Quite often while examining detailed reports about the luxury industry, you find yourself reading about expensive materials such as soft leathers and rare animal skins employed to make extremely beautiful products. But what would happen if in (a not so) distant future these products were made with a very special material, entirely cultivated from an individual's skin cells?
Could we actually tattoo a biker jacket or wear a rucksack scattered with freckles and moles? This is the disturbing and slightly dystopian key question behind "Pure Human" a project by Tina Gorjanc, part of the MA Material Futures programme at Central Saint Martins, London. The project was showcased during Milan Design Week at the independent Ventura Lambrate event.
This two year masters course has gone from strength to strength, pushing students to take materials (and materiality...) as the starting points of their design projects, explore craft, science and technology and actively re-think the future.
This year the students worked around one theme – "Provocating Futures" – but the projects analysed a wide range of topics, from climate change and renewable resources to the future of medical care, migration, digital citizenship and the potential of synthetic biology.
Quite a few students looked at innovative ways of recycling materials and preserving our planet, coming up with excellent results. Collaborating with a professional rope maker and a spinner, Sanne Visser created extremely resistant nets made of a very unusual material, hair; Audrey Speyer's "Purifungi" kit is designed instead to clear and decontaminate industrial waste polluting the earth.
Dew Apilada Vorachart suggested reusing corn-husk fibres to manufacture panels for construction, reducing in this way air pollution caused by burning corn waste in Northern Thailand, while Mi Zhang moved from the amounts of dust produced in quarries and stone working industries in China to generate a new biodegradable material, a mix of marble dust, pine resin and natural local pigments that can be used for a wide range of applications in the construction industry (but it would be amazing to see if this material could be used for accessories such as avant-garde jewellery as well...).
Some students were fascinated by issues linked with sustainability and food/food cycles: Bonnie Pierre-Davis wondered through a collection of yellow accessories what would happen if farmers in Afghanistan harvested saffron rather than poppies and if the textile industry would start employing this spice a lot as a dye.
Hanan Alkouh went as far as creating an alternative narrative around the concept of a new type of meat made from Dulse, a type of seaweed growing along the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines that, when it gets fried, tastes like bacon; Inês Marques developed a plan to encourage Portuguese fishermen to grow and nurture phytoplankton to support the sardine industry.
The huge-pasta shapes made using debris and rubble from terrible disasters such as the earthquake in L'Aquila, are instead conceived as a provocation by Valentina Coraglia who bitterly comments in this way about waste management in Italy and the corruption behind it.
Creating objects that can actively help us in our lives is the theme at the core of some of the projects exploring the possibilities of medical care and introducing solutions to specific health issues.
Wondering what kind of impacts the NHS privatisation will have on childbirth, Anne Vaandrager, put together a special Birth Box that allows to have all the necessary instruments and instructions you need to conduct a birth at home, while Zannah Cooper worked on creating an art installation that can improve a cancer patients' experience of the waiting room.
"Phantom Sensations" by Niloufar Esfandiary is instead a post-amputation rehabilitation tool and system divided in three phases ('Healing', 'Movement' and 'Stimulation') that helps preventing the occurrence of phantom limb pain.
Students inspired by biotechnology tried to push the boundaries of their design practice: as seen above, Tina Gorjanc questioned issues such as production, manufacturing and ethics by suggesting that engineered human tissue could inform a new luxury market and, to this purpose, she displayed sample-like products alongside samples of elephant and reptile skins.
Giulia Tomasello speculated about the possibilities of microencapsulating targeted bacteria in a non-woven fabric and wear the probiotics that keep our body healthy in clothes and accessories that support our skin flora.
Inspired by human modification technologies, Lesley-Anna Daly wondered if we can enhance each of the five senses and integrated sensory augmentation devices in organs to hear the sounds and noises generated by them and understand better our health and wellness, tracking physiological health data.
The most striking thing about this year's MA Material Futures students is that they mainly move from real social, medical, political (Katy Shand designed a sort of floating tent representing a speculative independent sea state - Solas - where displaced people may form new financial opportunities) and economical issues and, while some of the projects start with a rather bizarre hypothesis and may end up remaining at the conceptual level or in the theoretical realm, others could be improved and put into practice to generate a better future. All the projects push anyway the boundaries in many different disciplines.
In the last two weeks we have looked at events and showcases revolving around the development of new materials: maybe the next exhibition about fashion, materials, manufacturing processes, and technology, should have a section integrating some of these intriguing design projects. In the meantime, don't be sad if you missed the MA Material Futures display at Ventura Lambrate: you will still have a chance to admire them at the CSM Degree Show in London from 13th to 26th June.
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