We are lucky to welcome visiting interaction designer and educator Giulia Tomasello for her workshop — Coded Biophilia — next week. This workshop is part of her teaching platform that she has been running in different educational institutes since 2017.

Coded Biophilia is a workshop designed to learn the basics of soft wearables and the exploration of biological textiles. A space where participants will explore the potential of bacterial cellulose for textile futures in terms of growing living materials and creating speculative scenarios for second skins, sensors, and adaptive responsive structures. Learning new methods of making sensory surfaces for wearables and to envision how biotechnology and new materials will shape our environment. At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to identify state-of-the-art soft wearable and bio-textiles applications.

Can soft technology expand the ways our bodies sense and interact with the environment?

Thursday, May 2nd from 1–5pm
Please email to reserve a space as slots are limited.
Contact marc.beaulieu@concordia.ca, and be sure to include ‘Coded Biophilia’ in the subject line.
Confirmations will be sent out within a couple of days.

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Giulia Tomasello is an interaction designer and educator committed to female intimate care and its innovation.

Founder of ALMA Futura, a research and consulting studio where design, science and anthropology combine to co-create tools for a cultural and radical change in womxn’s bodies. In 2018 with the project Future Flora, she won the STARTS Prize, a European award assigned to projects representing “innovative alliances between technology and artistic practices”. Her multidisciplinary work has also received other awards at European and international levels such as the World Omosiroi Japanese Award in 2020.

Giulia offers a new deeper understanding in female’s wellbeing and prevention, developing innovative tools at the intersection of medical and social sciences. She is co-founder of the Bruixes-Lab collective [nomadic lab of bio-hacking, sx-tech and witchcraft rituals], Hogar [cultural association focused on gender health and performance] and Tides project [sexual wellness brand for women in mid-life]. Coded Bodies is her teaching platform designed to learn the basics of wearable technology, materials innovation and the exploration of biological textiles. Since 2017, she has been teaching in several Italian and European universities such as Politecnico di Milano, Royal College of Arts in London and Head in Geneva. She currently lectures at the Domus Academy in Milan, the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia and the Kunstuniversität in Linz.

Giulia is in town for the Open Hardware Summit and is teaching another workshop on May 4th — OltrePelle — where participants will experiment with soft electronics, bio second skins, and sensors to hack your pleasure and craft alluring design.

Catch her at one or both of these workshops. They’re not to be missed!

*All photos credited to Giulia Tomasello*