Crafting Ecosystems. Algae, echinoids, and algorithms for a new biomimetic design experience.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the information system, governed by data flows, became one of the most overwhelming and uncontrolled phenomena. In response, Crafting Ecosystems developed a hybrid design system between 2020 and 2022 to highlight the importance of preserving natural ecosystems and defining the crucial role of design in the Information Age. The project is focused on a dual temporal perspective, which was apparent during subsequent pandemic lockdowns: the speed of media information through continuous digital flows and the slowness of natural ecosystems with their calm and inexorable evolutionary times. Crafting Ecosystems is a design-oriented system that blends the infosphere with nature, data, critical thinking, information, and empathy to encourage awareness of how planetary emergencies depend on the interconnected balance between all living and non-living things, including animals, plants and information systems. By facilitating real-time communication between natural and artificial ecosystems, the project showcases the impact of human communication through the shaping and sculpting of a seaweed and a sea urchin.