‘‘Understanding how creativity and imagination emerge from interactions with our environment will lead to improved innovation processes, tools and technologies.’’
Alwin de Rooij is Associate Professor in Situated Art, Design, and Technology at the Avans Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT), and Assistant Professor in Creativity Research in the department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University.
Alwin’s research explores how creativity and imagination work and can be enhanced, using a methodology which combines (neuro)psychology with human-computer interactions and artistic practice. Emerging technologies such artificial intelligence, social robots, and sensory augmentation play a central role. A key ambition is to understand how creativity and imagination emerge from interactions between our inner, material, and social environments. The aim is to develop better innovation processes, tools and technologies to support creatives professional practice.
Alwin holds a PhD in Creativity Science from the Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice, City University of London; an MSc in Media Technology from the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science at Leiden University; and a BFA in Autonomous Art from the Interfaculty ArtScience at the Royal Academy of Art. Alwin’s work has been featured or published in leading journals and conferences on the subject of psychology, human-computer interaction, and media art. He has received several honorary awards for research excellence from the academic community (TEI’15, TEI’18, ECCE’21), and is involved organizing the ACM Creativity & Cognition conference series.
At CARADT, Alwin works with the Situated Art, Design, and Technology research group to collaboratively develop its research in creative processes, tools and technologies, and to foster new collaborations between the research group, other universities, and professional practice.
Publications
de Rooij, A. (2024, November). Pictorials Chair at ACM Creativity & Cognition 2025 Conference: “Creativity for Change”. ACM Creativity & Cognition Conference 2025
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Van den Boogaard, E., & de Rooij, A. (2024, December). De onzichtbare maker – auteurschap in tijden van generatieve AI. Mister Motley.
Rozental, S., van Dartel, M., & de Rooij, A. (2024, submitted). How Artists Use AI as a Responsive Material for Art Creation. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/gjdnw
de Rooij, A. (2024, Sep) Workshop collaborations for What can we still learn from Surrealism? What can we do with a page? Digital Magazine by Atelier Bozar
Rooij, A. de (2024, June) Served as co-chair at ACM Conference on Creativity & Cognition 2024, Chicago
de Rooij, A., & Mose Biskjaer, M. (2024). Expecting the unexpected: A review of surprise in design processes. In Proceedings of the 2024 Design Research Society Conference (DRS2024), article 62. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.333
Faber, M., & de Rooij, A. (2024). Is a wandering mind a novelty-seeking mind? The curious case of incubation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 47, e97. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X23003448
de Rooij, A., Atef, A. and Faber, M. (2024) A Wandering Mind is Not Always a Creative Mind: How Thought Dynamics Explain the Relationship between Mind Wandering and Creativity. J Creat Behav, 58: 151-170.
Ashby, S., Hanna, J., De Rooij, A., Kasprzak, M., Hoekstra, J., & Bos, S. (2023, June). Articulating (Uncertain) AI Futures of Artistic Practice: A Speculative Design and Manifesto Sprint Approach. In Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 312-318).
Mai, T. A., & de Rooij, A. (2023). Linguistic Relativity in Creative Thought: How Divergent Thinking in Response to Motion Events is Influenced by Satellite‐and Verb‐Framed Languages. The Journal of Creative Behavior, online first.
de Rooij, A., Hanna, J., Ashby, S., & Kasprzak, M. (2023). Helaas Pindakaas: ChatGPT schrijft je e-mails, maar het is geen Ron Blauw. Tekst [blad], 2023(2), 6-9.
de Rooij, A. (2023). Inner Speaking and Uncertainty during Idea Generation. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 57(3), 331-465.
de Rooij, A. (2023). Internal Dialogue, Creative Potential, and Creative Achievement. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 43(2), 105-128.
de Rooij, A., & de Wit, J. (2023). Co-Creation with Social Robots. In CLE Digital Creativity (pp. 12-13).
Witter, M., de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M. & Krahmer, E. (nov. 2022) Bridging a sensory gap between deaf and hearing people–A plea for a situated design approach to sensory augmentation, PERSPECTIVE article, in Frontiers in Computer Science.
Wieland, B., de Wit, J., & de Rooij, A. (submitted) Collaborative Brainstorming with a Chatbot: A Good Idea Due to Reduced Evaluation Apprehension?
van den Broek, S., de Rooij, A., & van Dartel, M. (accepted), Living with Living Artefacts: Six Concepts for Designing User Acceptance of Living Artefacts, In Proceedings of the 2022 Conference of the Design Research Society (DRS 2022).
de Rooij, A., van den Broek, S., Bouw, M., & de Wit, J. (2023). Co-Designing with a Social Robot Facilitator: Effects of Robot Mood Expression on Human Group Dynamics. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (pp. 22-29). https://doi.org/10.1145/3623809.3623820
Bogdescu, O., Biskjaer, M., & de Rooij, A. (accepted), Implementation Intention as a Debiasing Intervention for a Bias Blind Spot among UX Practitioners, In Proceedings of the 2022 Conference of the Design Research Society (DRS 2022).
