The use of mycelium in 3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the manufacturing industry. As this new technology develops, it raises questions about our relationship with mycelium as a material. Working with mycelium is at the beginning of its development and allows for a new narrative on the use of natural resources in the industry.
While mycelium is a sustainable replacement, it is essential to ask ethical questions that may not always benefit the industry in the first place. We question what would be a new way of biofabrication from a collaborative perspective? What can we expect from fungi, and what can they expect from us? In this context, we will explore what it means to work together with fungi and create a collaborative workspace with them.
The summer school will focus on creating a substrate suitable for printing in 3D with mycelium. Mycelium is an expert in bridging interspaces, and we will research shapes and forms that allow for co-creation between us and the fungi.
By approaching this technology from a collaborative perspective, we can create a more symbiotic relationship with the fungi and work towards a more sustainable future for all.
PRACTICAL
Basics about fungi’s environment, their needs in terms of light, temperature, humidity, and contamination
Substrate workshop
Workshop on how to work collaboratively with fungi
Printing open structures to observe the growth and qualities of mycelium
Observing growth through time-lapses and scanning of samples
Proposed shapes by the participants based on observations.
Requirements
The course is suitable for anyone with interest and patience of working with fungi.
This course focuses on co-creation with fungi. Participants will explore the concept of mycelium as a material for 3D printing, and the implications of working with a living material. The participants will work on creating the substrate to print in 3D with mycelium, and have the opportunity to get to know the fungi they are working with.
By using DNA technologically a large field of ethical yet also practical questions arise.
In this course, participants embark on a journey into the nanosphere, to process DNA. In collaboration with scientists, we make DNA fold and create tiny structures that become detectable with the help of an atomic force microscope (AFM). The resulting images capture the structures beyond their short lifespan. They can only be seen through the microscope as they are otherwise far beyond the limits of human perception.
The experience of scientific processes and procedures in the laboratory serve the participants as a starting point for their artistic examination of the material generated. Not only the limitation of human perception by moving in the nanosphere, but also the extraordinary responsibility that goes along with working with DNA can be highlighted. Building on this, the role of one‘s own experience of scientific processes in relation to such a debate is to be reflected. The participants‘ resulting reflections will be translated into an artistic medium of their choice, thus creating a link between the scientific and artistic spheres. In this way, we try to make the invisible tangible through individual artworks.
PRACTICAL
close collaboration with scientists at Fraunhofer ENAS
learn to design own DNA structures using design and simulation software.
introduction to the technical processes of laboratory work and the subsequent initiation of biochemical processes for folding DNA
insight into the use of the atomic force microscope (AFM) and associated software.
analysis of the resulting data in dialogue with the scientists
translation of scientific data and personal experiences through the process into individual artistic expression
REQUIEREMENTS
willingness to learn professional scientific software and processes
Shaping the Invisible |
Folding of DNA strands and rendering structures in nano scale
All living creatures carry their genetic information in the DNA in the nucleus of each cell. It contains the genes that shape humans, animals or plants into what they are. With the increasing knowledge of DNA, from a source-code of natural creation it is coming more and more into consideration as a technologically utilizable material also.
In this course we will tackle physicality in the era of digital reproduction and technologies as part of these technologies, not their opposite or past. We will discuss the role of information in culture, the independence of information (freeing it from its electronic context), the importance of its transmission and storage.
We will experiment with art as a method of dealing with information/data. Thus the participants will develop a shared experience of experimenting with advanced technology in a cultural context, a collective consciousness enriched by the exchange of knowledge and experience.
Finally we will use an advanced metal printing process to create objects and artworks that use information as a medium. Therefore participants will learn how to describe objects in code for the use of advanced 3D printing in metal (LPBF). They will get to know a practical workflow to work with data intended for printing in metal using publicly available resources and in public domain, using open licenses and considerable demand for computing power.
They will then develop their own protocols for processing information into physical objects prepared by themselves and depending on individual preferences and own artistic approach.
PRACTICAL
introduction: looking at a work of art as an expression of an information system — from the point of view of art history, theory and practice
introduction to the generative/procedural creation of computer models for the use of advanced 3D printing in metal (LPBF).
Mastering a practical workflow to work with data intended for printing in metal
Requirements for Course B
The workshop invites people with different backgrounds and skills to participate,
Previous experience and a basic knowledge in computer programming (especially Processing) are helpful.
Interest in the use of generative and parametric techniques
Metal Data Solid Culture |
information and its protection as a medium of art
Contemporary culture strongly binds information with the technological medium through storage and distribution platforms. Information is thus mostly contained in an electronic context, which is by its nature always temporary and continually needs maintenance and renewal. Furthermore the technical infrastructure is often private property.
Culture, however, cannot last and develop without information continuation. It needs the possibility of building new forms on existing information and the possibility of storing information for the future, without censorship, evaluation, tailoring to current conditions.
The Lab 2025 was funded by the Cultural Capital Office Chemnitz 2025 and implemented as a pilot project within the EU-funded project InduCCI in cooperation with Kreatives Sachsen.
Pilot Project 2021 |
LAB 2025
In March 2021, Labor 2025 was realized as a pilot project of the FUNKEN Academy. In three workshops, developed by artists in collaboration with the partner institutes Fraunhofer IWU, Fraunhofer ENAS and the Saxon Textile Research Institute, students and post-graduates worked on the prototyping of ideas in the fields of AR, smart materials and textile design.
In cooperation with the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Programmable Materials artists and designers are invited to investigate the novel programmable materials in a course by Prof. Dr. Johanna Schmeer. Through the cooperation with the institute, the participants gain access to new materials, which are not yet available on the market.
Following a Kick-Off event in Chemnitz and Dresden from 04th of October till 06th of October 2021 are followed by regular consultations (remote).
Discursive Design Class 2021/22 |
IF/THEN Programmable Materials
Can a shape-memory polymer function as an artificial larynx and be applied in sound-creation? Can programmable materials lend character to everyday objects? What if a household gadget running low on battery would communicate this by slumping in exhaustion? Which structures and characteristics derived from nature can be used in the development of new materials? And which philosophical questions arise in the process of creating artificial forms of nature?
