About Etienne Delacroix

Etienne was trained as a physicist, then came to the conclusion that his experience doing science could form a foundation for doing art. He spent fifteen years as a painter, working out of a studio in Paris. Then, in 1998 he came as a visiting scholar to MIT, where he began experimenting with bringing the approach of an artist to the use of technological tools...

That thought led him on a nomadic journey, ending up in 2000 in Uruguay and Brazil, where he found a fertile intersection of technological, cultural opportunity, and need. In a series of workshops, he started teaching engineers how to work like artists, rather than the more common goal of teaching artists to use the tools of engineers. Read more>>

In partnership with Luys Foundation and UNICEF, Tumo provided the platform for the Idea Factory workshop, from April 20 to 28. This workshop aimed to engage young people in engineering and technology, using a learning-by-doing approach. Participants deconstructed old computers and reconstructed new machines from their components. By building functioning electronic inventions, they developed hands-on skills and acquired computer proficiency. The workshop encouraged young participants to discover the fun of engineering and technology and linked classroom concepts to the real world devices they use every day.

The Idea Factory workshop was led by Etienne Delacroix, an innovative visual artist and technologist from Belgium. Dr. Delacroix combines the expressive freedom of art and the rigorous demands of technological functionality. He first developed the "Nomadic Workshops" at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He has run similar workshops around the world, inviting youth to have hands-on experiences with electronics and sciences.  Dr. Delacroix now runs his own research lab in Bruxelles, Belgium where he presently resides.