Reflections
A collection of my personal reflections throughout the MDEF program. Here, I document my journey, thoughts, and experiences along the way via audio recordings.
Last updated
A collection of my personal reflections throughout the MDEF program. Here, I document my journey, thoughts, and experiences along the way via audio recordings.
Last updated
In these first three weeks, it’s been a whirlwind of discovery. From landing in a new city to meeting my classmates, it’s been both intense and exciting. The class itself feels more like a workshop, which I love. We’ve already explored new ideas through projects like the Design Space, the Atlas of Weak Signals and the Machine Paradox, pushing me to look beyond 3D printing and dive into new areas of interest. I’m documenting everything as I go, even setting up my website to track my progress. It’s a lot to take in, but I’m ready to keep exploring and experimenting!
These last two weeks have been intense and filled with new experiences. I just finished my second intervention, which involved exploring the city in a whole new way, and yesterday we celebrated Halloween in Valldaura with everyone, which was amazing. I feel really lucky to be surrounded by such a great group of people. Between the Living with Your Own Ideas course, where I created personal prosthetics, and Machine Paradox, where we hacked and reimagined everyday machines, I’m starting to see design in a much more personal and hands-on way. Tracking my water usage in the first intervention also made me rethink my everyday impact. There’s a lot to process, but I’m excited about how all these experiences are slowly changing how I approach design.
Over the past two weeks, while diving deep into the Extended Intelligences course, we’ve explored the ethical, social, and environmental implications of AI and data systems. In parallel, we worked on our group intervention, Heartbeat Music Sensing, which brought these concepts into a more personal and creative space. This project was an eye-opening experience, showing how something as intimate as a heartbeat can become a powerful medium for connection and introspection. Through tools like TouchDesigner and Arduino, we visualized our heartbeats in real-time as we listened to music, sparking reflections on how deeply sound and emotion interact.
This week’s reflection focuses on our latest intervention, where we created a soundscape map of Barcelona. The project combined video, sound recordings, and our personal emotions to explore how places are experienced beyond just their physical features. The audio dives into my evolving interests in sensory design, emotions, and data visualization, and considers how this map could become a collaborative or adaptive tool. As I look ahead, the reflection poses key questions about how to expand this idea and make it actionable for the upcoming Design Dialogues exhibition.