- Biodesign Academy
- Posts
- New Community Spaces, Opportunities, and Insights
New Community Spaces, Opportunities, and Insights
Another eventful week for Biodesign Community as 2024 draws to a close
Hello Biodesign Community,
As the festive season brings us together, we’re celebrating the spirit of collaboration and innovation that defines the biodesign community. This week’s newsletter highlights opportunities and inspiration to keep your creativity flowing into the new year:
Community Connection: The Biodesign Challenge launches a new Discord server, a perfect space to share ideas and discoveries during this reflective season.
New Horizons: Showcase your vision at the How to Grow a Biodesigner? conference in Paris or start 2025 with purpose by applying for the transformative MA Art & Ecology programme.
Inspiration for the Season: Read about Gabriela Farias’ community-driven exploration of mycelium biomaterials or discover the playful world of biotic gaming for a fun and innovative twist on holiday downtime.
Let’s end the year on a note of shared purpose and creativity—building a future inspired by biodesign!

Gif by discordofficial on Giphy
Biodesign Challenge Launches a Community Discord Server
The Biodesign Challenge (BDC) has unveiled a new Discord server, designed to bring together the global biodesign community in an inclusive, real-time space.
The server is dedicated to fostering collaboration, exchanging ideas, and advancing the vibrant intersection of biotechnology, art, and design.
Whether you're a DIY biologist, a biotech startup founder, or simply someone passionate about sustainable innovation, the server offers a hub for:
✨ Link sharing: Discover and share cutting-edge research, resources, and opportunities.
🗨️ Casual conversations: Late-night chats or in-depth debates, the floor is yours.
🛠️ Technical support: Tap into collective expertise to overcome challenges.
🧐 Critical discourse: Engage in thoughtful discussions that push the field forward.
Who’s it for? Everyone! From material scientists to landscape architects, policymakers to postal workers, and furniture designers to philosophers, if you believe in the promise of biodesign, this space is for you.
Community Guidelines: While the server champions free exchange of ideas, moderators have a zero-tolerance policy for prejudicial rhetoric. Check out the guidelines in the server to help maintain a respectful and supportive environment.
🔗 Join the conversation and help grow the biodesign community.
🌱 Are you a student or young graduate passionate about biodesign? Here’s your chance to showcase your work at the upcoming conference ‘How to Grow a Biodesigner?’ hosted on-site at the Learning Planet Institute in Paris on February 28th, 2025.
🔬 Why participate? Biodesign is a vibrant, interdisciplinary field that invites dialogue across design, science, and innovation. This event bridges academic researchers and practitioners, fostering discussions about the learning journeys and diverse methodologies that shape biodesign today and tomorrow.
Who should apply?
➡️ You’re the perfect fit if:
You’re a 3rd-year bachelor’s student, master’s student, PhD candidate, or recent graduate (less than two years out).
Your project involves living matter, bioreceptive materials, or more-than-human organisms.
You’re eager to share ideas, network, and find collaborators for future endeavors.
🗓️ Key Dates
Application Deadline: January 16th, 2025
Poster Submission (if selected): February 16th, 2025 (Note: Posters must be in English, and the organizers will handle printing)
Apply through the application form, and be part of shaping the future of biodesign!
For questions, contact Louise at [email protected].
Call for Applications: MA Art & Ecology
Are you an artist or a graduate ready to tackle today’s most pressing ecological challenges through your practice? The MA Art & Ecology is a unique fifteen-month, studio-based postgraduate programme designed for those who want to create meaningful, transformative art that addresses climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, environmental and social justice, and more.
Who is it for? This programme welcomes artists from all disciplines—painting, sculpture, textiles, video, digital media, and beyond—alongside practices like regenerative materials, inter-species care, sustainable data, and ritual. Whether your focus is rural, urban, marine, or scientific, this MA offers the space to engage deeply with ecological contexts.
💡 Learn more and apply now through this link.
Publication Highlight: Giving sense to mycelium biomaterials through community-driven biodesign
Author: Farias, Gabriela
Type of publication: Masters’ Thesis
Abstract
Mycelium has emerged as a significant material in biodesign and artistic research, particularly for its sustainable applications in design, architecture, and construction. However, there is limited research exploring the broader social impact of mycelium as a medium for hands-on exploration, especially in communicating the importance and viability of biomaterials and their role in shaping sustainable futures.
As biodesign evolves as an emergent practice, it is important to empower communities without prior knowledge and/or access to these technologies by including them in their evolution.
In this research, I investigate how interacting with mycelium biomaterials might help identify practices for introducing biodesign to communities unfamiliar with it. Drawing inspiration from the community-led campaign to transform an industrial warehouse into an urban and solar farm– the result of a decade-long fight for environmental and social justice led by the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute in Minnesota in the United States — this study adopts a community-driven approach to biodesign.
I identify some key factors for engaging communities to “give sense” to biomaterials that support community-driven biodesign, through the principles of Material Driven Design, ultimately contributing to the understanding of how to establish physical and social capacities to explore this approach.
Using qualitative methods, including interviews and site visits to Nordic and Dutch biomaterial labs, an autoethnographic study on building a low-tech lab and prototyping mycelium biomaterials, and facilitating mycelium-based composite making workshops, this study provides insights into the process.
To collect some of the insights of the research, I present a how-to guide designed to support organizers – regardless of previous experience with mycelium biomaterials – how to implement their own mycelium based-composite making workshops. This guide serves as an introductory guide to “give sense” to mycelium biomaterials via an approach to community-driven biodesign.
Thesis Download link
Supervisor: Andrea Botero Cabrera
Thesis advisor: Ena Naito
Keywords: biodesign, community-driven biodesign, co-design, community engagement, mycelium, mycelium biomaterials
Blog Article Catch Up: Computer Gaming with Bacteria? A Peculiar World of Biotic Gaming
Did you know your next gaming opponent could be... a living microbe? Read about the fascinating world of biotic gaming, where players interact with real-life organisms like bacteria, fungi, and slime moulds to create an entirely new gaming experience.
Our latest blog explores how games like LuduScope and Mould Rush fuse biology and technology, offering players an opportunity to engage with microbial life in playful, educational, and visually mesmerizing ways. From joystick-controlled Euglena to live-streamed fungal strategy games, biotic gaming redefines what it means to "play with life."
🤓 Curious to learn more? Catch up on the full article and explore the future of gaming with a biological twist. Read it here!
As we approach the end of the year, we’re reminded of the power of collaboration, curiosity, and the potential of biodesign to shape a brighter future. Whether you're reflecting on recent achievements, planning new projects, or simply recharging for what’s next, we hope this newsletter sparks ideas to carry forward.
Here’s to a 2025 filled with discovery, innovation, and connection within our growing community. Thank you for being part of this journey with us.
— The Biodesign Academy Team