III. Planning and prototyping my concept¶
Calendar/GANTT¶
Here is my calendar! I keep re writing it and changing it as I go along but the overall dates and deadlines are the ones below!
I have started with planning the last 2 weeks of January and the first week of February as you can see below.
| Week | Description |
|---|---|
| 23-30Jan | SCOBY Care, Hibiscus AND Spirulina dye and SCOBY, pH paper tests, Rice milk scoby, Agar bioplastics/recipes, design molds, tests sugar blowing. |
| 31Jan-6Feb | Customise labcoat, SCOBY COMPOSITES for organ like structures, agar recipes for sculptures and microbiome plates, agarhoney/sugar blowing, prepare for open day, design molds, play with physical and digital modeling. |
| 7-13Feb | start COOKBOOK, LABCOAT, bodily fluid collection objects, agar plates and sculptures, INOCULATION LOOPS, 3D PRINT VESSELS/CNC. |
| 14-20Feb | VESSELS, ORBITAL SHAKER and MICROSCOPE |
| 21-27Feb | ORBITAL SHAKER AND MICROSCOPE |
| 28Feb-6Mar | FINISH HARDWARE-FINALISE WORKS |
| 7-13Mar | LAST WEEK OF EXPERIMENTS, DOCUMENTATION, STORYTELLING, VIDEO, PHOTOSHOOT |
| 14-20Mar | FINISH PHOTOS, COOKBOOK |
| 21-28Mar | FINISH VIDEO |
break down and make a more detailed planning of your calendar and if you would need specific components or materials (to take into account shipping times, etc) GAANT
Materials¶
| Qty | Description | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Transparent 3dprinter filament | 40 eu | Here |
| 1 | Electronics4microscope-lens | 4-6 eu each | Here |
| 1 | Electronics4shaker | 45 eu | Thingiverse link |
| 4 | Kombucha glass containers | 22 eu | You can get recycle this and use used ones |
| 5 | Kombucha plastic constainers | 20 eu | Buy from Ikea or any housegood store |
| 1 | Spirulina powder for dye | 10 eu | Buy from herbal store |
| 1 | Hibiscus flowers for dye | 15 eu | Buy from herbal store |
| 1 | Red Cabbage for dye | 20 eu | Supermarket |
| 1 | High quality filter papers | 20 eu | Here |
| 1 | Microscope slides and covers | 20 eu | Here |
| 1 | Air drying clay and inoculation loop supplies | 19 eu | From any craft store or things in the house |
Techniques, machines, processes and hardware to be developed!¶
Soooooo the machines and processes I will utilise in my final project are guided by my material exploration or material driven resarch and the application scenarios I created as seen and analysed below! :)
The aim of the project is to cultivate, grow and craft and re-design self care and bodily experimentation through:
| TECHNIQUES AND PROCESSES | Notes |
|---|---|
| DIY BIOLOGY | microscope slides and sampling techniques, bacterial cultivation and dyeing, soil fertility chromatography, microbiome investigation,creating living sculptures or houses for my microbiota |
| Digital fabrication | textile as scaffold techniques, 3D modeling, 3D scanning my face for microbial house, 3D printing molds for bioplastic pads, mold for internal mooncup with biomaterial, molds and models for collection of bodily fluids |
| Open source hardware and tools | inoculation loops, the making of an orbital shaker for chromatography and pigment development, the making of a DIY microscope for mobile phones). |
| Biofabrication | growing Hibiscus and trasparent SCOBY for SKIN and intimate areas, biofabricating biocompatible organs, bioplastics for pH intimate tests and wearable indicators |
| Biochromes and medicinal dyes | pH indicator pigments and dyes, see bacterial and microbiome dyes, CUSTOMISING MY LAB COAT). |
| Crystallisation | tears, urine and DNA |
| TECHNIQUES AND PROCESSES | MACHINES |
|---|---|
| DIY BIOLOGY | MAKE A MICROSCOPE FOR SLIDE EXPLORATION AND SAMPLING, CNC AND/OR VACUUM FORM FOR AGAR HOUSES FOR MICROBIOTA |
| Digital fabrication | 3D MODELING, CNC, 3D SCANNING, 3D PRINTING molds and containers for bodily fluids, LASERCUTTER |
| Open source hardware and tools | the making of an orbital shaker for chromatography and pigment development, the making of a DIY microscope for mobile phones. |
| Biofabrication | LASERCUT/CNC MOLDS/3D PRINTER |
| Biochromes and medicinal dyes | Embroidery machine or 3D PRINTER for CUSTOMISING MY LAB COAT). |
| Crystallisation | perhaps lasercut for scaffolds |
The 5W's and PROTOTYPING my final concept!¶
These are my 5W's but I keep refining those still! I also keep refining my processes, results,calendar and final outcomes as I go along :)
These are my refined 5W's:
WHAT
WHY and the aims and objectives of the project!
