Nicole Yi Messier is a new media artist and educator with a focus on storytelling, craft, and community. Her practice mixes both physical and digital technologies into installations and experiences that unleash exploratory forms of interaction. Her work spans mediums including textiles, physical computing, and code. 

Storytelling, community, and craft are integral to my work as a multidisciplinary artist, technologist, and educator. My practice mixes both physical and digital technologies into installations and pieces that unleash exploratory forms of interaction. 

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"The work I create seeks to refocus the mysticism behind machines and hardware through architectural and sculptural interactives. My practice researches and exposes unknown ways to incorporate how to use technologies in avenues that were not intended, often creating new, soft, and tangible interfaces. Working on sculptural and architectural scale pieces with fibers, hardware, and soft technologies, the work I create ranges in form from hanging textile sculptures to interactive garments to code-based drawings.

My philosophy is to create structures and installations that are hands-on, communal, group-focused, and to always have a transparent layer between any technology and the viewer. I often accomplish this by exploring very specific technologies and combining these with a range of materials including textiles, paper, and other analog forms.

Working across storytelling, textiles, physical computing, and code-based media, my practice is a hybrid one that is dependent on research and frequently, research through making. As a form of documenting this research in an inclusive and open-source manner, I utilize community organization as a central part of my practice where I am able to document, share, and teach my work. Community workshops and programs are intertwined into my process." 

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