Yael Eylat Van-Essen PhD – Curator / Researcher

Breathing Architecture - Integrating Biology and Technology

The presentation revolved around integrating digital technologies with biological mechanisms in order to create “living hybrids”. The presentation focused on the LifeObject exhibition that I have co-curated for the Israeli Pavilion in Venice Biennale for Architecture, in 2016, in which different models on hybridization between these two disciplines were examined. Following the analysis of this exhibition this presentation has demonstrated possible directions for further research for architectural and artistic activities.

At the center of the exhibition was the physical “Life Object” –  an artistic/architectural installation that integrates artificial and natural elements into an organic system. An experimental research approach to matter combines composite, smart, and biological materials to form a “living structure” that responds to its environment. It proposes a new way of thinking about systems of structural production that operate simultaneously according to coded and random principles, a cross product of advanced technology and crafted fabrication. Additional projects shown in the exhibition were based on interdisciplinary research that investigates future directions in architectural practice through materiality, in order to more effectively broach mechanisms of formation and performativity. They join biomimetic practices along with practices of bio fabrication and synthetic biology, a basis for putting forth speculative architectural scenarios related to ecology, sociology, and politics. They presented  

The presentation examined new methodologies discarding the binary distinction between nature and culture and related to possible theoretical and philosophical implications of possible integration of biological system with digital technologies.