Mads Hobye (1980), PhD, is an associate professor at Roskilde University (DK) within the Department of People and Technology. He researches interactive digital materiality as a hybrid of physical materials and digital technologies. It is research into the potential of aesthetic use of technology and how to democratise technology ownership through frameworks, open knowledge-sharing and digital fabrication as a maker mindset. The work has been published internationally and applied in practice through co-founding illutron (a collaborative, interactive art collective in CPH) and as artworks presented at international museums, galleries, and festivals.
His interest is the relationship between physical digital technology and human beings. Through computational logic, sensors, and expressions, the technology resonates with participants, both in their relation to the work itself and just as much in the interpersonal experiences among themselves - in the situated context.
In 2007, he co-founded Illutron, which resides on a large-scale industrial barge in Copenhagen Harbor. Its purpose is to hold space for artists to work with technology, biology, and scrap materials in an artistic manner, free from larger commercial pressures. The collective is run as a non-profit organization governed by its active members.
Follow on @madshobye, connect on LinkedIn & email at mads@hobye.dk
Public Installations / Exhibitions / Performances
2026: Pusher Street, Christiania, DK, Reflector
2024: eCommemoration Convention, MemoryMechanics
2023: Roskilde Light Festival, DK, Orb Probe
2022: Piksel, No, MemoryMechanics **
2022: Nordic Forum for Dance Research, DK, MemoryMechanics **
2022: Emideks, RUC, DK, Moving Stories, Embodied Empathy
2022: S12 Gallery, NO, Sensing Presence (Solo Exhibition)
2021: Haut - Works in progress, DK, MemoryMechanics
2021: Nova Festival, RO, MemoryMechanics
2021: Click AI Days, DK, MemoryMechanics
2021: Easter Ex., KP21-digital, DK, Perception is Participation
2020: Ars Electronica, Covid-online, MemoryMechanics
2020: Musicon, DK, Inner Glow *
2020: Catch, DK, Embodied Companion
2020: Musicon, DK, Embryo *
2020: Click festival, DK, MemoryMechanics
2019: Borderland, DK, Orb Probe*
2018: Roskilde Light Festival, DK, Embryo*
2018: The Danish National Gallery, DK, Singing Plant *
2018: Ebeltoft Glass Museum, DK, Dynamic Transparencies
2018: CPH stage, DK, Mediated Pulse in Punchline
2017: Finland Glass Museum, FI, Dynamic Transparencies
2017: Mod-Strøm, DK, Life Nerve
2017: The Glass Factory, SE, Dynamic Transparencies
2017: Borderland, DK, Geometric Masculinity
2017: Borderland, DK, Spatial Projections *
2017: Royal Danish Theatre, DK; CPH stage Mediated Pulse
2016: Skanderborg, DK, Dream Forest *
2016: Borderland, DK, Spatial Projections *
2015: Critical IXD, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Zagreb, Croatia, Aural Fixations
2015: Borderland, DK, Calling Home
2015: Roskilde Festival, DK, Color Entrance *
2014: Technical Museum, DK, Humanizing Robots *
2013: Royal Danish Theatre, DK, In Case Of Emotions
2012: CHI interactive, DK, Touchbox
2012: Odense Main Street, DK, Hydraphonia *
2011: Wired Mind, DK, Reversed Megaphone
2011: Emerge And See conference, DE, The Mediated Body
2011: Click Festival, DK, Reversed Megaphone
2010: Burning Man, US, Syzygryd and Mediated Bodysuit *
2010: Roskilde Festival, DK, Electrolumen *
2009: CPH:DOX, DK, Barcode Beats *
2009: Kunsthallen Brandts, DK, N7331227 *
2008: Inkunst Malmø, SE, Ladies and Mens Room Mixup *
2008: Roskilde Festival, DK, Explosion Village *
2008: Ørestaden, DK, CPHAdd, 8-bit Traffic *
2008: Robots at Play, DK, Singing Plant
2007: Botanical Garden, DK, Singing Plant *
2007: Charlottenborg Spring Ex., DK, The Machines are Having Fun *
2007: Roskilde Festival, DK, Medusae Nilfisk *
2005: Tingbæk Kalkminer, DK, Singing Plant
2005: Half Machine, DK, Clouds in Passing
2004: Half Machine, DK, Singing Plant
2004: Roskilde Festival, DK, Singing Plant
* Projects made in collaboration with and/or members of illutron
Fablabs and the Maker Movement: Learning through Making
Høbye, M., Haldrup, M., Daugbjerg, S., Pedersen, S., Borch, M. M., Padfield, N., Lindemann, S., Møbius, N., & Thorning, B. (2025). In C. Svabo, M. Shanks, C. Zhou, & T. Carleton (Eds.), Creative Pragmatics for Active Learning in STEM Education (pp. 149-173). Springer.
