Berit Greinke ·

The Good, the Bad and the Negative

Jay Stone (science) and Berit Greinke (design)…
Agar Plate 1

Science and design have much in common. Both require imagination, innovation and dedication. However, their methodologies differ somewhat. A scientific failure might be a design success. What if design principles were applied to science?

Science is structured and clearly defined; researchers begin with a hypothesis and devise experiments to test the theory. Although unbiased in its process, the scientist hopes to support their hypothesis with positive data. All too often experiments don’t work out that way and the result is termed ‘negative data’. The lucky or clever scientist might later find such negative data to prompt a major discovery, although the more frequent end result is nothing but frustration. Avenues of investigation may thus be dropped in favour of experiments that are ‘working’.
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Design is not so much about right or wrong answers but questioning the way we interact with the world. Berit Greinke (designer) and Jay Stone (scientist) have been inspired by their different perspectives to see if design could teach science a ‘new trick’.
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The Good, the Bad and the Negative celebrates laboratory disaster. A maze table invites the public to explore hidden successes in apparent cul-de-sacs. And ‘living’ textiles, created from a series of experiments probing camel hair as a substrate for bacterial growth, question the nature of success and failure.
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