“How can new technologies and biodesign help us find alternatives to capitalist systems of exploitation and pave the way for new ways of making, working and living together in social communities?” – Brücker

Bea Brücker works at the intersection of biodesign and technology such as 3D printing and computing. Her research looks into how biofabrication technologies could pave a way for a more ethical and ecological design practice. The combination of living organisms, computational design, and the development of a compostable algae leather, sees her work breaking boundaries in the production framework within the polluting fashion sector.

After graduating from Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in 2018 she was part of the Youth Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, a two-year sustainability programme launched by the UN Global Compact, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit and the Global Fashion Agenda. During this time Brücker worked on circular fashion systems, and has since exhibited at Berlin Fashion Week. She has recently finished studying Fashion Design with a focus on Biowear and new technologies at Royal College of Art and has since focused on the need for a systemic change in the fashion industry. She aims to use her responsibility as a designer to create a more eco-friendly industry and a more equitable society and environment.

“We need a new, liberating, environmentally-friendly design practice. NOW.” – Brücker

Morphogenesis is a project that is set in a speculative reality characterised by pandemics and ecological dead zones. In this scenario biohackers and designers work together to use Biofashion as a political design movement. This would use the power of fashion to empower the creation of tools, bring communities together and liberate them from existing neoliberal economic models. Due to the nature of Biofashion, the creators would collaborate in local labs, enabling independent and sustainable production processes. Using mathematically generated and multiscale patterns, a new design practice could be built that uses biomaterials, such as self-bred algae leather. Algae is used due to its rapid growth in ocean dead zones. It can be harmful, but it is an important food source and an air purifier. Algae materials can be created using moulding techniques and 3D printing, resulting in fully compostable clothing.

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References/Credits:

Bea Brücker

RCA

Johann Spindler- Photography