Check out the weird stuff I've made.

ITP | October 3rd, 2023

Floordozer Chindogu

  • pcomp
  • sewing

A Chindogu activated by a pillow remote control that pushes through piles of clothes on the floor to clear a walking path from your bed.

Arduino Nano 33 IoT, Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)

What is a Chindogu?

A Chindogu is an "unusual tool" that solves an every day problem most can relate to but often creates more problems while doing so. Kenji Kawakami coined the term in Japan in the '80s and '90s and created a skymall style magazine of user submitted chindogu.

3 photographs: one depicting high heels with tiny umbrellas affixed to the toes, one with a fan attached to chopsticks holding hot noodles, and one with a butter dispenser that resembles chapstick A magazine cover that says "Unuseless Japanese Inventions" with a picture of a person eating ramen with a splash guard that looks like flower around their face. ![A photograph of a woman asleep in a train with a helmet and suction cup stuck to the window behind her, keeping her head from str

ITP | May 3rd, 2023

Muse Gen-AI Design Exploration

  • ai

An exploration of what the first historical park and museum of the moon might look like using generative AI art tooling.

Adobe Photoshop, DALLĀ·E 2, Midjourney

Blending into the moon itself, the Muse building will go a few floors deeper than first appears. Excavate to create lunarcrete material for the enclosure.

For Designing Spaces & Environments Using AI, we were to research and explore ideas of what to build in space, taking inspiration from the NASA's Artemis mission.

Muse is a place for people to be inspired by and honor the majesty of space, the moon, and all the accomplishments of the pioneers that got us to the moon. It seconds as a small reminder of home and our humanity. The exterior of this space is intended to be a monument built from lunarcrete that blends into the scenery around it, like a less personified and more universally culturally appealing Mount Rushmore.

Inside is intended to be a museum and botanic garden, climate and air controlled with a variety of plants carefully selected for survivability on the moon. Along the paths of the botanic garden will be relics of ā€œfirstsā€; the first lunar rover, the first golf ball shot on the moon, and so on, for visitors to admire.

Blending into the moon itself, the Muse building will go a few floors deeper than first appears. Excavate to create lunarc

ITP | December 5th, 2022

Masks of Manic-Depression

  • CAD

An explorative digital sculpture of the manic and depressive emotions experienced by a person with bipolar disorder

Autodesk Fusion 360, Google Tilt Brush, Unreal Engine v5

Letā€™s get personal for a hot second here.

In 2020, I got diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

The diagnosis came after 13 years of therapy and 4 other diagnoses. Iā€™ve experienced just under a dozen different types of therapies, and Iā€™ve written quite a few articles on mental health and therapy since my diagnosis.

I decided to creatively explore how one can express the feelings of both a manic high and a depressive low!

Concept

In theater, thereā€™s the common happy/sad, comedy/tragedy Dionysus masks. I thought that would be a good analogy for what I wanted to portray.

In trauma therapy, thereā€™s not only the concepts of mania and depression, but thereā€™s also the concept of hyperarousal and hypoarousal in trauma states. This is called The Window of Tolerance.

In the Window of Tolerance model, people go from high energy anxiety (hyperarousal) to low energy lethargy (hypoarousal). The ideal is to stay in the ā€œwindow of toleranceā€ inbetween.

I also have complex PTSD, so Iā€™m intimately familiar with this model as well as manic depression.

Untitled

People with rapid cycling bipolar disorder or suffering from extreme trauma state switching have a narrow band for their Window of Tolerance. They also have a problem in finding and iden

ITP | December 4th, 2022

Textile Interface Experiments

  • pcomp
  • sewing

A series of experiments creating different interfaces out of soft materials.

Arduino Nano 33 IoT

Experiment #1: Button Swatch

A little circuit sewn into felt that operates via a button battery.

Materials

  • Square of blue felt
  • 3V button battery
  • Conductive thread
  • 3mm LED, Magenta, Transparent DC 2V ā€“ 3.2V 20mA

Interaction

You place a 3V button battery plus-side down onto the circle with a plus sewn into it and fold the corner with the ground symbol to the back side to watch the LED light up!

Possible Futures

Really cool idea for connecting circuits via folding with textiles. Also, didnā€™t think of ever using a button battery, and thatā€™s way more convenient for wearables.

Experiment #2: Heart Pressure Button

A multimeter showing the resistance change (set at a 20Ī© baseline) upon squishing the heart

Ironing on conductive fabric on either side of the heart fabric. Gotta be careful ironing on polyester! Stripping stranded wires to stuff in the heart Stuffing it into the heart

I forgot to pick up conductive wool from the supply, so I made my own makeshift conductive stuffing. I stripped stranded wires and wrapped them around and within a ball of polyester fiber fill. I unfortunately didnā€™t get a picture

ITP | October 4th, 2022

Reverse-Engineered TV Remote

  • pcomp
  • research

A reverse engineered remote used to control a meta makeshift TV in presenting the history of the TV remote.

