LOOKING AT OUR FUTURE
This is an event which I had spoken to a few people about? If they had seen it their response was «bof» - or in other words, not really interesting. Fortunately we do not stop at negative or unenthusiastic replies when the content could be interesting for us. Indeed it was. The EDF Foundation (our main energy supplier) sets up quite a few fascinating events aimed «at the future». Not so long ago many of these projects would have been described as «laughable» but today many of them are moving towards materialisation while still holding onto the promise of imagination and design in shaping our collective futures. They are ambitious and the ideas are full of optimism. Too often I have heard «it’s too new, it wont work. He or she was before his/her time»....Now intuition is at work and insight as well. In many of cases the projects are the results of scientific collaboration. Some of the work is radical, perhaps not quite believable but I admire this way of thinking as we need it if we are to extract ourselves from the economic and environmental mess that progress has left us in.
Deep down, I think we know that the emerging future will be very different from anything we have known in the past. Many of us have lived the beginning of the digital revolution, electronics etc. and when someone leaves their mobile telephone at home we hear «how did we cope before?» But this time it is planet earth that I am referring to. Could it be possible that we can programme life? In a laboratory and in real time?
You like it or you don’t but scientists can mix DNA sequences and generate creative cocktails which in turn create new species. Think of it, soon scientists will be able to turn simple living organisms into efficient living factories. Biology is now a living technology and the next step could be to manufacture tiny living cells. I learnt that this new technology is called «synthetic biology». There are a lot of arguments for and against and how of course such a science could be manipulated. This event though presents a design landscape where fragments of a possible «programmable» synthetic future are confronted with natural alternative design perspectives. Some are poetic as you will see and some are provocations.
After the digital explosion which started over 20 years ago, we are witnessing the emergence of a biological revolution. I wonder what the impact will have on our lives 20 years from now? I wont be around to see it and in some cases, if such creations do become realties, I’m not so sure I would want to be. However, we have adapted to the digital world - will the next generation adapt to synthetic biology? We walk into the foundation and are immediately faced with Radiant Sun. Not the Annish Kapoor variety either. I couldn’t even start to describe how it works scientifically - and this will be the case with everything I have to show to you. Nicky said to me last night «I understand you better than the leaflet»....
There are layers of custom-fabricated vessels of polymers, stainless steel glass vessels which seem to act as filters. There is liquid in the vessels which are living cells. Masses of these vessels contain salt, sugar and oil solution which contribute to filter the air. The feathers move when you are looking up to the top of Radiant Sun. A fresh perfume seems to emerge with your movements.
How about growing your garments and shoes? This is already being explored and founded by a Suzanne Lee in 2003. She uses living cultures like yeast and bacteria to grow biomaterials such as cellulose into sustainable and compostable clothing. I could touch the «material» for this jacket - it felt rather like leather but wasn’t. The shoes looked heavy but there were other shoes to come.
You could also make a chair - with living fungus as a primary material !!! It becomes hard after about a week, hard as a rock!
Or how about a Tree Hab VILLAGE ?
This is a home concept which is to replace outdated architectural design. Growing homes from native trees. When the tree is big enough a living structure is grafted into shape with reusable scaffolds which in turn are designed by a Computer Numeric Control. The home fits into our ecosystem but what you do with all that exists, I don’t know. Does this mean that we pull down cities, plant specific trees and then when they are big enough, new towns are created? Better get started now then.....
Harvesting Energy will be a must of course. This is a «Moss Table» which generates renewable energy in our homes. Moss can apparently be used to power small electronic devises like a lamp or a digital alarm clock.....
There is the Post Natural History project where different living species are modified to better fit our environment and adapt to our needs. I don’t quite know what this «intelligent rabbit» will do for you nor the Great Grey Owl who now has turned green....
But we will be able to have Biolace in 2050 (!) where all
grown food is «enhanced» and sustainable manufacturing is essential for
an overpopulated planet. We would be able to harvest fruits and fabrics
from the same plants.....
Now think about this. A Robotic Jellyfish Drone which addresses an imaginary future. The drone is semi-biological and semi-robot, a hybrid which serves the agricultural sector. A drought suddenly appears (and that seems plausible when we consider what is going on today with the climate change). The drone would emerge from rivers fully inflated with fresh water and fly over drought lands and drop the water as ordered......
