My creative journey through the Mdef Master Program. Through this website, I will reflect and dissect what I have learnt whilst also challenging my personal growth through hands on experiences.
Pippa Formosa
Hey, I am Pippa, a designer studying in Barcelona, Spain. I am reading a master’s program in Design for Emergent Futures. Though this webpage you will be seeing my progress of this intense and immersive 9 months program. I will be discovering my fight and how I can implement it into the world.
During the Mdef Bootcamp, we had to think, understand and acknowledge what we want to learn during our intense 9 months at Mdef. What is my fight? A fight according to the Cambridge Dictionary stands for “ is to use a lot of effort to defeat or achieve something, or to stop something happening:” Therefore to understand what my fight was I needed to see what I would like to put my energy and effort towards.
Coming from a spatial design background - a densely populated island - always allowed myself to view the island relations to the destruction or control money and investment as in the changes in our surrounding environment.
I saw the changes of consumerist culture throughout my childhood and today I ask the same questions of the lack of care and time being put into the materials we use, discard and create with Growing up on a small island that has a lot of potential I have found myself wondering how greed and money controlled our environment. I grew up from having my essentials out of glass bottles where at the end of the week we took them outside our doorstep to be collected and reused. To transform into having everything transported in plastic. At a young age, I asked myself and my elders why this was happening and why they didn’t seem to care that much.
Here I am somewhat 15 years later asking myself the same question.
“Only one per cent of Malta’s plastic waste was recycled in 2019, with most ending up dumped in landfill, according to a new report published by the National Audit Office. The NAO revealed the latest WasteServ statistics on how the island is managing its plastic trash and warned that it is “lagging behind” in reaching national and EU Targets.”
My fight, my fight is to understand and develop a localised plan to combat waste and turn trash into your golden treasure. Was are now living in the Anthropocene age, and I want us to turn to our man-made materials to repurpose. As Sanne Visser said in the book called Wast-ed ‘in the future, it won't be called waste. Virgin materials will become so rare and precious that it will become normal for waste to be part of production’.
During my last few 2 years after graduating from my B.A in Spatial Design I have worked in both architectural and fabrication companies. The last thing they thought of in the production line of their “product\space” is the effect of their design on the environment. The one project which inspired me was a collaboration between Matter Make (Malta) and a local NGO Zibel.
The creation of terrazzo tile was created through recycled plastic collected from the sea clean-ups that Zibel does think the year. Through my fight I want to join and be part of the creative minds who create a closed system loop. To tactical the different solutions to waste in a way to move forward and live in a commodity-free society. I want to create a guide of con-crete methodologies to inspire and help others adapt to new ways of producing. A main aim in this fight and emphases on the changing the word waste into a more perpetual and positive word.
My fight is to a create a world without trash, a world where the product end cycle is a new raw material for new products which emphases a loop in manmade materials.
During the first week of the masters we had a week called bootcamp, this is where they introduced us to the team in IAAC & Elisava and the work spaces. The tours where about what we can use in the schools and how we can use them. This was very good and informative as if we want to do some model making, printing or building some stands we can. In Iaac the Fab Lab Barcelona team showed us around which was in more detail then we did in Elisava.
During the Iaac tour we got split up into small group so that once we got shown the equipment we got a chance to use them. We discovered 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, Wood Works and Welding. This was a good help as for the rest of the week we got given the task to design and build a lamp. They gave us help with the legs and the joints to connect the different sections together.
My team came up with a “jellyfish” lamp. We started brain storming all together and then divided ourselves into different tasks to make sure we finish in time. We made the lamp out of black acrylic, and ply wood. This pho-tos below show out progress.
I felt like starting the masters off like this was a great idea as we started using our hands right away and we got to know the fab lab team a bit better so it would make us feel comfortable throughout the year.
Though this week’s workshop/seminar we touched on the subject called atlas of weak signals. Weak signals are subjects and topics that are emerging out of the ever changing future. The main weak signal that I choose is Rural Futures. I choose this main weak signal as I feel like it dives into many different topic that I am interested in.
After this workshop/seminar I realised my fight is a development that I am still trying to figure out. After the exercise with the “card game” I understood that I am interested in more than one subject. From the games and discusses I figured out I would like to develop my idea in a way that is understanding the communities I am in. I am trying to understand what is lacking and what they would want to have a focus on in their communities.
Through my understand of weak signals I wanted to understand the way we can create a martial loop. I want to understand how each house hold discards there waste. What waste is to them? How to change the mind set of what waste is and what it could be? I want people to understand though my process at Mdef that the end life cycle of one project could be the starting life cycle of another product. I want it to be so rare that new martials are used. I want the “full world” to become less full.
I have also thought and spoken about with my fellows class mates and friends about capitalism and what is our next utopia. How not acknowledging what capitalism this for the development of our technology. Therefore my question is on how we can develop into the next phase. In one of my conversations in this week my roommate said a bold statement
It takes 3 generations to go through a movement, the first generation produces it the second enjoys and thrives with it and the third is the generation that sees what wrong with it.
So what does this statement really mean?
The experience of looking at the weak signals I am drawn to on a multi scale was hard to see. I took the time to speak and understand what all my weak signals mean and how the relate to one another. On the Saturday after the workshop/seminar I went around the city trying to discover what I would want to do. I did some volunteer work at Connecthort in Poblenou. Seeing the community with a bit more of an open eye I would love to re develop the multi scale approach.
During the last session we discussed points with each other. I was discussing between 2 group one called Unlearning to Learn and Solarpunk. The discussion between these group where very different.
In the first group Unlearning to Learn, we delved into a conversation and discussion on why we felt like our topic was to educate. I said a statement which resonated with people “ students like me” as I was a student who didn’t thrive from the normal education system. I also felt like my idea of education was very much linked to Audrey. I would love to study and impact the education system to have more of hands on learning with workshops that could educate different generations to understand the impact for farming, marital cycle and more.
In the second group Solarpunk I felt like the discussion was not like the group before. We all had to create a little mood board in the miro board of why we connected to solar punk. Most of the session was taken up by doing this. So we came to the conclusion that the solarpunk group needed to be split up into 2 smaller groups with more common interests to have a greater discussion. Therefore I am hoping next week will be able to create a time to discuss the context.
Though this week I have thought about how I would like to conduct some research. I choose to do the multi scale in a way of divided these rings into 2 rems – Malta and Spain/Barcelona. Therefore I would say the people I would like to contact are, the NGO Zibel and Rafel Sammut. Both local business owners that are trying to make a change in the Maltese communities. Zibel is an NGO that do beach clean-up all around Malta they are now moving into a new wave to see how they can turn some of there collected waste into martials. Where as Rafel is a local restaurant owner who grows his own produce and is in change of world food day in Malta. These 2 areas of are 2 that I am very passionate about and would love to understand on what they do a bit more in dept.
I would love to become part of the Connecthort community and the area of collecting organic waste from different markets around Barcelona. I would love to join and volunteer with the Fablab’s project on Food Shift. I am a home chef that tries to cook a substantial about of vegetables. I want to do a workshop with different age groups, though schools businesses teaching them about how to change there house hold waste into materials.
I would love to start experimenting in my house whole waste and turning it into different forms of materials. I would like to start documenting the different types of waste I gather in my house and how many times it get though away each week. I would like to weigh the waste and see for just one person what we could do to help the in creating marital loops.
There are a few amount of skills I would like to add in my development plan. I would love to understand and create my own bio materials. I would want to develop a into my skills in developing and coding as I feel like it is the language of the future. I have a strong belief that coding should be though to all children in schools as it is as important as any other language. Though this I feel that I need to expand on y skill of leaning by doing and experiment more instead of just academic studies. By doing this I will be expanding my prototyping skills and getting to know the materials I am working with. After this course I would like to become more verst in the topics that are our everyday fights and problems to find a better solution. This will make me more confident with the knowledge I have.
During this week’s workshop I felt a bit overwhelm with knowledge that I had never heard of before. I was excited before starting this workshop as I feel that with was I want to progress on I need to have a good understand on biology and ecology. having the lectures with such brilliant people Nuria and Jonathan made me feel a bit nervous to ask questions if I didn’t understand. So I sat in the front of every class which made me feel better.
The workshop was structured into two parts a daily four hour presentation and was then followed by hands on work after a break. This whole week was so tiring as we would be grained with information from the first session I was exhorted to focus in the hands on practical work. I would have benefited with more hands on work as from that I remember most of what was said.
For me the best part of the course was the second half of the day I was very impressed on how we manged to do bacteria experiments which normal house hold products. Understanding that we don’t need a crazy lab to conduct experiments which we can do basic testing with.
What I learnt from the first half of the days sessions is that biology is such a complex subject. That you should try familiar with it but if you want to do any experiment. You should speak and co create with a scientist as they will have the best knowledge and output on how you want and can achieve your creation. Through this understanding I have found a new respect for biologists and what they do for the world and how their minds and patients alters the world we are living in today.
The hands on sessions where very exciting to me, for our first experiment we prepared yeast, lactobacillus, and all-purpose media in petri dishes and gathered bacteria samples from our environment to identify if those types of bacteria were present. Where I gathered sample which are:
Sample 1 – Borka’s Glass Reusable Bottle and My Own Steel Reusable Coffee Cup in a yeast lab method.
Sample 2 – Egg and White Rice from my Curry Based Lunch Box DIY yeast method.
Sample 3 – My mouth and My Armpit in the lactobacillus.
can turn some of there collected waste into martials. Where as Rafel is a local restaurant owner who grows his own produce and is in change of world food day in Malta. These 2 areas of are 2 that I am very passionate about and would love to understand on what they do a bit more in dept.
The second hands on session we spoke and played with scoby and spirulina. Spirulina I found particularly interesting as its classed at a superfood. The super power is that it contain 70% protein when consumed fresh. In Nuria’s word “ one could survive off a diet with just of spirulina, orange juice, and rice of the rest of their lives”. This session helped me understand on how easy it is to grow this items at home.
The third hands on session we analysed different products and organisms under a microscope to see the natural formation of the products and organisms.
can turn some of there collected waste into martials. Where as Rafel is a local restaurant owner who grows his own produce and is in change of world food day in Malta. These 2 areas of are 2 that I am very passionate about and would love to understand on what they do a bit more in dept.
During the last session of this week Nuria couldn’t make it so we ended up finishing the class before lunch to go explore the world through iNaturalist.
The lunch on this day was very special. Jose came up with a excises to share food within the class. Everyone needed to make something that made them feel happy (everyone ended up making something that made them feel at home). I would say it was one special afternoon.
During the second week of this workshop we spoke mainly about agriculture and ecology. these sessions where more relatable then the ones of the previous weeks, I felt like I understood them more as they were relatable onto our daily life’s. I grew up with helping my mum garden during the weekend. We had to pick out the fruit and herbs that she wanted to use during out meals for that Sunday.
For me what was so interesting about this topic was the development and how it could possible change. Jonathan’s first lecture was about this topic he spoke about ways of revolutionizing. During the session he introduced us to ROMI. Romi project is an EU funded research project that happened within IAAC. This robot was developed for micro-farms. The team developed an open source robot and data analysing software which can help small scale farms to optimise their harvest and minimise their human labour. This topic was so engaging to me I really understood the topic and want to learn more about robotic in agriculture. I also loved the way Jonathan spoke about a future on where we will have spider bots and we will let the land grow like a food forest.
During these workshop session we had a morning lecture talking about bees. Beekeeping it some-thing I have been fascinated with for a long time. I remember when I was in junior school we had an outing to see the Maltese honey product during our environment class. Little did I know back then on the important of bees. Through this lecture I learnt on how dyer bees are to our civilisation and we need them to keep on doing what they are doing in higher quantities.
Bees are very intelligent and organised, from the lectures I learnt it is like they are programmed to know what to do from the minute they come into existence. There are many prosses bees do that are just incredible. One of them is the bee waggle dance, this is where walk in a circle, turns around, then walks the same circle in the opposite direction. They repeats this many times. Sometimes, the bee in-cludes a little waggle as they turning around. The duration of this waggle is thought to indicate the quality of the flower patch they have found. I found this just absolutely remarkable. I also loved on how they knew when to make a new queen bee and how they knew and old queen bees had to fight. All these instincts are what I think of as nature.
The bee population as we know is declining rapidly due to our mostly human factors. Jonathan ex-plain this two us in a very easy way of the declining of bee population due to human impact. He com-pared bees to having children and treating them like how humanity treats bees by feeding them one crop every generation, then killing the mother and taking them to another side of the county. Then give them a new mother and feeding a whole new generation a totally different crop. You’ll end up with bees who are stressed, malnourished and unhealthy. As Jonathan said “Bees on Tour”.
One thing also broth to our attention was the “Murder Hornet” which is a giant wasp is a new predator that has come from Asia which now is spreading over Europe and USA, this he said was due to the change in the climate and globalisation. This “Murder Hornet” also known as the Vespa Manda-rinia is effecting the civilisation of the bees by killing them in a gruesome and rapid way. It can kill 30,000 bees in one attack by ripping off their heads.
The Open Source Beehives Project was a project that Jonathan spoke about, he started this project at Valldaura which was a network citizen project to track bee decline. They used senor enhanced beehives and data science to study honey bee colonies in different parts of the world. What I found cool about this project was that they compared that honey collected and found that he honey from Belgium Brussels was way more pollinated then the honey collected in Valldaura. They conclusion of this was that people in cities like flowers and in Brussels they have hug park full of different flowers which then equal to higher pollination rates.
During the second session in this week we did various hands on programs. On the first session of this week we learnt about soil sampling was an exercise that was very interesting to me. I learnt about the various type of soil which one could work with. We needed to analysis the physical properties of clay, loam, sit and sand. I feel like this hands on practice will help me in future task throughout this Masters.
On the second session of this week we learn on how to carry out a PCR test where Nuria got virus-es from a part experiment she had done. This was interesting process to learn but after all the PCR tests I had done in these past two years of Covid. But I feel like I wouldn’t use it in my Master’s Project.
On the third session we did to hands on activities , in the first session we made laurel essential oil. We ripped apart the leave in before filling up the copper distillery. Which then started the process to make the few drops of oil. I stayed next to the distillery to keep filling up the copper bucket with ice to make the prosses go faster.
The second session of that day we created bio martials out of everyday items at home. This was a very short prosses that we did in groups. We created 2 types of bio plastics one with Glycerol and one with Caseine.
All in All I thought that these intense 2 weeks were full of information which I see on how I can now start thinking of more dynamic ways on tackling certain topics I wouldn’t see possible to do before. I took away that we are more than capable to do more hands on and proactive step to create a better environment which if done well isn’t difficult.
During this week’s sessions we had two different programs in the first workshop living with our own ideas, we got the challenge of creating a prototype for ourselves. Our first step was to draw a self-portrait and see what we can produce for our client “ourselves”.
We took 30 mins to find products around the fablab workshop or outside around IAAC. We collectively gathered marital that consisted of transparent acrylic, wooden sticks, rope, coffee waste, a plant holder and wasted papers.
My idea was to create a portable compost bin. Throughout this year I am trying to understand my waste consumption and how it can be limited to going into a landfill. This is why my Portie-compost come in.
I want a place to understand how much time different organic waste will take to decompose and turn into compost and though my product I can test this out. I create a transparent acrylic window to see how this organic waste is getting on with its decomposition and from that I could write notes and analyse it. The sticks on the top are showing the date and type of organic waste that is decomposing.
The fact that I made this product portable give me the opportunity to collect waste from different areas in my life. This was I also like to create a conversation with people to educate and also to be educated. This is creating awareness around the communities I would be going around in.
Group Educating to Educate
We then discussed it In the group of our design studio we reflected with each other to understand on how our magic machines can connect to each other’s. During the discuss with Angella Markey she suggested that once combining our machines we could make a physical space where anything could happen. A space where technical understanding is switched to a social understanding.
From this program I reflected that the machine you created might not the first thought you had and it will keep on changing and evolving such as our design prosses should.
Living With My Own Waste
During this session I emersed myself into my waste for 24hs. On Thursday 4th November I collected all the waste I was going to though into the bin. By doing this I tapped the waste it to my body and I understanded on what I want consuming and throwing away. Through this year I want to understand what people throw away in there house hold. When tackling domestic waste one can reuse more of the items that are throw away. Though my fight I want to create an understanding on how our domestic waste can be reused into new product life. I want to understand how much plastic is consumed in a household.
During this investigation I created a time line on what I was doing and how I was feeling; and this is what I discovered.
VideoVideo
8am – Made breakfast: 1 egg and 1 slice of cheese (waste: egg shell – organic waste, Egg Box – Cardboard and Cheese Box – Plastic) I am motivated and ready to see the outcome.
9am – Made tea: 1 teaspoon of cane sugar, 1 black tea bag, 3 drops of oat milk ( waste: Tea Bag - organic waste)
11.30am – Went for a small food shop for my lunch – (recipe left behind)
12pm – Went to grab a coffee at my local coffee shop, walking there I got a lot of looks and giggles which made me feel very uncomfortable I felt as though I was 13 years old going through puberty and developing self-consciousness. Until I got a great reaction from the barista saying it’s the weirdest thing he has ever seen and that its awesome. I took my coffee ground waste and added it to my waste of the day. I was shown to Borka’s facetime meeting and they all laughed and said It was a crazy cool idea. (coffee ground waste - organic waste)
9am-12pm – I have been posting my journey on social media to get reactions from people which is great. These post are making me feel better then walking in the streets which is crazy to me as social media is making me feel more comfortable. This might be because I am explaining my prosses.
Maybe I should speak to strangers on the street that look at me and get their reactions rather than an observation, to try and understand this topic and see what they do to reduce their waste?
1.30pm – headed home to make my lunch and clean the house. On the way home I facetime some of my family. My sister was at work and showed me to some of her college and they started to comment on how much waste they where using.
2pm – Made lunch: 5 potatoes, 1 egg, 1 tomato can, 1 jar of chickpeas, raisins, rice, 2 garlics and a eggplant (waste: egg shell – organic waste, potatoes peels – organic waste, garlic peels – organic waste Rice – Organic Waste, Can – Metal and a Jar –Glass)
2.30pm – Cleaned and Washed the apartment, which was a challenge.
3pm – Class meeting. Seeing all the class motivated me to keep on going.
3.30pm – Eat Lunch. Which was not digesting well.
4.30pm – Reflected on the day so far and took a small uncomfortable nap.
5.10pm – Tutor call. Which motivated me after feeling all the un comforts of the waste on me.
5.30pm – Reflected on the call.
6pm – Went to meet my father after 2 months. I was nervous for this as I didn’t know what he would tell me but it went down well and he was very curious about what I was doing.
7pm – Walked down Passeig De Gracia to the La Rambla. While walking my bottle kept on falling off so I had to stop at every red light to fix it.
8pm – Went to a restaurant and collected food waste. (waste: lemon – Organic Waste, Coffee Ground Waste - Organic Waste) while being at the restaurant I felt uncomfortable at first and then I got some funny reaction from the staff which made the whole night better as they joked around with me.
11pm – Got home (was sick most of the night and weekend) took off waste from my belly.
8am next day – Took of the remaining waste. Took off leg waste, was feeling very sick.
During this investigation I wanted to develop an understanding on the waste that is thrown into the landfills. I felt as though my body was walking trash, there were new noises, smells, constraints and observations. I felt the uncomfortable feeling of our beautiful plant once we throw the waste into landfills. I never thought that for one that wearing myself consumed trash would feel this way.
I would like to do this investigation a few times over the year to understand the decrees in my waste consumption. I want to understand what we can do with our self-produced waste. I would like to completely eliminate sending products to a landfill and find a new life cycle for these products. It has also made me more aware on what we shop and how we shop. I would like to reduce my plastic waste and consumption.
I would like to investigate how long product that are in domestic homes take to degrade. I would like to study of waste in household especially in organic waste and plastic waste. As I found it inevitable that plastic is going to be used at least once per day. I would like to understand how and why aren’t we using old materials and if so could we possibly have a new bin just for products to be reused again.
After this investigation and exploration, I feel that though our shared experiences on these videos we all got a better understand about the world around us. Using different skills to explore communicate and stepping out of our comfort zone to practice what we believe in. I wished that I joined some of the other group during this time but I was too focused on my own project which made me not interact or collaborate with others. I would love to do this excurse again and fully engage with others topics.
During the first week of beyond the myth, we had two programs that was immersed into four days. During the first program we learnt to investigate products by un-engineering them. We split up into five different group. In my group we did a forensic investigation on a inductive hob. During this investigation we tried to understand why the hob was not working anymore as it was relatively new and looked in a good condition. Therefore we dissected it to see if any components were working, then we tried powering the user interface circuit board, which was not working. We got some components to turn on with the DC Power Supple: the exhaust fan and the LED lights which did work individual. I reflect back now where I would have try to power the Power and control circuit board without the interface circuit board before we ripped it apart to see if power was flowing through as the fuse was still intact.
After the five group presented there forensic investigation I understood that most physical technologies are similar. Although all the products where different they had common elements such as Power and control circuit board which was present in the Princess Induction hob and the iRobot Roomba.
The other three items which were presented where an Imac 2006, Apple Powerbook and Hitachi TV. These three items are similar in screen system, Hitachi TV is the newest product of the three it was interesting to see on how the way things worked are similar but they have developed since the two Apple products.
In the Hitachi TV the display is working through a lightbox which is being powered by led lights which is similar to both the Imac 2006, Apple Powerbook. In the Apple Powerbook there was an interesting feature of the keyboard it included fibre optic cable to light up the keys which in nowadays we use led strips.
I also learnt during the Hitachi TV presentation on how many countries where part of the construction of the TV. Where the packaging only says made in Japan. Which makes you question all the product you own where do they truly come from.
To conclude I found this exercise super impactful I never knew how easy and also how complex physical technology was. I enjoyed learning about a whole new world by physically dis assembling products. This is a literal definitions of learning by doing.
During the second half of the week we did a workshop about data collection and on how to present the data you have collected. We first touched upon the topic of big tech companies and having a right to the product you buy, having a right to fixing your product etc. We also analysed the methodologies on the process of empowerment to co-creating to change making to openness.
Which then got us onto the topic of our data collection. Where we had four points of how to go about it 1 ask yourself things you want to know, create a hypothesis, where you then capture the data through one tool which you had to come up with an argument on how the other tools should use they others tools so you get the one you want, once the data is collected you will need to analyses it and figure out if your hypothesis is true or false.
In my team we started to discuss the topic of safety in Barcelona, which then went into the safety in IAAC of the people that make up IAAC (student, Faculty and Visitors). We discussed the topic of non-binary people and there pronouns which lead to the question of “are people aware of different pronouns?”. This was investigated as during the induction week we were never asked or got told what are the lectures or the students pronouns. This made us think if the people around us there aware. We then came up with two more questions to analyse which were:
1 “ how often do people ask you your gender pronouns?”
2 “ how often do you ask people their gender pronouns?”
We collected the data through a physical form. We created a board out of Jablo as the base, with a cardboard frame, which was covered in brown paper. We designed a 3D board for getting the people’s answers. With a skewer stick each person participating chose the location (question 1, question 2) and then pierced the wood in the board (question 3).
We left this board with the instructions of use in the bathroom of IAAC. The time that we spend collecting data was between Thursday 3:30 pm to Friday 10:30 am. During this time frame we got 54 participants.
We did have some feedback and some process we couldn’t analyse because of the way we conducted the research. 1 was that the rules for answering questions where not clear for everyone (language and simplicity), 2 the bathroom is a safe space but we don´t see interaction and 3 if we have too much answers the analogue tabulation of data will take too long as we make all the process manually.
The Data cleaning and normalisation was done on google sheets. Where the normalisation of the data was used in the stage of analysing. We used python jupyter notebook to analyse and create visual representations of our data output. The representation in jupyter where separately where each question was answered, then comparing outputs of different questions to show the co relations. Where in x – y relation the output was linear relationship means that whenever others ask us about our gender pronouns, we are also more proactive and ask people their pronouns, y – z relation the output was more people who are OFTEN (0.4-0.6) asking about gender pronouns, then those who consider themselves aware about gender pronouns and x – z was similar.
We then used rhino to visually represent on how the wave was being displayed along all the axes.
During this session I understood that each person has a unique way processing information, which was very informative to learn and understand on how each group managed to collect data and present it in with using FAIR.
During this week’s session we had the workshop call the almost useful machine. I gathered that the program is done so that we break down the steps of technology. Though this program I understood that we can narrow down the tech to understand on how a basic instruction works to eventually understand how most technology works in the same way.
From Tuesday to Friday we needed to as a team to come up with a concept create and make sure it works to be presenting on the Friday. It was a long week where we all stayed at school till around 8pm everyday to get the project done and to make sure it works.
In my team we were over ambitus which I loved we all were experts in the assigned roles that we took but we made it work. We all collectively designed the machine ‘A3P2’ which was a useful machine that shows the emotion of vulnerability.
The Fab Haiku
Edging on the inside and outside,
In an instant
you'll see the real me.
The Concept
Our machine represents the feeling of vulnerability.
When you look at it, it looks strong, with spikes out.
When you get closer and tell it a secret, you can discover who the machine really is.
We then had to create the machine from the products that we dismantled in the Forensics of the
Obsolescence workshop. The aim of this week’s workshop was to create good time management,
spiral development, Iterative design process, ‘multiple forms from the same idea’ and execute.
We needed to maximise the uselessness to become useful, minimise key words create a visually
attractive machine and integrate design elements into it.
