University of Texas at Austin

PROJECTS 2025

Octet

finalist project

Thuy-Nhu Phung, Demi Hu, Colin Nations

Octet is a speculative sensorial game blending interactive storytelling and tactile feedback to explore connection, control, and cooperation. Inspired by octopi’s decentralized intelligence, it challenges ideas of individuality and autonomy in a world marked by environmental harm, inequality, and isolation. Players engage physically and socially, reflecting on human behavior, non-human intelligence, and empathetic futures. A modified TENS unit provides sensory feedback, deepening the experience of feeling together. Combining speculative design, social critique, and participatory tech, Octet invites players to reimagine connection—with each other and the living systems we belong to.

Instructors 2025

Jiabao Li creates works addressing climate change, interspecies co-creation, humane technology, and perceptions. Her mediums include wearable, robot, AR/VR, projection, performance, software, installation. In Jiabao’s TED Talk, she uncovered how technology mediates the way we perceive reality. Jiabao is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. Her lab explores the intersection of art, design, technology, and biology. She graduated from Harvard GSD with a Master of Design in Technology with Distinction and thesis award. Jiabao is the recipient of numerous awards, including iF Design Award, AACYF 30 Under 30, and Falling Walls. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Ars Electronica, Today Art Museum Biennial, SIGGRAPH, Milan and Dubai Design Week, and more, and has been featured on publications such as Fast Company, Art Forum, Business Insider, and Bloomberg.