A networking event followed the NOBELini: Blind Data private view on Thursday 11th February 2010 inviting scientists and designers to seed ideas for science-design projects.
(Photos by Cléon Daniels)
After watching Holly Stead’s short film edit, Two Cultures, which documents the NOBELini project, participants each wrote down 4 words on a post-it note to reflect their interests. Designers and scientists took it in turn to choose post-it notes from the board and find their owners. Brainstorming, if fruitful, seeded ideas, which were documented on SEED cards. Finally, SEED cards were displayed and participants voted (with heart post-it notes) for their favourite idea(s).
Based on the responses we received, 93% of participants enjoyed SEED dating. 87% found it personally useful and 47% professionally useful. Comments in this regard include:
“Really refreshing, enabled me to think about my work in a different way”
“Always good to look beyond your own subject”
73% of respondents were happy with the way the event was organised. Comments for ways to improve the event include:
“Short intros from everyone then general melée”
“More time to chat”
“Clearer instructions, fewer instructions at a time”
“Publicise more, more information on website, ask people to send forth ideas”
87% of respondents said they would like to participate again in a similar event and 53% said they would follow-up on the new contacts they had made.
Words that scientists and designers used to describe their interests include:
“Narrative”
“Metamythemagic”
“Communication”
“Sustainable”
“Vision”
“Dancing”
“Absurdity”
“Pattern”
“Worms on prozac”
“Brain”
“Nature”
“Neuroscience”
“Cells”
“Knowledge”
“Life”
The question: What would you design if anything were scientifically possible?
SEEDs and their love-heart scores are tabulated below:
| By (scientist and designer) | SEED idea | Love heart score |
| (Lieven and Fernanda) | “A biological external hard-drive to access lost memory in patients with Alzheimer’s.” | 8 |
| (Nandita) | “The tangible self: what if we could decode our daydreams? If we could map out individual thoughts and innermost desires we could simplify decision-making.” | 7 |
| (Shirin and Stacey) | “Use of scent in memory loss to target memory neurons” | 4 |
| (Fauzia and Fernanda) | “Make all scientific theories visually accessible: tactile and/or sensory” | 3 |
| (Natalie and Heather) | “White blood cell model for disaster relief” | 3 |
| Brenda and Fernanda) | “Everything that is destroyed becomes something new and useful?” | 3 |
| (Brenda and Heather) | “Personal algal growth pods for energy” | 3 |
| (Stephen and Jana) | “A human brain composed of hundreds of worms” | 2 |
| (Fauzia and Heather) | “Crystal cities inspired by microscopic structures” | 2 |
| (Shirin and Stacey) | “A wearable record of life/memory/experience” | 1 |
| (Stefan and Stephanie) | “Self assembling seating in old people’s homes that changes configuration every day. Each seat recognizes the individual and their medical/emotional needs.” | 1 |
| (Shirin and Olivia) | “Remote-controlled cell-growth” | 1 |
| (Emily and Andree) | “An instant interactive electronic forum for dissemination information about discovery—signaling advances across disciplines” | 1/2 |
| (Anon) | “A quantum computer to predict the lottery results” | 1/2 |
| (Anon) | “Recycle our CO2 for plant/algal consumption” | 0 |
| (Jenny and Jana) | “Aid for blind people that projects a camera/computer-rendered image directly into the brain” | 0 |
| (Brenda and Stephanie) | “Natural systems for man-made jobs” | 0 |
| (John and Fernanda) | “A way to visualize and understand fantasies” | 0 |
| (Stefan and David) | “Bacterially-driven power generation” | 0 |
| (Stefan and Kostya) | “Retune wavelengths to increase energy output for power generation” | 0 |
Final comments from respondents included:
“Missed out being on email list of participants”
“The chance factor is most interesting because it creates new challenges”
“Really interesting people, designers receptive and everyone I met very interesting”
“Any non-scientist has been exposed to so many different ideas, it must inspire them”