For week one, “Speculative Thinking and Design”, I choose <The 3D Additivist Cookbook> as my book. According to the brief, I will “reflect on speculation as a methodology for both research and design and/ or test out writing in a speculative mode in relation to your group work.”
The introduction of ‘The 3D Additivist Cookbook’
The 3D Additivist Cookbook (2017), devised and edited by Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke, is a free compendium of imaginative, provocative works from over 100 world-leading artists, activists and theorists. The 3D Additivist Cookbook contains .obj and .stl files for the 3D printer, as well as critical and fictional texts, templates, recipes, (im)practical designs and methodologies for living in this most contradictory of times. In March 2015 Allahyari & Rourke released The 3D Additivist Manifesto, a call to push the 3D printer and other creative technologies, to their absolute limits and beyond into the realm of the speculative, the provocative and the weird. The 3D Additivist Cookbook is composed of responses to that call, an extensive catalog of digital forms, material actions, and post-humanist methodologies and impressions. #Additivism is a portmanteau of additive and activism: a movement concerned with critiquing ‘radical’ new technologies in fablabs, workshops, and classrooms; at social, ecological, and global scales. The 3D Additivist Cookbook questions whether it’s possible to change the world without also changing ourselves, and what the implications are of taking a position.
I believe <The 3D Additivist Cookbook> is a “deviant” book, with full of crazy ideas, such as tools, organs, installations and clothes. Artists use 3D printers to create artefacts to announce their opinions and are they consider. Those artefacts look elegant and joyful or cause physical discomfort. I can feel their mockery of some of the irrationalities of real life or their concern for future circumstances. This book is like an artists’ carnival.
One of the most impressive artefacts is by Cathrine Disney. Cathrine uses 3D painter print bionic skins. They are densely attached to the body and look like corroded human skin. It forms a solid visual effect. This devastating effect caused me physical discomfort, but at the same time, it impressed me.
In the year 2100, the unrestricted burning of fossil fuels has led to severe consequences for our planet. When fresh water from the melting polar ice caps flooded into the Northern Atlantic, it shut off the Gulf stream, sending europe into ice age in less than 3 years. The increase in more frequent and intense heat waves has caused several of the lakes in the UsA supplying water to completely dry up, resulting in inhabitable desertification of the majority of Western USA. With these unpredictable extremes of weather, conventional clothing is no longer a suitable form of protection for the human body. A new form of synthetic protection has been developed to aid our survival in these new climates. The biointelligent Membrane contains genetically modified organisms that can respond to our environment. in an ice-age climate where temperatures rapidly decrease, the biointelligent Membrane begins to produce a layer of insulating fibers that matt together to protect the wearer. As the temperature continues to fall well below freezing, the biointelligent Membrane produces a second layer of fiber. These fibers are longer in length, hollow, allowing the air to be warmed by the sun and sent to the skin, and oily to prevent water from penetrating the skin. When conditions eventually stabilize and temperatures return to habitable degrees, the biointelligent Membrane triggers a malting response in order to ensure the wearer does not overheat. In extreme heat as temperatures rise, the biointelligent Membrane forms an opaque surface on the skin, capable of blocking out the sun’s harmful rays and radiating heat away from the body. in order to keep the wearer cool and avoid the dangers of sunstroke, the biointelligent Membrane self- lubricates providing the wearer with continuous hydration. As temperatures continue to soar dangerously high, the scales of the biointelligent Membrane open up, allowing the body to cool and breathe. As th environment begins to stabilize, the biointelligent Membrane triggers a shedding response, returning to its original state, ready for the cycle to begin again.
From the whole book, I feel I’m viewing an exhibition. The book does not tell you any conclusions. It is just continuous, showing you some artwork. But still powerful.
About the Climate Change
Refer to Climate.gov.
“Global mean sea level has risen about 8–9 inches (21–24 centimeters) since 1880. The rising water level is mostly due to a combination of melt water from glaciers and ice sheets and thermal expansion of seawater as it warms. In 2021, global mean sea level was 97 millimeters (3.8 inches) above 1993 levels, making it the highest annual average in the satellite record (1993-present).
The global mean water level in the ocean rose by 0.14 inches (3.6 millimeters) per year from 2006–2015, which was 2.5 times the average rate of 0.06 inches (1.4 millimeters) per year throughout most of the twentieth century. By the end of the century, global mean sea level is likely to rise at least one foot (0.3 meters) above 2000 levels, even if greenhouse gas emissions follow a relatively low pathway in coming decades.
In some ocean basins, sea level has risen as much as 6-8 inches (15-20 centimeters) since the start of the satellite record. Regional differences exist because of natural variability in the strength of winds and ocean currents, which influence how much and where the deeper layers of the ocean store heat.”
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