dutch design week, 17-25 oktober 2026 eindhoven

Simulacra Physis

Simulacra Physis explores how humans, nature, and technology merge, imagining hybrid futures where the organic and artificial intertwine.

Hosted by Thies Mensink

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Accessibility

Fully wheelchair accessible

Opening hours

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Simulacra Physis explores the shifting boundaries between humans, nature, and technology. Inspired by natural systems, it imagines hybrid futures of machines and organisms, inviting reflection on life, beauty, and ethics in a technologically integrated world.

The fusion of nature and technology

Simulacra Physis examines the increasingly fluid boundary between humans, nature, and technology. As these realms converge, technology becomes more than a tool—it integrates into bodies, environments, and evolving definitions of what it means to be natural. Robotics, in particular, plays a transformative role, reshaping physical experience through prosthetics, biotic limbs, and other forms of augmentation.

What kind of nature might emerge from this fusion? And what are the ethical and aesthetic implications of such a shift?

Inspired by the movement found in natural systems—its fragility, unpredictability, rhythm, and elegance—Simulacra Physis explores how artificial systems like robotics might replicate or reinterpret these qualities. Rather than mimic nature directly, the project speculates on its evolution: a vision of nature that is part machine, part organism, and entirely new.

Simulacra Physis invites viewers to reconsider how we define life, agency, and beauty in a world where biology and technology no longer stand apart but become increasingly intertwined.

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Thies Mensink

programme.hosted_by.about Thies Mensink

Thies Mensink is a multidisciplinary designer based in Arnhem, working at the intersection of product design, installation design, body-related design, and digital media. His practice explores the merging of humans, nature, and technology, imagining hybrid futures where the organic and artificial intertwine. Inspired by natural systems, he uses experimental, interdisciplinary methods to question how we define life, agency, and beauty in a technologically integrated world.

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Designer and maker Thies Mensink