Venice could be protected. Poor Venice always battered by the elements by high waters and those huge passenger cruiser ships which turn around Saint Marco can’t help. The creation of an artificial reef under the city....I am to go for the Biennale in a few weeks time. I hope the water has not risen again....
I love this though - a factory where you go for your shoes to be made on the spot. Your foot is scanned - you make your choice of a model and the shoe is made in an instant. Not only adapted to your foot but when you walk, it adapts to the surface you are walking on. Biodegradable - throw it away and get another pair....
Now we got really provocative and you may smile or perhaps wonder if it couldn’t happen.
A Skinsucka. A design which explores and questions our attitudes to consumerism, robotics and biotechnology in a timeframe from 10 to 20 years from now. The idea is that there will be tiny micro-organisms - no larger than a thumb nail -which are autonomous and powered, share our living space and eat household dirt. They will clean our skin by crawling all over us and even combat excesses of the night before. Also they weave your clothing in a daily ritual ....there was a well designed video on this concept. After these micro bodies had cleaned the «flat», they woke up this lady crawling all over her and then clothed her....not sure I like this idea....Nicky liked it for the house cleaning project but not for the clothing....
Or of course you can redesign your skin but these techniques will not see the day before 2080 so none of us will be able to control them. What if we could manipulate our body skin to grow seasonal jewellery ? Cosmetic surgery could be replaced by tissue-engineered disposable grafted skin embellished with precious stones.....
Finally now the human will need to be redesigned. Very much a speculative project I would think. Something though that has to be thought if we are to downsize the human species to better fit the earth. No doubt about it that the trend is there that people grow taller with each generation. We need more resources, food, energy and space. What if this trend was reversed and in this century, downsizing could begin? Shrink ourselves back into a world of abundant sources. This project proposes to shrink man to a height of 50cm. Apparently if we are that small we would only need between 2 and 5% of what we need today. One chicken would feed 100 people. Would you believe that this research is underway? Looking at the genes of pigmies and dwarfs in order to find pieces of the genetic puzzle towards a more balanced and shorter mankind.
There were lots of other things to discover. Using our own DNA and injecting it into a microbe then taken what came out of this as a pill of some kind or another to combat serious diseases which the DNA analysis had diagnosed.
Many of these descriptions are how I understood the rather scientific jargon - poetic licence may have occurred, but the photos themselves hopefully, will fascinate you as much as the real installations and videos did me.
I then went onto meet Marielle at the Musée d'Orsay. We were to see the Marlene and Spencer Hays Collection of many Bonnard, Vuillard, Redon, Modigliani and Matisse....as much as I was glad to have seen it, the exhibition seemed rather banal after the two hours spent at the EDF.
Deep down, I think we know that the emerging future will be very different from anything we have known in the past. Many of us have lived the beginning of the digital revolution, electronics etc. and when someone leaves their mobile telephone at home we hear «how did we cope before?» But this time it is planet earth that I am referring to. Could it be possible that we can programme life? In a laboratory and in real time?
You like it or you don’t but scientists can mix DNA sequences and generate creative cocktails which in turn create new species. Think of it, soon scientists will be able to turn simple living organisms into efficient living factories. Biology is now a living technology and the next step could be to manufacture tiny living cells. I learnt that this new technology is called «synthetic biology». There are a lot of arguments for and against and how of course such a science could be manipulated. This event though presents a design landscape where fragments of a possible «programmable» synthetic future are confronted with natural alternative design perspectives. Some are poetic as you will see and some are provocations.
After the digital explosion which started over 20 years ago, we are witnessing the emergence of a biological revolution. I wonder what the impact will have on our lives 20 years from now? I wont be around to see it and in some cases, if such creations do become realties, I’m not so sure I would want to be. However, we have adapted to the digital world - will the next generation adapt to synthetic biology? We walk into the foundation and are immediately faced with Radiant Sun. Not the Annish Kapoor variety either. I couldn’t even start to describe how it works scientifically - and this will be the case with everything I have to show to you. Nicky said to me last night «I understand you better than the leaflet»....
 |
 |
 |
There are layers of custom-fabricated vessels of polymers, stainless steel glass vessels which seem to act as filters. There is liquid in the vessels which are living cells. Masses of these vessels contain salt, sugar and oil solution which contribute to filter the air. The feathers move when you are looking up to the top of Radiant Sun. A fresh perfume seems to emerge with your movements.
