Diana Connolly – Looking Outwards 8

Eyeo 2015 – Jesse Louis-Rosenburg and Jessica Rosenkrantz from Eyeo Festival // INSTINT on Vimeo.

Nervous System: Jesse Louis-Rosenburg and Jessica Rosenkrantz

Their website: http://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/index.php

I watched the video by Jesse Louis-Rosenburg and Jessica Rosenkrantz from the “Nervous System” studio. Jesse has a background in math and computer science, and Jessica has a background in biology and architecture. They both attended MIT for college, and their joint studio is based in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Jesse and Jessica teamed up to create Nervous System, a cross-disciplinary studio that explores how patterns emerge and how to create computer-controlled digital fabrication algorithms based on those patterns. Their body of work is very interesting to me, as an interdisciplinary student myself who is interested in science and art. A lot of their projects explained in the video explored the development of form and pattern in biological processes, such as vein growth in leaves and cellular growth and differentiation. They study these patterns and use digital fabrication to bring their knowledge of these patterns to the general public, in the form of products like jewelry or lamps. I admire their work because, not only are they deeply exploring these scientific topics of biological pattern-making, but they are also making this knowledge accessible to the general public.

Jesse and Jessica’s presentation style was effective. They used visuals to aid their discussion, and they explained each project from start to finish: from idea creation, process/problem solving, and the final product. From their presentation, I can take note of how they motivated each of their projects to the audience, and how they explained each project in a way that anyone in the audience could understand.

Below is a video explanation of “Kinematics”, a project by Nervous System that actually does not replicate biological patterns but rather uses computation to create flowy/foldable 3D-printed “fabrics” or jewelry. As the video shows, they scanned the body of the human model and fit a 3D-model of a dress to the human model. Super cool!

"4D-printed" shape-changing dress and jewellery by Nervous System from Dezeen on Vimeo.