#scientificart

During our first lecture of this year, the class was asked to write about a piece of craft that could be seen to make the world a better place. A piece of craft I feel could make the world a better place is “Mushtari”, part of the “Wanderer collection”, by Neri Oxman in collaboration with Christoph Bader and Dominik Kolb. The piece is made up of 58 meters of 3D printed channels, injected with an unspecified fluid, that converts sunlight into useful products for the wearer – for example, scents, drugs, food, pigments or fuel. Two known components of the fluid’s makeup are organisms, a Photosynthetic microbe – microalgae or cyanobacteria- and a compatible microbe – baker’s years or E. coli. The photosynthetic microbe uses sunlight to create sucrose – sugar- that is then absorbed by the compatible microbes to create the materials needed, this ideally would be chosen by the wearer so that a particular substance is created (Eric Oh 2015).

          “Mushtari” was originally designed with the idea that the piece could adapt to any condition (Neri Oxman, 2018), an example being space; somewhere barren and – as far as we know- unable to sustain life. This piece – and collection- is important as it not only furthers human exploration throughout space and other unexplored depths but could also be adapted to help those who suffer from diseases, allergies and disorders. Making the piece a little more wearable for the everyday could mean someone who needed to take medication to live their day to day life – or allergy medication – could be carried around on the wearers wrist, the sunlight would generate the correct dose for the wearer’s need, which they could then trigger and take without having to carry tablets, epi-pens or pillboxes.

References

Neri Oxman 2018, Mushtari – Jupiter’s Wanderer, Neri Oxman, viewed 20 September 2019, <https://neri.media.mit.edu/projects/details/mushtari.html>