Mika Nousiainen's contribution to the research project focuses on Finnish contemporary arts and natural science collaborations. The collaborations are
In his doctoral research, he focuses on the role of scientific knowledge in audiovisual installation art.
Frans Autio’s contribution to the research project focuses on the interplay between science, nature, and art in the context of “biomimetic design” in postwar Japan. Biomimetic design encompasses a wide range of applications of “bio” in “design”: it may refer to the forms that imitate natural morphology, designs that emulate ecological systems, or approaches that translate phenomena observed in the natural sciences into the materials, functions or construction methods of a design artefact.
Drawing from perspectives of ecocriticism and energy humanities Autio problematizes the energetic, material and ideological assumptions and basis of biomimetic design. This critical examination potentially reveals the most urgent misunderstandings that biomimetic design has perpetuated and contributes to a more holistic view of what “sustainable” design truly means at a time when the biodiversity that enables life on this planet is collapsing.