Biomimicry Institute

During last week’s discussion in class, we were introduced to interesting topics brought up from “the Better World by Design” conference. One of the many topics that drew my interest was Biomimicry. One of students who attended the conference briefly explained the Biomimicry Institute as a non-profit organization suggesting nature as a sustainable solution for solving design problems by asking “How Would Nature Solve This?”

"The more our world functions like the natural world, the more likely we are to endure on this home that is ours, but not ours alone." This is Janine Benyus’ quote, which was on the website of the Biomimcry Institute.

The Biomimicry Institute educates people about nature as a model, measure and mentor. Biomimicry values that the nature world is an ideal model to solve human problems, a standard measurement to evaluate the sustainability of human innovations, and a constructive guide human can learn from. Based on how nature solves its many problems, Biomimicry predicts that human can use these designs and processes and will be able to create a more sustainable and healthier planet.

The Biomimicry Institute gathers the biological information and selects nature’s 100 best technologies that can be innovative and potential propositions in the field of manufacturing, architecture, health, energy, chemistry, agriculture, and, in a bigger sense, all the aspects of human living.

While they are collaborating with different companies to put these projects together, they’re also focusing on educating people. Many designers seek design answers from nature and many designs have been inspired by nature. So now they know how important nature is as a source of information. The idea of nature as a means of solving problems is a new way of thinking. The Biomimicry Institute is very passionate about sharing formal and informal teachings about the science of learning from nature. The institute has been developing an educational system for all ages, for all subjects, and by using all methods. For example, the system will explain how nature deals with certain problems or topics, showing particular examples from nature. That will illustrate the case studies of the technology inspired by nature. The information will be modified then distributed to students K-12 or to designers, engineers, and scientists for professional use.

I found this very fascinating how they not just collect, produce, and put information out there but also actually looked for practical ways to reach people with that information. The institute envisions Biomimicry to be embedded as a rich resource in education, research, and business and it will eventually change human perspective and the importance/value of the world.

for more information http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/

Humanitarian Design

During my foundation year, I was lucky to have 2D class with Lee Dejasu. One of projects from his class was to express the word “disguise”. So, I decided to make my Korean friend, Grimm Lee, to wear my clothes, glasses, cap, and backpack and sent her to the class for me. I did not mean to skip the class. It was out of curiosity if anybody would notice that she is not me. Surprisingly, only four people including the professor noticed. Even more surprisingly, Grimm accidently interacted with some of my classmates during another classmate’s presentation.

I came to U.S. when I was sixteen. After I came to U.S., I struggled to find who I am. I was often categorized and stereotyped as an Asian or Korean. People assumed my personality based on how I look. I was no more than just Korean girl. That was when I started drawing which did not need any word to explain. Through drawings, I told people stories of who I am. Through paintings, I put things on the canvas what I really care. For me, art was a tool to find my voice. Also, art was a way to communicate with people.

I applied to RISD as a painting major student. After a semester at the design school, I decided to change my major painting to ID. I had very little knowledge about what design was. (I still do not know everything about design) The major difference, I found, between fine arts and designs were that fine art is more self-expressive and self-discovery then design. Design tends to tell stories of others, rather than the author. Especially, industrial designers have the most opportunity of telling stories of various types of people, such as stories of the rich, the young, the old, the poor, and the unhealthy. (Later, I found this process is specifically called user-based design.) I think Industrial designers’ job is to tell stories of others’ needs through products, services, and system. Their products, services, and systems have specific purposes to satisfy people’s need and represent the need to other people.

Whole thing about what I think of design is might not related to humanitarian design that I am supposed to write about. Here is my opinion about designers who are afraid of designing for user groups from extremely different cultural and economic backgrounds, such as refuges in their world countries. Without totally understanding circumstances and needs, designers might create nothing helpful for people in the third countries. However, designers should still keep working on developing humanitarian design. As I said, design is not just to satisfy the user group. Design conveys other people that there are people who desperately need this products, services, or system. Design makes the world aware of this need.

During Dr. Bruce Becker’s presentation, he mentioned that many products do not meet the users’ demand well enough to solve their problems or do not fit into the challenging environment. Even throwing out the unsatisfying products, designers do the jobs of making other people and other designers to think realistically about what people in the third countries really lack. With continuous efforts, designers will slowly improve their products to solve the problem.

Fragrance and Gender

“What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel No.5, of course”

Almost everyone knows this is one of famous quotes of Marilyn Monroe, American singer and actress, sex symbol, and Hollywood icon. For the people who know of Marilyn Monroe but not Chanel No.5, it is the first fragrance of Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel in 1921. As Andy Warhol chose Chanel No. 5 as cultural icon, it is often considered as “the world’s legendary fragrance”. One static said it is sold world-wise every 55 seconds.

Wearing nothing else but Chanel No. 5, how much can it sound sexier and more exotic? However, what if Marilyn Monroe said she wears Georgia Armani Acqua Di Gio instead of Chanel N.5, would it sound still attractive and appealing? If your girlfriend wears the cologne that your father wears, or if your boyfriend wears the fragrance that your grandmother uses, would you be irritated or disturbed? If so, why?

Selecting a perfume scent is an act of expressing an individual’s taste. Because of differences in body temperatures and odors, no perfume will smell exactly the same on any other people. Perfume itself theoretically should not be able to speak for users’ private, subjective, self-created modern self. But why is there a subconscious expectation that women should smell like flowers while men smell citrusy and musky?

Over thousand years, people have used a bottle of fragrance for the same purpose, either to mask unpleasant body odor or enhance naturally pleasant body odor. When the perfume became widespread in the monarchy, France’s king Louise XIV was known as “the perfume king” because of his love of floral scent. Bowles filled with dried flowers were placed throughout the palace to freshen the air. Clothes, furniture, walls, and tableware were sprayed with floral scent. He even required his court members to wear the fragrance every day. At this point, fragrance did not discriminate feminine and masculine but rather royal or common.

After the introduction to synthetic chemicals, perfumes could be mass produced since the late 1800s. Synthetic compound provides fragrance that cannot be found in nature, such as, linalool, coumarin, and orchid scent. Modern day perfume can capture any scent from plant sources, animal sources, and synthetic sources. Various processes of manufacturing perfume allowed average consumer to own a bottle of perfume as a common use product in the United States. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, designers entered the market with their signature bottle of perfume. With online retailers and market places, perfumes become more and more accessible to people. Even with diversity and accessibility of perfume, they are categorized as men and women in the department and online stores. Women fragrance uses colors of pink, red, yellow, gold, white, light blue, silver. The description of top selling women fragrances always happen to include the words; feminine and floral, sometimes, classic and sweet. On the other hand, black, navy blue, grey, brown, and green are commonly used for cologne and its bottles. According to men’s fragrance advertisements, men should smell fresh and woody, an ideal masculine smell of men.

The scents, bottles, advertisements, marketing, and branding evokes that feminine women and masculine men are the desirable and ideal in the American society. The stereotyped-gender fragrance creates fantasies and icons for one sex and even for the opposite sex. Their limited variety of choices confine consumers to be forced into the expected image of male and female gender roles of today's society,