BGuthrie Photos: NY -- NYC -- Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum -- Exhibit: Nature -- Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial

NY -- NYC -- Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum -- Exhibit: Nature -- Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Nature -- Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial
May 10, 2019 – January 20, 2020
Nature addresses the ways designers are exploring sustainable production methods, identifying new ways for protecting future generations, and deepening the understanding of, and relationship with, nature. Areas of innovation include synthetic biology, data visualization, urban agriculture, and alternative materials research.
The exhibition is co-organized with the Cube design museum in Kerkrade, Netherlands, and opens simultaneously at both museums.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CHNAT_190827_001.JPG: Curiosity Cloud, 2015–2019 Designed by Katharina Mischer Each bulb in this immersive installation contains a hand-fabricated replica of a different insect, many from New York and the surrounding area. Some species are found commonly in nature, others are endangered or extinct, and still others are invasive. Curiosity Cloud unites species of insects that would never coexist in the natural world. Moving through the installation activates the insects to flutter within their bulbs, facilitating a dialogue with nature.
2. CHNAT_190827_045.JPG: Nature -- Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial
3. CHNAT_190827_050.JPG: Designers are collaborating with nature, forging meaningful connections between humanity and the Earth. Their work is inspired by and intertwined with nature like never before, reflective of our transforming relationship to the natural world. Compelled by a sense of urgency, designers look to nature as a guide and partner. With projects ranging from experimental prototypes to consumer products, immersive installations, and architectural constructions, Nature-Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, co-organized with Cube design museum, presents the work of sixty-two international design teams. Collaborations involve scientists, engineers, advocates for social and environmental justice, artists, and philosophers. They are engaging with nature in innovative and ground-breaking ways, driven by a profound awareness of climate change and ecological crises as much as advances in science and technology. The exhibition themes explore seven strategies that designers are using to collaborate with nature - to understand, remediate, simulate, salvage, nurture, augment, and facilitate. The outcomes are speculative or practical and reveal new material, creative methods, and inventive technologies. These provocations and solutions put forth by today's extraordinary design teams serve as encouragement for an enduring and more respectful partnership with nature.
4. CHNAT_190827_071.JPG: Understand From the microscopic to the macroscopic, the natural world is full of rich, complex processes that designers help to make more comprehensible. Harnessing new research, visualizing new and innovative streams of data, and offering experiences in the physical and digital realms, designers are providing the tools for us to better understand the wonders of nature and reestablish a reverence for its systems.
5. CHNAT_190827_081.JPG: Electron Micrographs, 2019 Designed by James C. Weaver James C. Weaver produces electron micrographs using a customized multi-detector scanning electron microscope, which scans the surface of a sample using a focused beam of high-energy electrons. The signals from each of the detectors are color-coded and subsequently recombined, creating a polychromatic electron micrograph. Unique to this process, color information is automatically generated during image acquisition, and not through manual post-processing. Variability in surface topography is revealed in a dazzling array of hues. The images shown here, of farmed coral specimens from the tropical Indo-Pacific, demonstrate the skeletal complexity of these incredibly diverse and ecologically important marine invertebrates.
6. CHNAT_190827_093.JPG: Petrified River, 2018-2019 Designed by Antón García-Abril Petrified River is a site-specific installation for the museum's garden that represents the transformation of Manhattan from wild nature to urbanized landscape. Three natural elements -- hill, river, and pond -- are the main components and are metaphors for "Mannahatta" or "island of many hills." The installation continues Ensamble Studio's fascination with structures in the landscape begun at Tippet Rise Art Center (Fishtail, Montana, USA).
7. CHNAT_190827_111.JPG: BabyLegs, 2017-2019 Designed by CLEAR (Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research) BabyLegs is an open-source, affordable monitoring tool to study marine microplastic pollution, a danger to all marine life and to communities who rely on fishing for livelihood. Created by Max Liboiron, director of CLEAR, a feminist, decolonial marine science laboratory in Newfoundland and Labrador, the trawler can be attached to a boat and dragged along the water's surface to collect microplastics for study and identification.
