Sibel Deren Guler is a maker/doer/artist who incorporates technology with everyday objects to create interactions that inform, interrupt, or create new perspectives of these daily tools - among other things. It's hard to say exactly- Deren studied physics in her undergraduate year and following received a grant from the Sprout Fund to create playground equipment that taught children how energy is created. This is a simplification of her concepts/what she does, but she incorporates "technological" devices such as sensors, motors, and lights to objects like a cutting board (so it can "scream") or using a simple motor/gear system to reflect a biological property. You can see her online portfolio here.
Her projects tend to take something as simple as a light switch and use that interaction to ask us: what happens with the switch? How do we turn a light on, and what is the mechanism that causes it? In her energy playground, children spin a wheel and the faster it goes, the brighter the light. Often, especially now, we take for granted the technology available to us and what we can do with it; Deren uses these mechanisms to nudge us a little and ask, how does it work? How can we change it?
