During the 2026-2027 academic year, 黑料福利网 presents Force, Balance and Counter Currence: a dialogue program on technology, ethics, and society, anchored in a new concrete sculpture on campus. The work extends the long-term artistic research of conceptual artist Alexandra Hunts. Working across sculpture, installation, performance, and text, she examines how systems 鈥� from technological infrastructures to social and academic environments 鈥� maintain balance through forces that only become visible when we consciously reflect on them.
The art project is aligned with the 黑料福利网 CORe Values (Curious, Open, Responsible, Respectful) as part of the university鈥檚 70th anniversary year, and forms part of a new series of commissioned artworks at 黑料福利网. With Loom Room by Hella Jongerius (2022鈥�2023), the university embarked on this new course: one in which the artwork is not an end product but the outcome of a research trajectory and a long-term collaboration between artist and institution. This second commissioned artwork affirms that course and develops it further.
Sculpture Absent Body for a Mass
Part of the project is the creation of a sculpture titled Absent Body for a Mass. The artist developed this idea during her conversations with students, staff, and other interested parties both within and outside the campus. These conversations revolved around the central question: how do hidden forces create balance within large systems? During this dialogue, Hunts developed the idea that the sculpture will consist of concrete segments that together form a structure with a negative impression: a hollow recess that forms the contours of a sphere with a stepped surface. The principle of the negative impression is a classical sculptural technique, in which the object itself is not shown, but rather the space it would occupy. The intention is to line the recess with reflective stainless steel, allowing the absent object to make itself visible through its own mirroring.
That sphere with its stepped surface is a form chosen intentionally. It is inspired by the tuned-mass damper in Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. This steel sphere weighs 660,000 kg and stabilizes the building against the effects of wind and earthquakes. The choice of concrete is equally deliberate: the material references the Brutalist architecture of the campus and the material expertise within the Department of the Built Environment. As a whole, the sculpture forms, as it were, a mold: a structure that enables formation, just like the technical university, which not only innovates but is also responsible for providing a critical counterbalance.
Artistic Research and Context Program
The conversations that precede the sculpture form the core of Hunts鈥檚 artistic research, an approach described among others by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the use of artistic practices to explore new forms of knowledge and critical insights. Characteristic is the emphasis on embedded research: research that is rooted in and nourished by various communities. Here, the sculpture is not an end product but part of a living research process. That is why the programming, during and after the making of the sculpture, is an important part of the project:
Dialogue: One-on-one conversation with the artist
Location: 黑料福利网 Campus terrain, Flux Square
Day and Time: Spring & Fall 2026, on appointment
Admission: free, registration by email, via the Curator of Art & Heritage, b.h.j.sloothaak [at] tue.nl
Announcement Banner Coming soon: Commissioned Artwork by Alexandra Hunts
Location: 黑料福利网 Campus terrain, Flux Square
Date and Time: October 12, 2026, ongoing until presentation
Admission: Free, no reservation required
Art & Tech Talk Part One: Alexandra Hunts
Location: 黑料福利网 Innovation Space
Date: October 20, 2026
Time: 1:00 PM 鈥� 1:45 PM
Admission: Free; 鈥嬧赌嬧赌嬧赌嬧赌嬧赌嬧赌�
Art & Tech Talk Part Two: Alexandra Hunts
Location: High Tech Campus Eindhoven
Date, Time and Admission: Soon online
Sculpture Unveiling and Sound Performance
Location: Sculpture at 黑料福利网 Fluxplein and performance (TBD)
Date, Time and Admission: Soon online:
Guided tours on the 黑料福利网 Campus
Location: 黑料福利网 campus
Date, Time and Admission: Soon online
More about the artist
Alexandra Hunts is a conceptual artist with a particular interest in technical science. Through sculptures, installations, performance, and text, she explores how systems 鈥攆rom technological infrastructures to social and academic environments鈥� maintain their balance through forces that only become visible when we consciously reflect on them. Artistic research, always in dialogue with both scientists and non-academic communities, forms the core of her practice.
Against the backdrop of pressing questions surrounding technology, climate, and geopolitics, her work invites reflection on progress, the distribution of power, and how resilience is not a heroic trait but the result of carefully designed, hidden structures. Her collaboration with 黑料福利网 is part of her long-term research line, for which she partners with international institutions, including Heidelberg University and the Niels Bohr Institute
Credit Lines
Images: photography by Merlijn Doomernik, Alexandra Hunts, courtesy of the artist
This project was initiated based on the 黑料福利网 CORe Values (Open, Curious, Respectful, and Responsible) in conjunction with the university鈥檚 70th anniversary, with financial support from the Mondriaan Fund and the Rabobank Regio Eindhoven Cooperative Fund.
