Designing for the Unknow

I have no idea what is going to be my project yet. But I have decided to start with changing my habits to try to find enlightenment on my future purpose.I will lead myself by the motto of: Everything you make returns to earth as food or poison.

‍Focusing on finding ways to create things that wouldn’t turn into trash, as well as drifting to a zero waste lifestyle and finding a second life to the products I have. I'm highly interested in urban agriculture and growing your own food at home to be self-sufficient. All of this without forgetting that my fight is shifting towards Intersectional environmentalism, so finding ways of engaging communities and inclusivity activism is very important for me.
I would also like to keep in mind the concept of craftivism and how we can reinvent traditional crafts with new technologies. Learning from the past and finding apparently simple solutions to solve complex problems.

Following this ideas I decided to complete my toolbox with things I have at home to stop buying so many unnecessary things and using my handy attitude to make things.

Home made photo-call.

My personal LAB

I took screenshots of my miro board so it would have more definition of each block. I would bring it to an illustrator file so the images have optimum quality.

Bioplastic prototype for an organic waste bag with citronella

PROBLEM:
- We got a lot of fruit flies from separating the organic waste at home.
- Organic waste disposed of in plastic bags, which makes non sense, will need to be separated again.

What about creating a bioplastic bag with citronella and apple vinegar to drive them away?
Why not optimize the process with a biodegradable bioplastic bag?
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1st Role: The prototype as an experimental component
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The physical Hypothesis is, to solve the problems generated out of separating organic waste:
Discarded on plastic bags/non-biodegradable - optimise the process
Fruit flies plague in summer - use natural home remedies to drive them away.

3rd Role: The prototype as a research archetype
Using different exiting recipes to create samples of bioplastics.
Bioplastic cook book Clara Davis - bioplastic
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4th Role: The process of prototyping as a vehicle for inquiry

Creating new bioplastics recipes based on exiting ones.
Modifying them and using new materials to test their usability.
I documented everything on video and wrote down notes about how the bioplastics were made.
Using this prototype as a medium to find future projects ideas.

Biomaterials tool Kit

1st Bioplastic_

Plant based - Agar and Vegetable Glycerine
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Ingredients:
- Glycerin: 180g
- Water: 120ml
- Agar: 6 g
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Addictives:
- Citronella essence oil: 10 drops

2nd Bioplastic_

Plant based - Agar and Vegetable Glycerine
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Ingredients:
- Glycerin: 18g
- Water: 124ml
- Agar: 3,5 g
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Addictives:
- Apple cider vinegar: 15ml
- Citronella essence oil: 10 drops

3rd Bioplastic_

Plant based - Potato starch and Vegetable Glycerine
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Ingredients:
- Glycerin: 40g
- Water: 168ml
- Potato starch: 3,2g
- Apple cider vinegar: 32ml
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Addictives:
- Citronella essence oil: 10 drops

4th Bioplastic_own recipe

Own recipe, testing how to create a non-water based bioplastic to avoid it to dissolve when the organic waste are disposed.
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Plant based - Pine resin
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Ingredients:
- Pine resin: 5g
- Alcohol: 35ml
- Glycerine: 16,5g

Addictives:
- Citronella essence oil: 10 drops

Observations: After letting the rest dry the mix on baking paper, we could see that the glycerine and alcohol was coming out and it didn’t get integrated together with the resin. I couldn't manage to peel off the mix from the baking paper even though I let it dry for many days. So this kind of mix doesn’t work to make a thin layer to make a bioplastic. The pine resin is better to be used as a base for thicker and resistant materials, such as bricks.

Also I want to repeat it with less alcohol to see if the glycerol and the resin come together, because I believe I might have put too much alcohol.

Chia jelly water experiment

Observing that Chia creates a jelly medium once it's in contact with water, I decided to put 30g of chia seeds in a glass jar and let it rest for 5 days. I was also shaking it once or twice a day to try to spread the polymers created from the seeds. The idea was to use that Water in the experiments for bioplastics, instead of regular water, to see if it will give more resistance to the material. I filtered the water and pressed really hard to get the most of the jelly out of the seeds.To prove this theory I developed two more kinds of bioplastics:

5th Bioplastic_

Own recipe, I made a new version of plant based agar bio plastic using the chia water instead of regular water.
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Ingredients:
- Glycerin: 10,8g
- Chia water: 80ml
- Agar: 3,2g

Addictives:
- Citronella: 10 drops

6th Bioplastic_

I simply changed the quantity of the ingredients. . s
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Ingredients:
- Glycerin: 10g
- Chia water: 62ml
- Agar: 3g

Addictives:
- Citronella: 10 drops

Observations: The chia water ended up giving the bioplastic a really interesting texture and even more flexible properties than the first recipe. The transparency achieved was also better with this mix, specially on the 6th bioplastic because I used less material and I got a thinner layer.

Comparative Test

I decided to buy a conventional Bioplastic bag that they sell at Carrefour to do a comparative test and see if the flies would be driven away or not by the citronella.

1.Test prep / 2.Test after 16h.
There were no fruit flies after 16h in either of the samples, but I thought it could have happened because they were too close to each other so the citronella smell was all over the sample so It could be affected.

2nd test, I decided to separate the samples from each other to don't let it be affected by the smell of the other ones.

After 32h some fruit flies appeared and went to the 2nd bioplastic bag, which had vinegar, and I believe it may have attracted them. The flies also went to the fruit laying on top of a conventional bag. The rest of the bioplastic samples remained intact. So 3 out of work bioplastics with citronella drove away the fruit flies.

Next steps & Reflection

I've come to realise that biomaterials are a cool thing to do, but it won't be my only focus. Since I believe I'm way more attracted to the idea of working on bringing the rural and urban areas together. By means of concepts like urban agriculture and self-sufficiency, growing your own food. And using biomaterials as a tool to work on the infrastructures and circular functionality of a community. So this prototype helped me to realise that I won't work mainly in the research of new materials, but most importantly how to introduce them in our lives, designs and future.

Design Studio - 01