EXHIBITION
Overlays
The master students’ exhibition: I built the 3D-printed CD-player housing with an Arduino R4 and an NFC reader.
- Year
- 2026
- Duration
- 3 Months
- Discipline
- Exhibition
- Team
- CMSI Students
OVERLAYS is an exhibition showcasing Master’s projects from Communication, Sound, Media, and Interaction Design. A space where disciplines overlap, merge, and challenge the boundaries of contemporary design.
My Role
I worked across two flexible teams: the Portfolio Machine team and the Construction team. Roles shifted based on production needs, so I moved between design, fabrication, and on-site problem solving. This gave me a view of the exhibition as a system of objects, space, electronics, safety, and visitor flow, rather than only an individual display.
Challenge
For the Portfolio Machine, our goal was a Y2K/early-2000s vibe, so we developed a 3D-printed CD player housing that also had to function as a technical machine. The challenge was integrating real constraints: buttons, breadboards, NFC readers, motors, cabling, outlets, and PC connectivity into a compact, manufacturable form. In construction, we had to translate layout requests into safe, stable structures using limited materials, solving dimensions, load, and mounting so walls and screens stayed secure.
Results
The teams delivered a coherent exhibition atmosphere with working interactive infrastructure, including the portfolio machine that visitors could actually use. The construction solutions held up across the show, supporting displays, screens, and installations without compromising safety. The opening days were crowded, and it was rewarding to watch people explore, interact, and talk about the work especially seeing months of coordination and hands-on building materialize into a space that felt intentional and alive.
Overlays Instillations Showcase
Construction
Some of my classmates and I were creating and pre-building walls and structures that we going to have there to test them
Portfolio Machine Development
Together we worked on the development of the Portfolio Machine that user's going to interact we went through measuring process and then multiple designs iterations. At the end it was containing in itself Arduino R4, NFC tag reader, Motor, Buttons, BreadBoard, and Cables that connect it all.
Portfolio Stand
In the end, the Portfolio Machine was connected to a PC that showed the portfolio of the chosen CD. The application was developed by Interaction Design students at FH JOANNEUM. The whole area was set up to create a Y2K (early-2000s) vibe..
Each of showing our top 5 projects. My top 5 were [Sub-Society], FH Room Checker, Gen Wave ,Barrel Dash, Dino Game.
My installations at the exhibition
I show cased 2 of my projects Deep Breath and Barrel Dash. It was a surreal experience seeing people interact with my projects and sharing their fascination and enjoyment.
Stack
Conclusion
OVERLAYS was a strong reminder that exhibitions are designed systems, not just presentations. Beyond showing and building my projects, I contributed to the experience architecture of how people navigate, interact, and trust the installations. The process strengthened my ability to collaborate at scale, prototype under constraints, and translate a creative direction into functional hardware and spatial structures that survive real public use.