p1ge0n
Aeolab & Family
Artists-in-Residence
June 6-18th 2023
Elise Co and Nikita Pashenkov are the co-founders of Aeolab, a design and technology studio in Los Angeles building dynamic interfaces, generative behaviors and advanced, high-fidelity functional prototypes of alternate/future devices and systems. They have helped design and implement data visualizations, hand-powered electronic prototypes, robotic appliances, and multi-screen kinetic installations for clients such as Honda, BMW, Sony, Samsung, Google and Disney.
Aeolab also conducts internal research and development on applications of emerging technology to day-to-day life. Thought experiments turned into devices, interactions that embody questions about how we relate to each other and ourselves via technology, these design objects include an AI-powered clock and low-power communication device for kids.
In their work titled p1ge0n, a miniature electronic device prototype that communicates via very short and relatively slow messages typically intended for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications like smart meters of the municipal infrastructure. By leveraging license-free radio frequencies, p1ge0n does not rely on traditional cellular connectivity provided by major telecom corporations. Instead, the communication device uses IoT wireless infrastructure created entirely by a distributed network of individual users .
What happens when you apply functional technology prototyping to the ideas that kids 12 and under have - the kinds of algorithms and processes they enact, how they conceive of technology, and what they think it looks like? We’d like to reimagine the now ubiquitous social-media-centric smartphone as an extremely simplified low-bandwidth communication and expression device for elementary to middle school-aged kids.
During their residency, Aeolab (Elise Co and Nikita Pashenkov), along with family and friends, turned Automata’s space into an extended laboratory of experimentation, research, and play. On June 17, 2023, they hosted a public p1ge0n Message Lab + Open House. Visitors could create and code their own hieroglyphic images to add to the p1ge0n.
Elise Co is co-founder of Aeolab, a design and technology studio in Los Angeles building dynamic interfaces, generative behaviors and advanced, high-fidelity functional prototypes of alternate/future devices and systems. Co has helped design and implement data visualizations, hand-powered electronic prototypes, robotic appliances, and multi-screen kinetic installations for clients such as Honda, BMW, Sony, Samsung, Google and Disney.
She is a Professor in Interaction Design and Graduate Media Design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where her teaching is frequently around emerging technologies and strategic prototyping. She has also taught at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Basel, Switzerland; the University of Minnesota; SCI-Arc; and USC. She has recently been developing and teaching grant-funded studios on a range of topics including creative technology, materiality, and accessibility. Her studio practice explores physical and digital materiality, currently facilitated by knitting machines, code, and lots of repeating and recursive patterns.
Nikita Pashenkov grew up in the former Soviet Union, immigrated to the USA and currently lives in Los Angeles. He finished graduate studies at MIT as a member of Aesthetics & Computation Group at the Media Laboratory. In 2005 Nikita co-founded Aeolab, a design and technology firm in LA working on projects that often involve programming and electronics prototyping.
Nikita currently teaches computation and technology courses for designers at ArtCenter College of Design. He has also taught courses on artificial intelligence, physical computing and media/tech as part of Woodbury University’s Applied Computer Science program, Sci-Arc and USC.
He is currently creating a low-power, low-bandwidth lightweight communication device which will form the basis of a co-design process with kids.