On October 27, Eugene Lang College’s Skybridge Art & Sound Space became home to Artifix Mori, a new exhibit that brings together the arts and the sciences with help from members of the New School community.
From now until January 31, the exhibition, featuring silkworm cocoons and LED lights, will hang across the Skybridge wall through actuators that convert energy into movement. With these tools, the piece simulates the sights and sounds of silk production.

Artifix Mori, named after the Bombyx mori species of silkworm, is the brainchild of Brooklyn-based artists John Ensor Parker and Jason Krugman. Despite initially studying physics and economics, respectively, they both feel that art, and their installation in particular, thrives on similar principles.

“This exhibit is about people cultivating relationships with nature,” said Parker, who has spent much of his life studying math and physics. “What better way to do that than with art?”

The project was also constructed and curated in conjunction with members of Lang’s School of Visual Art Studies. Students registered in workshop classes that emphasized the bonds between science and art.

This is the second time in the school’s history that this process has been used to create a visual arts exhibition at the Skybridge. In 2009, artist Eve Mosher worked on an ecological exhibit, entitled “Signs of Growth,” in which students took part in a workshop and assisted in the construction process.

“That was a great exhibit,” said Simonetta Moro, co-curator for Artifix Mori. “But this project is much more contained, and it has left the school with something fresh and tangible that will make a great impact.”

Students who attended the exhibit’s opening reception expressed an overall sense of gratitude for their ability to contribute.

“This has been a really great project to take part in,” said Piera Yerkes, one of the student participants from the program. “It was just such a cool thing to build, and we had a really fun time doing it.”