Be, Contemplate, Imagine

Biomimetic Design • Week 2

BCI Session One

It’s early afternoon, Monday, January 22, 2023 and I’m in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, California. My chosen sit spot is the quaint backyard of my guest apartment AirBnb. This location is nestled up on a hill within the Franklin Hills neighborhood. The slope is steep and the elevation is nearly frightening if I glance down, but is magical if I set my gaze to the hills across the valley. 

There’s a lightness in the weather. It’s 60°F and sunny with a soft breeze to provide perfect conditions for an author, and the little bird I can hear, hidden just inside the thicket of the shrubbery. 

I’m here to clear my thoughts and take in the surrounding nature using all of my senses. I’ve just taken ten minutes to simply listen. I hear the distant traffic and an occasional helicopter, but my sit spot is peaceful for a bustling cityscape. The leaves of the nearest trees rustle as if whispering to each other. The swaying branches of the willow make a trickle sound as they brush past each other. 

I open my eyes and the little bird, still hidden, calls to possibly others in a staccato pattern. He or she must have found some good grub or just spotted the hawk circling overhead out in the valley. The hawk’s wings hold straight and take to the wind - up and up it goes - a natural kite. 

I look down to the floor of the backyard. It is dry and overgrown with shrubbery that looks like it can handle the driest of climates. The roots of one plant is mangled and has twisted into itself creating a dense net of woody vines. A gecko leaps from one meandering root to the next and disappears into the tangled labyrinth. From the same plant grows very small purplish-white flowers. A handful of bees diligently visit each, so busy at work are they. Just beyond this scene are a row of tall bushes ablaze with deep and bright magenta flowers. The blossoms are as delicate as the branches they stem from. Just beyond the fence at the base of the yard is a vast slope of a cacophony of greenery.

I end my session feeling at peace and am overwhelmed with a new sense of gratitude for this spot. Gone are the checklists and the anxieties of the modern world. Now, here is the necessary clarity of the Earth’s organisms, wonder and might. What a beautiful symphony this world is. It only takes a moment to hear it, see it and appreciate it.

BCI Session 2

It’s afternoon, Tuesday, January 23, 2023, and I’m back at my sit spot atop the hill of the Franklin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is just as sunny as yesterday, with a subtle breeze, and a temperature of 62°F. The distant noise of traffic, leaf blowers and the occasional barking dog are the only sounds to disrupt the calm of this backyard. Here, the quiet rustling of leaves and tiny gecko feet accompany the click-clack of my typing. 

My purpose today is to observe functions within this backyard system. There are three potential functions I’m most curious about. They are the density of the twisting of the woody vines of the low shrub, the color of the bright magenta flowers of the bushes at the base of the backyard hill, and the cooperative effort of the busy bees. 

Without knowing the specific species of the woody shrub or floral bush, I will use my best guess with the help of the Biomimicry Taxonomy classification system.

The low woody shrub faces the challenge of growing on a cliffside in an arid climate. It seems its strategy is to grow as a thick tangle of roots and vines that cling on to the cliffside and surrounding plants. Its blossoms and leaves grow at the top of the plant, closest to the sun and fallen rain. By looking at the Biomimicry Taxonomy classification system the group could be to  stay put, the sub-group could be to attach, and the function could be permanent. Looking at it from another angle, the group could be to protect from physical harm, the sub-group could be any of listed in this category, but specifically to protect from nonliving threats, with the function being to protect from temperature.

To identify the function of the bright flowers of the tall floral bush, I ask why the bright color? These flowers have not been visited by bees, hummingbirds or any other insects in the time I’ve observed this plant. So I wonder if its color serves as protection. With this in mind, the group could be to protect from physical harm, the sub-group could be to protect from living threats, and the function to protect from animals. 

The function of the cooperation between bees is pollination. Working backwards, the function is pollination, which lives within the sub-group of providing ecosystem services, which lives within the group of maintain community. 

Identifying the function of an organism or a characteristic of an organism makes me consider my purpose as a designer and human. The group, maintain community, certainly stands out. How can humanity come together to better maintain community through cooperation, coordination and providing ecosystem services?

BCI Session 3

It’s late afternoon, Tuesday, January 23, 2023, and I’m back at my sit spot atop the hill of the Franklin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The sun is now slightly lower and shade is cast upon half of the yard, including my sit spot. The noise of traffic remains, and has possibly increased as we reach “rush hour.” I sit here to contemplate the various systems within and affecting this backyard scape. The following is a list of various systems I’ve considered. 

The first that comes to mind is the system of pollination. The bees continue their hard work and who knows when they will return to their home. The bees affect the wellbeing of the flowers and the flowers, the wellbeing of the bees.

The system of the water cycle certainly affects this arid area, and with it the system of weather, seasonal change and climate at large. Plants are lush and green, but in a strategic way, seemingly only collecting the water that is necessary. Though the fresh color may be due to the series of storms that this area hosted recently.

Basking in what is left of the sunshine, I think about the system of photosynthesis on a micro scale. Each flower and leaf look as if they are arms reaching out for the sweet power of the eternal Los Angeles sunshine. The lifecycle of each of these individual beings are systems as well. 

The use of the homes on this hilltop may be considered systems, as well as the system of water treatment, use and wastewater treatment that gives life to their occupants. I am not sure what system is used in Los Angeles, but it makes me consider the systems of pharmaceutical use and PFAS that often end up in water, that affects the biological system of each body of water. 

The hawk is back and circling for its late lunch. The system of predator and prey is apparent in this case.

Finally, there is a system within the lifecycle of the little brown bird that has decided it is now comfortable with my presence. It hops around nibbling on the smallest of greens in the yard.

This exercise has certainly made me consider my place in the world and the systems that I am part of.