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Born 1956 Cambridge, Massachusetts
Untitled
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Nowhere do the disciplines of art, architecture and engineering fuse as seamlessly as in the work of inventor Chuck Hoberman. Known internationally for his Unfolding Structures, Hoberman has created objects that are at once sculptures, shelters and awe-inspiring displays of mechanical movement.
His creation of an entirely new class of structures is the outcome of a unique personal journey. After studying liberal arts at Brown University and sculpture at Cooper Union, he worked on the early mechanical installations of conceptual artist Vito Acconci. From there, he went on to earn a graduate degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and to become a partner in Honeybee Robotics, where he designed technologies involving robotics, computer vision and advanced remote control, including a commission from nasa for deployable structures that could be used in future space stations. In 1990 he formed Hoberman Associates, which provides design, analysis and planning for a range of purposes, from innovative architecture and museum exhibits to toys, tents and medical products. Among Hoberman's permanent installations are the Expanding Hypar (1997) at the California Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles; the Expanding Geodesic Sphere (1993) at the Technorama der Schweiz, Winterthur, Switzerland; and the Expanding Geodesic Sphere (1992) at the Liberty Science Center, Jersey City. He has been honored with a Projects exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, which featured his Iris Dome (1994), and his work has been included in such exhibitions as The Art of the Engineer at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and Patents and the Process of Invention at Cooper Union.
The process of invention, for Hoberman, is a synthesis of discovery and creativity — a dialectic between that which exists and that which would not otherwise exist — that begins in fantasy and ends in reality.
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