Hannah Perner-Wilson
My work combines conductive materials and craft techniques to develop new styles of building electronics that emphasize materiality and process. I create working prototypes to demonstrate the kinds of electronic artifacts we might build for ourselves in a world of electronic diversity. A significant part of my work goes into documenting and disseminating my techniques so that they can be applied by others.
Since 2020 I’m guest professor of the Spiel&&Objekt Masters program at the University of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin. Working with Friedrich Kirschner and students to explore forms of participatory storytelling that allow us to renegotiate our roles in this world. As storytellers we reflect on the social relevance of technologies, materials and making.
In 2015 I joined an expedition to the jungle of southern Madagascar which inspired me to start producing A Wearable Studio Practice – a collection of wearable and portable items that make it easier to become nomadic in my practice of making and experiencing the world.
Since 2006 I’ve been collaborating with Mika Satomi, forming the collective KOBAKANT. Together we produce work that pokes fun at technology in our lives, and we maintain an online database titled How To Get What You Want, where we share our textile sensor designs and DIY approach to E-Textiles.
I received a B.Sc. in Industrial Design from the University for Art and Industrial Design Linz and an M.Sc. in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab, where I was a student in the High-Low Tech research group. My thesis work focused on developing, documenting and disseminating a Kit-of-No-Parts approach to building electronics.