growing experiments

The main thing highlighted by designing with living systems is the loss of the full control of the designer over the material. This however doesn’t mean that we are at the mercy of the microorganisms which take control of processes and results, but that we have to find a way to interact and collaborate with them

We are dealing with complex systems, which means that systemic properties emerge from the interaction among its elements. We have then the possibility to design boundary conditions that will affect the system’s behaviour, implementing in this way processes that can be actually controlled and reproduced

The experiments acted on the chemical environment of the culture, and therefore on the food given to microorganisms in terms of quality and quantity of sugars and ethanol available

Tools & Ingredients:

Colour & Smell

Acting on food sources affects also the perceptual qualities of the material produced, such as colour, smell and texture. The experiments investigated the possible range of the colour palette with which microbial cellulose can be produced: using coloured food sources in different concentrations is possible to get a variety of colours and hues, from intense and saturated to pale and tending to transparency

Texture

Besides environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, the amount of food available can boost the growth rate. Cultures with higher amounts of nutrients (in the form of sugars or ethanol) will therefore result in higher growth rates. However, the velocity of the fermentation process also determines the way the cellulose nano-filaments are layered above the liquid surface, affecting the structure of the material and therefore its texture and mechanical properties.

Moreover, by adding this powdered pigments to the cultire medium, they will float in the liquid because of their light weight and get trapped by the nanofilaments rising to the surface and are then embedded on the cellulose bottom surface creating random surface textures