Turn The Page #82 Dark

Caspar Chorus

PODIUM A fly on the wall

It should not be complicated. To just have fun, without desperately trying. To just enjoy today, without worrying about what will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. To just trust that sooner or later you will end up there, without knowing exactly where you want to go. And yet it is not that straightforward at all.

I am often in the dark, trying to get my hands onto something. It is not just me. My board members and friends have it as well. You, maybe? Little doubt, probably all of us. Sometimes we simply do not know what and how and where and when. My mother would tell me that things would work out in the end (or, as they say in Dutch, “dat alles op zijn pootjes terecht komt”). The dean Caspar, who I get to speak to once a month, would agree. Repeatedly, he tells us, as the board of ID, to just experience our year instead of questioning everything we do.

Despite what it looks like, no one knows the way, we are all just doing our best. And maybe that’s the best advice to live by. At times when we are in the dark, searching for the right way, it is quite calming to remember that there is not necessarily a ‘right’ way. That we will never find it. It may be better for us to stop looking for it and just be content.

Chair of ID

Constant�n Hoctin Boes publicity

Sietske van Bakel editor in chief

Constant�n Hoctin Boes publicity

Sietske van Bakel editor in chief

Yulan van Es layout

Th�men de Ruiter treasurer

Isis Verhaag chair

Yulan van Es layout

Th�men de Ruiter treasurer

Isis Verhaag chair

Tjerk van der We� external affairs

Sinea van der Vlies content

Tjerk van der We� external affairs

Sinea van der Vlies content

Every evening, when Light goes to sleep and Darkness wakes up, I find myself looking for new sources of Light. A candle, my bedside lamp or opening the curtains so the dim light of the street lanterns fills the room. Why am I looking for this? Maybe because Light can be warm. It can be safe and comfortable. Darkness, on the other hand, can be chilling. It can be evil and scary. However, darkness can also be mysterious and exciting. It can truly feel beautiful. Now that the winter months are coming to an end, we leave behind the long nights that come with them. Even though I am excited to have longer days and shorter nights, this Turn The Page will be a last homage to darkness.

Our cover story will shine a light (haha) on what it is like being in the dark as a designer, not always knowing where the path you are taking right now is leading you. We had a conversation with Casper Chorus, the new dean of IDE. What are his views on IDE and its students?

This is just a start! Did you notice this issue is a bit heavier? That is because we will only release two issues this year, but don’t you worry! We will have the same amount of content. We, the new Turn The Page committee (hello!), want to bring a breath of fresh air to the Turn The Page.

Emma Heilig secretary

Emma Heilig secretary

Isa Bingley text editor

Isa Bingley text editor

One of our main goals is to give a podium to the projects of many IDE talents walking around in the faculty. In this issue you can read about the upcycled hats by TOR and look at the mesmerising photographs made and developed by Jens van Heijningen. More curious about an alumni? We got you, we also talked with Anne Arzberger about her graduation project and life after graduating.

Are you ready to dive in this first issue with us? Sometimes looking for answers can only lead to more questions, but if you find yourself lost in the dark, maybe turn on a light and everything will be okay.

Isis Verhaag Chair

BLOGS. APPS. BOOKS. EVENTS. +

by Yulan van Es

Looking to make a simple webpage for free? HOTGLUE is a visual tool to make creative webpages. You can add, move and edit texts, colours, images, videos and more. HOTGLUE has videos available to guide you through the possibilities, but the tools are also easy enough to figure out by yourself. You log in to edit the page, the viewer then directly sees what you have worked on.

Register your page on hotglue.me . Enjoy the ‘knippen, plakken en lijmen’ fun!

Schiedam is just around the corner from Delft, but have you ever been there? A good reason to visit is to have a look at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. They have the exhibition Spiritual Urgency on display until the 10th of April. The exhibition shines a spotlight and raises questions on spirituality and aims to broaden our view on contemporary art with the help of artists and creators as spiritual guides. You are guided through the stages of a spiritual journey based on four themes: ‘Contemporary priests’, ‘Healing and Origins’, ‘Liberation and Manifestation’ and ‘Nature and Holism’.