8. CHNAT_190827_114.JPG: Infinity Burial Suit , 2008-ongoing Designed by Coeio Inc. Jae Rhim Lee's design for a customized cotton burial suit is an alternative to current funerary options such as cremation and casket burial. The suit contains a built-in mix of proprietary materials and mycelia (fungal threads) that fruit into mushrooms. This "biomix" absorbs and eliminates toxins that are emitted from the body into the soil and aids in decomposition. -- Mourn, 2017-ongoing Designed by Nienke Hoogvliet These biodegradable funerary urns are comprised of cremation ashes and a biodegradable plastic known as PHA, which helps regulate the disintegration process of the ashes. This allows toxins in the ashes to break down gradually into less impactful components that can then be absorbed into the soil and water. Nienke Hoogvliet collaborated with the Dutch Water Authority to produce the bioplastic.
9. CHNAT_190827_131.JPG: Remediate Designers seek to rectify imbalances in our ecosystems, bringing us in closer alignment with nature. Whether developing new materials or rethinking death and burial, designers are helping to reform attitudes about the environment, rehabilitate our mental and physical well-being, and regenerate local traditions and habitats.
10. CHNAT_190827_137.JPG: Soft Robotic Grip Glove, 2015-ongoing Designed by Harvard Biodesign Lab This glove represents a new area of soft robotics in assistive devices, using flexible and lightweight materials for functionality. The glove assists individuals with limited motor skills caused by stroke, injury, or other illness. Sensors control actuators that, when activated, inflate bladders, causing the gloved hand to open, close, grasp, pinch, and hold an object.
11. CHNAT_190827_146.JPG: After Ancient Sunlight, 2018 Designed by Charlotte McCurdy For this raincoat, Charlotte McCurdy created a petroleum-free, algae-based plastic that is carbon negative. Currently, the majority of plastic materials are made from fossil fuels, or stores of carbon created by "ancient sunlight." Instead, McCurdy encourages the use of new materials that metabolize atmospheric carbon, such as quickly grown plant matter. The accompanying book and infographics document her research into the reservoirs of earth's carbon and the potential for harnessing photosynthetic productivity or "young sunlight" for meeting our material needs.
12. CHNAT_190827_164.JPG: Monarch Sanctuary, 2018-ongoing The population of the beloved monarch butterfly has drastically depleted due to susceptibility to agricultural pesticides, temperature changes, and land development. Terreform ONE's proposed 30,000-square-foot sanctuary is a vertical meadow behind a glass façade with highly regulated temperature and humidity. The model shows how the façade can provide a temporary habitat for wild monarchs.
13. CHNAT_190827_196.JPG: Fantasma, 2019 It was designed by AnotherFarm. It is dated 2019. Its medium is garment, silk worm cocoons and raw silk threads. To create Fantasma, design studio AnotherFarm collaborated with scientists who make transgenic glowing silk, engineered by injecting silkworm eggs with coral DNA to glow red. Japan's Hosoo textile manufactory wove the transgenic silk into a textile, which was used by the designers to create this garment. Put on the glasses to enhance the color of the glowing silk. It is credited "Courtesy of AnotherFarm."
14. CHNAT_190827_216.JPG: Simulate Nature is the ultimate guide. Understanding how nature works prompts a desire to emulate its properties and efficiencies. Designers are modeling systems, materials, and objects on biological structures to devise optimal forms or efficient techniques.
15. CHNAT_190827_224.JPG: Voronoi Dress, Biomimicry Collection It was designed by threeASFOUR and Travis Fitch. Its medium is ensamble (2), patterned swatches (21), video. Guided by an interest in the energy of natural forms, fashion designers threeASFOUR, in collaboration with Travis Fitch, have examined geometries rooted in nature to find new ways to wrap the human body. In translating these complex patterns into garments, the designers have used 3D printing to achieve new material possibilities in their clothing. It is credited "Courtesy of threeASFOUR in collaboration with Travis Fitch and Stratasys (Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA, founded 1989)."
16. CHNAT_190827_225.JPG: Voronoi Dress, Biomimicry Collection Designed by threeASFOUR Guided by an interest in the energy of natural forms, fashion designers threeASFOUR, in collaboration with Travis Fitch, have examined geometries rooted in nature to find new ways to wrap the human body. In translating these complex patterns into garments, the designers have used 3D printing to achieve new material possibilities in their clothing.
17. CHNAT_190827_236.JPG: 3D-Painted Hyperelastic Bone®, 2015-19 Designed by Adam E. Jakus Made from a mineral known as hydroxyapatite, a form of calcium found in bones, this 3D-printed, customizable material mimics the strength of bone while retaining flexibility and porousness. Ultimately, the Hyperplastic Bone may be used both inside and outside the body to regenerate bones and integrate existing tissues without the inflammation or immune responses often associated with implants.
