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This project examines the role technology can play in our longing to connect physically. Can machines be empowering tools that teach us about ourselves, our desires, and help us express our boundaries? Here, technology is the “alien” between us, a strange presence that both divides and unites. Footage: Tanja Busking Edit: Laura A Dima and Levi Kramer Models: Liane, Huub and Maria 3D Animation Titles: Levi Kramer Recording sound of the sculptures: Tanja Busking Sound Design: Levi Kramer and Laura A Dima
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![The Alien Between Us]( "The Alien Between Us")
infoInteractive sculpture that simulates the bio data of another visitor. Part of the The Alien Between Us project.
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![The Alien Between Us]( "The Alien Between Us")
infoInteractive sculpture that simulates the bio data of another visitor. Part of the The Alien Between Us project.
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![The Alien Between us]( "The Alien Between us")
infoInteractive sculpture that simulates the bio data of another visitor. Part of the The Alien Between Us project.
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![The Alien Between Us]( "The Alien Between Us")
infoInteractive sculpture that simulates the bio data of another visitor. Part of the The Alien Between Us project.
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![The Alien Between Us]( "The Alien Between Us")
infoInteractive sculpture that simulates the bio data of another visitor in stand-by mode. Part of the The Alien Between Us project. The sculpture in stand-by mode.
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![Interactive Installation]( "Interactive Installation")
infoInteractive installation with responsive sculptures simulating the bodily data of visitors.
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![Bellies]( "Bellies")
infoThe wearable sculptures merge two bodies through technology, taking the form of a pregnant belly.
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![Bellies]( "Bellies")
infoThe wearable sculptures merge two bodies through technology, taking the form of a pregnant belly.
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![Breathers]( "Breathers")
infoThis work merges the organic and the technological, resembling an alien plant with a bioluminescent flower that attracts visitors to interact. Biometric data is continuously detected and streamed without their awareness.
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![Breathers]( "Breathers")
infoBy touching the silicone part of this alien flower, visitors can sense the heartbeat and breathing of another visitor interacting with its twin sculpture.
My multidiciplinary practice bridges performance, technology, and academic research, resulting in multimedia art installations that examine intimacy, touch, and digital mediation from a technofeminist perspective.
I am an Art Scientist creating interactive sculptures that foster human connection within a techno-feminist framework. My practice is driven by a deep interest in social dynamics and emerging technologies, which leads me to create interactive installations that explore human connection. My work critically engages with consent, trust, power dynamics, privacy, and ethics of technology within mediated intimacies. Through various experimental setups in my installations, I am seeking to better understand our relationship to the body and how technology can be used as an empowering tool.
Websites
Portfolio website with projects, news, shows and my publications
lauraadima.com/Social media
Curriculum vitae
Education
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2023 - 2025ArtScience MA (Master of Arts) Den Haag, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten diploma
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2013 - 2014Art and Research Universiteit van Amsterdam
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2010 - 2015Bachelor of Art In Design Amsterdam, Gerrit Rietveld Academie diploma
exhibitions
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2025Manifestations VEEM Eindhoven, Netherlands Media Art Festival with Expo during Dutch Design Week from 18-26 October 2025 2025.manifestations.nl/ Group
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2025Graduation Show Royal Academy of Art The Hague, Netherlands Graduation Show with works I did as my my final project for the ArtScience Master www.kabk.nl/agenda/graduation-show-2025 Group
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2025Seventeen Frequencies Quartair The Hague, Netherlands Preview show before the graduation show. www.quartair.nl/ Group
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2025RoboSoft EPFL Laussanne, Switzerland International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft 2025), held at the SwissTech Convention Center on the EPFL campus. robosoft2025.org/arts-expo/ Group
