Linda, the most-read magazine for women in the Netherlands, published an article about my work, recommending it as a tip for experiencing during the Highlight Delft, an art and technology festival with this year’s theme on robotics, Robo-Futures.

I am especially pleased with the text they used to introduce my project, and I will share here a translation of their article:

During the Highlight Festival in Delft, the historic city centre is transformed into “a laboratory of art, technology, and human connection.” Laura A Dima’s The Alien Between Us is an interactive art installation exploring the influence of technology on intimacy. You enter the space with another person and allow your bodies to communicate through “alien sculptures” that respond to heartbeat, breath, and touch. The installation encourages you to think about consent, connection, and emotion in a new way.

This article in Gonzo (circus) discusses some of the projects presented during Dutch Design Week 2025 in Eindhoven, among which a selection of projects from Manifestations are mentioned, including mine. See below a translation of that section, the original article is written in Dutch.

The tenth edition of Manifestations once again gathers young talent on the eighth floor of the Veem Building. The projects are situated at the intersection of art and technology, often with a critical perspective on the current situation.

In the interactive installation “The Alien Between Us” by Laura A Dima, two people are connected by a transparent, luminous sculpture and electrodes, allowing them to sense each other’s body rhythms. Intimacy at a distance. Zhenyi Zhou’s beautiful sculptures demonstrate that spirituality, folklore, and technology don’t necessarily have to lead to the technocratic posthumanism of Elon Musk. “Animal Love” by Tristan Kruithof and “Meat Machine” by Gijs Hennen confront the meat industry.

I am so excited to see my name published in Dezeen, a publication I have been following for years. And to see how my work has been received, understood and contextualised in these strange times by the author. Thank you for that!

Creature features

“How to explain the abundance of weird critters, quasi-terrestrial beings and ambiguous entities in this year’s DDW?

I will never forget Laura A. Dima‘s interactive artwork The Alien Between Us at Manifestations, which invites people to cradle warm, breathing robotic creatures that seem sweet and helpless despite looking vaguely like disembodied organs, or artist Isabell Bullerschen‘s goo-like imagined life form Isperia at Other Intelligences, which you could get to know via VR while sitting wrapped in its physical plush tentacles.

Other Intelligences also featured media artist Sookyun Yang’s Exotic Species in the Robot Ecosystem, which uses AI to imagine a world of non-humanoid robots mashing up different characteristics from the animal kingdom, while an exhibition by the Fontys Research Group of Interaction Design titled Human Zoo (top image) features slightly more familiar forms.

These projects speak to the human drive to recognise and protect life, even in its most liminal guises. It seems very apt for a time when designers are grappling with ideas of “more-than-human” intelligences, whether they be natural or artificial.”

by Rima Sabina Aouf

The ED (Eindhoven Dagblad) newspaper published an article about winning the Manifestations Young Talent Award during Dutch Design Week 2025.

The English translation of the article is as follows:

Laura A Dima has won the Young Talent Award. Each edition of Manifestations comes with this award, offered to one of the participants. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. The jury on this 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.”