Designs from the Material Beliefs collaborations are featured in Nowhere/Now/Here, an international exhibition at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial in Gijon Spain. The show features more than 60 works ranging from everyday products, fashion, jewellery to installations and live performances.

Roberta Bosco wrote a full page article on Material Beliefs for the national paper El Pais, read the article online or download a PDF version.

The exhibition runs until 24th April 2009.

above: the foyer at LABoral

above: Jimmy with the Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots

above: Pink version of the Vital Signs monitors

Crossing Over opens tonight at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. The exhibition takes place throughout the newly refurbished building, located at the north end Albemarle Street near Green Park, London (directions here).

Material Beliefs joins Anne Brodie, Alex Bunn, Eggebert-and-Gould, Kathleen Rogers, Carl Stevenson and Phoebe von Held as exhibitors. Curated by Artakt the show explores exchanges in art & biotechnology, here’s a flyer with more information.

Come along and see the work, and join us also for an evening of discussion about our experiences of collaboration between biotechnology and design on the 22nd October, more details here.

Natural History is showing at Selfridges Wonder Wall exhibition space. It features the work of Kelly McCallum, Melanie Georgacopoulos, Eric Klarenbeek and also Biojewellery.

As a speculative project, rather than a realised product, it’s great that Biojewellery has been invited into a retail environment like Selfridges, and I accompanied Steve Jackman to film conversations with shoppers.

We spoke with anyone who was brave enough to chat to camera, about the work on show in the exhibition, and more generally about collaborations between designers and engineers, impressions of biotechnology, and the relationship between science and the public.

We’ll shortly be posting a short film with excerpts of these conversations, thanks for those who stopped and gave their consent! Thanks also to Dominique and her colleagues at Selfridges, and Jane and Lucinda who organised the exhibition.

Thanks to Dezeen who went to see the show at Selfridges and took these images…

This Friday, the Victoria and Albert Museum is hosting “ThinkTank: the Future Object”, at the Hochhauser Auditorium, part of the new Sackler Centre for Arts Education. Zoe Whitley from the V&A writes:

Debate. Discuss. Disagree. Decide? With no ‘right answers’ only great ideas, weigh in on the future of museum objects with leading designers and critics.

This event will be the culmination of a year-long programme of ‘design futures’ ThinkTanks to engage critically and proactively with contemporary design issues – from design’s role in relation to climate change and global citizenship to technological innovation and the changing nature of design practice.

Material Beliefs will join Future of Sound, innovationRCA and the Helen Storey Foundation from 19:30 on the 12th September, it’s a free event, with advanced booking available by telephone on +44 (0)20 7942 2211, or online here.

This event is part of an ongoing series of discussions about future directions for the museum, you can also find out about previous sessions.

Material Beliefs will be discussing two collaborative projects, Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots and Vital Signs, with a session where you can find out more about the biotechnologies behind these prototype systems, and design your own! Come and meet James Auger, Amir Eftekhar, Tobie Kerridge, Jimmy Loizeau, Olive Murphy, Nick Oliver and Alex Zivanovic…

The STEM directories are launched today, in the Gallery at the Foresight Centre at the University of Liverpool, to link with the BA Festival of Science programme. The directories are a source of enrichment and enhancement activities for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics curriculum at schools and colleges across the UK:

The STEM Directories have been created in direct response to teachers needs. They comprise a collection of schemes and activities provided by organisations from across the UK that aim to enhance and enrich the curriculum. These schemes are usually based around events or experiences that cannot be delivered with standard school contacts and resources

Material Beliefs is listed in the Engineering and Technology directory, with 91 regional and UK wide entries. Get in touch with us if you want Material Beliefs to help with a workshop, presentation or other schools event…

Material Beliefs took plasticine and felt tips to the Guerrilla Science Camp (full programme here) at the Secret Garden Party.

Our session was all about how bodies and products become connected through new technologies. Some initial slides showed images of everyday hybrids – including gamers and karaoke singers – enveloped within the tools of their pursuit.

Then we broke out the craft materials for some freestyle sketching, more here…

The kidney bed is a domestic dialysis unit. The sleeper has fallen from the bed after a heavy night on the sauce, assured that her blood will be spring-cleaned by morning.

Dr. Anders Sandberg is a Swedish neuroscientist, science debater, futurist, transhumanist, and author. He is currently postdoctoral research assistant for the Oxford group of the EU ENHANCE Project at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute (Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University).

Find out more about Anders’ research, through his conversation with Susana Soares, filmed by Steve Jackman.

above: Anders Sandberg with Susana Soares, filmed by Steve Jackman

Material Beliefs will be appearing at “This Happened“, on Friday 19th September at the Design Museum. This is part of the Design Overtime festival. Here’s how Chris, Joel and Andreas describe This Happened:

This happened is a series of events focusing on the stories behind interaction design. Having ideas is easier than making them happen. We delve into projects that exist today, how their concepts and production process can help inform future work.

Material Beliefs will be taking about design and engineering collaborations, alongside Yuri Suzuki, Daniel Brown and Dominic Harris.

Attendance is free but places are limited. Registration will open on Friday 5th September, with tickets allocated on a first come basis. More details soon, see Design Week for coverage of the event.

above: a previous This Happened, image from futureshape

One of the projects coming out of collaborations within Material Beliefs is Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots. Jimmy, James and Alex have been designing and building these, and images and film of the final objects will follow soon. They say:

In the context of the home, definitions of what a robot is and could be are open for interpretation. These robots are devices for utility, drama and entertainment.

For now here’s a page describing the project in some more detail, including drawings and renders. See more projects from Jimmy and James at the Auger Loizeau site.

The DIUS have a widget on their Science and Society site that allows you to build your own questionnaire, here’s one for Material Beliefs:

I came across this at Wired’s blog where the author comments:

Although their website is disorganized and bloated with clips of elite people saying uninteresting things, the effort is noble, and it looks like they really do need a lot of help

This makes me think that the Material Beliefs site could do with a bit of pruning and rationalisation itself, stand by for some changes.