The exhibitions, workshops and lectures are free. Participation with your own modular system requires registration at houztekk.com

The Modular Body is an online science fiction story about the creation of OSCAR, a living organism built from human cells. Its inventor is Cornelis Vlasman, a versatile and innovative biologist. With the organism OSCAR, Vlasman demonstrates that it is possible to create modular life. Stem cells can be reprogrammed, grown and printed as any type of human tissue. The line separating humans from machines is gradually becoming thinner. What if this modular organism could be the model for a modular human body?

Director: Floris Kaayk; Research / scenario: Floris Kaayk / Ine Poppe; Interface design: LUSTlab; Animation: Floris Kaayk, Adriaan van Veldhuizen; Online strategy: Nienke Huitenga; Producer: seriousFilm; Co-producer: VPRO; Financially supported by Mediafonds, Stimuleringsfonds voor de Creatieve Industrie, Fonds 21, Stroom Den Haag, VPRO

This project explores the design and control of modular robots, called Roombots, to be used as building blocks for furniture that moves, self-assembles, and self-reconfigures. Modular robots are made of multiple simple robotic modules that can attach and detach. Connectors between units allow the creation of arbitrary and changing structures depending on the task to be solved. They offer higher versatility and robustness, as well as the possibility of self-reconfiguration. The type of scenario that we envision is a group of Roombots that autonomously connect to each other to form different types of furniture, e.g. stools, chairs, sofas and tables, depending on user requirements. This furniture will change shape over time as well as using actuated joints to move to different locations depending on the users needs. When not needed, the group of modules can create a static structure such as a wall or a box.