Indiana University

Propolis

Cooper Smith, Kennedi Bruns, Katelyn Fry

This three-part project explores the concept of collective intelligence through the recreation of propolis, a glue-like substance produced by honeybees, a human hive simulation, and a cooperative card game called Propolis. Together, these experiences investigate whether humans can replicate the collaboration found in bee colonies. Participants must communicate, share resources, adapt to changing conditions, and make decisions that prioritize the success of the group over individual goals. By combining scientific experimentation, embodied simulation, and game design, the project examines what humans can learn from bees and challenges us to consider how cooperation can help us think, create, and solve problems collectively.

https://whatsthebuzzexpt.figma.site/

LiveStock

Nonfinalist Project

Andrew Weaver, Emil Wylie-Lippke, Ash Havener

Many Americans eat meat every single day, yet are willing to be completely divorced from the realities behind its production. Meat has become incredibly commodified, treated as a consumer product rather than part of a living being. It’s mindlessly consumed and mindlessly wasted, meanwhile industrial meat production becomes increasingly inhumane and unsustainable. To change this reality, we need to be willing to confront the processes behind our meat, and make intentional and informed decisions about the meat we buy. Our choices and lifestyles will shape demand, along with the future of the meat industry. LiveStock Blind Boxes are collectible mystery boxes, each containing an animal figurine filled with that animal’s real blood. In a society driven by consumerism, these collectibles use real blood as a means to viscerally remind consumers of the animal life sacrificed for their meat, and to start the necessary conversations for a more sustainable future.

Maxwell Fertik is an artist, designer and educator. His research interests are situated at the intersection of post-industrial ecologies, emerging futures and existential risk. His work seeks to entangle art, design and critical theory within the context of diminishing resources and increasing levels of inequity. His courses recognize material processes and rapid prototyping as ways to create subversive languages of object and representation.