Neri Oxman

The first survey on the interdisciplinary biodesign genius of Neri Oxman, pioneer of "material ecologyThroughout her 20-year career, Neri Oxman has invented not only new ideas for materials, buildings and construction processes, but also new frameworks for interdisciplinary--and interspecies--collaborations. She coined the term "material ecology" to describe her process of producing techniques and objects informed by the structural, systemic and aesthetic wisdom of nature, from the shells of crustaceans to the flow of human breathing. Groundbreaking for its solid technological and scientific basis, its rigorous and daring experimentation, its visionary philosophy and its unquestionable attention to formal elegance, Oxman's work operates at the intersection of biology, engineering, architecture and artistic design, material science and computer science. This book--designed by Irma Boom and published to accompany a midcareer retrospective of Oxman's work--highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the designer's practice. It demonstrates how Oxman's contributions allow us to question and redefine the idea of modernism--a concept in constant evolution--and of organic design. Some of the projects featured in the book and exhibition include the Silk Pavilion, which harnesses silkworms' ability to generate a 3-D cocoon out of a single thread silk in order to create architectural constructions; Aguahoja, a water-based fabrication platform that prints structures made out of different biopolymers; and Glass, an additive manufacturing technology for 3-D printing optically transparent glass structures at architectural dimensions. Israeli American architect, designer and inventor Neri Oxman (born 1976) is professor of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, among others.

A richly illustrated overview of the work of Neri Oxman, whose design approach embodies the union of technology and biology, as well as a future where we build with nature. Mediated Matter is the first comprehensive overview of Neri Oxman's groundbreaking design work. Oxman has forged a singular career across design, science, and engineering over the past twenty years that includes founding the field of material ecology. Trained as a medical doctor and an architect, she brings to design a spirit of inquiry and experimentation that includes a future-forward approach to materials--from silkworm thread to automated microrobots to a water-based robotic platform that 3D-prints structures made from biopolymers. In her work at the MIT Media Lab, she and her team designed products, structures, and environments as interactive entities that are environmentally informed, biologically augmented, computationally grown, and digitally manufactured. Through richly detailed diagrams, explanatory texts, process documents, and breathtaking photographs, the book examines the six primary topics--biopolymers, cellular solids, fibers, functional pigments, organic comb, and symbiotic microbes--at the heart of Oxman's key projects as well as their potential for use in the built environment. Scientifically rigorous and abundantly imagined, this novel publication, like its author, is a future-facing manifesto for a true symbiosis of nature, humans, and design.

An ambitious monograph on Neri Oxman, one of the most inventive minds of our time, whose interdisciplinary design work blends, transcends and redefines the practices of computer science, digital fabrication, material science and synthetic biology. Neri Oxman has forged a singular career across design, science and technology for over twenty years. Trained as both a medical doctor and an architect, she has brought an entirely new spirit of thinking and experimentation to all facets of design. Oxman defines her work at the MIT Media Lab, which approaches nature as processes and substances to be molded to design ends, as ‘material ecology.’ Using this method, products and buildings are designed as interactive entities that are environmentally informed, biologically augmented, computationally grown and digitally manufactured. The products of her ground-breaking methods are arresting and have major implications for all aspects and scales of design, where Oxman’s work is at the edge of many interrelated – and unexpected – practices. From using silkworms' thread to generate a cocoon-like construction to a synthetic apiary, from a water-based fabrication platform that prints structures made out of biopolymers, to automated microrobots that can build their own structure, Oxman and her teams are producing an entirely new vocabulary for designers with far-reaching implications. Mediated Matter is the first comprehensive overview of Oxman’s work. Six central chapters – Biopolymers, Cellular Solids, Fibers, Functional Pigments, Organic Comb and Symbiotic Microbes – present the thinking behind the key projects and the process of their creation as well as, crucially, their potential for use in the built environment, all shown in detail through diagrams, explanatory texts, process documents and breathtaking photographs. Through its scientific rigour, sheer imagination and design innovation, this novel publication, like its author, is a future-facing manifesto for a true symbiosis of nature and design.