FRENETIC GENETICS. Product Design (2014).
Major Project in BDes in Industrial Design. Five month solo project.
A novel toolkit aimed to teach children about biotechnology. Biotechnology is ingrained in our society, it is used in the production of our food, medicine and household products, yet little is known of what it entails. The aim of this project was to engage the wider public by giving them first-hand experience of this technology.
Learning outcomes; Research, User Testing, Product Design.
RESEARCH
After a visit to the Science Gallery’s 2014 exhibition ‘Grow Your Own’, I became increasingly interested in the field of biotechnology. I started by researching inspiring projects in bio art and design. I spoke to a number of people in the biotech industry, most enlightening Cathal Garvey, a biohacker based in Co. Cork, who introduced me to the worldwide biohacker movement. I visited a biohacker workshop held in the Science Gallery where I grew my own ink out of bacteria.
Mathieu Lehanneur's refrigerator aquarium
MIT's silk pavilion by Mediated Matter
Tomas Libertiny's Honeycomb Vase
Daisy Ginsberg's Growth Assembly
CONCEPT
After collating all my research, I began to form ideas for my project. I wanted to take the practise of certain forms of biotech out of the lab and into the hands of the end user.
Working with organism
Gamifying the learning
PROTOTYPING
To gain more experience of certain biotech practises, I started to conduct experiments. I then created instruction manuals and tested them out on my classmates. These experiments consisted of collecting bacteria for growth and DNA samples for comparison.
Collecting Kevins DNA
Kates bacteria from her nail
James collecting bacteria from his teeth
Marsha collecting bacteria off her shoe
List of collect bacteria
Bacteria Day One
Bacteria 3 days later
Booklet & result of experiment one
Understanding DNA booklet
I then built a quick and ready set of prototypes. I decided to bring these prototypes to a local primary school for testing as individuals are most creative and curious during their childhood and thus, to encourage interest and awareness about emerging technologies, the education system felt like the most appropriate starting point. This was an invaluable experience as I discovered how delicate some of the toolkit items were and how experiment steps were regularly misunderstood.
Making agar for bacteria growth
Collecting DNA from an Orange
Getting creative
Sealing for bacteria growth
Adding colour
Prototype contents
DESIGN
After the prototyping stage, I began to refine the design. I explored different layout and material palettes. I decided to choose materials like wood that reflected the home rather than the lab. I also added a transparent yellow to evoke curiosity.
Wood turning Microscope conents
Assembling Microscope
Routering the try for inside the box
FINAL DESIGN
Frenetic Genetics is a novel toolkit to introduce simple forms of the biotechnology process to children in a fun, creative manner. The kit allows one to create art with bacteria or solve murder mysteries, such as who killed the banana? The kit includes a microscope and a gel electrophoresis (used to read DNA) to familiarise users with lab equipment. Each kit comes with a set of instruction manuals for each experiment.
