Ryan Hoover collaborates across disciplines and species to develop new approaches to making and utilizes them to generate objects that help us explore or improve our world. His background in philosophy, art, and traditional craft practices informs his approach to the digital and biological technologies that he uses and develops. His sculptural work is exhibited internationally and resided in museum and private collections. Hoover is the lead developer of Xylinus, a tool for novel control of 3D printers, integrated into the Rhino/Grasshopper CAD platform, with users ranging from craftspeople printing clay to researchers bioprinting cells. At the Maryland Institute College of Art, he leads education and research programs centered on making with and for non-human collaborators. He approaches biodesign as a practice of care and as a domain where we are able to explore new modes of living together on a challenged planet. With partners at University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Hoover is currently funded by the National Science Foundation to develop a biomanufacturing process that utilizes micro-algae and waste streams from desalination plants to capture carbon into materials that replace high-carbon-emitting industrial ingredients and sequesters carbon long term in purpose-designed habitats for coral restoration. Hoover serves on the board of the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. He lives in Baltimore Maryland with his wife and esteemed artist Lillian Bayley Hoover.

Links

CV
courses in biofabrication and digital fabrication
SequestStar – capturing carbon and reusing waste streams
Xylinus – novel control for 3D printing