Crafting Personal Narratives through AI and Sound

Inspired by Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto, this workshop explores the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence through inclusive music-making. Participants use generative music AI to transform personal text prompts and lyrics into complete songs, without needing musical experience. The process emphasizes self-expression, identity, and storytelling. The experience extends into visual creation, as participants design simple animated posters or videos that reflect the themes, emotions, and keywords of their AI-generated songs.

Tereza Ruller (she/her) identifies as a mother, a communication designer, and an educator. Her studio, The Rodina, explores the spatial and interactive possibilities of virtual and hybrid environments as spaces for new thoughts and aesthetics that emerge from the intersection of culture and technology.

Through her independent practice and PhDArts research at Leiden University, she examines performative and critical approaches to communication design, emphasizing playfulness, participation, and relationality. By addressing ecological and social crises—she seeks to develop collective shifts in perspective.

Ruller teaches as Professor of Digital Communication Design at HfG Karlsruhe and as a Critical Narratives tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven, nurturing contemporary design practices that encourage thinking-through-making and explore ways to engage with technology, society, and the environment.

An exploration of creative processes & custom workflows using visual algorithms

The workshop presents Hamill Industries’ experimental approach to visual creation, moving beyond purely digital tools toward self-built devices, practical effects, and hands-on experimentation. Drawing from everyday materials, natural observation, and the dialogue between analogue and digital technologies, their practice spans diverse tools such as 1980s consoles, oscilloscopes, pigments, light, and artificial intelligence. Through case studies and behind-the-scenes documentation, the seminar reveals an open, trial-and-error methodology rooted in an artisanal mindset and focused on building custom tools and processes.

With a strong emphasis on recent AI-based work, the seminar invites participants to treat generative AI as a flexible creative engine rather than a black box. Using open-source platforms like ComfyUI and self-constructed datasets, participants explore the creation of a “visual atlas of impossible bodies,” seeking beauty in error and deviation from standard aesthetics. The goal is to foster creative agency, DIY learning, and personal aesthetic exploration at the intersection of the real and the algorithmic.

Hamill Industries (the artistic duo of Pablo Barquin and Anna Diaz) craft films, installations, and stage productions. With the physical world as inspiration, not only the virtual sphere is re-imagined, but so is reality. Straddling the line between inventors and illusionists, their projects are always highly sensory pieces, regardless of the final medium. Their work explores the expanded visual, committed to questioning and blurring boundaries between digital and tangible realms. Transmedia flexibility is facilitated by extensive workshop research, developing state-of-the-art tools. Their pioneering vision around the use of technology earned the trust of collaborators and institutions, including the San Francisco Ballet (with Tamara Rojo) Floating Points, CCCB or Caixaforum among many others.

How to Build Small-scale Autonomous Power Systems

This workshop introduces students to designing and building small-scale, autonomous renewable energy systems and devices that run on them. It focuses on hands-on skills such as constructing solar power installations, creating solar-powered heating appliances, and modifying commercial products to operate on low-voltage solar electricity. A key principle is avoiding batteries, which are often the least sustainable part of energy systems, by designing appliances and power setups that can function directly with variable solar input.

Beyond technical skills, the workshop promotes a bottom-up approach to renewable energy design. Instead of scaling renewable systems to support energy-intensive, fossil-fuel-based lifestyles, students learn to align energy demand with locally available and intermittent power sources. This mindset emphasizes designing within limits and engages with broader issues such as climate change, energy resilience and security, consumerism, e-waste, the right to repair, and circular, sustainable design practices.

Kris De Decker is the author of Low-tech Magazine, which challenges the idea that every problem requires a high-tech solution. Since 2018, the magazine runs on a solar-powered server and has been in print since 2019. He has published research on energy demand at Lancaster University and co-founded Human Power Plant, exploring human energy use. Since 2016, he has collaborated on designing objects inspired by the past to guide technology toward more sustainable directions.

