What could a future look like where we live in partnership with nature instead of exploiting it? How can new technologies and Biodesign help us find alternatives to capitalist systems of exploitation and pave the way for new ways of making, working and living together in social communities?

The last year in particular has shown us the need for a systemic change in the fashion industry. Bea sees her responsibility as a designer to question current power structures and to not only create a more eco-friendly industry but also a more equitable society and environment. Her work combines working with living organisms, computational design and the development of compostable algae leather, in which she sees the potential for a new production framework for the fashion industry. She is fascinated by the combination of natural systems and digital design tools, and the exciting potential this has in enabling future design practices for a more ethically, socially, and environmentally sustainable system.

Her work Morphogenesis is set in a speculative reality characterized by pandemics and ecological dead zones. In this world, biohackers and designers band together to use Biofashion as a political design movement, one that empowers through the creation of tools, brings together diverse communities and liberates them from existing neoliberal economic models. The collaborative work in local labs enables independent, sustainable production processes and creates equity and self-reliance. Using mathematically generated patterns and self-bred algae leather, a post-capitalist design practice is being built that could lead to new ways of making and unleash new modes of creativity.