Kars Alfrink

@kars

Designer turned design researcher. Postdoc at TU Delft. Exploring contestable AI. www.contestable.ai

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Kars Alfrink@kars· 27d

I recently joined a panel at Pakhuis de Zwijger on resident involvement in decisions about AI in the city, the closing event of Human Values for Smarter Cities, where I was lead researcher for TU Delft.

A seated audience in a row of chairs watches attentively in a bright industrial venue, some listening with hands on chins.

Three people on a stage at high tables with microphones. In the middle Munish Ramlal gestures while speaking, on the right Kars Alfrink in a black t-shirt listens with a smile, on the left moderator Natasja van den Berg. Screens behind them read "Continue plek voor bewonersbetrokkenheid".

On a stage lit in pink, Tessa Steenkamp hands the first copy of the handbook "Bewoners-in-the-loop" to Ger Baron. Martijn de Waal and Mike de Kreek look on, with moderator Natasja van den Berg on the left holding a microphone.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jun 9

Amsterdam wanted a camera-equipped "scan bike" to spot things like illegally placed construction waste containers in public space. Unusually, the procurement tender required a year-long civic participation process, with a citizen panel shaping how the object-recognition tech would work.

The "scan bike" in public space. The signage and QR code, meant to make its function legible to passers-by, came out of the participatory design work. Photo: Michiel Landeweerd.

Kars Alfrink@kars· May 4

Talked AI infrastructure, speculation, and real utopias with students at Leiden today.

Opening slide of the lecture, titled "Designing AI Otherwise: Infrastructures and Futures," with details listing AI in Society, Leiden University, 4 May 2026, and presenter Kars Alfrink (Delft University of Technology). The background is a glitchy, pixelated artwork in blues and reds by Elise Racine for Better Images of AI.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Apr 3

What better place to explore regenerative community computing than at Creative Coding Utrecht, home of artist Sunjoo Lee's electric garden?

Illustrated visual map by Lena Trotereau titled "Soil to Servers: CCU Workshop," capturing themes from the workshop in hand-drawn style. A large pink crystal-like structure labeled "Electric Garden" dominates the upper left. Surrounding it are handwritten concepts including "low-tech infrastructure," "repurposing e-waste," "scarcity prompts creativity," "moving from extractive mindset," "collective action," "living in rhythm with nature," and "how to make all regenerative?" At the top, four circular icons outline the workshop flow: mud in a jar, create circuit, reflect and discuss, and present future vision. Figures throughout the drawing touch grass, use laptops, tend to plants, and gather in groups. The bottom right shows people holding a bowl of soil.

Sunjoo Lee presenting at the Soil to Servers workshop in a cozy, wood-paneled room. She stands in a purple sweater beside a large screen displaying a diagram labeled "Inside each cell," which shows the inner workings of a microbial fuel cell with labeled components including the anode, cathode, plant, and electrical wires. An easel with a sketch is visible to her left.

Close-up of a hands-on demonstration at the workshop. On a wooden table, glass jars filled with mud and soil serve as microbial fuel cells, connected by wires to a breadboard circuit and a small clock face. A red multimeter sits nearby. Sunjoo Lee's hand reaches in to adjust a component while participants look on.

Sunjoo Lee leaning over a table arranged with multiple glass jars containing soil and organic matter, each fitted with wires as part of a microbial fuel cell setup. A digital multimeter on the left displays a reading. Another workshop facilitator stands beside her. In the background, a poster with a QR code and text is partially visible.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Mar 25

It is always a pleasure to bring a design research perspective to a new context. Today, I presented my talk, "Designing AI for Autonomy as a Political Project," at the Dutch Data Protection Authority's AI & Algorithm Seminar.

Title slide reading "Designing AI for Autonomy as a Political Project" by Kars Alfrink, TU Delft. Presented at the AI & Algorithm Seminar 2026, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, 25 March, ECC Leiden. The URL contestable.ai appears at the bottom. Black bold text on a white background.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Mar 23

Started the week with the distinct pleasure of delivering a guest lecture on ethical issues in AI for our second-year bachelor students in Aerospace Engineering.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Mar 17

We (Sunjoo, Fieke, Lena, and I) will conduct a second iteration of our workshop on mud batteries and computing infrastructure titled "Soil to Servers" at Creative Coding Utrecht during the Week of the Circular Economy next week. creativecodingutrecht.nl/en/calendar/...

A breadboard circuit with colorful wires and alligator clips sits on soil beside a potted plant, part of a microbial fuel cell workshop where participants generate electricity from mud to power small electronic devices.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jan 15

Brief report of the "From Mud to Models" workshop on regenerative AI futures organized by Fieke Jansen, Sunjoo Lee, Lena Trotereau, and me at TH/NGS 2025.

Workshop participants gathered around a wooden table covered with glass jars filled with dark, muddy material, wires, and electronic components. Several people lean in to examine and connect microbial fuel cells, while others observe and smile. A digital multimeter and various electrodes are visible. A screen in the background shows a presentation, and workshop materials are scattered across the rustic tabletop.

Close-up of a microbial fuel cell: a glass jar filled with layered dark mud and water, topped with a black clock mechanism with red clock hands. Yellow and red wires connect the jar to a digital multimeter, which displays '0.00'. Additional clock mechanisms and electronic components are visible in the background on a wooden workshop table.

