How to Build Small-scale Autonomous Power Systems
This workshop introduces students to designing and building small-scale, autonomous renewable energy systems and devices that run on them. It focuses on hands-on skills such as constructing solar power installations, creating solar-powered heating appliances, and modifying commercial products to operate on low-voltage solar electricity. A key principle is avoiding batteries, which are often the least sustainable part of energy systems, by designing appliances and power setups that can function directly with variable solar input.

Beyond technical skills, the workshop promotes a bottom-up approach to renewable energy design. Instead of scaling renewable systems to support energy-intensive, fossil-fuel-based lifestyles, students learn to align energy demand with locally available and intermittent power sources. This mindset emphasizes designing within limits and engages with broader issues such as climate change, energy resilience and security, consumerism, e-waste, the right to repair, and circular, sustainable design practices.

Kris De Decker is the author of Low-tech Magazine, which challenges the idea that every problem requires a high-tech solution. Since 2018, the magazine runs on a solar-powered server and has been in print since 2019. He has published research on energy demand at Lancaster University and co-founded Human Power Plant, exploring human energy use. Since 2016, he has collaborated on designing objects inspired by the past to guide technology toward more sustainable directions.

Collective Bookmaking Through Dialogue, Connection, and Risograph Printing

Bound Together is an interactive, dialog-based workshop that uses conversation and Risograph bookmaking as tools for connection, reflection, and collective meaning-making. Created in response to transactional modes of communication, it invites participants to slow down, listen deeply, and engage one another as whole people rather than roles or titles. Through paired dialogue and hands-on making, the workshop emphasizes presence, care, and shared experience.

Grounded in psychologist Arthur Aron’s research on intimacy and informed by dialogical art practices and thinkers such as David Bohm and James Baldwin, the workshop combines structured questions with collage, Risograph printing, and binding. Participants print pages reflecting their conversations and assemble them into a collaborative book. Rather than prioritizing polish or productivity, Bound Together values experimentation, attentive listening, and the radical act of making together.

Elaine Lopez is a Cuban American designer, researcher, and educator whose work uses print, self-publishing, and participatory workshops to explore cultural identity, memory, diaspora, and U.S.–Cuba relations. Centered on collaboration and pedagogy, she frames publishing as a political, relational act. She is Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Parsons and runs LoPress Press, collaborating with institutions and exhibiting, lecturing, and leading workshops internationally.

An AI + Arduino Creative Technology Experience for Artists

In this 4-day workshop, artists collaborate with AI and Arduino to craft reactive plants that glow, move, and sing — forming a shared Garden of Light, Movement & Sound.​ This hands-on workshop invites participants to explore creative human–machine collaboration through the design and construction of a living plant prototype.

Working in small groups, participants will create a sculptural plant that responds to human presence using light, sound, and movement. Each plant will be built on a shared physical framework and will include 3D-printed structural components, ensuring coherence while leaving room for creative expression.​ The workshop is designed for beginners—no prior experience in programming or electronics is required.

Participants will learn how AI can be used as a creative partner through “vibe coding,” helping to shape each plant’s personality, behavior, color palette, and narrative. By the end of the session, all creations come together to form a collective interactive garden, bringing to life the concept of human–machine co-creation. Participants will leave with a practical understanding of AI-assisted creativity, basic interactive design principles, and a tangible experience of collaborative making.

Stephanie Rodriguez is a leader and educator working at the intersection of technology and human experience. With a background in mechatronics engineering and a master’s degree in intelligent interactive systems, her work centers on human-centered and ethical AI. She has led and contributed to projects in robotics and artificial intelligence across multiple organizations, with experience in social robotics, generative AI, computer vision, data science, and emotion-inspired robotic systems.

Ricardo Lynch is a Digital Interaction Designer and engineer passionate about technology, politics, and education. Experienced in manufacturing, electronics, and digital products with societal value, currently focused on product design and development at Futurity Systems. Former Deputy Director at Exploratec UDD, bridging technology with design and engineering students, consulting on projects. Professor for interaction, robotics, and prototyping workshops at UDD and OAS Dlab Global.

Building Human-Centered AI Products

This intensive four-day workshop introduces participants to the ASPIC Framework, a practical, human-centered methodology for building AI products that truly matter. Rather than starting with technology, this workshop teaches participants to begin with empathy: identifying real user pain, designing trustworthy AI interactions, and building sustainable AI businesses. The framework stands for: Attract, Segment, Personalize, Interact, and Convert. Participants will walk away with a working prototype of an AI product, validated by real users, and a clear go-to-market strategy.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: Discover real user pain through structured interviews, Define AI value aligned with measurable business outcomes, Design trustworthy AI interfaces using the Five Moments of AI, Develop working AI MVP using no-code/low-code tools, Test through feedback loops and user validation, Grow using the Bullseye Framework for focused strategy, Monetize with pricing models designed for AI products, Build Responsibly with ethics, privacy, and trust as foundations.

