Living Tweaks, 2014

Living Tweaks explored a future in which synthetic biology and nano-engineering tools were readily available to people outside specialist laboratories. Developed with Autodesk Research, the project began with a series of sessions with individuals and groups over several months. Participants imagined how these capabilities might enter their own fields of work and give rise to unfamiliar needs, practices and uses.

A travelling research kit gave the conversations a physical starting point. Participants selected cards describing existing scientific technologies, then used clay, stickers and dry-erase markers to develop visual narratives around them. Tools, props and snacks travelled together in the custom-made kit, creating a portable setting for discussion and making. The materials helped participants explain a possible application and consider how it could affect the activities and relationships around it.

The resulting interviews and scenarios placed participants’ interests alongside emerging scientific possibilities. They opened questions about who might use these tools, which purposes people would find worthwhile, and how access to technologies that alter living systems could reshape everyday decisions. Participants developed the future scenarios; the studio subsequently interpreted the interviews through film. The films gave these scenarios another form in which to explore the possibilities and tensions of accessible biotechnology.

See more documentation of the Travelling Research Kit on Flickr.