The martials we used
Led light
Servo motor
Glossy paper from LCD screen
Fiber optics from the mac keyboard
Electronics kit with ESP32 board
Microphone
Plywood for the base and guide
Acrylic for the mechanics
Smartfil Glace
Structure & Design Team
3D design the global machine
3D design the top dome
3D print the dome
Laser cut the structure
Create a pattern for the pieces that surround the machine
Coding Team
Prepare the code logic
Program the microphone and motor separately
Program the whole system
Mechanics
Create a plan for the up and down movement
2D design gears and support pieces
Laser cut the gears
We got the machine to fully function and managed to create the design we all envisioned. Which looks like a futuristic machine that is coming from star wars which was not our intention. We wanting the function to be that when you speak to the machine it will light up and pull the fiber optics into the machine, after a minute the fiber optics will come out and the light will switch off. We used the scraps from a TV screen to make it a bit more sci-fi and translucent as a function when the light goes one can see how the mechanics are working on the inside.
On the first day of this workshop we checked if all the mechanics are working such as microphone motor and light. We discussed what the concept will be of the machine and the came up with a design.
On the second day we draw up all the part of the design to fabricate the machine as we had a 3D printed head which would have taken around 16h to print so we needed to get this out fast. I designed and modelled this dome and sent it to be printed we had some difficulties as it was at firsts taking 21h to print which wouldn’t have made us be on time but we manged to get it down to a 16h print. There for it would have been ready the next morning. During this time my team members were working on the coding logic and making the code work for each of the items. We were also preparing the laser cutting files for the body and the mechanics.
On the third day we went straight into fabrication and constructing it took us around 4 tried to get the laser cutting prefect and stable for the motor to not drop all the times but it works in the end. We assembled all the items together with the hot glue gun. On this day we stayed at school till closing to make sure it was prefect.
On the last day we had to film, we where five teams in all and had only a few hours to film each machine in the way each team wanted it to be filmed. This meant that we needed to know exactly how we wanted to present A3P2. The problem of this day was that the cameras battery was dead by the time my team got to use it. So we had one take and one take only. This for us was very frustrating as all the teams before us had lots more time to organise there shoots and take different angles and so on. So after the day ended my self and Paula stayed on to try and shott exactly what we wanted with my phone which turned out to be great.
On the whole I felt like this workshop help me understand how important the way that you design and integrate technology. I would like to design more with people how have a better understanding in emerging technologies.
This week we had a workshop which was dedicated to engaging with the communi-ties that we are interested with. The workshop was conducted with two professionals Mercè and Mar-kel from a local collective called Holon. We started off the workshop by them getting to know us by asking us 3 questions that we all had to answer one by one.
What brought you here?
Who are you?
Where are you heading?
The main topic of the first days workshop was designing with the social body which meant to de-sign over, for, with and within. This lead to a discussion of the importance of shifting our views as a designer from what we see the problems are but immersing ourselves into the community to really understand what and if the problem is real.
We talked about the topic of what is design and it was interesting on how everyone had a differ-ent view on what design is to them. Which broth us into the history of design and how de-sign/designers where developed. What the roles of designers are and the ethics behind being a de-signer. Do Designers need a warrant to work? How can designers be responsible for there design mis-takes? These where questions that came up during the session.
During the first workshop we had two task to do. One was done during the session and one was meant to be done at home. The first task was to walk around the school to discover by answering these three questions:
What waits to be born in the world?
What evidences can I find around me supporting that urgency?
Which glimpses can I find in the present of those future waiting to be born?
When I went on a walk I discovered these materials in the libary.
During the second session of this workshop we empowered our own bodies to move. We did four exercises to help our bodies get use to discovering how we feel and experience. The first exercise was done to get our bodies warm we stood in a circle and all of us had to create a movement which we all had to copy.
We then went into talking around the room to give us a sense of our space. This was done for us to get into the second exercise which we had to create a human scale of bad to good. We got asked another of questions of how the world in design and our environment is going and if we thought it was bad we had to stand on one side of the room or if we though it was good we had to stand on the other side of the room. Everyone seamed to find themself caught in the middle to bad. A funny obser-vation was that the youngest two people in the group were always on the most bad side.
The second exercise led us onto the tired we were given numbers where we were standing in the line. This tried exercise was a movement exercise where we all had to flow, so we all had to follow the movement for 10sec of number 1-30. This was a reliving exercise after exercise two.
The fourth exercise was a human 4D sculpture which was made up of actors and viewers. The sculpture was representing the education system. We came up with a number of subjects that make up the education system and we choose 12 problems that the actors needed to actor out on the stage given. These images represent what happened.
<
The fourth exercise was a human 4D sculpture which was made up of actors and viewers. The sculpture was representing the education system. We came up with a number of subjects that make up the education system and we choose 12 problems that the actors needed to actor out on the stage given. These images represent what happened.
The top image is how they feel and the bottom image is how they feel it should be.
In the tired session we worked in our groups. The people in my group are Marina, Tatiana and myself. We are tackling the problem of circular materials and individual waste. We filled a Miro board up with information of how to do an intervention. As on the Monday of this week we had design stu-dios where we formed our final design intervention groups with the people you have the most com-mon ideas with.
This workshop helped me understand how to engage more with myself and others. It helped me reach out and not be afraid of communicating with people. It also helped me understand how I should place myself into the already existing communities of the subject I was to research in.
During this week’s workshop we were brother into the world of Extended Intelligences. This workshop was thought by guess lectures from Taller Estampa. Estampa is a group of filmmakers, programmers and researchers. We had two lectures each session. Each lectures thought us a different tool to use and real live examples of how we can use them.
During this week I felt very lost as I have never studied or learnt about this subject let alone think I could use it as a tool in my work. They thought us though a system on Google Colab, where they set up the code and thought us how to use it. Which then we used the T train models and saw on how we could use them.
During the bootcamp we needed to get to know each one of out workshop we will be developing our skills knowlage and attitudes. We needed to craft a table to understand fully on what we could gain from each of these workshops to maximise our development potential. As you can see in the table and info graphic above one can see the direction I an movinh towards. During one of our sessions we needed to do an exercis such as speed dating. During this exercis we exchanged our skills knowlage and attitudes to each of our class mates. This exercise was done to see what our pers can offer you and what you can offer them to create your hybrid profile. I felt like this exercise was a good way to start making each one of us start comunicated in a way to help one another.
Design Studio 2
Roles of Prototyping
During the second session of design studio we learnt about the roles of prototyping. This type of research is aimed to help us understand a 1st persons perspective though design. This is helps us designing is though the unknown. Annotating portfolios to understand other forms of intermediate levels of knowledge.
General Theory
Design Research
Practical
Design Space Understanding Tools
This is the way design research could take place. In order to reach the goal of the research during this design studio they gave us 4 different methods on how to conduct design research. They called them the different types of prototyping.
The prototyping as an experimental component. – Testing, trial and error.
The prototyping as a research architype. – Concept, understanding , examples.
The process of prototyping as a vehicle for inquir. – Making an artefact.
The process of prototyping as a vehicle for inquir. – Making an artefact.
During the session we needed to come up with what we wanted to prototype and choose in which direction we wanted to do this prototyping in. I want to do the experimental as I want to learn more about bio material and how I can DIY them at home. During the session I was trying to think on how it could becoming more meaningful, so I listed the waste I through away the most. Which are eggshells, tea bags and coffee ground. Therefore I will try and make the bio materials out of the waste I have at home.
Design Studio 3
Communication
During this session of design studio we got a lector from Kate. During this session she spoke about documentation beyond presentation. Documenting it for your design prosses which needs to be what you are, a mees on one day or flowing on another. We tried to understand what was missing from our own visualisation skills. Kate did this but us putting up our hands to see how we feel and where were thing we can improve. I left that consistency, style and communication was missing form my own documentation. We also went into the exploration on how to bring light into what went wrong with the process of documentation and what wasn’t there in my documentation. I need to discovery who I am and how I want to represent myself as a designers. I need to push my boundaries to see what I am capable of . By doing this I can create connection with people who can contribute to my design space. Though my documentation I can create a story on how I got to where I am for more people to understand the process and create a similar design ethic.
During this session we did two exercise the first one was about documenting the space you where in. We first had to go to a space alone. Kate prepared 10 audio notes to help us documenting better. We all had to listen to the first and last audio and then had to choose anything from the second till the ninth to focus on.
Suring the first listen I just processes on what she was saying I sat calmly on the roof of IAAC taking in the space. This made me understand what I needed to prosses. Then I processed to the documentation of the space. This is where I walked around and tried to explore by searching feeling looking touching and smelling.
I then focused onto the light audio, I have a strong feeling and emotion towards light, I created this connection for a young age as I find light a source of greater power and greater being which sounds so magnificent to me. On this day the natural light was strong warm from the sun, it illuminated the space, the ground, the walls, the people the object and me. The shadows are casted by the 1m wall that’s is around the building, where the shadow set it was cold and dark. These different areas had different tones and feelings that when you sit in the different areas of the space. The area that was unseen was the gutter it was dark and humid this is were the rain water is collected.
The feeling I gathered in this is space was relaxing, it was a space away from noise and obstruction. Light gives me different emotions and can make you feel different emotion, that’s why in meditation spaces the light is an important factor in the space as it can change the connection with how you feel.
During this excurses I dropped my bottle in the floor which created a loud noise and effected the space and the people in it. I rolled on the ground on feel and understand the space a bit better I wanted to feel the shadow and the sunlight in my skin. I have come back to this space every day this week and I fell more and more in love with it. This space feels like a safe haven away from all the chaos.
This exercise was done to show us that we see spaces from different lenses and we all see the world in a different way and document the world in a different way. This is part of our arsenal, to create your own boundaries, critically understanding how to use them.
Documentation feeds Communication. This idea is a good way on how to think about documentation. Communicating is for informing, targeting, curating, critique and storytelling.
In the second exercise we had to do a documentation for another perspective in your body so other can see how or what you feel. I am the shortest person in the class so I wanted them to observe what and how i feel always looking up at people. My point of view must be different from other people. I interviewed Marina with a few questions as I found it really difficult as my face was completely covered. So I couldn’t see what I was feeling or where I was directing the camera at all.
These two Videos Linked are to show you what we focused on during the workshop. The First video was comunicating with your senses and the second video is recording from a different perspective.
Comunicating with your senses
Documenting Through Light
Different Perspectives
Head Attachment
Design Review 1
My first design review was with Jonathan Minchin, I was placed with him though my interest of bio plastics, waste management and the overall environment problems we are facing. During this review we spoke and discussed my aims and focuses I have been having in the last few months. These ideas I was thinking about were ‘Human Landfills’. I came up with this term A Human Landfill as I feel like in the future we will all become some walking trash. This is by wearing and using products that will be made out of our waste.
this idea came about after my living with my own idea task, where I wore my own waste from 24h. I got lots of funny looks, photos of me and commits. Which I guess was understandable but also in a greater context funny as most of those people probably own an item that is vintage or repurposed from waste. After this intervention I didn’t know what to do with the waste I collected I felt like it was my burden not anyone else. This is become I was the consumer and the owner of this waste. I felt as though it was my duty to dispose of this waste in the best way I knew how. For this reason I left the waste I worn form 2 week on my kitchen shelf rotting, pile up and not being placed in the trash. Looking back now I feel that I did this subconsciously that I knew I needed to try better and understand more about this waste.
during my review with Jonathan he loved the idea of A Human Landfill he told me that it was a good way of naming your thoughts. He helped me on how I need to analyse my waste to understand better what my waste is. So he suggested to make a google sheet to list all my collected golden treasures. By doing this I can try give them purpose, see how they were made, what the peruse of the material is, see if it can be changed and how it can be the reduced, recycled, rotted, repurposed or repaired. This is exactly what u did.
Design Studio 4
Framing and developing collective design Interventions was this week’s design studio workshop. This week we had two guest from last years class. This studio workshop was done to help us design an action to develop with others in the context we need. This was done to give us an opportunity to co-create and integrate prototypes with others. This will in a way make up make sense of topic collectively.
During the guest lecture, they suggested that this can be an experience that will transform yourself and others. By doing this you need to create close connections to the communities to create a better understanding on what you can do within this communities. This will help up create an experience to understand your direction through embodied actions.
“Just Show Up”
Last years exsamples.
This is some information I got from this week’s design studio. We talked about the first design dialog and how we should be presenting this. For our first design dialog we need to present the 1st collaborative with our collective. During this session I change collective as I found a group that better suits my ideologies. I still want to be involved as a outsider in the uneducated to educate group as I find this topic relative but I feel like its not my main focus.
Design Review 2
The second design review was as a groups we needed to discuss what and how we would be doing the design intervention. During the last design studio we finalised the group that we wanted to work with in the design intervention and later on the design dialogue.
During the review Marina, Tatiana and myself came up with a few ideas of what we would like to do but we felt like we didn’t have enough propose to do so. We wanted to create a workshop about Waste Management, Circularity and Bio-Martials. The first idea was to create object out of bio materials, but we all felt like there was something missing in that idea, so we discusses maybe we ask the participants to bring there own waste to see how they can compare the bio material they make to the waste they bring, these are the ideas we brother to the reviews.
Our first review was with Thomas during this review he thought the ideas we had were just scratching the surface of what we were trying to tackle. He encouraged us to speak to Anastasia about our topic and ask for her guidance on the workshop. So we did just that we got into contact with Anastasia to get some more information on how to move forward.
The second review we had was with Mariana she guided us on how to conduct the workshop. She told us that it could potentially turn into a monthly gathering of people who are interested in the topic and want to engage with it more. She gave us the idea of creating a kit for people who come to the workshop to have and try at home. So after this we created a kit for 6 people who we where hosting the workshop for out of scraps we found in the Fablab.
For the third review we went to be 2 alumni in their workspace Jana & Roger. We wanted to meet them to give us some guidance on where to go from our ideas. As we got totally different interpretations from what we gather in both reviews. They helped us with understand to do what we will get the most out of. They showed us some projects, gave us some materials and put us into contact with people who we might gain from in the previous years.
The next couple of days we meet with Anastasia, she is the head of fab textiles in fab lab. This conversation was super useful. She opened up our minds to the problems of bio plastics and circular material. She started a conversation with us about the good in plastic but what is bad is the way we use it for everything. She also told us to do an exercise which could be part of the workshop to see an item in our homes like a fridge and analyse the materials in it. Ask the questions what are they, where are they made, why are they made and could it be made differently?
She also went into the ethics of bio plastics and how they have to be made with waste and only waste and the first thing food should do it go to humans and then be made for products. This statement stuck with me and I in that moment felt helpless.
Design Studio 5
During this design studio we had to present our group interventions. Most of the groups went up to present and we all got back good criticism on how to present it next week. After this we then had to draw what the group space set up could look like and this is how we collectively though to do it.
Design Studio 6
During this week's design studio we started the curation of design dialogues. Kate took us through different processes to show how we are all connected as a team but yes we do have different projects and have grouped up in different ways but this makes it not 100% that we will forever feel as though we will go down this route.
We then started to set up what we wanted to present as a group and individual. We wanted to see if we wanted to display any activity and how these different interventions between all of us can intertwin together. This was very interesting to understand as we all have very much been doing our own things in small groups to collectively come together and see how they could be presented holistically was a nice way to show us a collective .
The Case For Waste group is made up of Marina, Tatiana and myself where we found ourselves trying to understand what waste and biomaterials mean to us. We asked ourselves very similar questions and had a very similar opinion on similar topics. This is why we decided to do the intervention together. We invite the participants to understand their waste and redefine what waste means to them.
We created a display for design dialogises that respected our workshop on how it went down. We set out our board game like display that we gave to our participants to understand on how to create biomaterials and what they could use. We hung the biomaterials with photos on strings so that the views who come to the stands can see the materials properties such as the translucent, texture and thickness. We also displayed some on the ‘Workshop Table’, along side the boards and the different camptonites we used.
We created a display for design dialogises that respected our workshop on how it went down. We set out our board game like display that we gave to our participants to understand on how to create biomaterials and what they could use. We hung the biomaterials with photos on strings so that the views who come to the stands can see the materials properties such as the translucent, texture and thickness. We also displayed some on the ‘Workshop Table’, along side the boards and the different camptonites we used.
Some feedback we got from the overall display, is that we need to see how we can develop these ideas into real world scenarios. If we keep on developing the biomaterials Jonathan suggested to understand why materials want to fold the way they do and work with material properties. Work with the folding and the natural movement the material wants to do. We spoke a lot about polices and how we feel as a group this would be a strong way forward. Over all we got every good feedback we just need to see which road we would want to go down in.
My Trashy Life
My trashy life project came to me after the workshop of Living with your own ideas. This is where I ware my own waste for 24h. After the 24h ended I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the waste I created so I kept it. I felt bad throwing it away or recycling it as I didn’t know what is was where it was coming from or what is was made out of.
Therefor for the last 2 months I have started to create my own intervention. I wanted to see how much single used materials I consumed. I took pictures of every product I bought to analyse the materials that each product is made out of. I wanted to see and feel the weight of my waste, so I stuck it on my bedroom wall so that every day when I wake up and go to bed I see it all. From the picture you see, the 3 walls behind me are full of my waste. I then started to understand my waste what I come live without and what could be changed in terms on packaging.
I think this should be a task all highschool students should do.
- Isabel Ordoñez
Other Groups Works
For the first design dialogue we consisted of 8 different collective groups. The main topics this year were about Environmental Issues/ Waste, Technology and Education. Each group went down different route on how to tackle similar problems.
The first group I went to see was the education group Aprendizaje Emocionante, the group wants to discover on how can learning change and how people learn. The group did a number of different tasks to understand the learning journeys of individuals.
This is how it was done, I started by drawing my education journey from where I learnt most of my knowledge. This made me reflect on all the different people on how touched my life and shaped me into the person I am today. I reflected on how I didn’t enjoy the normal education systems with my learning difficulties (dyslexia).
Through past journeys the group created a card game to self-reflect on others experiences that were drawn on the map.
Therefore the next step I did during the learning group visit, I played the card game, where the card game was you need to do the task they give you. The card that I picked up was “My parents were my first teachers” and the task was - call someone you love.
The next group I went to is BioThesizer, their intervention was to see how to create a music box for children. This was done with a mix of electronics and biomaterials so that children can play with both mediums. They shared information by hosting a workshop to both teachers and children, they created biomaterials while doing this they shared the information on how each property makes up each material.
I went to their stand to see how they created a relation with the electronic music box and biomaterials. For my group intervention we also touch on the subject of biomaterials so I found it interesting to see how they tackle the same topic in a different way. I enjoyed play with the different pressure that I needed to play with to get similar sounds.
The next stand I visited was Andrea’s body sound it was a experiment on how the body is connected with our own memories. This is where our moves have created meaning, I found this interesting as my mother who is a dance teacher always speaks about mussel memory. Therefore in Andrea’s project is used AI to track the link with the moving body and sound.
Plant B was one of my favourite stands the project is about restoring the importance of nature by the use of music and technology. The created a playful experience where the participants create music by a simple touch to the plants. These plants are connected to the electronic board and creates musical sounds from it.
When I was visiting Plant B’s stand I got stuck there playing and fooling around with the plants trying to compose something that was clearly not a great rhythm. I found this stand extremely entertaining and it gave me some clear understanding on how technologies could be used in a environmentally conscious way.
The next stand I visited was Fiorella’s Loner Booth, from what I understood by visiting her stand as it was all in Spanish is that she did a workshop in the park and gathered a number of people to find their superpower in the metaverse .
The stand of Re-Party was full by the time I got to them so I wanted to go back and see it but I didn’t have much time, from what I understood is that they invited participants to re-imagine and re-pair alternate human-object relationships by using first-person perspective.
Although I didn’t get to see the re-party stand I managed to see one of their members stand Jeremy where we explained to me his Emergence Playground. He was trying to develop and understand patterns on how emergent ideas could be developed for the future.
I've been experimenting with programming particle simulations where each particle behaves by a simple set of rules and interacts locally with other particles. By changing the rules, I intend to get a better intuition for how to design emergent (social) systems.
Another stand I spent a lot of time in was the Ripe Conversations, this is a group I am very interested in getting to know a bit more. There objective was to create better knowledge about the negligence of food waste by closing a feedback loop. They create a workshop where they collected ‘waste’ from food warehouses in Barcelona to turn then into consumable products.
At their stand they had different hot sauces that I kept on eating it for them. I enjoyed seeing different peoples reaction to they trying the hot sauces. They tackled a subject that I love food and waste, when they did the workshop I was doing my workshop so we couldn’t attend it. This made me super sad but at least I got to try the hot sauce.
In the same group two members created a plant incubator for duckweed. Ruben and Vikrant design and build a incubator for the most common type of weed that was found in Catalunya which is almost extinct. The duckweed is a promising source of proteins and healthy amino acids that humans can’t produce. It also had bio-remediation and environment friendly production properties. They are trying to develop it to have this product as a alternative food source in the future.
The next stand I spoke to was Myceliation by Roberto and Julia. They are understanding the fungi kingdom and how it can have an environmental impact in degrading certain materials such as plastic pollution and oil waste to seeing how the mycelium material could be used as a vast material in our society.
Personal Refections Of The 3 Months
This is a message to myself and for whoever wants to read.
22/12/2021
I was so scared to enter this master program moving away from my family during a pandemic or what I thought would have been the end of a pandemic. I sit here flying back to my home country after 3 months of intensive knowledge building, wearing a mask, sitting next to a stranger, hoping I don’t cough or sneeze as the fear of covid-19 is still among us.
These last 3 months have taught me to listen, evaluate and reflect. It was the most intestine, crazy and informative 3 months of my life. I have never touched on any topics I learnt and I had to sort of master them.
I fell in love with everything I touched and gathered an emotional attachment to most topics that were discussed.
The hardest 2 weeks were by far bio and Agro 0 and I was just in ore of the lectures and their knowledge. I sat in-front of every class to try and gain as much as I could. I did this for most of the workshop and being in the fount and listening made me feel less of an “imposter”.
I come from an architect and design background and oh how I loved to design I thought, but now I know that my true love is for the environment, our humanity and learning patterns.
I never thought that I would love and understand technology so much. The workshop of Tech Beyond the Myth // Forensics of the Obsolescence made me open up my mind to the bigger cooperation and how we have to stop over-consumption.
Looking at how most of our tech products are made all over the world from so many resources that will or has started to run out. The task of opening up products we use everyday to discover what is instead and what does what and if each product we use and is broken, we shouldn’t throw it away as it has soo many resources that could be used in other products. This made me think that we should push the big tech to allow us to fix our own devices from broken products we find everywhere.
Open source was a concept I was not familiar with or let’s be honest really never thought about as a consumer. I never thought I had the rights to my products. But now I think heavily about it. I want to know it all, I want to know what I’m buying and why and where it was made and how hard it would be to fix the list could go on and on.
We As Consumers Have A Right To The Products We Buy.
A big concept I have been tackling in this trimester is my waste or waste consumption/ management. I have been collecting my waste for 2 months. I have felt the weight of my consumption. I have gotten mixed reviews from people who have visited my “walls of waste”. Some say I have not consumed too much and they would have done all that in a week and others have said wow that’s sooo much waste. I felt as though my bedroom was a work of art to be discussed and analyzed. But if we all do it I feel we would feel the same way as me. Isabel Ordoñez who is a lecturer at Elisava told me this task should be done to every teen in high school. She said that this is the first task anyone needs to do before entering into the world of waste management. She was so inspiring to speak to during our first design dialogue. Waste management is a huge and vast topic to speak about. It is even harder to work with a topic like this.
During the next trimester I would think about getting in contact and involving myself with company’s, research hubs and collectives who are heading in the direction of zero waste or changing and understanding better waste systems. I want to understand how policies were made and how many times they are reviewed with our ever changing environment. I want to try and live the most zero waste life I can. I want to analyze my waste and really understand it by means of materials. I want to evaluate what could change and what makes sense to say the same in relation to keeping the product they are protecting good. This is a whole lot of design and material engineering, which is new to me but oh how I am so passionate about it.
All I can say is thank you for the knowledge in these last few months and I am so very excited to keep this journey going MDEF people you are great.
The next billion seconds was the first workshop we had after the winter break. Which I felt was a good move from the academia team. The workshop was derived into 4 different sessions. Which helped us open the term to these strong conversations about what the next billion seconds mean for us. We spoke about topics such as time, post technologies, the everything manifesto. This workshop helped us use our imagination after a 2 weeks break to imagine the next few years and how we can change our designing strategies to adapt for future events that might occur.
In the first session Andres showed us the first ever satellite image of earth. The image is called Pale blue dot, which made us look at the planet and say we are all here.
We touched on the subject about futures, what is the future? Does the future exist? Is the future a tool?
After this topic we were grouped up in pairs to discuss the futures we would want in the next billion seconds. I was placed in a group with Angle and this is our presentation.
One area of topics we spoke about that I was interested in was The 10 environmental emergencies in 10 threats. In the image below you can see what they were before human extinction. During this workshop I was going through the New York Times 2021 year in pictures, where I have listed 2 below that I would say has a strong link to this topic.
Bella Coola, British Columbia, June 1.
A grizzly bear named Arthur was sedated before a helicopter flight back into the wilderness. Researchers are tracking orphan cubs reared in a shelter to see whether they can thrive after “rewilding.”
Alana Paterson for The New York Times
Magaras, Russia, July 8. Volunteers battled a forest fire in Siberia. The region is usually known for its bone-chilling cold, but recent summer temperatures have reached as high as 100 degrees. Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times
During the session we placed ourselves into groups. I placed myself in Problems–Decisions, where each group needed to come up with a new country in 2052.