After visiting the exhibitions you can pop into the café with a buffet of often local products, such as bread from Vlaamsch Broodhuys. You pay what you think it is worth. 1

Klara And The Sun is a book written from the perspective of an Artificial Friend, Klara. Klara observes the outside world and the visiting customers closely from her place in the store. With the knowledge she gains of herself and the world, Klara tries to help her friend in need. The book allows you a peek into our world in a possible future setting through the eyes of someone who is figuring it out while being programmed to adapt to and please her human ‘friends’. A very interesting read, written by Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Looking for new and unique jewellery? A skating friend group is recycling and upcycling their used skateboards into jewellery. Each board is different and has a different style, this results in different designs of earrings and necklaces. Of the profit they make, 20% goes to the skateboard community, by supporting a charity that organises empowering programs and skating classes, for the youth in Jordan.

https://dekkie.com/

Carlijn Kingma is a Dutch artist and architect. She makes cartographies of society. In her work ‘A History of the Utopian Tradition’ she depicts a journey through the world of the western Utopia to understand how reality has taken shape between our fears and desires. On her website you can find a detailed description of the different details and scenes that are visualised in her drawing in both Dutch and English.

Wes Anderson was inspired to make a movie that was set in France and based on The New Yorker, introducing ‘The French Dispatch’. The movie is a collection of stories written by journalists of the magazine. Anderson combined life action with animation, the French and English languages and black-and-white with coloured film. These contrasts emphasize different contrasts in the story, for example when the writer is documenting from experience or telling a made-up story. These details and the variety of stories make it a recommended watch. I would also recommend looking up podcasts that dive deeper into the making of the film, since this makes you immediately want to watch it again to spot the details! 3

VISIBL

.GNID

Do you not know what to do with the hole in your wool clothing? Felting wool is a very simple technique to mend these holes and turn them into accessories of your loved items. You place a sponge underneath the hole and a bit of wool on top, with a reverse barb felting needle you can attach the wool to your clothing by puncturing at the same angle until it feels secure. Lift your clothing up from the sponge every once in a while to prevent it from getting stuck. Want to spice up your wools but no holes? You can also use this technique to add patterns, patches and different pops of colours. Mending does not have to be invisible; it tells a story.

Imagine yourself sitting behind your desk, it is 2 AM. Darkness is surrounding you. In front of you there is a lonely post-it on a large piece of paper. You feel tired. Doubt and uncertainty fill your mind. A different kind of darkness. Where is this feeling coming from? 1

by Emma Heilig & Sinea van der Vlies

Designing in the dark is an umbrella term for everything that is unclear at the beginning of a project. Who are you designing for? What is the purpose of your design? And what kind of future are you designing for? These questions seem to be easy to answer, but when we throw in a little more uncertainty, which is commonly introduced when talking about the future, one can only guess who and what they will be designing for. You are left with darkness. However, there is no need to be afraid of this darkness. It should be seen as an invitation, an invite to imagine. When we do not worry about consequences or needs, our creativity can flow freely, resulting in unexpected and sometimes amazing outcomes. We will never know exactly what the future will bring, what perspectives need to be taken or what blind spots we might have missed, but designers will always find a way to navigate through this darkness.

“Designers will always find a way to navigate through darkness.”

Perspective

Every IDE student is familiar with design processes. In many of these processes there is a phase where you do research in order to learn more about a specific problem. In this phase we contextualise and describe the problem, often referred to as framing. Problems situated in different contexts call for different solutions, so framing a single problem in multiple ways can result in varying solutions. How we frame issues depends on our perspective. People tend to choose perspectives they are familiar with, simply because it is easier for the mind to process. By filling in what we do not know, the mind makes a beeline to form the bigger picture. For this reason, designers sometimes make the mistake of assuming things that are not true. We can, for example, only judge situations by similar situations we have experienced, making it easy for the mind to jump to conclusions. When trying to contextualise a problem outside of our experiences, it gets more difficult to understand the problem, sometimes resulting in wrong design decisions. In those cases, it is unknown what exactly we do not know, making it hard to accept a different perspective, let alone to frame this perspective.

Situations in which designers overlooked things they did not know, resulted in products that are not used to its full extent. Such things can happen if you would, for example, design something to make life easier for students but did not bother to investigate student culture. You design something that automates the making of multiple cups of coffee for example. You gift your invention to all student households you know, but then come to the realisation that your invention is not used as much as you would have liked. Is it because you did not review the usability of your invention? Or did you not know students do not actually drink coffee? Probably neither of these are the case. You did, however, miss a common tradition that the youngest person in the house makes coffee for the older ones, them not wanting to simplify the process of coffee making for their younger roommates.

