Biomimetics for Designers
- Submitting institution
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University of the Arts, London
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 107
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Thames & Hudson
- ISBN
- 9780500518489
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- September
- Year of publication
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- In 2014, as Reader in Design STEM practice at Northumbria University, Kapsali collaborated with the Royal Society of Engineering, as a subject specialist in biomimetics. This led to the inclusion of biomimetic design within the design and technology Key Stage 2 curriculum. Subsequent work with the Design and Technology Association (DaTA) revealed that the main sources of information about biomimetics were unsubstantiated website entries quoting bad science and fake outcomes. Kapsali’s own experience in working in research across design and science flagged this up as a significant barrier for the progress of biomimetic design within the creative industries, recognising the need for an output that addresses creative communities of practice in order to disseminate complex interdisciplinary information from credible and rigorous research using a combination of text and image.
The book is the first to focus specifically on biomimetics for the design community (rather than engineering, architecture, materials science, etc). It examines historical and contemporary case studies, including creative practice from the perspective of a designer, in order to understand how biology can inform the shape, structure, surface and making of products. The final chapter introduces new biomimetic concepts of active matter and programmable materials, preceding the later publication of seminal text, Active Matter, edited by Skylar Tibbits (2017) MIT.
The conclusion interprets the work conducted by Vincent in ‘Biomimetics: its practice and theory’ in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, examining the differences between technology and biology from a problem-solving perspective and as a potential tool for sustainable design. A subsequent conceptual framework was further developed into a contribution as Co-I to the AHRC-funded initiative, The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) Creative R&D Partnership, which will enable the future evolution of this intersection
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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