Joris Laarman Lab: Design in a Digital Age at Cooper Hewitt
through 15 January '18
The first U.S. major exhibition of the Dutch designer Joris Laarman and his multidisciplinary team, known for their pioneering and elegant applications of digital technologies. Working at the intersection of design, art, and science, Joris Laarman Lab is abolishing traditional distinctions between the natural and machine made, the decorative and functional to produce design of flawless beauty and technical ingenuity.
The exhibition explores Laarman’s conceptual thinking, as well as his embrace of experimentation to fuel the creative process. Organized around each significant step forward in the Lab’s research and development, the exhibition presents the full range of Joris Laarman Lab’s empirical investigations of digital design; from the iconic Bone Chair generated from algorithms that mimic bone growth to a pedestrian bridge built in midair using advanced robotic 3D printing. Twenty-one process videos document the Lab’s collaborative environment and high-tech tools— providing fascinating demonstrations of digital technology in action, as well as the skilled craftsmanship that is equally important to each object’s evolution. Pushing design beyond its current dictates, the Lab’s scientific and technological breakthroughs are advancing how we will design, manufacture, and distribute the objects of tomorrow—and point to a future where form and fabrication will surpass the limitations of industrial production.
