Marcelo Coelho is a designer and researcher whose work dwells in the intersection of human-computer interaction, materials science and design. He is an inventor of paper computers, shape changing composites, interactive garments, and digital gastronomy.
Marcelo holds a BFA in Computation Arts, with highest honors, from Concordia University in Montreal, where he was also a Research Partner at XS Labs developing wearable technology and interactive textiles. He is currently based in Cambridge, MA, where he is on leave from his studio Zigelbaum + Coelho to complete his doctorate at the MIT Media Lab.
Marcelo’s work has been exhibited internationally, in venues such as Ars Electronica, Design Miami/Basel, W Hotels, Societe des arts technologiques, Gallerie Sequence, Digifest, Dutch Design Week, Collision Collective and Seamless Fashion Show, and has won several grants and awards, including Designer of the Future Award by Design Miami/Basel, MIT Council for the Arts Grant, VAV production grant, US National Congress on Computational Mechanics Award, Golden Key Visual & Performing Arts Achievement Award, and CHI Best Video Golden Mouse Award.
Academically, Marcelo’s research has been widely published in books, popular press and academic conferences such as SIGGRAPH, ISEA, ISWC, Ubicomp, TEI and CHI.
Marcelo has given numerous classes, workshops and public lectures at MIT, Fordham University, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, The Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Banff New Media Institute and Canada’s National Research Council. He currently co-teaches a course on Techniques for Design and Fabrication at the MIT Media Lab with a focus on interaction design and organizes the Transitive Materials workshops, a series of multidisciplinary gatherings that bring together artists, designers, scientists and researchers working at the shifting boundaries between people, materials and computers.