My group called the new city NOVMERCA which is based on the capital city of Bali Denpasar but located in the Caribbean Islands. We created a city that is directly linked to the ocean as the island is becoming flooded. We wanted to tackle the issue of rising sea water to make it part of the city as a culture.
At the end after everyone's world summit presentation NOVMERCA got the best results as a city that people would want to live in.
The first future talks we had was with Audrey Desjardins, Audrey is an Interaction Design Researcher and Educator who practices her theories at Studio Tilt which is her own design company and University of Washington.
Audrey spoke to us about her experiences with first person perspective practices. She used design as a mode of inquirer and to articulate questions. She gave us some examples of how she used this method. She used this to propose alternatives and to provoke reflection in design research.
She discussed and explained to us her thesis project which till this day is a never ending journey. The title of the paper she wrote is called Living In A Prototype. This research was a two year first experience autobiographical design project of converting a Mercedes Sprinter van into a camper van.
During this talk Aparna asked a very interesting question -
I would like to understand how you link the concept of “fair” to a first person perspective approach?
Audrey responded with this answer -
Designing around ethics, designing something and using it yourself to find these things.
I thought this question was interesting as I found it very difficult to be completely fair during my first person research. I tried to write down my whole day during our, living with our own idea workshop where we needed to use this tool and the only way I found it easy to reflect was when I was looking back at my timeline of my feelings.
One other project that really resonated with me during this talk was the Soft Fading device. This tool is an analog device that slowly collects sunlight data on a cylinder of revolving turmeric dyed fabric. Audrey told us about the failure of this device when it was in the stage of prototyping. This failure was very inspiring to me as the failure was so common it wasn’t even thought about.
The failure was that one of the participants from the Studio didn't think that the location they placed this item in as it would affect the outcome of the faded fabric. But the location had all sorts of shadows which messed up the reading of the machine.
This failure was so simple, it was overlooked. Once this was changed they got the result they wanted.
These are a few points that I took from this talk.
Continuously check in with yourself and others
Set a Timeframe (But be Flexible)
Commit to documentation
Choose a format you enjoy
Find a form for dialogical exchange
You will wear many hats
There might be tensions and values
Find co-conspirators
Collaboratively rearticulate meaning
Our bodies, our research instruments
Future Talk With Laura Forlano
The second future talk was with Laura Forlano who is mainly a design researcher, who is an Associate Professor of Design at the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, where she is also Director of the Critical Futures Lab.
The main topic she discussed with us was about her experience with First person perspective as a design research tool. She opened up about her personal experience with dealing with Type 1 diabetes. Where in the introduction to her paper “Hacking the Feminist Disabled Body” she sates thats
“In fact, it is only through my own body’s failure and breakdown that I have come to participate in and redefine the socio-technical practices that constitute hacking and (un)hacking. Like my own cyborg body, the narrative that follows – at times intimate and personal and sometimes abstract and theoretical — is a kind of hybrid.[i] It is through this hybrid scholarship that I hope to contribute to the development of a deeper
understanding of a feminist hacker ethic(s).”
Which was an interesting concept to me that she is using herself to give a better value to the research needed to understand the body better. This is the perfect example on how you can use your body in any form of research.
During this talk she spoke to us about This AI system is keeping me alive, but it's also ruining my life. As it keeps her up for crazy hours of the night beeping or asking her to do something to it etc. Therefore on one end she needs this product but on the other end she can’t stand it.
This topic is an interesting theory and is very important because it's a lens or an attunement on what to study. This topic leads us into speaking about the post human movement where with all these new attachments people have to live with we are becoming cyborgs. This was an interesting topic to discuss because we have people in the world still fighting for their right to be human but we are moving to a post-human life.
Future Talk With Sergio Urueñahe
During this week's Future Talk with Sergio Urueñahe explored the Toolkit of RRI Responsible Research Innovation. During this talk he gave us some questions to reflect upon, These questions were created in four different categories about Responsible Research. These are: Inclusion, Reflexivity, Responsibility and Anticipation. These categories are created from a theoretical and philosophical approach as Sergio's background is rooted into these processes. It was interesting to hear how he tackles these ways of thinking in real life practice, as I found that his approach was very important to industries that we are working with everyday.
Inclusion
1. Did you develop your own experience with(in) the network of actors in which and for which you are developing your project? To what extent and to which actors (human/non-human) do you feel responsible?
During this trimester I felt very lost in terms of how to build a community with the subjects I was tackling. I contacted a few local and international people to have a few conversations about my idea. The idea I had was still very much in the air as I felt I was still attached to other forms of responsibility in other projects.
The first trimester I was tackling the issue of how much packaging waste I was collecting on a daily basis and trying to live with this waste. I felt responsible for every piece of packaging I would buy and use in that process. This became over welcoming as I felt as a consumer I had no choice in this decision but to take care of it myself. Here I am 2 month later sitting with a whole lot of trash in my room and not knowing what to do with it.
If one small person like myself could collect this amount of trash in two whole months how much trash does seven billion people collect?
I contacted an NGO from back home in Malta to understand how much waste and what type of waste is found in our sea. It was pretty interesting to discover what the most waste that is found. This led me to the next process of my research seeing how
we could use the natural environment to bioremediate our ocean and sea. I am looking into understanding how I can use bacteria and algae to which is my co-creation with a non human species. I as a living being on this plant feel responsible for the past mistakes of neglecting our very own inhabitants.
2. Have you thought about expanding your community and from there, your own experience? Where do you set the boundaries of your experiential community?
I have slowly expanded my community through this research, I have started to understand the different connections I would need in this process. As I am not a biochemist I feel as though I need more knowledge on understanding the subject at hand, as we got to speaking to some experts it is better when working with living organisms to see how they work and after creating the design process.
I at the moment am not trying to set boundaries as I want to create bigger communities to understand this new subject I am diving into.
Reflexivity
1. What do I know and not know about my own project? What assumptions, interests, values... underpin my project and to what extent have I reflected on them?
I feel as though I am still very new to this topic and all I am doing is creating ideas on how to degenerate my designs. But after this talk I had with one of the community connections I have had is to start getting to know the organisms that I want to work with. Therefore now I am changing the process of how to understand the living organism and then see how to work with it.
2. Am I committed enough to my project and to the community with(in) and for which I am co-developing it?
I felt as though in the beginning of this trimester I couldn't connect any more with the project I was focusing on which left me to be ok with stopping the process. But now I am more focused and motivated to learn new processes along with the community it comes with.
Responsiveness
1. In what sense am I corresponding to an interest, a need or an expectation of the social-technical system or community in which I feel involved?
I feel as though there are many different projects where one uses just algae but trying to understand what the community needs and wants is a totally different process. I feel as though I keep on contacting different people working in this field to fully understand what the needs are and what the limits and growths of my project are. I would like that my project will keep on evolving to help with the agreements of reaching net zero by 2050. I wish to develop material and bioremediation processes to help with this. This could be revolutionary in the way we build and create the build environment around us. This would create a shift in the industry to co-create and design with nature.
2. To what extent do I welcome and promote diversity and could I adapt my project if new needs or demands arise? How adaptable can my project be to possible changes?
During the last few meet ups with people I have had, they were all coming from such different backgrounds. This helped me talk about my subject with different audiences which made me understand my research in different ways to adabit the information for them to cater it. I spot to NGO’s which I needed to present my ideas in our of a holistic ideology, I spoke to designers which i felt easier to connect to as they could grasp what i was saying and biochemist engineers where i spoke a bit more in scientific details to get them to understand the topic better. This was interesting to me as I thought that if I explained the design idea in a different way I would see how I would want to present it. But this is what I understood is that I was everyone to understand the process I am working on. I want it to be open and easy to replicate. I want people to be able to implement this in their local studios.
Anticipation
1. Could my project be domesticated in other contexts / by other actors? what could be the future consequences?
I would like my research to be created with a community that isn't only made up of specialists. This would be interesting to see how each process could be adjusted into different processes that would benefit each person who wants to collaborate. This could create a new movement in how we are handling our process in connection with the environment.
2. What futures am I promoting and who might benefit or be disadvantaged? How desirable are the futures I am promoting with my project, and for whom?
I would like to think that this project could be targeting a few weak signals we have in the ecosystem we are dealing with. This could be an easy way of co-creating with our natural environment. Algae is found everywhere in micro and macro scales where we could adapt it to have different types of properties to help remediate. The positive outcome with algae is it helps reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and it could be cleaning the air as well as our land and oceans.
Future Talk With Saul Baeza
This week's future talk was different from the last few, we had a local guest speaker which was nice to have. The talk started off as a walk around the up and coming city called L ‘Hospitalet. We got a brief history of the city and why it is up and coming for artists and designers.
The main tour and talk was with Saul Baeza, Saul was a very interesting speaker. He was the second speaker from the future talks that I felt a good connection with. The passion he had for his work was very nice and I got inspired by the depth he went into with testing the design he had.
The Saul Apple Face ID project called New Faces,New Identities 2021 was very interesting and is a topic which I think about a lot. In the past Malta was going to be a testing center for CCTVs in the streets. So I always used to wonder how I would like to disguise myself from this type of technology.
Some other projects that I found interesting where Does DOES Control , the given identity 2020, This project was a body standards that reflect the contemporary time we are in.This is a machine is a project that “consists of a series of wireless electro-stimulators and sensors that once placed on the body, can be controlled through different softwares to perform pre established or real time movements and behaviours.“Control, the given identity” is based on the generation of data-control behaviours. As a pre established dogma, we usually say that in our society, we are controlled by our phones, social networks, emails, whatsapps, calls...”
Future Talk With Ron Wakkary
Ron Wakkary's talks always get me thinking about post-human lives. He gave us a discussion on the importance of the impact on non-human relations in our projects. He made it very clear that everything around us has both influenced our knowledge and our project direction, linking that the world has an impact on everything we do.
He discusses throughout reading snippets from his new book that has not been released yet the relationship between humans non humans and things. He wrote this book as it was a biography and included the strangest characters which made it very interesting.
He asked us if our projects were biographies who would be included in this story. In our biography we need to understand that all of our projects are being shaped by everything around us. This is making them a co-author of our interventions and studies. Who is my co-author? What are the relations & connections between all these things? What alternate futures are we creating through these interventions?
The first design studio of this term was done remotely which was a bit surreal, we started the session off talking about the terms new context “Embodying emergent contexts”. We were shown the multiscalar design strategy diagram and for this upcoming term we will be placed in the product or interventions making our way through this as a first person perspective into engaging with our communities and neighborhoods.
We were given different tips on how to survive the term, and we need to ask ourselves the question in reference to what?
Looking back on the projects that I have worked on during this masters and before, I have always been curious to how environmental events have changed our lives in what we do and how we do it. The purpose of the upcoming term is to see how I can reduce waste through the environment itself. I want to see how we can co design with nature and work together to help our environment.
My next steps are to look at organisms to see what properties we need to start degrading our air, land and sea pollution in a non harmful way.
Review 1 - With Mariana
The first review of this term was with mariana, we spoke very briefly on what I was still interested in and how I would want to tackle these topics. I spoke to her about my trash project as I felt as though I wanted to go into this waste system and understand how it works and how it could be changed. I also found and was interested in NFT’s but I still didn't understand the use of it and why it was interesting to me.
I felt as though this review was more like a conversation on how I would like to tackle this term and how I would like to take on these new courses with the research I wanted to pursue. I came out of this review feeling a bit confused and scared to go into this term as I felt like my research was not what I wanted to continue but I didn't want to continue it.
Review 2 - With Johanthen
The second design review I had was with Jonathan. I wanted some guidance on how I can go about material findings and how my project developed. I was still unsure about the research I was going into so I took in what he told me but I was so uninspired by the topic I just didn't know where to start. He gave me some guidance on how to research material of brands and products I collected but I just didn't know what and why I wanted to do this any more.
I was feeling motivated after this review and I started to research what things are made out of and how they were produced but I am still feeling very detached from this research and I feel like I am obliged to do it rather than wanting to do it.
Design Studio 2
During the second design studio the main topic that was discussed was Autoethnographic design through a first point perspective. We touched upon the value of the design theories, the tensions within the post-human turn, the collapse of the boundaries between the researcher and the research, the value of auto ethnographic data and the vignette as documentation strategy which means somehow a selection of pieces that you think of starting an interesting conversation with. When you become an expert into your own practices. the design practices and the reflection practices become one.
For me I found the topic of the post-human turn very interesting, even more interesting as was mentioned by Marinara on some humans who haven't yet been accepted as humans themselves. This subject is something that touched me a bit as there are still problems with racism and now the fight is no longer to become a human but a post human when they were never assembled as humans from the ghetto.
This leads to the conversation of collaboration so therefore we are entering a post human world. Can collaboration work with any subject a potato? A tree? A rock? An AI system? Where thus this would not be a testing research but a collaborative.
this is a space for you to do something that you would never be able to do in your design practice
- Oscar
I also in class listed all my peers' interventions that I would be interested in and how I could collaborate. I found the most similar connections with Julia, Marina and Gerda with topics I am investigating.
Review 3 - With Kate
My first review with Kate was very inspirational, she helped guide me through my thoughts and my difficulties I was facing. She pushed my ideas I was telling her but I felt as though this was not enough for me to keep on the same route I was on. I was not adding the co design with nature into my design and interventions. I was just doing desk research which I was not happy with. I felt as though this term I am in a rut and I didn’t know where to move. So I focused as Kate told me to keep on moving with the idea of creating nutrient values on packaging we are buying everyday.
Design Studio 3
Responsible Research and Innovation - 2nd Design Intervention
During this session we went into what responsible research practice and design means to us. We touched and reflected on the future talk we had in the week Segio Uruene where we stated that There is a genealogy to the concept in relation to STI- historical evolution of imaginaries, narratives, politics, past and future narratives.
In my personal project I feel very responsible and personal. The responsibility is to understand what I am buying to be more conscious of anything I purchase I will use and not and get rid of, as I own my own waste. I also feel responsible to share my understanding and findings with the public and to create awareness of what the possible outcome can become.
What do I know and not know about my own project?
My trashy life project is a project made up of X amount of waste materials that I have collected myself.
I know that I own my waste and that it is my responsibility to use this waste in a beneficial way.
I know that my project can create an impact in our society.
I know that I could create a learning workshop for people and to dive deeper into understanding their waste.
I know that we will need to start using our waste for our own personal interventions.
What assumptions, interests, values underpin my project and to what extent have I reflected on them?
During the last 3 months I have created the interest of how our urban design can help with these differences.
I feel like I haven't fully reflected on this topic and if it's feasible.
I don’t know if this project can be done all alone and not have much that is collected to fully create a product.
Am I committed enough to my project and to the community with(in) and for which I amco-developing it?
I feel as though I am committed but I get a little less everyday. I would love to take this intervention to a bigger scale and see what other people do to create different investigations.
The community could be very interesting and see how we can create a law to get the material nutritional value of our products we buy.
In what sense am I corresponding to an interest, a need or an expectation of the socio-technical system or community in which I feel involved?
I feel as though my project is to create awareness around the knowledge of what we
are buying in terms of materials.
To give the consumer a right to know what we are buying.
I feel not involved in a community at all, in all honesty I feel very lost in what I am doing.
To what extent do I welcome and promote diversity and could adapt my project if new needs or demands arise? (How adaptable can my project be to possible changes?)Could my project be applied in other contexts /by other actors? What could be the future consequences?What futures am I promoting and who might benefactor be disadvantaged? (How desirable arethe futures I am promoting with my project, and for whom?
Review 4 With Daphne & Johanthen
This week's reviews went a bit crazy, I felt as though I finally told Daphne and Johanthen what I really wanted to work on and how I was feeling very lost.
Daphne gave me the advice that yes there are some projects you don't carry through and maybe it was good enough that it took it that far. Daphne encouraged me to use the tools that I was using for my past project in the new project as they were effective and what they as lecturers liked from me.
Jonathan gave me some more scientific guidance into what I could and could not do, this was very helpful and I felt as though I could do this for the next couple of months and not get frustrated by my findings.
Design Studio 4
This week's studio was about exercising radicality on how to test the limits of possibilities from our ideas, inquiry or a project.
The 3 different definitions of radicality where explained to us;
1.Departing markedly from the usual or customary.
This type of radicality is the idea we have from the course of living with your own idea. My 24h with my waste project was one of the strongest works I have done in the masters up till now. This project made me understand the investigation of new norms from a first person perspective.
During our class we got the example of Stelarc, this example is crazy to me. The perspective this performance artist took was such a radical approach in having a 3rd ear to hear from a different part of this boy. This data was published on the web for all to hear. This is all about asking the right questions such as seeing the clock from another perspective of colour such as Sonia Vivo Sarria did from a project creating a clock with colour understanding.
2. Arising from or going back to Roots.
This definition is about creating new radical designs that go back to understanding our basic needs and designing for the opelitic world that we will be living in the next billion seconds. The Dune Still Suits this the best example of designing for our basic needs in the way we would manage to gather them in a new form.
3. Relating to or advocating fundamental or evolutionary changes in current practices, conditions or institutions.
The examples that were presented to us were an understanding of activism, the example I connected with was Dazzle Club. This group of people created different make up forms to make sure CCTV in the street doesn't recognise them.
The topic of radical, queer and divergent were linked together in an escape line, the fundamental variable that allows systems to evolve continually.
What does this mean to me?
That which allows for resilience through divergence, continuity through difference, evolution through recombination of potentials, exploration of all creative possibilities in a system.
How do people learn about the people that came before them?
Do they have to move to find resources? Do they have a stable, variable or vulnerable supply?
How do people learn the properties and relationships of the elements of their system?
How do people learn the effects they are going to have on the people that will come after them?
What does transcending space look like?
These 5 questions from the 21 question form radical scenario-makinings I have related with most in my project. Through these questions I have radically thought about the anthropocene where the generation to come which may not be around in the next 100 years will only find plastic and chicken bones. This linked to the next question I was very interested in: the future population will only find our waste as a resource to use. This is why one needs to think about the material in every design process. This will help the future population not be stuck with our mess like we are stuck with the mess of the baby boomers. The system we need to focus on is in preparing the dying of the world and how we need to slow down the process for the children of today to not have extraordinary suffering.
Review 5 With Thomas Mariana & Johanthen
This week's reviews I joined up with Marina as we had similar interests in the process on how we wanted to tackle similar ideas. All 3 tutorials were very interested in what we were talking about and encouraged us to move forward with this intervention.
Thomas gave us some interesting ideas on who to contact and collaborate with. He exposed us to some other projects we can get some inspiration from and contact them on how they tackled the situation.
Mariana was very interested in how this would go as she felt that this idea was the new future for a co-working space. She would love for us to document all our struggles and positive our somes from this process. She would love to see how we could make it all open source.
Johanthen helps us with more of what we need to succeed in the technical side of our project. He Gave us some information on which projects we should look at to fully understand what we need and how to go about this project.
Design Studio 5
Design Space Evolution
During this design studio we had 2 visitors Jana and Roger explained to us how their design space had evolved from the first term to the second. Jana and Roger from the beginning of their scholastic year teamed up as they enjoyed the way they worked together. Despite this they both had two different design spaces that they spoke about.
They stated that there are five Ways of your design space to Drift
Accumulative - Depth, stacking
Comparative - Acknowledging complexity
Serial - Systematic Local knowledge
Expansive - Broadening, extending
Probing - Illogical, artistic, impact oriented
Jana stated that her space drifted into an expansive evolution and Roger stated that his space drifted in a serial evolution. This got me thinking that I have had a similar process to Jana and that I was interested in a lot of different types of subjects and couldn’t pin myself to one idea.
This design studio made me feel a bit more connected to that process of our course and that I was on the right track and that feeling lost may be part of the evolution of my design process. This made me relax and reconnect to what I really wanted to do and find a way on how to do it.I find these studios from past students very relevant at this state of our design process as we are all feeling panicked but maybe we need them to calm us down.
The first workshop of this unit was done to inform us about how the structure of the unit will be for the next couple of months. We will be having different talks from different guest lecturers that will give us inspiration on how they got to where they are. He spoke to us about who they were thinking of adding to the different conversation. I looked up the most interesting one to me after the call was done..
Workshop 2 - Conversation with Stephanie Hankey
This week in the workshop we had a talk with the ever so interesting Stephanie Hankey. Stephanie is a multi-disciplinary person who works as a designer, technologist and activist who has been working internationally at the intersection of technology, human rights and civil liberties for the past 20 years. During this talk she spoke to us about the NGO Tactical Tech and her different design research.
The vision of Tactical Tech is a world where digital technologies can contribute to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable society. They would like to enable this change, where they investigate how digital technologies impact society and individual autonomy, using our findings to create practical solutions for citizens and civil society actors.
She presented us with a timeline from 2003 to 2021 which represented the political and technological moments to show what it was to work on all the different projects in these different moments and how it has shifted over time.
She took us through their values such as creating spaces and creating interventions for people and to design always at the forefront, she gave some examples of her earlier works.
She spoke about her personal journey and her hybrid profile, she found it great over the years having different tools to work with on different types of projects. But she also found it very difficult as people don’t know what to do with you, this makes it very confusing for people. But she did say that if you could make it work it is worth it.
She works on a questions -
How things should be made
She gave us five points on how she sees design which are;
Design as intervention - Creating Spaces *the Glass Room”
Design As Agitation - visual investigation and curation
Design as provocation - conversation and discovery
Design as catalyst - rethinking models
After going through all these examples of the way she looks at design she took us to what they will be hosting in the next year, an event called Street View in Berlin. The theme is tecnologie crisis panic (don’t panic) . It will be a physical space that invites people to reflect on these issues.
I found Stephen an interesting speaker as I found that I could relate at the moment to how she perceives herself. I found that I am learning all these new tools and that I don’t know what line of work I am going down. But after her conversation I found to be a bit more relaxed and not stressed about where I will go next with all this new information because I could go into any area of design I would like. Right now I can say that I am an activist designer.
Making Sense Debate
During this session of Making Sense and Meaning we had a different type of session. We all had to have a discussion on the four texts that were given to us. We started the discussion which was led by Juaco with A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, this reading was the one out of the four I personally connected to the most. This is where I stepped in and spoke about my perspective of this text, where i referred to us as the Peter Pan Generation and through these 7 Cheap Things I find it hard to grow up, but Thomas suggested maybe that I’m looking at it from a 1 perspective, where i probably have done double the things the previous generation have done. Therefore making it a longer time for me to reach security which is what i refer to as growing up.
Readings Notes I found Relative To My Projects
A History Of The World In 7 Cheap Things
The introduction to his reading is speaking to us about our ever changing environment.
The sentence “what happens next is unpredictable at one level and entirely predictable at another.” is something that I think about most of the time.
The twenty-first century - it is easier for most people to imagine the end of the plant than to imagine the end of capitalism.
Cheap Nature
Cheap Work
Cheap Care
Cheap Food
Cheap Energy
Cheap Money
Cheap Lives
social struggles
A Brief Guide To Humans And Nature Before Capitalism.
The Medieval Warm Period. - winters were mild and growing seasons were long.
- Feudalism’s most important feature was its capacity to sustain massive and ongoing settler expansion without centralized authority
Robert Malthus’s Essay on the Principles of Population: there were too many people and not enough food.
Once the black plague hit Sicily Feudalism unraveled.
- A fundamental breakdown in feudalism’s logic of power, production, and nature
THE EARLIEST FRONTIERS
Portuguese colonial outpost that many of the features of the modern world were first convened, in the manufacture of one of the first capitalist products: sugar.
FRONTIERS AND CHEAPNESS
How capitalism was to work beyond Madeira.
- Analyze frontiers
Capitalism thrives not by destroying natures but by putting natures to work—as cheaply as possible.
The pulse of human civilization does not simply occupy environments but produces them—and in the process is produced by them.
- The new cheap things can be seized - take hold suddenly and forcibly.
- Cheap is not the same as low cost ——- though that’s part of it. Cheap is a strategy.
- The 7 cheap things make us see the horizon of what is possible.
In examining money, work, care, energy, food, lives, and above all nature, we argue for a new way to understand what we call capitalism’s ecology, the blend of relations that explains how the modern world works.
The balance of food and trash will soon tip. By 2050, two years after the last commercial fish catch is projected to land, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish.73 The intellectually slack explanation here is that humans bring destruction in their wake.
The split between Nature & Society was a momentous shift but plays a role in the birth of the world market.
Indigenous people were not fully human - post human problems.
— These people are part of nature thus feeling climate change more than others. (cheapened)
Cheap things are thus not really things at all—but rather strategies adopted by capitalism to survive and manage crises, gambits made to appear as real and independent entities by the original sin of cheap nature.
Money
Medium through which capitalism operates....
- Money binds the ecosystem, and that ecosystem shapes money.
- **lexicon -** the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.
Marx’s Capital - in production and exchange, capitalists combine labor power, machines, and raw material.
“Organic Whole”Work
Slavery remains, as does resistance to it. There are more humans in forced labor in the twenty-first century than were transported by the Atlantic slave trade.89 The International Labor Organization found than there were nearly 21 million people in forced labor in 2012, of whom 2.2 million were in labor forced upon them by the state (prison work) or rebel military groups. Of the remaining 18.7 million, 4.5 million were involved in commercial sexual exploitation and 14.2 million in forced economic exploitation.90 For comparison, 12.5 million Africans were enslaved and transported through the Middle Passage.
—- the Peter Pan Generation
- supported by work that was forever unpaid.
Care
Where else do humans come from but from other humans? How else are they socialized than through communities? How else are they cared for and nurtured than through networks of support? How else are they cared for and nurtured than through networks of support?
