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This is the public profile of Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Additional information and high-resolution images are available for accredited press members, to access additional information about Ozgun Kilic Afsar please login as a press member.About Ozgun Kilic Afsar : Ozgun Kilic Afsar. is a Ph.D. candidate at KTH Royal Institute of
Technology, and a Research Affiliate at MIT Media Lab. Her current research focuses on integrated soft robotic fibers and textiles that correspond to the dexterity of human biomechanics. Such active textile systems feature multimodal haptic feedback to kinesthetically support skill acquisition and transfer in creative movement practices. This work has recently been featured as a cover story on MIT News. She is currently exploring robotic upper-bodyware’s potential to allow for intergenerational interactions in the context of opera, such as two experts singing a duet across time and space. Her aim is to generate a tangible skills database to safeguard somatic skills in the form of haptic notations through robotic materials.
STATEMENT OF ART:Technology, and a Research Affiliate at MIT Media Lab. Her current research focuses on integrated soft robotic fibers and textiles that correspond to the dexterity of human biomechanics. Such active textile systems feature multimodal haptic feedback to kinesthetically support skill acquisition and transfer in creative movement practices. This work has recently been featured as a cover story on MIT News. She is currently exploring robotic upper-bodyware’s potential to allow for intergenerational interactions in the context of opera, such as two experts singing a duet across time and space. Her aim is to generate a tangible skills database to safeguard somatic skills in the form of haptic notations through robotic materials.
Humans are a puzzling species; while we struggled to survive on our own in the wild avoiding predators, on the other hand, in groups we invented ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages and abstract thinking that permitted us to successfully expand into diverse and challenging environments, including deep ocean and outer space. This is because, over generations, cultural evolution has generated an ever-expanding body of knowledge about tools and techniques for survival and growth. Let’s take fire for instance; our bodies have been shaped by fire and cooking, but we have to learn from others how to make fire and cook. Making fire is so ‘unintuitive’ and technically difficult that some foraging populations, such as the Andaman Islanders and Tasmanians, have actually lost the ability to make fire [1]. At another latitude and longitude, in 1820s, an epidemic hit the Polar Inuit that selectively killed off many of its oldest and most knowledgeable members. With the disappearance of the know-how carried out by these individuals, the group collectively
lost its ability to make some of its most crucial and complex technologies including bows and arrows, kayaks and heat traps.
These historical cases provide us with a glimpse into our unique evolution; once individuals evolve to learn from one another with sufficient accuracy, we develop cumulative brains to invent increasingly effectives technologies and non-material culture (e.g. know-how). The evolutionary biologist Dan Lieberman has studied long-distance barefoot running in communities around the globe. When he asked runners of all ages how they learned to run, they often pointed to an older and highly skilled member of their community, and said that they just watch him, and rely on what he does to figure out how to run in ways that best harness our anatomical adaptations [2]. To develop our own skills since a very young age, whether it’s simply for survival or cultivating creative abilities, humans need to rely on some cultural learning, on top of much individual practice.
My pursuit of a research across science, art and design is fostered by a desire to build technologies that archive and transfer non-material, kinetic knowledge with sufficiently high fidelity, to support intergenerational interactions, co-design and connections in ways that allow people to visit back and forth across time and space. Trained as an industrial design engineer and interaction designer during my Master’s degree at the
Royal College of Art, London, I tend to think a lot about designing interactions through physical devices where information is conveyed and perceived through touch, and meaning-making arises with movement. As Husserlian phenomenology proposes elegantly, “Through movement, ‘I am’ becomes ‘I can’.” [3]. I
particularly resonate with Hiroshi Ishii’s vision of Radical Atoms as the movement potential of atoms brings a certain agency to the existence of matter that ‘can’ self-modify its properties — shape, color, stiffness, temperature, texture or permeability — in response to our bodily rhythms, movements and biochemical
changes. With this backdrop, my research as a designer and technologist in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field touches multiple streams of research, namely, (1) haptic input and output devices, (2) programmable materials with a focus on advanced fibers and artificial muscles, and (3) creative skill support technologies in movement-based interaction design. By closely observing the way that creative experts work with their instruments, as in how a singer works with her body, I aim to build actuated tangible interfaces (1) to support the archiving of
their tacit knowledge; a tangible language to enable (2) its transfer and transposition to others; and (3) further support the creative abilities of the expert, with a potential to generate unique movement expressions that contribute to our cultural evolution.