Gozzo, M., Koelink Wolderdorp, M., & de Rooij, A. (2021) Creative Collaboration with the “Brain” of a Search Engine: Effects on Cognitive Stimulation and Evaluation Apprehension, in ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation, Creative Heritage. New Perspectives from Media Arts and Artificial Intelligence. 10th EAI International Conference, ArtsIT 2021, Virtual Event, December 2-3, 2021, Proceedings (pp.209-223)
de Rooij, A., Wijers, I., & Marinussen, M. (2021) Emergence of Metacognitive Knowledge via Audible Pupil Size, In Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE2021), article 18. (Best paper award)
Van Dartel, M., & de Rooij, A. (2019). The Innovation Potential of Sensory Augmentation for Public Space. In: Park, J., Nam, J. & Park, J.W. Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Electronic Art. Gwangju, Korea, Republic of. Pp.79-84.
Ruhl, A., de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M. (2018) The Artistic Potential of Tactile Vision Interfaces: A First Look. In Proceedings of the ACM Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction TEI’18. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 73-79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3173225.3173271 (Best Work in Progress)
Van Dartel, M. & de Rooij, A. (2018) Sensory Augmentation for Public Space. In: Nigten A. (2018) Proceedings of Balance Unbalance 2018: New Value Systems – Sustainability and Social Impact as Drivers for Value Creation, 41-42. Van Dartel, M. & de Rooij, A. (submitted) Sensory Augmentation for Public Space
Ruhl, A., de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M. (2017), The Artistic Potential of Tactile Vision Interfaces: A First Look, In Proceedings of the ACM Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction TEI’18.
de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M., Ruhl, A., Schraffenberger, H., van Melick, B., Bontje, M., Daams, M., and Witter, M. (2017), Sensory Augmentation Interfaces: A Dialogue between the Arts and Sciences, In A. Brooks, Brooks, E. & Vidakis, N. (Eds.) Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering (LNICST): Interactivity, Game Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation. Springer: Berlin.
Research Group: Situated Art, Design and Technology
Living in cities developed around data and acting within the inscrutable structure of our techno-society demands art and design that can help understand how we relate to these rapidly changing surroundings and to reflect on that relationship. The research group Situated Art, Design and Technology responds to this exigency by fostering a situated turn in art and design through a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with academic and cultural partners, as well as with government and industry.
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‘People are the product of their relationships with their environment. It’s important to understand how technological developments influence these relationships.’
Michel van Dartel 
‘My practice is situated in between different actors, in this shape-shifting middle many things can happen.’
Tara Karpinski
‘Imagination is the key to a strong inclusive society. Artistic work and situated design can contribute to a better understanding of the other.’
Jenny van den Broeke
‘Investigating the potential of sensory augmentation to bridge the sensory gap between deaf and hearing.’
Michel Witter
‘Through an interplay of design and research, the apt questions and necessary tools can be discovered and applied to each research project.’
Antal Ruhl
‘Humans are atmospheric beings, particles, dust, in intimate cycles of exchange, actors with an incredible force.’
Annemarie Piscaer
‘Could experimental sensory translation of art works improve their accessibility for sensory diverse exhibition audiences?’
Eva Fotiadi
‘I’m interested in how we can implement situated learning within design education.’
Sarah Lugthart
‘How can the notion of the ‘script’ be used in a situated design practice? ’
Ollie Palmer
‘The ultimate goal is to provide people with the information, skills and tools that enable them to improve the quality of their daily lives.’
Simone van den Broek
‘For me, the iterative design-research process is an exciting journey towards designs that can transform human consciousness.’
Danielle Roberts
‘The essence of the situated, cinematic experience of dance lies in the mental interaction where the public becomes co-author.’
Noud Heerkens
‘Who benefits?’
Ivo Koolen
‘Getting comfortable with ambiguity enables designers to absorb feedback and use it to make better design choices.’
Gabri Heinrichs
‘I look at the ways in which citizens can play an active role in shaping their cities, and how new media and technology can contribute to this.’
Barbara Asselbergs
‘Power, control and chance play an important role in every creative process. I explore this complicated correlation.’
Michiel van Opstal
‘Attention during interaction is personal, not a given fact.’
Misha Croes