Food
Cheap food has been central to the maintenance of order for millennia. In capitalism’s ecology, that order has been maintained by tamping down workers’ costs of feeding themselves and their families.
Fast Food - These numbers are kept low through strategies that, in the United States, for instance, foster dollar burgers and the buckets of cheap chicken with which we began.
Energy
Fuel does triple duty under capitalism
Cheap fuel is both an antagonist for workers put out of jobs by wood-, coal-, oil-, and other-energy-powered machines and a necessary input for the work of cheap care, central to the maintenance of order, as we show in chapter 6.
Climate change’s effects have not, however, been distributed evenly. There is a calculus that allows us to map where the bodies most affected by past climate change are buried and where future casualties are likely to be. To see that map, we need first to understand a final strategy in capitalism’s ecology: cheap lives.
Lives
It was a debate, in other words, about cheap lives, a term we use to refer to how the order of other cheap things—labor and care in particular—is policed and maintained through force and ideology.
Modern equivalents abound in current debates around such topics as security, the status of immigrants and refugees, states’ insistence on order while licensing the extraction of the natural resources on top of which so many Indigenous Peoples inconveniently live, oil wars, and the “existential threats” of modern terrorism.
INTRODUCING WORLD-ECOLOGY
- to think through human history in the web of life
- relations of power, production, and reproduction work through the web of life
- a different view of capitalism, nature, and possible futures
Humans make environments and environments make humans.
This opens space for us to reconsider how the ways that we have been schooled to think of change—ecological, economic, and all the rest—are themselves implicated in today’s crisis.
New resource geographies need to be mapped and secured, mounting debts repaid, coin defended. World-ecology offers a way to recognize this, to remember—and see anew—the lives and labors of humans and other natures in the web of life.
THE AFTERLIVES OF CHEAP THINGS
Capitalocene - The rise of capitalism cannot be reduced to economics.
That’s why we conclude this introduction, and this book, with ideas that can help us navigate the state shift that lies ahead.
Why should the future of care and food-service workers be to receive an incremental salary increase, barely enough on which to subsist?
Why, indeed, ought ideas of human dignity be linked to hard work?
Might there not be space to demand not just drudgery from work but the chance to contribute to making the world better?
“activism is the rent I pay for living on the planet” - Alice Walker
THIS IS DISTRIBUTED DESIGN
The Distributive Nature of Design Topic
The context of this article is addressing the problem we as a society are and will be facing in the next century. It starts off by talking about how our primary source of energy is oil and the primary material source is plastic. The comment of “humans and humans and humans and other species” very much emphasizes the ignorance of humanity.
In this article there are two sub-chapiters one called we, designers and distributing new principles, which I think go well to understand the struggles we face for innovation in the next couple of years.
We, designers
- GDP **measures the monetary value of final goods and services**
-There is no dictatorship greater than our economy
-The free market is an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control. It is a summary description of all voluntary exchanges that take place in a given economic environment.
-How to create a global economy that cares for life as a designer.? by creating planetary design approach.
-Our food production line is causing mass extinction
-We are all designers of our lives
-Economic growth can not be infinite, as the planet is not.
-2 convergences - multiple crises and transformative technologies
Distributing new principles
- digital revolutions to communications and computing
- the digital fabrication world is less polluting, flexible and adaptable
- further polarizing our polarized society
- solving solutionism
- the “by Design” strategies
``
Steps to an Ecology of Mind
The Science of Mind and Order
Let me state my belief that such matters as the bilateral symmetry of an animal, the patterned arrangement of leaves in a plant, the escalation of an armaments race, the processes of courtship, the nature of play, the grammar of a sentence, the mystery of biological evolution, and the contemporary crises in man's relationship to him environment, can only be understood in terms of such an ecology of ideas as I propose.
-How do ideas interact?
-Is there some sort of natural selection which determines the survival of some ideas and the extinction or death of others?
-What sort of economics limits the multiplicity of ideas in a given region of mind?
-What are the necessary conditions for stability (or survival) of such a system or subsystem?
What is the —
difference between the trivial and the profound.
They were trained to think and argue inductively from data to hypotheses but never to test hypotheses against knowledge derived by deduction from the fundamentals of science or philosophy
-heuristic concepts - mental shortcut that **allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently**
Making Sense Lecture 5
During this week's lecture we had a discussion with Li Yu from China, Subedi Thakurata from India and Beno Juarez from Chile about western centric design. A few questions came up during this discussion such as Why is there this separation? Because of people? Geography? Or Perspectives? Should this be more about working together rather in a separation atmosphere? As this will motivate us to share our own positive aspect which will move “from Competition to Cooperation”.
During our whole course they have been promating what each of these lectures were saying that working as an individual makes no sense in the work we are pursuing or in any other line of work.
Remixing Material was a program I was looking forward to for the whole year. But unfortunately I couldn't make it to 2 out of 3 classes which made me feel very disappointed. The first Lecture from what I gathered from asking for notes from other people was an introduction to the world of biomaterials. I went through the presentation to fully understand what was done, by doing this I became familiar with the content that was passed on.
One sentence i gathered from this presentation was -
We believe in accepting the transformation of materials and the way we interact with them, appreciating their unique narratives, rhythms and cycles.
This presentation introduced me to a new term called Plastiglomerate which means stone that contains mixtures of sedimentary grains, and other natural debris (e.g. shells, wood) that is held together by hardened molten plastic.
One sentence i
They showed some school theories of design during this class. Such as the Bauhaus Curriculum which is represented by the outermost ring of the diagram. This course investigated what Bauhaus masters considered to be the fundamentals of any artistic endeavor, whether applied or fine.
They also got shown the Kerbs Cycle of Creativity by Neri Oxman. This design theory is the reason I came into this course and I believed that all interdisciplinaries could work together.
Material Pathways aims to give a closer look into one of the many potentials of sustainability within design; materiality. As developments in the field of design for sustainability grow expansively, materials, as omnipresent as they are, play a vital role and hold the potential to unlock new ways of seeing and being in the world.
As well as highlighting technical and environmental aspects, the cards focus more deeply on materials’ cultural and emotional values to encourage a critical and mindful approach to working with materials in all stages, from production to sourcing to degradation.
During the second week of remix I was self isolating as a roommate of mine needed to emergency fly back to her home country. One of my classmates created a google meet channel to show us what was happening. This was a practical day during the lecture where they produced different types of biomaterials. The school had sent me and my roommate a home kit to create a few bio materials of our own, while using the same recipes that were given to the class. This is how it went.
As food waste we collected egg shells, peels from a squash, seeds from a squash, cacao beans, onion peels, garlic peels and papaya seeds. We also went to a park close by to collect some flowers and to get a bit of fresh air.
We started with the Biopolymer Gelatine, we kept it transparent and added flowers, we moved onto Biopolymer Agar which we colored with turmeric and added small dried flowers. We then created Biopolymer Cornstarch with additives of Spirulina and Garlic Peel. Finally we created 2 Biopolymers of Pine Resin with all the food waste we collected during the week of isolation which was also connected to our own project for this course.
These are the Recipes of the materials we created.
Biopolymer Gelatine
20 grs.
gelatine 250 ml.
water 15 grs.
glycerin 2 ml.
vinegar
Biopolymer Agar
10 grs.
agar 200 ml.
water 2 ml.
glycerin 2 ml.
vinegar
Biopolymer Cornstarch
30 grs.
corn starch 250 ml.
water 15 ml.
glycerin 2 ml.
vinegar
Biopolymer Pine Resin
45 grs. pine resin
15 ml. alcohol
5 grs. carnauba
wax 40/60 grs.
Week 3 Of Remix
This week's workshop was with Remix El Barrio, where they explained to us the process on how it started. These were the main topics that were discussed: Fab City, local food production, circular economy, community empowerment and bio material innovation. They go by the objective as design of the program selection and preparation of contract to do collaborations.
Laura during this week delivered to us her experiences with joining the Remix El Barrio and the different projects the team had worked on over the past few years. Since I was still online due to testing positive for covid-19, I found this class very hard to follow and understand what was happening.
These are a few snippets of what was said during the lecture.
Week 4 Of Remix
This week's Remix was very interactive. Each group had to present their materials and ideas they made from walking around and speaking to local businesses in Poblenou. During this call we all needed to give feedback so that they can improve the process which needs to be represented.
My top favorite projects were
1. Audrey, Puala, Angel and Gerda
They worked on creating materials on Beer Spent Grains.
I thought that the idea was super interesting to make food cardboard packaging out of food waste. The materials that they created felt very realistic and I could see how this could be implemented to different products.
2. Andrea, Ray and Emilio
They worked on creating materials out of the flowers from the cemetery.
I thought it was a very good approach to use waste that is still in good condition. The creation of material from flowers and pin resin to create tombstones. This was a beautiful concept to forever have flowers at your tomb.
3. Rubin and Kai
This concept was the most creative. From what I understood they created a 3D sculpture out of Biomaterials. This was explained to us in a way that the 3D sculpture will be modeled out of soil first as the inside of the human body and the skin will be made out of biomaterials.
The first class with Jose was on a sereal day. On this day Russia invaded and started the war against Ukraine. Which was the biggest weak signal the world was facing at that moment in time and we got to experience it. The world today rests on a series of interlocking crise which are presented at different scales and different temporal and spatial resolutions. This came to be represented as the zoom in and zoom out as we do on google earth with the crises we face everyday or that will have an effect 200 years from now.
This class is designed to show how we can talk and open up about different pathways to be put into perspective.
The first example that was given to us was the Olafur Eliasson Hauls 12 large blocks of ice from the ice glazer in Greenland which is called the Ice Watch, as an art exhibition in Copenhagen, Paris for the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21). London for the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24). I had seen this example many years before, due to my interests in understanding client crises. It was a powerful message that was portrayed across different countries.
This project is interesting to us now as it is addressing the elephant in the room, which in our course most of us are trying to address the different weak signals and see how we could present these different elephants in the room. This is by developing languages or artifacts for us to understand these difficult topics we are facing. Understanding our multiscale diagrams and seeing how the choice we are presenting today will have an impact from that moment on.
Globalisation is a hot topic which is directly and indirectly affecting our climate, during the last few centuries one thought that sea trade was not affecting marine life, and marine life was not getting disrupted, but its is quite the contrary that this is the case as Jose stated that sound travels 5 times faster in the sea then it does on land. This problem arising from the marine lifes regulator of when storms are coming has been a challenge they are facing alone.
When I think of this as a problem that is not only hurting our ecosystem by over transportation we have come to a stage where we can not undo. This connects to the understanding that in the next 100 years we will see drastic changes in our ice sheets in the Arctic which relate to the current situation with Russia. Putin is very interested for this to happen as this will open up the north east parth.
From all these examples I have remembered and wrote down from my understanding is that every crisis is related from our 6th extinction to Putin supporting the melting of the ice sheets for changing logistics in globalisation. These are concepts that in the 90’s were so far from reality that today they are not too far to see and be living in. This understanding is all linked to our state that the environment is in today we are in an anthropocene geological state. This refers to the layer in the growth that is linked to humanity and what will be left of us for years to come.
Atlas of Weak Signals Class 2
During the second discussion we had with Jose we started the conversation about the internet and technologies that we are living with everyday. The amount of people who are using the internet in 2021 is 59.5% of the world population. This is crazy to think as the internet started somewhat 30 years ago. The rise of the users on the internet exploded with the rise of social media. There are about 1.6 billion users on instagram today. When you think it is a crazy number, this number is similar for facebook, whatsapp messenger etc.
The invention of the unlimited scroll, this is a tactic of these corporations to keep us staying on the apps for longer amounts of time than we would normally stay on them. This tactic is the same addiction that gamblers have on the slot machines. This comes to design decisions. Back in the past we had a website that had page one page two page three. This created decision making for the viewer and not creating an addiction of not knowing when to stop.
This is not only working with social media, but also on the streaming websites we use such a s netflix they created in 5 seconds the next episode will play, which I personally fall for a lot of the time and stay up to useless hours watching and browsing on netflix and other webpages. Netflix’s CEO has said our only competition is with time and sleep. We want the viewer to spend as much time on our webpage as possible, and this is the competition against sleep.
The problem we are facing with these super powerful companies is that their assets are our data, these big corporations know more about us then we know about ourselves. Our data at the end of the day is not truly ours. If we had to stop using these platforms we would lose our information as we can’t decentralise the information they have for us. If I have to stop using spotify and switch to apple music “my data” won't transfer to the other system as I don't have this data.
Technology nowadays has turned into a different idiologie from what it began, it is focused on maximizing what we see and how we see it, instead of the freedom of knowledge. It has become tailored to one's preference to maximise the profits of companies that one is more likely to buy from or get money off. This was not the intention of the internet at the start.
Atlas of Weak Signals Class 3
The second talk we had with Jose started off with the question of what is actually a job?
The definition of a job started the exchange of labor for money, positive self-worth or education. Statistics show that nowadays we are still facing employment problems most amongst women where they can’t get a proper job in the field they have studied and education they would want to pursue. Internships and even more motherhood are our days slave labor there are an amont of people out there working for free as they need to get an internship to get a job or they have chosen one ofthe most demanding job which is being a parent. This is showing an untrue scale of the economy. Not similar to the past where you had a role in society and you traded goods and supplies for craftsmanship.
What has happened for us to manage to support half the population who doesnt work, industrialisation which links to automation, fast fashion and production. These movements invented the 40 hour weeks which we are used to working and catogrising ourselves in, which each day had developed longer and longer. This has shown through studies that these time dedicated hours of work are not good for our humanity and the pandemic has shown us that we can work in different ways. In 8 different countries around the world including Spain are introducing four day work weeks.
Today's topics I felt very close to the text we needed to read for making sense and meaning class called A History Of The World In 7 Cheap Things. Where we are investing in Cheap Nature, Cheap Work, Cheap Care, Cheap Food, Cheap Energy, Cheap Money and Cheap Lives.
Giving these things a thought we are changing the way we work as said previously to increase productivity and creativity. We nowadays are getting more help from robots to help us with work no human wants to do anymore. This gives us a big question if robots will take over our jobs in the future? People also question if this would be the best or the work thing that could happen to human kind “fully automated luxury communism”.
Atlas of Weak Signals Class 4
Our fourth discussion we had was based on nation states, we all had to answer the questions of how we identify ourselves, what is our ethnicity, where do we come from, what passports do we hold and what is the biggest problem our country faces.
In the recent months I have found it hard to know how I identify myself to where I come from, I've found it diffectly to say the least. On one hand I have always known myself to be Maltese super basic mediterranean, but I have always looked different from your average maltese person.
I know every time I speak or walk into a space people question where I am from like it identifies me but I do feel uncomfortable about this as I don’t what identifies me is the country I come from but it is who I am as a person.
So yes i am Maltese, I don’t look it I look indian, middle easten or some what south american. I sound British to most people but of course not to them I sound welish to the welish I sound not welish and finally to the Maltese I am someone you don't identify with. So placing
myself in these boxes was hard.
To feel this on a daily basis is something that I quite can't explain but after hearing all the other people who feel this way was extraordinary and I wonder why this is? Why do we feel as though we can’t connect to the norms of society? Why is it that in a class of almost 30 people more than half feel the disconnection from our surroundings, have we surround ourselves with different things?
During the first class of collective intelligence, we spoke about different systems in terms of big tech and what the objectives of the cloud was. The different topics we spoke about were thinking, architecture, programming, obsolescence, rapid prototyping of technological artifacts, politics and emergent research. Decolonising The Digital was the topic of discussion where Giullem drew out a massive map to explain how different systems worked. This class had a great link to the first class we had in tech beyond the myth on how we need to create or be aware of the technology we are using, not only devices and products but also servers. This was as they called a Technorealism Overview.
We followed this discussion into concepts of protocols and not platforms while using the web. “From your gmail account you can send emails to another email provider it is because someone thought of email protocol”. These protocols are spoken in terms of web interactions from one server to another. These protocols are giving people and big enterprises lots of control over the way people communicate and gain knowledge worldwide.
How protocols can be born
Gemini Protocol - the internet that we want should be different to what it is. https://www.protocolgemini.com/
To replace http - how you send what you send and how you interact with people.
The platforms we use every second of everyday are challenged through these protocols, this gives me a moment to think, am I fine with following these systems that I am not in control of or do I want a system of Gemini.
These questions that I know me and most of my peers are thinking about, But do we have too much to lose from this change, can the change benefit us or are we removing ourselves from society.
It was refreshing the exercise we did in class when Giullem drew out a massive map to explain how different systems worked. It showed us how we are still all connected in a physical way and the Cloud isn’t up in the air but in so many different server stations around the world. This is the cloud that wasn’t.
Blockchain and Web 3.0
The second season of Collective intelligence we touched on different topics with a guest speaker Lorenzo Patuzzo who is the founder of Akasha Hub based in Barcelona which is” a non-profit born at the intersection of blockchain and collective intelligence”. The lecture started with Lorenzo explaining to us what the basis of blockchain is and wanting us to understand that it is a tool to envision a different world. Lorenzo was one of the people who was at the forefront of the creation of Ethereum.
The way he explained what Blockchain is is by talking about “blocks” and chain links where there “blocks” holds and stores information that are biased in an permanent linked chain. The way that blockchain is set up in theory was to create a change in information that everyone agrees on and no one can hack into the system. This makes this system fully transparent and a single entity does not hold all the power and is vetted with 1000’s of other people.
This linked the concepts of centralised or decentralised or distributed design processes which are concepts we touched base on throughout the course. Therefore its design can be distributed through open source. Could we have the same concept with the exchange in currency in a decentralised concept which gives everyone equal control.
Wip Important Readings
During the final session of collective intelligence we had another session with Lorenzo Patuzzo. The class was about DAO’s - decentralized autonomous organization. I felt as though these lectures where to spread out and the last lecture took too long to happen and most of us forgot the theoretical parts from the previous classes, so as a person myself who is new to these topics I felt as though I couldn’t fully hold a conversation and discussion about these topics as the theory was not re touched upon, so next time if I was told earlier in the weeks about the schedule of this class I would have re read up on the previous classes.
During the first workshop of Communication Brand and Purpose Kate took us through the history of branding. She gave us some examples of how we could use branding and how it was everywhere. My favorite example was Torches of Freedom. This was a movement where cigarette brands started aiming their products at women.
The other good example was the “Make America Great Again” with how they branded this slogan on a red basic baseball hat.
The hat has become a symbol of us vs. them, of exclusion and suspicion, of garrulous narcissism, of white male privilege, of violence and hate. For minorities and the disenfranchised, it can spark a kind of gut-level disgust that brings ancestral ghosts to the fore.
- Robin Givhan
We then got onto the topic on how to represent your brand in an impactful way. Kate gave us a few examples of different brands that did do this. The brand uploads yearly reports on the environmental impact they are placing with their company. They do this mission in 4 ways, 1 the make their own cheese from scratch at home, 2 farm to table, 3 the interior design and the last otomentashi.
This week's workshop was very fast paced, we had to collaborate into a group of people who have similar ideas to ourselves. To create a shark tank presentation, we had 5 rounds to create a concept and present it to the class.
I joined a group which consisted of Marina and Paula who were working in bioremediation. I am starting to find this a topic I am more interested in.
The vision we had - A world that co-create with nature to remediate anthropogenic problems.
We needed to understand who we are as an organisation while understanding who our stakeholders would be.
This session helped un generate a skill called gamification, which is a strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities in order to create similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users.
As a group I felt we did well in this class exercises as we were direct and fast with coming up with content. We listened to each other and created a strong concept which made us understand what our mission is.
This class helped us with poisoning ourselves in what scenario we need to be and present our work. It helped us to start thinking about where and what we want to do with our orgnisation. We had four different areas of understanding.
Our Sales Pitch
Hello MDEF members of the UN environmental program here at the environmental assembly, we are a group which holds the vision that co-creates with nature to remediate anthropogenic problems. We intend to do this using technology to create environments in conjunction with nature. In line with your SDGs, we believe that together, we yield the power to make a positive change in interaction with nature that enables sustainable cities, partnership with our living systems, and unity between species. We advocate for creating new paradigms of co-creation with the planet that benefits the health of the natural environment and humankind.
With this, we propose implementation of this environmental policy which we present to you today.
Design Ethics was a short course held over 3 sessions that served as strategic project support and guidance. Ariel Guersenvaig guided us through these classes which helped us reflect over the course of our main projects that will lead to a final paper.
Session 1 - 21st April
Technological Determinism
In this session we talked about 3 things that dealt with technology, Technosphere was a term that came up during the first session as technology has been part of our existence which was the first topic we touched upon. Nutrolising technologies is a topic which we touched based on finding different ways to look at technology, and the third topic we spoke about was design ethics in other means which explained design in a broader sense where design materializes our thinking about ethics.
We spoke about the Iceberg model as a reference to different layers it has and these layers can connect to different topics we will be speaking about. This model was explained to us as it could help us dive deeper into how technologies and design could change and shape our behaviors.
Technological texture to life,
- Don Ihde
During this lecture we were given a number of different example one that resonated with me was to become a gunman - or a shooter, this is an ethics design flaw or a misconception of mishandling objects.
Morally Responsible responsibility has come up in a lot of different classes over these past trimesters as tecnologie itself can’t be responsible for failure but who is?
To create responsibility we as designers need to understand the goal of the design, the usage of the design and the effect of the design.
Class Exercise
1. Do our projects moralise implicitly or explicitly? How? The fundamental part of our projects throughout these terms have made us become more explicit to make our open source projects easy to recreate etc.
2. What values are we inscribing or we want to inscribe in the design? What are the value conflicts that emerge? Influence, Moral, Radical
3. How are these values materialised into a design? Artificial Reefs that bioremediate and help regrow while life in the areas where it was lost.
4. Does something feel not OK? What is it? Why does it not feel OK? Understanding the biology behind this project and how it will grow, lots of testing.
5. Could this design damage or harm someone or a group or something worth protecting? In what way? Under which circumstances? I feel as though yes it could have an effect but there will be testing down before major damage might occur.
6. Can it be unevenly beneficial to some and harmful to others? In what way? Under which circumstances? In no way it could harm a human but studies will be made for marine life.
Session 2 - 25th April
Types of Ethics
During the session we had Guillem Pop onto the session to explain the closing chapter to the master program. He quoted a tweet he saw online stating “ Most people have forgotten or never realised how radical it is that on the web by default you can select and copy text.”
He went on about how these aren’t technologies but these are design decisions that things can be designed this way is just a perfect example to design making.
From here Ariel Guersenvaig took over the lecture by introducing technologies as multistable, which means that these technologies might not only be in use today but it will last for centuries. The different use of technologies can create a whole new perspective into the world Ariel gave us the example of crutches being used to watch a football game as a child and this is giving us a whole new perspective on disabilities.
Jerevon's Pradox is a pattern of using the the same amount of energy just with more technologies for example the LED lights were invented to save energy, but in the creation of this light bulb we created cities full of light pollution and the same energy consumption, where we light up whole blocks of business buildings throughout the day and night because the energy is the same or slightly cheaper doesn’t make it right.
The normative dimension of design - some example research in decision making or what a rational decision is normative, thinking about pros and cons to every decision.
Products influence the way humans act or socially responsible behavior, so that being said design influences the behavior of the user or non user in particular ways. The design of adding a fly to a urinal to make people not spill on the floor, this tiny fly is materialising the notion of the good and the right. This leads to four other ways to design, decisive, coercive, persuasive and seductive.
Care ethics is the good the bad or the ugly, the right or wrong in everyday norms, this is simillier to feminism, rasim and sexism.
“Care seems to me to be the most basic of moral values. Without care as an empirically describable practice, we cannot have life at all since human beings cannot survive without it. Without some level of caring concern for other human beings, we cannot have any morality. These requirements are not just empirical givens. In every context of care, moral evaluations are needed. Then, without some level of caring moral concern for all other human beings, we cannot have a satisfactory moral theory”
- Virginia Held
'76 reasonable questions to as any technology.' constructed by Jacques Ellul was discussed and we spoke about 4 of them.
How complicated is it?
What is the worst that could happen?
What is gained by its use?
What is lost in using it?
Session 3 - 28th April
The Goods of Designl
An inquiry into design professional ethics, is everyone a design, should we even call them designers?
But is design a Profession? A profession requires extensive training. - several years of training (to enquire about skills ). Its intellectual component is predominant. The field of design as a profession is freeing but also static. For example, you can use photoshop as you have been a photographer for 15 years. In the professional world design is not accepted as a profession such as architects or doctors or lawyers or engineers. But if we as designers have some sort of extensive training which leads to the term externalizing which provides importance to human wellbeing. “Professions can be seen as a “moral project" Ariel stated during this topic which brought about some questions we asked as a group. Stating the utopian vision to see or perceive professionalism anything more than the raid off.
When talking about morality it is a very personal concept, trying to understand it from a different perspective and creating a guid for it is near to impossible. It is subjective, controversial and argumentative to try and understand or even have a discussion about it. Understanding morality in conjunction with professions is hard to say the least, professionals and specialists are not morally superior to another person working for the greater good. Moral professions are even hard to get as the opportunity to study or work for a moral reason links to being able to afford to do that and not many people in the world can do that for a living.
What is your responsibility?
In my experience my responsibility in education and in practice is being aware of the outcomes, understanding failures and seeing how to perceive a reality that would not harm anything in the perocces.
The first session of The Field was held by Daniel Charny who is a curator and educator from the U. I was percent online as I could not make it into class, the professor was online too while the rest of the class was present. He introduced his work to us fourth. In person activism exercises to create posters where they had to write their fight and take a photo in front of IAAC.I did this alone online and you can see the images of my fight below. This was the first exercise to look at our work through the lens of curating.
What drives change?
What does change look like?
How are cultural institutes responding?
I felt as though not being in class really had a bad effect as I couldn’t do all the interactions that they were doing as it was a very performative session.
Session 2
The second session of the field happened online, Daniel introduced to us the work he did with The Power of Making. It was an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in london. This explanation of how the exhibition went was helpful to understand the way he wanted us to start developing the Mdef fest that will be coming up in a few months. During this session we all had groups up and created in groups a little exhibition to start developing and seeing the different interests we have and create relations with each other to help us curate an exhibition.
I was in a group with Borka, Rubin and Anna, our group title was Relearning Environments. We tried our best to find similarities in each project. After each group presented we all split up again into different groups through our interests and belonging. I was in a new group called Spectrum of Co-Dependencies where our audience was anthropologists, urban farmers, scientists, biologists, creative technologists and design researchers. This was interesting as I ended up in a group where I haven’t in the last year worked with any of these groups.
Session 3 & 4
The third and fourth sessions of the field happened over 2 days in person, this was an intensive two days trying to discover how to curate the Mdef fest. We started the third session with each group that was created in the last session presenting the new exhibitions with their groups. My group's Tile was called the Post Human Perception and Interconnections. Our question was: What is the role of perception for creating our reality? The themes were circular living and hybrid Emergence. These exhibitions were done in my opinion to show Daniel what we all have in common and how we could sub categories each person and create a link between all of us.
The four session session was done to create our main title, sub titles and themes of our Mdef Fest. We started off the session with creating a little exhibition where we were all independent and starting to move around our exhibition piece into themes that make more sense to be in. The outcome was,
Main Tile: Fusing Futures Subtitle: The whys around us Format: Future Hunt The Fields are Virtual, Ocean, City, Farm and Forest.
The first session of the final term of design studio we started with a reflection on how the past term. I felt as though the second term of this master was a bit of a blur, I didn’t know what I wanted to do and where I would like to move into in my line of research. I knew I wanted more than what I was doing in the first term but I didn’t fully understand what it was.
During the first term we got exposed to bio organisms and how they can affect our climate. I knew these concepts existed already but I have no idea that they were that easy to achieve, if you have the right tools. So during the second term I explored the tools that could help me create these outputs and help me spark my creativity.
During the term I enjoyed the projects I was doing as I learnt a lot of information about electronics and adaptation and how design and electronics work hand in hand. I did miss out on the creativity part of this process.
How did Mallorca affect the end of my term?
Mallorca was a trip that helped me reconnect with my past and my present self, as I said I was finding it difficult to see where I was heading and how my project/ my life was heading. But Mallorace brought me this clarity, I was brought back to playing with sea grass on the sandy beaches and treasure hunting for the most beautiful seashells. This made me remember the love I had for the sea and it also made me remember all the plastic and waste that gets dumped into it. This made me realise that all the steps I have taken during this masters is leading to this final project I wanted to do, creating artificial reefs that act as a bioremediation boomb in the sea or ocean.
What would you do differently this time?
This time round I want to be a bit more organised with how I want the outcome or the next step to be like. I would like to start to take more time for myself and truly develop the understanding of what I would like to do next. I felt as though this design dialogue didn’t give me anything unlike the first one. I felt as though the project I was doing was in a process stage and showing it like this did not make such an impact on the outcome that we wanted. I felt as though I didn’t have one conversation with our main lectures but with the guest lectures I did. Overall I felt that the placement of these Design Dialogues uprooted our process and it felt very forced.
Why was mdef fest born?
Not bring back into the close walls of academia. We need to bring to the outside world that we have been working in.
This trimester I will be doing a number of design interventions on my own and with a group of people.
My solo design intervention I am carrying out a design research based around artificial reefs where I am creating artifacts through regenerative design processes. I will be doing 3 interviews with my community based on these topics. The interviewees are from different backgrounds but all have to do with marine health.
Interview 1 - Andrew Schembri CEO of NEG Zibel in Malta based on beach clean up.
Interview 3 - Karl Attard Aquatic ecology & biogeochemistry Researcher in University of Southern Denmark
The second design intervention I am part of is creating a system with Borka for the children at the Montessori school barcelona. I will be helping facilitate some of the workshops to help the children understand the use of natural materials. I will help this workshop throughout the second term and guide the children with their own design process in a more natural and meaningful way.
The third intervention I would like to do is to create a workshop with Anna and Kai in collaboration with Transfo Lab. I would like to do this intervention as part of a closing chapter to my trashy life project. I hope that this will give me some clarity to material life cycles and understand how other people are tackling these disruptive waste systems.
Class 2
During this second session of the design studio they introduced us to the concept of alternative presents. We were shown the example of Angella Mackey PHD project where we wore green outfits and tried to change the patterns of the clothes through her phone. We discussed the different concepts of Experiential Future, Ethnographic Future, Alternative Presents and Designing interventions to experience alternative presents.
During this session we had a Zoom call with Nicolas Villier Rios who is a designer that is practicing the areas of digital fabrication and regenerative process. I found his talk one of the most interesting and meaningful to my process.
How will my project or projects have an alternative present?
Parallel Reality.
A Trashy Human .
For 24h I as a human was the enemy of trash, I as a human created bins, trash disposals and mountains of trash. Trash is just material made from humans that humans dispose of. Do we as humans ever think of how our trash feels the way we consume or get rid of it? .
During this 24h the trash analysed me it sat with me it ate with me it walked with me it went to bed with me. The trash during the day carried the weight of the human, trying to show the other trash in the community on how humans can affect the environment of the trash. Humans look down on the trash that they themself created and this weight is felt on the trashy. During this 24h I as a human had felt the weight of the trash and how trash doesn’t want to be on this earth. Trash from the humans perspective is looked at in the most terrible ways and since I was worn by the trash I saw the way humans looked at the trash and tried to understand the trash and see how we could create a better life for this trash..
The Eden of Materials.
Biomaterials were the first materials that humans used. For the birth of humanity in the garden of eden, Eve found a bio material on a tree to wrap herself up with as it was a sin to walk around naked. These materials at the time were a good source for them as all they had were beautiful fruits and leaves. .
Unfortunately the bio materials couldn’t withstand the strength of the human body when it moved around, this caused the bio materials to rip and Eve in the garden of eden ended up becoming naked, which created a sin. This is when the birth of artificial materials was born, such as Polyester, Acrylic and Nylon. These new artificial materials helped people stop sinning in everyday motion..
The Bio That Didn’t Remediate .
During the 2050’s we were living in a world full of green envelopes that was helping out ecosystems to grow with the strength of bioremediation. Bioremediation at its time was a great invention and the way it was used around the cities, oceans and landscapes helped the rapid rate of extinction to slow down. .
During this system changeling the humans of the 2050 century realised that some organisms were dying, including animals that were important to this ecosystem. The scientists of this era had no idea why this was happening as they all have the same symptoms of death. .
After many studies they realised that what was helping with the remediation of the pollutants and plastics, actually was causing other organisms to die at a much slower rate then it could have been detected. This meant that the organism we used to combat the death of our planet was actually killing us instead. .
The Adults Who Didn’t Have A Voice. .
In a world where children were the ones who have a better understanding of our surroundings and as adults we had to follow what was said by the children everyday. This world would be run by children, where adults could not speak or give comments. This made us live in a more peaceful and harmonious place where war and corruption was written in the history book. The fact that adults didn’t have a voice anymore we went back to the life of the radical past such as Caesar did in Planet of the apes. .
Class 3
The third class of the design studio we talked and tried to understand how to design ourselves out of the circumstances of the classroom. We were shown different strategic methods on how this could be done. My favorite point and one I would like to follow was, documenting your project so that others can implement/remix further or in other contexts.
During this class we had a guest lecturer who is an alumni of MDEF 2021 Clément, he explained how he took his MDEF master project interventions to how he created Aqui. Clément created multiple activities during the class, from these activities helped us understand the theoretical concepts of what it means to scale our interventions into what we see for it next.
During the class we also did a task with Clément, which was asking the 5W’s of scaling.
Why
The project will continue as it is meant to create more of a natural environment and try to become more aware about the surroundings that we live with. It can create new forms of communities with humans and non humans.
What
Co-creating in its nature has a number of different factors that play in it, designing with organisms for other organisms has many challenges as it is a non-human identity. During the final few months of MDEF I started to create a project called Reef.ish. This project is about artificial reefs that can act as a bioremediation boom that will enter into our sea and ocean.
Who
During the final months of Mdef I have worked with a number of different people from my cohorts, Marine Biologists, Children, Teachers and Specialists. These different groups of people will be kept in mind and hopefully will keep on collaborating with each other as we need to keep our projects alive.
Where
The different projects that I have created could work from different places, as long as I have a good community around me I could make this project work. The where factor doesn’t make such a difference. I could keep on working from Barcelona, back home in Malta and even in a nordic country.
Though the last 3 months, I have been discovering of what my fight was or rather then was what it is. I have found a new hobby though this as I learn WHAT my waste is and WHY I am buying it.
The first session of the local Fabacademy was a simillier introduction that we had in the first term. We learnt a bit more about git and the process on which we need to upload all our tasks. I would say that the explanation would have been a bit more important in the beginning of the term rather than now. The rest of the class was about being informed about the course, the course work and how to delegate the time spent in these classes on your overall project.
Task
This week FabAcademy Local gave us a task to look at last year's examples to see how to base our web pages. The top three that I liked were Krzysztof Wronski, Ines Burdiles and Josefina Nano. In all three websites I choose as good examples of content, because it was created in a neith and holistic way. Each of the websites were all understandably and they gave in debt and a good representation of how each week went by. Krzysztof’s website was done in a raw looking way which in my head represents Fabacadamy in all forms. He had the weekly reflections separated from the challenges, this was well done and very organised and I could get a very good idea of what is expected from us. Ines’s website was categorised into different weeks which also made it easy to see what to expect and how to deliver each week's assignments. Whereas Josefina’s website is my vibe in terms of aesthetics.
During this week's session we went onto the topics from computers to design *eniac electronic numerical integrator. During this lecture we went through the Fabrication Process such as the difference between vectors and pixels, colour spaces which we got a fun fact that women can see more shades of green then men.
We then moved onto the software called Blender which is used to design and model. Not the same type of software such as CAD etc. Blender is an open source software where anyone can build the software to keep on getting better. From what I've learnt Blender is a good software for animation. Which all started in 1994, by a guy in the Netherlands working in a studio doing movie films developed this software in house. The value of the software grew but the company didn't want to develop it anymore. So it became available to the public by gathering money as a community.
Task
For this task I designed a walk through pavillon build with plastic waste found around the city. This pavillon is designed to inform and educate the citizens about the waste found on the street. By using Precious Plastic machines I will contract this pavillon. Each section of the pavillon will have a stapes telling the visitor what it is made out of, how much energy went into creating it and from which areas in Barcelona it was picked up from.
I made this task a bit challenging for myself as I know how to use Rhino the software but I for the first time used Grasshopper. This is what I wanted to do with this task to fully understand the capabilities of the software I know and take it to the next level.
Step By Step on what I did on Grasshopper.
Photo Imposed Images.
For the imposed images I used Photoshop and Illustrator. I feel very confidentin these softwares and I know I could get my best results in the little time we had.
This week in fabacademy we discussed Computer Controlled Cutting, Laser cutting machine and vinyl cutter. We understood that designing with code is by using G Code.
We are understanding the CAD VS CAM
CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design (in some circles, it can refer synonymously to Computer-Aided Drafting), which refers to the design or modification of a digital model. CAM, on the other hand, is Computer-Aided Manufacturing and controls the machine used to produce a part.
What can we Laser Cut
Plastics, wood, cardboard, fabrics, etc
What can we Vinyl Cut
Plastics, cardboard, fabrics,paper, etc
During this session we got taken into 2 groups to see how the machine can be used. Each machine explained how it is working and demonstrated what could be done.
Weekly Task
Weekly Task During this week we needed to produce a parametric design. I started using Grasshopper where I knew I wanted to explore more into this program and learn the understanding of parametric design.
During this week's task I designed a Fruit bowl using Grasshopper to do this. I used a youtube tutorial to do this but I edited to make it more of my own.
Step By Step on what I did on Grasshopper.
Vinyl Cutter
During the Fab Academy challenge Fiorella, Julia and myself worked in a team together to create labels for our collaborative collection waste system. During this challenge we created 20 stickers to use as labels with the vinyl cutter. We tried both machines out, the prossed was nice and easy which gave us the professional result we wanted.
An effective PCB layout can help reduce the chance of errors and also the chances of short circuits.
CNC router standoff milling is a great option for single-sided PCBs. This approach requires no toxic etching chemicals and has the added advantage of pre-drilled holes for components.
Fiorella Julia and myself have for the last few months been collecting our own household waste. We collectively have been trying to see how we will store it, organised and see what can be done with it. Therefore for the first challenge we decided to see how we can take this opportunity to make something for ourselves and our community.
My experience in the first challenge was exciting, as a group we were able to communicate super well. The only downside to this challenge was that I was working on the laser cutting files. We needed to cut boxes on the laser cutter to make sure they would fit on one sheet of 600/1000 mm which we found a bit of a challenge. We want to redo these and create them with the CNC Milling Machine as we feel like the large boxes of trash will be more durable for a longer period of time. My experience during this challenge is that I felt that I was helping everyone with their file in laser cutting and drafting and didn't end up finishing mine with the total number of students we had compared to the time we had.
During this challenge I learnt how I can construct a simple box, which we found difficult as we wanted it to be out of 1 sheet but the size of the box was not small enough to fit on that one sheet. We did a few alterations till we figured the method out, we first molded it in 3D and then did a few different laser cutting files until we got it right. At the end of the day we decided to create the boxes in our later task with the CNC milling machine.
On this page you can see the presentation we have collectively created together. Our online repo and material library is still a working progress and we are taking the feedback from the FabLab team to improve our ideas. Please check it out here.
During this week we discussed all things 3D, 3D printers are one manufacturing tool that was brought into the industry first in 1983, this tool revolutionized the world. The machine could be a tool in lots of different industries. This type of machine is known as additive manufacturing, which has a lot of different benefits to the traditional subtraction manufacturing. The benefit that I was attracted to was the Zero waste when using this machine.
During the class we were shown different types of machines and the different benefits of using each one in different scenarios. In Fab Lab BCN we have FDM and SLA printers we used two different FDM printers one to test out the Benchy boat that id you are used to 3D printing everyone uses. The second example was waste 3D printing food, which was out of a printing the Fab Lab staff modified. We printed potato mash.
The second tool we used to learn in this class was 3D scanning. We were shown scanner MDX-20 where we were shown how we would scan an object or a person. The way it would be done is by creating a globe around the object and you need to make sure you are moving slowly and not missing any spots as it will not be scanned if this is done.
Weakly Task
3D Printing.
During this week I develop defferent 3D designed components on rhino to use in my third intervention for the Photobioreactor I was creating in a group project.
These components where all 3D printed during the second micro challenge.
3D Paste Printing.
During the Last term I created a number of different paste print models, each model I was scaling up to understand the structure of the design, in the images below I will show you the development and final outcome.
During the mallorca trip we got he opertunity to use Thomas Duggans 3D scanner and used the software shining 3D, This is where I scanned a dead star fish to undersand on how it created this form.
This week in Fab Academy I felt that I couldn't follow as it was a whole new topic we were speaking about. We started to use Kicad which helps us design schematic PCB projects. We created a mini project during this session which we ended up milling at the end of the class. The practice class was easier for me to understand and was closer to what I am used to doing in the past with fabrication.
For this task I will be creating a light monitor PCB.
Weakly Task
This PCB that was design through fritzing, this PCB maintains optimal conditions for spirulina by providing and monitoring the correct amount of light, temperature, and airflow. By using a light sensor, we are able to determine the density of the spirulina and its growth by the amount of light passage. The temperature sensor will tell us if the spirulina water is getting too cool. The pumps provide airflow by means of air bubbles and circulation.
In collaboration with Paula & Marina
Schematic Drawing
Process Photos
,The second PCB that was created was an open source project with domingo club. So we Re-Created, Milled and soldered the PCB for the Incubator to host different Bacteria's alongside Marina. I am still planning on designing a PCB to monitor light.
During this exercise we still learnt a lot of different tools and conceptwe made one big mistake which made us do the PCB two times.
This week in Fab Academy we finally taught about the power of subtraction milling which was shown on the CNC Milling machine.
We got to understand the different parts of the machine, and how to create designs for the machine. We were shown how to use a program to generate the G-Code and nest the file for the machine to work in the right way. Which I have done in the past but was only supervised doing these processes. We studied about joineries as well, which I want to get deeper knowledge in as in my past job we were super invested in this but I would like to learn how other people tackle the same understandings.
Personally, using a CNC machine for our designs is a really efficient way of not generating too much waste and enabling ourselves and others.
During the particle explanation all the things that could go wrong did, we broke one Nmill, we went too deep in the engraving, we heard some funny noises etc. This was a good way of showing us what not to do With a CNC Milling machine.
Weakly Task
During these beginning of the secound semester we milled a open source project which is called Domingo club where they created a incubator to grow Tempeh which is shown below.
This Project was done with Paula & Marina.The Open Source Domingo Culb Design.
During the Micro Challenge 3 we created a box for Photobioreactor system the box was created to fit the glass bottles perfectly and have all the electronics inside, where the frount pannel opens as a drawer to have easy access to the electronics.
This week in embedding programming the fab lab team took us through the history and foundations of a computer from the start. The day started with a discussion about the difference between analog and digital forms of machines. I found this interesting as I am very much into analog and digital forms of photography and videography. I feel as though I am a traditionalist in the way photos would be created. This transition in machines was based on the scalability and accuracy in the technologies over time.
We discussed the difference between specific components and their functions. Such as the Microcontroller vs the microprocessors. This was done so that when the time comes for us to understand how to make an efficient choice when designing our own electronics.
When we were discussing these functions and components I was reminded of how each of these items have such complexity to them. These skills that we are obtaining will be pushing me forward into simple projects I will be tackling in the future.
Weakly Task
For this weakly Task
For this tast I incoperated the design of the Micro Challenge 4 where collectively with Didac and Borka we created a Sensor Ball. It is a gamified audiovisual system, to capture different perception of different environments. Capturing movements, sounds and sensing of materials. Visualizing the movements of the body in a space, the connection with different materials in the natural or builr environment.
or the Electronics part of the design we used The ESP32 Feather microcontroller. For this design we used different analog and transferred information through BlueTooth. The links of the tutorials we used are below, just some helpful tips with P5 Serial Controller on a window is that the select port is for both ports and BlueTooth so if you aren't seeing it show up don’t panic it is there.
We connected all the different sensors slowly to make sure each worked with the code that was found in the links below. We had 6 different inputs. We had 4 Piezo Sensors that worked with the same code, we used these sensors to detect popularity in different materials, with using P5 we could see the date that is collected from each material. Each Piezo Sensor had a 1M Resistor attached to both the ground and the different pins. For the Mocrophone we connected the pins to V3, ground and an analog pin, we used a basic Arduino Code which will be collecting data. The final sensor we used was the Giroscop this senor was the hardest to collect data from as we needed to figure out how to transform with p5 the direction if was going into to a data collected drawing. The pins we used was V3, ground and 3 different analogs.
Trying to understand such a complex code for the first time all 3 of us where doing was a bit challenging, but this didnt fase us to ge the out come we wanted.
Modeling and casting was an exciting class I was looking forward to. We covered all the different methods and materials in which we can produce or cast a mold. The most basic form of molds are a 2 sided mold and a 1 sided mold which was shown in class as examples. To make the mold negative of the mold, we can use additive processes like 3D printing or subtractive processes like CNC milling. If we wanted to create a mold from an already existing hard material we would use the thermoforming machine.
The different materials we could use to model are wood, wax, and polyurethane, with wax being optimal for its reusable and non-stick properties. We also covered how we would design molds from a simple to a complex shape and the most important part is so that the casted object is able to be removed from the mold.
Following the lecture, we got hands-on with casting of silicone with existing molds in the Fab Lab. We were shown the available materials we could use in the lab and different flexibilities of silicone and food-safe silicone that are in the fablab. We learned how to mix the silicone, remove the bubbles by using the vacuum chamber, and pour or inject the mixture into the mold. There are a lot of variables within materials, so it's important to always check the data sheet of the material we're using.
Weakly Task
During the fab challenge Paula Marina and I came up with the consept to create molds for our photobioreactor. We created 3 molds one for each sensor that we are using and one for the pump so that the vibrations doesn't effect our Aglae growing.
The second Micro challenge I was in a team which includes Marina, Paula Del Rio Arteaga Paula Bustos and myself. We decided to create a photobioreactor. We decided to do this for the challenge because we all collectively wanted to work with spirulina and different types of algae eventually.
We split up the work into 3 different parts, design, fabrication and programming. I personally was working on the design and fabrication part of the project. Where I design most of the 3D printed parts and a part of a CNC cutting part. I felt as though all our individual strengths. We had a few ups and downs in the process including this micro challenge, on the first day of fabrication we had one man down as Marina wasn't feeling too well. On the second day we managed to finish most of the fabrication and coding with the whole team working hard together. We ended up going out for a drink as we were super happy with our outcome and unfortunately one of our team members got her laptop stolen that evening therefore most of our code was gone to keep the algae alive.
The contribution I gave to this project was my skills of design and fabrication, this made us go fast in what we produce and how we produced it. I felt as though during this I was using more than 5 3D printers at once. Which made me feel like I mastered 3D printing.
This challenge helped me reach the next level in the design process I need to take in order to reach my future goals. This is how this project linked to the design dialogues project.
On this page you can see the presentation we have collectively created together. Our online repo and the feedback from the FabLab team to improve our ideas. Please check it out here.
This week was the first week back at fab academy where we built on the topics we tackled in previous lectures about electronics and coding. Three weeks ago we spoke about outputs in devices such as motors, lights, speakers and more, where this week we spoke about inputs and on how we can create and adapt devices which give us the tools to create an output. This whole system was associated with sensors. A sensor could be a button , resistir, a microphone or anything that can create a reaction. We spoke about what makes any device an input device, this when we have an external source creating information that gets transformed into an action.
During this class we were introduced to the properties of microcontrollers, this made us understand what we need to do when designing circuits which have these connections we are learning about. This was followed by understanding the theories of electronics which were in the subjects of amperage, voltage and current, this took me back to A level physics classes.
For the hands-on practices part of the class we had a look at the fabrication of our own sensors, this was done by seeing DIY examples of sensitive resistors, shock sensors and others.
Weakly Task
During the weeks after Fab Academy 3 in collaboration with Paula and Mairina we created the PCB of the Photobioreactor, which we added different elements to make the outputs and inputs.
By using a light sensor, we are able to determine the density of the spirulina and its growth by the amount of light passage. The temperature sensor will tell us if the spirulina water is getting too cool. The pumps provide airflow by means of air bubbles and circulation. The removable caps allow the user to easily remove the top and tubes by taking it off to harvest. The data from the sensors will be sent to computers via wifi to be monitored.
Networking and communications was the topic of this week's fab lecture, we spoke about the connections between devices from a small scale such as microcontroller, bread boards and sensors. During this lecture we spoke about Asynchronous (UART, USB), Synchronous (I2C, SPI) and over the Air connections (Wifi Bluetooth) these are different kinds of communication portals that machines have.
This week's subject that was given to us was about interfacing and application programming, this is where we learnt on how we could creatively use coding. The tools they spoke about using to create different interfaces are integrated development environment (IDE) and graphical library, and p5.js which Jeramy introduced to some of us over the christmas holidays to keep our coding skills going. It was fun to go back and re-understand what we were doing during that time. The p5.js demo that was shown to us we programmed a moving ball which we learnt how to adjust the colour, size and speed.
The session went onto talking about MIT App Inventor A-frame and Node-RED which are tools to help us design through code. During this week's session I understood that Interface and application programming helps us translate data and information in a visual and interactive way to the user seeing it.
Weakly Task
During Micro challenge 4 we create a P5 file that was connected to 6 sensors, with 6 inupts and outputs. We created a P5 interface where the data collected was connected to 4 Piezo sensors to dectecte the amount of times a matieral in the ball was connected and this will display on the P5 as numbers increasing. The second and more difficult P5 interface we created was with the Giroscop where we wanted with the movement of the sensor ball to be creating through the sensor a drawing on P5.
During the Fab Micro Challenge 3 I worked with Paula Del Rio and Marina where we wanted to improve the design and overall electronics of our previous Fab Micro Challenge which was a photobioreactor.
We took this challenge seriously to understand the process of how all the components work together to create the natural environment. We wanted to adjust the design of the system too, this was done to make it easier to harvest spirulina or any type of algae in the future.
During this challenge we had 1.5 days to come up with a new design concept and understand what electronics we wanted to add. This happened as all three of us couldn’t attend the first day of the challenge.
During this challenge my role was to come up with the design and fabricate. We wanted to create a new form of storage for the reactor and harvesting. This was done by using the CNC milling machine, Laser cutting machine and 3D Printing machine. As you can see in the image below we created a box which has a draw where the front of the box is made out of acrylic so that one can see all the electronics. The box was designed to be press fit with 12mm wood which also integrated the 3mm acrylic in the front and the top to store the lights.
For the electronics Paula had to recover what we did for the last challenge as her laptop got stolen before we put it in the repo, this time we added 2 new components which were sensors to detect the temperature and the amount of light entering the spirulina. This was done as besides the algae needing agitation and Co2, it needs light and shade and a consistent temperature.
