Goals and inspirations
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Neo fruits, created by Matthew Levy, aims to rekindle humans’ symbiotic relationship with nature. Levy strives to find new ways to feed the rapidly growing population while improving nutrition by offering an appealing alternative to food supplements (Team F.C, 2020). By combining nature’s gift with 4D printing technology, Levy creates new, juicy, almost ‘alien’ like fruits that provide a refreshing sensory experience (Levy, 2019). These fruits imagine a future scenario where we grow all our food artificially - this could be another pivotal shift in our food traditions.
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This speculative prototype plays on the tensions of nature versus fabrication, and suggest a possible food culture evolution. The idea of shaping our natural resources has several future implications - what if we could also create our own types of vegetables? Or even a new type of food altogether? We could potentially have a world where there is a mass spread in artificial ‘Natural’ foods, with human-designed foods of unique shapes and tastes. However, people may argue that recreating fruits can blur the sacrality of nature-grown produce- what is the extent to which we should ‘fiddle’ with nature?

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How did it better achieve its goal as a speculative design?
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Neo fruits sparks discussion while capturing a creative yet tangible solution for our global food crisis. Rather than lying only in speculation like the other designs we encountered, there is a clear pathway to putting the product on the market and invoking positive changes in the food industry. This new food experience sparks curiosity - when I see Neo fruits myself, I wonder what it would be like to take a bite.

The design was created using inspirations from the past (foods’ natural origins), problems of the present (decreasing nutritional value), and ideas from emerging food technology trends (lab-grown produce) to generate a new food form. From this, Levy produces a realistic and appealing prototype that effectively engages audiences. He has worked with nutritionists to create a blend of vitamins and minerals which will deliver a wide range of nutritional benefits (Team F.C, 2020). By doing so, Neo fruits offer an optimistic way to combine technology with humans’ emotional and nutritional needs and connect them with nature(Ayla, A).