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14 | MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Culture

Plastics transformed the material

world after World War II. Today, they

pollute our oceans. A better future will

be made with... algae. Or bacteria.

That’s the dominant theme of a sweep-

ing exhibition, “Nature: Cooper Hewitt

Design Triennial.”

On display at the Cooper Hewitt, the

Smithsonian’s temple to the culture of

design on upper Fifth Avenue in New

York, are objects you might once have

expected only at a science museum:

Proteins found in silkworms are repur-

posed as surgical screws and optical

lenses. Electronically active bacteria

power a light fixture.

Heedless exploitation of resources

has undergirded industrial society and

is quickly becoming untenable. This

exhibition celebrates ambitious col-

laborations by teams of designers and

scientists striving to achieve human

ends in ways that don’t require extract-

ing fossil fuels from the earth, for

example, and that restore such vast

damaged realms as oceans. The “Na-

ture” triennial, which will be on view

through Jan. 20, is positing no less than

a new relationship between the human

and the natural.

It displays some 60 projects and

products from around the world that

define a reconciliation of biosphere and

technosphere, as Koert van Mensvoort,

a Dutch artist and philosopher, puts it

in the show’s excellent catalog. (The

exhibition was organized with the Cube

design museum, in Kerkrade, the

Netherlands.)

The Cooper Hewitt’s curators are

illuminating how environmental chal-

lenges are scrambling the roles of

designers, scientists and the museum

itself. “Nature” isn’t an easy fit for the

Cooper Hewitt. Built upon a decorative

arts foundation, the museum’s tradi-

tional mission has been to promote

“good” design — of office furniture,

gadgets and appliances — and the

singular talents who create it.

In “Nature,” designers and re-

searchers pose bigger questions, envi-

sioning possibilities that may not be

realized for decades, and help us un-

derstand arcane data at nano and

macro scale. To address fundamental

issues in climate change and habitat

loss, with their potential for mass

extinctions, requires that a creative

designer invest passion (and subsume

the ego) in a collaboration with scien-

tists working at the cutting edge of

research.

The curators maintain that scien-

tists, too, are “designers” of organisms

like bacteria and yeast, which are

becoming the components of new

materials and products.

BIOSYNTHESIS AND BEYOND

Project intentions are frequently reme-

dial rather than exploitative: restoring

a fragile world that has been depleted,

polluted, eroded and fragmented by

human activity.

Algae and bacteria are abundant,

and the museum shows how such

substances replace destructive indus-

trial materials, especially petroleum-

based plastics. Curators highlight an

ethereal translucent raincoat made out

of algae by Charlotte McCurdy while

she was a graduate student at the

Rhode Island School of Design. In her

thesis, “After Ancient Sunlight,” Ms.

McCurdy developed a carbon-negative,

algae-based plastic. Making the rain-

coat actually reduces the amount of

the atmospheric gas that is warming

the planet, Ms. McCurdy said.

Inspired by the way coral forms in

nature, Ginger Krieg Dosier and her

partner, Michael Dosier, use biotech-

nology to “grow” concrete bricks that

don’t require high-temperature firing,

thereby reducing energy use and

carbon emission that warm the planet.

Nutrients and micro-organisms cured

their Biocement bricks, which are

made in Durham, N.C.

Many of the projects shown range

well beyond the biosynthetic to help us

see nature and our relationship to it in

a new light. Nacadia is an immersive

therapy forest garden at the Arbore-

tum in Hoersholm, Denmark. Designed

by a landscape architect, Ulrika K.

Stigsdotter of the University of Copen-

hagen, the program puts into practice

a growing body of research that sup-

ports the idea that engagement with

nature is healing, especially for those

with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Bamboo Theater is a domed

structure made by bending flexible and

resilient bamboo stalks and weaving

them together. The structure barely

alters its setting, yet the architect Xu

Tiantian conceived it to strengthen

social and cultural bonds in Hengkeng,

China, a remote mountain village.

MANIPULATING NATURE

The Cooper Hewitt’s curatorial team of

Caitlin Condell, Andrea Lipps and

Matilda McQuaid, working with Cube’s

Gene Bertrand and Hans Gubbels,

argues that we can’t afford to think of

nature as the implacable foe that must

be civilized, as Western culture has

long done. The difference is underlined

by examples drawn from the Cooper

Hewitt’s collection, in a section called

“Nature by Design.” In fabrics and

objects, nature is deployed as exqui-

sitely cultivated flowers and trees

useful in ornamenting lives.

But environmental challenges can

seem overwhelming, paralyzing action.

