Possible applications of synthetic biology could include the creation of systems to generate power, new medical applications, nanoscale biological computers, new approaches to cleaning up dangerous waste or sensitive biosensors for health or security applications. 



Traditional biology has sought to understand existing biological systems. We now understand enough of the ‘rules’ of the construction of these natural systems and the aim of Synthetic Biology is to design biological components in a standardised manner and combine these to construct novel genetic devices, metabolic pathways, optical or electronic devices. It is built on the ease with which it is now possible to synthesise genes and large DNA fragments and the standardisation of the ways these can be put together in bacteria.


The involvement of engineers, physical scientists, chemists and biologists can create designed cells, enzymes and biological modules that can be combined in a defined manner. These could be used to make complex metabolic pathways for pharmaceuticals, novel hybrid biosensors or novel routes to biofuels.

A future integration of biological devices and hybrid devices as components in the electronic industry might lead to a whole new high value industry for structured biological entities. Synthetic Biology is a fast growing area of research especially in the US and will have a major economic and social impact on the global economy in the coming decades.

UCL Synthetic Biology www.ucl.ac.uk

Here you can see a clear explanation of synthetic biology by James Hudson

Here you can see a presentation by Andrew Hessel on synthetic biology

From a Designer point of view
The principles behind synthetic biology are straightforward: standardization, abstraction and modularity. Synthetic Aesthetics is not looking for designers or artists necessarily expert in genetics, rather, how might design and art work in dialogue with the evolving science? We’re interested in the overlaps between synthetic biology and design, the ways that we can explore and interrogate science, opening up new thought areas and processes. We’re asking: how would you design nature?

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, www.daisyginsberg.com

This presentation by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg

James King is an alumni from RCA and here speaks about his findings on synthetic biology

Here you can find an amazing collection of short videos inspired by Synthetic Biology.
www.bio-fiction.com

3D printing blood vessels by Dr. Anthony Atala

At TEDMED 2009, Dr. Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, showed a new type of technology to print a kidney-shaped mold. During his 18-minute talk, he explained how one day this technology might be used to print actual organs. Unfortunately at the time, most press and media didn’t completely get the point and started reporting about “the world’s first 3D printed kidney”. Although we are a long way from applying this to patients, the technology shows promise.
Also in 2009, 5 Fraunhofer-institutes in Germany joined forces to come up with biocompatible artificial blood vessels. Two years later, the German scientists say they’re building a 3D printer that can print out artificial blood vessels. Through their BioRap project the Fraunhofer team says, they expect to be able to supply artificial tissue and possibly even complex organs.

So far, a major stumbling block in tissue engineering, was the inability to supply artificial tissue with nutrients that have to arrive via capillary vessels . The Fraunhofer team now claims to have solved that problem by combining 3D printing and a technique called multiphoton polymerization.

Project leader Dr Günter Tovar, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology believes the technique could be used to build up completely artificial organs based on a circulation system with blood vessels created in this fashion to supply them with nutrients.

3D printing of blood vessels or tissue in general could one day soon have a huge impact on people’s lives. In his talk, Dr. Atala mentioned the shocking fact that, every 30 seconds a patient dies from diseases that could be treated with tissue regeneration or replacement. Even if we won’t be able to create life-saving organs in the near future, 3D printing tissue only could save many lives.

www.hollandcycles.com

Ron Arad
The Israeli-born designer shows us around his studio in Chalk Farm, London.
www.ronarad.com

Key objectives
- To provide a framework for change through inspirational content, education programmes and communication.
- To help seed the future economy with people with the knowledge and skills to build the sustainable future.
- To engage with industry and showcase what is already happening in this area and challenge the status quo.

The Foundation puts much emphasis on “systems thinking”, the understanding of a phenomenon within the context of a larger whole; to understand things systemically literally means to put them into a context, to establish the nature of their relationships.

Like The Open University in their primer on systems thinking, the Foundation agrees that it “is the key literacy that we need for the future.” They offer a contemporary framework for thinking* based on taking insights from living systems and applying them to energy and resource flows in the economy to produce restorative cycles of development.

