Photography by: Vanessa Leroy
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Huili

Huili, a Chinese boundary-breaking technologist/scientist/designer, is currently working towards a PhD at MIT Media Lab. She’s a leader in research making robots that can understand and interact with people in a smart and social way. They’re working on figuring out how robots can affect our feelings and thoughts when we interact with them in different situations. 

Poetry of Science Collection, 2021. Digital Photograph. ©Poetry of Science. All rights reserved.

To Be Understood

@PoetryofSci

To be understood
Open me up and see what’s inside

I’m openly transparent

As you are my parent

All my makings are tested and tried

I can run as fast as a cheetah

But lack the grace of a ballerina

I carry an immeasurable ton

But I can’t fully appreciate the sun

Open me up and see what’s inside

Wires for veins

Binaries for brains

All my makings are tested and tried

I can calculate quite quick

But can’t savor the taste of a lollipop lick

Analyze algorithms all day

But can’t enjoy sitting by the bay

Open me up and see what’s inside

I’ve got a metal plated casing

The highest tech embracing

All my makings are tested and tried

I can land on the moon

But can’t sing a tune

I have no need for sleep

I have no dreams to keep

Open me up and see what’s inside

Charged by a battery

Developed at a factory

All my makings are tested and tried

I have 10 light sensors for eyes

But can’t perceive tricks or lies

I’m designed in pink, orange and blue

All my undertones are decided by you

Open me up and see what’s inside

Wheeling or wriggle around

The prototype experimentally sound

All my makings are tested and tried

I brighten the room with a light

But can’t fathom a flying kite

I can analyze at a glance

Yet I will not gamble by chance

Open me up and see what’s inside

The evolution from typewriter to phone

I could not accomplish on my own

All my makings are tested and tried

I don’t know what my next form will be

I haven’t the foresight to see

I may have 12 trials, tubes or a tail

You devise models with utmost detail

- Rachel Wahlert

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The Poetry of Science

The Project: Scientists of color and local poets of color are collaborating to create poetry based on the work, motivations, and history of the scientists. We are working with fine art photographer Vanessa Leroy, to create portraits of each scientist for public display alongside their associated poetry. Selected poets and scientists will be published in a dedicated issue of an award-winning literary journal. Our Mission: The Poetry of Science counters the negative associations handed down by systemic racism by creating new and positive associations between people of color (POC), the arts, the sciences, how nature is perceived, and what it means to generate knowledge. In this context, POC offer new ways to understand and create novel realities to resist systems of oppression.

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