In the twenty-first century, technological advances continue to offer new ways of creating. Joris Laarman and his partner, filmmaker Anita Star, founded the Joris Laarman Lab in 2004 with the idea of harnessing these advances in creating their designs. They consider the Lab an experimental playground where craftsmen, scientists, and engineers create cultural meaning through technological progress. Laarman’s innovative approach to the design and fabrication process greatly informs the Lab’s design investigations.
The two works of contemporary design on display in the lobby of the High’s Anne Cox Chambers Wing represent Laarman’s explorations in the ever-shifting realm of fabrication through 3-D printing. To make the Dragon bench (2014), Laarman developed his own 3D-printing robot (the MX3D) that draws fluid, molten metal lines into the air. Utilizing computer software developed for the European automotive industry, the Bone armchair (2008) design is based on scientific research of the structural growth patterns of bone and trees and their capacity to add, remove, and redistribute matter in response to external stimuli.
The High Museum of Art owns several works by Joris Laarman Lab, including the groundbreaking radiator prototype Reinventing Functionality (2003), the dynamic Ivy climbing wall system (2004), and the whimsical Credit brooch (2005), currently on view on the Skyway Level of the Stent Family Wing.