Therefore to do this we needed to put the sensors in the spirulina itself, this was done by creating molds for the sensors to become waterproof. Marina tested out creating different molds on how this could be done with hard silicon. We create the mold by 3D printing with a flexible filament.
During this challenge we already knew that we wanted to update what we have created so this was also good for us to see the potential of improvement.
On this page you can see the presentation we have collectively created together. Our online repo and the feedback from the FabLab team to improve our ideas. Please check it out here.
Wild Card Week has been a week I have been waiting for during this whole 2 terms, this is when we finally got the Robotic Arm Explained to us. This week’s session was fun, entertaining and very open ended to what we wanted to do. We got the chance to explore alternative fabrication techniques which I know we have been all dying to try.
The first session was based on the Robotic Arm Edu. We first learnt about the functions and how it has a 6-axis manipulator just like our own arms as he used in an example. That being said it confirms that it has a wide range of motion which makes it a game changer in the fabrication world. We spoke about the fundamental idea of kinematics where the discussion of the movement of objects, without actually taking into account what caused the movement to occur. This is connected to the main thing to think of when using the robotic arm is to check the precision and repeatability and to know the exact printing speed it needs to be at.
Modeling for the robotic arm is a bit different then modeling for any other fabrication method as the robotic arm works with planes instead of points. The robot works in the most efficient way to get to position A to B.
The second session of the class we learnt about composites, we got a demonstration on how to use burlap with epoxy resin ro make a skateboard deck. During the session of creating a mold the vacuum press was used and demonstrated for the first time. Each layer of the burlap was carefully placed one atop the other and then brushed with resin. During this time we had a discussion about the different types of resins we could use: bio-resins, while made more responsibly in production, have a similar output as non-bio as they are hard to degrade.
Weakly Task
During this week I wanted to develop my model of artificial reefs, During the past weeks I have been trying to clay print some difficult organic and regenerative shapes which could be formed in the sea. These testing will lead me to this weeks task of trying to print with the robotic arm.
In this task I used one of the small robotic arms in the Atilier Building, with the help of Edu we tried to create a clay print from the robotic arm.
This Project Was Done In Collaboration with Borka and Didac.
During the Fourth Micro Challenge we created a sensor ball, during this challenge I was dealing with all the electronic which I found scary as I also was in a team where I gave my input of what is needed, or milled the PCB or Soilered it never the one who had to think about all the connections. So I tried my best to understand what I needed and when I couldn't understand I asked and wrote down details. I would say this challenge out of all of them was suprisingly organised, we all focused on our tasks and managed to deliver what was needed at the end of every day. The team I was with I have never worked with before but suprisingly we worked great together.
As I said before for this project I created the code of each sensor and the P5 file. For this porject the more difficult thing was understnading the connection between the Arduino and P5, I also struggled with how to set up the P5 interface as I have never done anything like this before.
The connection of the feather ESP32 and the P5 interface. There was a problem with the connections in the end where I had to check them all and see if one is mismatched.
This project linked to the reserch I am doing with Borka at the Montessori school about awarness and materiality, were we used this ball to collect account data.
Though this course I would like to take my knowledge of my passed experiences of work an education and build on them to have a more effective design on the current environment. I would like to have a world there natural materi-als aren’t used and to create a loop in the material and textile industries.
Design Studio
During the bootcamp we needed to get to know each one of out workshop we will be de-veloping our skills knowlage and attitudes. We needed to craft a table to understand fully on what we could gain from each of these workshops to maximise our development potential. As you can see in the table and info graphic above one can see the direction I an movinh towards. During one of our sessions we needed to do an exercis such as speed dating. During this ex-ercis we exchanged our skills knowlage and attitudes to each of our class mates. This exercise was done to see what our pers can offer you and what you can offer them to create your hybrid profile. I felt like this exercise was a good way to start making each one of us start comunicated in a way to help one another.
Roles Of Prototyping
Reflecting on the roles of prototyping I've used.
Prototype 1 – Though this first prototyping I want to understand the role 1 of prototyping. In role 1 of prototyping I am experimenting with DIY Bio Martials for the first time. Throughout this week I have collected a few items to evaluate on how long they take to decompose.
I have collected coffee waste form 3 different places in Barcelona.
1. My home throughout the week my roommates and I collected the coffee waste in a jar with paper towels to soke up moisture.
2. Syra Coffee which I was given a large cup.
3. Nomad Coffee which I was given there whole waste bag at the end of the day.
In my experiments I have create a number of different prototypes with different ingredients. Which entail egg shells, dried taco soft shells, potato peels, coffee from 3 different places, agar agar and glycerol.
During these prototypes I wanted to understand 2 main stages. I wanted to understand how different recipes can change the way the material can turn out. I wanted to see on how different thicknesses can effect they texture of the material. After these materials are created I wanted to study the rate it takes for them to composed.
Prototype 1
Recipe
3 handfuls of dried taco shells
3 tea spoons of glycerol
2 handfuls of dried potato peels
1/2 a handful of agar agar
3 table spoons of oat milk and water
3 table spoons of at home coffee waste
Cooked in the over at 180 degrees 10 mins on each side
To conclude in this recipe I put to much to much ingrediencies and not enough binding components. The material came out not binding together which made it fall apart. There for in the next few test I change some of the components in the mixture.
Prototype 2
Recipe
2 handfuls of dried taco shells
1 tea spoons of glycerol
1 handfuls of dried potato peels
1 handful of agar agar
3 table spoons of oath milk and 300ml of water
3 table spoons of Nomad coffee waste
Cooked in the over at 180 degrees 10 mins on each side.
To conclude in this recipe I over cooked the material in the over and it dried up and cracked. The material came out full of cracks and peeled off the silicone tray . There for in the next few I was consistently checking in the material to see if its over drying.
Prototype 3
Recipe
2 handfuls of dried taco shells
1 tea spoons of glycerol
1 handfuls of dried potato peels
1 handful of agar agar
2 table spoons of oath milk and 200ml of water
3 table spoons of Syra coffee waste
Cooked in the over at 180 degrees 5 mins on each side.
This outcome was way too thin but closer to what I want in consistency. Therefore it cracked but still remained in tact. For the next recipy I repeated the same steps with a little more product.
Prototype 4
Recipe
2 handfuls of dried taco shells
1 tea spoons of glycerol
1 handfuls of dried potato peels
1 handful of agar agar
2 table spoons of oath milk and 200ml of water
3 table spoons of Syra coffee waste
Cooked in the over at 180 degrees 5 mins on each side.
This outcome was the best so fare with the grounded coffee. I will keep on working on it to create a finaly recipe of my own.
Prototype 5
Recipe
A sprinkle of dried taco shells
1 tea spoons of glycerol
1 table spoon of potato starch
1 handful of agar agar
1 table spoons of oath milk and 250ml of water
1 egg shell
This outcome was the best so fare with the grounded coffee. I will keep on working on it to create a finaly recipe of my own.
Prototype 6
Recipe
A sprinkle of dried taco shells
1 tea spoons of glycerol
1 table spoon of potato starch
1 handful of agar agar
1 table spoons of oath milk and 250ml of water
2 egg shell
paperka
This outcome was the best so fare with the grounded coffee. I will keep on working on it to create a finaly recipe of my own.
Documentation
For this assignment we had to create a video of our documentaion prosses thought the past 2 weeks.
How Do I Document?
My documentation process is mostly writing and taking photos and videos. I post most of my work and process on social media for people to comment and I can take in a count of what they say. I do tend to draw from time to time but I would like this form of documentation to flow much more. I feel as though that the only documentation I was doing in the past few months was writing down my prosses and reflecting on that, while taking photos and videos of that prosses.
I am initially writing all my thoughts on a note pad which I then re-read and transfer onto an online platform. This way I gather the information I received again and I can filter what I find important to me and what I don’t want to focus much on.
How Would I like To Document?
My documentation skills I feel need to be more creative I needed to get back into sketching and visualising my documentation. This way I can create my mind map plan and products not only though description but also though creation. I would like to visualise my thought process and understand on hoe I would want to product my work in videos sketches and audio. I would like to create some podcast and create an analogy discussing with experts and in that way create a documentation of our work together.
I would like to join some challenge on visualisation such as the 1 drawing pre day for 365 days. This would make me feel more comfortable and confident with my drawing skills.
A Case For Waste
During this weeks task we needed to come up with a collective intervention. Therefore my group and myself decided to host a workshop. This workshop was based on Waste Management, Circular Materials and Bio-Materials.
On the day of the workshop, 5 people showed up the people where both from Elisava and from IAAC. Each one of the participants came from a somewhat different backgrounds eventhough they were all designers. We were pleased to see that one participant was just starting her design journey and one was much further along on his academic path, having already acquired multiple degrees in the field. I started off the dialogue with ther presentation.
Leire’s feedback
"The workshop was a great opportunity to learn more about bio-materials and waste management. I am a person who is really interested in this topic and to be honest, even if I had read some articles before, I had never tried the practical side until that day. Once we finished I felt curious, excited and happy. Now, I am thinking I will try to get more informed about the subject by myself, and also that I might do my master's thesis about something related with this.
Moreover, the discussion formed about the plastic use was nice. I am aware that if laws do not change the practice will not neither. Also, reducing plastic is a challenge to all humans, and creating new materials can be one step forward it."
Candela’s feedback
"I really enjoyed the workshop because it opened me up to new concepts and a whole new world that I was not really aware of. Even though all of you were older and more experienced I had a great time listening to interesting facts about sustainability, carbon footprint, etc. I never got to actually try making biomaterials, but "the talk part" was really great. I think it should be a subject to introduce to new designers like me (if you can call us that way hahaha) because it really opens you up to a way of doing that we need for the world we live in. We can't learn our profession if we don't take into account things we discussed. Moreover, the actual biomaterials were sooo cool and with more investigation and a collective intention to start implementing them I think they can truly change the way we make some of the objects and things we have around.
P.S my favourite was the chia seeds one :) Thanks for the workshop!!"
I felt as though Marina, Tatiana and myself worked out great as a team. We understood each other from the biggening, we saw the same vision and push for it.
The workshop itself i tohugh went great, the converstation kpt on flowing between the participants and ourselves. We talked and discussed so much that we only had time to make one biomaterial between all of us. This for me was a good thing as i felt that for us we got more out of the discussion then if we had to make biomaterials.
Over all for our first intervention as a group and with other people I think we did a great job and I am very happy to be working with 2 great individuals.
Presentation
Group Work
The project for this week was to create a project that usese artificial intelligence. The link below you can find the presentation.
During this semester I have moved into the realm of trying to design with and through nature to create efficient bioremediation cities. We are living in a critical decade. The decisions we make now will affect the future we have in the next billion years. I want to start creating systems to live in symbioses to create a non-polluted city. Cities are places where most people will be living in the next decade. This includes children who don’t have the capacity to develop their lungs and growth in this ever so polluted environment.
This final project I am aiming towards is to identify the decreasing or increasing amount of micro plastic in our atmosphere. This week was the first time scientists found micro plastics in our blood stream. This is causing not only health problems indirectly to us through the effect it is having on our environment but now it is directly linked to our organs. Therefore through this project I would like to create an AI/ML system to identify the amount of micro plastic entering into the bioremediation walls and the amount that will be filtered out. This will give us the amount of time and quantities needed to understand how we can bioremediate our atmosphere.
During this project I would need to use physical data sources detecting the amount of micro plastics entering and exiting the system. I want to use an algorithm system that can detect the amount of micro plastic in our atmosphere through our city's buildings. I want this to be done using algae and the Bacteria - Ideonella sakaiensis. This system will show the amount of plastic surrounding or on the buildings. The system will also detect how fast the bacteria degrades the plastic.
I will be using the software from this Plastic Scanner open source project to collect the data and use an IA system to see if more algae and bacteria need to grow on the objects. This system does let you know which types of plastics are found and thus will create effective results in our atmosphere.
Eliminating Plastic Pollution: How a Voluntary Contribution From Industry Will Drive the Circular Plastics Economy
Authors
Andrew Forrest 1,2*, Luca Giacovazzi 2, Sarah Dunlop1†, Julia Reisser 2,3, David Tickler 1,2, Alan Jamieson4 and Jessica J. Meeuwig1,3
1 School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia, 2 The Minderoo Foundation, Perth, WA, Australia, 3 The UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia, 4 School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Summary
This article in divided into eight part each area analysing the topic different from introduction to what they had concluded. By 2025 there will be 1/3 tons of plastic in the ocean in comparison to fish. With this information we know that FFP (fossil fuel derived plastics) invades different species of marine life. This is effecting gas exchange, food chains, ecosystems, everyday health and more. In one of the statements an analyses suggest that more syntactic materials that were found in marine life were produced before the 1970’s. Therefore suggesting that the material took 50 years to reach there current state. It is evident that plastic is found in polar extreme locations from mountain tops to the most remote depths of the oceans. Plastic pollution is not only the fragments itself but “FFPs contain dyes, flame retardants and plasticizers, some of which are persistent, bio-accumulative toxins”.
The price of plastic is a main topic throughout as they speak about as they specify that it “requires us to shift the economics of FFPs from a linear to a circular mode” to combat the plastic pollution. It takes into count the failures of the manufacturing and disposal process, these both have a significate impact on the ecosystem and out health. Where at least 10% of the 60% plastic waste that is dumped into landfills ends up into our oceans. The oceans capacity to regulate earth’s climate is reducing each year though plastic waste. The plastic management model is more “burn, bury, befoul” instead of the 3 R’s.
The understand of the implications of plastic pollution in human health is still enumerated, where plastic can be in contact with our cells though the interaction of nano-plastics and also though the contamination of plastic in our food packaging, house hold products and more which one can digest inhale and have skin contact where 74,000 micro plastics are ingested by humans each year. Though this research one can see that baby and infants are the highest at risk due to the baby food packages, toys and even breast milk.
What will the principles be to the solution of this crises where a realistic solution would be “converting plastic waste into a cashable commodity”. Though this a great amount of considerable funds will be generated by the contributor by tackling plastic issues creating a circular plastic economy. Global scale commercialising has failed in recycling most used plastic into high-purity polymers though emerging technologies due to stubborn market price. Evening out the playing field could be done by higher the cost if FFP’s which potentially lead plastic producers to seek lower cost feedstocks. Creating cashable commodities though incentivising recovery and recycling rates by demanding for recycled polymers.
This step forward will both develop and developing markets contribute in this circular economy of recycling businesses.
Implementation of the contribution will be done the concentrated point in the supply chain. By “facilitates the application of the Contribution on a simple, equitable and transparent per-weight basis, streamlining stakeholder participation and industry-wide application.” Which would only create a small price increase to the end consumer by contribution passes though the base of the supple chain.
Though this the governance of the Contribution will be done to insure that no fraud and corruption. Though different organisation one can come to a responsible governance agreement. With this agreement one can follow four constitutional pillars will be prioritised. Which are to drive the global deployment and technologies, providing pollution remediation, recovery of plastics in the oceanics and any other environmental policies which mitigate climate change.
If the plastic industry doesn’t act then the contribution will have to step up and force similar initiative
with international treaties to the four constitutional pillars. Governments are administering taxes and
regulations on goods, as trillions of plastic items are traded globally daily. Transcending the issues of
national taxes, laws and treaties is the contribution global solution.
The quantum required an economic model which required different regions to collect waste to
capitalise the market incentive and the plastic demand of elasticity price.
Contributing solutions to plastic pollutions is helping the damage done to our societies, economy and
natural environments. The approach in far broader economic and technical will catalyse the change
that needs to be made to replace plastic with other materials. Circular economies should get onto the
wagon of creating circular economy by transforming placing waste into cashable commodities.
Reasons of Interest
Plastic pollution is a crises that we can see in the highest and lowest parts of our plant. We can see it
with and without our naked eye. During the last few years this pollution is becoming more and more
evident. I have been scuba diving for half my life in different areas of the world and for me seeing plastic
in the ocean was nothing new. I recon I have seen more plastic then exotic fish in the ocean, I have
sailed in the Mediterranean sea and have seen up to 4 turtles floating dead due to eating or choking on
plastic.
These last few years I have participated in beach and bay clean ups, were every year we tackle all the same locations and not so surprisingly the same amount of waste we clean is gathered each year, just keeping the bay partially clean for the summer season. I have also started to carry plastic bags when I go to the bay to clean up waste I see once I head home, we do this with scuba diving too.
Though this I am expressing that plastic pollution is everywhere once we understand on how to tackle the situation more the less we will see.
Hypothesis
If we change the DNA of the main three aglae’s in the oceans to have Ideonella sakaiensis gene it could be a way to reduce our plastic pollution in the oceans.
Questions
Could we change the DNA of the main three algae’s in the oceans to have the bacteria Ideonella sakaiensis to reduce plastic pollution?
Context
The mutants I would like to create are interpretation of three different types of marine algae with the gene of Ideonella sakaiensis to break down PET Plastic in our oceans.
Algae
Brown Algae (Phaeophyta)
Green Algae (Chlorophyta)
Red Algae (Rhodophyta)
These three marine algae’s are found in our oceans across the world. Brown Algae (Phaeophyta) is a type of prevalent seaweed. This type of algae is found is different type of climates. This type of algae has “holdfasts” which are root-like structures which attach the algae to a surface. This type of algae grows only in saltwater and mainly on a rocky coastline. This algae contains “vitamins and minerals including vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, vitamin E, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, iodine, calcium, magnesium, iron, sodium, phosphorus, as well as small amounts of zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium.”
The red algae has over 6000 species of its kind, the colour of this algae comes from the pigment phycoerythrin. It has the ability live in the deepest part of the ocean to intake blue light.
The green algae can be found in both fresh, seawater and even moist soils. There are 3 forms of this algae in which collectively have over 4000 species that exist on the planet. The forms are unicellular, colonial, or multicellular.
(Kennedy, 2019)
Ideonella sakaiensis
Ideonella sakaiensis is a bacterial strain that is capable of breaking down and consuming the plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a sole carbon and energy source.
In this I-Gem Article paper they explain structure of I. sakaiensis and how it breaks down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) Plastic.
In 2018 an I-Gem Article was relisted by a team in Yale University explaining the prosses of how Ideonella sakaiensis breaks down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which is a polymer. This type of plastic is mainly used in synthetic fibres to water bottles. This is done by breaking PET into two organic Monomers which are ethylene glycol (EG) and terephthalic acid (TPA). The problem in this paper they are trying to fix is the time frame that the PET breaks down in I. Sakaiensis much fast then it naturally one does.
In this figure below it is showing how PETase and MHETase, work together to degrade PET. The twpo steps are MHET, yielding TPA and ethylene glycol.
Method:
1. Understand the structure of Ideonella sakaiensis and the different algae I would like to use.
2. Place into a dish and sanitise the space.
3. Extract the genes of PETase and MHETase from Ideonella sakaiensis .
4. Place the different algae in different incubators to have a sanitary space.
5. Inject the genes of PETase and MHETase from Ideonella sakaiensis by using crispr cas9 into the different type of algae.
6. Added sanitised PET plastic into the incubator on the algae.
7. Analyse the prosses on the PET plastic degrading through the algae.
Reflection
Through this task I understood and learnt about the capabilities of crispr cas9. The ethics behind it and the way that it can be used in both bad and good. But through these techniques if used in a correct and in an ethical way we could save the plant from our self-made disasters. The understanding of my creative project I would still question the ethics of using crispr cas9 to modify the way the algae works. I would like to still believe that by adding new genes it does not eliminate the good processes of algae.
A3P2
An Almost Unless Machine that keeps your secrets.
Video
During this week we creating a Miro board collectively
This Miro Board is made up by: Tatiana Butt, Marina Lermant & Myself.
Within this Miro Board we investigate what the tasks we needed to do and more. This is evident in the images below.
Though this assignment we are trying to understand where we as a collective fit within the area of design we are trying to squeeze into. This area of design is bio materials and waste management.
This is what we found
4D Human Sculpture
Reasons of Interest
We as a collective are looking into waste management and bio materials to see how in the near future we can make a circulate economy out of the two. Our waste in landfills is not going anywhere we need to find an understanding how to turn into golden treasures. At this same stage creating bio materials to fully understand how to make materials that isn’t going to effect our eco system.
A Text Of My Journey
The last 4 months into this masters I have created a number of different journeys. These journeys are helping me understand fully the track I want to be on. In the first term I collected my waste, I lived with my waste for a day and I was trying to understand the world of circular materials. Since I have never touched upon these subjects so I found it hard to fully grasp on what I wanted to do.
During the past semester I collaborated with a few different people by being guided with our different guessed lectures each week. This helped me navigate what my next journey will be though this masters. My Trashy Life project that I feel very vulnerable in I feel as though I am exposing all my “dirty little secrets” . I am doing this to fully understand what could be avoided in my life.
Rob Greenfield is a American adventurer, environmental activist, and entrepreneur. Rob for 30 days, he lived just like the average American and he wore every piece of trash he created. The average American creates 4.5 pounds of trash per day but most people never think twice about the trash they make. Once it’s in the garbage can, it’s out of sight, out of mind. I found this American environmental activist Rob Greenfield during my living with my own ideas, which I called the human landfill. This case study helped me understand what I could have been done if I did live with my waste for 30 days.
In this term I am interested in in continuing my journey of My Trashy Life by discovering all the components that makes up trash collected, but at the same time I am going to look into going zero waste as an intervention. I want to create a map that links my to the closest zero waste shops we have around Barcelona. Zero waste is a hard task to do, I find my self struggling with the thought of not being able to have the things I loved and grew up with, but I am contemplating that these products are also bad for me. I want to try and start with my waste in a jar. And see how long it takes me to fill up a single 750ml jar with my trash.
These interventions were tackled in a first perspective research, I want to now go into a more data collecting role in my interventions. I want to understand how the waste consumption in households can be minimised. I want to create this waste catalogue to see how to tackle policies that are directly linked to single used materials. The 54 actions of the EU’s first circular action plan have been delivered. The EU’s transition to a circular economy is now guided by the new circular economy action.
The actions under the action plan contributed to accelerate Europe’s transition by helping "close the loop" of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use, and bought benefits for both the environment and the economy plan.
This are some targets the EU are trying to implement by 2025 and I would love to see how the situation will be tackled.
After analysing my past term, I want to go into more depth on the subjects i just scratched the surface of. In the images below you can see what these would be and how I will be looking into them.
Brand Purpose Canvas
My journey so far
During the first term I was focused on all types of materials, from my personally used materials I bought from the stops to re-creating new materials. I was fascinated to understand how much waste I created within a short time span. I think I am one relatively small human and I consume so much metal, plastic, paper, food, etc. So if I collected X the world on a daily basis must collect Y.
I wanted to understand that if I started living with my own waste I would feel different from the amount of consumption I was producing. I wanted to study if my habits would change to what I would buy and the limits I would go to, so that I wouldn't produce waste.
During this 2 month long intervention, I found some happiness in my trashy life. I for one never needed to take down the trash, as I had a different system to my roommates. I had my own trash system. I created my own bin so that at the end of everyday I placed the items I collected onto the bedroom wall. My food waste was thrown into a compost bin which surprisingly enough my roommates took on very easily in their everyday routine too.
To move forward with this project I wanted to create a system where people can fully understand what they are buying in terms of materials and have the right to understand the nutritional value of the material having an effect on the environment. We as consumers have a right to know how long it will take for the material to degrade and the effects it will have on the environment.
I want how much each of the companies I buy from releasing the information about the materials they sell. This will take long and I persum it will be hard to find information about all the energy, water etc will go into the material production.
These are a few questions I will be asking myself
What
The catalog is going to have a different section to it.
1. what the materials are made out of.
2. how it was made.
3. How long it will stay on the planet for.
4. How it can be replaced.
Why
I want to create these catalogs to change the way we see our waste. This can give our waste new meanings.
This can help with creating new waste systems in our cities.
Creating a catalog, we can look into policies and changing policies from a thoughtful first hand experience.
How
Creating an informative excel sheet with all the different sections.
Creating posts on social media about my findings.
1st Person Perspectives
The first intervention that I did this term was to start understanding the products materials I am using. From the confinement of my room due to covid-19 I started to investigate the “Nutritional Value” of what the materials are, which are“protecting” the food we eat. I found little to no information on each of the products' websites. This was no surprise to me! I find it very strange that we are conscious of what we put into our bodies that have a human lifespan of 70-100 years. But not what we put onto the planet for the earth to consume.
This intervention made me feel very little and tackling such a big topic was very frustrating to me. I also felt more trapped and frustrated as I was confined in my room for this whole process. I felt as though if I could have been in the fab lab doing material testing I would have discovered way more about the material I was using.
Product 1
Product 2
Product 3
Product 4
Product 5
Product 6
What to expect in term 2
From this investigation I found what I need to do for my next few steps in this term. I want to create a movement that makes companies tell us what we are buying from that perspective of material choice. I want people to become more aware of what they are putting into landfills and consuming. We have a right to know this information.
Updated Design Space
During this assignment we found ourselves in a very particular situation due to covid. We were stuck inside for over 2 weeks and missed most of the remixing material classes. The first interaction of this assignment we did was using our own house waste and created a bio material workshop within our kitchen from the little we knew.
Unfortunately this was not enough, so Borka and I went around Poblenou to scout for different options that weren't already taken by our classmates. During this search we stumbled upon three different local companies. These were all different types of businesses. We first went to Nomad coffee shop as an option they are a local coffee roaster, they also have this cute vegetable shop called Frutas Selectas we asked if we could have some of their oysters shells as people eat them there, so they produce waste from the shell, we thought later we can experiment with that too, we also went to this hair Salon called Blow he main hair dress explained to us about their business and on how they product little to no waste and the only thing the through away was the hair. . So he promised us, he would collect hair throughout the week and give it to us by monday.