The Foundation shares and promotes discussion and debate around a simple and coherent approach which brings together contemporary understanding in science (non-linear systems), participatory teaching and learning and the development of a circular or closed loop economy based on insights from living systems. (* variously described as a design philosophy around quality, a ‘cradle to cradle’ approach, or a ‘circular’ or ‘closed loop’ economy.
To learn more about the circular eocnomy please click this link

www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
Foundation youtube channel

Ellen takes us on a journey to investigates how insights from living systems might offer some of the answers to how we can re-design our future, in a world of increasing finite materials and energy.

Ellen MacArthur visits Nike, learns about the Considered programme and the company’s journey towards a closed loop model.

In November 2010, Ellen travelled to Holland to research the concept of the circular economy.

The launch of Project ReDesign at Glasgow Science Centre on Tuesday 1 March 2011 saw a group of six students from Hutchesons’ Grammar School win the first of five week long internships within a leading UK industry, in July 2011.

Professor Helen Storey is an artist who works with scientists to solve some of the world’s greatest environmental challenges. Catalytic Clothing is her current project, developed in conjunction with Professor Tony Ryan.

www.catalytic-clothing.org
www.helenstoreyfoundation.org

‘Intimacy 2.0′ by Studio Roosegaarde
This fashion project by Studio Roosegaarde lead by Daan Roosegaarde, uses leather and smart e-foils to create dresses that respond to social interactions and become more or less transparent. ‘Intimacy 2.0′ was designed to explore the relationship between intimacy and technology. When a person gets close to others, hugs or dances with them, the e-foils in the dress are activated and the level of transparency alters, “creating a sensual play of disclosure.” Take a look at the pictures and video below to see the design and its changing looks.

www.studioroosegaarde.net

Paola Antonelli
Paola Antonelli introduces a great shift in behavior from the designers point of view.

Tord Boontje on RCA Intent show
Royal College of Art’s head of design products Tord Boontje talks about the exhibition of student work presented at Ventura Lambrate and describes the themes and trends occupying young designers today.

John Cho Moore
John Cho Moore grew tired of the limitations of the industrial design process and is now trying to capture the essence of design with his beautifully handmade bamboo and canvas bags.

Michael Leung
HK Honey is an organisation of Hong Kong beekeepers, artists & designers who aim to communicate the value of bees to the human food chain & the benefits of locally produced honey. With a network of bee farms and a design studio, Michael Leung and HK Honey harvest local honey & design products and services relating to urban beekeeping.

Jólan van der Wiel
Designer Jólan van der Wiel has sent us this movie by Miranda Stet featuring his machine for shaping stools using gravity and magnets.

Sam Hecht / Industrial Facility
Branca is inspired by wooden branches that turn, twist, meet and branch off. The result is comfort to the eye, to the body and to the hand.

Markus Kayser – Solar Sinter Project
In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance. In this experiment sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process, that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology. Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and trigger dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource – the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.

Marc Newson
Marc Newson’s latest creation for Ikepod sees the Australian designer interpret the most iconic timepiece of all: The Hourglass. Director Philip Andelman traveled to Basel, Switzerland, to document the designer’s modern take of the classic hourglass inside the Glaskeller factory. Each hand made hourglass comprises highly durable borosilicate glass and millions of stainless steel nanoballs, and is available in a 10 or 60 minute timer.

Benjamin Hubert
The industrial design and production of Pod, an acoustic privacy chair by Benjamin Hubert for De Vorm. The sustainable alternative to large upholstered furniture to create a ‘room within a room’ in office and hotel breakout areas.

Naoto Fukasawa
This short film documents the combination of traditional and modern techniques that are used to make the Hiroshima Chair.
The chair is designed by Naoto Fukasawa for Maruni and is manufactured in Japan.

Nacho Carbonell
The production of one of his organic designs, using a mix of natural ingredients.

The Bouroullec Brothers

François Azambourg

Max Lamb for Dunhill
Max Lamb is a modern craftsman, the materials that he works with informing the production process chosen. Collaborating with Alfred Dunhill leather artisan Tomasz Nosarzewski, Lamb designed and created the ‘Campaign Chair’. Taking inspiration from the ‘Roorkhey’ chairs used by British Servicemen from the 1890s, this interpretation is part of the Modern Craftsmanship exhibition that will tour the Homes of Alfred Dunhill in 2011.