18. CHNAT_190827_243.JPG: Vessel, Metamorphism, 2017-ongoing Designed by Shahar Livne As natural resources diminish and, with them, many media-specific crafting processes, Shahar Livne reframes the material impact of the 20th century's reliance on petrol-based plastics. Plastic waste, which clogs land and sea, has been undergoing geologic processes, compounding and morphing into a clay-like substance that Livne molds and shapes using traditional methods.
19. CHNAT_190827_247.JPG: Salvage One of the most remarkable aspects of nature is the lack of waste. Decomposition, scavenging, and biodegradation are some of nature's processes to maintain a closed-loop life cycle. Designers are redefining raw materials by creatively capturing and repurposing air pollution or ocean plastic, and they are developing new methods to work with non-traditional natural materials.
20. CHNAT_190827_257.JPG: Ultraboost Shoe, 2016-ongoing It was designed by adidas x Parley. It is dated 2016-ongoing. Its medium is prototype, running shoe (3), ground shoe, illegal fishing nets, stages of manufacturing: marine debris, pellet, flakes, spool of plastic thread, upholstery for benches. Parley's 3-pronged AIR strategy, Avoid -- Intercept -- Redesign, starts with the premise that plastic is a design failure and must be replaced. AIR is a call to action to deal with the saturation of plastic clogging the oceans. It is at the heart of Parley's collaboration with global sports manufacturer adidas, who has taken up the challenge of redesigning shoes using existing marine plastic waste and, ultimately, shoes that can be recycled and remade without any additional materials. It is credited "Courtesy of adidas AG and Parley for the Oceans."
21. CHNAT_190827_266.JPG: Ultraboost Shoe, 2016-ongoing Designed by adidas x Parley Parley's 3-pronged AIR strategy, Avoid -- Intercept -- Redesign, starts with the premise that plastic is a design failure and must be replaced. AIR is a call to action to deal with the saturation of plastic clogging the oceans. It is at the heart of Parley's collaboration with global sports manufacturer adidas, who has taken up the challenge of redesigning shoes using existing marine plastic waste and, ultimately, shoes that can be recycled and remade without any additional materials.
22. CHNAT_190827_286.JPG: Department of Seaweed: Living Archive, 2018-ongoing Designed by Julia Lohmann Julia Lohmann founded the Department of Seaweed in 2013, which brings together experts in design, science, and craft to experiment with the fabrication processes and material properties of seaweed. For the mask and sculpture, Lohmann stretched seaweed and combined it with rattan and aluminum rings for structural support. The woven textile and knit top by designer Violaine Buet demonstrate knitting and fringe techniques on sugar kelp. The process samples on the table show further experiments with seaweed such as lamination, pleating, gold-plating, laser cutting, dying, or embroidery, as well as combinations of seaweed with mohair, cotton thread or lurex yarn. The Department of Seaweed elevates the humble material to reshape our thinking about its possibilities.
23. CHNAT_190827_300.JPG: Latitude for Uniqueness Series, 2014-ongoing Designed by Kirstie Van Noort Porcelain is a kaolin-based ceramic celebrated for its fragile yet hard surface and iconic, milky color, ideally suited for painted decoration. Embracing the clay that is typically discarded in traditional porcelain-making processes, Kirstie Van Noort's line of porcelain tableware is distinguished by darker hues, challenging the historic emphasis on the material's light color while minimizing waste.
24. CHNAT_190827_302.JPG: Visionary Concept Tire, 2016-2019 Designed by Michelin With a form and internal structure based on coral growth, Michelin's Visionary Concept tire combines nature-inspired design with technological innovation to offer a strong, flexible, airless tire that is 3D printed and made from biologically sourced, biodegradable materials. Michelin uses nature as a model and environmental impact as a leading consideration for mobility solutions.
25. CHNAT_190827_314.JPG: ZoaTM Prototype Biofabricated Wall Panels, 2019 Designed by Modern Meadow Zoa biofabricated materials are inspired by leather and will release the designer from the material constraints of traditional leather. Future Zoa (TM) biofabricated materials will be made at scale by engineering yeast cells to produce collagen protein, the main building block of skin. This prototype suggests new possibilities for the production, performance, and function of material alternatives.
