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Yael Eylat
CuratorDr. Yael Eylat Van-Essen is a curator and a researcher specializing in the interface between art, design, science and technology and also in Museology. She graduated from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, received her MA and PhD from Tel-Aviv University, and a post-doc at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is a senior lecturer at the design faculty of the Holon Institute of Technology, and also lectures at Tel Aviv University. She took part as a curator in exhibitions in Israel and abroad, among them “Life-Object, Merging Biology and Architecture” at the Israeli Pavilion in the Venice Biennale for Architecture in 2016, NOT YET, ALREADY Architecture and Animation, HIT Research Gallery (2014), I(IL) Machine Exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival 2013 . Her new book Rethinking the Museum was published in Israel in 2016. She has founded and directed for many years the Digital Media department in Camera Obscura school of Art and founded and co-directed the International Curatorial Program in Tel Aviv.
The presentation explores the integration of digital technologies and biological systems to create living hybrids, focusing on the Life Object, an installation presented at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. Inspired by the structure of a bird’s nest, the installation combines computational design, biological phenomena and smart materials that respond to temperature and human presence. Its adaptive, breathing cells interact with visitors and the surrounding environment, challenging conventional architectural approaches. Through this and other interdisciplinary projects, the presentation examines new possibilities for architecture and art, drawing on biomimicry, biofabrication and synthetic biology to rethink the relationship between nature, technology and the built environment.
