- Biomechatronics
Dr. Ana Rajcevic is an artist, designer, and research scientist working at the intersection of embodied design, animal-inspired bionics, and hybrid body architectures. She designs, builds, and investigates inhabitable technologies and non-anthropomorphic body systems that fuse human, animal, and artificial forms — operating across scales from robotic body artefacts and prosthetic ecologies to architectural environments. Her research positions embodiment as a designable condition — one that may fundamentally reshape how humans, technologies, and environments co-evolve.
As a Research Scientist in the Biomechatronics Group and Distinguished Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), Rajcevic leads research into neurally controlled biomimetic and non-anthropomorphic prostheses, investigating how their design, morphology, dynamics, and functionality influence experiences of embodiment, agency, and ownership. Specifically, this research includes the development of an octopus-inspired continuum prosthetic limb: a neurally controlled, non-anthropomorphic appendage designed to interface with the human neuromuscular system through voluntary motor control and sensory feedback. More broadly, the research investigates how neurally integrated, non-human morphologies reshape bodily perception and agency, exploring whether radically unfamiliar forms can be incorporated into the human body schema. Can humans embody morphologies with no evolutionary or anatomical precedent — and under what conditions does such embodiment emerge?
Her interdisciplinary work spans embodied systems, installations, performances, and scientific research. Rajcevic’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Triennial, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Science Museum, and the Venice Design Biennale, and is held in permanent collections including that of the Design Museum Den Bosch. She has collaborated with institutions including Autodesk Research, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and the Jožef Stefan Institute, and her work has been featured internationally in publications including WIRED, The Guardian, CNN, and The Independent. Rajcevic is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and Visiting Lecturer at the University of the Arts London.