Sm(art): Art and Design That Learns From Nature November 9, 2006

Moderator Ellen K. Levy, Artist, Brooklyn College, with Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Paola Antonelli, Acting Chief Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, and Manuel DeLanda, Philosopher, University of Pennsylvania

With DeLanda providing a context by exploring smart materials and complex systems, this panel will look at some prescient exhibitions that have taken place over recent years that reveal how artist/designers continue to look to nature and its evolutionary processes for inspiration. The interrelationships among innovation, the fine art, and design have roots in Cyril Stanley Smith's foresighted book, The Search for Structure (1981), and its concerns are reflected in the recent publication by Janine Benyus's book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. The issues raised by these exhibitions may help inspire new forms and significant cultural developments. The exhibitions integrate art, media theory, and evolutionary biology and tend to stress evolutionary processes that assist survival. These forward-looking exhibitions include the following: 1. "Extreme Textiles" at the Cooper-Hewitt shows how some new technologies have borrowed from nature to create more resilient materials (cur. Matilda McQuaid). 2. "SAFE: Design Takes on Risk" at MOMA (cur. Paola Antonelli). Note that Antonelli has curated related exhibitions, including "Mutant Materials" and "Workspheres" at MOMA.

Official Website: http://www.dactyl.org/thought/SLSA2006/abstracts.htm#I2