Helene Steiner-Biologic Self-Transforming Biological Skin
At Design Interviews
Interview with Helene Steiner : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. Helene Steiner : Nature has engineered its own actuators, as well as efficient material compositions and structures triggered by these actuators to achieve functional transformations. We are imagining a world where actuators and sensors can be grown rather than be manufactured being derived from nature, not engineered in factories. .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. Helene Steiner : We develop bioLogic with an harmonious perspective, where biological and engineering approaches flow in sync. The current garment is exhibited internationally and might get the opportunity to be part of the Olympics 2020. .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. Helene Steiner : bioLogic is still in research and inspired many of us to explore further potential of biological interfaces. .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. Helene Steiner : From the discovery of the humidity-sensitive bacteria to the first useable/produced/ready-made garment it took the team two years. .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. Helene Steiner : Based on the sensitivity to relative humidity of the bacteria cells we started looking for potential applications and realized that our skin has similar features its pores open and close to regulate body temperature and transpiration. But most of our clothing prevents our body from regulating itself. Therefore we wanted to design a breathable ’second skin’ that features an interface between the environment and the human body. .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. Helene Steiner : Currently bioLogic is still in research and needs further improvement to reach the customer market. .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. Helene Steiner : In our view, the garment for a dancer illustrates best the beauty of transformation in nature: The repressed is expressed, celebrated perspiration becomes the ultimate ornament on a cutting edge outfit. .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. Helene Steiner : The bioLogic team is an interdisciplinary and international team of designers, engineers and scientists. .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. Helene Steiner : The garment is especially designed for sports activities. The first prototype was built for (and tested by) dancers. .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. Helene Steiner : There is currently no comparable interface that adapts to our bodies needs communicated by our body itself, activated by bacteria cells. .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. Helene Steiner : It is a compound word made from biology and logic because our concept takes its inspiration from biology and combines the principles of nature, engineering and design logically. .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. Helene Steiner : We used common wet-lab tools like pipettes, bioreactors and centrifuges for the scientific exploration and had to build our own micron-resolution printer and customized software to realize our vision. .Frank Scott: What is the most unique aspect of your design?. Helene Steiner : bioLogic is the first wearable living interface between body and the environment. .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. Helene Steiner : We collaborated with New Balance to study the human heat and sweat-maps. .Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. Helene Steiner : Our design is enabled by technology but activated by nature. .Frank Scott: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?. Helene Steiner : To engineer the garment we studied, analyzed and work with the data on the reaction of the bacteria cells to relative humidity and different substrates and also combine it with the data from/on human heat and sweat-maps. .Frank Scott: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?. Helene Steiner : Because we are working with live material, it was a big challenge to predict and control the desired reaction. .Frank Scott: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?. Helene Steiner : We think that bioLogic is a good example for what is possible if you bring science, engineering and design together and we want to share this experience with people worldwide. .Frank Scott: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?. Helene Steiner : Because of the interdisciplinary team, each person learned from the others disciplines. Furthermore it was a deep learning process to understand and translate transformations in nature. .
Helene Steiner-Biologic Self-Transforming Biological Skin Images:
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