What if we had the tools that allow the past “to feel its way into the future”? What if a novice could kinesthetically learn how to play Fugue in C Minor from Johann Sebastian Bach, himself, guiding her finger strokes? We may be able to infer the kinetic and kinematic data from old video footage and translate them to haptic scores that accompany the sheet music. Nevertheless, this pursuit should go beyond building a ‘scientifically accurate’ reproduction of Bach in haptic notations, but provide a tangible database of Bach’s — and of other ingenious bodies’ — expressions together with AI, to generate new and unique soundscapes, with live ensembles.
Endnotes
[1] Joseph Henrich. 2016. The secret of our success: How culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our
species, and making us smarter. Princeton University Press.
[2] Daniel E. Lieberman. 2012. “What We Can Learn About Running from Barefoot Running: An
Evolutionary Medical Perspective.” Exercise Sport Science Review, 40, 2, Pp. 63-72.
[3] Edmund Husserl. 1980. Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological
philosophy: Book 3 (Ideas III) (T. E. Klein & W. E. Pohl, Trans.). The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
ORGANIZATION:
MIT Media Lab
NON-DESIGN OCCUPATION:
PhD student computer sciences and mathematics Education, research, training
EDUCATION:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctorate (or equivalent), Human Computer Interaction
Cambridge | Massachusetts , United States
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Doctorate (or equivalent), Human Computer Interaction
Stockholm , Sweden
Uppsala University
Doctorate (or equivalent), Materials Engineering
Uppsala , Sweden
Royal College of Art
Masters (or equivalent), Human Computer Interaction
London, United Kingdom
EXPERIENCE:
Research Affiliate
MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media Group
January 2021 – Present
== HCI Research, materials research, concept development, prototyping, programming, electronics, academic conference and journal publications. == Industry collaborations with Shima Seiki, Adidas, Google ATAP. == == Research, hardware training (Shima Seiki MACH2XS WholeGarment Machine)
Visiting Ph.D. Researcher
MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media Group
January 2020 – January 2021
== Research, hardware training (Shima Seiki MACH2XS WholeGarment) prototyping, academic publications, workshops and exhibitions. == At the end of 6 months, we published UIST'21 paper, OmniFiber: Integrated Fluidic Fiber Actuators for Weaving Movement based Interactions into the ‘Fabric of Everyday Life’ (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3472749.3474802)
Internship (Ph.D. Researcher)
Angstrom Laboratory (Uppsala University)
September 2019 – December 2019
Visiting PhD Student, Project: Soft Milli-robots | Advisor: Prof. Klas Hjort 09/19 - 12/19 == Designing Fiber-based Milli-robots: - FEM simulation - Prototyped fiber reinforced pneumatic artificial muscle fibers - Developed liquid alloy based high resistance and highly sensitive strain sensing in microtubular elastomeric structures with induced twisting - Developed multi-step surface treatment method for adhering non-elastomeric components to PDMS substrates
Research Engineer
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
October 2018 – June 2019
Project: Robotic Wireless Materials | Advisor: Prof. Kia Hook, Prof. Klas Hjort, Prof. Thiemo Voigt 10/18 - 06/19 == Designing Elastomer-based Soft Robots: -Developed fabrication method for flat pneumatic milli-actuators with fiber reinforcement -Prototyped modular assembly of soft robotic actuator units -Explored multimodal haptic feedback (vibration, texture, compression) -Presented results at a workshop with the industry stakeholders including Ericsson, ABB Robotics, Sandvik, Vattenfall AB, IKEA, Volvo.
UI/UX Lead
London Labs for Life Science Companies
October 2016 – January 2018
Cell-Free Tech start-up lead designer and UX researcher.
PRIVATE EXHIBITIONS:
- Pneumatic Nomadic, Mamut Art Project 2016, Kucuk Ciftlik Park, Istanbul, Turkey, Spring 2016.
- Wissmuth (White Mass), Royal College of Art WIP Show'15, Feb. 2-8, London, United Kingdom, Fall 2015.
- “MICROFIELDS”, AmberFest’11 Art and Technology Festival, Next Ecology,Tutun Deposu, Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 4-13, Fall 2011.
MIXED EXHIBITIONS:
- "TeleAbsence", TMG Garden, Ars Electronica, 2021.
- "Tangible Telepresence", TMG Garden, Ars Electronica, 2020.
- “Harlequin”, Screening at Visual Art Week 2018, Mexico City, November 29- Dec.3, Mexico City, Mexico, Fall 2018.
- “Lux-Motives”, Milan Design Week 2017, Ventura Lambrate Spazio XV, In-Motion Group Exhibition, April 4-9, Milan, Italy, Spring 2017.
- “Floe: A Kinetic Glass Sculpture”, Nov. 2015, Arts+Bits Festival, Katowice, Poland, Fall 2015.
- Pneumatic Nomadic, Royal College of Art Grad Show’15, June 2015, London, United Kingdom, Summer 2015.
- Traditional Puppet Exhibition at Light Festival at National Institute of Design, Oct. 17-20, Ahmedabad, India., Fall 2014.
- Floe: A Kinetic Glass Sculpture, ArtFutura 2013 Publication & Screening, 12 countries across the world, Summer 2013.
- Floe: A Kinetic Glass Sculpture, QEPrize (Queen Elizabeth Prize Honorary Exhibition) June 25, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom, Spring 2013.
- “Delete”, TodaysArt Festival: Commons Tense, New Media Arts from Turkey by AmberPlatform, Sep. 13-20, Elektriciteitsfabriek, Den Haag, Netherlands, Fall 2012.
- “SPARKS” Digital Media Student Exhibition, Sabanci University, FASSART Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, March 14 – April 1, Spring 2011.
- “SPARKS” Digital Media/Art Exhibition, Praxis Space
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, April 8 – 18
(mixed media artwork of mine given as a present to Head of Art & Design Department), Spring 2011.
- Moons and Stars Young Photographers Award Ceremony & Exhibition Fotografevi, Istanbul, Turkey, November 27 – December 3, Fall 2010.
- VACD Student Works Exhibiton: flow/DEBI, Kasa Gallery, Minervahan, Istanbul, Turkey, October 21 – December 20, Fall 2010.
- Photokina Art Fair 2010, Academy Meets Photokina Cologne, Germany, October 21 – 26, Fall 2010.
- Annual Student Exhibition/Show at Central Saint Martins, Holborn Building, London, United Kingdom, August 6 – 7, Summer 2010.
- VACD Student Works Exhibiton: 19th TUYAP Exhibition, TUYAP, Istanbul, Turkey, October 31 – November 9, Fall 2009.
- VACD Student Works Exhibiton: Digital and Photographic Imaging, Sabanci Uni., FASSART Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, February 15 – 27, Fall 2009.
EVENTS:
I contributed to all of the above-mentioned events as a practicing artist / designer.
AWARDS:
- Two Best Paper Awards at ACM’s Designing Interactive Systems Conference, ACM DIS 2018 and DIS 2020
- QEPrize, The Queen Elisabeth Prize for Engineering, Finalist. https://qeprize.org/winners/event- gallery/qeprize-
presentation-2013
- Royal College of Art, Outstanding Graduate Student. Information Experience Design Programme, 2015
- Tubitak Undergraduate Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement, 2007 – 2011
- Recipient of Sabanci University Excellence Merit Metin Sabancı Scholarship, 2007 – 2011
- Recipient of Sabanci University Excellence Merit Metin Sabancı Scholarship, 2007 – 2011
PRESS APPEARANCES:
- Chandler David L., “New fibers can make breath-regulating garments” . MIT News Office, October 15, 2021. (Web
Article and Interview) https://news.mit.edu/2021/fibers-breath-regulating
-1015
- Gonick, M., “Robotic fibers can make breath-monitoring garments” . MIT Youtube, October 15, 2021. (Web Video
Story) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDT7Nt_sBqQ
- SciTechDaily, “Robotic OmniFibers: New Fibers Can Make Breath-Regulating Garments” . SciTechDaily, October 15,
2021. (Web) https://scitechdaily.com/robotic-omnifibers-new-fi
bers-can-make-breath-regulating-garments/
- Hiserman, J. (PT), “A Touching Experience” . Spectrum Ergonomics, November, 2021. (Web Podcast, 2 Episodes)
- Nugent, J., “Robotic Textiles in Action: OmniFiber” . Azo Materials, November 2, 2021. (Web Interview)
https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=20898
- White, R., “Researchers designed a fabric that comes to life when you breathe — Strictly Robots” . Mashable, November
10, 2021. (Web) https://mashable.com/video/omnifibers-breathing-fa
bric-mit-researchers
- Shtarbanov, A., “Project OmniFiber” . Hackaday, October 28, 2021. (Web) https://hackaday.io/project/179845-
flowio-platform/log/199725-project-omnifiber
- TMS, “Fluidic yarn system for haptic measurements” . TMS Market Intelligence on Advanced Materials, October 15,
2021. (Monthly Newsletter) https://www.textilemedia.com/smart-textiles-and-we
