Can’t express how happy I am to hear that I have won the Manifestations Young Talent Award during Dutch Design Week with my MA graduation work, The Alien Between Us. Thank you, Manifestations! and Dutch Design Week for supporting and following my work for the last years.

Manifestations is an exhibition during Dutch Design Week with projects operating at the intersection of art and technology. Manifestations asks you how far technology defines your world, thinking and acting.

The jury commented on my work:

“An interactive installation in which two people experience each other’s heartbeat, breathing, and temperature through responsive, wearable sculptures. Intimacy arises precisely through separation. An intermediary for human emotions. Yet another machine between people? The jury was a little apprehensive but was overwhelmed by Dima’s work. Her sculpture feels surprisingly human: like a warm baby in your arms, something you want to cherish and care for. Meanwhile, you sense ‘the other,’ whether that’s pleasant or unpleasant. Do we need an intermediary sculpture to still feel and experience each other? In times of far-reaching individualisation and polarisation, this is a pressing question, one that could not have been tangibly depicted in a better and more creative way. For Dima, metaforms are not metaphors but a channel for a serious story and issue. Moreover, the jury gives extra praise for the technical and visual execution.”