Normal Phenomena of Life (NPOL) is the result of a long-term collaboration between Faber Futures, Natsai Audrey Chieza’s design research laboratory, and Christina Agapakis of biotech company Gingko Bioworks. Making its debut at London Design Festival 2023, NPOL is the culmination of the work Faber Futures has been doing since its founding in 2018, acting as a marketplace for biodesign products, an innovation catalyst and technology showcase. Its goal, Chieza explains, is to ‘prioritise thoughtful design over business as usual’.
Normal Phenomena of Life: designing with biology
Lessons from the Living World: Breathe In Editions by Kelvyn Smith
‘Creating a marketplace is an opportunity to tell stories about the possibilities of bioeconomy,’ continues Chieza. ‘My main motivation was to see the field evolving in a direction that is incredibly uninspiring – not going to do anything new, just consolidate existing business models. But we need to change everything, including consumer expectations of what products should be.’
The first drop includes a series of ‘NPOL Originals’ such as bacterially dyed garments, prints made with algae ink, and objects made of a bio-concrete fabricated by microbes, while a parallel editorial platform will offer an insight into biodesign and the living world.
Detail of Lessons from the Living World: Breathe In Editions by Kelvyn Smith
‘NPOL offers a unique opportunity to merge cutting-edge biotechnology with standout product innovation and storytelling,’ says Chieza. ‘As a consumer-facing platform, its power will be in driving both biotechnology and culture toward the systemic changes needed to act on the climate crisis.’
Through this growing collection of everyday objects, Chieza and Agapakis hope to normalise our relationship with the living world and create conditions for a regenerative cycle while enhancing the cultural understanding around the use of grown natural materials. As there is no blueprint for this initiative, they started from scratch, and will continue adding to the catalogue as the project progresses.
NPOL’s launch includes the Exploring Jacket + Musette, a unisex jacket made of 100 per cent GOTS-certified silk that was batch-dyed with Streptomyces coelicolor bacteria, created in collaboration between Mbeu, designer Louise Bennetts and garment manufacturer Fabrika. The second product, a series of prints by Bruton-based artist Kelvyn Smith, pays tribute to algae, a vital life source responsible for about 50 per cent of the oxygen we breathe. Lessons from the Living World: Breathe In Editions is printed with non-toxic, carbon-negative ink made from algae with typographic compositions that reflect the role of the organisms.
‘Biology does something remarkable – it grows,’ adds Agapakis. ‘NPOL helps us to grow our imagination of what might be possible when we design with biology.’
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