19.0 by BOCCI
The 19′s are an exploration of sand casting technique. Essentially a shape is pressed into sand to create a void, and metal is roughly poured into the void. Some “overspill” is a by-product of this process, which is, in conventional circumstance, cleaned up after production and re-finished.

Nick Regan of Laikingland
kinetic object company Laikingland, presenting their recent work at Ventura Lambrate.

BOCCI 28 Series chandelier
Glass-blowing process for the 28 Series chandelier designed by Omer Arbel for Canadian lighting company Bocci.

NewspaperWood by Mieke Meijer and Vij5
A wood-like material made from recycled newspapers.

The Yachiyo metal rug by Philippe Malouin
The Yachiyo metal rug, which is handmade of galvanised steel chain mail.

M3 Chair by Thomas Feichtner
The M3 Chair measures one metre on each side, with diagonal struts connecting the outer corners to its square seat. Produced in the workshops of Austrian company Neue Wiener Werkstätte.

M3 Chair by Thomas Feichtner from Dezeen on Vimeo.

Yuya Ushida
Mechanical engineering behind his XXXX furniture range. Bamboo prototypes.

Poly Chair by Max Lamb
Materials: Low density expanded polystyrene and polyurethane rubber
A process of destruction is used to construct a bombproof chair. A variety of simple tools and a reasonable amount of energy is all that is required. By making furniture by hand the unique is achieved and individual beauty inevitable. The chair takes less than 30 minutes to carve and the soft tactile polyurethane rubber finish takes only 10 minutes to apply. The chair is ready to sit on just 40 minutes from start of production.

M3 Chair by Thomas Feichtner
Produced in the workshops of Austrian company Neue Wiener Werkstätte. The chair is made of one and only one material: oak. This is a conscious choice of materials, harkening back to the woodworking tradition upheld by furniture workshops of yore. The wood renders the chair’s light construction a static experiment which could only succeed in a handmade, unique item. Like many works by Feichtner, the M3 is to be understood as an artistic and experimental examination of design removed from industry and mass-production, as art and design placed in interdisciplinary dialog with one another.

Botanica by Formafantasma
Formafantasma was recently commissioned by Plart, to create their own interpretation of the polymeric materials. As many of our daily objects come from oil/plastic they will remain relevant as we move forward to alternatives. Andrea and Simone take a closer look into the history of polymers which goes back centuries in the forms of resins and other methods of preserving.
Botanica is the resulting project, the objects displayed in the collection are designed as if the oil- based era, in which we are living, never took place. The designers researched and hunted for information, digging into the 18th and 19th centuries, when scientists began experimenting draining plants and animals in search for plasticity.
With botanica, studio formafantasma offers a new perspective on plasticity, reinterpreting centuries old technology lost in mass production of oil derivatives.

Nanimarquina
Nanimarquina presented at the Milan fair its last new video of the company. The video shows our manufacturing process in India and Pakistan on artisan way, the major collections of Spanish rug brand.

Flip Flop Story by Diederik Schneemann
Diederik Schneemann presents his series of vases and lamps made from recycled flip-flops, found washed up on Kenyan beaches.

Running Mould by Studio Glithero
A circular plaster bench cast in situ at Z33 gallery in Hasselt, Belgium in 2010 as part of the Design by Performance exhibition.

Faceture by Phil Cuttance
Phil Cuttance demonstrates how he uses a simple machine to make vases by spinning a paint and water-based resin in a polypropylene mould formed by a triangle grid.

Making of a Blueware Vase by Studio Glithero
A series of vases coated with photosensitive dye and decorated by attaching plants to the surface and exposing them to ultraviolet light.
The process, similar to the traditional blueprinting technique, turns the exposed areas of the vase blue while the parts protected by the plants remain white.

Campana Brothers
The seventh of our Design Miami Chat Shows filmed in Miami last month features Brazilian designers Humberto (left) and Fernando (right) Campana.

Recent events around the world expose the heightened uncertainties of a growing demand for materials that are both precious and in limited supply.

With China exporting as much as 96 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth metals, the country’s drastic reduction in exports sent ripples around the world. Simultaneously, governments such as the United States continue to subsidize biomass for energy, causing domestic shortages and the need to import biomass from other countries.

