On Monday 15th of March at 6 pm CET, Elisava Research and Hangar hosted the BIOLAB CONFERENCE.
The conference aim was to dedicate a day to nature, materiality, bio-design and engineering.
During the day, each speaker talked about their researches or specific projects that they are developing. with a final discussion.
Timeline and speakers:
Maria Boto, a researcher at KASK- School of Arts, University College Ghent.
Maria talked about the project “Ecology of Color. Research journey from nature to materiality”.
The project focused on the organ of colour in humans being which come from pigments and structures. The goal of the research is to become the bridge between nature and design by dissecting the bases of colour generation and translating them into an applicable and sustainable material.
Juan Crespo, PhD, Dr. Juan Crespo. Research Leader of Engineering, Design & Living Systems at ELISAVA Research BIOLAB.
Juan explored the “Growing Engineering & Design (and thus, bio)”. He talked about the concept of growing instead of violently manipulate nature to produce objects.
Can we grow a machine? Well, the answer surely depends on what we consider a machine. Can we grow materials? Materials are naturally grown in nature, without machining. Thus, an innovative approach is the implementation of these natural growing techniques into our manufactures. Many designers are now growing their own materials, transforming their workspaces into biological labs. This transformation, turning “extracting from nature” for “growing with nature”, is the challenge engineering & design is going to face this decade.
Laura Benitez, PhD, Partner leader of Biofriction. Bio-disruptions.
With her presentation “On scale, care(s) and interdependence”, Laura explained the Biofriction project and its approaches to experimental practices using biomaterials.
Experimentation with biomaterials not only allows humans to develop new lines of research or implementations in the field of design, but it also places us in front of non-human scales. Bio-agents that become hegemony disruptors, challenging us to other relationships based on care and interdependence.
The presentation was organized in the Framework of Elisava’s BioLab Week and the Master in Design through New Materials, and organized in collaboration with Biofriction, a project financed by the Creative Europe project and led by Hangar.