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Skylar Tibbits: Self-Assembly Lab: Experiments in Programming Matter

Side-view of a mannequin wearing a piece of fabric being worked by a mechanical arm.
4D Knit Dress: Self-Assembly Lab, MIT x Ministry of Supply. image / Skylar Tibbits

Lecture

Location

Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium

Milstein Hall

Contact

Department of Design Tech

designtech@cornell.edu

Recording

Abstract

Skylar Tibbits will present work on programmable materials self-assembling systems in our environment. This work explores how materials can be programmed to change shape, adapt, and transform over time in response to environmental stimuli such as heat, temperature, moisture, ocean waves, and even lava flows. Tibbits’ work pushes the boundaries of what’s possible at the intersection of design, fabrication, and material intelligence.

Biography

Headshot of Skylar Tibbits

Skylar Tibbits

Tibbits is a designer and computer scientist whose research focuses on developing self-assembly and programmable materials within the built environment. He is the founder and codirector of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT and an Associate Professor of Design Research in the Department of Architecture. He is also the director of the undergraduate Design programs in the Department of Architecture.

Tibbits has a professional degree in architecture and a minor in experimental computation from Philadelphia University, a master’s in design computation, and a master’s in computer science from MIT. He has worked at a number of design offices, including Zaha Hadid Architects, Asymptote Architecture, and Point B Design.

He has designed and built large-scale installations and exhibited in galleries around the world, including the MoMA, Centre Pompidou, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and various others. He is the author of Things Fall Together: A Guide to the New Materials Revolution (Princeton University Press 2021), Self-Assembly Lab: Experiments in Programming Matter (Routledge, 2016), and Active Matter (MIT Press, 2017). He was the coeditor of Being Material (MIT Press 2019) and the editor-in-chief of the 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing journal.

Awards include LinkedIn’s Next Wave Award for Top Professionals under 35 (2016), R&D Innovator of the Year (2015), National Geographic Emerging Explorer (2015), an Inaugural WIRED Fellowship (2014), the Architectural League Prize (2013), Ars Electronica Next Idea Award (2013), TED Senior Fellow (2012) and 2008 he was named a Revolutionary Mind by SEED magazine.

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