XenoCells

BACKGROUND: XenoCells was a computational design system research project, resulting in a 2.3-metre tall column robotically 3D-printed in multiple materials. It was exhibited at Exo-Evolution at the ZKM (Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe). As the 'new art event in the digital age,' the exhibition focused on the artistic use of new technologies to open up views into the future. CONTRIBUTION: XenoCells proposes a design language at multiple scales: ornamental detail, furniture, architectural elements, and larger structures. It is based on the algorithms simulating biological cellular growth (i.e. morphogenesis), where cells are able to locally differentiate, reacting to "nutrients" and "inhibitors." The result is a complex design world where unseen intricacy populates familiar objects and chunks of architecture. Through her design research lab Wonderlab (Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London), this work demonstrates Andrasek's ongoing research into the generative potential of computational design systems, in a search for the materialisation of the phenomenal - that which is perceived by the senses - by including imperceptible entities, resulting in a new strangeness of emerging effects. SIGNIFICANCE: Xenocells was selected for exhibition at the ZKM: a renowned cultural institution for collaborations in spatial and time-based arts and the 'Mecca of Media Arts' (Peter Weibel, curator). XenoCells featured in the exhibition catalogue published by ZKM. It was also exhibited at 'Meta Utopia - Between Process and Poetry' (Zaha Hadid Gallery, London, 2016). It was the subject of the article 'Xenocells: In the Mood for the Unseen' by Andrasek, published in the peer-reviewed journal Architectural Design, Vol. 86 (6), 2016, Wiley, UK, pp. 90-95), and the book 'Evoking through Design: Contemporary Moods in Architecture' (Wiley, UK, 2017). In 2017, the project was selected for the Imprimer la monde (Code the world) exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.