Here’s another speaker for my proposed panel for SXSW [http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/10348] on DIYbio.
James King is a speculative designer working in the field of biological science to investigate the implications of future biotechnologies. He collaborates with scientists and works between the lab and studio to design potential applications for their research. Together they imagine what might be possible if technologies developed in the lab become adopted by people in their everyday lives. This results in objects, films and images that are exhibited in order to elicit debate on the desirable and undesirable qualities of future biotechnologies.
I first met him at iGEM 09, where he was part of the Cambridge team, who developed pigmented E coli, called “E. chromi”. Together with Daisy Ginsberg, he built an amazing (multi-) award-winning fantasy about the bio-political-cultural future of coloured organisms (and coloured poop). He also speculates on the measurement of what is life (Cellularity) and explored the meaning of artificial meat.
What drives him is his curiosity “to understand what biotech will really mean in everyday life.” I asked him what he’d be doing if he weren’t a speculative designer. He said, he’d actually want to “spend half my time as an interaction designer working with less-speculative technologies for today’s tech companies. I’d be doing more of that.”
When I asked him what the panelists should tell the SXSW crowd about the future and impact DIYbio. He pointed out that, “at moment, DIYBio is about demystifying biotechnology. Lifting back the curtain and showing people that its not magic and certainly not macabre. I’m not sure what the role of the citizen-scientist is in the future and whether they’ll be able to compete with large, well-funded labs, but the DIYBio community is a melting pot of designers, hackers, PHDs, ethicists and from this, new and exciting ways of working are bound to emerge.”
I’m looking forward to adding James perspective to the panel.
