Boston-based but Zimbabwe-born, artist Natsai Audrey Chieza is founder and Creative Director of Faber Futures, an industry-leading studio rooted in biomaterial R&D across bio-fabrication, digital fabrication and traditional craft processes. Her projects harness the power of nature to create sustainable and therapeutic material alternatives. Her work around non-toxic, biopigments for textiles using bacteria, has distinguished her practice and elevated her prestige amongst the scientific community, so much so, she's one of the few designers working inside a biotech company based in Boston. She has been invited to speak at TED Global this August in Africa.
Projects
- Faber Futures | Experiment no. 5 | Rise and Fall of a Micropolis[Project Completion: 2017] Rise and Fall of a Micropolis is the fifth iteration of the Faber Futures project seeking to establish craft-orientated methodologies for printing and dyeing textiles with pigment-producing bacteria. Here, the design variable under investigation is time: bacteria is cultured with silk textile for 816 hours (34 days). This presents a narrative cycle of life that is dependant on the rhythmic availability of energy and resources. Parent cells give way to daughter cells i
- Faber Futures | Experiment no. 3 | Fold[Project completion 2014] The relationship between material and process is explored in this series of experimental bacterial prints grown on silk scarves. Driven by the tension between precise laboratory protocol and the creative tendency that often employs an intuitive approach, textile manipulation vis-à-vis The Fold becomes key to developing a new aesthetic language.
- Faber Futures | Experiment no. 2 | The Rhizosphere Pigment Lab[Project completion 2013] The human race has entered the age of scientific mastery: Homo faber (Latin for “Man the Creator”) has begun to craft with ‘the living’, and scientific disciplines are now in an active state of exchange with the humanities, arts and design. Driven by an interest in ecological material, this piece sees a microbiology laboratory become a design studio. An intriguing library of materials suspended in time at -80°C wait to be reawakened, reimagined and redesigned.
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Projects credited in
- EVENT SPEAKER: The Future Of_ Nature by Natsai Audrey ChiezaNature Re-programer | Biofabricator | Biotech Rebel Boston-based British Zimbabwean Natsai Audrey Chieza is founder and Creative Director of Faber Futures, an industry-leading studio rooted in biomaterial R&D across bio-fabrication, digital fabrication and traditional craft processes. Her projects harness the power of nature to create sustainable and striking material alternatives. Her work around non-toxic, biopigments for textiles using bacteria, has distinguished her practice and elevated her prestige amongst the scientific community, so much so, she's one of the few designers working inside a biotech company based in Boston. She has been invited to speak at TED Global this August in Africa. Natsai discussed The Future Of_Nature at The Future Of_2017 Festival.1
- The Future Of_ 2017The Future Of_ is a day of talks where we invite future-shapers to share their thoughts on the near and distant future. Get direct access to the creatives who are influencing the edges of tomorrow. For 2017 you'll be taken on a journey where your driverless taxi has been hacked, you can purchase emotions, and chocolate will monitor your health. Last year we sold out in 2 weeks and so we've doubled our capacity and moved to the heart of Shoreditch at Protein Studios. Expect a program packed w17
Education
MA Design for Textile Futures, Design and Science
- London, United Kingdom