These trends are particularly disconcerting when viewed in the context of increased use of incineration to create fuel. The practice of incinerating waste for energy, though efficient in the short term, exacerbates the issue of materials shortages. When burning waste for fuel, many valuable and recoverable materials are lost through the smokestack that could otherwise be re-used within new product life cycles.

As governments respond to these materials shortages and imbalances by promoting conventional materials supply strategies such as increased domestic drilling, stockpiling and diversification of supply sources, there is an urgent need to call into question the basic assumption of nature’s limitless supply and to deliver innovative approaches to materials management.

In this conversation with Maren Maier of Catalyst Design Review and Allan Chochinov, Editor-in-Chief of Core77.com, Dr. Michael Braungart, along with the EPEA research team encourages designers to more fully understand material flows and learn how to capture material assets at every part of the life cycle. Design can pioneer the next revolution in business, but it will need to reframe old assumptions and shape desire to the contours of a real and living world.

How can designers shape desire for a new materiality based on the real limits of our real world?

Dr. Braungart: Well, first, the business community does not have enough respect for designers. They are currently at the bottom of the management food chain. Marketing tells them what to do. That doesn’t make any sense.

Designers hold a key to the future, but designers need to understand their role differently and learn to have more self-esteem, ambition and responsibility. For example, why are designers designing desire for toys made of materials that contain dozens of chemicals? Why are designers designing desire for electronics that use our increasingly limited supply of rare minerals?

The role of design does seem to be shifting in business though. There is a perception here in the United States that designers have more of a seat at the table now and are being recognized for their strategic abilities. What is your feeling about this? How do relationships between designers, scientists, business managers and even regulators need to be redefined?

We are beginning to understand that everybody is a designer, because design is the first signal of human intention. The question is: What is the role of the design professional and what are the responsibilities of that role? I believe that design needs to intend, at the beginning, to be good instead of less bad. If design does not do that, we will need more and more legislation just to limit the amount of poison we put in the air or in the water. But legislation is really a sign of design failure.

Designers must consider the consequences of their choice of materials. This is not complex. As scientists, we can alert them to the consequences. We can tell them what happens when certain materials go into the environment. I see myself as the ‘material boy,’ as Madonna would say, for designers. They simply need to say, “I want to use that material, what is the consequence of that?”

Designers often think they are in the artifact business, but as you say, they are in the consequence business. It is said that 90 percent of a product’s consequence is determined in the first 10 percent of the design process. How can designers apprentice themselves to change their way of thinking?

Designers must learn to expand their interests and responsibility beyond just aesthetics. I see it slowly happening. For example, in Japan, the designer truly understands the link between total quality and total beauty. It’s not beautiful if it is connected to child labor. It’s not beautiful if it poisons the oceans. It’s not beautiful if it perpetuates conflicts over precious resources. It’s not about only the right materials. There is also a social component. Clearly, there is an opportunity for designers to become pivotal players in the industrial transformation, adding immense strategic value.

Regarding strategy, can you talk about the designer’s opportunity in the context of current rare minerals shortages and trade disputes with China? Governments in Europe and the United States mainly highlight traditional solutions such as opening up domestic mining, finding new ways of extraction, stockpiling, etc. You rarely hear about design for recycling or innovative approaches to materials management. How could the designer in this case add strategic value?

It’s amazing that people think these are viable long-term solutions. These elements are not endless and we certainly don’t have enough meteorites landing on Earth to increase the availability of some strategic materials. What it tells us is people need a new understanding about materials. With the exception of two or three elements, there are other areas that can be mined for rare earth metals outside of China but it hasn’t been done because it has always been cheaper to get the metals from China. And that is a big strategic mistake. We need strategies to recover the materials differently or new strategies to design different products.

And it is changing. For example, we have worked with Phillips to jointly design a new TV set that doesn’t contain any rare elements. We designed them out.

I was just reading about Pixel Q’s new screen debuting at CES. Another example is Mary Lou Jepsen, who designed the One Laptop Per Child screen, which is incredibly energy saving.

That’s right. These are all examples that show how we can and need to put more quality criteria in the design at the beginning. Design can’t be just about recycling. It needs to be about upcycling, because we need to use the intelligence of products for a new purpose. This can only be done through a comprehensive strategy around biological and technical nutrient flows.

