Olivier Brueckner

Design Technologist
Olivier is an industrial and interaction designer from Germany. Before this program, he worked for the global consultancy IDEO. Next to studying, he also works on his hardware prototyping tool blokdots.
He has a passion for physical computing and speculative design.
Olivier is an industrial and interaction designer from Germany. Before this program, he worked for the global consultancy IDEO. Next to studying, he also works on his hardware prototyping tool blokdots.
He has a passion for physical computing and speculative design.
Thesis Faculty
John SharpJamie KeilesClarinda Mac LowBarbara Morris

INT-91 — An Alien Life Form

For over 30 years, unusual artifacts have been discovered around the world. So far, we have not come to a conclusion about who or what is creating them. It is our belief that these are artifacts from an alien life form that we have labeled “INT–91” (Intelligent-Non-Terrestrial). We want to understand why the artifacts are here and what they are intended for. We have arrived at a few conclusions about the behavior of these objects, but we are still very far from understanding the full scope of their operation.

Fig. 1: The artifact C219–INT–91 pulsating.

We assume that their reaction to human behavior is a sign that these devices exist to learn about humanity. As their reactions are mostly limited to actions of approval or denial, it seems that they sense human behavior and preferences.

The frequencies that the cubes react to are foreign to us, but given our understanding of waves, we assume that this is an indicator of the language that the alien species use to interact with the device and potentially even amongst each other.

The glyphs within the structure are a hint toward the species’ culture. Even though we still know very little about the purpose of the glyphs themselves, we can already formulate assumptions about the life-form’s different dimensional origin. If the glyphs are symbols of meaning or simply a functional feature of the devices remains to be understood.

Fig. 2: Multiple cubes found in the New York City Subway (2008). A sign of their connection to humans and increasing occurrence.
Fig. 3: Specimen C631 to C633-INT-91 found in the street in New York City (2022). One of the artifacts is glowing.

They generally occur around highly populated areas, almost proportionally to the inhabitants. In a few cases, we discovered them also outside of high-density areas but never far removed from human inhabitation. (See figures 2 and 3.)

Read The Full INT–91 Research Paper

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The internet constantly surrounds us. It has become such a given that we do not even appreciate the wonder this technology enables us to anymore. At the same time, the internet is constantly changing. The internet from 20 years ago is vastly different from today and very likely that this will remain true for the following years. Like a life form, the internet is evolving, adapting to its environment.

This is a thought experiment in which the internet is represented as an alien life form. The artifact represents the interaction that the internet has with us, humans. It is purposefully kept vague and does not reveal the underlying inspiration to leave the viewer puzzled, only hinting at its origin. The project aspires that eventually, the true meaning is realized, and this technology gets appreciated a little bit more again.