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Alive: New Design Frontiers

Alive/En Vie was the first design exhibition to showcase a new breed of designers and artists who are currently renegotiating our relationship with the 'living' and who operate within a sliding scale of a 'natural nature' and a new 'programmable nature' in the quest for innovative ecological design models.

As curator, Collet's key driver for the exhibition was to re-evaluate the process and idea of design when confronted with the 'living'. How does working with living materials and technologies alter the kinds of products we make, the type of manufacture we depend on, and the design of our future everyday? Her curation identified five themes which provide a new hierarchy to contextualise how design and living technology can relate to an emerging sustainable design discourse influenced by recent scientific advancements such as synthetic biology. From an exploration of biomimicry principles, to co-designing with living organisms, hacking biological systems, or integrating living with non-living materials, the selection of 34 international designers highlighted new departures across architecture, furniture design, fashion, jewellery, products and textiles.

As part of the curation Collet commissioned five new pieces of work from: Philip Beesley (Canadian Architect); Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen (Head of CITA Research Centre, Royal Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen); Ecologic Studio (London and Turin); Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Suzanne Lee (BioCouture). 'Alive' included the world premiere of several projects developed specifically for the exhibition, including the first shoe created with bacteria (Suzanne Lee) and the first algae printer (Marin Sawa).

The exhibition, funded by the EDF Foundation, was hosted in its Gallery Fondation EDF (Paris, April­ - September 2013), and is accompanied by a catalogue and website, both edited by Collet. The exhibition has attracted extensive interest, including reports in design and science magazines.