Harvestworks

Material Expressions

Laura Splan

Material Expressions is a new series of kinetic sculptures whose movement is triggered by biosensors. Motorized components of the sculptures will be actuated by a live performer’s movement through electromyography (EMG) electrodes. Changing levels of electricity in muscles will control motorized movement of sculptural apparatus. The sculptures will incorporate found materials, handcrafted elements and 3D-printed forms. The project explores the potential for objects to embody corporeal experience and to materialize the unseen machinations of the human body.

Material Expressions is a new series of kinetic sculptures whose movement is triggered by biosensors. Motorized components of the sculptures will be actuated by a live performer’s movement through electromyography (EMG) electrodes. Changing levels of electricity in muscles will control motorized movement of sculptural apparatus. The sculptures will incorporate found materials, handcrafted elements and 3D-printed forms. The project explores the potential for objects to embody corporeal experience and to materialize the unseen machinations of the human body.

About the artist(s)

Laura Splan

Laura Splan’s work explores intersections of art, science, technology and craft. Her conceptually based projects examine the material manifestations of our mutable relationship with the human body. She reconsiders perceptions and representations of the corporeal with a range of traditional and new media techniques. She often combines the quotidian with the unfamiliar to interrogate culturally constructed notions of order and disorder, function and dysfunction. Her frequent combinations of textiles with technology challenge values of “the hand” in creative production and question notions of agency and chance in aesthetics. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.