Innovation Tools & Techniques
This class explored how to create a new product through the use of various tools and techniques including exaptation, locality, systems mapping,
Exaptation
Exaptation and the related term co-option describe a shift in the function of a trait during evolution. For example, a trait can evolve because it served one particular function, but subsequently, it may come to serve another. Exaptations are common in both anatomy and behavior. Bird feathers are a classic example: initially, they may have evolved for temperature regulation, but later were adapted for flight. Note here that when feathers were initially used to aid in flight they were doing so exaptively; however, since they have since been shaped by natural selection to improve flight, in their current state they are now best regarded as adaptations for flight. So it is with many structures that initially took on a function as exaptations, once molded for that new function they become adapted for that function. -Wixipedia
This project explored expatation in relation to the need for more widely varied food and income sources in Southern Baja.
By looking at seaweed as a new platform for an economy and food source we can shift the local system away from heavy reliance on fish. In order to do this we will rely on local Choyero knowldege. While the indigenous tribes of Southern Baja have suffered great loss over the centuries these is still generations old local knowledge that can be a”mobile link” to uses for seaweed and what seaweed is best to harvest. Past scientific research into seaweed uses can also be adapted to create modern products.
Cultivating the knowledge of seweed will help to create a new economic and social platform as well as open up peoples palettes to seaweed.
Value Proposition
Platforms
The southern Baja is a place balanced between a rich marine ecosystem and a dry desert landscape. It is a rapidly developing part of Mexico and these fragile ecosystems need support from humans to continue to thrive. The challenge lies in the immediate availability of fish for food end as an economic resource and the threat of overfishing that would not only end these systems but also be the collapse of the marine environments and fragile coastal ecosystems. This would cause drastic change in the diversity and health of the rest of the marine ecosystem as well as current economic systems of tourism.
This project looks at how our platform could work to build a sea of sustainability from seaweed.
