Brigitte Louter

The most incredible phenomena only come to light on scales of time and size invented to demystify the world. Take the humble water flea for instance, that fascinates Brigitte Louter. In unfavourable circumstances, its eggs do not fully hedge but remain dormant in an ephippium, a protective envelope. They can stay in this state for up to 600 years – and still come to life. At EKWC, Louter reproduced several ephippia in ceramics on a larger scale, their two halves rotating like old-fashioned kitchen timers, with one full rotation meant to take 600 years. The many mechanical questions this raises still need to be resolved… Meanwhile, Louter collaborated with Jesus Canuto Iglesias on a mechanical emulation of albatrosses conducting their courtship ritual. They used a 3D scan of an albatross skull to model the beaks, that are mounted on robot arms to mimic the birds’ intricate instinctive movements.