The Sound of Sustainability. Biomaterials and new sensory frontiers

Abstract

Sound is an inescapable part of perceptual experience and, interacting with other senses contributes to the synesthetic experience. The article investigates the possibilities that Design research can offer from the consistent use of new materials in terms of sensory enhancement and the construction of a memory identity. The sensoaesthetic qualities of these open up new worlds of senses. New biomaterials, in addition to guiding the development of a new sensitivity and towards the acceptance of the material’s sincere identity, can help to communicate a new ethical consciousness, transforming sustainability into responsibility, i.e. into a dimension involving not only the objective aspects of matter but also the subjective ones based on pleasantness. The ultimate goal is the construction of a sensory polyphony. A new field of exploration that is recounted here through a design experience developed at Saperi&Co. for the realisation of drumsticks made from discarded peanut shells.