Edited and text by William Myers. Foreword by Paola Antonelli.
For centuries, designers and artists have looked to nature for inspiration and materials, but only recently have they developed the ability to alter and incorporate living organisms or tissues into their work. This startling development, at the intersection of biology and design has created new aesthetic possibilities and helps address a growing urgency to build and manufacture ecologically. Bio Design surveys recent design and art projects that harness living materials and processes, presenting bio-integrated approaches to achieving sustainability, innovations enabled by biotechnology, and provocative experiments that deliberately illustrate the dangers and opportunities in manipulating life for human ends. As the first publication to focus on this new phenomenon and closely examine how it fits into the history of architecture, art and industrial design, this volume surveys this shift and contextualizes it through comparisons to previous historic transitions in art and design practices, clarifying its implications for the future. A reference for students and teachers of art, architecture, industrial design and engineering, Bio Design will also introduce the subject to a broad audience.
Featured image, of Philips Design's Microbial Home, is reproduced from Bio Design.
In today's New York Times, Julie Lasky reviews MoMA's new release, Bio Design: Nature + Science + Creativity by William Myers. Featured image, "Fab Tree Hab" by Mitchell Joachim of Terreform ONE, is a project under development, which will graft living trees together to create liveable shelters. According to Lasky, "bio designers must grapple with the Frankenstein factor: a concern that their experiments will unleash some unmanageable new horror." Projects like "Fab Tree Hab," as well as a house made of living tissue (ie, "meat") and a compostable chair made of mushrooms and genetically reinforced cellulose have earned Joachim "regular visits by representatives from Homeland Security and the F.B.I. 'They just come by to see what a healthy, working community-based lab looks like, as opposed to a terrorist cell,' Mr. Joachim said. He believes the fear that researchers will blunder into a ghastly science-fiction situation is overwrought. 'It’s like you’re designing a teapot and you accidentally make a machine gun,' he said. 'It just doesn’t happen.'" continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.25 x 10 in. / 288 pgs / 400 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 ISBN: 9780870708442 PUBLISHER: The Museum of Modern Art, New York AVAILABLE: 12/31/2012 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited and text by William Myers. Foreword by Paola Antonelli.
For centuries, designers and artists have looked to nature for inspiration and materials, but only recently have they developed the ability to alter and incorporate living organisms or tissues into their work. This startling development, at the intersection of biology and design has created new aesthetic possibilities and helps address a growing urgency to build and manufacture ecologically. Bio Design surveys recent design and art projects that harness living materials and processes, presenting bio-integrated approaches to achieving sustainability, innovations enabled by biotechnology, and provocative experiments that deliberately illustrate the dangers and opportunities in manipulating life for human ends. As the first publication to focus on this new phenomenon and closely examine how it fits into the history of architecture, art and industrial design, this volume surveys this shift and contextualizes it through comparisons to previous historic transitions in art and design practices, clarifying its implications for the future. A reference for students and teachers of art, architecture, industrial design and engineering, Bio Design will also introduce the subject to a broad audience.
