Carla Alcalá teaches in the Degree of Industrial Design and Product Development at the School of Aerospace Engineering and Industrial Design (ETSIADI) of the UPV. As a researcher and designer, her work focuses on the technical and technological possibilities of ceramics from the perspective of design and biodesign, addressing complex material processes through experimental strategies that combine design, science and critical thinking.
The Centro del Carmen Cultura Contemporánea will host from January 21 to February 1, 2026 the exhibition Variable Currents. An exploration of bacterial metabolic processes from the biodesign, an installation developed by the professor of the Department of Drawing and predoctoral researcher Carla Alcalá Badías, as a result of her participation in the Artistic Residency Program ai2 UPV 2024. The opening will take place on Thursday, January 21 at 7:00 pm in the Counterforts Room of the Centro del Carmen.
The exhibition articulates a living ecosystem in which bacteria, minerals, water and human agencies coexist in a continuous exchange of matter and energy. Through ceramic materials, bacterial biofilms and water recirculation systems, Variable Currents foregrounds bacterial metabolic processes, making visible forms of non-human intelligence that have operated since the origins of life on Earth. The black ceramic pieces function as electroactive microbial cells that transform organic matter into bioelectrical activity. This energy feeds a central fountain whose water flow responds directly to bacterial metabolic activity. Other bacterial communities generate complex structures that reinforce the clay through biomineralization processes, forming a dynamically balanced whole. Far from presenting technology as an instrument of control, the work proposes biodesign as a relational and cultural practice based on reciprocity and coexistence with the ecosystems we inhabit, questioning the boundaries between the living, the technical and the sensorial.