Design x Technology Series: Jakob Marsico

Come to CoAD for our second Spring 2026 Design x Technology Series talk featuring Jakob Marsico, Chief Creative Officer at Deeplocal. This talk will also be livestreamed.

Jakob’s presentation on Tuesday, February 24 titled ‘Tangible Experience vs. the Slop Feed,’ will get you thinking about physical interactivity while offering a familiarization with the creative tech experience design industry and an understanding of how physical interaction fits in the built environment.

In our world of infinite scrolling, the act of pulling a perfectly-tuned physical lever feels almost dreamlike. Our feeds have become incredibly good at keeping us locked in, and generative AI has made them even harder to break away. Our feeds are personal, predictive, and effortless. And because of that, it’s increasingly forgettable.

As experience designers, we can choose between:

• Flicking your thumb and engaging your arms.
• Darting your eyes and craning your neck.
• Earbuds that isolate and vibrations that shake your bones.

This talk is about designing experiences you can touch, push, lean on, and feel in your body; not just in your thumbs. Levers, buttons, dials, light, sound, vibration. Experiences that take effort, introduce friction, and happen around other people in the same space.

I’ll walk through Deeplocal projects that prioritize touch, force, light, sound, and motion—and how we’re thinking about using AI not to isolate people further, but to reconnect them to each other and to the spaces they’re in.

This informative presentation will be moderated by Associate Professor of Architecture Lee-Su Huang.

As part of CoAD’s Design x Technology Series, this event is free and open to the public. Guests may watch online or on campus. Register for the location/viewing details. A pizza lunch will be provided to all on-site registered guests.

BIO: Jakob Marsico is Chief Creative Officer at Deeplocal, a creative innovation studio that invents, designs, and builds experiences for the world’s most progressive brands. Jakob leads a multidisciplinary team of creative technologists, designers, and engineers to invent and deliver playful, interactive experiences that foster meaningful connections between people and technology.

Jakob has a Master of Tangible Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science in Religion from The George Washington University. He also founded and ran Ultra Low Res Studio, an arts-engineering studio that collaborated with developers and architects on experiential projects. Jakob’s work has been featured in various publications and exhibitions, and his projects have received multiple awards and honors for their creativity and innovation.