Even though this is a silly example, overlooking certain aspects during research is often related to culture. In the case of the coffeemaking invention for students, the outcome would not be so disastrous. Unfortunately, there are cases where wrongly executed research process had much worse impact. Take for example Alfred Nobel’s famous invention: dynamite. It was invented to make the transportation of the highly explosive Nitroglycerin less dangerous, but ended up becoming a regularly used weapon of mass destruction. It was not at all the intention of the product, but turned out to be something that was not foreseen. The question is: Where did he go wrong? Did Nobel not do enough research and testing, or did he simply forget to look at his solution through different perspectives? 1

Blind spots

This is a problem that we come across often during the design process. We are still humans and humans have the intention to start to care for their own creations. We all have had this product or concept that we put our heart and soul into but ended up not getting the results we wanted. At first there is anger and disbelieve, the product seemed so perfect. Then we take a step back, evaluate the design and review the feedback. They might have been right after all; we might have overlooked some very important details in the process. For the sake of the design, it is therefore very important to not only test your designs and to make a critical analysis of the user scenarios, but also to keep exploring the darkness in order to find the unknown unknowns.

This term, the unknown unknown, was firstly introduced by two American psychologists. They distinguish four types of ‘knowing’: There are the things we know we know (the known known), the things we are aware of we do not know (known unknown), the things we understand, but are unaware of (unknown known) and finally, there are the things we do not know exist or even can exist (unknown unknown). This distinction was made to use in a psychological tool, known as the Johari Window. In this table of four quadrants, self-knowledge and lack thereof are crossed with what others know and the absence of what they know. Putting characteristics in the quadrants helps to identify blind spots in the design process. Instead of categorising characteristics of an organisation or product, you would categorise subjects by how familiar you are with them. If you find that the information you gathered is very one sided, you have probably been biased by your known knowns. Try to expand your knowledge by talking to other people, gathering more information and creating a new perspective. This way, you will be expanding your upper left quadrant, making the bigger picture more and more accurate. Not every designer will be willing to spend time doing this, but exploring this unknown unknown will lead to better frameworks in the future.

It does, however, lead to a very pessimistic view on design. We must look at our designs with a critical eye in hopes of not only improving the design itself, but also to prevent bad scenarios from occurring. This is a tough thing to do, but also a necessary one. It is our duty as designers to come up with helpful new solutions, while foreseeing every possible outcome of them. Sometimes we offer solutions to problems we did not even know were important and still we must evaluate if the consequences will be ethic and in the interest of the client. In a sense, this makes designers doomsayers. But if taking a little more time to evaluate possible outcomes, rules out wrong ways to use a product, or bad purposes for a product, it is worth it.

This is also making designers fortune tellers. We have to map out what the future will hold, and how we must design for it. This is of course a very difficult task. What the future holds is still unclear, making framing for this unknown unknown even harder.

Future

In order to foresee the future, designers often use a trick, called trend analysing. By looking at upcoming trends, we paint a picture of the near or distant future. With this insight we can create a space we want to design for, the frame. These trends are helpful, because it takes time for them to catch on: People do not accept novelty very easily, they need time to get used to new things in their lives and to incorporate these into their routines. The time they take to adjust to new trends gives designers time to do testing and research with their new products. If designers time it well, the products hit the market at the exact time the demand for similar products rises. This means that when we use trends while designing, we create a frame in the near future, but the designs are used in a much more distant future.

Many past trends fit into our normal life now. Think about flex working and a sharing economy. At one point these things felt insane and they were not seen as something that would actually happen. Little by little, they integrated into our culture and have been the standard ever since. The same can be said about upcoming trends, like choosing experiences over possessions or the fact that mental health will be playing a much bigger role in the coming years. Right now, these things seem utopic, or very new and exciting, but in a few years, these will be our new standard and new things will find their way into our lives.

While designing a solution for a problem there are a lot of unknowns: unknown perspectives, unknown futures and unknown unknowns. In order to navigate this uncertainty, loads of design methods have been created. With the right amount of time and effort, we will get used to asking the right questions instead of trying to find the answers to the initial questions. By learning to ask the right questions, the darkness can be uncovered, and we will learn how to get comfortable in with it. 3

“Humans have the intention to care for their own creations, not seeing it’s flaws.”

Nineteen tabs are open, three are frozen and we have no idea where the music is coming from. Our minds can feel like our web browser sometimes. No wonder that people feel overwhelmed every now and then. How do we find peace of mind in a society that feeds us with chaos?

by Emma Heilig

Our world is more connected than ever before. When we have lost our way, we open google maps. When missing our long distance friend, we open facetime. And when we forget to buy toilet paper, we order and receive it while still in the bathroom. This extreme form of globalisation is called hyper connection. It is the reason that our society has advanced so much in the past years, but it also goes against the principles of the human brain. Hyper connectivity has increased our access to information, communication and the global market. Our brain, however, is not evolving as fast as the world around us, leading to several negative consequences.

