Designing with Life: Confronting the Anthropocene through Cultural (R)evolution
Nina Szewczyk
We live in a biological world, yet our cultural world is dominated by antiseptic practices. We usually only think about biology when it is doing something ‘wrong’ - something that challenges our sense of safety and control. Designing with Life reconsiders common understandings of biology in order to design more ecological futures. The symptoms of the Anthropocene highlight the urgent need for radically different tools, and the answer could lie in the ancient knowledge of the planet: life itself. If more nuanced understandings of biology and nature are created, we could live more symbiotically with our planet and non-human co-habitants.
CoLab(oratory): A Biodesign Cookbook
The CoLab(oratory) cookbook aims to redefine common perceptions of microorganisms through exploring the possibilities of biodesign and considering the deeply important ethical questions that accompany this emerging technology.
Through GIY (grow-it-yourself) tutorials, case studies, and dystopian scenarios, this cookbook closely considers the ethics at the intersection of design and science.
The familiar packaging of a cookbook is juxtaposed by the unfamiliarity of the recipes, from the harmless and innocent to the weird, controversial, and dystopian.
Readers are positioned as chefs and decision makers with the power, knowledge, and responsibility to choose which steps to follow, and thus what futures to create.
We as a species are at a crucial intersection when it comes to addressing our planetary community’s most pressing issues. We have the ability and the responsibility to make decisions about what the future will look like for all forms of life.
