Lecturer - researcher
Ir. Anne Marleen Olthof is PhD-onderzoeker Human Enhancement for Health & Well-being aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam en de Universiteit Antwerpen. Haar onderzoek richt zich op hoe digitaal-fysieke producten het menselijk lichaam kunnen versterken om de kwaliteit van leven te verbeteren voor mensen met een progressieve of permanente handicap. Geïnspireerd door haar eigen ervaringen met ondersteunende technologie tijdens haar jeugd, studeerde zij Industrial Design Engineering aan de TU Delft en ontwikkelde een passie voor mens-machine interactie. Naast haar onderzoek doceert Anne Marleen Immersive Design XR aan de Hogeschool van Amsterdam, waar ze medeoprichter is van het XR-lab. Ze heeft meer dan tien jaar ervaring als designdocent en is gastdocent in Mixed Reality en eXtended Reality in Oostenrijk en België.
mobiel:06-21157113
e-mail: a.m.olthof@hva.nl
Publications
Anne Marleen Olthof, Jouke Verlinden, Somaya Ben Allouch
Attuned Design Practice: a design vocabulary for embodied knowing Proceedings Article
In: Chang, C. Y., Chen, C. H., Hsu, Y. (Ed.): IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan, pp. 1-11, 2026.
@inproceedings{nokey,
title = {Attuned Design Practice: a design vocabulary for embodied knowing},
author = {Anne Marleen Olthof and Jouke Verlinden and Somaya Ben Allouch},
editor = {C.Y. Chang and C.H. Chen and Y. Hsu},
url = {http://digitallifecentre.nl/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Publication-Attuned-Design-Practice_-a-design-vocabulary-for-embodied-knowing-1.pdf},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.947},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-03-17},
urldate = {2026-03-17},
booktitle = {IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan},
pages = {1-11},
abstract = {This poster introduces Attuned Design Practice (ADP), a concept that examines how design practice can be used to interpret and articulate alternative understandings of studying human-computer relationships, by prior it ising ‘embodied knowing’ as an alternative design vocabulary. We shortly introduce the current state of scientific research in general, explain the notion of ‘attunement’, and show an existing framework that has inspired us to start an eighteen-months field study of body-based inquiry in the domains of Design, Art and Technology. In our field study, we have explored developmental paths of scientific and artistic inquiry towards constructing embodied knowledge, and have employed per formative techniques to examine affective, temporal, and somatic qualities in human-computer relationships. As a follow-up to our field study, we propose an Open Rehearsal framework that integrates (1) the preparation of design tools and instruments, (2) the enactment of per formative techniques at the intersection of artistic-scientific inquiry, and (3) the development of notation methods that attract, respond, and release compositional or per formative activity. Through a dynamic interplay of human intentionality, algorithmic responsiveness, and material agency, we investigate how embodied knowledge can be produced and mediated through Attuned Design Practice. We conclude by outlining our future research to produce alternative ways of understanding the body in human-computer relationships.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
This poster introduces Attuned Design Practice (ADP), a concept that examines how design practice can be used to interpret and articulate alternative understandings of studying human-computer relationships, by prior it ising ‘embodied knowing’ as an alternative design vocabulary. We shortly introduce the current state of scientific research in general, explain the notion of ‘attunement’, and show an existing framework that has inspired us to start an eighteen-months field study of body-based inquiry in the domains of Design, Art and Technology. In our field study, we have explored developmental paths of scientific and artistic inquiry towards constructing embodied knowledge, and have employed per formative techniques to examine affective, temporal, and somatic qualities in human-computer relationships. As a follow-up to our field study, we propose an Open Rehearsal framework that integrates (1) the preparation of design tools and instruments, (2) the enactment of per formative techniques at the intersection of artistic-scientific inquiry, and (3) the development of notation methods that attract, respond, and release compositional or per formative activity. Through a dynamic interplay of human intentionality, algorithmic responsiveness, and material agency, we investigate how embodied knowledge can be produced and mediated through Attuned Design Practice. We conclude by outlining our future research to produce alternative ways of understanding the body in human-computer relationships.
Anne Marleen Olthof, Jouke Verlinden, Somaya Ben Allouch
DRS Design Research Society, 2023.
