RESEARCH
Biplastic, Bacterial Cellulose, Estrogen, Metal Eyelets, Silica Beads, Methanol
This work is building off of research done by Mary Tsang at the MIT media lab. This project speculates ways in which hormones could function as an open source resource. I built a filter designed by Mary which extracts hormones from urine. I then soaked a bacterial cellulose pellicle I grew in my estrogen. Bacterial cellulose is a permeable material, which I used as a transdermal fabric. I made these into six circular patches imbedded within a shirt made of foam bioplastic. This work is imagining a future where we could grow our own clothes which act as a second skin, passing biological materials between garment and wearer. In this future, hormone access would become accessible the public outside of medical institutions allowing us to share hormones and achieve a sense of power and personal agency over our bodies and gender expression.
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