Claire Lee – Looking Outwards – 03

Mushtari is a 3D-printed wearable piece that incorporates microorganisms into channels throughout the piece, creating microbial “factories” that use synthetic biology to create different effects (such as pigments, scents, or chemicals) using various microorganisms’ photosynthetic byproducts.

This piece is an fascinating example of computational digital fabrication, because it creates a synthetic piece by meshing organic elements and generative growth algorithms. Although the initial geometry and parameters were defined by a computational algorithm, the final product became much more complex: Mushtari grew from a single long 58-foot channel to a wearable piece that incorporated variations from relative strength of relaxation, attraction and repulsion between mesh vertices, and fluctuations in transparency to explore different degrees of photosynthesis.

Personally, I thought this piece was really interesting because it incorporated living elements into a computer-generated project, and then created a wearable piece that could be manipulated in various aspects.