Light as an Information Source
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Platform Project 6
February - June 2026
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Glass x Perception
Seeing Through the Interface Glass: every message we send, every picture we swipe, every interaction we have with technology, passes through this material. AR lenses and optical computing are everyday objects. Glass is no longer just a window, it’s the backbone of connection between human and machine, yet we rarely understand it. Nearly 99% of global data travels through it. Beneath our oceans, millions of kilometres of fibre-optic cables pulse with light, transmitting the signals that carry our communication. Tech giants like Apple and Meta are investing billions in these glass-based interfaces.
Understanding glass means understanding the invisible systems that sustain our world. As datacenters heat oceans, as touchscreens mediate intimacy, and as vision becomes augmented, we must ask: what does transparency really mean? ​
​GLASS × PERCEPTION explores this hidden world of light and information. How signal becomes sensation, and how infrastructure becomes interface. It’s a research-driven project that moves between material science, engineering, design, and perception. We invite you to research, document, and question the properties and potential of glass; not only as a material, but as a mediator of thought and touch. We aim to uncover how glass, as both substance and system, mediates the way we see, sense, and connect. From photonic transmission and electro-optical conversion to UX/UI of emerging interactions, we explore the continuum from physics to perception. This project is not about creating another screen, it’s about uncovering the invisible systems that light up behind it.
Research Directions
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• Optical Infrastructures 99% of internet data travels as pulses of light through glass. Can we visualise this invisible flow? How can we turn network behaviour: signal amplification, latency, bandwidth loss; into sensory or spatial experiences?
• The Science of Transparency Glass defies definition: it behaves like a liquid, yet stands as a solid. What happens at the atomic level when sand becomes transparent? Could future glass be bio-based, programmable, or self repairing? How does the physics of optics merge with the aesthetics of vision?
• Living Interfaces Smart glass that darkens in sunlight, photonic chips that compute with light, and AR lenses that merge vision and data. Can we design glass that breathes, vibrates, or glows with environmental energy? What could happen when the interface starts to feel back?
• Perception & Illusion Glass symbolises clarity, yet hides complexity. We see through it, but never into it. How do reflection, distortion, and opacity shape human understanding? What needs to be visible and what must remain unseen?
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Research Through Experimentation
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This project will operate as a living lab for interdisciplinary research. You will prototype, simulate, and test ideas through hands-on exploration with optics, sensors, light systems, and responsive materials. The process merges engineering precision with artistic speculation: bridging design, computation, and sensory experience.
Workshops and collaborative labs will connect domains: material research, data visualisation, speculative design, photonics, and human-computer interaction. Every experiment will form a micro-study in how glass mediates relationships between humans, technology, and light. We welcome students and researchers across disciplines: mechanical engineers, optical physicists, material scientists, UX/UI designers, HCI researchers, artists, architects, data scientists, cognitive scientists, and theorists. Whether you code, build, fabricate, or imagine; you are part of this lens. This project thrives on curiosity and collaboration. The semester culminates in a research exhibition and publication, showcasing experiments, prototypes, and reflections. Together, these outcomes will challenge our understanding of transparency and information in a world built on glass.
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Closing Thought
Glass once separated the observer from the observed. Today, it connects, computes, and communicates. Beneath its clarity lies a black box of light, data, and intention. By researching glass as both material and metaphor, we may discover new ways to see: not only through the world, but into the systems that shape it.
Join us in bending light, breaking illusions, and re-perceiving the invisible.