Design scrying: an alternative aesthetics for synthetic biology

Abstract

In 1911, Stéphane Leduc originally proposed that synthetic biology is a branch of synthetic chemistry that can offer a portfolio of design tools that broaden the possibilities of an aesthetics of life. In the production of generative fields that underpin the synthesis of living systems, lifelike materials may be transfigured and transformed without being constricted by naturalistic expectations. The role of ‘design scrying’ in this exploration is discussed particularly in the generation of images through the interface distortions that occur at the surfaces of ‘dark gels’. These non-deterministic images generating media enable discussion of the aesthetics of life that enable designers to venture beyond the conventions of representation in the natural sciences and synthetic biology, as it is currently practiced in scientific laboratory settings. The implications of this approach are considered through the possibility of using lifelike materials in the choreography of space where lifelike materials, trembling interfaces, and living technologies give rise to the emergence ‘soft living architectures’. These establish the possibility of the development of living spaces that possess some of the properties of living things but may not have the full status of being truly alive.