Finally on the weekend we came up with the idea that we should visit Transfolab, a small workshop - the heart and soul of Poblenou which we visited throughout our Bootcamp. We had a quick chat with it’s owner who feels very responsible for the neighbors around Poblenou - they collect the neighborhood’s waste and create projects from them with their makers, designers and residents. And when not these creatives are working, the neighbors give new life to their old products in their workshops.
The responsibility is huge in this workshop and the waste is very small. However there is a little niche - the sawdust they produce. So we asked them for it and they gave us a ton. We figure we want to turn it back to them in the form of sheets to their products, 3d printed homewares to their interior design projects or in recipes / educational methods to their workshops to teach their neighbors how to turn their only one waste after giving life to their old products to new materials.
div class="additional_images" style="padding-left: 10px; padding-bottom: 20px;">
Once we were done with walking around Poblenou we went home to start creating the material by experimentation. And by studying from them we started iterating our recipes to reach:
One material for sheets
One for cork
One for homeware
One for more flexible use
To conclude I feel as though a project like this is very strong and could be a good intervention with the community to see how we can keep on creating materials within a small scale.
Design Prosses Changing
The next steps in my design process took me a long time to understand where and what I wanted to get out of it. I was feeling extraming frustrated with what I was doing in the past in reference to the product I was analysing. I wanted to go down a different path of how to tackle the situation. I wanted to create a process on how to tackle this situation more effectively as hitting the big corporations will only be a fight I will take too long to win. So I would like to tackle it in a way where individuals will take the initiative on owning their own waste.
I wanted first to see how I personally would do it, I wanted to see what in my everyday life I could easily get rid of the waste I am using. This would have to be a process that could be done on a small scale where it could turn into something useful for the constituent. Could it be a section in the kitchen like in a representative form as an appliance. Or would it need to be exhibited to see how it would be? I personally would like to have it displayed on me as I like the idea of being a consumer in both ways.
What will be this design/process/creation?
I know I wanted to see how our waste could be degraded. I would like to work with living organisms as I would want this effect to be done with nature and by nature so that we don’t cause extra harm to the environment. This is why I want to start observing different types of algae, bacteria, fungi and more. I want to understand how I as an exhibitor to our environment could work simultaneously with these organisms. I want to see how we can design with these organisms to help them flourish in the way they were meant to.
These are steps I will be discovering from now on. I want to see how my trashy life can turn into a radical way of processing ourselves into a more natural state in the future, while still understanding the new and ever improving technologies.
I want to discover how humans, design, urban spaces and architecture could work together to replenish the environment's state of wellbeing. We have many different weak signals in this day and age, one of the biggest weak signals just imploded this week, the Russian and Ukraine War making it even more hard for the big powers to focus on the real war that is upon us, the war against our climate.
For this I have decided to team up with two of my colleges to create a small Bio Lab within our school. We are starting off the process with creating open source equipment that we would need to build this Bio Lab.
We are trying to create a DIY Incubator and a DIY Photobioreactor. These are items that all three of us need to guide us through the process of creating our own independent projects. We first started contacting different communities that are already working with such organisms, but in the local community and forign community.
DIY Incubator
During these past few weeks we have collaborated with the local project called domingo club. They specialise in making home made tempeh through their open source fermentation equipment. This collaboration has been super interesting as we both have gained some knowledge from this. Maud and Antoine have been very helpful with guiding us through the process and understanding how the process works. We sat down with them a couple of times to see all the different functions, what we would need and on average how long it would take for us to do it.
On the other hAND we create some notes for them to follow to make their open source project a bit more effective for the future participants. We also saved and passed on the files that were more effective if we would have just downloaded them and used them so that we didn’t need to fix the files. We also suggested to them to add the materials they used for all the different parts with the components they made them in.
We created the product during the weekly tasks that are done with Fab Academy so that we could combine the classes together and create more progress. This helped us get more guidice from the fab lab team and if we succeed doing this Mini Bio Lab we could get published on the Fab Lab Network. This will lead us to bigger opportunists in the next term.
The learning process from this Intervention
1. Creating a community in Barcelona
2. Learning new programs such as Rhino Cam, Kitcad
3. Understand GCODE
4. Learning how to CNC Milling in Big and Small Scale
5. Collaborating with company
6. Understanding the electronics that control an Incubator be using we would need to have a more sanitized surface.
The Process Of Incubator
Research different open source incubators or buy a new one.
We chose to go down the route of creating our own to learn new tools and understandings on how this system is working. By making our own incubator, we will have the opportunity to understand how the incubator itself works and the process of making it hands-on in the lab.
Choosing the design
We got linked to Maud through Santi as she is a new member in the FabLab community, she was and is being extremely helpful.
Re Adapting the design to our needs
We just started on this process and we understand that very little needs to be adapted; it is more of size, materials and temperature.
Building the components
This is being done in help with the FabLab team, we CNCed the “box” components. We Milled a PCB to control all the electronics.
In use
Once the incubator was built we are studying the process of what needs to be altered.
We did find some drawbacks with working with a start up project, we were the first group to attempt to make this project so we understood that these stumbles in the road will occur. We found that some parts of the project weren't documented fully, this was ok for us as we felt that we had a great line of communication with the company to make these systems work.
Firstly Creating a PCB that we don’t know how it was designed or why was very difficult to fully understand why each components needed to be there and that it would be working correctly. This was solved by Maud, one of the CEO’s of the company coming to help and explain why each component was used.
We didn’t find the exact sized fans which made it difficult for us to use their 3D models, which in the end we tried manipulating and resolving which wasn’t working out so we had to re 3D model and design a new one. Which wasn’t a problem for us as we know how to use these systems but it could have been a problem for other clients of theirs.
We understood after this process that although we are doing an open source project we still needed to fully understand everything thought process they went through. This was also a challenge because we didn’t know these designers and their processes. So this was also part of our intervention. Not only did I love understanding and being part of this project but I fully loved the connection I made with the domingo club and hope to keep this relationship alive.
This intervention will be a forever developing process in which we get to understand how different startups work. For me this was a great take away from our first approach.
Updated Design Space
Photobioreactor
The third design intervention we created a Photobioreactor from scratch. We as a collective team which includes Marina, Paula Del Rio Arteaga, Paula Bustos and myself. We wanted to explore the properties of algae for different individual purposes so we decided to start collaborating in the creation of the habitat for its propagation. Once we understand the species then we can be able to collaborate with them in order to develop other projects. We are interested in co-creating with algae and exploring their bioremediation abilities.
After gathering enough algae we can then transform it into either food, materials, energy, biofuel, art and other individual purposes. We had been researching and discussing how to build it with a number of different people from the working world and also people who have attempted to do this intervention before. We sat down with Jessica from Bio Babes to give us a better understanding on how delicate the aglae we were working with.
We decided to design and construct a photobioreactor during our fab lab challenge. We found it pretty difficult to come up with a design we collectively liked and trying to understand how all the systems will work together.
We decided to start with spirulina as the algae of choice. We ordered the spirulina and while it arrived we started researching what we needed in order to keep it alive and help it grow. We got a manual which we are attaching in the files. From this we were able to make a list of the things we needed for cultivating the spirulina. We also researched how the electronics would work and what parts we needed to get. After having in mind all the components needed then we could figure out how the design could look like.
During this intervention we contacted a few different people but this was a bit of a harder project to gather information from, we contacted a number of different local businesses and one replied. They are a local business called B'ZEOS that works with Macro algae, which we found interesting as we have only found projects with micro algae. So we set up a meeting with them, this went well and they were very informative on the reasons why choosing Macro Algae has swayed my interest. They have asked to meet in person to try and find a collaboration with them. They found it interesting that we as designers are interested in working with these living organisms and how they as engineers want us to help them create ideas to generate new products. We will be meeting at their lab in Barcelona science park.
Collectively began planning out how to make the photobioreactor. Oddly enough, there aren’t many open source projects and we could not find previous examples that were well documented. We talked to some people in FabTextiles who had previously made one, and looked at their design. We met up with Fabric Academy students who have attempted to create a photobioreactor. They didn’t have that much success with the outcome as something went, from with the wiring so all their algae died over the holidays. Will will be working off their tools they gave us and improving the electronics from what they created.
During the fab second micro challenge during this Edu brought to our attention one of his fab academy projects called Sphira. Sphira was a project that was created to focus on bringing the public's attention to portable cultivation and innovative consumption, in this multi-scalar apparatus use of an urban photobioreactor. This project was to seek the best solution on how to eat sphere by product through a modern gastronomy process of spherification. (Martin, 2018)
Due to this example we created a system where we had 4 different bottles that were linked to each other to create motion for the algae. The items we used were an Air Pump of 220v, a peristaltic Pump of 12v and a LED strip of 12v plus our microcontroller ESP32 feather to control the timing of each component.
The learning process from this Intervention
1. Creating a community in Barcelona
2. Learning new programs such as Rhino Cam, Kitcad
3. Understand GCODE
4. Learning how to CNC Milling in Big and Small Scale
5. Collaborating with my peers
6. Understanding the electronics that control an photobioreactor
7. Being on a time limit
.
The Process Of Photobioreactor
Research different open source photobioreactors or create it ourselves.
We chose to go down the route of creating our own to learn new tools and understandings on how this system is working. By making our own photobioreactors, we will have the opportunity to understand how the photobioreactors itself works and the process of making it hands-on in the lab.
Choosing the design
We took some time and got some feedback from the Fab Lab team about our designs. In the end we opted for a design that most of us actually didn't end up liking in the end. We felt as though it was not safe enough and that it was too complicated to look at and use.
Building the components
This is being done in help with the FabLab team, we are CNCed the components. We planned on Milling a PCB to control all the electronics. But unfortunately we lost all the documents when one of our peers' laptops got stolen.
In use
Once the photobioreactor was built we studied the process of what needs to be altered.
In the beginning of this project we all had an idea of what the design would look like and we stuck by it. But once we presented it to the Fab Lab team they made some commits that made us change our minds. This I now think was a bit of a mistake as we need to create an alternative to this design.
We now can say from this intervention we will carry on with the process and from our understanding we can create a better and clearer version of this product. We must not get counted up in the redesigning of these functions and actually use the subsitice for what we want it to do.
Like in the second intervention will be a forever developing process in which we get to understand how different startups work. For me this was a great take away from our first approach.
Updated Design Space
Evolving Design Space
p class="bigger">During this trimester My design space evolved in a few different ways, I felt as though the first part of my trimester I was more on a linear approach to design. This made me feel good about knowing the process I wanted to take. After creating my first intervention I didn’t truly feel connected to the project I was going into.
During Our class this week Jana and Roger we had to identify which type of evolving design space I was creating.
From these 5 different ways of drifting;
Accumulative - Depth, stacking
Comparative - Acknowledging complexity
Serial - Systematic Local knowledge
Expansive - Broadening, extending
Probing - Illogical, artistic, impact oriented
I think after reviewing my design space that I was creating throughout the 3 interventions I have come to the understanding that I have drifted into a Probing and below you can gather from the image.
Updated Design Space
My path is to keep designing with the aim of leading one onto a journey of innovations in technologies, information, transformation, communication, intelligence, understanding, co-creating and responsibility.
My journey is one that keeps on changing. However, throughout these past two trimesters, I have learned to understand new skills of how to think beyond design but also live and implement design in my everyday life. I never thought I would see designs from this new lens. I never thought that design could be what I see now. What I see now is not what you can see and experience because that journey is yours to discover and take. You may know what design is and what the purpose it may give you. However, would you be able to describe what it means to me and the way I experience it?
I would like to think we are all collaborators in everything that is created and that design of subsistence is co-created through being the exhibitors. We are the constituents to our environment and we need to take responsibility for that.
Do you find yourself thinking about how you have affected the process and the design of a subject? The results of a certain design could have been different if you weren’t in the right place at the right time. Just think about all the times you made a comment, a suggestion, a counter argument. These tools we have learned to communicate as children, which we still use for our everyday purpose now.
That being said, just because my personal design journey is transferred through the knowledge I am exposed to, this doesn’t mean your knowledge has been overturned. It is the simple fact that I take in information differently to you. We might read and see the same substance but that doesn't mean we understand it the same way.
This knowledge has led me to believe that I have become one, before this I was two different people: the person I presented myself as and as the designer. Now I see and feel myself as one a designer part of a community that builds my environment around that. I am a designer, an exhibitor, a communicator, an educator, a transformer and most of all I am a designer who takes responsibility.
This journey as a designer has made me understand that this is a more realistic approach to understanding what I wanted to give a purpose to. My purpose will keep on changing and I have come to terms with the fact that not all processes will come to the end goal I would like them to. However, I have learnt that creating a community will give opportunities for others to take on the process from where I left off.
This is a form of co-creating I would like to keep with me on my journey for the rest of my time as a designer. This journey will keep on evolving and transpiring which I hope you as my exhibitor will understand and even join me on.
My journey as a designer is one that keeps on changing. However, throughout these past two trimesters, I have learned to understand new skills of how to think beyond design but also live and implement design in my everyday life. I never thought I would see designs from this new lens. I never thought that design could be what I see now. What I see now is not what you can see and experience because that journey is yours to discover and take. You may know what design is and what the purpose it may give you. However, would you be able to describe what it means to me and the way I experience it?
Coming from an architecture background design comes to me in small and big details. I personally think design is a term for creation of a product or process.
The design processes can lead to new innovations in technologies, information, transformation, communication, intelligence, understanding, co-creating and responsibility.
During this trimester I was reading up different texts on how design innovation first started. According to 2001: a space odyssey depicts the idea that anthropoids were in a fight scene and this is when an anthropoid picks up a bone and hits the predator with it. But in the book designing design Hara states otherwise, he can’t believe that design started from this point. He believes that onces our hands became hands the anthropoids would use the little hollow part of our palms to drink water from rivers and waterfalls.
I thought this text from this book was pretty interesting as if we think of design in this way, then anything we do touch or see is design. I would like to think we are all collaborators in designing something. We are the constituents to our environment and we need to take responsibility for that.
I want to believe and understand design in reference to a story, during our future talks with Ron Wakkary we read out his texts from his new book, which was written in a story telling way. This was an interesting addition to me on how I visual design, I would like in the future to start creating narratives to my design process.
The knowledge has led me to believe that I have become one, before this I was two different people: the person I presented myself as and as the designer. Now I see and feel myself as one a designer part of a community that builds my environment around that. I am a designer, an exhibitor, a communicator, an educator, a transformer and most of all I am a designer who takes responsibility.
Design to me is understanding what the world is lacking and what we have visitors on this planet can improve. We need to work with nature as co-creators with the technologies that we have created in a way to make co-creating efficient. As a designer we can lay the foundations for a more symbiotic engagement with nature.
As Neri Oxman Quoted
“We must reorient ourselves with the natural environment, or else perish.”
We have mager weak signals in our world at the moment but the weak signal which seems to not be quite a priority to our leading governance is the climate crises. I can't come to terms on how behind we are in implementing design strategies to start coming back from the catastrophic.
While reading the book The future we choose I couldn’t help to think if I will be a designer for the future I choose or the future that is disposed onto me. As of now I am design for the future that I would like to live in, co-creation and co-inhabitants learning how to live with nature and not push nature away from us, as humans and nature are one and we need to live in perfect harmony to live in a plant that will not be dying because of our greed and ignorance.
Designers, as I said before, have a responsibility to make this a personal obligation to make sure we design in the benefits of the plants' well being and not add more to our anthropocene geological state.
Design is a combination of creativity and responsibility is the the merging of both technological and radical approaches, it is the movement growth of everything. Design can be a number of different processes and interventions but it could just be an idea, a conversation and much more. Design could be me sitting here writing this text to someone observing me. Design is in everything that we do and see design is a collective intervention with everything around you.
This journey as a designer has made me understand that this is a more realistic approach to understanding what I wanted to give a purpose to. My purpose will keep on changing and I have come to terms with the fact that not all processes will come to the end goal I would like them to. However, I have learnt that creating a community will give opportunities for others to take on the process from where I left off.
The next steps in my design process took me a long time to understand where and what I wanted to get out of it. I was feeling extraming frustrated with what I was doing in the past in reference to the product I was analysing to understand the waste I was using and how to minimise it on the schedule I was having. I wanted to go down a different path of how to tackle the situation. I wanted to create a process on how to tackle this situation more effectively as hitting the big corporations will only be a fight I will take too long to win or never see an outcome . So I would like to tackle it in a way where individuals will take the initiative on owning their own waste. This is something that that I have been trying to do and trying to understand on how to give a second life to these products.
I wanted first to see how I personally would do it, I wanted to see what in my everyday life I could easily get rid of the waste I am using. This would have to be a process that could be done on a small scale where it could turn into something useful for the constituent. Could it be a section in the kitchen like in a representative form as an appliance. Or would it need to be exhibited to see how it would be? I personally would like to have it displayed on me as I like the idea of being a consumer in both ways.
This is why I want to start observing different types of algae, bacteria, fungi and more. I want to understand how I as an exhibitor to our environment could work simultaneously with these organisms. I want to see how we can design with these organisms to help them flourish in the way they were meant to.
These are steps I will be discovering from now on. I want to see how my trashy life can turn into a radical way of processing ourselves into a more natural state in the future, while still understanding the new and ever improving technologies.
The purpose of discovering how humans, design, urban spaces and architecture could work together to replenish the environment's state of wellbeing. We have many different weak signals in this day and age, one of the biggest weak signals just imploded this past week, the Russian and Ukraine War making it even more hard for the big powers to focus on the real war that is upon us, the war against our climate.
The world today rests on a series of interlocking crise which are presented at different scales and different temporal and spatial resolutions. This came to be represented as the zoom in and zoom out as we do on google earth with the crises we face everyday or that will have an effect 200 years from now.
In the next billion second we as visitors on this plant need to make sure we are doing our utmost to restore the environment that we are living in to not cause further damage that will be irreversible. If not by 2100 the world will reach 3 degree hotter temperatures which will be a dystopian world that we know of today. We will be living in a world where our covid-19 tragedy will be our everyday living nightmare.
My purpose is to design processes to help with slowing down the process of these changes. Not to design for this dystopian lifestyle where we create expensive gear to leave our homes. Even though understanding concepts such as stillsuit from Dune 1965 book by Frank Herbert. Is this thought as a radical approach to arising from or going to a source. Will we design approaches such as these to living in an environment we can't live in by ourselves?
The purpose I want to follow is to create designs that start bioremediating our natural inhabitants. Using us and our built environment as a source of interventions and tools to help make this happen. Create designs that we connect and live with living this on us and in our spaces. Bio-remitating and reducing are the only ways I see fit to fully tackle this crisis we are facing.
This is a form of co-creating I would like to keep with me on my journey for the rest of my time as a designer. This journey will keep on evolving and transpiring which I hope you as my exhibitor will understand and even join me on.
The floating Fab Lab in the Amazon are following a model of physical, digital and community for co-creating and developing solution soliy on the amazon. They are developing a new regenerative and collaborative model based on the creation of value from the abundance of genetic information on biodiversity and by strengthening the capacities of the local population.
As designers we need to find approaches such as these to help the environment who is screaming out loud but so one is listening but we are, we are here to help and this is our purpose for being here.
Neri Oxman is the leading hybrid profile that is designing with this approach which she called Material Ecology which is a design philosophy, research area, and scientific approach that explores, informs, and expresses interrelationships between the built, the grown, and the augmented.
The documentary called naturexhumanity by Neri Oxamans team is about the critical intersection of when the mass produced by humans anthropomass has become larger than all of the living biomass on our planet. They are imagining a world where one day material ecologies will blur the line between human made and nature grown elements. In this documentary they show five tenets for these new material ecology, glass, polymer, fiber, pigments and cellular solids.
Their approach of growing rather than assembling gives different meanings to what the build environment could or should be. The ability to design with living matters rather for the living matters.
“From climate change to space exploration, the field of Material Ecology presents new opportunities for design and construction that are inspired, informed, and engineered by, for, and with Nature.”
Oxman
I would like to think we are all collaborators in everything that is created and that design of subsistence is co-created through being the exhibitors. We are the constituents to our environment and we need to take responsibility for that.
Do you find yourself thinking about how you have affected the process and the design of a subject? The results of a certain design could have been different if you weren’t in the right place at the right time. Just think about all the times you made a comment, a suggestion, a counter argument. These tools we have learned to communicate as children, which we still use for our everyday purpose now.
This is how I feel about design and where I am now, I never found myself more interested in the field of design and the build environment till I found myself trying to understand co-creating with nature. Nature has been here on this planet before humans walked all over it and it will be here long after the 6th extension.
With all these new ecologies that we are learn, creating and doing i feel as though my purpose could be achieve in these evergrothing technologies and radical ideologies, going back to the basics and understanding how we can using such tool as the distributed design network and fablac cities worldwide to understand fully on how to achieve these goals in our environment. I have come to the understanding of starting small and implementing and influencing people around me to create a community that can flourish and grow. I myself have linked up with a community here in Barcelona called the Demingo Club, who grow their own tempeh but what is interesting is that I discovered that I could use the same set-up to grow bacteria. Which is in the process of being made.
Design has a lot of possibilities to it, it can be an outcome of many different issues. But my issue and purpose is to create this hybrid living and to see how we could reduce the amount of damage that we have done to the environment and to see how we can bioremediate through living organisms. This is what I have been trying to understand on how to do it and how we can create it in a simple way for people to replicate.
To conclude I understand that these processes take time and lots of background knowledge on how to adapt to everyday life but I do feel as though with collaboration with different skilled people we could and would come up with great creations that will benefit us, our civilization and the future generations to come.
Identity is a strange concept as I feel as though I can’t fully put myself in a class as my journey as a designer is one that keeps on changing and I would say that is the unique thing about me. I have learned to understand new skills of how to think beyond design but also live and implement design in my everyday life. I never thought I would see designs from this new lens. I never thought that design could be what I see now. What I see now is not what you can see and experience because that journey is yours to discover and take. You may know what design is and what the purpose it may give you. However, would you be able to describe what it means to me and the way I experience it?
Coming from an architecture background design comes to me in small and big details. I personally think design is a term for creation of a product or process.
I want to believe and understand design in reference to a story, during our future talks with Ron Wakkary we read out his texts from his new book, which was written in a story telling way. This was an interesting addition to me on how I view design. I would like in the future to start creating narratives to my design process.
knowledge has led me to believe that I have become one, before this I was two different people: the person I presented myself as and as the designer. Now I see and feel myself as one a designer part of a community that builds my environment around that. I am a designer, an exhibitor, a communicator, an educator, a transformer and most of all I am a designer who takes responsibility.
To me I would like to understand what the world is lacking and what we have visitors on this planet can improve. We need to work with nature as co-creators with the technologies that we have created in a way to make co-creating efficient. As a designer we can lay the foundations for a more symbiotic engagement with nature.
We have mager weak signals in our world at the moment but the weak signal which seems to not be quite a priority to our leading governance is the climate crises. I can't come to terms on how behind we are in implementing design strategies to start coming back from the catastrophic.
During the first trimester I did a task of living with my own waste for 24hs. By doing this I tapped the waste into my body and I understood what I wanted to consume and throw away. Through this year I want to understand what people throw away in their household. When tackling domestic waste one can reuse more of the items that are thrown away. Through my fight I want to create an understanding on how our domestic waste can be reused into new product life. I want to understand how much plastic is consumed in a household.
This task made me realise there are a few people out there who are designing in this first person perspective way. The first future talks we had was with Audrey Desjardins, Audrey is an Interaction Design Researcher and Educator who practices her theories at Studio Tilt which is her own design company and University of Washington.Audrey spoke to us about her experiences with first person perspective practices. She used design as a mode of inquirer and to articulate questions. She gave us some examples of how she used this method. She used this to propose alternatives and to provoke reflection in design research.She discussed and explained to us her thesis project which till this day is a never ending journey. The title of the paper she wrote is called Living In A Prototype. This research was a two year first experience autobiographical design project of converting a Mercedes Sprinter van into a camper van.
After doing this project for myself, I found it to be overwhelming in seeing all the waste I do produce and then thinking about all the waste that was getting disposed of incorrectly every second made me not want to work anymore and I got into a very bad mindset.
During this turmoil in my mind we had a walk with Saul Baeza, Saul was a very interesting speaker. He was the second speaker from the future talks that I felt a good connection with. The passion he had for his work was very nice and I got inspired by the depth he went into with testing the design he had. He spoke about the end of a project life and how I was feeling the same way in this situation and that it was fine to end the project where it is as it might have been the end of the project's life. It might be that I would see to this project later on in the future but for now it was not giving me any purpose.
The next steps in my design process is that I wanted to go down a different path of how to tackle the situation. I wanted to create a process on how to tackle this situation more effectively as hitting the big corporations will only be a fight I will take too long to win or never see an outcome . So I would like to tackle it in a way where individuals will take the initiative on owning their own waste. This is something that that I have been trying to do and trying to understand on how to give a second life to these products.
I wanted first to see how I personally would do it, I wanted to see what in my everyday life I could easily get rid of the waste I am using. This would have to be a process that could be done on a small scale where it could turn into something useful for the constituent. Could it be a section in the kitchen like in a representative form as an appliance. Or would it need to be exhibited to see how it would be? I personally would like to have it displayed on me as I like the idea of being a consumer in both ways.
