A developmental incubator for art inspiring a regenerative future that works for 100% of life.
Our first selected cohort runs August 2020 - March 2021. We have an incredible crew aboard. 
Join Us for Our Next Salon:
Making the Invisible Visible
Saturday, January 30th
9:00AM to 9:00PM PST
Join the Movement
Whether you are visualizing what society aligned with the principles of nature will look like or creating technology that will help us get there, we invite you to join our community of collaborators — fine artists, designers, performers, philosophers, ecologists, systems thinkers, data scientists, and others who resonate with this prompt to create art that explores the principles of Design Science.
Through creative expression, members of this program will co-create in service of a world that works “for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone”.
We welcome creators to apply to join the Design Science Studio and embark on a facilitated journey to use principles of nature, science and design to imagine a future that is regenerative and just.
Creators in the studio apply their whole systems knowledge to create (r)Evolutionary art, experiences and messages for a regenerative future that works for 100% of life.
What is the Design Science Studio?
The Design Science Studio is an educational incubator for art that explores Buckminster Fuller’s principles of Design Science to propel us into a regenerative future. The program will begin with a curriculum that introduces the system view of nature that Bucky cultivated, and spotlights creative applications to spark and enrich ideation. We will then transition to a collaborative development period that initiates community-building with other creators, sharing knowledge and ideas about Fuller’s principles and Design Science, and supporting each other in the creative process. The program will culminate in a series of digital showcases. Selected projects will be featured periodically on the BFI website, sold on the BFI marketplace with profit-sharing, and displayed in a gallery show at a TBD date in the future.
The Design Science Studio will be comprised of the following components:
Curriculum:
Explore and Orient
Monthly critiques
Periodic showcases (virtual and live)
Cross-pollinate with other artists to share insights, experiences and best practices
Curriculum resources
Community:
Deepen and Create
Join a creative community platform to learn about the Design Science decade history, context and framework through monthly meetups
Monthly Design Science Revolutionaries Virtual Cafe
Showcase:
Harvest and Amplify
Debut online auction
Physical shows at a TBD date in the future
Select pieces on the BFI marketplace
Applications for Cohort 1 closed on June 12, 2020. Thank you to all who applied!
Join a future cohort or get involved —
click the link below!
“The artistic imagination allows us to have a visceral experience of possibility. In times where we understand that the future must be significantly different than the present (for the health and flourishing of 100% of life), then there are few better pathways to realizing this than art that illuminates this future. Art that gives us freedom for a moment to live within, be challenged by, discuss, and bask in possibility.”
- Tom Chi
We are in a time of radical systems change as Humanity has the potential to realign itself with Nature.
The Design Science Studio will respond to this fragile and transformational moment by ARTiculating the possibility of a healthy world via a decade of non-violent, design-led, creativity-expressed revolution. The time has perhaps never been more ripe for Fuller’s vision of the Design Science Revolution, in fact it is already firmly underway and this decade of focus will delineate and amplify that path to get us there. The Design Science Studio will use art across mediums to spark inspiration, conversation, reconciliation, and action so that we may all band together and evolve into a world where all beings thrive.
Buckminster Fuller’s Design Science Decade
Design Science is a strategy for global systems change through design thinking strategies rooted in ecological principles. It employs scientific observations as a foundation for intentional and intelligent design, often borrowing from phenomena in the natural world to create whole systems solutions to the world’s problems. R. Buckminster Fuller used design science to create geodesic domes, calling upon the structural uniformity of naturally occurring elements such as snowflakes and seed pods.
"I did not set out to design a geodesic dome," Fuller once said, "I set out to discover the principles operative in the Universe.”
The Design Science Decade uses these principles as a framework to reorient the course of the next ten years to create a world that works for 100% of humanity.
Support Our Work
Donations to Design Science Studio help us run the incubator program and expand the stipends that we are able to award creators for the development of their work. The cascading benefits of the work created in the studio will be magnified through your generosity. Thank you for helping us help the world!
“In a badly broken and divided world, within and without, there is no greater need than for the confident hope that the world's design can be comprehended, anticipated, and emulated as a directive for building and rebuilding a divided life and world.”
—Glenn Olds, Commissioner, Dept. of Commerce & Economic Dev., Alaska
Benefits
Join a creative Community of Practice
Mentorship
Access to educational resources at a reduced price
Engage in a curriculum designed for the studio
Opportunities to promote and highlight your work to the BFI audience
Selected pieces will be featured on the BFI marketplace with stipends / profit-sharing opportunities
Selected pieces will be shown at an in-person showcase with a commission split as well as stipends for performers.
Online auction of original pieces with commission from Digital Gallery
Other possible revenue generating opportunities (We are actively exploring ongoing ways to support you and encourage you to use this show as an opportunity to generate income)
Create with us
Projects at all production phases from conception to completion are invited to apply join our cohort of creators.
The deadline for applications closed on June 12, 2020.
Sign up to receive updates for our 2021 cohort!
Amanda Joy Ravenhill,
BFI Executive Director
Faith Flanigan,
BFI Operations Director
Roxi Shohadaee, Studio Director + ARTchitect,
habRitual Founder
Nicolás Alcalá,
Studio Imagineer, habRitual
Samantha Suppiah,
habRitual, Interdisciplinarian
Demetrius Bolduc,
habRitual, Partnerships
Eligibility
This program results in digital showcases, so art that is easily accessible to viewers online (paintings, websites, data visualizations, images, video, etc.) is encouraged. However we do intend to create a physical gallery in the future, so no medium is off limits. Dancers, poets, musicians, performers, visual artists, sculptors, writers, digital artists, and creators of any other medium are encouraged to participate. We also invite collaborators for development of creative projects: designers, philosophers, architects, ecologists, systems thinkers, and anyone else interested in contributing to our themes and mission.
We're accepting projects at all production phases from conception to completion. If you are interested, but don’t yet know what you might create, we encourage you to join us and use our curriculum and community to help you develop a concept and execute it to completion.
We invite all creators to participate. We extend an invitation to established and emerging artists, artists of color, LGBTQIA+ artists, artists hailing from other countries, undocumented artists, unhoused artists, different socioeconomic backgrounds, marginalized backgrounds or communities, etc.
