Reconsidering how we engage with food, utensils and experience are high on the design agenda with numerous projects exploring such subjects. One of the latest is from Ellie Corp - a jewellery designer who has collaborated with a chef to create a series of tools for eating.

The first part of a three part collaboration she has designed tools for the first course. Titled 'Suck: a ba starter' the tools focus on sucking of a kind of noodle soup and as such Ellie has designed objects that interact playfully with the rituals surrounding eating.

Working with soft and hard materials Ellie has used silver and stainless steel with natural sponges to help with the liquid retention and the over all experience of eating.

Part 2 and 3 are to follow as will be an actual dinner where visitors will be able to experience the utensils.

As people live in more crowded urban environments with less opportunity to grow fresh fruit and vegetables and a growing desire for consumers to know the provenance of their food, the Niwa project is the ultimate solution. A kickstarter funded project, Niwa is an automated hydroponics growing system that is easy to use and would blend into most homes and is being seen as a new generation of kitchen appliance. From watering, to lighting, to heat regulation the whole unit is controlled by a smartphone.

Once seeds are planted, the app uses its preset growing knowledge to keep the plant alive garnered from working with farming experts over a 2 year period.

Questioning whether cooking could be more about experimentation and less about tradition as well as the impact of the onset of the Internet of Everything - designers  Christian Isberg, Carl Berglöf and Lasse Korsgaard have devised a collaborative cooking machine that explores a new perspective on the future of cooking. A timber framework with a large cooking pot it has 35 food dispensers containing all the ingredients needed for an endless amount of dishes. Working remotely 5 anonymous chefs control the heat, timings and seasoning of the food via their smart phones.

The anonymity of the chefs also poses questions about the need for their physical presence and also redefines consumers relationship with food preparation and celebrity chef culture as well as our growing reliance on our technology as our digital guardians.

http://vimeo.com/96913610

Inspired by the 2013 report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations called Edible Insects, which investigates how eating insects could help future food shortages, design graduate Búi Bjarmar Aðalsteinsson has created a Fly Factory that breeds insect larvae for human consumption. Echoing the spider factory from Thomas Maincent in its aesthetic Aðalsteinsson's fly factory uses larvae bred in the factory to create pate and dessert.

The conceptual micro-factory utilises food waste as the feed for the insects reducing issues surrounding food waste whilst creating a new protein solution which according to Aðalsteinsson tastes like chicken.

Experimenting with the flavours and foodstuff he has also created a series of recipes such as coconut-chocolate larvae dessert. His designs are not expected to be for the home, rather for restaurants and industrial use but the debate still goes on to whether the western palette will except eating bugs and insects.

Aðalsteinsson is not the first designer to explore this area and is one of a growing number of designers and nutritionists who recognise the importance of finding an alternative source of protein for future diets.

Thanks to social media and smart phones we share our personal lives with complete strangers via curated feeds of Instagram and Facebook and the endless blogs citing what we have eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner - overloading the information about our lives and the lives of others, but in an attempt to create a more emphathetic approach to how others live their lives the new  20 Day Stranger app shares a persons live with a stranger for 20 days. Developed by Playful Systems, a research group at the MIT Media Lab and the Dalai Lama Centre for Ethics and Transformative Values, it is designed for the iPhone and reveals intimate, shared connections between two anonymous individuals offering up a mobile experience that exchanges one person's experience of the world with another's, while preserving anonymity on both sides.

Information is collected during the day using GPS and then images are collated from the internet to support what and where the user has been and these are then sent to the users app. Using Google Images and the likes of Foursquare, strangers will see the way you walked to work and your favourite cafe, but the actual locations and the identity of the user remains anonymous.

http://vimeo.com/92930928

The craft beer explosion looks like it is going to have to step aside for the DIY beer revolution. We have already seen the BrewBot that lets you brew your own beer at home and the DIY trend in the kitchen does not seem to be going anywhere which places the BrewNanny perfectly. The BrewNanny is a device that supervises your brewing so that nothing goes wrong, it will even alert you via Wifi if your beer is going bad.

