Artist & Researcher
Atlanta, GA
How to Die in Orbit
2026–ongoing
They suspend.
How to Die in Orbit asks what it means for a built thing to know how to end.
Developed from vibration-tuned modular structures, the project creates architectures that release, detach, or undo themselves through encoded mechanical triggers rather than electronic control.
Positioned between sculpture, aerospace engineering, and material intelligence, the work responds to orbital debris, programmed obsolescence, and the politics of permanence.
It proposes that anything sent into orbit should have its ending designed with the same care as its beginning.
Developed from vibration-tuned modular structures, the project creates architectures that release, detach, or undo themselves through encoded mechanical triggers rather than electronic control.
Positioned between sculpture, aerospace engineering, and material intelligence, the work responds to orbital debris, programmed obsolescence, and the politics of permanence.
It proposes that anything sent into orbit should have its ending designed with the same care as its beginning.
Zero-Gravity Fashion
2022-2023
Gravity lets go.
Zero-Gravity Fashion explores how clothing behaves when gravity is removed.
Developed through the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, the project reimagines garments as adaptive structures rather than passive surfaces. In microgravity, fabric no longer falls, drapes, or settles in familiar ways. It suspends, expands, and moves with the body as a dynamic spatial system.
Positioned between fashion, aerospace, and performance, the work asks how the design of clothing changes when the environment itself is transformed.
Tested aboard a parabolic flight, the project treats weightlessness not as spectacle, but as a new condition for making.
Developed through the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, the project reimagines garments as adaptive structures rather than passive surfaces. In microgravity, fabric no longer falls, drapes, or settles in familiar ways. It suspends, expands, and moves with the body as a dynamic spatial system.
Positioned between fashion, aerospace, and performance, the work asks how the design of clothing changes when the environment itself is transformed.
Tested aboard a parabolic flight, the project treats weightlessness not as spectacle, but as a new condition for making.
Liquid Choreography
2022-2023
Sound takes shape.
Sound Made Visible explores how sound can take physical form.
Using ferrofluid, electromagnets, and live audio input, the project transforms music into continuously shifting material choreography. Magnetic liquid rises, branches, pulses, and collapses in response to composed sound.
Developed through collaboration between engineering and music students, the work treats matter not as passive display, but as an active medium for translating vibration into image.
Positioned between sculpture, performance, and scientific instrument, the project asks whether listening can become a spatial experience.
Using ferrofluid, electromagnets, and live audio input, the project transforms music into continuously shifting material choreography. Magnetic liquid rises, branches, pulses, and collapses in response to composed sound.
Developed through collaboration between engineering and music students, the work treats matter not as passive display, but as an active medium for translating vibration into image.
Positioned between sculpture, performance, and scientific instrument, the project asks whether listening can become a spatial experience.
When Geometry Meets Matter
2022-2023
every geometry.
When Geometry Meets Matter explores what happens when digitally perfect forms encounter the limits of physical fabrication.
Using a series of ceramic interpretations of the iconic Stanford Bunny, the project translates computational morphologies into cast objects through 3D printed molds, plaster processes, and manual finishing.
Some forms emerge easily. Others collapse, trap air, fracture, or remain impossible to make.
Positioned between computer graphics and sculpture, the work reveals that material reality is not a passive receiver of design, but an active force that negotiates every form.
Using a series of ceramic interpretations of the iconic Stanford Bunny, the project translates computational morphologies into cast objects through 3D printed molds, plaster processes, and manual finishing.
Some forms emerge easily. Others collapse, trap air, fracture, or remain impossible to make.
Positioned between computer graphics and sculpture, the work reveals that material reality is not a passive receiver of design, but an active force that negotiates every form.
One Pull, Form Emerges
2022-2023
Tension brings it out.
One Pull, Form Emerges explores how complex form can arise from a single gesture.
Developed at MIT CSAIL, the project transforms flat sheets into three-dimensional structures through pull-up nets: routed strings that fold pre-cut geometries into spatial objects with one continuous pull.
Positioned between computation, fabrication, and sculpture, the work treats assembly not as many steps, but as encoded potential waiting to be released.
From masks to furniture to deployable systems, the project asks how structure can be stored flat and awakened through motion.
Developed at MIT CSAIL, the project transforms flat sheets into three-dimensional structures through pull-up nets: routed strings that fold pre-cut geometries into spatial objects with one continuous pull.
Positioned between computation, fabrication, and sculpture, the work treats assembly not as many steps, but as encoded potential waiting to be released.
From masks to furniture to deployable systems, the project asks how structure can be stored flat and awakened through motion.
Xinyi Yang
Artist & Researcher based in Atlanta.
I work across mechanics, robotics, architecture, and fabrication to explore how intelligence and agency can be embedded in matter itself.
My projects investigate gravity, resonance, transformation, and the expressive potential of physical systems.
Education
Xinyi Yang is an artist and researcher working across mechanics, robotics, architecture, and fabrication.
She received a Master in Design Studies (M.Des.) from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, with cross-registration at MITMedia Lab and CSAIL.
She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Robotics at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.
Her work has been presented through Harvard GSD, MIT Media Lab initiatives and published in venues including Nature Communications, Advanced Intelligent Systems, and Physical Review Applied.
Statement
Xinyi Yang’s practice asks how intelligence, memory, and agency might exist in matter itself.
Working with mechanisms, resonance, gravity, folding, and transformation, she creates structures that sense, release, adapt, or perform without relying on conventional digital control. Her installations and prototypes often operate in the threshold between object and behavior, where physical systems appear to decide, negotiate, or respond.
She is interested in material as an active participant rather than a passive medium: something that stores logic, carries tension, resists command, and reveals hidden forms of intelligence.
Across sculpture, engineering, and speculative design, her work proposes futures in which technology thinks not only through code, but through form.