Because I was lucky enough to spend the spring semester over at the Paris Campus, I am citing my favorite relevant e-textile objects displayed at an exhibition called Print the World: Mutations-Creations (Centre Pompidou, March 15-July 3, 2017).

The pictures below document the 3D printed “intelligent” material, Cillia,  developed by the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab in 2016.  While the picture below the wall text shows the material encased in acrylic boxes, there were actually tiny sections of each material that visitors could touch and see/feel how the material responds.

The synthetic material was designed to respond like natural material but at such an amplified level that it allows for applications beyond what natural materials can afford.  In this sense, using the physical properties of existing biology to inform new material technology made me actually proud to be in a field of technology.