Transnatural Art & Design

___The work of 2012Architects is a strong example of Superuse - a design approach in which clever aesthetics meet the pragmatics of recycling. Instead of designing new cradle-to-cradle products, 2012Architects develop grave-to-cradle methods, that do away with 'waste' as an economical and cultural category. 2012 Architects    

___Drawing on Utility Pets, MyBio and Future Families, Caccavale presents his design practice. Caccavale makes speculative objects in which  abstract issues and ethical questions that surround biotechnology are made tangible. Designer, artist, researcher: Elio Caccavale (UK)

___Koert reports on the latest insights from the Next Nature research - a higly inspiring Dutch initiative that explores and describes how our understanding of nature is changing. NextNature is the nature made by humans, that is more than ever wild and unpredictable. Koert van Mensvoort (NL) / Next Nature

___Material Beliefs is a project of designers and scientists that research the implications of upcoming biomedical and cybernetic technologies. Together with non-specialists they make prototypes of new products and exhibition that bring scientific research from the labs into public space and debate. Designer, researcher, artist:  Tobie Kerridge (UK)

___The research of architect, physicist and sciencefiction author Dr. Rachel Armstrong is aimed at developing metabolic materials to be applied in the built environment. Armstrong foresees a living archtecture, capable of 'healing' the environment. In the workshop Dr. Rachel Armstrong leads the participants along the conceptual and chemical steps of making an in-organic Traube Cell. Starting from current technologies, the participants develop scenario's to implement metabolic materials in the built environment. How can archictecture literally come to live?

___Nature has always been complete, and yet it is never finished. Technology can expand nature   infinitely, but should learn to play by some of the same rules.  At the Transnatural conference

___Stadlbauer is a scientist, artist and urban bee keeper, developing new mutually beneficial combinations of culture, technology and nature. She is part of the Herbologies / Foraging Network that combines the cultural traditions and knowledge around edible and medicinal plants with the possibilities of online networks and open-source methods. Her talk is an exploration on behaviour and strategies of bees and men driven by the quest for urban edibles. ~ In the workshop Bee-o-Logical Housing participants investigate hands-on *out of the box* bee-hive-design. apiary.be www.herbologies-foraging.net  

___The Incredible Shrinking Man project suggests to downsize the human species to better fit the earth. It brings together evolutionary insights, Space colonisation research, fossil findings, speculative design, literature and film. Hendriks presents his research and its bio-historical, scientific and conceptual components. ~ In his hands-on workshop participants map out the spatial and cultural effects of shrinking by redesigning space, food, and objects. www.the-incredible-shrinking-man.net

___Mansy is leading a laboratory for synthetic and biology at the University of Trento. He researches the making, growth and multiplication of protocells: life-like systems without DNA that may emerge spontaneously under the right chemical circumstances. He works with Sascha Pohflepp in the Synthetic Aesthetics project. www.smansy.org

___Sascha is an artist and designer who is interested in past and future technologies, notions of art, business and idealism, and how they inform which worlds come true and which worlds are discarded. He participates in the Synthetic Aesthetics project that brings together synthetic biologists, designers, artists and social scientists to explore collaborations between synthetic biology, art and design. ~ In his workshop participants will do long-term narrative exploration on how the human future continues the past through new technologies. www.pohflepp.com

___James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau are artists and critical designers that develop objects and processes by which they question current and upcoming relations between society and technology. Their Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots putexisting notions on the role of robots and their relations with living creatures in a radically different context. ~ In their workshop participants work towards design proposals for alternative ways in which robots may enter the household. www.auger-loizeau.com

___ At the conference speakers will offer a varied introduction to workshops thatexplore the theme in roughly three different area's: economy, aesthetics and everyday life. Themes of 2012 conference are: