Design Map · Eindhoven
The Engine
Graduation project by Adele Messiaen & Lex Lemson at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
What are the mechanics of a moving image, and when does something become one? ‘The Engine’ is a machine that simultaneously produces and displays a moving image. It functions as a laboratory: a platform that invites image makers to experiment with how motion can be created and perceived.
Its steel frame supports horizontal and vertical axes fitted with strips of analogue imagery. When activated, the strips move like conveyor belts, sliding across, over and under one another. Stacked in layers, they travel at different speeds and in different directions.
When looking out of a train window, distant horizons glide steadily while nearby elements rush past, briefly aligning before drifting apart again. Through layered movement, the machine explores this idea of relative motion. While the machine’s image continuously transforms, viewers move around the exposed mechanism, adding yet another layer of perspective.