By: Donna Franklin & GaryCass

Abstract

Imagine a fabric that grows ... a garment that forms itself without a single stitch!

The fashion that starts with a bottle of wine ...

The Micro 'be' project investigates the practical and cultural biosynthesis of microbiology - to explore forms of futuristic dress-making and textile technologies. Instead of lifeless weaving machines producing the textile, living microbes will ferment a garment. It smells like red wine and feels like sludge when wet, but the cotton-like cellulose dress fits snugly as a second skin. The material is very delicate, comprising micro-fibrils of cellulose. The colouration of the fabric will depend on the wine used, red wine - red fabric, white wine or beer - a translucent material. A fermented garment will not only rupture the meaning of traditional interactions with body and clothing; but will also examine the practicalities and cultural implications of commercialisation. This project redefines the production of woven materials. By combining art and science knowledge and with a little inventiveness, the ultimate goal will be to produce a bacterial fermented seamless garment that forms without a single stitch.

"Microbes à la mode"

Imagine a fabric that grows ... a garment that forms itself without a single stitch! The Micro 'be' project is attempting to do just this. The project aims to develop innovative research into the production of unique fermented garments grown from a novel method of using bacteria that creates cellulose. The Micro 'be' team will investigate the practical and cultural biosynthesis of microbiology - to explore forms of futuristic dress-making and textile technologies.

Instead of lifeless weaving machines producing the textile, living microbes will ferment a garment. A fermented garment will not only rupture the meaning of traditional interactions with body and clothing; but will also examine the practicalities and cultural implications of commercialisation. This project redefines the production of woven materials.

The project expands upon the concepts and practical applications explored in previous work undertaken by all participants, including Donna Franklin's 'Fibre Reactive' a living garment (Fig. 1) and Gary Cass & Alan Mullett's 'Bioalloy: Designing a Cyborg's Evolutionary Future' (Fig. 2). In contrast to the 'Fibre Reactive' living material, Microbe fermented wear will be produced by biological fermentation. This consists of a colony of bacteria (Acetobacter) that ferment wine into vinegar. This activity's by-product is the synthesis of large quantity micro fibrils of cellulose (synonymous to plant based cotton). It is this process that will be used to fashion the garments. Hence this Micro'be' textile differs in discourse conceptually/ visually and biologically as it utilises bacterial waste rather than living fungal cells.

Franklin a contemporary textile artist and Cass a scientific technician combined their forms of knowledge and with a little inventiveness; a new system will result in the bacteria's fermentation of a garment. "Now that's Aussie ingenuity, turning a wine glut into a fashion statement." (The Australian Newspaper, 2007). This new collaborative project Micro 'be' fermented wear, allows the biological clothes to be worn on the body without issues of fragility or outside contamination. This collaboration was also made possible by the unique environment of SymbioticA: The Art and Science Collaborative Research Laboratory at the University of Western Australia. SymbioticA is in an exceptional position to link university faculties by integrating science and the arts.

 

An important objective of the textile and sports industry is the production of seamless wear. One of the future aims of the Micro 'be' project is to pro­duce seamless garments. By using the bacteria to form the garment, we can replace weaving machinery that presently is not capable of producing 3-D seamless wear. Small scale tests with the Micro 'be' project have suc­cessfully produced a seamless item of clothing. This too, needs further research to perfect the technique and scaling up in size.   The ultimate goal of the Micro 'be' project will be to create a seamless, biosynthetic garment that forms with­out a single stitch.