Biomaterials for 3D Printing

Collaborators:
Fiona Bell
Camila Friedman-Gerlicz
Lauren Urenda
Leah Buechley

Years:
2024-present

Description:
This project centers around diverting local biowastes—eggshells, sawdust, leaves—away from the landfill by transforming them into biomaterial pastes that can be extruded from 3D printers. We generate bio-inspired parametric forms in Rhino that function as birdhouses, plant pots, and vessels. At the end of their lives, the printed biomaterial forms can be returned to the Earth, where they biodegrade and release their nutrients back into the soil. This work highlights the importance of regenerativity, circularity, and ephemerality in a world that is constantly generating waste, challenging us to consider how art and science can participate in circular processes with benefits beyond the human present.

Awards:
• Best Pictorial at ACM TEI 2025

Publications:
• 3D Printing Eggshells: Exploring Eco-Socio-Technical Relations through Biomaterial Design
• Biomaterial Recipes for 3D Printing: A Cookbook of Sustainable and Extrudable Bio-Pastes
• Integrating Biomaterials and Interactive Technologies: Practice-based Perspectives on the Growth of Biodesign within Human-Computer Interaction

Exhibitions:
• Living Matter, Shaping Futures
• Biogenic Futures
• Hindsight Insight 5.0
• Currents New Media Art + Technology Festival
• GUI/GOOEY
• Into The Realms Of Possibility