“Ask not how I can solve that problem but how nature has already solved it, is the biomimic’s motto.”
Biomimicry is, literally, the imitation of life. Janine Benyus, the field’s most prominent theorist, calls biomimicry “innovation inspired by nature”. Faced with a human problem, biomimics look for natural models in which the same or a similar problem has already been solved. Once a suitable model is found, inventors, designers, and scientists copy it, adapting nature’s solution to fit the human need.
“Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers,” Benyus has said. “They have found what works, what is appropriate, and most important, what lasts here on Earth … After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.
Artists working with objets trouvés, “found objects” or “readymades,” look to the environment for inspiration and innovation. Instead of creating a work from scratch, the artist identifies a pre-existing natural or man-made object and adapts it to serve his or her artistic purpose.