26. CHNAT_190827_318.JPG: Bionic Partition, 2016-ongoing Designed by Airbus Two nature-informed algorithms underlie the design and manufacturing of an essential airplane part: the partition separating the cabin from the galley. One mimics the growth of slime mold, an organism that efficiently connects disparate points; the other replicates the growth properties of mammal bones by removing mass where strength is not needed. The resulting partition is lightweight, strong, and made with very little waste.
27. CHNAT_190827_328.JPG: Ocean Memories, 2017 Designed by Mathieu Lehanneur Embracing the tension between solid and liquid states in nature, Mathieu Lehanneur's Ocean Memories series consists of benches and tables made of sturdy marble or heavy brass with the dynamism of the oceans' surface as its subject. Using CGI software to render lifelike undulations of waves, his pieces are machine-carved and hand-polished, reminiscent of a moment frozen in time.
28. CHNAT_190827_350.JPG: Electric Life, 2018 Designed by Teresa van Dongen This lamp is powered by electrochemically active bacteria that require regular feeding of acetate and water to survive. Inside a microbial fuel cell, bacteria emit electrical currents and exchange electrons with an electrode. The electrode powers 3 light-emitting diodes that produce a sustained, dim glow. The living lamp and its owner have a symbiotic relationship in which the lamp provides illumination, but only if the bacteria are nurtured.
29. CHNAT_190827_352.JPG: Plasticeberg, 2017 Designed by Jorge Gamboa An iceberg glistening in the sun reveals itself to be a discarded plastic bag floating just below the ocean's surface. This metaphorical image has resonated across communities and has been reproduced around the globe. Transcending linguistic boundaries, the graphic draws attention to the harsh reality that millions of tons of plastic pollute our world's water sources every year.
30. CHNAT_190827_358.JPG: Study Santa Cruz River I, 2017 Designed by Alexandra Kehayoglou Focusing on the ways changing land use affects geography, Alexandra Kehayoglou weaves monumental landscapes out of wool. She begins with drone photography, site analysis, and sketching, then utilizes discarded threads from her family's textile factory, which she dyes and weaves upon vertical frames. This carpet depicts Argentina's last free-flowing wild river, where planned hydroelectric dams may change the ecosystem irrevocably.
31. CHNAT_190827_374.JPG: FPT University Ho Chi Minh City, 2016-ongoing model, rendering Rapid urban development in Vietnamese cities has eclipsed urban greenways. Designed to suggest a growing mountain, this university building features staggered floors enclosing a park filled with trees and plants. These green elements extend from the central courtyard to the balconies, terraces, and circulation wells. The trees facilitate shade and cooling, improve air quality, and reduce the need for energy-consuming air conditioning.
32. CHNAT_190827_391.JPG: Nurture Our health is inextricably linked to the health of our planet. Some designers are fostering living organisms to provide us with light and shelter. Others are reframing the discourse around humanity's impact on Earth and challenging us to change our behavior.
33. CHNAT_190827_396.JPG: DIY Bacterial Gene Engineering CRISPR Kit, 2015-ongoing Designed by Josiah Zayner Gene engineering is the modification of an organism's characteristics by manipulating its DNA. The DIY CRISPR Kit enables users to conduct up to 5 gene engineering experiments aimed at modifying Escherichia coli DNA using the CRISPR-Cas9 system, which is briefly explained in the graphic to the left. CRISPR-Cas9 enables scientists to alter the DNA of almost any organism with incredible precision, potentially ending disease and hunger. The kit is intended as an educational tool to improve DNA literacy, expanding the number of people equipped to conduct personalized experiments. While the therapeutic results of CRISPR-Cas9 are promising, the possibilities for unintended consequences are vast.
34. CHNAT_190827_464.JPG: Augment Designers are developing materials, objects, and the built environment to enhance not just human existence but nature itself. Whereas some designers seek out the intelligence of natural materials or develop innovative methods to enhance our bodies, others raise questions and probe technological approaches to nature and life.
35. CHNAT_190827_468.JPG: Bamboo Theater, 2015-ongoing Xu Tiantian's Bamboo Theater is a living structure in a rural Chinese village. The open-air theatre consists entirely of living bamboo stalks bent and woven into a domed shape. The structure is maintained by the villagers, who remove dead bamboo and weave in young shoots as they grow.
