Andrea Peña

How and why did you become interested in design art/computation arts?

A past colleague of mine, while we were working at Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, was applying for the program. He absolutely inspired me at a time, where I was leaving a long career and figuring out my next steps.

Are there particular designers or professors that have influenced you?

Speculative Design, by Dunne & Raby has been the primary source of inspiration for my work, conceptual approach and intention within the discipline. It shifted my perception of design. Professors: pk langshaw has been my guiding mentor for many years. Rhona has been influential in my intellectual process as a designer. Erwin has brought silliness and play to my practice.

Do you have a background in any other fields?

Extensive professional background as a professional dancer and choreographer. I work as a Art Director within Fashion, particularly in video direction and large-scale fashion shows.

What are you trying to communicate with your design/computation art?

I aim to situate my research and creation thesis within the conceptual, theoretical, and creative framework of speculative design’s potentialities, as a host for the investigation of the phenomenological affect and effect of designed space (material and immaterial), over the choreographed corporality of an individual and society. Recognizing the body as a somatic centre for aesthesis; sensory perception, and thus the imposed choreomediation of design on the soma.

Do you have a favorite project?

Vessels: It is weird and very critical towards our normative habits as a society. It visualizes acomplex idea and critique, through a ridiculous and absurd design.

What kinds of projects interest you most?

Large scale experiential projects, bring forth alternative perceptive to the public. Conceptual and philosophically grounded ideas that are executed in absurd or “weird” ways.