Collective Bookmaking Through Dialogue, Connection, and Risograph Printing

Bound Together is an interactive, dialog-based workshop that uses conversation and Risograph bookmaking as tools for connection, reflection, and collective meaning-making. Created in response to transactional modes of communication, it invites participants to slow down, listen deeply, and engage one another as whole people rather than roles or titles. Through paired dialogue and hands-on making, the workshop emphasizes presence, care, and shared experience.

Grounded in psychologist Arthur Aron’s research on intimacy and informed by dialogical art practices and thinkers such as David Bohm and James Baldwin, the workshop combines structured questions with collage, Risograph printing, and binding. Participants print pages reflecting their conversations and assemble them into a collaborative book. Rather than prioritizing polish or productivity, Bound Together values experimentation, attentive listening, and the radical act of making together.

Elaine Lopez is a Cuban American designer, researcher, and educator whose work uses print, self-publishing, and participatory workshops to explore cultural identity, memory, diaspora, and U.S.–Cuba relations. Centered on collaboration and pedagogy, she frames publishing as a political, relational act. She is Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Parsons and runs LoPress Press, collaborating with institutions and exhibiting, lecturing, and leading workshops internationally.

An AI + Arduino Creative Technology Experience for Artists

In this 4-day workshop, artists collaborate with AI and Arduino to craft reactive plants that glow, move, and sing — forming a shared Garden of Light, Movement & Sound.​ This hands-on workshop invites participants to explore creative human–machine collaboration through the design and construction of a living plant prototype.

Working in small groups, participants will create a sculptural plant that responds to human presence using light, sound, and movement. Each plant will be built on a shared physical framework and will include 3D-printed structural components, ensuring coherence while leaving room for creative expression.​ The workshop is designed for beginners—no prior experience in programming or electronics is required.

Participants will learn how AI can be used as a creative partner through “vibe coding,” helping to shape each plant’s personality, behavior, color palette, and narrative. By the end of the session, all creations come together to form a collective interactive garden, bringing to life the concept of human–machine co-creation. Participants will leave with a practical understanding of AI-assisted creativity, basic interactive design principles, and a tangible experience of collaborative making.

Stephanie Rodriguez is a leader and educator working at the intersection of technology and human experience. With a background in mechatronics engineering and a master’s degree in intelligent interactive systems, her work centers on human-centered and ethical AI. She has led and contributed to projects in robotics and artificial intelligence across multiple organizations, with experience in social robotics, generative AI, computer vision, data science, and emotion-inspired robotic systems.

Ricardo Lynch is a Digital Interaction Designer and engineer passionate about technology, politics, and education. Experienced in manufacturing, electronics, and digital products with societal value, currently focused on product design and development at Futurity Systems. Former Deputy Director at Exploratec UDD, bridging technology with design and engineering students, consulting on projects. Professor for interaction, robotics, and prototyping workshops at UDD and OAS Dlab Global.

Building Human-Centered AI Products

This intensive four-day workshop introduces participants to the ASPIC Framework, a practical, human-centered methodology for building AI products that truly matter. Rather than starting with technology, this workshop teaches participants to begin with empathy: identifying real user pain, designing trustworthy AI interactions, and building sustainable AI businesses. The framework stands for: Attract, Segment, Personalize, Interact, and Convert. Participants will walk away with a working prototype of an AI product, validated by real users, and a clear go-to-market strategy.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: Discover real user pain through structured interviews, Define AI value aligned with measurable business outcomes, Design trustworthy AI interfaces using the Five Moments of AI, Develop working AI MVP using no-code/low-code tools, Test through feedback loops and user validation, Grow using the Bullseye Framework for focused strategy, Monetize with pricing models designed for AI products, Build Responsibly with ethics, privacy, and trust as foundations.

Vibe coding is the art of building AI products with personality and intention. It moves beyond mechanical automation to create AI systems that feel intelligent, responsive, and genuinely helpful. Through careful design of prompts, interfaces, and feedback loops, participants learn to craft AI products that don’t just function,they resonate. Key vibe coding techniques include: Prompt craftsmanship, Personality design, Micro-interactions, Trust signals, and Feedback systems.