Apart from that, us humans also have a fixed mental capacity. Excessive stimuli causes chaos to both body and mind. Not only can this lead to mental complaints, such as anxiety and negative thoughts, it can also have serious physical effects, like hyperventilation. This happens because our brain does not like to lose control. In order to cope with this chaos around us, our brain takes mental shortcuts, called heuristics. These shortcuts essentially create an illusion of reality. An interpretation of reality that is comprehensible to our brain. A coping mechanism like this works fine, until we have too many plates spinning. At that point, our mind loses clarity and it starts to create fear, in hopes of not losing control.

In this new, fast pacing world, our brain is continuously overstimulated. With our phones and laptops turned on every day, we are exposed to many different distractions. This is a problem when we are expected to be productive every day: to study, to work, to exercise and to pursue hobbies, all at the same time. Some say that being busy is a drug that most people are addicted to nowadays. Many people try to make this work by multi-tasking, while studies have shown that single tasking is way more effective. By switching between two unfinished tasks, your brain is not able to deeply focus on the task ahead, eventually decreasing your attention span. As long as we lack the skill to resist these constant distractions, we are prone to losing the ability to do tasks that require more brainpower.

Another consequence of hyper connectivity is individualisation. People’s dependence is shifting from fellow humans to devices. Humans are social animals by nature, but with more and more devices and services on the market, it is no longer needed to interact with others. As said before, we do not have to go to stores to get products, we do not have to ask people the way and we do not have to answer our phone when we do not feel like it. This causes people to stay at home more, exercise less and feel more lonely.

We have become dependent on the perks of a hyperconnected world, thinking it is making our lives easier. Instead, it is overstimulating our brains, causing mental and physical problems, making it harder to focus and making us go against the principles of our own nature. So to answer the question, how do we find serenity in this busy new world? I think the best solution is closing a few tabs in that browser that we like to call our brain. 3

“Being busy is a drug that most people are addicted to.”

Are we All equally disappointed?

MOVING MOUNTAINS COLLABORATIVELY.

Everyone has encountered struggles in collaborations, in which we give, take and compromise. Sometimes we are left with the feeling that the compromise is at the cost of the quality and possibilities of the project. Are we all equally disappointed? Collaboration is an everyday practice, ‘the situation of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing’. As designers we collaborate with each other, with stakeholders, users, technology, materials and even more.

by Yulan van Es

Collaboration starts with a shared goal. A goal you aim to achieve by joining your knowledge and skills, with the help of trust, mutual respect, good communication and well-defined goals. This is indeed the case when we are looking at collaboration between humans. Personally, I do not think collaboration is just that. There are different levels of collaboration, also between different bodies

of materials, methods, spaces and more. All bodies participate in ecosystems, in which all they all depend on each other for their existence. This dependence defines the power and agency that exists within the collaborations. Power and agency we should be aware of in our own collaborations.

When you are formulating the research question for your project, it is valuable to compare your individual definitions of the terminology used. These definitions are likely to vary, even with terms like “home”. How do you define home? Is that the same definition your colleague would give to home? Your and my definition of collaboration will most likely vary as well. Moving mountains in your projects will turn out to be easier when you are moving the same mountain.

In collaboration not only our knowledge and skills come together but also our needs and values, and with that our expectations. Conflicts can arise from differences in needs, values and expectations between collaborators. A conflict often originates from lack of communication about these needs, values and

expectations. You will not have a conflict about something you do not care about. Such differences, and the lack of communication, are key to not meeting each other’s expectations, which leaves us with the feeling of not accomplishing the best outcome. Instead, these differences in experience and background are the most valuable parts of our collaboration. In a world where everything changes at high speed, I believe interdisciplinary collaboration will be key for innovation. So, let us try starting new collaborations by communicating to each other what our needs, values and expectations are and our (preferred) ways of working. Exchange your individual manual. This helps in managing the expectations you and your collaborators have. Formulate each other’s assets and limitations within your project to show new and maybe unexpected possibilities for collaboration.

And? Are we equally disappointed? We care. 3

a fly on the wall

Jens van Heijningen (third year student) photographs on film, taking his time to observe and operate the camera. He is a fly on the wall who tries to capture the essence of moments. Anything that is beautiful, remarkable, fascinating or inspiring may be his subject. Landscapes, humans, clouds, industry, mountains and the people he loves. An edition of his digital photobook can be found @fotoboek_jens.

by Isis Verhaag

Heijningen

in collaboration with Jens van

In our everyday use of autoplay functions, package lockers and self-scanning systems, clashes between the user and the world in which their use takes place are carefully avoided. In this world smoothed of discomfort, a beaten path with as little friction as possible remains. The designer shaping this frictionless world seems to be lost in an unending quest for absolute convenience.

by Thijmen de Ruiter

To better understand this search for ease in design, it is best to look at the exact opposite, discomfort. Discomfort consists of the hindrances, unpleasantness and overall effort. As users, why would we choose this option with greater resistance when we can take the path without obstacles? It is the reason why we take offroad shortcuts when using bike lanes, make online shopping purchases and checkout groceries at the self-scanning checkout. Optimal convenience and especially eliminating inconvenience has thus become a core value when designing product-service systems that the designer should optimally comply with.

