ANNEMARIE BAUMGARTEN
Fabricator and Puppeteer
Currently studying Art & Technology at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Annemarie explores Kinetic Art, Fabrication and puppetry through her unique lens of retrofuturism. Drawing from her experience having been born and raised in Miami, FL, a rapidly developed city with a deeply intimate culture, she is influenced by the “Tropical” Deco architecture and the city's tumultuous history.
Her work often centers on animated figures and interactive systems, inviting viewers into intimate, responsive environments where objects carry agency and meaning beyond their physical form. Annemarie’s practice examines the relationship between the human and technological/Cultural systems.
The Tin Hat
2026
Do (Not) Touch
2025
As an emerging Fabricator and Puppeteer, I find myself attracted to activated art as it creates such an intimate relationship between the artist and the object. I have always felt drawn to the innate emotion found in the inanimate. Fabrication is so intentional. Materiality, construction, articulation and performance are all deliberate choices made to create a likeness, they tell a story or make a statement. This allows the object to carry meaning beyond its physical form. The ability to invite a viewer into this ecosystem and foster mutual understanding is so unique to the art form.
Exploring this dynamic through complex mechanical movements and ideas deeply commits me to exploring mechanisms and puppetry as both a performative and sculptural practice. Utilizing found objects, hand crafted metals/woods and fiber materials combined with analog mechanics or digital control to draw out the life of the materials, to create a presence.
Through thoughtful design and intentional performance, I aim to create activated/performing objects that imagine futures rooted in the optimism and anxieties of the past. The concept of Retrofuturism allows me to play with these factors of appearance to emulate the retrofuturist aesthetic of nostalgia coupled with speculation. Through this, the object, puppetry, becomes a tool not only for storytelling but for exploring ideas about technology, culture and the imagination of tomorrow.