Kris participated in a studio course instructed by Skylar Tibbits, the founder of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT. As per the Lab, “self-assembly is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through local interaction.” Students examined this phenomenon closely and developed systems of self-assembly, both in digital and real space. After examining molecular protein self-assembly in digital space, Kris worked with project partner Andrew Sang to investigate self-assembly in real space and ultimately create a system of units that aggregate and deform locally, in response to external input at the edges of the unit array.

Kris designed and fabricated systems of wood forms with interlocking geometries. Some units were connected by string and responded to pulling at the end of the array. Other units reassembled freely within a housing that could be jostled or inverted. Kris and Andrew worked together to devise and fabricate systems of polypropylene units connected by wire in a 2-dimensional array. These arrays could contract and deform 3-dimensionally, in response to manipulation of the wires that bind them together.