Playful Biomaterials (PLAY-BIO): Designing for More-than-Human Relations in Everyday Life

Imagine shadow guessing games with the light cast from bacteria and yeast growing in a bedside lamp. Or a game where we try to touch on and ‘soothe' vibrating mushroom floors. Would playing with these biomaterials (i.e., bacteria, mushrooms and wood) in our everyday life make them our social companions that we care for, and enjoy with, rather than simply seeing them as products that we consume? To address this question, the PLAY-BIO will create playful biomaterial designs that make us notice biomaterials in our everyday lives and realize that we are dependent on each other. It will, then, place them at homes and study what kind of relationships we can build with our playful companions. By doing so, it will show us the ways that biomaterials can be designed to change our perspective from only caring for our well-being to understanding we can survive only when we start caring for the non-human world.