Arduino Nano 33 IoT, Electron, Node.js, TypeScript

In the class Learning the World, One Thing at a Time, taught by Lydia Jessup, we learned about the Implosion research method to deeply analyze and research an object we encounter in every day life across the following dimensions: Labor, Professional, Material, Technological, Context, Political, Economic, Textual, Historical, Particle, Educational, Mythological, and Symbolic.

If you're interested in learning more about the method itself, I wrote an article about it here:

Using the Implosion Method to Explore Everyday ObjectsEverything, even everyday objects, have stories. Asking the right questions helps us understand the world around us more deeply.

Really, the Implosion Method implores us to ask two questions about our chosen object:

  1. How does the object exist in the world?
  2. How does the world exist within the object?

Research

We had one week to choose an object and study it across 2+ dimensions and use 2+ different research sources, such as archives, interviews, or surveys.

I chose a Zenith TV remote I found on a junk shelf for my chosen object. I studied Human-Computer Interaction and am always excited to learn more about interaction devices, so it seemed like a perfect fit! I also wanted t

Personal Project ā€¢ cosplay | October 6th, 2022

Harley Quinn Cosplay [BTAS]

  • cosplay
  • fabrication
  • sewing

An ambitious sewing project with custom patterns made in just 3 days for NYC ComicCon.

Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)

Photograph of a woman in a red and black harlequin outfit on a throne Photograph of a woman in a red and black harlequin outfit posing for the camera Photograph of a woman in a red and black harlequin outfit back-to-back with a Star Wars character Photograph of a woman in a red and black harlequin outfit next to a girl with red hair and a green leotard Photograph of a woman in a red and black harlequin outfit standing by another person dressed as the same character but with a red dress

Photograph of a woman in a red and black harlequin outfit eating a giant fake bowl of ramen

Context

As a 90s kid, I grew up a huge fan of Batman: The Animated Series and Harley Quinn was always one of my favorite characters. 2022 marked Harley Quinn's 30th birthday of her inception as a character for the show, so what better way to celebrate than to dress up as her for New York Comic Con?

![Illustration of a harlequin dressed woman kneeling with a gun in her hands](/portfolio/harleyquinn/cover.jp

Personal Project ā€¢ cosplay | October 5th, 2019

Kasumi "Violet" Cosplay [Persona 5 Royal]

  • 3D printing
  • CAD
  • cosplay
  • fabrication
  • sewing

Complex pattern making and an introduction to CAD by making Kasumi "Violet" Yoshizawa from Persona 5 Royal

Creality CR-10 (3D Printer), Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)

Photograph of a girl in a red wig looking at a screen that says "Persona 5" Photograph of a girl in a red wig and black leotard and sword standing proudly Photograph of a girl in a red wig and black leotard pulling out a sword Photograph of a painted silver sword and a black sheath crossed on the floor

Context

In 2019, Atlus announced they were doing a re-release of their famous game Persona 5, but with new content. The top thing they announced was that the new version, dubbed Persona 5 Royale, would have a brand new character who is a badass ballerina. I knew I had to be this character for Halloween, just in time for its October 31, 2019 release date!

Concept art of a red headed girl in a leotard

The Process

Making the jacket

First thing to do was to make a jacket pattern. The concept art was a good enough reference for the front of the jacket, but none of the official art showed the back of the jacket. I combed through the trailer for the game to find a shot of it.

Game screenshot of a girl with red hair and a leotard holding a gun while kneeling on the ground

Using my mannequin, I first worked on making a pattern for this tri

Freelance Design | January 4th, 2019

Zelda x Star Wars Snowboard

  • illustration

An illustration combining The Legend of Zelda and Star Wars fandom for a snowboard.

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

My close friend from high school and I starting to learn how to ski and snowboard together. After he decided he was going to snowboard every winter season, he commissioned me to make a custom snowboard design.

He is a huge fan of both Star Wars and The Legend of Zelda, so his only request was to make some sort of mashup of both with some Japanese motifs. Given that I'm a huge Zelda fan, a budding Star Wars fan, and a Japanophile, I was teeming with ideas.

First Draft

My friend loves The Great Wave Off Kanagawa and has that print in many forms around his house. My first ideas revolved around incorporating that into the design.

There's a Zelda game that takes place on islands in a great ocean, so this was the first idea:

A half finished illustration of a Wind Waker styled snowboard with Link sitting on a boat looking at tie fighters in the sky

My friend liked the idea but he really wanted the style to be more based on one of the more recent Zelda games at the time, Skyward Sword. The art style in that game is inspired by impressionistic paintings, and he wanted a similar aesthetic to be used on his board for both the Zelda and Star Wars motifs.