-To redesign, rethink, re imagine self health/care through digital fabrication, biofabrication and DIY BIOLOGY.
-TO MAKE HEALTH/CARE AND SELF CARE MORE ACCESSIBLE while at the same time cultivating and crafting technologies and materials that require care, time and nurturing.
-To create autonomous ways of self and collective health/care through care cultivating and amplifying practices such as cultivating and crafting materials and biochromes and digitally fabricating hardware and bodily devices or interfaces that are open to costumisation and OPEN source.
-To influence and challenge current and future developments of technologies of self health/care.
-To empower ourselves and marginalised communities through crafting, cultivating and digitally fabricating care as a way to become more active participants in our own health and create our own biotechnologies of life.
-To shift attention away from using biotechnology and scientific knowledge in order to fix and control [broken or unnatural] bodies, to reject the route of TECHNOSOLUTIONISM, and to create NEW FORMS and STRATEGIES in the creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge.
For who?
-The biocurious, the marginalised communities, all citizen/(scientists).
With WHO?
-The project aims to expand and grown from a Do It Yourself TO Do It Together/Do It With Others project. From a personal project to a collective one.
-HACKTERIA.ORG network community
How to craft, cultivate, fabricate and design self health/care?
Through:
-MATERIAL exploration [OPEN SOURCE CRAFTWARE, CULTIWARE]
-TOOL making, designing, fabricating and customising [OPEN SOURCE TOOLWARE]
-DIY BIOLAB EQUIPMENT and bodily fluid collection fabrication [OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE AND LABWARE]
Other concept notes:
My concept and theme for my final project has a VISCERAL, shiny, pinkish/blue/purple/green colours! I have to keep reminding myself that I am creating an intimate biolab experience, a concept, and in there there is also the creation of the DIY micro-lab and designing and fabricating my own tools, instruments and processes for my bodily explorations.
3D SCANNING MY BIO LAB ENVIROMENT¶
In my first week back to fabricademy for the final project I had this idea to 3D scan my working and experimenting enviroment with an XBOX KINECT. I decided to use these scenes not only for my documentation but perhaps for trying to maybe create some sort of a prototype scene of the experience I want to develop or my final experience.
As a first test I 3D scanned our biolab here at the biodesign centre using a 3D photogrammetry technique of taking a photo every 10 degrees to record a 360 of my environment. I then added the batch of images into agisoft metashape software where I created a point cloud and then a model and then a texture and depth map to create this 3D enviroment.
I also created some panoramic images to get the overall feeling of the lab and my personal working and art making space!
Making, crafting and cultivating in the biolab- Art in the biolab¶
DIY Biology practises are very closely related with biofabricating, crafting and cultivating materials. In biofabricating materials it is very typical to make your own frames, molds and other DIY tools that can assist you in your process. As a bioartist I noticed how methodologies and processes in DIY Biology are also adopted in the field of material science and biofabrication.
Also, in DIY Biology practices designing and fabricating your own equipment and tools is essential. There is a wide range of platforms for open source equipment or hardware such as the Wiki page of hackteria.org.