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2025Maker Faire TU Delft Science Center Delft, Netherlands On Friday, May 9, the Maker Faire Delft took place on the TU Delft campus. With over 1,700 visitors, more than 200 makers, and 170 students, it was a vibrant festival full of creativity, technology, and innovation. Under the theme ‘Making for a Better Society’, makers and visitors came together to inspire one another and explore new ideas. delft.makerfaire.com/ Group
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2025Arse Elektronika: Plug & Play Atelierhaus der Akademie der bildenden Künste Vienna, Austria The longest-running event at the intersection of sex and technology returns with Arse Elektronika 2025 in Vienna. This year´s theme, Plug & Play, invites you to explore the ever-evolving relationship between sexuality and technology in the most provocative, critical, and entertaining ways possible. monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/ Group
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2024Digital Affections Colexio de Fonseca Santiago de Compostela, Spain The exhibition shows how human-machine interactions are reconfiguring the social and emotional fabric of our world and reflects on the power of algorithms and their impact on our lives from different approaches, such as hacktivism or cyborg poetics. www.usc.gal/gl/servizos/area/cultura/extension/emotions-afectos-dixitais Group
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2024Rethinking Ethics - Reimagining Technology University of Twente Enschede, Netherlands 4TU/ESDit (Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies) Conference on Philosophy and Ethics of Technology. www.4tu.nl/agenda/4tuethics-esdit-conference-philosophy-and-ethics-technology/ Group
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2024Art & Design Track Lille University of Technology Lille, France The EuroHaptics Conference 2024 Art & Design Track eagerly welcomes a myriad of artistic styles and approaches that delve into the immersive world of haptics. From interactive installations leveraging tactile interfaces to immersive multimedia experiences exploring the nuances of touch. eurohaptics.org/ehc2024/art-design-track-2/ Group
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2024Alternate Realities Site Gallery Sheffield, United Kingdom The immersive and interactive exhibition opened during DocFest, the documentary film festival in in Sheffield, UK. www.sheffdocfest.com/composition/alternate-realities-exhibition Group
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2024Not to be Senseless #2 iii workspace The Hague, Netherlands A collaboration with Journey Through the Senses ‘Not to be Senseless’ is a stage for neurodivergent art; with people and pieces that experience and explore neurodivergencies such as synaesthesia, savantism and autism. The evening opens up new perspectives by recognising differences in how we sense the world. instrumentinventors.org/agenda/not-to-be-senseless-2/ Group
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2024For the Love of the World De Veste Theatre Delft, Netherlands Can we write a new story for our world? One where we live in harmony with nature, treat each other equitably and use our knowledge and technology democratically? Studium Generale TU Delft presents the For Love of the World festival, in which we invite you to join us in looking for new and different stories about the world. During this journey, we bring together technology, philosophy, and art to come to new perspectives. sg.tudelft.nl/event/for-love-of-the-world-art-technology-and-philosophy-festival/ Group
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2024GRAUKUNST: FETISH Grey Space In The Middle The Hague, Netherlands The Graukunst exhibition, taking place during Grauzone Festival 2024, explores the theme FETISH with a diverse array of exceptional artists. FETISH delves into the realms of uniqueness, mutation, and the rediscovery of connection through objects and performance. Grauzone festival, with its inclusive atmosphere, brings together diverse subcultures and hosts a vibrant LGBTQ audience, providing a space for everyone to be themselves without fear of exclusion. www.grauzonefestival.nl/graukunstfetish Group
Projects
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2025
The Alien Between Us ArtScience Interfaculty The Hague, Netherlands graduation.kabk.nl/2025/laura-dima Interactive installation in which two people experience each other's heartbeat, breathing and temperature through responsive sculptures. Intimacy here arises precisely through separation. Without words or looks, direct contact becomes palpable through the rhythms of the body. The installation removes external features such as age, gender or ethnicity. What happens when you don't meet a 'person' but purely a presence? The work invites you to experience empathy beyond appearances and social scripts. When boundaries are crossed, the sculptures respond with a defensive mechanism. Thus, the work explores the ethics of consent, responsibility and care - both for each other and for the technology that mediates between us. Technology is like porous skin that enables new intimacy without judgement.