In such times, a talented designer can

compel society to respond by suc-

cinctly capturing the urgency of a

problem. A lovely water’s-eye view of a

magnificent iceberg is revealed, in a

longer glance, to be a depressingly

ubiquitous plastic bag. The photo-

manipulation “Plasticberg” by Jorge

Gamboa, a graphic designer based in

Puebla, Mexico, promotes awareness

of the need to reduce waste — and the

harsh reality that 18 billion pounds of

plastic ends up in the ocean each year.

“Plasticberg” has become an internet

sensation, a poster and a National

Geographic cover.

Images of matted masses of plastic

covering square miles of ocean have

drawn attention and resources to the

problem, which is the subject of sev-

eral displays in the “Nature” show.

Babylegs (2017-19), designed by

CLEAR (Civic Laboratory for Envi-

ronmental Action Research) and Max

Liboiron, is a monitoring device to

catch microplastics — the tiny, harmful

particles that result as plastics deterio-

rate over years. It can be dragged

behind a boat, “trawling” a filter made

from recycled infant leggings, on pon-

toons of used plastic bottles. It is a

rather elegant way to address the

problem — by recycling the harmful

leggings and bottles.

BEAST BY YEAST

Simulation seems innately unnatural,

but is becoming an important tool:

Designers are imitating structures

found in nature in human-made prod-

ucts, replacing toxic industrial ma-

terials with benign simulated ones.

Michelin, in 2017, conceived a tire

that could be created from biologically

sourced, biodegradable materials

made into intricate wirelike supports

inspired by the structure of coral. It

would replace the masses of discarded

steel-wire-reinforced rubber tires that

pile up around the world. Though still a

vision, it could never be conceptualized

without the technology of 3D printing

— ubiquitous in the exhibition — which

has the capacity to mold elaborate

three-dimensional structures using

computer instructions.

Leather may be a natural material,

but fewer herds of leather-skinned

cattle are needed in the interest of

reducing greenhouse gas emissions

and freeing up agricultural land for

more intense farming. Modern Mead-

ow, based in Brooklyn and Nutley, N.J.,

has developed an animal-free bio-

leather called Zoa that uses genetically

engineered yeast to produce collagen,

the protein in skin. It is among several

projects devising replacements for

common materials that harm the envi-

ronment. Others herald the use of

genetic modification and synthetic

biology. Issues around the manipula-

tion of living substances are controver-

sial: The Chinese researcher He

Jiankui stunned the scientific commu-

nity by claiming that he had created

the world’s first babies from genet-

ically edited embryos, hoping to make

them H.I.V. resistant.

Gene-manipulation and other biolog-

ical modifications are becoming avail-

able to independent researchers as

well as “biohackers” who are taking

the redesign of life into start-up mode.

The curators laud the proliferation of

such “citizen scientists,” but there are

risks when promising speculations are

promoted convincingly on the internet

before significant problems have been

solved or consequences disclosed.

“This can be genuinely harmful to the

field,” said Suzanne Lee, chief creative

officer at Modern Meadow, in a conver-

sation recorded for the catalog.

COSTS OF EXTINCTION

“The Substitute” is a simulation that

delivers a wallop. A computer-ani-

mated blob of pixels gradually resolves

itself into a nearly life-size male white

rhino, which paces and growls at us in

photorealistic splendor. It was derived

from Sudan, the last male of the

species, who died in 2018. He’s an ugly

brute with an oversize head and

horned protrusions that look sourced

from the evolutionary parts bin, but he

seems to gaze upon us humans accus-

ingly for our role in the tragedy of

extinction.

Now scientists are trying to bring

back the species through an experi-

mental process that includes inter-

species in vitro fertilization. The simu-

lation’s creator, Alexandra Daisy Gins-

berg, who focuses on the role of design

in biology, asks, “Will humans protect a

resurrected rhino, having neglected an

entire species?”

Michael Gallis, an urban strategist

not associated with the triennial, has

described the industrial world as heed-

lessly relying on a conception of natu-

ral resources as abundant and cheap.

The teams in the triennial guide us

toward a more sustainable future of

alternative materials and renewable,

nonpolluting resources and manufac-

turing. “Nature” shows us a post-

consumption future, in which the ur-

gency of restoring ecological function

trumps the allure of the latest gadget.

Designs on the future

ART REVIEW

Envisioning what’s possible

with algae, yeast and other

nonpolluting materials

BY JAMES S. RUSSELL

ANDREA MOHIN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

XU TIANTIAN AND DNA_DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE; WANG ZILING

Top, the handblown bulbs of “Curiosity Cloud,” by Katharina Mischer and Thomas

Traxler. Each contains a replica of a different insect, and they glow and flutter, the result

of thermal sensors, when a visitor walks through the installation. Left, the Bamboo

Theater in Hengkeng, China, designed by Xu Tiantian. Above, “The Substitute,” a

computer-generated simulation of an extinct white rhino by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.