Checking fermentation rate, temperature, light and CO2 the BrewNanny records the data of your beer batch which in turn can be shared with friends to share tips or to just celebrate the best local beer around.

This project is yet another example showing how consumers are taking control and utilising technology to make the experience even more seamless.

The brilliant Daan Rooesgarde who has already brought us light up highways, glowing trees as replacement for street lamps and anti smog parks in Beijing has unveiled his latest project - a luxury ring that is a bi product of his fight against urban pollution. Still in its design phase, the ring will be a metal band housing a clear central stone that will house smog particles that have been extracted from Beijing city air in the smog parks themselves. The black dust, which is made up mostly of carbon soot from coal will symbolise a cubic kilometer of smog that each ring has cleared from the skies.

In addition he wants to develop a higher end version whereby he presses the dirty air particles and turns them into a valuable stone that resembles a diamond.

Playing with notions of luxury and tackling an issue head on this project is both poetic and practical.

Designers have invented an edible water bottle that uses algae and a process borrowed from the molecular gastronomy industry. The holy grail of the bottled water industry - this prototype titled The Ooho has been created by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche. It works by holding water inside a transparent membrane that can be made in different sizes.

The technique itself is not new and was infact first developed by scientists in 1946 but was popularised again when El Bulli chef Ferran Adria used it for his unique recipes. Called spherification its a method of shaping liquids into spheres.

The flexible skin around the water is edible and made up of a combination of calcium chloride and brown algae and according to the designers is resistant, hygienic and biodegradable.

DNA testing and genetic modification are not new, but what is interesting is that a series of designers are looking to explore the ethics of this in a rash of projects coupled with advancements in DNA sequencing. Researchers have recently developed a technique that uses genetic analysis to create a computer composite of what the person looks like. In an article in the New Scientist,  the team captured images of 600 volunteers across ethnic backgrounds to build up a link between genes affects on facial structure based on sex and race. New Scientist had one of their writers volunteer their DNA with very accurate results. Commenting on issues surrounding privacy and ownership of DNA Artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo has created a DNA vending machine that dispenses human genetic material. The DNA Vending Machine replaces snacks with samples of peoples genetic code which can then be bought.

http://vimeo.com/72085813#at=0

Also driven by a social comment on a patent granted in 2013 that would allow a gene perfecting system for future parents to control the characteristics of their children, Ben Landau showed his First Gift Blanket during Dutch Design week last year.

A modern take on the heirloom blanket to be passed from generation to generation the blanket has interwoven into it familial DNA sequencing putting into question the value of our personal data. Alongside the blanket he also asked visitors to donate their DNA for sequence testing.

Pushing the boundaries of experience with smell and taste shows no sign of abating. The latest project to explore this subject is Molecule-R, who specialise in molecular gastronomy. Their product Aromafork is designed to elevate and enhance the eating experience via smell and taste combined. Based on the fact that most of what we taste is actually triggered by our sense of smell, the fork uses blotting paper that the user can infuse with a chosen scent to include bubble gum and wasabi. The fork adds the experience of taste through the added scent.

Citing it as a 'culinary revolution' the fork is ready to pre order now.

Continuing the theme around future synthetic cosmetics and beauty care, Lucy Mcrae has released her latest film in collaboration with Nowness exploring her swallowable parfum concept. Similarly to Amy Congdon the relationship between synthetic biology and cosmetics is a growing area of exploration for designers and scientist. As Lucy describes in her accompanying interview , “We are living in an era of no rules; technology is corrupting nature’s ballot, forcing us to redefine our bodies’ limitations and boundaries,” Lucy believes that in the not too distant future we will be eating our cosmetics to enhance our skin luminosity, colour and scent.  

