Telltales of Tide and Terra is an art-science project that documents plant intelligence through textile patterns, exploring how plants adapt to environmental challenges. Through creative engagement with scientific observations, the project translates plant behaviors and adaptation strategies into visual narratives that are screen-printed onto upcycled fabrics dyed with indigo. These textile blueprints form a growing herbarium that captures remarkable plant capabilities—from underground root communication networks to sophisticated water retention mechanisms and heat adaptation strategies.
Join the MIT Future Heritage Lab (FHL) team at the MIT Museum for an interactive paper-cutting workshop where you can design textile patterns inspired by plant intelligence. Working with scientific insights about plant adaptation, participants will transform their insights into intricate paper-cut designs that reflect various plant behaviors and survival mechanisms. These collaborative creations will contribute to a growing textile herbarium as part of FHL’s ‘Telltales of Tide and Terra’ project, with selected patterns to be screen-printed and featured in traveling exhibitions that share these fascinating stories of plant adaptation with broader audiences.
Azra Aksamija, PhD, is an artist and architectural historian born in Sarajevo, BA, and based in Boston, US. She is a professor in the MIT Department of Architecture, where she directs the Art, Culture, and Technology program and the Future Heritage Lab.
Aksamija is the author of Mosque Manifesto: Propositions for Spaces of Coexistence (2015) and Museum Solidarity Lobby (2019), and has edited Architecture of Coexistence: Building Pluralism (2020) and Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp (2021, coedited with R. Majzoub and M. Philippou).
Her work has been exhibited at leading international venues, including the Generali Foundation and Secession in Vienna; biennials in Venice, Liverpool, Valencia, and Manila; Manifesta 7; museums of contemporary art in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Ljubljana; Sculpture Center and Queens Museum of Art in New York; Royal Academy of Arts London; and design festivals in Milan, Istanbul, Eindhoven, and Amman. Recent exhibitions include shows at Kunsthaus Graz, the Aga Khan Museum Toronto, the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale in Riyadh, SA.
Aksamija holds master’s degrees in architecture from Graz University of Technology (2001) and Princeton University (2004), and a PhD in history, theory, and criticism in architecture from MIT (2011). She received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2013) for her work at the Islamic Cemetery Altach, Austria; the Art Award of the City of Graz (2018); and an honorary doctorate from Montserrat College of Art (2020). She was awarded the LafargeHolcim Award for the Middle East region (2021) with a commendation in the Global Competition, and was named an Emerging Voices Winner by the Architectural League of New York (2022).
This event is presented as part of Artfinity, an Institute-sponsored event celebrating creativity and community at MIT. Artfinity is organized by the Office of the Arts.