Germán León is a futurist, AI and UX expert, entrepreneur, and advisor. He is the founder and CEO of Helvetica Digital and founder of Gestoos, a computer vision startup acquired by Preact. With a master’s degree in Interaction Design from Umeå University and training in AI Design at MIT, he has led innovation at Oblong Europe and Vodafone Group. He currently directs master’s programs in AI and UX at Elisava. In this practical workshop, his goal is to provide students with clear and applicable tools to develop and bring their own projects to fruition.

Regina Dos Santos is a UX/UI designer and front-end developer focused on user-centered digital products. Her hybrid profile blends design, technology, and strategy, linking concept to execution. She covers full UX/UI processes—research, flows, IA, prototyping, interface design, and testing—guided by clarity, usability, and visual consistency. As a front-end developer, she works in the Google Cloud ecosystem, using Firebase, cloud services, and APIs to build scalable, production-ready apps. She collaborates with multidisciplinary teams, bridging design and technology with a product-driven, experimental mindset. In the workshop, Regina presents a practical approach combining UX, UI, code, and AI.

Unbound

From July to October 2025, the Stedelijk Museum honored Dutch design icon Karel Martens with a comprehensive retrospective curated by Thomas Castro. Karel and Thomas will “flip-through” 200 pages of Martens’ works and invite the audience to participate in a lively conversation of anecdotes, insights, and unique examples of works, systems and sketches from his personal archive. From stamps and books to monoprints, architectural signage, and digital experiments, this is a unique opportunity to dive deep into the work of one of the most influential voices in graphic design.

Karel Martens (1939) is a Dutch graphic designer and educator. He studied at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design, graduating in 1961. From 1977 to 2020, he taught internationally at ArtEZ, the Jan van Eyck Academie, and Yale University, and co-founded the Werkplaats Typografie in 1998. Martens designed the award-winning OASE magazine from 1990 to 2021. His work is held in collections including SFMOMA and The Art Institute of Chicago, and has been shown in solo exhibitions at P! (New York), Kunstverein München, 019 (Ghent), and Platform-L (Seoul). He received the BNO Piet Zwart Prize in 2023.

Alongside commissioned work, Martens has consistently developed an autonomous practice, most notably through his monoprints, begun in the 1960s. Since the 1990s he has used archival cards from the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, printing found objects onto them to create compositions that integrate printed imagery with existing archival text. Known for an experimental approach to typography, grids, color, and printing, his work moves fluidly between books, stamps, monoprints, signage, and digital systems.

Thomas Castro (1967) is a graphic designer, educator, and curator, and since 2019 Curator of Graphic Design at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. There he initiated the Post/No/Bills public poster circuit, curated the exhibition Karel Martens: Unbound, and edited the collection book Stedelijk Museum Posters by Color. Previously, he co-founded the multidisciplinary studio LUST and LUSTlab in 1996, which was awarded the BNO Piet Zwart Award in 2017 for their two-decade oeuvre. His practice connects making, education, and curating, with a focus on expanding the graphic design canon.

Joost Grootens is a Dutch graphic designer known for his innovative approach to book design, especially in the field of atlases and reference works. His publications are characterised by an ability to present complex information in an accessible and visually appealing way, promoting the idea that design should serve content and not compete with it. He uses infographics, graphs and maps to simplify and organise large amounts of data aimed primarily at scientific and academic audiences, providing them with an intuitive visual navigation that allows them to explore the book in a non-linear way. We will see several examples of his work that demonstrate that such books can be functional and beautiful at the same time. Grootens knows how to find beauty in information and poetry in data.

In the Bookworm sessions we will explore iconic magazines and books that capture the spirit of the era in which they were created. The material comes from Elisava’s library collections, especially from its Reserve Fund, which contains publications that, due to their design, constitute a journey through the best of the past and present of modern graphics applied to the field of editorial design.

The Bookworm sessions are guided by Andreu Jansà, librarian and curator of the Enric Bricall Reserve Fund.

We will place the publications in their context and try to define what makes them relevant in the history of editorial design in the 20th and 21st centuries. The direct contact with the books and magazines that we will see in each session will allow us to experience the printed document from a material point of view: binding, paper, lay out, illustrations, typography. We will also be able to assess the adequacy between form and content.

