Retackling Contraction and Expansion

LIQUID THINGS

University of Applied Arts

Art & Science

Expositur Vordere Zollamtsstraße 3, 1030 Vienna

Workshop dates: Oct. 8-10, 2012

Materials: Electroactive Polymers (EAP), Electrorheological Fluids (ERF), Polycarbonate Foils, Carbon Powder

Processes: Contraction, Expansion, Flow, Reiteration, Warping

Focus: This workshop wants to rethink and widen the ways in which Electroactive Polymers have been used and developed in science and design labs as muscle-like actuators. We will introduce their basic functioning and provide know-how and materials to build modules developed by IAD researchers, and reflect on the ways such materials transform our ways of creating and thinking movement in art, architecture and design.  Furthermore, we will show the results of our recent experiments which want to take the common EAP application into new directions and try to confront EAPs with Electrorheological Fluids. Participants are invited to learn how to work with EAPs and are asked to contribute actively in the extension of the material‘s known possibilities.