With the increasing smoothening of usage and the elimination of inconvenience, our society has changed. Our attitude towards usage when nothing is left to chance has led to a preordained user experience. The use to which we subject ourselves has, without friction, only a beginning and an end. Without disturbances, usage transforms into a mush of subordinate memories in which only the essence seems to count.

This brings us to the added value of discomfort. Discomfort fosters the overall awareness of use and hence the user’s critical attitude towards use itself. When we experience resistance as users, we face trade-offs. Considerations about possible next steps to overcome resistance but also internal considerations about the utility of the use itself. ‘When you can’t figure out the drawings in the manual of an IKEA closet, you first start thinking about how the wooden joints are related to each other and then speculate that an instructional video possibly would have been the better option.’

“Our attitude towards usage when nothing is left to chance has led to a preordained user experience.”

Only when we pay attention to the use as a whole are we concerned with its impact. This critical examination of usage leads to insights. Insights that better reflect our actual needs and go beyond the essence of use.

Besides the inability to look critically at usage, convenience takes away some of the user’s autonomy and increasingly leaves this interpretation to the designer. The best examples of this are suggestive recommendations tailored to personal use. ‘Looking for a suitable evening meal? The AH app already has a few personalised discounts ready for you that meet your meal preferences. Curious about that band you visited at Lowlands the other night? Instagram, via your location, time and interests, has already put them on the ‘discover page’. By indirectly making only choices that are presented to us, we lose our influence on usage and thus autonomy and the grip on the world around us.

friction. without a world

Finally, there is the social side attached to convenience. In eliminating discomfort, we tend to also remove ourselves from human interaction and the discomfort that comes with it. Conversations and physical interaction between humans are an unpredictable source of discomfort that we like to avoid for the sake of convenience. ‘So, we replace physical dates with endless swiping on dating apps, and we are not bothered to use flash delivery to avoid contact with the outside world when we feel our lesser selves.’ This disappearance of social discomfort and the decline of physical contact will cause a gradual shift from human towards non-human emotional interaction. Further increasing the importance of the relationship between people and use.

Looking back at this text, there is an overarching question that best summarises the content of discussion: Where does the added value of increasing convenience stop? In my opinion, userneeds that are visible on the surface sometimes overshadow the real added value of increasing convenience. It is my belief that both the designer and the user need to look more critically at their personal view on the value of convenience and in this manner be more critical when it comes to use. As designers, we will have to move away from the ideal of optimal convenience and thereby embrace the imperfections in the form of resistance that could enrich our lives. 3

“In eliminating discomfort, we tend to also remove ourselves from human interaction.”

UPCYCLED HATS MADE FROM VINTAGE BLANKETS

An old blanket. What can you do with it? Throw it away? This seems like the easiest option, but it is definitely not the best one. Julie Leclercq and Renee Brants, two students at the IDE faculty here at TU Delft, decided to turn vintage blankets into fashionable hats. This led to the sustainable start-up ‘TOR’.

by Isa Bingley

TOR basically was founded by accident. Although both Julie and Renee were already familiar with sewing, it was not necessarily the plan to start a whole company based on this hobby. What is the story around TOR? They already knew that they both were interested in clothing, so one day they decided to meet and just sit down in the garden with a sewing machine. They let their creativity flow and decided to turn an old blanket into a hat. The inspiration was to make a sort of bucket hat, but then without the bottom flap. This resulted in the current design of the TOR hats.

At first, Renee and Julie did not think of selling the hats, but as more people around them started to wear the hats, such as housemates, they realised that their design was actually quite cool. The popularity of the hats then started to grow more and more and at the end of September 2022 TOR was live. The hats are all made of 100% wool vintage blankets and are all handmade. I wondered whether it is difficult to get those vintage blankets, but they explained to me that they receive a lot of blankets from people around them or that they find them at Marktplaats or vintage stores. The blankets are often very old and contain a label with information about brand name and production place, which is often in the Netherlands. This keeps the brand more personal.

