Philips Design - Bio-Design
2012 Skinsucka
Skinsucka reveals a scenario where microbial powered autonomous
micro-devices share our living spaces and eat household dirt. As slaves and
servants have done for millennia before them, these microbots, powered by
bacterial energy, perform tasks we deem mundane, repetitive or dangerous. ‘Skinsuckas’ clean the skin, removing the vestiges of make up and providing
the remedies to combat the excesses of the night before They swarm over the
body extruding metabolized household dirt, dressing the body in a daily
ritual of real time, customized manufacture - yesterday’s discarded
clothing ready for recycling.” This design provocation suggests that robots will continue to perform the
servile, worker roles that have previously been carried out in sweatshops,
in an ever-increasing intimacy between humans and machines, as our
technology evolves from electro-mechanical artifact to biological, living
appliance. It challenges us to consider the ethical issues of where we
source the products we consume, the processes that have been employed to
produce them and the social and environmental impact of our consumption. Design Team: Clive van Heerden, Jack Mama, Nancy Tilbury, Peter Gal, Bart Hess and Harm Rensink
