BioDesign
Students hailing from both fine art and design departments at the California College of the Arts were paired with Stanford University Biology postdocs and tasked with manipulating bio-systems for art or design ends. Students were also asked to re-envision the data output of several Stanford labs. The courses themselves were a set of experiments that examined both the strengths and weaknesses of the hybridization of disciplinary techniques for design and art work.
The first component of the experiment involved innovating the science pedagogy. Biology was made available to designers and artists via instruction that reconceptualized it as pattern, system, and mechanism. The courses presented the scientific method as a design tool that could be used to rigorously explore design space. Experiments with controls were the frame for all bio-manipulations and for all studio work. Experimentation via algorithm was conducted by creating virtual replicators that followed rules slightly different from those found in-vivo. Comparisons of pattern outcomes were used to illuminate both systems. Art as hypothesis testing was used to guide design and artistic exploration. Documentation was another key element. Work and process were analyzed via diagramming that explored deep systems/logics and visual vs. sentential explanation. Lastly, the bio-science technical apparatus was repurposed by students.
Collaboration between scientists and artists was the final area of experimentation. Collaborations were in class, in lab, and remote; experiments regarding collaboration were conducted via a variety of interfaces and with a variety of design software. Multiple solutions to recurring collaborative difficulties were explored.
Adjunct Professor, Architecture
California College of the Arts
Michael Bogan joined the staff of the California College of the Arts in 2005. He taught in both the graduate and undergraduate architecture programs and is now in the INDI program. In addition, he taught for many years at the College of Environmental Design at the University of California Berkeley. In earlier days he was active in civil rights law and HIV organizing: he worked at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, served on San Francisco’s HIV Planning Commission, and was the HIV Rights Advocate for the city of San Francisco. He is also a published poet who has written on a diverse range of topics that range from urban hydrology to psoriasis. He practices architecture in San Francisco.
