Biotopia - Diploma project
Project overview
Few of us are familiar with plankton, yet they are an essential part of our ecosystem.The Biotopia project allows the public to use digital devices as a means of contributing to scientific research and raising awareness about plankton.
Our project offers a complete experience in three main stages. The first phase proposes to the participants to make their own plankton harvesting and observation kit,
adapted to their smartphone in workshops or with the help of freely available plans.
Then, with the help of a web app, the participants will be guided in the analysis of the collected samples and thus feed a common virtual plankton space.
In addition to this data collection and plankton observation, the participant can learn many things
about the plankton they observe.
Finally, once this observation is completed, the public has access to an immersive space that offers the possibility of wandering through
a living database. This database is fed in real time by all participants. It also brings together the community of users and scientists, functioning as a place for meetings and exchanges.
The Carrefour numérique² (Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie)
To help us in our approach we have integrated the MuséoCamp program residence into the Carrefour numérique² (Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie). Through workshops, we had the opportunity to experiment our prototypes in front of the public. We were able to gather opinions related to the possible functionalities that our observation tool could offer. From all this came out the Exoscope, which is simple, accessible and inexpensive. In order to allow the public to fully take part in the design of the Exoscope, each tool is adapted to its own smartphone, editable and modifiable, each one can decide to improve it, and customize it. The public leaves with a complete kit for observing plankton, containing equipment and documentation. Finally, this project allowed us to question emerging design methodologies that participatory science is using to think about new social interactions with digital.
Hacking de l'Hôtel de Ville 2020
In March 2020, the Biotopia diploma project was presented at the demospace of the 'Hacking de l'Hôtel de Ville' (Paris).
Winners of the WantedDesign international competition
In May 2020, we were the winners of the WantedDesign Best Students Project “Conscious Design” Awards, for the “Ready to be Implemented” category, with our project “Biotopia". It's an international competition and we were selected among 100 projects submitted.
The jury led by Avinash Rajagopal: Metropolis magazine, and including Roxane Spears, LEED AP, Vice President Sustainability North America at Tarkett; Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Jean-Jacques L’henaff, Vice President, Design, for the American Standard and DXV brands under the LIXIL Americas division.