arables/latest-news/fluidic-yarn-
system-for-haptic-measurements/
- Owen J., “New fibre senses and responds to movement” . WTIN, November 8, 2021. (Web Article and Interview)
https://www.wtin.com/article/2021/november/081121/
new-fibre-senses-and-responds-to-movement/
- WTI, “New Fibres Make Breath-Regulating Garments” . Wearable Technology Insights, October 19, 2021. (Web)
https://www.wearabletechnologyinsights.com/article
s/24987/new-fibres-make-breath-regulating-garments
?stv1=1%
3A265842%3A20008
- Nisa, J.U., “This New Omnifiber Fabric Can Capture And Replay Wearers’ Breathing Patterns” . Wonderful Engineering,
October 18, 2021. (Web) https://wonderfulengineering.com/this-new-omnifibe
r-fabric-can-capture-and-replay-
wearers-breathing-patterns/
- Dziarkach, A., “Muscle memory! Scientists have created clothes from smart threads”. VoA (Voice of America),
October 23, 2021. (Web Interview and TV Show) https://www.golosameriki.com/a/detali-10232021/628
2706.html
- Printed Electronics World, “New Fibres Make Breath-Regulating Garments. Printed Electronics World, October 19,
2021. (Web) https://www.printedelectronicsworld.com/articles/2
4987/new-fibres-make-breath-regulating-garments
- TechnoPixel, “New Technological Fabric from MIT: OmniFiber that Detects Human Movement!” . TechnoPixel,
October, 2021. (Web) https://www.technopixel.org/new-technological-fabr
ic-from-mit-omnifiber-that-detects-
human-movement/
- Sengupta, D., “MIT Researchers Design a Soft, Robotic Fiber That Can React to Wearers’ Body Movements” . Beebom,
October 17, 2021. (Web) https://beebom.com/mit-researchers-design-robotic-
fiber-reacts-wearers-body-movements/
- Gigazine, “Robot fiber that records muscle movements and reproduces them for others is developed” . Livedoor News,
October 19, 2021. (Web) https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/21052137/
- Hedlund, A., “Robotic textiles for everything from breathing recovery to feeling surfaces in Space” . Uppsala University
News, October 19, 2021. (Web Article and Interview) https://www.uu.se/en/news/article/?id=17678&ty
p=artikel
- Soold, H., “Portable textile robot muscles help singers with the breathing technique” . Royal Institute of Technology,
KTH News, November 29, 2021. (Web Article and Interview) https://www.kth.se/aktuellt/nyheter/barbara-textil
a-
robotmuskler-hjalper-sangare-med-andningstekniken-
1.1123682
- Sebambo, K., “Audio sculptures that modify your perception of the world” . Design Indaba, July 13, 2015. (Web)
http://www.designindaba.com/articles/creative-work
/audio-sculptures-modify-your-perception-world
- Ideal Standard News Press, “Ground-breaking study by Ideal Standard Reveals How Design and Function Impact our
Perception of Beauty” . Ideal Standard, July 13, 2015. (Web) https://www.idealstandard.lt/news-press/newspress/
2015-03-11-project-perceive.html
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS:
Ozgun Kilic Afsar, A. Shtarbanov, H. Mor, K. Nakagaki, J. Forman, K. Modrei, S. Hee Jeong, K. Hjort, K. Höök,
and Hiroshi Ishii. 2021. OmniFiber: Integrated Fluidic Fiber Actuators for Weaving Movement based Interactions into the ‘Fabric of Everyday Life’ In The 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '21). ACM, 1010–1026.
Ozgun Kilic Afsar*, K. Cotton*, Y. Luft, P. Syal, and F. B. Abdesslem. 2021. SymbioSinging: Robotically transposing
singing experience across singing and non-singing bodies. In Creativity and Cognition (C&C '21). ACM, Article 52.
Ozgun Kilic Afsar*, H. Mor, C. Honnet and Hiroshi Ishii. “Choreographic Interfaces: Wearable Approaches to
Movement Learning in Creative Processes.” ACM ICPS, 2021.
M. L. J. Søndergaard, Ozgun Kilic Afsar, M. C. Felice, N. C. Woytuk, and M.e Balaam. 2020. Designing with Intimate
Materials and Movements: Making "Menarche Bits". In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '20). ACM 587–600. (The paper won Best Paper Award at ACM DIS’20.)
M. Balaam, N. C. Woytuk, M. C. Felice, Ozgun Kilic Afsar, A. Ståhl, and M. L. J. Søndergaard. 2020. Intimate Touch.
ACM Interactions 27, 6 (November - December 2020), 14–17.