Design iterations

Skyward Sword has no oceans, and Stars Wars has few, so I threw out the waves in favor for Mt. Fuji. I decided a more action-packed scene of Link fighting

Personal Project ā€¢ cosplay | November 2nd, 2017

Marie Cosplay [Splatoon]

  • cosplay
  • fabrication
  • sewing

A handmade dress complete with steel boning and a ribbon made of stuffed tentacles to make the perfect squid kid.

Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)

A photograph of 4 young adults posing for the camera in colorful costumes

For Fanime 2016, my friends and I decided we wanted to be Splatoon characters. In the popular Nintendo exclusive third person shooter, most characters are themed after cephalopoda. There are two game show host type characters named Callie and Marie (get it? Calamari), and my friend and I decided to go as the sister squid duo.

Concept art for a video game depicting two girls who are part squid posing for the camera

The Process

Making the dress

Marie's dress is pretty form fitting until the bottom, and it has slits in the outer layer showing the green lining underneath. I went to work to making the lining and to figure out how to add boning so that it is more form fitting.

Photograph of green fabric with black boning sewn in Photograph of a blue mannequin with tape outlining a heart top Photograph of a girl looking in a mirror figuring out the fit of green fabric Photograph of green fabric with black boning wrapped around a mannequin Photograph of a black sequins dress with green cutouts on a mannequin ![Photograph of a girl in a black and gr

Personal Project ā€¢ cosplay | October 6th, 2014

Morrigan Cosplay [Darkstalkers]

  • cosplay
  • fabrication
  • sewing

A forray into airbrushing and foam carving through a cosplay of the popular and sexy Darkstalkers character.

Iwata Sprint Compressor (Airbrush), Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)
Photograph of a girl wearing a teal wig and a giant set of wings around her waist

Context

All my coworkers at a previous job were obsessed with fighting games, specifically Street Fighter II and Marvel vs. Capcom. I love fighting games too; I had already cosplayed as Tira from Soul Calibur III at this point.

Morrigan is a powerful succubus from a Capcom game called Dark Stalkers. She's a fighter in Marvel vs. Capcom, so I decided to dress up as her for our work holiday party to surprise my coworkers.

Concept art of a succubus

Fabrication

Making the leotard

Morrigan's leotard is very basic. the only special thing is that there's a heart shape cutout just below her bust. After cutting it, I decided to fill it with a tan colored fabric; I don't exactly have cleavage to show off.

A strip of white feathers was sewn onto the edges later.

Concept art of a succubusConcept art of a succubus

Making the butt wings

Her butt wings are really the most challenging part of the costume. I decided to carve the wings out of upholstery foam used for furniture. The spines of the wings got thick armature wires used for heavy clay sculptures, and the spans betwee

Freelance Design | April 6th, 2013

Over Hills and Underground CD Design

  • communication design
  • illustration

Illustrated album art of ghostly apparitions created for an eco-wallet layout.

Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop

Photograph of the album cover with imagery of caves and hills

Chris Eminizer is an all-around musician: saxophonist, pianist, singer, and percussionist. He contacted me as he was working on his second album, Over Hills and Underground, and asked if I would make his album art for him.

He had already taken photographs that he wanted featured in the design, and said he wanted white sketch overlays that resembled ghostly apparitions. He didn't have particular motifs in mind, but gave me all the lyrics for the album's songs beforehand for inspiration.

Drafts

The title Over Hills and Underground is already very descriptive as-is, he had a song called "Angel's Wings", and there were lyrical references to Snow White. I decided to play with all of those ideas.

I had never made an eco-wallet before, so there was a lot of experimentation to be done with the shape:

A design on a CD itself![Design of ghostly imagery over photographs of the inside of a well over an eco-wallet template](/port

Personal Project ā€¢ cosplay | May 4th, 2012

Tira Cosplay [Soul Calibur III]

  • cosplay
  • fabrication
  • sewing

Constructing a replica of a deadly hula hoop sized ring of blades and a feathery costume on a budget.

Shark Euro Pro X (Sewing Machine)

Photograph of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair holding a giant ring with blades Photograph of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair holding a giant ring with blades standing next to a ninja Photograph of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair pushing a giant ring with blades toward the camera Photograph of a girl faced the other way in a green feather outfit and blue hair resting a giant ring with blades on her shoulder

Context

One of my favorite game series of all time is Soul Calibur, a fighting game made by Namco. Many of the weapon moves are based on real life martial art styles, and as a martial artist myself it's really fun to see.

That being said, some characters are just wacky and non-sensical. Soul Calibur III introduced this Harley Quinn-like character named Tira. She's pure Chaotic Neutral and attacks people with a giant hula hoop of death. As soon as I saw her, I knew I had to dress up as her.

Instead of dressing up alone though, I convinced a few of my friends to dress up as other women in the franchise with me for Fanime. Most of them are also martial artists/lovers of the game, so it wasn't a hard sell.

![Concept art of a girl in a green feather outfit and blue hair holding a g