Vibe coding is the art of building AI products with personality and intention. It moves beyond mechanical automation to create AI systems that feel intelligent, responsive, and genuinely helpful. Through careful design of prompts, interfaces, and feedback loops, participants learn to craft AI products that don’t just function,they resonate. Key vibe coding techniques include: Prompt craftsmanship, Personality design, Micro-interactions, Trust signals, and Feedback systems.

Germán León is a futurist, AI and UX expert, entrepreneur, and advisor. He is the founder and CEO of Helvetica Digital and founder of Gestoos, a computer vision startup acquired by Preact. With a master’s degree in Interaction Design from Umeå University and training in AI Design at MIT, he has led innovation at Oblong Europe and Vodafone Group. He currently directs master’s programs in AI and UX at Elisava. In this practical workshop, his goal is to provide students with clear and applicable tools to develop and bring their own projects to fruition.

Regina Dos Santos is a UX/UI designer and front-end developer focused on user-centered digital products. Her hybrid profile blends design, technology, and strategy, linking concept to execution. She covers full UX/UI processes—research, flows, IA, prototyping, interface design, and testing—guided by clarity, usability, and visual consistency. As a front-end developer, she works in the Google Cloud ecosystem, using Firebase, cloud services, and APIs to build scalable, production-ready apps. She collaborates with multidisciplinary teams, bridging design and technology with a product-driven, experimental mindset. In the workshop, Regina presents a practical approach combining UX, UI, code, and AI.

Unbound

From July to October 2025, the Stedelijk Museum honored Dutch design icon Karel Martens with a comprehensive retrospective curated by Thomas Castro. Karel and Thomas will “flip-through” 200 pages of Martens’ works and invite the audience to participate in a lively conversation of anecdotes, insights, and unique examples of works, systems and sketches from his personal archive. From stamps and books to monoprints, architectural signage, and digital experiments, this is a unique opportunity to dive deep into the work of one of the most influential voices in graphic design.

Karel Martens (1939) is a Dutch graphic designer and educator. He studied at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design, graduating in 1961. From 1977 to 2020, he taught internationally at ArtEZ, the Jan van Eyck Academie, and Yale University, and co-founded the Werkplaats Typografie in 1998. Martens designed the award-winning OASE magazine from 1990 to 2021. His work is held in collections including SFMOMA and The Art Institute of Chicago, and has been shown in solo exhibitions at P! (New York), Kunstverein München, 019 (Ghent), and Platform-L (Seoul). He received the BNO Piet Zwart Prize in 2023.

Alongside commissioned work, Martens has consistently developed an autonomous practice, most notably through his monoprints, begun in the 1960s. Since the 1990s he has used archival cards from the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, printing found objects onto them to create compositions that integrate printed imagery with existing archival text. Known for an experimental approach to typography, grids, color, and printing, his work moves fluidly between books, stamps, monoprints, signage, and digital systems.

Thomas Castro (1967) is a graphic designer, educator, and curator, and since 2019 Curator of Graphic Design at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. There he initiated the Post/No/Bills public poster circuit, curated the exhibition Karel Martens: Unbound, and edited the collection book Stedelijk Museum Posters by Color. Previously, he co-founded the multidisciplinary studio LUST and LUSTlab in 1996, which was awarded the BNO Piet Zwart Award in 2017 for their two-decade oeuvre. His practice connects making, education, and curating, with a focus on expanding the graphic design canon.

prompt:UX 2026 is an international conference focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and user experience design. Over two days, professionals from design, product and technology come together to explore how AI is transforming the way we design, research and build digital products. The event combines talks, hands-on workshops and discussion spaces oriented towards real-world application in professional projects.

Luciano Lykkebo is a designer and event organiser specialising in user experience and digital innovation. He is the founder and host of prompt:UX, an international conference that brings together leading voices in design, research and technology to explore the impact of artificial intelligence on digital product design.

prompt:UX is a platform dedicated to fostering conversation and knowledge around designing experiences with artificial intelligence. Through conferences and workshops, it connects professionals working in UX, product and technology, encouraging the exchange of perspectives, hands-on experimentation and a critical understanding of how AI influences human experience.