DSL-Lab: A Modular Ecosystem for Online User Studies of End-User Programming Languages for Robot Automation
Høbye, M., Silahli, A., & Rocha Silva, T. INTERACT 2025: 20th IFIP TC 13, Springer.
Designing for Einfühlung: Strategies for Embodied Sensitivity in Interactive Spaces
Ranten, M. F., Høbye, M., Andreasen, T., Bøen, K. E., & Knudsen, L. A. INTERACT 2025: 20th IFIP TC 13, Springer.
Remix Utopia: Eleven Propositions on Design and Social Fantasy
Haldrup, M., Hobye, M., Samson, K., & Padfield, N. Nordes 2015: Design ecologies (Bind 6). Nordic Design Research.
Ranten, M. F., Hobye, M., & Gram, N. (2020). PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, 3(1).
Breathing Life into Familiar Domestic Objects
Henning Christiansen, Anja Mølle Lindelof, Mads Hobye. In 2018 27th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN). IEEE Press, 589–594.
Touching a stranger: Designing for engaging experience in embodied interaction
Hobye M. & Löwgren J. (2011), International Journal of Design 5, 3.
Designing for homo explorens
Hobye, M (2014). PhD Dissertation, Malmø University.
Playing with Fire: Collaborating through Digital Sketching in a Creative Community
Making Futures: Marginal Notes on Innovation, Design, and Democracy, Edited by: Ehn P., Nilsson, M. E. and Topgaard R., MIT Press, ( 2014).
Creating synergies between traditional crafts and Fablab Making
Padfield N., Hobye M., Haldrup M., Ranten M., Knight J., (2018), Fablearn EU.
Behavioral complexity as a computational material strategy
Hobye M. & Ranten M. (2019) International Journal of Design 13, 2: 39–53.
The bizarre bazaar: FabLabs as hybrid hubs
Haldrup M., Hobye M., & Padfield P. (2017) CoDesign 14, 4: 1–16.
Engagements, collaborations, repositories etc.
Co-founder, -organizer, -member of
2025-: RUC Rep., The Danish Center for Design Research
2025-: Co-curator, The Playlab
2023-: Co-founder & Board-member, House of Play
2022-: Co-founder, Digital Transformation Master
2021-: RUC Chair, Grasp Festival
2020-: Organizer, RUC Roskilde Festival Innovation
2014-17: Upstart, Fablab RUC
2011-: Co-founder, Copenhagen Scandal Central
2007-: Co-founder, illutron
2003-7: Co-founder, Capteco A/S
1998-3: Founder, Inventit APS
Art-based residencies/workshops
2026: Marstal Maniac, Ærø, DK
2025: Marstal Maniac, Ærø, DK
2022: S12 Gallery, Bergen, NO
2018: Glass Museum Ebeltoft, DK
2017: The Glass Factory, Boda, Sweden
2012: Instructables, San Francisco, USA
Online repositories
Multiple online repositories of documentation have been done through the years. The following are places to look to find sources codes, videos etc.:
Instagram: Instagram is the best place to follow me and my work
RUC Profile: My formal research profile at Roskilde University
Scholar: Google scholar gives the best current overview of publications
learn.hobye.dk: My learn site is where I organize and share examples of digital fabrication and prototyping for students. Loads of readymade code snippets and p5js sketches can be found there
FablabRuc: The Fablab RUC website is filled with projects and experiments done by/with me
illutron: Most large-scale installations presented here have been done as a part of illutron
Instructables: During my artists in residency at Instructables, I made multiple detailed guides around sound art
Vimeo: Many video documentations of installations can be found on Vimeo
Github/Hobye: My online git repository with different projects
Github/illutron: illutrons online git repository
The Orb Probe, land art piece at Hedeland, Roskilde/Hedehusene, DK, 2019.