Going Online

spring 2022

As the devices that connect us to the web shrink in size, the act of clicking, scrolling, typing and liking have become subconscious activities, like breathing or blinking. We spend minutes, if not hours, scrolling, perplexed and hypnotised, yet the effort is just a slight movement of our thumb.

The ease of use of our devices has allowed us to share and spread ‘heat of the moment’ statements as well as false news. Our passive consumption and instant gratification have proliferated a certain type of content that is emotional, easy to digest, and eye-catching.

With an exaggerated interface, Andrea Horváthová brings physical effort into the process of going online to make users think about their consumption and creation of content.

This installation was one of Andrea’s graduation projects from the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Drift Engine

spring 2022

At its inception, the World Wide Web was viewed as a tool to democratise access to a seemingly infinite pool of information. A new frontier for exploration and knowledge. Over time, personalisation algorithms were introduced to help the user not only to sort through information but mostly to streamline advertising online. As a result, algorithms create a barrier between the user and much of the information out there by deciding what we do and do not see. Most of our online activity today happens on “closed garden” platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that use personalisation algorithms. Where is then the wonder, the exploration? The web is larger than any metropolis, but browsing it today feels like walking down a narrow circular hallway. Search engines can be seen as the main entrance to the web, however, in their current form, they do not allow for the serendipity that comes from searching in the physical world.


The Drift Engine, like the Psychogeographist’s Dérive, aims to “overcome the processes of ‘banalisation’ by which the everyday experience of our surroundings becomes one of drab monotony”. The Drift Engine tries to return the wandering, the exploration and serendipity into browsing. It is meant to spark wandering and accidental encounters to aid the creation of new routes to access information.

This project was one of Andrea’s graduation projects from the Design Academy Eindhoven.