Alisha

Info

 
alishap@media.mit.edu
Research Assistant  |  Lifelong Kindergarten at the MIT Media Lab
Expertise
 
☆☆★★★  Fabrication & Craft
☆☆★★★  Design
☆☆☆★★  Electronics
☆☆☆☆★  Programming
☆☆☆★★  Biology
☆☆☆☆★  Chemistry
 
What’s your favorite thing you’ve made?
An interactive ‘Deviced’ theaterical performance that I co-designed with three other artists and thirty middle school students in India. The performance design was evolved using shadow puppets, interactive textiles with LED lights, and a script born out of improvisation and introspection.
This remains my favorite project as I engaged deeply in a participatory design process that involved constant empathetic interactions.
Here is a news article:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/article2792912.ece
Here is the link to the tech art series of workshops I led for the project:
https://vimeo.com/55505704
 
What’s the most frustrating object you’ve used?
Belan’ Indian rolling pin that we use to make Chapatis (Indian Bread). I don’t really understand how the relationship between ‘Belan’ and ‘Chakla'(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakla) works. The technique involves applying pressure with your hands in the same place in order to make circular bread. I haven’t been able to develop any intuition about doing it the right way.
 
What do you personally hope to get out of this class? 
I am a first-year graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, and work as a Research Assistant with Professor Mitchel Resnick. Spending a significant amount of my lifetime pursuing art, design and learning, I have mostly been encouraged to perceive things by engaging all the senses and asking carefully crafted questions. I am deeply inspired from the Tangible Media Group’s values and eager to dive further into knowing about creating artistic ways of engagement through aesthetic tangible interactions.
I am passionate about creating environments that allow children to foster their creative intuition and spark curiosities through storytelling and making. My work is highly influenced by the ideas of constructionism, slow design, experience design, emotional design and Intimate science.Being part of this course will give me rich opportunities to engage in hands-on experience in designing, building and making interactive experiences. I wish to extend opportunities for people to connect meaningfully with the world around themselves and creatively express themselves in novel ways.