Interdisciplinary Research with the Strange Tools Research Lab
This Summer, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in the University of Cincinnati’s UHP Discover program. This undergraduate research program engages UHP students in full-time summer research with UC faculty mentors across various disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, education, business, music, arts, and other non-STEMM fields. As part of this program, I was matched with Kristopher Holland and the Strange Tools Research Lab, formerly part of the Digital Futures Research Initiative.
What are Strange Tools?
‘Strange Tools’ is a term coined by Alva Noë, referring to the intersection of philosophy, embodied cognitive science, and artistic inquiry. These interconnected disciplines form the basis for developing innovative solutions to complex problems facing humanity.
The Strange Tools Research Lab leverages this concept to foster innovation and create new tools for understanding and addressing these issues. Topics explored in this context include Embodied Experience, Virtual Environments, Human Evolution, Cognitive Science, Artistic & Aesthetic Inquiry, The Philosophy of Technology, The Learning Sciences, Reason, and Consciousness. With this profound breadth of work in mind, they were in need of a website to truly display their approach to solving complex issues in various fields.
My Role and Discoveries
As part of my role in the UHP Discover program, I began to create an archive of the Strange Tools Research Lab’s interdisciplinary projects on the web. However, our journey took a fascinating turn as we discovered the potential to transform the website into a Strange Tool itself, via an interactive web experience.
Further, the website was not only aimed to showcase their work but also to recruit interested students into the field of studying strange tools. By creatively solving problems through innovative and interdisciplinary ways, this team equips students and faculty alike with new tools from the arts and philosophy to apply to their disciplines. It emphasizes research/creative arts and scientific research/natural sciences to build an understanding of embodied cognitive scientific principles and art as an inquiry practice, and in my opinion is severely underrepresented at the university for how dang cool they are.
My task was to completely rebuild their existing website using the website builder Webflow, moving away from the more limited Cargo.site platform. Webflow allowed for greater customization, animation, and organization.
For my UHP Discover presentation, instead of using a slideshow, I demonstrated an unrelated demo site in Webflow to illustrate the platform’s capabilities and effectively communicate web design concepts to an audience unfamiliar with the field.
Building Relationships and Future Involvement
One of the most rewarding aspects of my experience was forming a close relationship with Kris and the rest of the Strange Tools Research Lab team. Their mentorship and collaboration have been invaluable to my growth as a researcher and designer. This experience has inspired me to become more involved with the lab and its initiatives. I plan to take Kris’s philosophy courses, including “Strange Tools: Artistic Inquiry & Embodied Cognitive Science,” which includes a trip to Amsterdam in the spring of 2025. This continued engagement will deepen my understanding of the interdisciplinary approaches we explored over the summer and allow me to contribute further to their innovative work.
I should mention that after the Discover program had officially ended, our work had not. Kris and I are still working on gathering photos, videos, and other content to populate the site. Below you can find a screen recording snippet of my UHP discover website presentation, and a live preview of the new website (still under construction!)
Stay strange!
