Looking Closer: Cultivating Bio Design Research Inquiry with Macro Photography Journaling

In recent decades, research in Bio Design has flourished across academic and industry sectors striving to promote (amongst many goals) sustainable design and a circular economy. While emphasis has centred primarily on the content and translation of bio design work into commercial fruition, less attention has been placed on refining the methods, techniques and best practices leading to biologically based innovation. In short, how do researchers comb through natural phenomenon to discover areas of research potential in Bio Design in the first place? In this paper we share a novel method for stimulating Bio Design research questions using macro photography journaling. Employing open source, low-cost macro lenses designed to be used with the ubiquitous camera-equipped smart phone, this method can both engage newcomers into this transdisciplinary field and lead veteran researchers to new areas of inquiry. Here, we will report about the processes and tools used in macro-photography journaling as well as their outcomes and then summarize two research programs that resulted from their use.