TinkerPod: An open-source hardware platform for makers

TinkerPod is an open-source platform designed for makers, creative coders, and designers, providing hackable and customizable hardware and software. Inspired by the evolution of multitools and influenced by contemporary open-source hardware and generative art, this project explores the application of critical making and personal fabrication to open-source hardware. TinkerPod aims to bridge the gap between specialized engineering tools and accessible, user-friendly hardware for creative and technical exploration. This research follows a Research Through Design methodology combined with Kanban to create an iterative approach that refines prototypes based on accessibility, modularity, and robustness. The first phase synthesizes inspiration from open-source hardware and Do-It-Yourself electronics to situate the project. The second phase refines these insights into specific design criteria, focusing on hardware durability and accessibility for users with different skill levels. The development phase of the project applies iterative prototyping, leveraging rapid fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing to refine the device’s physical design attributes and functionality. Finally, the development of the prototypes is documented, including the thought process and design decisions made during each iteration. The result is a device that can be manufactured using DIY methods and tools, incorporating a flexible hardware and software ecosystem that intends to encourage users of different skill levels to experiment, extend, and hack

Responsible, Sustainable Production and Consumption through the lens of Inclusion and Diversity.

In an era characterised by increased environmental concerns and a growing emphasis on sustainability my Major research project (MRP) delves into the realm of Responsible, Sustainable Production and Consumption through the lens of Inclusion and Diversity. My definition of sustainability, for this project, is using services and related products which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimising the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emission of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardise the needs of future generations (World Commission on Environment and Development). For this project, diversity and inclusion are essential lenses through which to understand, address, and advance sustainable production and consumption practices. My goal is to provide insightful analysis of the intersectionality between sustainability, diversity, and inclusion, particularly focusing on how these factors influence production and consumption patterns within immigrant communities addressing particularly the immigrants of Toronto and develop approaches for supporting the adoption of environmentally friendly practices addressing the needs and particular circumstances in immigrants of our society. I will be looking to and involving the targeted users/community in the process a developing, identifying and evaluating existing or new strategies that improve responsible production and consumption practices within these immigrant groups

Trance-Forming Exhibitions: Fusing contemporary art, rave culture, and nightlife

This study proposes an experimental curatorial concept that explores how the elements and culture of raves can transform art exhibitions into immersive, inclusive, and transformative experiences. It looks at how people’s individual experiences and subjectivities interact within these curated spaces. By asking what art curation can learn from rave culture—how to stage a rave-like atmosphere in an exhibition, and how a “rave sensibility” can reshape art institutions and aesthetic experiences—this study aims to create both a theoretical and practical framework for this new exhibition format. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach, the research includes personal observations from attending raves, reviews of academic writing on rave culture and museum studies, and an analysis of three case studies featuring hybrid art-rave events. It argues that combining music, exhibition design, and technology can go beyond conventional aesthetic experiences and initiate new art movements, potentially empowering underrepresented groups and sparking renewed interest in contemporary art—especially among younger audiences. The appendix presents the lists of expenses and funding for the event, and a semiotic experiment proposal, highlighting possible ways to put these ideas into practice. Overall, this work lays a foundation for further innovation, suggesting that bringing together rave culture and art for such ephemeral autonomous events may lead the future of cultural production and curatorial practice

Invisible Chains: Caste, Religious, Nationalism, and the Struggle for Freedom to Innovate in India

India's narrative as a rising global power, brimming with potential from its large youth population and democratic structure, often conceals the reality faced by millions constrained by "invisible chains." This report critically examines how systemic social, economic, and psychological structures of oppression, primarily deeply rooted casteism intertwined with politically potent religious nationalism, limit lives, stifle creativity, and block the nation's collective innovative potential. By connecting systemic oppression directly to the prerequisites of a thriving innovation ecosystem, such as social trust, psychological safety, and diverse participation, this report offers a critical lens often missing in standard economic analyses of India's growth. Drawing on an extensive review of academic research, credible reports, and publicly available data, the analysis argues that these interconnected systems perpetuate inequality, erode social trust, fuel impunity, degrade public discourse, and inflict psychological trauma, thereby systematically hindering the prerequisites for innovation and broad-based development. The study maps these dynamics using a systems thinking framework, identifying reinforcing feedback loops and key archetypes like "Shifting the Burden" and "Success to the Successful" that maintain inertia. Ultimately, the report concludes that breaking these invisible chains through strategic interventions targeting paradigms, rules, and information flows is essential for India to achieve substantive freedom, realize its constitutional ideals of justice and equality, and unleash the full potential of all its people

Empowering Agentic Non-Visual Web Navigation Through Tactile Controls and AI Support

Blind and low-vision (BLV) users rely on screen readers to access digital content, yet these tools often impose strictly linear, text-based navigation that fails to communicate spatial layout, contextual changes, or emotional tone. This disconnect leads to cognitive overload, frustration, and reduced autonomy. In response, this research proposes a new model of screen reader interaction: a modular, tangible interface grounded in affordance-based design to enhance agentic non-visual navigation. Through interviews and co-design sessions with BLV users, the study identifies six key experiential barriers: (1) loss of spatial orientation, (2) lack of state-change feedback, (3) absence of emotional/paralinguistic cues, (4) dependence on sequential logic, (5) inefficient input methods, and (6) mistrust of over-automated AI. These findings informed a series of design iterations, evolving from a conversational AI prototype to a tactile, multi-modal controller. The final design features a rotary knob for sequential traversal, a rotor switch for hierarchical navigation, haptic and auditory feedback to signal changes and navigation boundaries, and a context-aware AI assistant. Mapped to NVDA screen reader commands and aligned with the POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) accessibility framework, each component reinforces spatial awareness, user agency, and reduced cognitive demand

