Technical University of Denmark (DTU) + Royal Danish Academy (KADK)

Kojigotchi: Your Companion into Post-Human Ecologies

FINALIST PROJECT

Maxim Velli, Taylor Rayne, Rasmus Tofthøj, Tania Safa

Kojigotchi is a playful, portable device inspired by Tamagotchi that helps people prepare for a biofuture where humans coexist with microorganisms. It allows users to cultivate Aspergillus oryzae (Koji), providing an intimate, hands-on experience that bridges ambitious bio-visions with personal readiness. By actively engaging users in caring for living systems, Kojigotchi encourages deeper reflection on our relationship with microorganisms. The project aims to involve society broadly, fostering genuine understanding and responsibility, and helping build a future where coexistence with microorganisms is not just an ideal but a lived reality for everyone.

Joshua Evans is an associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark’s Center for Biosustainability, where he leads the Sustainable Food Innovation Group. His group brings together chefs, natural scientists, social scientists, and more, creating foods to help build more sustainable food systems and to cultivate transdisciplinary research around food, sustainability, and flavour. His own work, across science & technology studies, food microbiology, multispecies ethnography, and environmental humanities, focusses on fermentation, investigating how the pursuit of new flavours shapes microbial ecology and evolution, and facilitates new relationships among humans and between humans and microbes. He has worked in culinary research and development at Restaurant Noma’s former non-profit research institute, Nordic Food Lab, and holds degrees in Geography and the Environment, History and Philosophy of Science, and the Humanities.

Adrien Rigobello is assistant professor at the Royal Danish Academy’s Chair for Biohybrid Architecture. His research focuses on postindustrial design for eco-social sustainability, through the study of fermentation, locality, community autonomy, and aesthetics.