36. CHNAT_190827_472.JPG: Remolten N°1: Revolution Series, 2016-2018 For gt2P's Santiago-based studio, Chile's volcanoes provide inspiration. The Remolten series of stools and pots are covered in a glaze made from pulverized volcanic stone that, when kiln-fired and cooled at a range of temperatures, results in various textures and colors. The Less CPP lighting series anchors the delicacy of porcelain with the resilience of dark lava. The materials' close firing temperatures bond them together.
37. CHNAT_190827_478.JPG: Bleached (II), 2018 To create the Bleached stool, Erez Nevi Pana crafts a wooden structure, covers it in loofah, and submerges it in the Dead Sea, which cannot support many life forms due to extreme salinity. Salt from the sea crystallizes and solidifies around the structure. The crystalline totem imbues salt -- once a revered mineral that now amasses in neglected white mountains in the desert -- with ornamental value.
38. CHNAT_190827_487.JPG: Eco-Engineered Hexagonal Seawall Tiles, 2017-ongoing Existing seawall barriers tend to be smooth, flat surfaces that do not foster biodiversity. Reef Design Lab's patterned seawall tiles, made for application onto existing structures, encourage colonization and growth via undulating surface patterns, helping to reestablish species and promote biodiversity. The projection mapping shows species' colonization of the tiles in three phases: early colonizers (such as barnacles and algae), mid-growth colonizers (such as sea stars and sea anemones), and late colonizers (such as oysters and fish).
39. CHNAT_190827_491.JPG: Tissue Engineered Textiles, 2015-ongoing Amy Congdon applies techniques such as embroidery and crochet to the creation of diminutive but precise physical structures that can be used to help grow living cells. These textile scaffolds facilitate tissue regeneration and have applications from fashion to medicine. Congdon is also developing new tools for use in the laboratory, like those on view here. These tools are intended to suggest alternative ways of making and enable the growth of new biological materials.
40. CHNAT_190827_497.JPG: Warka Water Tower, 2013-ongoing Made of bamboo, mesh netting, and rope, the Warka Water Tower collects potable water from dew, fog, and rain. Water accumulates on a hydrophobic mesh textile, is funneled into a holding tank, and is accessed via a tap and hose. A canopy provides shade for community gatherings. The tower is intended for use in remote areas with limited access to potable water.
41. CHNAT_190827_511.JPG: Biocement Masonry, 2017-ongoing Biocement bricks are made by mixing sand with nutrients and microorganisms. The bricks harden in a few days at room temperature, an ecologically sensitive solution to the intensive firing and carbon emissions released in traditional brick production. The biocement bricks are grown in molds in various shapes, textures, and colors, and perform like traditional bricks. bioMASON developed the process based on research into how seashells and coral grow underwater into hard, durable organisms.
42. CHNAT_190827_517.JPG: Fantasma, 2019 Designed by AnotherFarm To create Fantasma, design studio AnotherFarm collaborated with scientists who make transgenic glowing silk, engineered by injecting silkworm eggs with coral DNA to glow red. Japan's Hosoo textile manufactory wove the transgenic silk into a textile, which was used by the designers to create this garment. Put on the glasses to enhance the color of the glowing silk.
43. CHNAT_190827_524.JPG: Aguahoja II, 2017-2019 Designed by Neri Oxman Manufactured by MIT Media Lab Mediated Matter Group The Aguahoja project consists of biocomposite materials derived from shrimp shells and fallen leaves, which are augmented with natural pigments. The materials can be 3D printed and programmed to varied mechanical, optical, and olfactory properties. The structure demonstrates an architectural-scale iteration of the skin-and-shell composite. The artifacts illustrate continued research into the optical and mechanical properties of the biocomposites. The degraded samples illustrate the materials' life cycle, ultimately returning to the ecosystem. Through life and programmed decomposition, shelter-becomes-organism, providing nutrients for "growing" buildings.
44. CHNAT_190827_542.JPG: Personal Food Computer, 2018-ongoing Designed by Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg) Personal Food Computers (PFC_EDUs) pair controlled-environment agriculture with open-source data sharing. The growth chambers are inexpensive and easily deployed, ideal for educators and makers. Users control conditions in the chamber, developing and sharing "climate recipes" to optimize growth conditions for a desired phenotype (the unique physical characteristics of growing plants). The PFC_EDUs can then be programmed to run a climate recipe, allowing users around the world to grow plants to their preferences.
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