RCA graduate David Benqué proposes a future where genetic engineering and synthetic biology are used to not only to address vital issues like the environment, health and the food supply, but also to extend the age-old inclination f humans to shape our environment to suit our aesthetic desires. Working specifically with the bio-engineering of plants and referencing flower gardens, drug cultivation, and agricultural grafting, Benqué imagines an acoustical garden created with science and changing its aural character throughout the seasons.
The project is fiction based in fact, with a team of scientific advisors helping Benqué conjure up examples based on real technological and scientific observations. The advisors included Christina Agapakis, a PhD candidate in the biological and biomedical sciences at Harvard; Kirsten Jensen, a research associate in the Division of Molecular Biosciences at the Imperial College of London; and James Chapell, a PhD Candidate in the Division of Molecular Biosciences at the Imperial College of London.
Benqué has integrated synthetic biology methodology with traditional agricultural practices. For example, String-Nut is a hollow, perforated shell that acts as a resonance chamber for the chewing sounds of bugs that have been engineered to chew in rhythm (not unlike fireflies lighting in sync). In addition to using selective breeding techniques to create the ideal shell shape, grafting is used to produce trees that bear nuts with harmonic note combinations, pictured above.
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