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2024
Breathers ArtScience Interfaculty The Hague, Netherlands lauraadima.com/projects/breathers/ This piece challenges the audience to reflect on the nature of consent in an age where we have limited control over our sensitive data and surveillance technologies blend seamlessly into the landscape. Visitors cannot switch off the transmission of their physiological signals, just as we cannot stop breathing or prevent our hearts from beating. Rather than framing this as an exercise in hopelessness, the work aims to raise awareness of constant surveillance and invites participants to reclaim agency by exploring the emotional feedback loops that may emerge.
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2024
Bellies Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten The Haague, Netherlands lauraadima.com/projects/wip/ Is it possible to merge two bodies through technology? In Bellies, two participants wear artificial womb-like sculptures on their abdomen, allowing them to feel the bodily signals of the other person. In this embodied way, they can experience what it means to ‘carry’ the other person within their own body. The work explores whether empathy and care can emerge through haptic and biofeedback interactions between adults.
International exchanges/Residencies
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2025TETEM Enschede, Netherlands Nexus program, in preparation for writing the proposal for my solo show there in 2026. tetem.nl/
Publications
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2025The Alien Between Us E-book Research Catalogue Laura A Dima The Hague, Netherlands www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=3765341&show-comments=1&show-reports=1 My MA thesis was published in the Research Catalogue, an online platform for self-publishing artistic research.
reviews
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2025Dezeen Magazine Rima Sabina Aouf Eindhoven, United Kingdom www.dezeen.com/2025/10/23/five-themes-dutch-design-week-2025/ Article about different artworks that made an impression on the writer during Dutch Design Week 2025 mentioning my work The Alien Between us as one that stuck with her.
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2025Radio România Cultural Radio Claudia Marcu Amsterdam, Romania www.radioromaniacultural.ro/emisiuni/orasul-vorbeste/ilustrata-din-amsterdam-dutch-design-week-ddw-saptamana-designului-trecut-prezent-posibil-id50613.html A Romanian journalist based in Amsterdam interviewed me about my upcoming show at DDW, and the interview was broadcast on Romania's national cultural radio.
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2025Libération Newspaper Agnes Giard France www.liberation.fr/lifestyle/intimites/des-machines-interactives-pour-se-caresser-a-distance-20250301_XDCFVVYZYFBZDDKP7XQ5YFWCD4/?redirected=1 Agnes Giard interviewed me about my work Bellies, which was to be presented at Arse Elektronika in Vienna. She writes a column on gender and sexuality for Libération, the French national newspaper.
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2022Het Parool Newspaper Edo Dijksterhuis Amsterdam, Netherlands www.parool.nl/kunst-media/directeur-emiel-van-der-pol-this-art-fair-geeft-een-zo-breed-mogelijk-perspectief-op-hedendaagse-kunst~bc490154/ Article published in Het Parool mentioning my installation Future Affair as one of the recommended artworks to see during This Art Fair 2022.
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2022NRC Opinion Newspaper Joyce Roodnat Netherlands The writer recommends the exhibition Come Alive as offering a fresh perspective on queer and inclusive sensuality, highlighting my work The Finger Rub Rug as a must-see piece.
Awards and grants
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2025Manifestations Young Talent Award Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven Eindhoeven, Netherlands Manifestations is an exhibition during Dutch Design Week showcasing projects at the intersection of art and technology. Manifestations invites visitors to reflect on how technology shapes the way they perceive, think, and act. The jury selected my project as the first-place winner.
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2025Installation/Sculpture Award Arts Thread London, United Kingdom Arts Thread Global Graduates Award in the Installation/Sculpture Category picked by the industry jury.
Secondary art-related activities
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2023 - 2025Co-curator Graukunst exhibition, during Grauzone Festival happening every year in The Hague On-going