While studying architecture in Milan, Paola Antonelli was inspired by Benoît Mandelbrot’s work and eventually wrote her thesis on fractal architecture. In this conversation, she and Jimena Canales will explore the impact of Mandelbrot’s elegant theories on architecture and design as they apply to the common problems of everyday life.

Paola Antonelli is senior curator in the department of architecture and design and director of research and development at the Museum of Modern Art. Her most recent exhibition is Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects.

Jimena Canales, an associate professor of the history of science at Harvard University, works in the field of the Experimental History of Science (EHS). She is the author of A Tenth of a Second: A History.