Excitable Matters of Process

Sustainable interdisciplinary methods for synthesizing integrative smart hybrid membranes. This project is invested in co-creating new forms of engagement with magneto-rheological elastomers across the arts and sciences.

At the crossroad of sustainable bio-design, digital arts, architecture, and material sciences, Excitable Matters of Process explores the behavioral and experiential potential of new smart material processes, and how they may be sustainably designed to acquire the capacity to sense, adapt, and interact with the environment.

This project taps into the adaptive characteristics of membranes and investigates their excitability potential—that is, their capacity to affect and be affected by other bodies. Leveraging the potential of two promising (but still unsustainable) smart materials, Magneto-Rheological Elastomers (MRE) and Macro Fiber CompositeTM (MFC), the research:

1. Synthesizes and characterizes new bio-MRE and MFC-based structures in order to improve the performance and environmental sustainability;

2. Co-experiments with the combined actuation and sensing capabilities of hybrid bio-MRE and MFC membranes to develop an integrated installation prototype that induces innovative sensory and critical experiences of smart materials;

3. Develop tools for diversifying pedagogy and knowledge transfer of art-science research to create new bridges with academic, artistic, and industrial circles.

Contributing integrative working methods, innovative technologies, and new critical aesthetics, the outcomes of the project include: new sustainable smart materials; an integrated installation-prototype; content development toward a summer school and publications. The research will further a promising body of work with two cutting-edge smart materials.