FIVE QUESTIONS WITH
Behnaz Farahi
No. 1
Why were you drawn to your medium?
I’ve always been fascinated by the expressive potential of materials, how they can move, sense, and even emote.
"Working with responsive and intelligent materials allows me to critically explore the boundaries between the body and its environment, and to mediate social and cultural issues in impactful ways."
No. 2
What 3 words feel at the heart of your work?
1/ Sensuality
2/ Emotion
3/ Materiality
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No. 3
How does where you’re from influence your work?
Growing up in Iran has deeply influenced my sensitivity to embodiment of female body and emotion.
The rich visual culture, poetic traditions, and complex social codes around the body and gender continue to inform how I think about materials as carriers of cultural meaning, emotional expression, and power.
"My work often reflects this tension between visibility and camouflage, intimacy and surveillance."
No. 4
What’s one cultural shift you’re loving lately?
A shift toward emotional intelligence and somatic awareness inspires me, a growing recognition that our bodies, feelings, and technologies are deeply interconnected, and that technology can mediate a critical lens through which we see the world.
"I love seeing design and art embrace empathy, care, and embodiment as essential forms of intelligence, not merely as matters of aesthetics or function."
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©Behnaz Farahi
FRIDAY GALLERY
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BEHNAZ FARAHI
Behnaz Farahi is a designer, creative technologist and critical maker. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she leads the Critical Matter Research Group. Trained as an architect, she explores how to foster an empathetic relationship between the human body and the space around it through the implementation of emerging technologies. Her goal is to enhance the interaction between human beings and the built environment by following morphological, and behavioral principles inspired by natural systems. Her work addresses critical issues such as feminism, emotion, bodily perception and social interaction. She specializes in computational design, interactive technologies, additive manufacturing and digital fabrication technologies.
Farahi has won several awards including the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Digital Design Award, Fast Company Innovation By Design Linda Tischler Award, World Technology Award (WTN) and is the recipient of the BASA and Madworkshop Grants and the Rock Hudson Fellowship. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Ars Electronica, Linz and Context Art Miami, SIGGRAPH, La Piscine Museum in France and A+D Architecture and Design Museum in LA and has been featured in several magazines and online websites including WIRED, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Frame Magazine, and many more.