Based on a showcase of web projects developed in collaboration with design studios, we will analyze how design decisions directly influence development, animations, interactions, and the final result. We will look at real examples of handoffs, what information is key to smooth development, and what mistakes lead to rework, unnecessary feedback, or deviations from the original design.

Andreu Llos is the founder and director of LLOS&. After more than a decade working with design studios, he manages web projects where design, technology, and process must be aligned from the outset. His role focuses on defining technical criteria, supporting creative teams, and ensuring that visual proposals translate into solid digital products that are faithful to the design.

LLOS& is a web development studio based in Barcelona, specializing in digital projects with a strong focus on design. The studio works closely with creative teams to develop custom websites, working with different stacks (from WordPress to headless architectures with Nuxt) and paying special attention to the front-end, animations, interactions, and the robustness of the final result.

We are witnessing a new way of consuming information as today’s digital media presents as the new information container. If we look at this from a graphic design point of view, we could say that we are in front of new ways of communication.
In this workshop we will study the possibilities offered by these new media and we will learn to adapt what we want to communicate via an optimal format for digital media.

Animated graphic systems consist of developing the audiovisual behavior of a brand through a creative concept that uses motion as the main axis of communication.

We will develop an animated graphic system that reflects the values behind a brand and will develop them into digital media communication.

David Galar is a graphic designer specialized in motion design. Graduated in Graphic Design and postgraduate in Motion graphics by Idep Barcelona and Diploma in Marketing and Business Management by ESIC and Skema Business School. He worked at Mucho studio where he developed, mainly, identity projects. From 2015 to 2018 he worked as a freelance, in 2019 he founded the Gimmewings studio and later, in 2022 he founded the Motion Design studio Thru.

Designing for the living web

What if the web wasn’t a place we design for but a medium we design with?
A space that listens, responds, remembers, and occasionally drifts off script.
What happens when digital experiences carry presence and intent? When identity shifts in real time? And how can that change the way we perceive a brand today?
This talk offers a moment to pause – a reminder that the web is not static, but alive, restless, and open to endless possibilities.

Delphine Volkaert is a Senior Digital Designer at Base Design Brussels. After graduating from La Cambre and broadening her perspective through an exchange at EINA in Barcelona, she has spent ten years exploring how brands behave and evolve online. Her work begins with clear, conceptual ideas that she develops into responsive and dynamic digital systems. She is driven by the openness of the digital realm – a space where identity can constantly shift, reinvent itself, and move beyond fixed forms.

Base Design is an international network of creative studios. A company of cultures working across Brussels, New York, Geneva, Melbourne, Saigon, and our Digital studio.
We’re independent by nature and connected by choice. Each studio is rooted in its own city and culture, yet linked by shared curiosity, craft, and values. Together we work across strategy, design, and technology to create ideas that move with the world – clear, meaningful, and built to last.
Founded in the early ’90s, Base continues to evolve through collaboration. Today, the group is led by partners across all studios, shaping a model that grows through difference rather than duplication.

The talk will take the audience on a journey through the evolution of a design studio, highlighting a narrative-driven approach to design and its impact on graphic solutions. The talk breaks down selected projects to reveal how storytelling guides creative choices from concept to final outcome.

Xavier Lienas is a graphic designer and creative director with more than 15 years of experience. After some years working as a designer for agencies & studios, in 2014, he

co-founded BAKOOM, where he develops identities, campaigns, and communication projects for a wide range of brands, companies, and institutions. In addition, he is the

co-founder of Latent Festival and he combines his professional practice with teaching at design universities, where he lectures on design and creative project direction.

We are Bakoom, a graphic design studio where we approach each project as a unique narrative. Guided by a strong conceptual mindset, we combine strategy, storytelling, and bold aesthetics to create visual identities and graphic solutions with clarity and character.

Our work has been recognized with ADG Laus and European Design Awards, consolidating a career that combines concept, emotion, and visual strategy. We are also the founders and directors of Latent Festival, an event dedicated to emerging talent in design and creativity.