Accepted Studios - TEI 2026
We are excited to announce the accepted studios for TEI 2026! All studios will take place on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
Studios are a format unique to the TEI conference, providing researchers the opportunity to deeply engage with the materials, methods, and processes used in their research. These hands-on experiences introduce participants to new technologies, materials, prototypes, and design approaches.
deLIGHTful Interactions: Designing Sustainable & Experimental Luminaires
Organizers: Fiona Bell, Adrien Segal, Tom Igoe
Time: 9am-5pm
Calling all lamp lovers! We invite you to participate in a day of deLIGHTful Interactions! This in-person studio aims to bring together participants with different expertise and interests centered around lighting design, material production, sculpture, and electronics. Through hands-on activities, we will explore the magic of light-material interactions by designing and fabricating luminaires (also known as lighting fixtures). Experiments will center around the use of sustainable materials (e.g., recycled, reused, bio-based, waste-based, and/or foraged materials) and the creation of experimental luminaire forms and structures. Participants will walk away with actionable knowledge of sustainable and experimental luminaire design and have the opportunity to showcase their luminaires in the TEI Art & Performance Exhibition.
Rapid Prototyping Shape-Morphing Fabrics through Parametric Design
Organizers: Hye Jun Youn, Serena Xin Wei Sara, Yue Yang, Hiroshi Ishii
Time: 9am-1pm
This hands-on studio explores shape-morphing fabrics as a medium for tangible interaction. Participants will learn how geometry, material properties, and fabrication parameters interact to produce programmable behaviors—structures that bend, twist, or curl in response to applied tension and design intent. Using parametric modeling tools (Rhino and Grasshopper) alongside accessible 3D printing techniques, participants will design and fabricate morphing textiles and mesh structures. The session guides participants through each stage of the process—from computational design to physical realization—culminating in a collective showcase of shape-changing prototypes.
Hardware Reincarnation: The Electronic Vape Synth and Other Upstream Salvaged Circuits
Organizers: Kari Love, David Rios, shuang cai, Sang Leigh
Time: 9am-5pm
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. Participants disassemble vapes and other salvaged devices to build synthesizers and quick, tangible prototypes that reveal new interaction logics.
Attention-Preserving Tangible Interfaces: Using Physicality and Materiality to Preserve Attention in the Home
Organizers: Anup Sathya, Ken Nakagaki
Time: 9am-4pm
How might tangible interfaces preserve our attention in a world where smart home devices increasingly compete for it? As homes fill with devices demanding immediate engagement, our attention has become a contested resource. While ambient interfaces and calm technology address attention by operating peripherally in the background, we propose that primary interfaces can employ "least sensing" or "sensory reduction" as attention-preserving mechanisms. Just as physical privacy-preserving mechanisms (camera covers, microphone switches) give users trustworthy, tangible control over their privacy, might physical attention-preserving mechanisms give users control over their attention? What would such mechanisms look like? How might tangible interfaces be designed to preserve attention through sensory reduction - using fewer sensory channels or less sensory information - rather than by operating in the periphery? Join us for a full-day hands-on studio exploring attention-preserving tangible interfaces.
From Text to Tangible: Build Your Own AI Companion
Organizers: Karina Bhattacharya
Time: 9am-5pm
Drawing from our industrial design backgrounds, Karina Bhattacharya and Liz Kelly will host a hands-on studio at TEI 2026, where we will design and build appearance prototypes of AI companions using 3D-printed parts and craft materials. Intro to advanced-level designers/participants will explore a variety of materials, form developments, and tangible interfaces to embody an AI companion for a user persona. This in-person TEI studio will be at Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry on Sunday, March 8, 2026.
Tangible Intangibles: Exploring Embodied Emotion in Mixed Reality for Art Therapy
Organizers: Mahsa Nasri, Mahnoosh Jahanian, Wei Wu, Binyan Xu, Casper Harteveld
Time: 9am-4pm
Tangible Intangibles is a full-day, hands-on workshop exploring how mixed reality and biosignals can materialize invisible emotional states through embodied making. Participants engage in traditional art therapy, including clay sculpting and 2D drawing, grounded in body-scan meditation. They then experience an MR prototype that maps breath, heart-rate variability, and eye movement to real-time visual feedback, generating persistent 3D "emotional artifacts." Through comparative reflection and rapid co-design, participants develop new vocabulary and design principles for trauma-informed, embodied interfaces. No prior technical expertise required. All materials and devices provided. Fully in-person at TEI 2026, Chicago.
Interactive Loofah: Exploring the Design Process of Material-Driven Interactions
Organizers: Yingting Gao, Jing Xie, Fiona Bell, Alex Cabral, Josiah Hester, HyunJoo Oh
Time: 9am-5pm
Natural, renewable, and biodegradable materials are gaining attention in tangible and embodied interaction for their potential to create sustainable and sensory-rich experiences. Loofah—a fibrous, plant-based material—features porosity, absorbency, and compressibility that enable physical transformations such as swelling, tactile interactions through dryness/wetness, visual interactions through absorption of additives. This studio invites participants from diverse disciplines to explore loofah through the lens of Material-Driven Design (MDD). Through hands-on experimentation, participants will learn from the loofah's structure and integrate bio-based additives (e.g., thermo-sensitive, conductive agents) to discover new forms of interaction. Emphasizing a "thinking through making" approach, the studio encourages reflection on material agency, challenges of using natural matter in HCI, and future directions for sustainable design. Collective outcomes will be shared as open-source "material recipe cards" for continued exploration across the design and technical communities.
Perception VR Studio: Tangible and Soft Interfaces for Embodied Cognition
Subtitle: Exploring Material Cognition through Air, Heat, Softness, and Scent in VR Environments
Organizers: Wei Wu, Binyan Xu, Mahsa Nasri, Casper Harteveld
Time: 9am-4pm
Perception VR Studio is a full-day studio exploring how tangible and soft interfaces can act as cognitive companions in virtual environments. Rather than optimizing usability or task performance, the studio investigates perception itself as a material for reflection, attention, and embodied thinking. Participants will design and test multisensory VR interactions integrating airflow, heat, softness, and scent within a lightweight escape-room framework. These sensory interventions are not intended to enhance efficiency, but to reveal how bodily sensations modulate cognition, emotion, and reflective awareness. By treating VR as an embodied instrument rather than a visual display, the studio invites participants to experiment with perceptual scaffolding—such as cooling airflow for cognitive grounding, warmth for affective regulation, or scent for memory and atmosphere. Through guided sensing exercises, hands-on making, and collaborative prototyping, participants will develop multisensory "perception probes" that translate theories of embodied cognition and affective learning into material practice.
Living Textiles and Microbiomes as Tangible Data Interfaces
Organizers: Katia Zolotovsky, Jil Berenblum, Avantika Velho, Ganit Goldstein
Time: 10am-5pm
Join us to learn and experience the world of interactive textiles. How can textiles be responsive to their environment? Can textiles be tangible data interfaces, communicating information about pollution, biomarkers, and harmful chemicals through visible and tangible changes like odorants and colors? Can textiles be living and hosting skin biomes or even new probiotic communities of engineered microbes? This studio introduces Living Textiles as an emerging frontier in Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, where microbiomes become active components of interactive systems. Participants will explore how microbial life can function as an interactive wearable interface for health and environmental sensing.
Registration
To attend a studio, you must register for it through the conference registration system. Most studios have limited capacity, so early registration is recommended. Studio fees range from $100-$120 and cover materials and venue costs.
For more information about studios at TEI 2026, please visit the Studios Call for Participation page.