Joanna Berzowska

Joanna Berzowska is the founder and research director of XS Labs, a design research studio with a focus on innovation in the fields of electronic textiles and reactive garments that can enable computationally-mediated interactions with the environment and the individual. A core component of her research involves the development of enabling methods, materials, and technologies - in the form of soft electronic circuits and composite fibers - as well as the exploration of the expressive potential of soft reactive structures. Her art and design work has been shown in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in NYC, the V&A in London, the Millenium Museum in Beijing, various SIGGRAPH Art Galleries, ISEA, the Art Directors Club in NYC, the Australian Museum in Sydney, NTT ICC in Tokyo, and Ars Electronica Center in Linz among others. She lectures internationally about the field of electronic textiles and related social, cultural, aesthetic, and political issues. She was selected for the Maclean's Honour Roll as one of "thirty nine Canadians who make the world a better place to live in". She is the Head of electronic textiles at OM signal, a Montreal startup developing a line of bio-sensing clothes, which connect seamlessly to iPhones and offer a variety of engaging biofeedback to help improve personal wellbeing. She is Associate Professor of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University.

Education

M.S. MIT Media Lab

Research interests

Electronic textiles, reactive garments, human generated power, fiber-based functionality.

Areas of expertise

Interaction design, electronic textiles, HCI, tangible media, physical computing.