It is 2021. The world has been thinking about and working on ecological and evolutionary thinking and designing. The big question remains to be our position as humans. Our destructive influence on the climatological, biophysical and evolutionary processes might be everlasting, or might it not? At BioArt Laboratories we are researching the ‘blueprint’ for a new periode in human history. A period in which the human, design, nature and evolution melt together: the Symbioscene. This periode of symbiosis should end the ‘Anthropocene’: the time in which the human prioritized itself above all other living beings. Instead of using nature and it’s materials, we asked our talents how they would see themselves and what should change for us in order to be able to live in a world which consists of a symbiosis between human and nature.
This year BioArt Laboratories presents: ‘The Symbiocene Forest’. Due to covid, this year our Talent Pressure Cooker looked a little different. We were not able to welcome the artist on site for a working periode. Nevertheless being locked inside their houses did not hold our talents back from researching, creating, experimenting and discovering. We placed an open call on our website for artist to respond to. This resulted in a world protecting itself from the virus, while our selected our talents envisioned new ideas’ for the future.
We invited top talents from all over the world to submit their project proposals, in which they showed what the Symbiocene could mean to them. They were encouraged to explore the options of a symbiosis between human and nature, rethink our use of materials and our connection to the world around us. Within (product) design, material (re-)usability, and even the creation of awareness, our talents founded ideas for a new future. Our human position, and our power over nature are clearly at a turning point. A point in time where we are looking to give up our control and regain a connection with nature.
During the Dutch Design Week we were able to open our gates to the public. The exhibition ‘the symbiocene forest’ tells a story of (re-)discovering, (re-)validating and coming together of new visions on the future. Visitors start their journey in the large windowed room. A earthly coloured cube made from linnen in hanging in the middle of the room. KLAAIKLÚT is Marije Dijkstra’s work about dyeing textiles with local silt, mud and clay. A material you find almost everywhere, but its existence is often forgotten. During her research she discovered new outcomes, colours and textures over and over again, from one simple lump of clay. She wants to raise awareness about the value of local materials. The dyeing of textiles can happen in a lot of other environmental friendly ways. Continuing into the next room the clothing line of Anne-Marie Sust is dyed with micro-agle. This makes the clothing change regarding the light conditions and by the way the wearer takes care of it. The tables next to Anne-Marie Sust explore material design and other ways of textile creating. While Sanne Bruurmijn explores ways in which we could make materials and/or colouring from the Canadian fleabane. This plant is moslty considered to be a weed in our gardens. Derya Irkdas Dogu on the last table, tests out ways to change the silk production process. The silk worms in her project received a 3D printed cocoon after they had spun their silk on other type of surfaces. They are able to continue their life cycle and turn into moths. Derya finds the symbiosis with nature by turning this old craft of collecting silk form the cocoons into a process in which the silkworms are no longer harmed and able to finish their life cycle.
In this same room we find two other artworks connecting us to the world and the nature around us. Across from the clothing collection there is a little cabinet. In its drawers are glass bubbles and QR codes. These codes lead the visitor to a video archive website. A collection of smells excavated from native pine forests translated into video’s. The Kamila’s project ‘The Department of Culture for Breath in 2030’ presents a digital archive which explores an unsettled future, questioning humanity’s relationships with other living entities.
In the green cabinet on the other wall are some AI’s hiding. Tropozones’ controversial AI experiment speculates about more-than-human encounters. Wondering if machines teach us about ecological care. Humans are invited to join this dynamic assemblage, which will, in turn, learn, fabulate, and evolve from these exchanges.
We have seen material design/research, and have questioned our connection to nature. These questions and idea’s continue into more product design like projects in the big hall. On the left, Lauren Raaijmakers. She developed an urn which feels like human skin. After her grandfather passed away during covid she longed to be able to hold him again. This urn allows you to hold your loved ones even after life, while on the other hand questioning our relationship with death and mourning. On her right something we all have seen a lot the past year, a face mask. But in a different colour and made from a strange material this time. Bacteria form the skin of the face mask designed and created by Sum Studio’s Elizabeth and Gareth. Grown in their home kitchen during covid, this mask thinks of creating without plastic waste and in symbiosis with nature’s degrading process.
The big hall is filled with products of the future, which all find ways to save our planet’s ecosystem. The Table designed by Tabled uses the invasive Prosopis tree species from Namibia to make tables. Hereby the wood of this fast growing and landscape ruining tree can be used for a good purpose. Turning natural ‘waste’ into products is also the case with the Pomace project. This group is researching the material quality of the leftover material from olive oil production. Showcasing several different products made with his bioleather material. chairs, bags, and a dress.
The center of the room is filled by two big ‘lights’. Kim’s living co2 filter: Kaia is home to algae which filter co2 in their photosynthesis process. Her work explores the possibilities with natural, local ingredients in order create new bicarbonate solutions in an energy neutral system. Having organisms living in a fruitful and perfectly fitted habitat has not happened for ages when it comes to the silk worms. They have been domesticated in order to harvest their silk. In-between the cocoon and design is an experimental design project which aims to reverse this domestication process. Offering the silk worm a place in nature again is an example of finding a symbiosis.
At the end of the big hall, before entering the lab, we find one more prototype. The ‘Micro-macro-ferm’ membrane should allow for water to pass through but for the product to stay inside. The lights on the outside should indicate the PH level inside.
Upon entering the laboratorium, or the former kitchen of the main building, we find three different approaches regarding food. Catinca explores the possibility of developing a material which makes it possible to grow furniture from our own organic waste. She states ‘everything we use goes somewhere’.
Lieke, on the opposite desk, came up with an explanatory way to provide insight into the plastic waste we leave behind. Emphasizing how this ends up on our plates again. Her ‘micro plastic menu’ is an enlargement of real micro plastics.
Across from her we find Sashi’s ‘gluttnery’. The colourful bowls are made from gluten. This material designer’s love for cooking led her to rediscover, appreciate and research the materiality of gluten.
But there is more. The curiosa room in the hallway does not only house a collection of personal interest. During the Dutch Design Week it displayed the Urban Reef prototypes, which could also be found outside. Underneath the glass domes are two 3D printed models on display. One is printed with seeds which have germinated by now and is also home to some soft white fungi. The dome keeps the model moist and warm. Outside, in the garden, are more Urban Reef experiments going on. Other shapes and sizes adorn the BioArt Village garden. Across from them is Rebecca. Also working with fungi. Her symbiopunk machine finds a way to integrate fungi in our human defecation process, turning our waste into a fertile place for them to grow. Daily she operates her machine.
On the wall of building L, behind the symbiopunk machine, hangs the prototype of Aquatecture. Shaakira had been developing the project for a while after first attending our talent pressure cooker in 2019. At the moment the project is experiencing its first pilot phase.
Walking across the terrain, behind the fire we find our last Angelo. His dust machine is one for visitors to participate in. Wearing a dust suit they become part of the visualisation of a theoretical concept. 30.90582 speaks of a reality in which humans aren’t standalone, detached beings apart from nature and technology, but rather always embedded in a complex and sensitive world. Asking the question, how do we situate ourselves in a space that at the same time becomes hostile to us?
Our symbiocene forest was filled with talents and their unique ideas during the Dutch Design week from the 16th of october – 24th of October 2021.
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