Visuals & Politics
CRITICAL MEDIA PROJECT
#HashTrack
KISD x Code and Context
08. June 2020 – 19. June 2020
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#HashTrack was developed within the Buena Vista Social Hub under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Lasse Scherffig, Prof. Nina Juric, Dr. Olsen Wolf, and Darsha Hewitt. The task: to design a “hyper-machine” that merges the logic of a Rube Goldberg machine with digital technology.
Our response was to critically engage with social media as a parallel world that often distorts, rather than reflects, reality. The project stages the year 2020 as a chain reaction of events—political, social, and cultural—each represented by a tweet. With every post, a barrel slowly fills, visualizing the German proverb “Das Fass zum Überlaufen bringen” (“the straw that breaks the camel’s back”).
The installation illustrates how digital platforms amplify human influence, create feedback loops, and push society toward saturation and exhaustion. By combining physical mechanisms and online interactions, #HashTrack exposes the addictive, compulsive dynamics of social media and the tipping points they produce.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Lasse Scherrfig, Prof. Nina Juric, Dr. Olsen Wolf, Darsha Hewitt
Group Project: Dario Miceli, Fabian Vitt, Kay Schuh, Moniqie Holthuizen
INTERMEDIATE ONE PROJECTDiskurs
Katzengeschrei
23. March 2021
Focus: Gender & Design
This thesis project explores everyday sexism in its verbal and non-verbal forms as an expression of deeply embedded patriarchal structures. By analyzing feminist movements, legal frameworks, and contemporary activist strategies, it amplifies the voices of those affected and makes systemic issues visible. At its core lies the question of how a dialogue between victim and perpetrator can be shaped to foster awareness and behavioral change. Combining critical analysis, activism, and design, the project develops strategies that confront social injustices while opening new pathways for communication and collective transformation.
Intermediate of: Monique Holthuizen
Supervisor: Patricia Hepp (Gender & Design)
INTERMEDIATE TWO PROJECT
Spacer: Escape Tent
01. April 2021
Focus: Interaction Design
Spacer: Escape Tent responds to the growing alienation between human beings and nature, where individuals risk becoming mere cogs in economic and social systems. Conceived as an interactive, multisensory installation, the project creates a “space within space” that reconnects people with their senses of sight, hearing, and touch. By offering a pause from the pressures of achievement and survival, it invites reflection on our true needs and passions. The work acts as both critique and reminder: to resist becoming senseless machines, we must design opportunities for awareness, presence, and human connection.
Intermediate of: Mariam Mikadze, Monique Holthuizen
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Lasse Scherffig (Interaction Design)
BACHELOR THESIS Zwischen Traum:a Welten
28. February 2024
Focus: Image and Motion
With the research question “To what extent can multivision dream simulations create a deeper connection between outsiders and survivors of sexualised war crimes?” this thesis explores how complex and often unimaginable experiences can be made more tangible. Developed during my second year in the MEDes – Master of European Design program at Universidade de Aveiro, under the supervision of Rui Costa and Nina Juric (Köln International School of Design), the project combines theoretical research with an interdisciplinary design approach.
At its core lies a multivision dream simulation telling the story of Miryam, a survivor from the Central African Republic. By bridging research on CRSV, dream representation in art history, psychological theories on trauma, and speculative design, the work seeks to foster empathy, awareness, and societal dialogue.
Bachelor Thesis of: Monique Holthuizen
Supervisors: Prof. Nina Juric (Image and Motion), Rui Costa (Information Representation and Project)