Neri Oxman is a designer and professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she founded and still directs the Mediated Matter group. The exhibition is named after the term that she invented to describe the items or procedures that are created through the engagement with Nature’s aesthetics and structures, which is «Material Ecology».
I fell in love with her when I first watched her episode on Netflix’s tv show «Abstract: The Art of Design». Since then I have been wait for the exhibition of her work at MoMA. The exhibition is an amazing look back at the artist and scientist’s 20-year career. The seven projects displayed, which date from 2007 to today, display multiple examples of her way of thinking. Each project is very inspiring because it challenges the way we see the future of design and building, through the observation of natural techniques and objects such as crustacean shells and melanin.
Silk Pavillion II is a masterpiece with a major impact on the whole exhibition. It’s an architectural structure fabricated by silkworms’ capacity to spin silk in 2013. The piece expresses the relationship between digital and biological fabrication in Architecture and also takes into consideration the natural behavior of the silkworms, which turns the creating process more respectful for the animals.
I strongly believe that architects have a social and political role in changing society and improving the world. She is one of the best examples of an architect that strongly believes that through Architecture we can save the world from the environmental issues that we are facing right now. I would advise you strongly to watch her exhibition.
(images above: https://press.moma.org/exhibition/neri-oxman/)
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