The use of vintage blankets does make it difficult to take into account the colour preferences of customers, but the unpredictability of what the hats will look like, is what makes the design even more unique. No two items look exactly the same. Besides the fact that the hats are made of second-hand materials, the whole production system of the company is as sustainable as possible. People can only pre-order the hats, which enables Renee and Julie to customize the size of the hats. This way, all hats are already sold beforehand and there are no leftovers. In order to ensure that there is no fabric left they asked themselves the following question: “How are you going to cut the fabric in order to make as many hats as possible out of it?”. The packaging of items often has negative effects on the environment. Therefore, the TOR hats are only packaged if customers cannot pick them up physically. When sending the hats, they only use a square box with a small paper card and a logo stamp.

So far, the hats have turned out to be quite popular, but what next? Will the brand remain about just hats? Julie and Renee are already brainstorming about how to expand their start-up, since the design of the hats is as good as finalized. In other words, the design will not change very much anymore.

The most important question I asked the TOR founders was what their main message or goal is with regards to the brand. They told me that the brand is about the reusing of materials and turning them into a unique design. They hope that if people know that the hats are made entirely by hand, they will value the product more and it will not disappear somewhere in the back of the closet like many fast fashion items.

The idea is to keep TOR a personal brand, and Julie and Renee want to keep on making products that they both support completely. Their designed hat is an accessory that stands out and is accessible for all. From young and hip to grandparents, the hats can be worn by everyone. So, next time you find an old blanket in your attic, know that you can do so much more with it than you think. It turns out that sitting down in the garden with a sewing machine can get your creative juices flowing!

Caspar Chorus was appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) as of 1 September 2022. We, Sietske as member of the Board of ID Study Association and Tjerk as member of the Turn The Page committee, were able to interview Caspar in his room. In this interview we found out who Caspar is and what he has to say about our study, our faculty and its students.

by Sietske van Bakel and Tjerk van der Weij

T: How would you introduce yourself to IDE students?

C: Very importantly, I am not a designer or design researcher, but I have been an interested neighbour for a very long time. That’s a nice way to get into a faculty. I am open enough to learn a lot more. I am also someone for whom scientific work was ultimately not enough in terms of interest and challenge. At some point, that feeling started to grow stronger. I really like to work with scientists, and students for that matter, and I love the academic ecosystem, but I found it increasingly interesting to give direction and leadership to that. That’s also how I have developed in recent years.

T: So, what kind of things do you mean by more than science? Do you mean more managerial things or more the creative sides of IDE?

C: I would argue that most scientists are very creative, not just those at IDE. It is funny though, that I notice that in our faculty, creativity is also looked at in another way: in the form of creative expression. What a computer scientist does, we at IDE are likely to refer to as ‘science’ and what we do at IDE is then referred to as ‘creative’, but that computer scientist might justifiably also consider themselves very creative. Similarly, what we do is also science in that we develop new testable knowledge. At the beginning of the bachelor’s degree, we train our students to become scientifically informed designers. That means learning knowledge to design. In addition to the creativity that is partly already in you (and which can be further trained), you can develop and acquire such knowledge. This will make you a better designer. At the end of the master’s, you have developed into an academically trained designer, some of us even becoming design researchers by acquiring a PhD degree.

T: You have obviously learned by now how things are going at IDE. Are there still things you would like to change and put more of your own spin on?

C: Yes. We all have a mission to improve ourselves. Designers know this urge to improve like no other. After listening to my new colleagues a lot, I did start to see patterns, dots that I am trying to connect.

For example, I noticed that the balance between teaching and research within our faculty needs to shift a bit. We are a faculty, where quite rightly, there is a lot of focus on teaching, but where we also teach in a very intensive way. and because at a university, research and teaching should be intertwined, professors standing in front of the lecture hall also have to do research As a result, many people experience a lot of work pressure.

Combining research and teaching is an exciting process. As a teacher, I learned that I could best inspire my students by showing the international impact of my team’s research . What IDE does very well is to bring business and design practice into education. Where we can make further improvements as far as I am concerned, is to give professors time and headspace to elaborate their research and to weave that into education. That may lead us to use less intensive forms of teaching, and my guess is that that would benefit rather than harm the quality of our teaching.

Then I have one more: as faculty we could be more aware of the fact that we are here in Delft, as faculty within TU Delft. That we are world-class designers and design researchers in world-class high-tech ecosystem. That sets us apart enormously from a design school in a more artsy institution or a social sciences university. Part of that is seeing the benefits of connecting with other faculties at the TU.

I think we sometimes ignore the technological context a little too easily.

“I think we sometimes ignore the technological context a little too easily. ”

S: You also just mentioned briefly that it is sometimes uncomfortable to make changes like these. What exactly is uncomfortable about it?