@conference{nokey,
title = {The body gets the notion, performative design practice for human computer integration to encourage innovation in the domains of health and well-being},
author = {Anne Marleen Olthof and Jouke Verlinden and Somaya Ben Allouch},
url = {http://digitallifecentre.nl/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Publication-The_body_gets_the_notion_performative_design_practice_for_human.pdf},
doi = {doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.667},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-10-04},
urldate = {2023-10-04},
publisher = {DRS Design Research Society},
abstract = {This PhD-project delivers a design methodology that studies how cyber-physical systems can integrate with the human body to improve the quality of life for people with progressive and permanent disabilities. In this project, the perspectives of the ‘deviant body’ (Murray, 2007) and the ‘disabled body’ (Goodley, 2017) are seen as bodies of knowledge that can question, collapse, or even eliminate traditional perspectives on what it means to be ‘human’ in hybrid realities. In recent debates on human-computer integration (HInt) (Farooq & Grudin, 2017; Mueller et al., 2020, 2021; Danry, V.et al., 2021; Semertzidis et al., 2022; Barbosa et al., 2023), possible scenarios for hybrid futures suggest that the body interacts with computing systems that can sense, interpret, and automatically act to body-based and contextual signals (Andres et al., 2023), thereby potentially altering human characteristics and abilities in a fundamental manner. These alterations, which can range from the physical to the spiritual (Dieffenbacher, 2022), have the potential to drift the ’lived body’ (Merleau-Ponty, 2002) leading to all sorts of discomfort in the phenomenology of organ and tissue (Bhatt and Kothari, 2022; Shildrick, 2022), as a result of what is not sensed or expressed in the cells of the human body (Shapiro, 2012). The web of asymmetrical relationships that emerges from incorporating ‘non-self matter’ in, on and with the human body is not seen as just contact zones with the human body but is seen as border crossings where bodies of knowledge inflect and disturb one another in what we can understand as high productive ways for learning (Shildrick, 1997, 2009; Shildrick & Söffner, 2017). This PhD-project studies the bodily aspects of 'becoming-in-the-world' (Shildrick, 2009) through performative design practices in human-computer integration, to understand how the 'dispositifs' (Deleuze, 1992; Marenko & Brassett, 2015), such as knowledge, techniques, practices, tools, and methods contribute to the potential alteration of human abilities and characteristics as a result of integrating with computing systems. Bodily integrated systems are explored through its (1) ‘matter’, by approaching embodiment as anatomy, physiology, skill, experience (Loke & Robertson, 2011), and through its (2) ‘mattering’ (Mitchell et al., 2019), by means of the unstable, complex and indeterminate psycho-physiological ‘repertoire of play’ (Easterling, 2012). The takeaway message is that to advance our understanding of human-computer integration, we must prioritize alternative and pluralistic approaches to develop a more expansive foundation for design practices that encourage innovation in the domains of health and well-being. Main Research Question How can a design methodology employ a bodily design perspective in human-computer integration, specifically in the application domain of health & well-being? Sub research questions RQ1: What does a bodily design perspective behold for human-computer integration? RQ2: How can performative play and cyber-physical artefacts be used to study the web of asymmetrical human-computer relationships in bodily integrated systems? RQ3: What design strategies and tactics does the design process of bodily integrated systems need? RQ4: What does a design methodology look like for interdisciplinary design teams that explore, design, and develop bodily integrated systems?},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}
This PhD-project delivers a design methodology that studies how cyber-physical systems can integrate with the human body to improve the quality of life for people with progressive and permanent disabilities. In this project, the perspectives of the ‘deviant body’ (Murray, 2007) and the ‘disabled body’ (Goodley, 2017) are seen as bodies of knowledge that can question, collapse, or even eliminate traditional perspectives on what it means to be ‘human’ in hybrid realities. In recent debates on human-computer integration (HInt) (Farooq & Grudin, 2017; Mueller et al., 2020, 2021; Danry, V.et al., 2021; Semertzidis et al., 2022; Barbosa et al., 2023), possible scenarios for hybrid futures suggest that the body interacts with computing systems that can sense, interpret, and automatically act to body-based and contextual signals (Andres et al., 2023), thereby potentially altering human characteristics and abilities in a fundamental manner. These alterations, which can range from the physical to the spiritual (Dieffenbacher, 2022), have the potential to drift the ’lived body’ (Merleau-Ponty, 2002) leading to all sorts of discomfort in the phenomenology of organ and tissue (Bhatt and Kothari, 2022; Shildrick, 2022), as a result of what is not sensed or expressed in the cells of the human body (Shapiro, 2012). The web of asymmetrical relationships that emerges from incorporating ‘non-self matter’ in, on and with the human body is not seen as just contact zones with the human body but is seen as border crossings where bodies of knowledge inflect and disturb one another in what we can understand as high productive ways for learning (Shildrick, 1997, 2009; Shildrick & Söffner, 2017). This PhD-project studies the bodily aspects of 'becoming-in-the-world' (Shildrick, 2009) through performative design practices in human-computer integration, to understand how the 'dispositifs' (Deleuze, 1992; Marenko & Brassett, 2015), such as knowledge, techniques, practices, tools, and methods contribute to the potential alteration of human abilities and characteristics as a result of integrating with computing systems. Bodily integrated systems are explored through its (1) ‘matter’, by approaching embodiment as anatomy, physiology, skill, experience (Loke & Robertson, 2011), and through its (2) ‘mattering’ (Mitchell et al., 2019), by means of the unstable, complex and indeterminate psycho-physiological ‘repertoire of play’ (Easterling, 2012). The takeaway message is that to advance our understanding of human-computer integration, we must prioritize alternative and pluralistic approaches to develop a more expansive foundation for design practices that encourage innovation in the domains of health and well-being. Main Research Question How can a design methodology employ a bodily design perspective in human-computer integration, specifically in the application domain of health & well-being? Sub research questions RQ1: What does a bodily design perspective behold for human-computer integration? RQ2: How can performative play and cyber-physical artefacts be used to study the web of asymmetrical human-computer relationships in bodily integrated systems? RQ3: What design strategies and tactics does the design process of bodily integrated systems need? RQ4: What does a design methodology look like for interdisciplinary design teams that explore, design, and develop bodily integrated systems?