The project was a response to the RSA student awards brief. The challenge was to promote the Human Microbiome.

Conjour was a project for the RSA student awards. The outcome of the project was an exciting speculative dining experience. The experience would not only allow you to view your own representative colour of your own microbiome(gut bacteria) but of those around you. The intention was that this would make you want to know why you are different/similar to  the other users, thus encouraging you to be more aware and mindful of your microbiome. Targeting curiosity engages people with the process and creates a lasting memory. The process unites the participants through the experience.

The project was based on recent discoveries that there are three identifiable bacterial communities in our gut(Nature,2014) similar to the idea of blood DNA. The bacteria Bacteroides,Prevotella and Ruminococcus found in the gut are not determined by ethnicity, age or gender. The process of the project unites the participants through an experience. By bringing the microbiome to the surface it highlights that we are all the same under the skin. Ethnicity, age and gender are all void in this method of classification, creating a new social structure.

Research, speculative design, experience design