Hello I’m Ali,

I am a 4th year BFA Fashion Design student focusing on bioart, fashioning bodies, and the relationship between the body and technology. I view fashion in the larger context of making or fashioning objects and as social practice. As a former ballet dancer, I am interested in the relationship of the body, other living systems and environments. I am currently a member of Genspace, the community biotechnology lab, where I am working on my thesis and growing biomaterials. I am very interested in DIYbio, hacking and subverting science, interaction and growing organisms and biomaterials to begin to explore the implications of science and technology in society,  and to increase interest in science in everyday life.  At Genspace, I am currently growing the symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast in a kombucha tea media, and mycelium- the vegetative part of fungi. I am growing these materials to begin to understand how the they interact with the body, and what they can do, as well as how they can be investigated, experimented with, and grown.

Some Inspiration:

Semi Living Worry Dolls, Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr)

Based on the old Guatemalan story told to children- that any worries should be whispered to your dolls. At night, you can tell your dolls your worries and they will solve them while you sleep. Oron and Ionat created worry dolls for the public to whisper their worries(possibly of biotechnology and the dolls themselves) to. These were the first engineered tissue sculptures presented in an art gallery. The dolls were hand made from a degradable polymer and then seeded with cells from the McCoy cell line. During the exhibition they were displayed in bioreactors to sustain growth, the dolls were nourished daily, and at the end they were ‘killed’.  http://tcaproject.org/semi-living-worry-dolls/

Invisible Resources, Zuzana Gombosova

Zuzana used bacteria which produce bacterial cellulose, she experimented with growth by creating a device which experimented with different patterns of nourishing and feeding. Her goals were to raise the questions of how devices can alter perception of products and how the patience required to grow material might change our material culture. http://www.zuzana-gombosova.squarespace.com/#/new-gallery/