A participant with arm tattoos draws with a blue marker on a large paper template during the scenario-building phase. The paper features hand-drawn sketches, including a wave/bird illustration and handwritten notes about ‘unpredictable energy cadence’ and ‘EU Law of Bacteria.’ Surrounding the workspace are glass jars with mud batteries, a multimeter, and colored markers.

Illustrated visual summary titled 'From Mud to Models' by Lena Trotereau for ThingsCon 2025. The colorful drawing in pink, blue, and white shows workshop concepts: people collaborating around an 'Electric Garden' table with mud batteries, an optimization stopwatch, measurement tools, a harvest station with plants, and a 'Living Energy' jar with bacteria. A circular workflow illustrates four steps of the process, featuring the quote ‘Together we know more’ and themes such as teamwork, utilizing local soil, and adhering to nature's rhythm.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Dec 9

As always, it was a welcome morale boost to demo and march with, in this case, over 7000 fellow students, teachers, and researchers. #woinactie

Kars Alfrink@kars· Dec 9

On strike today, and off to Amsterdam in a bit to join my colleagues at the demo. Stop the cuts to higher education.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Nov 21

Had a great time presenting on designing AI work tools that preserve worker autonomy at the Enterprise UX conference today. My slides are available on my website, as usual. contestable.ai/wp-content/u...

Kars Alfrink@kars· Sep 19

I had a great time presenting at the Politics of AI symposium at Goldsmiths. Many thanks to Dan McQuillan, Fieke Jansen, Jo Lindsay Walton, and Pat Brody for inviting me and putting together such a thought-provoking program.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jun 19

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jun 12

Key takeaway slide, by way of a TLDR.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jun 12

Had a wonderful time sharing my ideas on how to approach learning in a world that includes GenAI machines, from a design perspective, at LXDCON’25. A big thank you to Niels Floor and Shapers for the invitation. You can find my slides on my website here: contestable.ai/presentations/

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jun 10

Bonus: the slide I used to illustrate my brief talk during the salon.

A slide with four images: (1) the Humane AI Pin, (2) a figure from the book Thoughtful Interaction Design, (3) a Safecast Radnote sensor, (4) Tech Workers Coalition marching in San Francisco.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jun 10

As always, it was a great pleasure to present my contribution to the RIOT 2025 publication, the essay "Embodied AI and Collective Power: Designing Democratic Generative Things" at the ThingsCon Salon last Friday.

Kars Alfrink presenting at the ThingsCon Salon on June 6, 2025, in Rotterdam.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Apr 24

Finished the march by making lots of noise in the center of Delft. Downright therapeutic. Stop the cuts, people. Just stop all of them. #woinactie

Kars Alfrink@kars· Apr 24

TU Delft now marching into the city center. Stop the cuts. #woinactie

Kars Alfrink@kars· Apr 24

Proper turnout at TU Delft to strike against the cuts. #woinactie

Kars Alfrink@kars· Apr 24

Hey ho, off to strike we go. Today it’s our turn at TU Delft to oppose the cuts to higher education. Hope to see many of my colleagues there. #woinactie

Kars Alfrink@kars· Apr 10

The future of work? I think I know where that’s heading. (My meme craft is at dad joke levels. Apologies.)

A still from the Flintstones cartoon. Fred Flintstone operates a dinosaur in a quarry as if it’s heavy machinery. “PMC” is placed next to Fred Flintstone. The dinosaur is labeled “LLM”. At the bottom it says “the future of work”.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Apr 2

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of delivering a half-day lecture on designing responsible AI for TU Delft Industrial Design Engineering master students.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Mar 5

Is that who I think it is? :troll:

Portrait of horror fiction writer, Howard P. Lovecraft, 1915.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Feb 20

Had a lovely time presenting my work on contestable AI at data ethics consultancy The Green Land yesterday. The slides, as usual, are up on my website. It includes a final section with new material I am developing on design and the politics of AI infrastructure. contestable.ai/presentations/

A slide from a presentation with the text "Contestability in the age of a global AI arms race—"

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jan 16

Ideas I am playing around with for a new project. Realist political philosophy, imagination, design, and AI infrastructure. This might get messy.

Covers of four books: Philosophy and Real Politics (Geuss), Red Planets (Bould & Mieville), The Stack (Bratton), and It's Time to Imagine Harder (Bleecker).

Kars Alfrink@kars· Jan 16

The kind of book that seems precision engineered for me to click “buy” on.

The cover of the book Red Planets, edited by Mark Bould and China Mieville.

Kars Alfrink@kars· Dec 3

Kars Alfrink@kars· Oct 8

Three books that together nicely capture what Sara Colombo and I are teaching in our TU Delft industrial design engineering master elective, "Designing Responsible AI."

Three books: The Manual of Design Fiction (Bleecker et al., 2022), Value Sensitive Design (Friedman & Hendry, 2019), and Responsible Artificial Intelligence (Dignum, 2019).

Kars Alfrink@kars· Sep 6

Had a blast running my contestability workshop at the ThingsCon Salon yesterday. Lovely participants, stimulating discussions, and interesting new design ideas. All good stuff.