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Making Exhibition as We Research Through Art: The Exhibition Operations Kit

Jul 2026

C&C 2026

Research Through Art is establishing artistic practice as a legitimate mode of inquiry, yet the operational work of exhibition-making remains under-articulated. While exhibitions are frequently used to present research-based artworks, they are often treated as outcomes rather than as structured research environments shaped by curatorial decisions. Building on the Research Through Art method, we combine first-person reflection and annotated portfolio to articulate a set of modular components that structure how such exhibitions are designed, staged, and encountered.

Inter:Lace -- An Antagonistic Wearable for Outsourcing Social Self-Regulation

Jul 2026

C&C 2026

As artificial intelligence systems increasingly mediate everyday communication—assisting users with emails, tone, and social interactions—we observe a pattern in which the cognitive labor of social self-regulation is externalized and outsourced. Inter:Lace is a speculative wearable art project that explores the consequences of outsourcing social judgment to a large-language model-based assistive system. Designed to be worn as a conspicuous-looking choker, Inter:Lace monitors the conversational context of the wearer and performs “behavioral intervention” through a tightening mechanism designed to prompt politeness, composure, and social compliance.

MistMaker and Large Language Model MistMaker (LLMMM): LLM Operated Mist Making

Apr 2026

CHI 2026

This paper introduces MistMaker, an open-source, programmable ultrasonic mist platform, and Large Language Model MistMaker (LLMMM), a system that connects LLMs to mist generation through an API-mediated, interpretive control pipeline. We contribute an open hardware infrastructure for programmable mist, a technical architecture for LLM-guided environmental interaction, and an interaction framing that extends multimodal AI beyond representational media toward material, experiential, and atmospheric modulation. This work expands HCI discussions on AI agency, ambient interaction, and environmental media in LLM-mediated systems.

Hardware Reincarnation: the Electronic Vape Synth and Other Upstream Salvaged Circuit

Mar 2026

Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction 2026

This full-day studio invites participants to explore Upstream Salvage as a design method—a mindset that transforms broken, discarded, or obsolete electronics into sites of creativity, experimentation, and care. Building on the “Vape Synth” project—a sound instrument created from recycled vape hardware—the session expands this approach into a collective workshop on re-use and unmaking.

From Roles to Realities: Participatory Speculative Art as a Tool for Gender and Reproductive Futures

Mar 2026

Princeton Journal of Interdiscplinary Studies

New Assisted Reproductive Technology (New ART) is a speculative reproductive clinic installation, where the artist and the curator transformed a traditional gallery space in NYC to examine how immersive design and participatory process engage audiences in reimagining gender roles. The study is guided by the research question: “How has participatory world-building in speculative art assisted in reimagining binary gender divisions?” Data collected through observational notes, visual documentation, and artifacts were analyzed using grounded theory methods, including open, axial, and selective coding.

Body and Code: A Distributed Cognition Exploration Into Dance and Computing Learning

Oct 2024

Creative and Cognition 2024

In this paper, we describe our analysis of a dance and computing learning environment through the lens of distributed cognition to examine how representations and processing of information across people and systems impacted the learning process.

shuang cai