Yael Eylat Van-Essen PhD – Curator / Researcher

Bio-Design, a field that combines evolving practices in design with the latest developments in biological research, is one of the most interesting areas in contemporary design. Designers creating under this framework do so while using scientific insights into the workings of nature whose influence ranges from the scale of entire ecosystems all the way to the expression of phenomena at the molecular scale. Their works encompass a wide scope, both in terms of the design areas touched and scientific disciplines involved, and in terms of the ethical and philosophical issues that are raised by the works, while they employ materials that originates from “living” environments and entities.

The connection between the practice of design and nature, between the Bio and the Design, may, on the one hand, position the designer as the external observer of nature, being amazed in front of the complexity and sophistication found in it. On the other hand, the scientific and technological tools available place him as well in the position of generating life and being able to create something out of nothing, a position that was untill today the sole domain action of nature or God.

Increasing awareness of the environment, following the realization of what man has done to the world’s ecological balance, resulted in extensive activities in the fields of green design for the preservation of what is perceived as “natural”. However, the contemporary work in the field of bio-design challenges the dichotomous division between “nature” and “culture”. It emphasizes the integration with nature and not its imitation, while creating new design hybrids – based on the converging of mechanical and industrial production practices with biological processes. This trend is based on the perception that human activity does not exist outside of nature but is an integral part of it.

The Exhibition ‘Bio-Design: Design Hybrids’ presented the work being developed in this area in Israel, and includes recent works created by scientists, designers and artists, whether through the use of biomimetic practices or through the development of hybrid typologies and integrated models. The exhibition represented a wide range of activity in this area including both design and scientific projects offering solutions to concrete problems, and speculative design projects that come to challenge the conventional thought paradigms, together with art and design works that touch upon poetic views and theoretical issues in this field.