Right now, for example, we are working on glues in a new design paradigm. These glues can be eaten up by enzymes, so that after five years you can put your glues in an enzyme bath and it falls apart because the enzymes eat the glues. Then the components can be used for other things. We are also working with a Japanese company on glues that shrink when you heat them up. You can define at what temperature the product will fall apart. This is an important innovation. We no longer need to have children in China with a hammer taking out some of the toxic or rare materials. This is an example of good design thinking from the beginning.

How would you suggest designers begin to approach biological and technical nutrient flows into their design strategies?

First and foremost, remember that recovery of manufactured materials is preferable to destruction. By turning waste into food and feeding two fundamental industrial metabolisms — the organic or technical — companies can continually and effectively re-use materials in closed loop systems.

If this is to be successful, however, the entire system must work together, from manufacturing to incineration. In some cases, for instance, incineration cannot be avoided. It is important to modify the conventional approach to incineration and create precise definitions for the types of materials that can best be used for burning. Incineration can be considered from a Cradle to Cradle viewpoint only if clean-burning man-made materials or biomass are combusted after a defined use “cascade,” with high value energy generation and production of beneficial ashes.

Can you elaborate on the concept of a cascade?

A cascade describes the consecutive use of materials in products of lesser and lesser properties until at the end, the process results in destruction or re-production of the material. At the end of that cascade the nutrients in biological materials are returned to the soil to support biodiversity and continued soil productivity. Throughout the cascade, products are designed for the biological cycle, including energy recovery and CO2 storage and are free of harmful contaminants. In the end, the remaining incinerated materials are clean-burning and produce beneficial ashes.

If we take this approach with paper production, for instance, within three years we could create paper that flows into natural biological cycles, leaving only a positive impact on the environment. Not only is this an eco-effective use of materials flows, it creates economic value. For example, the pulp and paper industry did a study showing the paper cascade produces up to ten times more economic benefits than burning virgin biomass.

As you can see, designers have an immense responsibility to create a material stream that allows for recovery of materials and an intelligent use of incineration.

In your work with companies such as Philips, what have been some of the challenges of integrating these Cradle to Cradle concepts into company strategies? What are of some of the roadblocks you have faced?

The key obstacle in companies has been the conversation around eco-efficiency. People have been optimizing the wrong things. Many of the current issues with shortages result in part from a decades-long strategy of outsourcing. Outsourcing has become such a religion that governments have nearly forgotten the value of materials to their strategic interests, and “just in time” inventory has become “just out of materials.” The Cradle to Cradle framework shows how companies can solve their strategic materials issues by promoting eco-effective materials management design strategies in-house.

To do so, we need to redefine sustainability so that it defines what it means to make good design rather than design that is less bad. The whole sustainability conversation around ‘footprints’ is a challenge as well, because the message to the customer is, “You can minimize your footprint even more if you don’t buy my product,” which is hardly economically viable.

So in some ways, we have created a misguided message about sustainability. Do you believe our relationship with nature is focused too heavily on conservation and limitation?

The first thing we must do is celebrate the human footprint. We can learn from nature, but it’s a partnership, not a romantic relationship. We can learn from the Dutch who never romanticize nature. If you talk about Mother Nature, they would frown because most of the country is below sea-level and the next flood could take them. The key is to learn not to romanticize nature. We are romanticizing nature because we have been torturing it so much. A human footprint need not damage either the environment or human health. Good design can create positive flows.

From country to country, there seems to be cultural influences at work as well. How does culture play a role in designing within the Cradle to Cradle framework, particularly here in America?

Definitely the social and cultural aspects are far more exciting than the technical and material aspects. In some ways, the technical and material aspects are only mining the social and cultural deficits. Take Americans: because the culture has so many taboos around sexuality, it makes sex far more relevant. It permeates the language. Think of ‘joy sticks’ for video games, or ‘virgin’ raw materials as just a few examples.

Also Americans have about five times more “one way” products than we do in Europe, because they can’t use something that has been used or touched or tainted by somebody else. So in a lot of ways, the cultural undertones don’t really allow recycling.

Community design is key and that is why the designer must play a much more important role. That is why we need new strategies that work within cultures.

