‘Nature is a perfect example of an iterative design process. It is inspiring and full of exciting solutions.’
Clarice Risseeuw is a researcher within the Biobased Art and Design research group
Clarice studied Industrial Design Engineering (BSc) at TU Delft. During her studies she developed an interest in sustainable design, which motivated her to follow a course on the circular economy and a master physics course on renewable energy sources during her exchange program in Norway. At the NTNU she also followed a course called Design in Wood, which reminded her why she decided as a 10-year-old that she wanted to study Industrial Design Engineering: the fact that she, besides working with her brain, loves to work with her hands.
She proceeded her studies with Integrated Product Design (MSc), during which she was more and more attracted to bio design since this was the perfect way to combine her passions for design and nature. Her graduation project focused on Flavobacteria, a potential sustainable alternative to the colouring industry. During this project she characterized, captured and communicated Flavobacteria’s unique, iridescent and temporal appearance.
Afterwards she joined the Biobased Art and Design research group to continue her research on Flavobacteria in collaboration with Ward Groutars.
Coloured by Flavo (2019 – 2023)
This research is about artists, scientists and bacteria co-developing ‘high-performance colour’ as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based pigments and dyes.
Publications
Risseeuw, C., Mcquillan, H., Martins, J., and Karana, E. (2024) (Re)activate, (Re)direct, (Re)arrange: Exploring the Design Space of Direct Interactions with Flavobacteria. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 705, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642262
Kim, R., Risseeuw, C., Groutars, E., Karana, E. (2023) Surfacing Livingness in Microbial Displays: A Design Taxonomy for HCI, CHI ’23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 2023, Article No.: 156.
Risseeuw, C., Martinez Castro, J. F., Barla, P., & Karana, E. (2023). FlavoMetrics: Towards a Digital Tool to Understand and Tune Living Aesthetics of Flavobacteria. In DIS ’23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 2079–2092). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596085
Research Group: Biobased Art and Design
The research group Biobased Art and Design capitalises on the role of artistic practice in unlocking the unique potentials of living organisms for everyday materials and communicating these to a broader public. In doing so, the group aims to instigate and accelerate our widespread understanding, further development and usage of such materials. The group’s research approach encourages tangible interactions with the living organisms, such as algae, fungi, plants and bacteria, to explore and understand their unique qualities and constraints through diverse technical and creative methods taking artists, designers and scientists as equal and active partners in the material creation.
Read more
‘Bacteria, Fungi, Humans, all part of the same experiment.’
Ward Groutars 
‘How can art and design cultivate critical expressions rooted in ethics of care and relationality to influence ecological, social, and economic structures?’
Delfina Fantini van Ditmar
‘It is through the “not-knowing” that a stimulating and caring environment can be created to confidently share vulnerability.’
Risk Hazekamp
‘Exploring and integrating novel perspectives to our everyday through the eyes of fungi.’
Wasabii Ng
‘The dynamic relationship between humans and living artefacts will continue to evolve reciprocally with mutual care.’
Elvin Karana
‘In my work the concept of time is a recurring theme.’
Xandra van der Eijk
‘The pleasure of working in the [MI] lab is that microbiological research is carried out from two different approaches.’
John van der Werf
‘Digital media help me to envision future interactions with living materials’
Jose Martinez Castro
‘I believe a collaborative and efficient lab can address both educational and research demands.’
Serena Buscone
‘I am eager to explore how unique qualities of ‘living materials’ can transform the way we think, feel and act.’
Hazal Ertürkan