I am Lucia Dossin. Fiveblackcats is the fantasy name under which I have been working since 2004. I currently live in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
I graduated in architecture (FAUUSP, São Paulo) and in 2015 I completed my Master in Media Design & Communication (Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam). I started my journey in ‘making websites’ in 2000, while working for web studios in São Paulo, Brazil. In the beginning, my work consisted mostly of making Flash animations for projects related to photography, visual arts, fashion and film. As time went by, my toolset shifted towards HTML, CSS, JS, PHP and Python, but my interest in the combination of technology, art and culture remained the same (well, perhaps it is stronger nowadays ;) ).
The works you see here are, for the most part, a selection of websites I designed or built for clients. After 2011, more often than not, I was in charge of both front and back-end (powered by WordPress). Besides design and development for the web, I also do print and more experimental stuff in Hybrid Publishing. Recently, my portfolio grew wider with the addition of some experiments and self-initiated projects that I have been doing in the last few years and that reflect my personal interests and research skills.
The tasks you can hire me for are as varied as simply maintaining or fixing your WordPress website to conceptualizing, designing and implementing an interactive interface or printed matter. Please feel free to drop me a line if you think I can contribute to your project.
Collaboration project between Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Deltametropolis Association about Dutch government investments in infrastructure, to which I contributed by building an interactive map.
Landscapes of Trade is a PhD research project aimed at the logistic infrastructure in the Netherlands. It investigates the development of the Dutch logistic complex since 1980 and the possible / desirable outcomes in the future, from spatial planning and economic perspectives. This interactive map allows the data to be visualized through time and according to different zoom levels.
Addwords is a performance/tool done in collaboration with Max Dovey and Manetta Berends for the event 'The Gig is Up - Cloud Labour Night' at V2_, in Rotterdam.
The tool communicates with the API of Google Adwords - their online
advertising product. Two screens positioned next to the speakers' stage
display a ranking of the 10 most (and least) popular words according to
the data provided by Google. These words are typed live as the speakers
present their talks and are displayed using elements that resemble the
stock market.
After the lectures, the Optimization Report is presented, containing
an overview of the results, title suggestions for each lecture and a
generated advert text to promote the Exhibition The Gig is Up.
The performance has been reviewed by Metropolis M: Cloudsourcen vanuit het atelier (in Dutch).
Cassandra is a voice-operated chatbot, aimed at making psychological profiles during the conversations. These profiles are shown as pie charts where every color corresponds to a personality attribute. The graphics are accompanied by a short analysis and a list of companies possibly interested in the profile. In this sense, the bot provides data that can act as a mediator in services like job-seeking and dating. The profile then becomes a digital representation of the user and can be used as a kind of 'digital key' to personalize the relationship between the user and every gadget in the near future of the Internet of Things. Make your life easier, let Cassandra make a digital copy of you.
Presented at Hofpoort as part of the exhibition Tempted by Tomorrow.
An exercise regarding subjective connections and databases, which served as the basis for the graduation project in my Master at PZI: a dataset of connected words.
The interface for making the connections can be found at https://luciadossin.net/fadb/ and the (not real-time) results can be seen at https://luciadossin.net/fadb/results/.