The Sound of Sustainability. Biomaterials and new sensory frontiers.

Sound is every day inescapable part of our perceptual experience and, interacting with other senses, contributes to what we call synesthetic experience. The paper investigates the possibilities that design research can provide in this area in terms of "sensory enhancement" and the construction of a "memory identity," with a focus on those offered by new biomaterials. Peanut Butteria Stick, drum sticks made from peanut shells waste, highlights how, through a methodology of Material Driven Design and Material Tinkering, the "sensoaesthetic" qualities of new materials can open up new "worlds of senses" and how new biomaterials, in addition to driving the development of a new sensitivity toward the acceptance of the sincere identity of matter, can help communicate a new ethical consciousness, transforming "sustainability into "responsibility", a dimension that involves us all. This opens to a new field of experimentation for Design: Designing sound and defining a new sensory architecture.