Bioprinting & Biofabrication for Artists & Designers (Topics in ITP)

Biofabrication has existed as a concept for a very long time to refer to technologies for fabricating living tissue constructs, with the aim of creating entire solid organs. But only within the past fifteen years have scientists and engineers created machine platforms suited to repeatable results that bring them closer to their goals, bringing into existence 3D bioprinters with a wide array of strategies and materials. Some of this development was made possible by scientists modifying, manipulating, or reverse engineering open-source 3D printers and RepRaps to create the equipment they needed. (Technology that many at ITP may already have familiarity with.) The initial machine-assisted fabrication stage is often only the starting point for much longer research studies in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, involving the translations of form, chemistry, cell-types, and biomaterials and other interventions that make it possible for scientists to collaborate with cells and living systems to produce living matter. Sometimes (often!) the fabricated structures contain no cells themselves: they are a biomaterial scaffold, or similar forms that are more about making the conditions right for the next stage of the experiment. 

And this leads to a compelling opportunity for artists and designers. The creative problem solving that scientists, engineers, clinicians, and biomaterials experts go through to find their route to living cells and tissues parallels how artists, designers, engineers, and architects produce their work. While not every student at ITP intends to become a bioengineer, many are interested in biological systems, biomaterials and bioplastics, mycelium forming, and bio-inspired design. This course draws on a selection of open-source bioprinting & biofabrication processes (that are closely tied with 3D printing technology) to introduce students to this pioneering technology with attention to how artists and designers might also repurpose these approaches for working with their own target materials and objectives, intervening with these technologies.