My purpose is to design processes to help with slowing down the process of these changes. Not to design for this dystopian lifestyle where we create expensive gear to leave our homes. Even though understanding concepts such as stillsuit from Dune 1965 book by Frank Herbert. Is this thought as a radical approach to arising from or going to a source. Will we design approaches such as these to living in an environment we can't live in by ourselves?
The purpose I want to follow is to create designs that start bioremediating our natural inhabitants. Using us and our built environment as a source of interventions and tools to help make this happen. Create designs that we connect and live with living this on us and in our spaces. Bio-remitating and reducing are the only ways I see fit to fully tackle this crisis we are facing.
This is a form of co-creating I would like to keep with me on my journey for the rest of my time as a designer. This journey will keep on evolving and transpiring which I hope you as my exhibitor will understand and even join me on.
The ethical decisions of architfial reefs and how they will affect the future we choose.
The Reef.ish Project
By Philippa Formosa
For my final project I dove deep into the world of Artificial Reefs, I am working on 3D printed artifacts that can be placed into the oceans and sea to bioremediate hypoxia through algae and bacteria, while also allowing this artifacts turn into coral and bring sea life back to dead zones in our environment.
We are in 2032 and the project was launched into the mediterranean first around seven years ago, with a success rate of 130%. This led to having the project being launched into fourteen different zones around the world. The first three years were trial stages, we had to test out a number of different algae and bacteria that would work and not invade the natural environment and take over the still living organisms.
The solution I would say is still very young in age and will develop and grow as it helps the development of the restoration and recovery of the areas that got threatened by the Anthropocene. The solution merges with the already existing environments and this will become a holistic solution to our dead seabed problems. We are starting to see marine life that were once in the same areas coming back. We have also tested that the heat of the ocean and sea are lowering the degrees in the areas that have these artifacts, this is helping the slowing down of ocean bleaching.
As a company we are seeing more NEO’s similar to ours pop up around the world through our open source platforms. We are helping each other develop new concepts that will improve the wellbeing of our marine life. The marine forests are helping combat the rising of Co2 levels in double the amount of speed as our land forests. “Seagrasses play a large role in regulating ocean environments, storing more than twice as much carbon from planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) per square mile as forests do on land, according to a 2012 study in the journal Nature Geoscience.”
During this project we have seen a number of different actors play a toll in how the process of this project moved forward. Different organisations, humans and non humans are all involved with making this project stay afloat. The project would have not survived if the people who were involved didn’t believe in the project. We had policy-maker, designers, service providers, AI systems, citizens and sciences.
Coming back to the beginning in 2022, this design project was based on climate change and the re-growing of ecosystems. My values have changed from this master program into what I know today. I come from an architectural background, and from my experience through work and practice I have noticed that people in industry don’t have the budget or resources to manage or fully understand what to do with the waste that is created or use the waste we have around to develop better systems. The key element for entering this masters was that I needed to find an industry that surrounded my ethical values.
Before starting this venture into this utopian program I read the book Wasted by Katie Treggiden when she speaks about trash turning into our golden treasure. This book inspired me to delve deep into materiality and how products, buildings and food were made. Treggiden states that trash is our golden Treasure and I sure believe in this. I refer to this book as all the projects that are based in this book have very similar moral values to what I am trying to learn and create a project around. The values in this project are honesty, community, sustainability, trust and creativity.
These values are hard to commit to, as throughout the process of this project, the resources and energy used was not accounted for. We created all kinds of different scenarios so that this project could come into a reality. This is a conflict throughout any start of a process in which the direction it was taking was unclear and the accountability of this project could happen once it is one its feet. This could be done by listing down all the resources, time and energy spent. Could this be a way forward? Could we have a timeline? During this project I created a number of smaller projects that were done with a group of people. Each project is still ongoing so for that I am happy that the resources we used are still valid, we do have some hiccups on the way but all in all we managed to create systems with little amounts of waste.
Designing systems for a future that we are choosing is hard in this day and age. We have a choice as humans to make decisions based on what our ethics are, the ethics of each person is different and one can’t say that my ethics are not right as it is an objective topic. But we as humans all know that the ethical decision to help our environment from the changes that are happening is not a choice anymore. Is it ethical that we don’t have these choices to create new ventures?
Intervention 1
Co-creating in its nature has a number of different factors that play in it, designing with organisms for other organisms has many challenges as it is a non-human identity. During the final few months of MDEF I started to create a project called Reef.ish. This project is about artificial reefs that can act as a bioremediation boom that will enter into our sea and ocean.
This project came about after our research trip to Mallorca. Mallorca was a trip that helped me reconnect with my past and my present self. During the last term I was finding it difficult to see where I was heading in both my project and my life after this matters. But Mallorace brought me this clarity, I was brought back to playing with sea grass on the sandy beaches and treasure hunting for the most beautiful seashells. This made me remember the love I had for the sea and it also made me remember all the plastic and waste that gets dumped into it. This made me realise that all the steps I have taken during this masters is leading to this final project I wanted to do, creating artificial reefs that counter attack the damage us humans have caused.
During this term I have created links with a number of different communities from different parts of the world. I got in contact with these communities as they all happen to be Maltese and as us Maltese people we link to help each other out.
Understanding The Inhabitants
Andrew Schembri - CEO Of An eNGO Zibel
My first conversation about me trying to understand the marine inhabitants at the beginning of the year was with Andrew. Andrew is the CEO of Zibel which is an NGO based in Malta that started in 2017 where their aim is to reduce the overall waste in the Maltese Islands. They as an organisation focus on cleaning the environment, educating the genteal public, creating civic pride and a sustainable lifestyle. They work in a small team of mostly in their twenties and each year the ages of their community keep on getting younger and younger. They as an organisation keep trying to rebrand their idea of waste. They have a number of different sponsors as an eNGO from local small companies to government official companies.
During my conversation with Andrew we spoke about a number of different topics, the ones that interested me the most was;
1.What was the most common waste that is found in the sea?
2.The idea that the government has to do land reclamation?
3.How can new technologies help with our changing environment?
Andrew had a few funny stories about what they found during the cleaning up. One that stuck with me for a while was about a construction site as I could relate to the amount of waste that could be produced. Andrew and his team were called in to help with a clean up just off a cliff, where a whole house was gutted and thrown over. The construction workers hadn’t gotten rid of this waste properly when it was collected, so the waste was thrown over a cliff and destroyed the natural environment around that. During the last five years the plastic bottles are the most common item that is found on the coast, they find Maltese and forienge brands too. The forienge brands come as Maltas is in a position right in the centre of the Mediterranean and in this area we get a lot of currents from north, south, east and west coming, dragging all the waste from the different countries around us. Andrew stated that they are hard to find when they do drone check ups around the island as they are transparent and all the shine is colour but once you are on the rocks by the coast they are everywhere. Foam is the second thing that is commonly found, this material is even harder to find as at first it looks like rocks as the material doesn’t keep its crisp white colour but changes to a muted yellow. The third item they find are cigarettes “they are everywhere” - Andrew. When they do port clean ups where we have our main port called The Grand Harbour which has been in active use for over 2000 years, they find mostly tires as people use them as fenders to protect the boats.
Andrew mentioned that the Maltese government had a master plan to reclaim land from construction waste, which is very debatable. This plan could ruin ecosystems that are already growing there and the construction waste that is being put there will start leaking out chemicals that will ruin the systems there.
Andrew and I to end the discussion started talking about the new technologies we are both becoming interested in NTF’s. He was speaking about projects that are very close to what Busi is doing, creating NTF’s to help save endangered species. One needs to find loopholes in creating reasons for these concepts to give incentives for our natural environment and not over virtual ones.
Michael Magri Overend - Independent Consultant and Project Manager at Revolution Offshore Wind Farm (US) at Orsted
My second conversation where I am trying to understand our marine inhabitants was with Micheal who has been working in the industry for over 8 years in wind energy.
The company he works for creates offshore wind farms around different coasts in europe. During this conversation I mainly wanted to understand the way that the company feels about interesting forgine objects into the ocean that could ruin the ecosystems that are being placed there. I wanted to know what the ethical decision would be for me to create such disruption. Micheal stated that most of the sea bed is dead in the mediterranean especially in Malta where I personally could also vouch for that as I have been scuba diving for years now and all you see is white sea beds that are covered in construction waste. So we concluded with this conversation that yes we are in a crucial time and that ethics come into play if the ecosystem is thriving, but in most cases it is just struggling and any solution that is trying to save the little marine life we have left is a plus.
Karl Attard - Assistant Professor at Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS)
My third conversation was with Karl Attard who is an assistant professor at the Danish Institute for advanced studies, he specialises in the restoration and protection of sea grass. During this conversation Karl introduced me to different articles about the different approaches of rejuvenating coral and non coral reefs. One topic we discussed was about changing the DNA of coral, as there were new studies shown in a section of the red sea, the Gulf of Aqaba of different species of coal surviving. The theory goes that the species over thousands of years moved to this area which to cross they had to pass through very shallow waters. They think that this made them survive the hot sea temperatures. Therefore they wonder if they change the DNA over other coral species they might have the same resilience.
During the conversation we spoke about the ethics behind these transformations and how some scientists don’t agree with changing the inhabitants and DNA of these species as they are animals but some fully agree with doing these alterations to try and save what we are losing. Karl said that they find his research easier to conduct as they are not animals and the heads of states aren’t as strict with change in this way. We also discussed how if this theory could work out, how one could follow up with the research. They always have a group of divers that go and study the surrounding environment to see how it is developing. They first take drones to the area to see the patches of sea changing, then send divers down to see it in detail.
Some Information from the sent articles;
Could the Red Sea's heat-resilient corals help restore the world's dying reefs?
14% of the world's coral reefs were lost in less than a decade, this was found in a recent study. Since the 1950’s the global coral reefs cover has halved due to the global heating, pollution and habitat destruction.
"We found that the corals in Aqaba could withstand temperatures far above the summer maximum of 27 degrees [Celsius]," said Moaz Fine, who is a professor in marine biology at The Interuniversity ch on coral heat-resilience at The Interuniversity, who is leading the research on coral head-resilience.
Coral reefs are among one of the most diverse inhabitants in the world, statistics show that around 25% of all marine species live in or around coral reefs. Coral reefs also secure the livelihood of voer 500 million people worldwide by producing food, medicines and protecting shorelines.
(“What is a coral reef made of?”,2022)
Bionic 3D printed corals
This article was about development of 3D painting bionic corals that has the capability of growing microalgae with spatial cell densities. The material that was used, mimicked the morphology features of living coral tissues. This is a hybrid photosynthetic biomaterial which is produced with 3D bioprinting platforms.The animal tissue which hosts microalgae is built upon a calcium Carbonate skeleton, and was found in all different coral as a characterised. (Wangpraseurt et al. 2020)
Enhancing the heat tolerance of reef-building corals to future warming
During this article it was shown that coral from the hottest reefs in the world can transfer sufficient head tolerance to naive populations sufficient to withstand the end of century warming projections. The reef-building corals in extreme thermal conditions could provide genetic variation that will allow the evolution of the species population to rapid climate warming.
(HOWELLS et al. 2021)
Designing Artifacts that bioremediate - Reef.ish
Through these discussions I was designing with help from the Fab Lab Team Eduardo to create Artificial Reefs.
The Physical design of these artefacts were taken from regenerative design studies of different typography found in our waters. With help of different techniques I have created four different types of designs through grasshopper to create these artacts. I have done a number of tests for the structure to hold during clay printing and understand the different geometry at different scales. The main material for these structures will be made of calcium carbonate which is essentially eggshells. This is being done with this material as real coral reefs are made out of thin layers of calcium carbonate.
“Stony corals (or scleractinians) are the corals primarily responsible for laying the foundations of, and building up, reef structures. Massive reef structures are formed when each individual stony coral organism—or polyp—secretes a skeleton of calcium carbonate.” (“What is a coral reef made of?”,2021)
This process is enhancing circular design strategies in combination with computational and regenerative design methods that are supported by digital fabrication techniques. Throughout the process I have used a traditional plastic printer, a past printer and a robotic arm. This design solution could create a solution for the design and construction of artificial reefs in local fab labs or maker spaces. These are human centric design artefacts that are mimicking characteristics of non-human organisms in the marine environment. These reefs will become part of the new enhabtance and will have little to no damage as it is being made out of natural materials already found in these locations.
Advantages of having these artificial reef creation are increase of marine life biodiversity in coastal areas with featureless bottoms by creating habitats for different marine and stimulation of local economies by drawing more divers’ tourism as well as preventing illegal fishing (i.e. trowelling). (Topotheque, 2020)
During the research process I found a case study done by a design firm called Topotheque based in the US and Greece. They did a research project based on a very similar topic to what I am trying to create. They created these sutures in collaboration with Sustainable Ventures to research and experiment with different geometric configurations. This research and design process was done through “Interreg” which is a program funded by the EU. This program was implemented to create innovative solutions for small scale companies to support sustainable solutions to work with the forefront of emerging technologies.
The project that was done, created an open source parametric design of building blocks that changed in the size and details which could be combined in different ways in order to create aggregate structures.
These are points the emphasis on;
1.Developing a bio-inspired design method which allows the adaptation of the form and texture based on the context (a requirement put forward by marine biologists)
2.Being able to fabricate the blocks with infrastructure and means that exist locally.
3.Distilling the basic design parameter and creating a web-based platform/tool; that can generate different 3D aggregate structures based on specific circumstances, create fabrication files, and produce assembly instructions necessary to guide a group of fishermen and/or divers with no prior experience for constructing it.
The initial stages of this project were worked in close collaboration with different disciplines such as marine biologists and economists. This was done so that the project was validated through its design, fabrication and testing stages.
Through this research finding I feel hopeful that my project could succeed and fully get implemented into a system. I would say that this company that was just mentioned has very similar ethical understandings that I do. How my project would work differently is that I would like to add some more microorganisms to it. Such as Chlorella that is a micro algae and bacteria Ideonella sakaiensis. These two microorganisms will be in a form of a hydrogel that will cover the artefact which you can see an example of in the image below. These microorganisms that will live inside the hydrogel will discharge at a slow rate to bioremediate the surrounding before the calcium carbonate can start regrowing the new eco systems.
Intervention 2
Designing Urban Systems Through A Child's Perspective In Collaboration With Borka And Montessori School Barcelona.
During this past year I have been hoping in and out of the education group of this masters as on one hand I believe that education is the key tool into changing the future and on the other hand I wanted to spend my time in this masters understanding the systems that I believe could change our natural environment.
Therefore when the opportunity arisesed to collaborate with Borka In these workshops at Montessori School it was a no brainer. Collectively we created five different workshops that helped support both our topics. Each workshop had a goal and purpose to gain from, as we were creating a system which in the final output we will have the children of the Montessori School Design their new Urban Environment of their new school’s garden.
Workshop 1
The first workshop was hosted by Borka and I helped facilitate the workshop, creating a goal to start off this program with getting to know each other and start to study together about the topics of spatial awareness . During this workshop Borka wanted to understand how aware are the children of their surroundings, so she had some worksheets prepared for the children for them to draw with pens, sculpt with air drying clay or even pin laser cut symbols of their journey from home to school or school to home. This was a very interesting challenge for the children we could analyse through these artefacts the different ways the children see their environment around them.
After this was done through memory we gave the children a task to do in the week to come to take a new sheet home and for them to not draw from memory but to draw what you see in that space. During the session each child had the opportunity to take a polaroid photo of what they created in the workshop, so that when they were on the way home they could check to see if what they drew was correct or not. This will give them the opportunity to become more aware of what is around them. In the images below I will be presenting the outcome.
Workshop 2
The second workshop was created by myself and Borka helped facilitate the workshop. I created a workshop to make the children understand the different materials naturel can give us. During this workshop we wanted the children to understand the space they would be designing and to see the natural state it is in before the renovations take place. We asked the children to map out the whole space and to draw out the most important elements in the space. This was done to show the schools landscape architect what the children resonated with within the area and what could possibly be moved. During the outing I asked each child to take one item from the garden back to the classroom so that they could see potential items made out of it. Each child had to explain during the last half an hour what each item could potentially be, or turn into.
We gave them 2 tasks that week for them to do and ideate for the next workshops. The first one was to create a story about the visit to the garden, what they would like to have in the garden, what things should be made out of and how they would like to visit the garden in the future. The second homework was to look at different items you use everyday and see what they are made of and try and understand if they could be made from something else, such as the waste in their parents organic bin. In the images below I will be presenting the outcome.
Workshop 3
The third workshop was created through a sensory game, during fab challenge 4. Borka and I teamed up with Didac to create a sensor ball to detect movement, touch and sound. During this workshop Borka, Didac and I came up with the concept that through the data that we collect from this sensor ball, we could create a drawing that could lead up to the opportunity to object and spaces from the participants that are using this ball. Therefore during this workshop we wanted children to use the ball and move around the space that we are co designing. We added different textures that possibly could be used in the space. We will detect the popularity of the different materials by how many times it got touched or for how long each material was touched. Unfortunately at the last minute the sensors stopped working and we didn’t have the sensor ball active so the data could not be collected virtually but a group discussion.
We gave the children one task to do until we meet again, and created a worksheet on how their future looks in the future. We asked them two questions: Where will we live in 50 years? How will our city change in the future? We wanted them to look at these questions from four different perspectives, people, technologies, natural life and mobility. In the images below I will be presenting the outcome.
Workshop 4
The Fourth workshop Borka had to host alone as I could not make it, but before she went we planned out the whole workshop. We needed to use the sensing ball to create the data of what we have been asablitioning with the children at Montessori. During this workshop Borka took the children round to 4 different spaces in the room. Within each space a few children were asked to move in the spaces. These movements created drawings for Borka to use later on in her own intervention. For my data collection I tried to finger out through material sensors which material the children resonated with the most. The materials that were established with the Biomaterial with spirulina and the wooden material. During the session they had a class exercise where the children, through all the tools we supplied them with in the past weeks, had to co-create their new garden. This was done on a map, where they could draw and add past projects, anything that would fit could be added.
After this workshop we gave the children the task of what they understood from the sensor ball and from the shapes they created from the sensing ball to come up with an idea of their own. This task was created to evaluate the understanding of the children's awareness of what we have been doing in the past 4 sessions.
Workshop 5
For the final workshop with Montessori we are planning to do it during MDEFest and bring the children to FAB LAB to host a building fair/workshop for them. We want to create a display to hang the process they have gone through and what they created through the workshops. We would like to show them the machines and how these projects were built. For the final output Borka is creating a 2 step game where the children will be able to build their own items. For my final output I would like to see how much they understood about the consciousness of using materials and what one should and should not buy. I will show them some joints that could be made out of Growlay and give them all an item so that they can plant it at home.
This hopefully comes off as a good result in creating awareness in our different communities.
Alternative Present
During this masters program we are all speaking about spectualive design processes, this sometimes could make it hard for us to fully understand on how to bring these radical ideas to life. Creating an alternative present helps bridge the gap between the reality and no reality of these projects.
The ethical decisions of architfial reefs and how they will affect the future we choose.
We are in 2032 and the project was launched into the mediterranean first around seven years ago, with a success rate of 130%. This led to having the project being launched into fourteen different zones around the world. The first three years were trial stages, we had to test out a number of different algae and bacteria that would work and not invade the natural environment and take over the still living organisms.
The solution I would say is still very young in age and will develop and grow as it helps the development of the restoration and recovery of the areas that got threatened by the Anthropocene. The solution merges with the already existing environments and this will become a holistic solution to our dead seabed problems. We are starting to see marine life that were once in the same areas coming back. We have also tested that the heat of the ocean and sea are lowering the degrees in the areas that have these artifacts, this is helping the slowing down of ocean bleaching.
As a company we are seeing more NEO’s similar to ours pop up around the world through our open source platforms. We are helping each other develop new concepts that will improve the wellbeing of our marine life. The marine forests are helping combat the rising of Co2 levels in double the amount of speed as our land forests. “Seagrasses play a large role in regulating ocean environments, storing more than twice as much carbon from planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) per square mile as forests do on land, according to a 2012 study in the journal Nature Geoscience.”
During this project we have seen a number of different actors play a toll in how the process of this project moved forward. Different organisations, humans and non humans are all involved with making this project stay afloat. The project would have not survived if the people who were involved didn’t believe in the project. We had policy-maker, designers, service providers, AI systems, citizens and sciences.
Coming back to the beginning in 2022, this design project was based on climate change and the re-growing of ecosystems. My values have changed from this master program into what I know today. I come from an architectural background, and from my experience through work and practice I have noticed that people in industry don’t have the budget or resources to manage or fully understand what to do with the waste that is created or use the waste we have around to develop better systems. The key element for entering this masters was that I needed to find an industry that surrounded my ethical values.
Before starting this venture into this utopian program I read the book Wasted by Katie Treggiden when she speaks about trash turning into our golden treasure. This book inspired me to delve deep into materiality and how products, buildings and food were made. Treggiden states that trash is our golden Treasure and I sure believe in this. I refer to this book as all the projects that are based in this book have very similar moral values to what I am trying to learn and create a project around. The values in this project are honesty, community, sustainability, trust and creativity.
These values are hard to commit to, as throughout the process of this project, the resources and energy used was not accounted for. We created all kinds of different scenarios so that this project could come into a reality. This is a conflict throughout any start of a process in which the direction it was taking was unclear and the accountability of this project could happen once it is one its feet. This could be done by listing down all the resources, time and energy spent. Could this be a way forward? Could we have a timeline? During this project I created a number of smaller projects that were done with a group of people. Each project is still ongoing so for that I am happy that the resources we used are still valid, we do have some hiccups on the way but all in all we managed to create systems with little amounts of waste.
Designing systems for a future that we are choosing is hard in this day and age. We have a choice as humans to make decisions based on what our ethics are, the ethics of each person is different and one can’t say that my ethics are not right as it is an objective topic. But we as humans all know that the ethical decision to help our environment from the changes that are happening is not a choice anymore. Is it ethical that we don’t have these choices to create new ventures?
How Weak Signals and Design Interventions have parallel realities
The weak signals we see in today's world have a number of subcategories or controversial remarks to them. What I see as my weak signal could be an opportunity for others.
Throughout my design intervention I have stuck to somewhat similar weak signals such as, climate conscience, rural futures, co-creating, cities, design for social innovation and many more. All these weak signals could have a parallel reality such as rural futures could be in parallel to technocentric environments future. Therefore if this is the case then more of my design interventions could be explained in a parallel reality to what I am trying to communicate.
A Trashy Human
For 24h I as a human was the enemy of trash, I as a human created bins, trash disposals and mountains of trash. Trash is just material made from humans that humans dispose of. Do we as humans ever think of how our trash feels the way we consume or get rid of it?
During this 24h the trash analysed me it sat with me it ate with me it walked with me it went to bed with me. The trash during the day carried the weight of the human, trying to show the other trash in the community on how humans can affect the environment of the trash. Humans look down on the trash that they themself created and this weight is felt on the trashy. During this 24h I as a human had felt the weight of the trash and how trash doesn’t want to be on this earth. Trash from the humans perspective is looked at in the most terrible ways and since I was worn by the trash I saw the way humans looked at the trash and tried to understand the trash and see how we could create a better life for this trash.
The Eden of Materials
Biomaterials were the first materials that humans used. For the birth of humanity in the garden of eden, Eve found a bio material on a tree to wrap herself up with as it was a sin to walk around naked. These materials at the time were a good source for them as all they had were beautiful fruits and leaves.
Unfortunately the bio materials couldn’t withstand the strength of the human body when it moved around, this caused the bio materials to rip and Eve in the garden of eden ended up becoming naked, which created a sin. This is when the birth of artificial
materials was born, such as Polyester, Acrylic and Nylon. These new artificial materials helped people stop sinning in everyday motion.
The Bio That Didn’t Remediate
During the 2050’s we were living in a world full of green envelopes that was helping out ecosystems to grow with the strength of bioremediation. Bioremediation at its time was a great invention and the way it was used around the cities, oceans and landscapes helped the rapid rate of extinction to slow down.
During this system changeling the humans of the 2050 century realised that some organisms were dying, including animals that were important to this ecosystem. The scientists of this era had no idea why this was happening as they all have the same symptoms of death.
After many studies they realised that what was helping with the remediation of the pollutants and plastics, actually was causing other organisms to die at a much slower rate then it could have been detected. This meant that the organism we used to combat the death of our planet was actually killing us instead.
The Adults Who Didn’t Have A Voice.
In a world where children were the ones who have a better understanding of our surroundings and as adults we had to follow what was said by the children everyday. This world would be run by children, where adults could not speak or give comments. This made us live in a more peaceful and harmonious place where war and corruption was written in the history book. The fact that adults didn’t have a voice anymore we went back to the life of the radical past such as Caesar did in Planet of the apes.
The Presents
Looking into the alternative presents for my different projects helped me understand and develop these projects into a more realistic understanding. This meant that I was looking at the project from an outside view and trying to see the different outcome for it to have. This helped me understand what could be my plan A, B or C if the research was going wrong.
Designing yourself out
How much do you own of your vision?
This is a question I find hard to answer, like all questions lectures during the masters asked. I find that my vision is my own but not necessarily all, as I have been influenced and surrounded by some many different people that my vision, I feel is a collective one. In the beginning of the year we had to reflect on our fight - AKA our vision throughout this masters. But now sitting here writing this in my last 2 weeks of this master I look at my vision in a collective way. We have become so familiar with each and everyone's projects that I feel our vision and mission are all aling in one big goal.
What is important to keep close to you?
What I find important to keep close is the communities I am working with.
Who should you involve to scale up?
The different communities I have come across from the first to the last intervention as they all have played a role in making this project what it is today.