C: The thing is, that I myself do not tend to find making these changes uncomfortable, but that this can make things uncomfortable for others around me. That is, I can sometimes be a bit too positive and enthusiastic about ‘moving forward’ and lose others in that. I am a huge optimist, to the point of being annoying. Over time, I have learned to listen more and not start talking right away. Otherwise, you might win a discussion, but you lose the relationship with people. It does not make sense if you walk around like some kind of clown, outlining change as something positive while people around you find it difficult.

S: How do you inhibit yourself in that?

C: A few honest colleagues made me aware of this, when I just started managing . In addition, close friends, and my partner and eventually my children, they are also very effective at taming my enthusiasm when needed.

S: The upcoming theme of the TTP is DARK. We start the TTP with the magazine feeling 'in the dark'. IDE students sometimes are not so sure where they are going. Your discipline deals with studying human choice behaviour. How do you think those two things connect?

C: Economists distinguish between risk aversion and ambiguity aversion. Risk aversion is when you know the odds when taking a risk. Ambiguity means you don’t know the odds. People are generally risk averse, but what people dislike much more than risk is ambiguity. That means people have an aversion to not knowing where they are going. Of course, life is ambiguous, rather than risky. What is also part of IDE, and what students also seem to have very much, is the idea that nothing is certain and everything may change; this is okay, but the difficulty is that this is no quantified and structured uncertainty. People find this very annoying. For example, students nowadays have so much more choice terms of study careers, than in my time. A lot more is possible, which also massively increases ambiguity levels.

T: How should IDE graduates deal with that?

C: IDE students are not unusual. All people struggle with ambiguity and uncertainty, they are very afraid of regret. I made a mathematical model that shows that in response, people are quick to choose the 'default' option. For example, if you are going to do something you have not never done before, say pursuing a master's abroad, you know that you will be able to compare the coffee, the people, the building and the lectures with what you already had, here at IDE. The regret you might feel when you deviate from something you already know, is salient because you can compare. If you stay, you cannot compare that well, as you simply don’t know the coffee or the students or the atmosphere abroad. So, regret aversion may lead to inertia. A recipe to still do something different from what you were already doing without risking too much regret is to choose compromise alternatives. We know that people trigger more regret when they choose extreme options. But by choosing perhaps not the coolest internship very far away, you can avoid regret as you approach things in a kind of calibrated way.

S: Did your own career path include compromising?

C: Well, I do have a tip which works for me in a career choice context: you can actually decide to like the things that you do as opposed to always asking yourself the question whether you like what you do. I also find that funny and a bit sad about your generation. They seem to have a lot of trouble with that, always looking for the most fun or the nicest or the most interesting path. This ensures a very intense journey, but also a tiring one with lots of scope for regret. By deciding to like what you do, things get more relaxed. This year, or any year, doesn't necessarily have to be the coolest year of your life. Stumbling in the dark is also part of life. Better learn to ‘like’ it.

“It does not make sense if you walk around like some kind of clown, outlining change as something positive while people around you find it difficult.”

S: Is this something you needed to discover for yourself or in which others had to steer you?

C: This is something we regularly have to remind one another of. For example, we seem to think that people should be urged by their manager to work harder and focus more. I have hardly ever had to do that – very few people are lazy, most have a tendency to work far too hard. Go read a book for a while, go for a run. That is what people often need to be more creative and effective.

S: As a final question: what do you hope the study program, or the faculty will have passed on to students, when they finish here?

C: Self-confidence. 3

When you come across an unfamiliar object, your creativity is triggered enormously. The same thing happened to the little mermaid when she found the dinglehopper. A little metal stick with four points at the end. Of course, we all know this is a fork, but Ariel decides to use it for combing her hair instead. This is what we call the mermaid effect. We at Turn The Page have a new object to put to the test, the bar of soap. In this experiment, we imagine to live in a world where a soap bar has not yet been introduced. You see it for the very first time. What do you think it is?

layout by Constantijn Hoctin Boes

“If I pretend to see a piece of soap for the very first time, I would probably use it as a brick and thus build houses or other buildings with it.”

“Soap? That must be a new toy for kids to play with. Because with some water you can make beautiful bubbles and they smell good too.”

“Ever wished your shoes would smell of lavender, roses or even Zwitsal? That they would not become saggy the more you wear them? Then this block of fragrance is perfect to place in your shoes when you are not wearing them. It makes sure they do not lose their shape and gives them a nice smell. With all the options you can choose a preferred odour to bathe your feet in to create a luxurious experience the next time you do your groceries, go for a run or just take the trash out. It is just like you are living at the spa. This has a scientific reason. You see, when your feet are cold your whole body feels cold. This applies to much more. When your feet are at the spa, you are at the spa.”