How about growing your garments and shoes? This is already being explored and founded by a Suzanne Lee in 2003. She uses living cultures like yeast and bacteria to grow biomaterials such as cellulose into sustainable and compostable clothing. I could touch the «material» for this jacket - it felt rather like leather but wasn’t. The shoes looked heavy but there were other shoes to come.
 |
| A bit heavy for me |
 |
| From the classic |
 |
| to the avant-garde |
You could also make a chair - with living fungus as a primary material !!! It becomes hard after about a week, hard as a rock!
Or how about a Tree Hab VILLAGE ?
This is a home concept which is to replace outdated architectural design. Growing homes from native trees. When the tree is big enough a living structure is grafted into shape with reusable scaffolds which in turn are designed by a Computer Numeric Control. The home fits into our ecosystem but what you do with all that exists, I don’t know. Does this mean that we pull down cities, plant specific trees and then when they are big enough, new towns are created? Better get started now then.....
 |
| your new home |
 |
| Growing your home |
Harvesting Energy will be a must of course. This is a «Moss Table» which generates renewable energy in our homes. Moss can apparently be used to power small electronic devises like a lamp or a digital alarm clock.....
 |
| Moss table |
 |
| Lit by moss |
There is the Post Natural History project where different living species are modified to better fit our environment and adapt to our needs. I don’t quite know what this «intelligent rabbit» will do for you nor the Great Grey Owl who now has turned green....
 |
| A very intelligent rabbit |
 |
| fabric |
 |
| lace and food plants |
 |
| lace and food plant |
 |
| Robotic Jelly Fish drone |
Now think about this. A Robotic Jellyfish Drone which addresses an imaginary future. The drone is semi-biological and semi-robot, a hybrid which serves the agricultural sector. A drought suddenly appears (and that seems plausible when we consider what is going on today with the climate change). The drone would emerge from rivers fully inflated with fresh water and fly over drought lands and drop the water as ordered......
 |
| Ajouter une légende |
I love this though - a factory where you go for your shoes to be made on the spot. Your foot is scanned - you make your choice of a model and the shoe is made in an instant. Not only adapted to your foot but when you walk, it adapts to the surface you are walking on. Biodegradable - throw it away and get another pair....
 |
| Your choice |
 |
| Scann your foot |
 |
| Biodegradable |
Now we got really provocative and you may smile or perhaps wonder if it couldn’t happen.
A Skinsucka. A design which explores and questions our attitudes to consumerism, robotics and biotechnology in a timeframe from 10 to 20 years from now. The idea is that there will be tiny micro-organisms - no larger than a thumb nail -which are autonomous and powered, share our living space and eat household dirt. They will clean our skin by crawling all over us and even combat excesses of the night before. Also they weave your clothing in a daily ritual ....there was a well designed video on this concept. After these micro bodies had cleaned the «flat», they woke up this lady crawling all over her and then clothed her....not sure I like this idea....Nicky liked it for the house cleaning project but not for the clothing....
 |
| Being dressed |
 |
| Dressed ? |
Or of course you can redesign your skin but these techniques will not see the day before 2080 so none of us will be able to control them. What if we could manipulate our body skin to grow seasonal jewellery ? Cosmetic surgery could be replaced by tissue-engineered disposable grafted skin embellished with precious stones.....
 |
| Redesigning skin |
 |
| On the front too... |
 |
| Self medication and analysis |
There were lots of other things to discover. Using our own DNA and injecting it into a microbe then taken what came out of this as a pill of some kind or another to combat serious diseases which the DNA analysis had diagnosed.
Many of these descriptions are how I understood the rather scientific jargon - poetic licence may have occurred, but the photos themselves hopefully, will fascinate you as much as the real installations and videos did me.
 |
| Biological jewellery |
 |
| Biological perls |
 |
| Skin decoration |
I then went onto meet Marielle at the Musée d'Orsay. We were to see the Marlene and Spencer Hays Collection of many Bonnard, Vuillard, Redon, Modigliani and Matisse....as much as I was glad to have seen it, the exhibition seemed rather banal after the two hours spent at the EDF.
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