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8 Biomorphic Technologies
that the origin of the digital world is in counting on fingers, which also brought us
the decimal system, before computers turned up, with their ability to handle digits
ultrafast. Another theme, the one that takes the entire top page when googling, refers
to computer-aided design and directs us to some marvelous creations.
The 3D-printed anthozoa dress by Iris van Herpen and Neri Oxman (Fig. 8.3,
left) imitates marine polyps in its texture. A further bold step merges natural and
digital morphogenesis in a wearable microfluidic Mushtari structure, inhabited by
two bacterial communities: photosynthetic microbes convert sunlight into nutrients
for the heterotrophs, which can in turn produce desirable compounds, like scents
or pigments (Oxman, 2017). Hardly anybody would wear such a dress, but (deviating from the main theme of this section) bacteria have been mobilized for the more
mundane task of repairing fabric. Ido Bachelet and his coworkers (Raab et al, 2017)
made a first attempt at hybridizing the fabric with a biofilm. In this symbiotic arrangement, the fabric provides a supporting scaffold for the biofilm, while bacteria
return the favor by synthesizing a silk protein to repair the fabric when they feel its
wear and tear. In a similar perspective, this may be extended to self-cleaning and
protective functions.
Artists are good at inventing catchy titles – but the appropriation of the term
“digital morphogenesis” is somewhat unfair. Using computers to create forms is
now ubiquitous, and it is not so new. Without computer-aided design, it would be
too difficult if not plain impossible to design the fantastically curved and arched
structures of Frank Gehry and other “deconstructivist” architects, so unlike the boring rectangular boxes of mid-20th century “modern” architecture. It has also made
it possible to design the curved aerodynamic forms of our cars, notwithstanding the
general conservatism of the automotive industry. And so only a few isolated artisans
remain to create forms with their fingers alone, unaided digitally.
Computer-aided design has also led to additive manufacturing through 3D printing guided by programming, which is developing by applying sophisticated microfluidic techniques to integrate different materials into emerging forms (Keating
et al, 2016). The range of applications is amazing. Tal Dvir and coworkers (Noor
et al, 2019) 3D-printed a rabbit’s heart using fat cells reprogrammed to become
pluripotent stem cells and differentiated to cardiac tissues. One prospect here, when
hopefully extended to humans, will be to eliminate queues for heart transplants,
and, in general, make it possible to regenerate any organ without the risk of immune
rejection. At another extreme, the Dutch company Concr3De has offered to reconstruct damaged sculptures from the burnt Notre Dame cathedral using 3D printing.
Smart gadgets made of form-changing or shape-memory materials often have a
layered structure, and are most conveniently manufactured by 3D printing. Since
they are meant to acquire dynamically controllable shapes when actuated, the term
has mutated to 4D printing, incorporating the time dimension. This catchy term
should appeal to physicists who dream of multidimensional worlds and Einstein’s
relativity but are stuck in Earth-bound research. Of course, only the spatial form
is printed, but the programmed changes in time become inbuilt properties of the
biomorphic material.
8 Biomorphic Technologies
that the origin of the digital world is in counting on fingers, which also brought us
the decimal system, before computers turned up, with their ability to handle digits
ultrafast. Another theme, the one that takes the entire top page when googling, refers
to computer-aided design and directs us to some marvelous creations.
The 3D-printed anthozoa dress by Iris van Herpen and Neri Oxman (Fig. 8.3,
left) imitates marine polyps in its texture. A further bold step merges natural and
digital morphogenesis in a wearable microfluidic Mushtari structure, inhabited by
two bacterial communities: photosynthetic microbes convert sunlight into nutrients
for the heterotrophs, which can in turn produce desirable compounds, like scents
or pigments (Oxman, 2017). Hardly anybody would wear such a dress, but (deviating from the main theme of this section) bacteria have been mobilized for the more
mundane task of repairing fabric. Ido Bachelet and his coworkers (Raab et al, 2017)
made a first attempt at hybridizing the fabric with a biofilm. In this symbiotic arrangement, the fabric provides a supporting scaffold for the biofilm, while bacteria
return the favor by synthesizing a silk protein to repair the fabric when they feel its
wear and tear. In a similar perspective, this may be extended to self-cleaning and
protective functions.
Artists are good at inventing catchy titles – but the appropriation of the term
“digital morphogenesis” is somewhat unfair. Using computers to create forms is
now ubiquitous, and it is not so new. Without computer-aided design, it would be
too difficult if not plain impossible to design the fantastically curved and arched
structures of Frank Gehry and other “deconstructivist” architects, so unlike the boring rectangular boxes of mid-20th century “modern” architecture. It has also made
it possible to design the curved aerodynamic forms of our cars, notwithstanding the
general conservatism of the automotive industry. And so only a few isolated artisans
remain to create forms with their fingers alone, unaided digitally.
Computer-aided design has also led to additive manufacturing through 3D printing guided by programming, which is developing by applying sophisticated microfluidic techniques to integrate different materials into emerging forms (Keating
et al, 2016). The range of applications is amazing. Tal Dvir and coworkers (Noor
et al, 2019) 3D-printed a rabbit’s heart using fat cells reprogrammed to become
pluripotent stem cells and differentiated to cardiac tissues. One prospect here, when
hopefully extended to humans, will be to eliminate queues for heart transplants,
and, in general, make it possible to regenerate any organ without the risk of immune
rejection. At another extreme, the Dutch company Concr3De has offered to reconstruct damaged sculptures from the burnt Notre Dame cathedral using 3D printing.
Smart gadgets made of form-changing or shape-memory materials often have a
layered structure, and are most conveniently manufactured by 3D printing. Since
they are meant to acquire dynamically controllable shapes when actuated, the term
has mutated to 4D printing, incorporating the time dimension. This catchy term
should appeal to physicists who dream of multidimensional worlds and Einstein’s
relativity but are stuck in Earth-bound research. Of course, only the spatial form
is printed, but the programmed changes in time become inbuilt properties of the
biomorphic material.