C. Bogdan, V. Tsaknaki, C. Windlin, M. C. Felice, Ozgun Kilic Afsar, S. Eriksson, Y. Fernaeus, and P. Sanches. 2020.
Programming for Moving Bodies. Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society. ACM, Article 132, 1–3.
K. Höök, S. Eriksson, M. L. J. Søndergaard, M. C. Felice, N. C. Woytuk, Ozgun Kilic Afsar, V. Tsaknaki, and A. Ståhl. 2019. Soma Design and Politics of the Body. In Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019 (HTTF 2019). ACM, Article 1, 1–8.
BOOKS:
Ozgun Kilic Afsar*, M. L. J. Søndergaard*, M. Balaam, Material experiences of menstruation through symbiotic technologies, Materials Experience II, 2021, 147-152.
LANGUAGE SKILLS:
Turkish (native), English (adv.), German (adv.), Swedish (conv.), Spanish (beg.)
COMPUTER LITERACY:
Autodesk Maya (+Arnold, Octane), Fusion 360, Solidworks, Adobe Suite, MATLAB, Blender, 3D Studio Max, Rhino/Grasshopper, Houdini, RealFlow, LaTeX, Python, Processing, Arduino, Max/MSP, COMSOL, Webflow
COURSES, SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS::
(Seminar) Carnegie Mellon University, Morphing Matter Lab. Public Gues Lecture, “Shaping and Being Shaped by FabricMachines”. February 8, 2021.
(Seminar) KTH Royal Institute of Technology, PhD Seminar, “Translating, Transferring and Proprioceiving Somatics by
Polyhaptic Notations”. April 29, 2021.
(Seminar) KTH Royal Institute of Technology, PhD Seminar, “Translating, Transferring and Proprioceiving Somatics by
Polyhaptic Notations”. April 29, 2021.
(Course Teaching) Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teaching Assistant, Human Computer Interaction, DH 1621 Introduction to Human Computer Interaction (BSc)
(Course Teaching) Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teaching Assistant, Degree Projects at Human Computer Interaction, Mentoring (MSc Thesis)
(Course Teaching) Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teaching Assistant, Human Computer Interaction, DH 2629 Interaction Design As a Reflective Practice (MSc)
(Course Teaching) Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teaching Assistant, Human Computer Interaction, DH 1588 Sensor Programming (BSc)
SYMPOSIUMS AND ACADEMIC CONFERENCES::
(Workshop Organizer) ACM CHI'22. Actuated Materials and Soft Robotics Strategies for Human-Computer Interaction Design ACM CHI'22 Conference, New Orleans, LA, USA May 1, 2022, 9am - 5pm (Central Time) onsite + virtual event.
(Author/Presenter) ACM UIST’21. Research Paper Presentation at ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology,
“OmniFiber: Integrated Fluidic Fiber Actuators for Weaving Movement-based Interactions into the Fabric of Everyday Life”. October 12 – 14, 2021.
(Author/Presenter) ACM C&C’21. Research Paper Presentation at ACM Creativity and Cognition, “SymbioSinging: Robotically transposing singing experience across singing and non-singing bodies”, June 2021.
MEMBERSHIPS & ASSOCIATIONS:
- ACM (since 2019)
- IEEE (since 2020)
- MRS Materials Research Society (since 2020)
- Science Robotics (since 2020)
HOBBIES:
Singing, reading science fiction & non-fiction, listening to philosophy podcasts, piano, classical guitar, kite surfing, table tennis, ice skating, teaching new things to my dog, visiting national history museums, science museums, building automata.
CLIENTELE:
Google ATAP - Design Research (2022-)
Shima Seiki - Design Research (2022-)
Adidas - Design Research (2022-)
Yamaha Design Studio - Design Research (2016-18)
Ideal Standard - Design Research (2015)
WEB SITE:
https://www.media.mit.edu/people/ozgun/overview/
PORTFOLIO URL:
https://e2c71984-3d13-4438-8446-854cc2069300.files
usr.com/ugd/39da8b_93cbce7c09534be3bf3e680ffef189d
1.pdf
RSS URL:
https://rss.app/feeds/KcAn28IewtfylB9l.xml
REGISTRATION DATE:
2021-08-22 13:07:44
COUNTRY/REGION:
Sweden
ACCOUNT TYPE:
Academic
Awards received by Ozgun Kilic Afsar
 |
Omnifiber Self Sensing Morphing Textiles Bronze A' Design Award Winner for Textile, Fabric, Textures, Patterns and Cloth Design Category in 2021 Ozgun Kilic Afsar for Ozgun Kilic Afsar |
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