in which I seek to find convergence between diverse actants occupying a system.

In order to work in a multi-disciplinary context it is essential for designers to have the ability to speak many languages and connect to various fields of disciplines. This includes not only being sufficiently knowledgeable, but also having the ability to communicate speculative visions to others of which many are outside of the field of design. Nevertheless, the design language gives many opportunities for this. And In my work of design I use visual presentation to support communication, present a design narrative, and potentially elicit aesthetic experiences. Through presenting a vision in a more experienceable form, conceptualization can become more tangible as well as captivating, which is important in order to communicate visionary or disruptive design narratives and ideas.

In my prior education—i.e. bachelors in Applied Physics—I was able to develop my analytical skills and confidence to tackle complex problems and knowledge areas, as well as expand on my ‘languages’ and perspectives for multi-disciplinary work and collaboration. Together with the projects that I was able to do throughout my ID masters, my past experiences have very much shaped me into the designer I am today. While I initially set out to expand on my technical development and understanding of various emerging technologies (including additive manufacturing techniques, parametric design, and intelligent product design/programming), many of these have turned into interests in exploring the various aesthetics that emerge from technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). From posthuman and more-than-human perspectives to the digital transformation of biology related-practices. What started from a desire to connect nature and technology has transformed in a much more clear and palpable vision on my design work, design processes, and interests. Throughout my masters I was also fortune to have the opportunity to become a Teaching Assistant and Student Mentor for two courses which very much align to my design vision and work. In conjunction, the showcased selection of work found on the right presents a few outcomes of these projects and extracurricular activities as well as reflections of take-aways that have played a central role in my development.

In order to create great solutions I believe it is necessary to have a good understanding of the surrounding problem space as well as the design space. And throughout my past projects and FMP I was able to tremendously develop my own style of Design & Research Processes (DRP) and workflows, incorporating both my analytical skills and creativity. The resulting “trinity” I described in my professional identity, exemplifies the importance of multi-disciplinary research complementary to design processes, and understanding and converging diverse workflows and perspectives can enable us to better understand and design for complex systems and challenging problems.

At the core of this, Math, Data and Computing (MDC) tools give us handles on better understanding complexity, providing us with better ways to observe and analyze systems to uncover underlying interactions, interdependencies, and principles. And furthermore, providing us with methods and tools to model, interface, and communicate this data and the system variables. As a result, my MDC-expertise encompasses a growing work of intelligent/data-enabled design products and services, which at the core are powered by emerging technologies from exploration to implementation.

In order to transform the presented information (data) to relevant design actions, interventions, and perhaps the creation of new systems, creative inquiry is essential in order to understand and explore how to design with and for emerging technologies. Therein, Creativity & Aesthetics (C&A) is essential, not only to identify opportunities for instance in converging areas or interdependencies, but also through reflection regarding ethical and philosophical notions that apply. In conjunction, my CA-expertise is involved with identifying novel opportunities and convergence, trusting my design intuition and narrative in the face of the unknown and at times severe lack of information, as well as continuous reflection to stay critical and inquisitive.

Though my time as a student seems to be nearing its end, I am keen on continuing my road to expand my knowledge and experience. And while I am unfortunately leaving the educative research environment of the university, I am looking forward to expand my professional experience in a new chapter of my life. In this chapter I plan on working at a big consultancy firm that is focused on self-development, and implementing emerging technologies in order to accelerate change and create value. As I am attracted to fast-pace environments with constant newly emerging projects, these companies should provide me with the ideal platform and opportunities to learn and obtain new skills and knowledge. At the same time I would like to continue the development of the bio-digital twin in a part-time manner and possibly publish the results to open (biofab) platforms. As of now, I believe these bio-digital tools will only become increasingly more relevant and hope more people will adopt this perspective and contribute to the development of many more bio-digital tools.