presentation:

Octopus Camouflage & Fungal Design

Biotalk 02 - with Maurizio Montalti and Suzanne van Beest

14 Mayıs 2014

Can fungi digest plastic? What can we learn from the octopus? Maurizio Montalti explores the potential of mycelium to develop new materials and Suzanne van Beest shows her fascination for transforming animal characteristics into design.

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BioTalk: Octopus Camouflage & Fungal Design - Willem Velthoven and Maurizio Montalti - BioTalk: Octopus Camouflage and Fungal Design: Maurizio Montalti Irati

Maurizio Montalti's Officina Corpuscoli practice is all about designing with living organisms. His work is trans-disciplinary, including science and research that addresses social and environmental themes from a creative perspective. Currently Maurizio is exploring the potential of mycelium for developing new materials and processes. For example The Ephermal Icon, in which the classic Monobloc plastic chair is colonised by fungus that allows you to dispose it in the garden. It questions our 'throw away' culture while addressing design and its responsibility.

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BioTalks: Suzanne van Beest's work - Octopus Camouflage - BioTalk: Octopus Camouflage & Fungal Design - Suzanne van Beeste's work on Octopus Camouflage Irati

Suzanne van Beest designs products inspired by animal solutions for survival. For her graduation project she chose the Octopus, an animal that does not possess the usual abilities to survive in nature like teeth or a shell. During her research she discovered that the most important function of this animal is its camouflage. This particular function, both used for hiding as attracting, is developed into her accessory product line called Wonderpus.

Soap Bubble Intermezzo

There will be a short Soap Bubble intermezzo by Nienke Sybrandy, this week's curator of the Lightness festival!

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BioTalk: Octopus Camouflage & Fungal Design - Nienke Sybrandy - Octopus Camouflage & Fungal Design: Soap Bubble Intermezzo by Nienke Sybrandy Irati

Building with mycelium - Update

Architect Gerald Lindner will give an update about the mycelium panels he is developing in collaboration with Mediamatic for sustainable building in Buiksloterham, Amsterdam.

Bio Industry

This event is part of Mediamatic Bio Industry, a bio-cultural lab exploring the possibilities of fungal material and other bio-based materials for design, science and art. The Mediamatic Bio-talks is a monthly lecture series that invites artists and designers to present and elaborate on their work concerning bio-based research and design.

Information

Entrance 5 euro. Free entrance with a valid Mediamatic Membership (€5,- for 9 weeks)
Location: Mediamatic Factory, VOC-kade 10, Van Gendthallen Amsterdam
Presentations start at 20.00.

Mediamatic Bio Industry is made possible by DOEN foundation and Mondriaan Fonds.