Biomimetic Design; First BCI Session (Be, Contemplate, Imagine)

It's been quite some time since I've done a blog post! Currently in my Sustainable Design Master's program, I am taking a course in Biomimetic Design, in which we have been asked to share our work via blog post, so there will be much more here in the coming weeks!

First up this week is a three part assignment on BCI exercises, in which we go out into nature and Be, Contemplate, Imagine (hence BCI). Below I've shared my first BCI session:

Date: 1/29/23

Location: The backyard of my condo building, Carbondale, Colorado.

Conditions: Grey, cold, yesterday’s snow beginning to melt.

Intent of Session: First BCI, getting into the groove.

Result of Session: From this session, I became very aware of the grey winter. Which is atypical for a winter day in Colorado. Often our winter days (when its not snowing) are sunny with blue skies. Yesterday was a snowy day, so today was oddly grey. Despite the grey cold, yesterday’s snow was beginning to melt in places, leaving the area muddy and wet. I mention this feeling, because it was oddly lifeless around me. Even in winter, a sunny day in Colorado still allows for birds to zip by. Which then made me realize how lifeless in general winter feels, with the lack of other life around. Certainly if I were to go off into the woods and sit long enough, I may see some other creature. There was something very still about today. Which made it harder to think about biomimetics in this winter stillness. In thinking about this then, I wonder, how does life take such a long pause in a cold season? And why does it seem to be the only life around are birds? No insects, other small animals, etc. Even the trees are bare, grass covered in melted and refrozen snow.

As mentioned, it seemed that the birds were for the most part the only life around. How do they or why do they stick around such a cold grey lifeless place when everything else is gone? What do they eat? There’s no bugs seemingly around, so fruits growing on trees, why do they not move somewhere warmer as many birds do? What is the implication here with any sort of climate change? How can life take such a long pause while still continuing back up again, and sustain this pattern? A step further from this thought, I then (have always wondered), where do animals that hibernate, actually go? If so many animals hibernate, I just feel like there would be random sightings of them in a hole or under a rock or something. But maybe that’s just me who wonders where do all these creatures find a place to go and hide!