In Make/Care the students learned basics of soft wearables and the exploration of biological textiles. They explore the potential of bacterial cellulose for textile futures in terms of growing living materials and rethink scenarios for second skins, sensors, and adaptive responsive structures.
Technology is getting closer and closer to our skin. What we wear today will soon be forgotten and replaced with biological technologies that are not only changing and challenging the way we consume and experience design and fashion, but also how we relate to and work with nature instead of against it. At this crucial point, as we tumble towards bio collapse; ensued by our growth-obsessed culture and unsustainable models for living, the challenge and responsibility of contemporary designers, thinkers and researchers is to lead with awareness and sensibility towards both the planet and its people. We have a responsibility to create a space for dialogue and a framework for reflection, to inspire innovation that will disrupt our current fatal model. Through Coded Biophilia and within this space, we have the opportunity to re-think the relationship between technology, design and society.
Learning new methods of making sensory surfaces for wearables and to envision how biotechnology and new materials will shape our environment.
At the end of the workshop, students were able to identify state-of-the-art soft wearable and bio-textiles applications. Students were critically engage with the processes and methods of making/production. This includes aspects of materials, tools and models of practice. Working individually and in groups, students developed a creative body of visual research, including tactile inspirations and physical samples, document and recorded all the experiments and processes. Finally they had produced an working prototype and combine it with an social context.
Can soft technology expand the ways our bodies sense and interact with the environment?
Projektleitung: Giulia Tomasello
Giulia Tomasello https://codedbodies.com