VIA ALEXANDRA DAISY GINSBERG

Michelin conceived a tire made of bio-

degradable materials.

MATT FLYNN

On display are some 60 projects

and products from around the

world that define a reconciliation

of biosphere and technosphere.

When it comes to joy in hip-hop,

Chance the Rapper has a stranglehold.

Rapping in a high-pitched ribbit, he

has become one of hip-hop’s signature

stars of the 2010s by enthusiastically

following a path others rarely even

peek down: jubilation, ecstasy, positivi-

ty, glee. It’s in his subject matter, and

it’s in his delivery — an indefatigable

belief in the power of positive rapping.

Chance, 26, got married in March,

and large swaths of his new album,

“The Big Day,” are devoted to the joys

of wedded life, a topic that has made for

very little worthwhile music. The pains

of divorce, the wounds of betrayal, the

clouds of mistrust — rich muses, all of

them. But pure marital bliss is chal-

lenging to render as richly textured.

In places here, Chance achieves that

with his musical selections; his palette

is broad. “I Got You (Always and For-

ever)” has the swing of the early 1990s

— Heavy D, the “Living Single” theme

song, and so on — and Chance opens

with an early Busta Rhymes flow

pattern. The excellent “Ballin Flossin”

takes a sample of Brandy’s “I Wanna

Be Down” and jostles it into an up-

tempo house record. “Found a Good

One (Single No More)” lays gospel

overtones atop Miami bass.

This is Chance’s real provocation on

this album: suggesting that the same

mediums that transmit sin might also

transmit salvation. Often his touch-

stone is the hybrid gospel-pop of art-

ists like Kirk Franklin and Tye Tribbett.

Add to that a lyrical approach that

emphasizes cleverness in rhyme, and

sometimes the result leans toward the

tightly wound thrill ride of musical

theater.

Take “Eternal,” which sounds like a

homework assignment a couples thera-

pist might give someone who’s gone

outside the marriage for comfort:

“Side chicks can’t take out splinters/

Side chicks make they Kool-Aid with

Splenda.” “Hot Shower” has a rumble

of a beat, but its boasts — “I’m all

professional and proper/But my baby-

mama stopped me in a meeting/Just to

Airdrop me some nudes” — aren’t

aspirational so much as taunting.

“The Big Day” is Chance’s fourth

full-length release, and though he has

made a point of referring to it as his

debut album, it feels no more fleshed

out than “Coloring Book,” from 2016

(which won the Grammy for best rap

album), and is less sonically consistent

than “Acid Rap,” from 2013. And it’s

less impressive than either of them. At

22 tracks, it’s overlong and scattered.

And while it features some impres-

sive guest appearances — a pugna-

cious DaBaby on “Hot Shower,” the

nimble Smino on “Eternal” — it also

includes some likely first-time hip-hop

collaborations — Death Cab for Cutie

on “Do You Remember,” CocoRosie on

“Roo,” Randy Newman on “5 Year

Plan” — that maybe didn’t need to

happen. (On “Zanies and Fools,” the

sung intro manages a better Newman

than Newman himself; it’s one of the

album’s standout bits.)

When Chance is at his most ecstatic,

he often cuts his lines short, interrupts

himself, leans on the primal energy of

how he enunciates his syllables. But

sometimes he allows himself to wallow,

and his talents look different when

darkened by shadows.

On this album, the most striking

lyrical moment — the one that makes

best use of his gift for unlikely rhyme

and his penchant for thick storytelling

— is the most somber. “We Go High” is

the story of how Chance almost didn’t

get what he wanted, how he got in his

own way on the path to joy. The mood

is glum and resigned, but that means

that Chance can’t rely on his own

liveliness. He opens the song holding a

knife to his own chest:

Lies on my breath, she say she couldn’t

take the smell of it

Tired of the rumors, every room had a

elephant

Tryna find her shoes, rummaging

through the skeletons

She took away sex, took me out of my

element

I tried to do the single-dad

mingle-dance

At the club with the iron in my

wrinkled pants

You could fall much faster than you

think you can

It’s cleareyed and convincing — not

the wide-eyed boasts of unchallenged

love, but the downcast acceptance of a

love you have to fight for. It’s entranc-

ing enough to make you wonder what

his divorce album might sound like.

Will odes to joy make fans happy?

ALBUM REVIEW

Chance the Rapper

attempts to convey the

jubilation of married life

BY JON CARAMANICA

Chance the Rapper’s marriage provided the bulk of his inspiration for “The Big Day.”

BURAK CINGI/REDFERNS, VIA GETTY IMAGES
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