Among flowers and bones

A journey with grief, Among flowers and bones is an exhibition and thesis paper exploring the subjects of death, memory and afterlife, based upon complicated personal grief and trauma stemming from mental illness and the ongoing opioid crisis. This journey is expressed through an incomplete collection of photography, found objects, video, autoethnography and poetry. Pondering questions of what does it mean to ‘be in-between’? I examine the relationships between grief and liminal spaces. Using an array of analogue and digital techniques such as collage, image transfer, 16mm film, and polaroids, I create dreamscapes that explore both presence and absence, preservation and decay, loss and longing. Fusing images and found objects I conjure altars, creating space to embody one’s grief and open up communication around topics of loss. Death guides my research from the Cemetery, and the liminal, to Hauntology, Spiritualism and death rituals. Through questioning our relationships to objects, to understanding how trauma effects our memory and bodies, I search for a way to live amongst the heaviness. Infusing my emotion in the processes of making through cathartic and repetitive mutations, with the belief that the act of creating is transformative and healing. I am finding ways to honour both the death and life, that surrounds us

A Study on Relieving Player’s Anxiety and Promoting Self-Reflection Through Game Design Elements

This research explores how story-driven exploration games can help players relieve anxiety and promote self-reflection through storytelling, game mechanics, visual design, and interaction design. As part of this research, the project involves creating a story-driven exploration game to examine its effectiveness in achieving these goals. The paper focuses on analyzing how the game’s story, scene construction, level design, and overall atmosphere trigger the player's emotional resonance and enhance immersion. The research evaluates the game’s impact on emotions and its effectiveness in relieving anxiety through user testing. The expected outcome is to provide new insights into the field of game design and mental health

Like mother, like burr

Arising out of a need to document personal memory and narrative, and, more so, to reimagine my pasts, to reconcile with them, this thesis seeks to identify and use the cathartic affordances of games, contextualizing the embedded practices as means of imbuing newfound agency, and of self-preservation. The creative component of the thesis involves the making of autofictional game sketches of my mother-daughter relationship, acknowledging such a relationship as the crux of one’s crucial identify formation (and destruction) - and the recalling, remaking, and replaying of such a relationship as the heart of crafting one’s personal catharsis. The research and practice, latticing game studies with fields of literature, film, linguistics, engage in a cyclical process of informing one another through game-making and game-playing. The process adheres to Kara Stone’s approach of Reparative Game Design, one centering on the maker, the making, and the acceptance of uncertainties, gaps and questions in the pursuit of healing and in the pursuit of knowledge. This thesis aims to offer approaches that a game maker could partake in to truly create a game of one’s own - seeing it as agency, as confession, as half-truth, as survival; as it accompanies one through the disquiets of the past and present, in fact and in fiction

Sacred Shapeshifter: Embracing Ambiguity in Two-Spirit Identity

This thesis explores the reclamation of Two-Spirit identity and its significance within the queer Indigenous community, examining how Eve Tuck’s desire-based research framework can shape futures centered around decolonial love. Grounded in personal narrative, familial histories, and Anishinaabe epistemologies, both the written and creative productions disrupt conventional understandings of tradition, challenge rigid gender binaries, and foster intergenerational healing as a means to raise a new consciousness. Through autoethnographic modes of storytelling, stitching, beadwork, and sculpture come together to explore the ambiguity of Two-Spirit identity and engage in world-building. Rather than focusing solely on damage, this thesis highlights the power of possibility, resilience, and kinship across time and space, carrying ancestral knowledge forward as a gesture of futurity

Road to Heaven

Road to Heaven is a project that explores the potential of motion-control and narrative-driven game design to create an aesthetic experience that expresses the bodily and spiritual dimensions of understanding and practicing Qigong. Traditionally, studies on Qigong have focused either on its medical or psychological benefits, however, my engagement with Qigong—through historical and philosophical reading, storytelling, and movement practice—has revealed it as an embodied affective journey akin to navigating a well-orchestrated narrative game. This study’s overarching question asks: Can motion control and narrative in a game generate an aesthetic experience that conveys the spiritual and physical essence of Qigong practice? To address this question, this research employs a reflexive methodology and research-creation methodology to generate media case studies and iterative game prototyping. Bernard Stiegler’s theoretical framework on “technic” provides a lens to situate Qigong within a contemporary Western context, while the interplay between Western sociological analysis and complex Chinese social and historical contexts informs the Qigong practice. The resulting dynamic — between personal embodiment, cultural heritage, and interactive storytelling — guides the creation of a prototype that transforms Qigong’s “Technic” into an interactive, aesthetic experience. The results plus the analytical knowledge of art and media, inform my narrative and game design. This project ultimately seeks to expand discussions on embodied knowledge, game aesthetics experience, and spiritual practice within digital media, fostering an ongoing reflexive cycle of experiential learning and prototype making