04 Aug Can materials be mechanisms? | Alexandra Ion

Alex asks the provocative question: What if the material was the machine? What if the material and the machine was one and the same? To instantiate this thinking, she creates physical objects that consist of many small cells, each of these cells are carefully designed to perform a precise motion. If these many cells are in turn arranged to move in concert, they perform a mechanical function—they become the machine. The machine’s function is entirely defined by its own material’s microstructure. You can see and touch her work in Madrid from June to September 2017 at Espacio Fundación Telefónica. Alex is currently at the human-computer interaction lab at the Hasso Plattner Institute (Germany) where she peruses her PhD.