Nicolás Kisic Aguirre is a Peruvian-American architect and transdisciplinary sound artist. He creates machines that explore and illuminate the social and political nature of sound in public space. In 2018, he graduated from the MIT program in Art, Culture, and Technology. With a background in architecture and a lifelong fascination with machines, Kisic Aguirre designs and builds sound instruments and robots that examine the relationships among space, power, technology, and sound. His critical and aesthetic practice is open-source, collaborative, and highly engaged with the public. Nicolás recently earned his Ph.D. from the DXARTS program at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is currently conducting research and creating art in Mexico City, focusing on his project, Disobedient Robots / Desobediencias Robóticas, which was initially supported by a Fulbright Arts/Research Grant. He is also building new robots and machines as a Michigan Central x Newlab Fellow in Detroit.
Photo: Janice Bryson
His work has been presented at Centro Nacional de las Artes (CENART) in Mexico City, MIT Museum, Venice Biennial, Dutch Design Week, Ars Electronica Festival, ISEA International, Design Indaba Conference, and at various other experiences and interventions in Japan, Chile, Germany, Peru, Australia, Colombia, France, and the United States.