“Looking at this brick-shaped object in my hand, my first reaction would be to sniff it. Hmm smells good! It feels rather smooth, it is quite nice actually. Slowly, I take a small bite only to regret it a few seconds later. Blegh, not meant for eating, got it.”

“If I saw some pieces of soap, I would attach them under my shoes. Then I could use them as skates in the rain.”

“If I had never seen a piece of soap before, I would most certainly try to take a tiny little bite out of it. Spitting it out right after and watching it slowly slip away from me, leaving me in a bubbly sense of confusion.”

“Looking from beneath, a rounded brick of pinkness lays on top of the table. My eyes squinted, fully enclosing this object from its surroundings, I grasp out with the tips of my fingers. In a moment of irresistibility, I hastily seize this object, making it slip even further away. When pulling my hand back I inhale the scent of a field of blooming flowers. The aroma reminds me of a soft morning in the dim light of spring. What was this object that for a moment turned my dull afternoon into a sunny spring day?” 3

FACULTY SECRETS

The hall, the canteen, ID Kafee. These places are all very common ground for current students and employees. For me as well, but even though I have been a student here for four years, I still discover new spots and tricks in our faculty. Let me tell you about a few places in our faculty you might not know existed!

by Isis Verhaag

NewMedia Centre

Located just behind the computer rooms SHIFT, ENTER and CTRL is the NewMedia Centre. Yes, you may actually enter the door with that blue LED sign above it. There is always someone around who can answer your questions. I hear you thinking … but Isis, what can we possibly do there? Well, for starters, you can use the podcast studio to record your very own podcast! So grab that buddy of yours, think of a catchy name and start making your very own podcast.

PhotoStudio

Ever struggled with taking a nice picture of your prototype? I have, the lighting was never good and the walls were not white or black enough. Well, lucky for you, there is a photo studio in the faculty. It is located on the first floor, next to the silent workrooms. You can reserve the room at the Servicepoint (as well as a camera!).

Scanning…

Ever dreamed of having an exact mini replica of yourself? Or maybe just your head? Well, dreams can come true. Did you know that you can scan ‘stuff’ in our very own faculty and get a 3D model of it on your computer? Afterwards you can 3D print this (for free) at the PMB. Walk by the office of Bertus Naagen on the second floor and ask him about the options. The time to make a mini army of yourself is, you guessed it, now! 3

faculty check

When darkness strikes, we, as a society, tend to overpower it with light. But this has led to a lot of inconvenient consequences. In the thesis, Designing For Darkness, Taylor Stone explains why we need to find our balance between light and darkness. You can find more about this in the article Designing For Darkness. In this Hutspot there are two products selected that can be seen as spearheads for the search for less light pollution.

by Constantijn Hoctin Boes

TRIOLIGHT, the company behind RailLight, has thought carefully about the function of the lights on train rails. Subsequently they translated this into a totally new and more efficient way of lighting this work environment. By relocating the light source from high up to almost on the ground, they managed to reduce the energy consumption by 50% to 70% and reduced a lot of light pollution. All by maintaining a safe work environment. They use plug-and-play LED strips, so installation costs are reduced by a minimum of 50%.

Raillight. (n.d.). Triolight.

still studying two design masters in Munich. The Papilio streetlights generate their own energy with an internal wind rotor. The light spectrum is insect friendly. And the best part, the lights are motionactivated. Therefore, this product covers most of the nine values of darkness selected by Taylor Stone.

Official body of ID

Volume 24 / Issue 82

March 2023

Turn The page is issued two times a year.

Contact ID study association

Landbergstraat 15

2628 CE Delft +31 (0)15 2783012 www.studieverenigingid.nl

Comments, questions, compliments and remarks can be sent to: turnthepage-svid@tudelft.nl

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TTP Thanks Anne Arzberger, Simone Bosveld, Renee Brants, Caspar Chorus, Flien Groeneveld, Jens van Heijningen, Julie Leclerq, Henk Jan Oudenampsen, Communication IDE

Poem on the back by Ane Barstad Solvang, Sporti Ponni (2022)

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Copyright

The committee has strived to own the copyrights of the included texts and images. However, if you believe you own the rights to a piece that has been used, we request you to contact us. Nothing from this issue can be reproduced. The committee claims the right to shorten, alter or refuse submitted pieces.

The Communication department of the IDE faculty and the Alumni Association have contributed to this Turn The Page.

PAPILIO. (n.d.). tobiastruebenbacher.

You should go out, Find solitude too, Don’t be scared To do something new.