There are lots of stories about neighbors complaining about their neighbors hanging out laundry to dry because they don’t want to look at drying lines, or communities complaining about windmill farms ruining their views. So in many ways, it is not just regulatory limitations keeping people from being reasonable. It really is also cultural and behavioral. Enzio Mancini once said, “you can’t offer somebody the same but less. You have to offer them different.”

That is quite correct. That is why Cradle to Cradle is not about telling people how they should be. We like how they are. In Cradle to Cradle, there is no should, have and must. We want to support people how they are. If the culture in the United States is based on these subliminal sexual taboos, it’s ok. We don’t want to tell them how they should be. We have to celebrate diversity. It’s not one size fits all anymore.

Your philosophy is both inspirational and aspirational, and clearly implementation requires incremental steps. I’m curious about your plans for Cradle to Cradle certification in the United States, particularly in light of the new non-profit Green Products Innovation Institute (GPII) you recently founded in California?

Please make sure there is no misunderstanding, certification is the opposite of Cradle to Cradle. Certification says, “I feel bad and have to come back every two years to find out if you still feel bad.” But in a fear society, like in the UK, in Germany, in the United States, it needs it — it’s a transitional chain. The only way certification can be replaced is by being transparent about what you are doing and by making sure that the ones making profit take the risk as well.

If a business owns 4,360 chemicals it is not ok to advertise only the benefit and socialize the risk. The business needs to make transparent what it is doing. It needs to say that: if it gets consumed, it is designed for biological nutrients. The business has the responsibility and the liability for it as well. But if it’s a technical nutrient, the business needs to make sure it stays in the technosphere and it doesn’t need to certify anything.

And yet you need to explore certification, because it is the most important tactic in this culture.

Yes, but you can only certify the past. You cannot certify the future. And I am talking about the future. I can certify control, but I cannot certify support. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get enough young, talented designers to lead the charge and to engage people in other disciplines and begin a positive dialogue. If you think about it, there are few ways to control people to do less bad, but there are millions of ways for design to support people being good. What I have learned is that people are only greedy out of fear. They are always friendly and generous when they feel accepted and supported.

Surely, this is something we all desire. And designers certainly have the ability to shape design strategies around those positive goals.

Yes. It is just a question of time, and it is a question of the vitality of the system. We need to make sure we have a new kind of industry in place. We only have about ten to fifteen years, because the system has already started destroying itself. We need a revolutionary change and the only way this will happen is with people like you, which is why I am so thankful to talk to you. We need designers to understand, have fun with the idea of designing around positive goals and communicate those goals.

STRATEGY IN ACTION Organizations can take these steps toward more effective materials management processesDesign with manufactured materials that can be recovered for upcycling

If incineration cannot be avoided, use it effectively. First consider rapid oxidation burning options where nutrient recovery can be more effective.

Design with materials that areclean burning (i.e., without harmful emissions)

Use materials destined for eventual incineration first in a cascade. Combustion is the last step of the cascade prior to reuse of ash.

Additional Resources:
Cradle to Cradle Festival, Berlin

GP II, new certification non-profit for Cradle to Cradle: http://www.c2ccertified.org

About Dr. Michael Braungart
Dr. Michael Braungart is a chemist and co-founder of Cradle to Cradle® Design and MBDC McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry in Charlottesville, Virginia. His research in materials sciences has pioneered a new paradigm that focuses on redesigning eco-effective products and systems to support a positive ecological footprint in the next industrial revolution.

Dr. Braungart is also the scientific director of Environmental Protection and Encouragement Agency (EPEA) Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, of Hamburg, Germany, founded in 1987. He holds a professorship at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) at Erasmus University of Rotterdam in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and is professor of Process Engineering and director of the interdisciplinary materials flow management masters program at Universitat Lüneburg in Germany. Additionally, he is co-founder of the Hamburg Environmental Institute, established in 1989. He continues to lecture at universities and consult with companies and organizations around the world.

Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.

Arduino received an Honorary Mention in the Digital Communities section of the 2006 Ars Electronica Prix. The Arduino team is: Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David Mellis. Credits
www.arduino.cc

The documentary

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

Massimo Banzi, Co-founder of Arduino, speaks about the possibilities with Android.