The undisputed master of continuous innovation
Designing a healthier relationship with nature.
Before building their first successful aircraft, the Wright brothers observed the wings of various bird species. Plastic velcro-strips were modeled after the microscopic hooks found on the burdock plant, and the organizational structures within ant-colonies have inspired new management strategies. Our human designs often find their origins in nature, but with the rising number of ecological crises, it’s safe to say that our relationship with planet Earth needs some serious counseling. Time to pause, observe and figure out how we can shape a more conscious design practice.
As any therapist or marketing professional will tell you, a key element of any durable relationship is solid communication. To fix our problems, we first need to define them. Australian climate philosopher Glenn Allbrecht did just that when he designed a series of new words that enable us to deepen our relationship with nature. His word ‘endomophilia’, for example, describes our love for the distinct environmental characteristics of the places we call home. When these direct surroundings are damaged or destroyed, we could experience something called ‘solastalgia’, a sense of losing the solace you once withdrew from your natural habitat.
Another necessity for a lasting relationship would be teamwork. The Symbiocene, one of Albrecht’s main concepts, envisions an entirely new era that could succeed our current human-centered Anthropocene. In the Symbiocene, everything we do, design and consume will be integrated within the support systems of all natural life. Achieving this total symbiosis might sound like a leap from where we are now, but the work of numerous researchers, artists and designers is bridging the gap.
Take the work of artist Olaf Elliarson, who has been urging his global audience to examine our biosphere more closely for decades. He often presents museum visitors with minimal, raw natural elements, like the ‘miniature’ sun he displayed in the Tate Modern back in 2003. In 2014, Elliarson filled the halls of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art with sand, rocks and actual flowing rivers for his site-specific installation ‘Riverbed’. With this rugged indoor landscape, he wanted to create an intervention that enforces a direct awareness of our natural surroundings.
Dutch designer Jalila Essaïdi is taking a more biochemical approach. She famously created bulletproof skin using spider silk, and has also sourced cow manure to manufacture a sustainable clothing line. In the city of Eindhoven, she created an innovation hub for artists, researchers and designers that work with nature, called BioArt Laboratories. It’s a place for young talent to experiment, but also functions as an exhibition space that showcases their latest output.
Our team recently got a chance to take a deep-dive into the work of some other trailblazing innovators. Sinc was invited back to design the concept and brand identity for this year’s ‘Edge of Government’, the international innovation expo for the public sector that takes place annually during the World Government Summit in Dubai. The theme for 2023, ‘The Future is Biological’, emphasized nature as a driver of innovation. In addition to shaping the event, we were also asked to support the innovators behind each case in communicating the essence and added value of their projects to key decision makers from all around the world.
One group of researchers presenting at this year’s Edge of Government found out that the DNA of plant life can possibly store up to 50 times more information than our own, and developed a technology that uploads music, images, documents, and other data to the genomes of plants and trees. Ultimately, their ‘Urban Data Forest’ could replace unsustainable server farms and reduce CO2 emissions by megatonnes each year.
With over one thousand entries from ninety-four countries, a lot of promising initiatives didn’t make the cut. TreesAI for instance, a platform that incorporates ecology into our current economies. Cities that want to scale up the presence of nature in their urban environments often fail to attract the necessary investors, who need hard numbers to estimate their financial risks and rewards. The TreesAI- platform combines different datasets to quantify the improvements that trees provide on air quality, mental health, water retention, and when planted near a school, even learning abilities. This in turn creates investable and even profitable nature-based investment opportunities.
So while the invention of velcro has certainly changed the course of human history and footwear forever, we should make sure that our newest designs actually benefit nature as well. At Sinc, we’re excited to see how artists and researchers are working towards a more symbiotic relationship with our planet. We aim to work with brands that are conscious about the environmental and social impact of their business strategies, and we support both small-scale players and established names in their missions to shape a better tomorrow. So whether you’re spearheading the dawn of the Symbiocene, or just introduced a no-straw policy in your breakroom, we’re here to help.
