Jessica Rosenkrantz
1983 – Present
Jessica Rosenkrantz is an artist, designer, programmer, and cofounder of Nervous System Generative Design Studio. Rosenkrantz studied biology and architecture at MIT and Harvard graduate school of design before co-founding Nervous System with Jesse Louis-Rosenberg in 2007.
What major art/design movement is this artist a part of?
Rosenkrantz and Louis-Rosenberg integrate biomechanics found in nature with software creation to explore growth and form. Together, Nervous System has been pioneering techniques of digital fabrication since its founding, including 3D printing, WebGL, and generative systems.
What novel methods/techniques did this artist integrate into their practice?
Rosenkrantz combines scientific research, computer graphics, mathematics, and digital fabrication to write computer programs to generate designs inspired by patterns within nature. Almost every project from Nervous System employs the use of software writing of some format and digital fabrication, usually 3D printing or laser cutting, resulting in a cohesive set of work that reflects the integration of technology with natural processes and forms.
How does the artist’s practice reflect/respond to the historic movement in which they practiced?
As digital technologies have emerged throughout the years, Nervous System is at the forefront where mathematics, science, and design collide. Nervous System is using the advances of digital technology to not only push the boundaries of generative design, but to make their products more accessible, affordable, and ethical. Using data from a runners foot strike, Nervous System partnered with New Balance in 2016 to design a new method for 3D printing midsoles based off the cell structure of foams found in nature such as wood and bone. During the design process, Nervous System focused on generative designs that would be able to adapt to different forces of pressure that could respond to data in different ways. The result was a system that generates midsole designs from pressure data from runners, with density cushioning customized to how a person runs. Using the same approach of writing algorithms based on natural phenomenon for 3d printing, Nervous System entered a new domain of product design and data driven design with this project and it is a direct reflection of how emerging technologies within product and fashion design is changing not only how designers create but how consumers interact with said products. This change is also reflected in Nervous System’s Kinematic series, which the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, commissioned a new dress for an exhibit that exemplifies these changes and explores the interaction between fashion and technology.
If applicable, how did the artist tailor/hybridize emerging technologies into their practice?
Nervous System is pioneering 3d printing and other digital fabrication techniques for their product designs. For example, in order to optimize the compression while 3d printing for their series of kinematic dresses, Nervous system developed a new design software and simulation tool for maximum efficiency. When inquired by FormLabs about printing kinematics on a smaller 3d printer within their studios, Nervous System designed a new Kinematics “Link”, similar to chainmail, that compresses even further to make their designs more accessible. A large part of the design process at Nervous System involves writing new algorithms for software that abstract patterns in natural phenomenon to a set of rules that results in endless generative designs to be translated into instructions for a computer to carry out. Digital fabrication techniques allows their design to become more accessible, and in order to explore new types of playful design experiences that leverage simulation inspired by complex processes, Nervous System writes their own software for design. In a lecture given by Rosenkrantz, she states that they aren’t interested in drawing designs, or using software to recreate traditional methods into digital analogs, rather focusing on interactive systems and growing designs by writing their own customized software.
https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/projects/albums/kinematics-concept/
If applicable, what elements of public interactivity are integral to the work?
Nervous System designs with the intention of “co-creating” with their customers, creating generative systems that have no final product, but a myriad of possibilities for mass customization. As a way to encourage others to work in similar manners, Nervous System also releases their source code under a creative commons license. In order to exploit the possibilities of evolving forms through generative design, the studio releases their work through a series of interactive applets that customers can use to personalize their own products. While exploring Nervous System’s website, I found “Designed by You, Crafted by Us” over a small paragraph that advertised the opportunity to create your own design through their online apps, where a robot will make it before they ship it back to you, bringing consumers into the design process. Nervous System designs specifically for affordability and ethical production, in order to leverage digital fabrication and co creation, democratizing design and empowering the consumer by opening design to more people.
How did the artist’s work change over time?
As the digital age continues to progress and grow, Nervous Systems body of work has evolved as well. Although the concepts behind their work draws from similar inspirations from nature, the complexity of each design and its techniques implemented have been steadily improving throughout the years. The earliest project on their website available, Dendrite (2007), is the abstraction of inorganic growths that form as mineral solutions flow through cracks in stones. The fractal branching structure of Dendrite crystals was then written into a software that has created over 5,000 pieces of jewelry, with not a single design created twice. In 2012, Nervous System created a system also based on dendritic solidification to create a borderless, generative jigsaw puzzle made of organic shapes that can be arranged into infinite final products. The generative jigsaws can be purchased as the infinite galaxy puzzle, infinite earth and moon, geodes, or your own custom jigsaw can be created. Kinematics (2013- present) has been the biggest exploration of 3d printing techniques and technology within fashion design for everyone. This idea of design for everyone can also be seen in the previously mentioned Data Driven Midsoles with New Balance (2015). However, the most current project, Porifera (2018) is another jewelry collection similar to Floraform (2014), where Nervous System created custom software to computationally generate designs that use 3d printed ceramic to mimic deep sea glass sponges.
Dendrite, Full Moon Necklace Series 2008
Floraform Silver Orchid Necklace 2015
Infinite Earth Jigsaw, 2018
Porifera: 3d printed Ceramic Jewelry, 2018
https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/blog/?p=8115
What artists influenced this person’s work, and who did they in turn influence?
When researching Rosenkrantz, it was difficult to find personal information on her beyond her schooling and current occupation. Most information found was from her studio website, Nervous System. The biggest influence that shows obviously and consistently in work produced is biomechanics within natural processes, one of them being differential growth- an idea first presented by Alan Turing that explains things within nature growing at different rates, resulting in systems of pattern on molecular levels from which form emerges. These natural growth processes can be seen in the Kinematics series that references petals, feathers and scales, Reaction products that abstract this growth process and mimic something similar to coral growth, and the Floraform collection based on blooming flowers.
https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/index.php
https://design-milk.com/where-i-work-nervous-system/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC4Tkc6alWg
http://designinnovation.berkeley.edu/wordpress/?p=1
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/kinematics-dress_n_6439750.html