LEARNING FROM NATURE, MAKING WITH LIFE: FABER FUTURES INTERVIEW
BIODESIGN STANDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN, BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY AND IS NOT ONLY ABOUT “LEARNING FROM NATURE” BUT ALSO “DESIGNING NATURE”
In search for creative solutions, Natsai Audrey Chieza founded Faber Futures, a biodesign agency+lab, as a way to facilitate the convergence of diverse intellects. This has fostered research and projects that seek out novel ways of connecting design, biology, engineering whilst challenging innovation in production/economy. Natsai’s most prominent work demonstrates the use of bacteria pigments as part of the formula for sustainable futures in the context of the textile fabrication. For designers, this is an invitation to forget what is possible through industrial means of manufacturing, and to begin to think and learn entirely from within the toolbox of nature.
Scalability is an important thought: let’s think small and then we might be able to make it big. Consider this: bigger things sometimes behave like smaller things and vice versa. Sort of how neurons resemble the universe, galaxies resemble hurricanes, bronchi in the lungs resemble trees, and how the leaves of a fern are self-similar and scale up/down in fractal increments. In an interview, Magdalena Obmalko - a junior design researcher at Faber Futures - introduced us to the valuable awareness of self-similarity, additionally revealing her exceptional insights and accommodating readers to the enchanting realm of biodesign.
Compiled Interview with Magdalena Obmalko below:
Biodesign is a relatively new domain, focusing on the design of, with or from biology (as we define it at Faber Futures) and in some part, based on the biomimicry pillars, it “learns” from systems thinking present in nature - its interrelationships and interdependencies existing in a natural world - in order to apply it in the design of
new products, materials and systems. This type of design formed on bio-informed design strategies is intended to drive sustainable innovation in the Anthropocene.
There is also biocomputation and synthetic biology which stand at the forefront of biodesign intending to re-design and fabricate biological components and systems which do not already exist in the natural world. Therefore, in contrast to systems biology that focuses on simulating nature (biomimicry, permaculture etc.), it creates new biological systems. Synthetic biology as a combination of molecular biology and engineering sequences DNA to design the animate. It has been developed by engineers on the grounds of a strong belief that biology, like computing, is a reflection of digital code, therefore, grows at an exponential speed. In their mind, the cells could be engineered in the same way as circuits and software are - the presence of computational thinking in synthetic biology is fundamental. In other words, biodesign stands at the intersection of design, biology and technology and is not only about “learning from nature” but also “designing nature”.
There was a scientist in the 20th Century - Buckminster Fuller - who developed a new field of study called “Synergetics”. To understand how nature works, he analysed energetic relationships occurring in certain systems present in Nature on a micro and macro scale and consequently, developed a holistic understanding of the way the Universe manages the energy. He learned that Nature’s strategy is to use the least amount of energy and subsequently introduced a triangle and tetrahedron in opposition to the cube. The theory of Synergetics was later implemented in projects carried out to recreate nature in closed ecosystems, such as Biosphere 2 or Hi-SEAS, which both link to space exploration initiatives.
Nature has always been a context for us, in relation to which the evolution occurred and at some point, this evolution let the advancement cloud our real origins. This wrong narrative separating humans from Nature, as Yuval Noah Harari says - poses a threat towards the planet. Nowadays, in the wake of wicked issues we are facing, we have to figure out how to co-exist as one and stop pursuing the imbalanced human dictatorship dominated by means of extraction. The core value of sustainability focuses on the balance, the harmony, and only by empathising with Nature and developing a holistic approach by positioning ourselves as part of this one biological system, we can work towards the sustainable future. Design as a problem-solving process manifests its “beauty” in the efficiency and harmony of the components, therefore, sustainability should be named as the first principle of good design.
Studying Nature truly forged my professional design practice. The design process is informed by the consecutive movement of divergence and convergence when solving a certain design problem. When you research the Universe, you can converge or diverge and still see interacting functions and rules that apply whether you focus on the Solar System or explore the behaviour of microorganisms. There is an unspoken order to the chaos, kind of like in the Mandelbrot set - you “zoom in” thinking “that’s it” and suddenly you get some new insight that completely changes your perspective. For example, only recently scientists discovered that the microbes living in the human gut may have a significant impact on our health. If you think about it, there is still so much of the unknown. It somehow feels like there are two dimensions - micro and the macro world - or even more. The macrocosm is easier to define as its interactions are perceivable by people - we can see it, therefore, it is relatable to our experience. Microcosm, on the other hand, stands out of the context… And there are so many new stories hiding there.
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Words: Eliza Gromova-Gulbe
Photography: Faber Futures