Elio Caccavale
Elio Caccavale (IT) is a researcher, investigating design, life sciences and bioethics partnerships.
His research investigates design, life sciences and bioethics partnerships, with particular emphasis upon collaborative research methods. His projects include, Utility Pets, a series of speculative products investigating the ethical consequences of xenotransplantation - the transplantation of animal organs into humans (2003); MyBio, a collection of educational soft toys exploring social, cultural, and personal responses to the strange and different in human biology and in possible 'transhuman' creatures (2005); Neuroscope, an interactive device linked to a culture of brain cells, which are cared for in a distant laboratory (2008); and Future Families, a collection of speculative products investigating social, cultural and ethical issues surrounding assisted conception and surrogacy (2010).
He has contributed to research projects supported by Wellcome Trust, Art Council England and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He is the co-author of Creative Encounters (Wellcome Trust, 2008), a book that explores the many opportunities and questions provided and prompted by collaborations between artists, designers, educators and scientists.
Elio is course director of the MSc in Product Design at the University of Dundee and he is visiting lecturer on the MA Design Interactions course at the Royal College of Art. In addition, he holds a visiting professorship at Staatliche Hochschule fur Gestaltung Karlsruhe and an honorary professorship at Hubei University of Technology. He has held lecturing positions at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Architectural Association, Metropolitan University and research positions at Newcastle University in the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre, Reading University in the School of System Engineering (Cybernetics) and Imperial College in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering.
Elio regularly presents at conferences internationally and his work has been exhibited extensively, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Design Museum (Triennale) in Milan, the Science Museum in London, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Tapei, the Design and Applied Arts Museum in Lausanne, the Royal Institution in London and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Elioís work is in the permanent collection of MoMA in New York and has been published by Phaidon, Thames & Hudson, Die Gestalten Verlag dgv, MIT Press and Centre Pompidou.
Elio Caccavale takes part in the V2_ program Wild Things at July 7, 2011, part of the Blowup series.
