‘Almost everything I design is based on giving form to the invisible.’
Tara Karpinski is a researcher within the Situated Art and Design research group, and a tutor at the Communication & Multimedia Design programme at Avans University of Applied Sciences in Den Bosch.
Tara Karpinski studied photography and art history at Savannah College of Art & Design, in the United States. She continued her studies at the Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, obtaining an MA in Design & New Media, in 2003.
Tara is a designer and one of the founders of the design collective de Ponies – pioneers in ‘research through making’. The collective works at the intersection of research, design and society. Their projects are realised in the Netherlands and abroad, at locations where there is friction between citizens and government. Through installations in public space, their work offers new perspectives on complex social issues.
De Ponies have exhibited internationally, and their projects have been published by leading institutions, including Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, in Rotterdam. In addition, the collective collaborates with various organisations such as Paradiso, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Amnesty International. For their project Supernatural, the collective was awarded the sustainability prize from the Dutch political party GroenLinks.
In addition to her work for de Ponies, Tara lecturers at universities and art academies, both at home and abroad. She has worked as an embedded researcher-designer for various institutions, including the University of Amsterdam, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Design Thinking for the Circular Economy
This research project explores the question of whether situated design methods can contribute to value transparency in the design of local platforms for the circular economy.
Research Group: Situated Art and Design
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 and Design 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 
‘‘Understanding how creativity and imagination emerge from interactions with our environment will lead to improved innovation processes, tools and technologies.’’
Alwin de Rooij
‘Through an interplay of design and research, the apt questions and necessary tools can be discovered and applied to each research project.’
Antal Ruhl
‘The essence of the situated, cinematic experience of dance lies in the mental interaction where the public becomes co-author.’
Noud Heerkens
‘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
‘Attention during interaction is personal, not a given fact.’
Misha Croes
‘I’m looking for methods that take people as a starting point.’
Michel Witter
‘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
‘For me, the iterative design-research process is an exciting journey towards designs that can transform human consciousness.’
Danielle Roberts