University of Nebraska — Lincoln

Mossense

finalist project

Noah Trumble, Owen Strazdas, Annette Z. C. Foreman

Mossense explores the intersection of natural living materials and modern technology. By incorporating touch sensors into moss, the system functions like a switch or keypad, offering both physiological and psychological benefits similar to walking barefoot on grass. The primary goal is to integrate nature into the future of electronic technology, inviting it to play an active role in human-computer interactions. Mossense envisions applications in classrooms, offices, and urban infrastructure, aiming to redefine city landscapes by reintroducing natural textures and creating spaces that reconnect individuals with the earth, fostering a more immersive, nature-infused technological experience.

Ash Eliza Smith is an artist and designer who uses storytelling, worldbuilding, and speculative design to shape new realities. Smith works across art and science, between fact and fiction, and with human and non-human agents such as animals, plants, and machines to re-imagine the past and future of technology, systems, and rural-urban ecologies. Her work uses liveness, play, and participatory co-design, resulting in interactive stories, films, mixed reality theater, live-action role-plays (LARPs), and future prototypes. Smith is a visiting fellow at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and is an Assistant Professor at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts. She received her MFA from the Visual Arts program at UCSD, where she worked as an affiliate of the UCSD Design Lab and associate director of the Culture, Art, and Technology department. Previously, she attended the Performance Studies program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith has presented work at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Qualcomm Institute (Gallery QI), and La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival.

Sam Bendix is a multimedia artist, designer, and developer who co-creates narratives for immersive media. They incorporate techniques of speculative design, world building, and multispecies design into research and rapid prototyping for innovative solutions, methodologies, and geolocative immersive experiences. Bendix actively engages in education, helping teach at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts. Bendix has co-instructed a course for real-time 3D game engines with motion capture for real-time performance using the Optitrack System and a course on biodesign for the Biodesign Challenge. Having grown up on a farm and trained as a graphic designer, Bendix is interested in visually communicating the connections between food, water, and energy systems to drive meaningful change in how we create future food networks. Bendix also has a deep interest in communicating data through different modes of artistic visualization. Bendix received their Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.