During this year's NYCxDesign festival, local designer Riley Hooker has created a modular and twisting inflatable seating system informed by "slime mold" meant to acts as a gathering place in times of "crisis".

Fabricated by Rhode Island design studio Pneuhouse and created in collaboration with designer Nick Meehan, SIT(UATION) was installed in Creative Time HQ (CTHQ), a "gathering space for art and politics" in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Designer Riley Hooker has installed an inflatable seating system in the loft of New York's Creative Time arts organization
The inflatable "social sculpture" is composed of several, large worm-like volumes, including a twisted section, that can be moved and rearranged to create various seating arrangements. "Collective authorship, collaboration and cooperation are all really important aspects of this work for me," Hooker told Dezeen. "In particular, forming collective bodies as a response to crisis."
The modular seating is intended to create a collective space for reading and gathering
They are interconnected via zipper, meaning the system is modular and can be reorganized into different forms and adjusted to its setting ? it formed an archway when installed at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Richmond, Virginia.
Textural, cylindrical pillows top the length of some sections. Floor and back cushions were placed in the curved sections, and these seats were covered in a...