Speculative designer Amy Congdon considers a future where biotechnology will give designers a new set of materials and tools to work with. Believing that future materials will be grown from cells she suggests a range of jewellery that is grown from our bones, skin and cartilage. Envisioning a future 2082 her ‘Bio Nouveau’ collection replaces cosmetic surgery with tissue engineered disposable biological atelier pieces. In order to care for these semi living body adornments she has created a fictional range of body care products that include Graft Moisturiser & tone, SynSkin treatment and Graft Aftercare and Bioskin glue.

Personalised service subscription box experiences have been making waves for a while with consumers looking for unique and personal with the likes 'not another bill'  and Bluum, but the latest in the bespoke offerings comes out of a necessity rather than a desire which will make it a huge success. pillpack is a full service pharmacy that ships prescribed medications to customers doors in personalised individual packs that are organised by date and time. Keeping everything simple and personal the box pack uses simple infographics indicating medication type and helps the users navigate their way through what can be a complicated cocktail of drugs.

We love the work of Studio Fludd and their alchemic approach to design so were delighted by their latest project 'Poor Tools' exploring up-cycling, materiality and a touch of humour. Invited by the art collective How We Dwell ,they spent a week in November on an almost deserted island in front of Venice, Italy.

Whilst there they worked with the materials to be found on the island and the small kit of tools left for them. Collecting natural and artificial findings on the island (including rubbish) they created a series of objects that tell a narrative about the wildly chaotic environment that is the island with wild goats wandering around contrasted witt the new offices and hotel being built there.

They created a wunderkammer housing their engaging and delightful objects and tools which tell a story in their own right.

There have been a few projects exploring the rituals of beauty and exploring the narratives of alchemy and process and here is the latest from materials alchemist Sarah Linda Forrer. A recent graduate from Design Academy Eindhoven, Sarah explores materials, experience and 'atmospheres'. As part of her graduation project she has designed a series of mystical skin care tools that are inspired by the ancient Egyptians belief that beauty was a sign of holiness.

Fascinated by the idea that cosmetics could be used beyond aesthetic purposes, but to include magical and ritualistic experiences, Sarah has explored exciting materiality and design outcomes.

Her collection of skin care tools are almost future soft fossils exploring texture and tactility. She has for example mixed patterned hard wood from the Alpine river with bubbles of rubber as a cleansing tool and Alabaster stone as a spoon to mix oils and powders.

Known for changing the face of 3D printing when they unveiled their virtual potter/ 3D printed ceramic project at Milan Design week in 2010, Studio Unfold's latest project continues that journey with a series of 3D printed ceramic tools that dilute and diffuse perfume. Researching how ceramics both store and release perfume each 'tool' has been designed to explore the alchemy of scent and material as well as focusing on the importance of experiencing the delights of scent.

Designed in collaboration with Barnabé Fillion who is behind the perfume brand The Peddler their pipette, flask and funnel 'tools' offer new ways of experiencing scent.

Exploring materiality, experience and surprise, Embedded Drinks by Marti Guixe makes users re think their relationship to alcohol. Looking to redefine how we experience and savour the moment with alcohol, Guixe has looked to Catalonian tradition where bread was soaked in alcohol and sugar to be given to children. Taking the idea of infusing foodstuff with alcohol he has created a series of 'snacks' that are either Red Wine, Vodka, Gin or Whisky which in his eyes he thinks makes one savour the alcohol more.

With a trend in soaps returning to the humble bar away from the more recently favoured liquid pump, Baxter of California take the experience one step further with their three part collection of Vitamin Cleansing Soaps that feature an updated formula. Including ingredients like aloe and seaweed they have also added vitamins A and E  and a colourful and tactile stripe that is made from a hydrating glycerin. Not only beautiful to look at they tantalise with their aroma as they are available in enticing scents and flavours of bergamont and pear, Italian lime and pomegranate as well as flora and cassis.  

Shown as part of the Dutch Invertuals exhibition at Dutch Design week which explored how contemporary designers could update craft, these beautiful ceramics by Kirstie Van Noort are made by building up coloured layers that are then CNC milled to reveal the imperfect beauty of hand craft.