Hyundai Research Collaborative Exhibition
A creative practice demands constant forms of seeking inspiration. The process moves in different loops, circles, diagonal lines, often etching an artwork on its own. This year's theme revolves around the journey followed by a multidisciplinary group of artists, designers, and researchers on their way to finding inspiration in nature when imagining a sustainable future. From the coral reefs under the sea, to the species that live at the edge of the ocean, from the movement of insects, to how trees flutter in the autumn months.
In the Spring of 2022, 37 students led by 4 faculty conducted research ranging from the nature of light, seeing and perception to the ethical considerations of the future of AI, and what it might mean to enable a robotics future that is attuned with non-exploitative forms of life. Students researched sustainable materials and 3D fabrication techniques, and considered how “failures” in natural systems can be opportunities for diverse resilient strategies to unfold.
After the studios, a week-long intensive Nature Lab Institute was held for eighteen Hyundai and Kia designers and engineers to be immersed in the process and have the opportunity to interface with Nature Lab scientists, as well as experience our tools and techniques. Two Sustainable Futures Fellows remained after the Institute, and worked side by side with 12 RISD students, faculty and Nature Lab scientists to expand their work and investigations on biomimicry and sustainability over a 10 week period.
13 RISD departments were represented in the project: Architecture, Ceramics, Digital + Media, Film/Animation/Video, Global Arts and Culture, Glass, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Nature–Culture –Sustainability Studies.
