Interactions with Scoby
Collaborators:
Fiona Bell
Joshua Coffie
Derrek Chow
Hyelin Choi
Mirela Alistar
Years:
2021-current
Description:
This project explores scoby—symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeast—as both a living medium and a sustainable textile. We first gain an understanding scoby’s more-than-human temporalities through the design of a bio-digital calendar that translates the growth of living scoby into sound. We then align our rate of fabrication to the natural temporalities of scoby growth to create the scoby breastplate. The scoby breastplate is an interactive wearable that demonstrates how scoby, when dried, acts as a sustainable biotextile. When worn, lights embedded within the scoby breastplate produce different light responses in reaction to the wearer being hugged, tapped, or brushed.
Awards:
• Best Pictorial at ACM TEI 2024
• Best Pictorial at ACM TEI 2023
Publications:
• SCOBY Breastplate: Slowly Growing a Microbial Interface
Designing Interactions with Kombucha SCOBY
• Bio-Digital Calendar: Attuning to Nonhuman Temporalities for Multispecies Understanding
• Designing Interactions with Kombucha SCOBY
• Integrating Biomaterials and Interactive Technologies: Practice-based Perspectives on the Growth of Biodesign within Human-Computer Interaction
Exhibitions:
Currents New Media Art + Technology Festival