Jasmijn van der Weide, Jeroen van Kempen, Lovisa Minkiwicz, 2nd year students have been selected to present at the Biodesign Challenge Summit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on 22-23 June in New York City. The Biodesign Challenge (BDC) is a university competition, that partners college students with scientists to envision new ways to harness living systems and biotechnology. The students have been working with professors, scientists, and subject-matter experts to explore the possible ways biotechnology may reshape our lives.
The group designed a speculative context to open the debate between design, technology and ethics. The Par-tu-ri-ent project is about future parents and childbearing, with the possibility to grow and design your child in an external pod. By shifting the focus of the discussion from a purely scientific approach to a social approach, we can get a realistic impression of what the consequences of the progress of biotechnology and biodesign could be.
The project was supervised by Katja Gruijters and Sander Luske. With support of Rolf Schoeber, Peter Traag and Judith van den Boom and Dr. Jeroen de Ridder & Dr. Wigard Kloosterman, Dr. Terry Vrijenhoek ,University Medical Center Utrecht, University Medical Center Utrecht, Emy Kool, Ethicist, University Medical Center Utrecht, Sos Astrup, Midwife, Hans Bergmans PhD, (retired) NIPHE, Actors Annebel Overbeeke, Harun Balci, Grace van der Zee.