Big Data


| project type |

Research into the curriculum

| project synopsis |

Big Data: Designing with the Materials of life.

Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins University of the Arts, January-February 2014.

What can designers learn from interacting with scientists? Can the study of biological systems generate new perspectives on design? These key questions encapsulate the premise of our on-going collaboration with the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre. Since the Nobel Textiles project at the ICA in 2008, we have been working on other cross-disciplinary initiatives such as Nobelini (Dana Centre, 2009), as well as running regular Fabrics of Life projects, which expose designers to contemporary biomedical research.
This year, for the first time we have invited the public to witness the secrets of design thinking and making throughout a three-week project.
Big Data: Designing with the Materials of life, explores the growing challenges of processing, editing and storing large amounts of digital data.

The exhibition is curated in two parallel formats:

01 A design exhibition featuring biologically-driven design narratives, including work from Ann-Kristin Abel, William Bondin, Natsai Chieza, Amy Congdon, Ruairi Glynn, Rob Kesseler and Ollie Palmer.

02 Fabrics of Life 2014, a public live project created by designers from MA Textile Futures (Central Saint Martins, UAL) and architects from the Interactive Architecture Lab (RC3, the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL). Groups of students have dedicated three weeks to transform ideas from big data biology into blueprints for design futures.
Their work has been documented over the duration of the project culminating in a publication.

 

| project outputs |

an exhibtion

a live design project produced over the duration fo 3 weeks

click here to see a short film produced by Kiki Von Glasow

click here to see full documentation in the Big Data Catalogue

| Project Partners |

MRC CSC

Interactive Architecture Lab (RC3, the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL)

MA Material Futures, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts.