About
It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”
- Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
Biodesign Sprint: Ocean Futures is a two-month design program and competition that extends an abbreviated version of the Biodesign Challenge to a new cohort of institutions invested in cutting-edge design and the preservation of the world’s oceans.
As with the Biodesign Challenge’s flagship program, schools participating in Biodesign Sprint: Ocean Futures use BDC resources to develop innovative design projects that leverage biotechnology and the life sciences for the benefit of the planet. Like the problems they address, these projects can take many shapes. Successful biodesign projects include everything from speculative designs to working prototypes, system frameworks, and art that harnesses the methods and insights of biology.
The Biodesign Sprint is the brainchild of Biodesign Challenge. For the past ten years, BDC has partnered students with professional artists, designers, and scientists to explore new uses for biotechnology. In 2021 and 2022, Sprint teams created projects that reconsider humanity’s role among other species and explored how to harmonize with the natural world.