skin

sjw-skin-01

skin mediates a potential relationship and, perhaps, conflict between sustainable organic materials and digital form generation and fabrication. In its current infantile form, physical manifestation of data through ‘prosumer’ rapid prototyping appears unconcerned with the implications of unsustainable materials and artifact life cycles. This project speculates on the aesthetic and functional potential for organic and bio materials in digital fabrication.

sjw-skin-02

skin involved an extensive experimentation phase with various potential materials that culminated in a printed book and a wearable object. The wearable artefact is inspired by animal bone corsets of the 17th and 18th centuries and the form was generated algorithmically using architectural software. The material is grown from acetobacter xylinum, a strain of bacteria that produces a microbial cellulose textile as it consumes glucose. It is a completely sustainable production method that requires no external energy input in order for the bacteria colonies to produce the material.

sjw-skin-03

sjw-skin-04

sjw-skin-05

Model: Valeria Vozzheva

Featured on INHALE MAG, dezeen, and designboom.