Is this a new fashion statement? Is the fashion industry heading towards designs inspired by the human body? Many such queries cross the brain at the first glimpse of Wanderers collection by Neri Oxman.
To wear a beautiful new garment is like wearing a new idea, says Neri Oxman. The brainchild behind such a design should be an extraordinary person, and that is Neri Oxman. The woman behind many such revolutionary designs.
The research work behind this revolutionary creation has made the whole World speechless. As Neri Oxman explains, nature and human-developed technologies have complementary abilities that can benefit from each other through symbiosis. The same thought has resulted in the Wanderers collection.
Wanderers by Neri Oxman – A wearable 3D-printed that embeds living matter
Wanderers Collection is a collaborative project between Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter Group at MIT Media Lab.
The Project Wanderers explores the possibility of voyaging to the worlds beyond by visiting the worlds within. Traveling to destinations beyond planet Earth involved voyages to hostile landscapes and deadly environments. All these challenges considered, the Wanderer project took shape with inspiration from the natural resources. The ambitious project by Neri Oxman and the team contains and generates life-sustaining elements.
Inspired by natural growth, behaviour, computational processes were created with shapes that adapted to their environment. The process started with a seed and was simulated, which grew continuously, expanding and refining its shape.
The design for the outcome had to work with 3D printing and synthetic biology. Then the idea took shape in such a way as to help generate water, air, light, and biomass, depending on the requirements of the destination planets and satellites.
Four digitally grown and 3D printed wearables were the result of this ambitious project. Each of these wearables took its design form for a specific extreme environment. This collection designed by Neri Oxman and the team aims to embed living matter within 3D structures.
Qamar – a wearable for the Moon | Wanderers
Luna is known to be the most luminous object in the sky after the sun.
Qamar, also known as the Lunas Wanderer, is named after the Goddess Luna. It is the divine embodiment of the Moon, often characterized by a two-yoke chariot. The design of Qamar takes inspiration from the texture of the Moon’s surface. It functions by providing a pneumatic surface for generating and storing oxygen. This design texture contains spatial spherical pockets for algae-based air-purification and biofuel collection.
Mushtari – a wearable for Jupiter
Mushtari means huge and gigantic in Arabic. The inspiration behind the design of this wearable is the human gastrointestinal tract.
According to Neri Oxman, Mushtari wearable design houses synthetic microorganisms that fluoresce bright colours in darkness, produce sugar and manufacture biofilms. Mushtari can change colour, create food, and also build biological tissues, such as insulation for the body. It resembles the human intestinal tract and hosts bacteria within the network of tiny channels. The translucent material exposes the photosynthetic bacteria to light. Like a living tissue, the designed wearable locally varied in properties such as colour, rigidity, and opacity.
This wearable took shape as an organ system for consuming and digesting biomass, absorbing nutrients, and expelling waste.
Zuhal – a wearable for Saturn | Wanderers
Zuhal, an Arabic name, was inspired by the Roman god of agriculture. The name reflects the mythology, representing fertility and growth.
Saturn is known for its vortex storms forming, which results in a steep latitudinal gradient in the speed of winds blowing across the planet’s atmosphere. Keeping in mind the natural process of planet Saturn, Zuhal took its design by Neri Oxman and the team.
Zuhal’s design had a hairy and fibrous large surface area that contained bacteria that could convert the planet’s hydrocarbons into edible matter. And that could be safely consumed by humans. The exterior design seemed to be geometrically complex, textural design.
Otaared – a wearable for Mercury
Otaared, an Arabic name, was named after the Roman deity Mercury. Mercury is also known as the messenger to the gods.
The planet Mercury lacked any atmosphere. Hence it is susceptible to impacts on its surface. It is said to be volatile or unstable. Considering the natural atmosphere of Mercury, Neri Oxman and the team designed Otaared.
The design of Otaared has antler-like extensions of the scapulae to protect the head. The wearable had a protective exoskeleton around the head that could be custom-fit to the wearer. The shell contained calcifying bacteria within a wearable Caduceus. The ultimate goal of growing true, organic bone structures.
The future | Wanderers
Talking about future endeavours, Neri Oxman says the design incorporated with synthetic biology in 3D printed products for wearable microbiome can enable the transition of design.
Taking inspiration from nature allows the design to grow along with it, which results in nature itself!
This project has left the universe looking forward to more innovative designs in the coming years.
