Christopher Bellamy
MA Biodesign
Central Saint Martins UAL
Graduates: 2024
Specialisms: Sustainable Design / Design Research / Material Innovation
My location: London, United Kingdom
Inspired by corals’ symbiotic relationship with microorganisms, a contemporary living material was developed that encapsulates bioluminescent micro-algae. The material lives for at least 6 months, emitting light in response to touch, and needing only sunlight in return. In collaboration with Polynesian artisans, traditional knowledge and science came together to co-create a series of artifacts which demonstrate how living materials can reconnect us to nature through intercultural and interspecies collaboration, and how biotechnology can move beyond the laboratory. A drum, a swimsuit, and a necklace were made; combining local materials and practices, with the living bioluminescent material. Like Polynesian traditional knowledge, which exists only in living memory, there is a risk that it may die. However this fragility allows it to adapt, react, and interact – which is what makes this temporal state of livingness so beautiful.
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