The prototype also holds a delicate microhabitat designed considering an unlikely client’s needs - microalgae. By creating a space for humans and algae to live together and interact daily as companions we want to nurture a sense of closeness. We want to stimulate the human empathy and ideate solutions for coexistence by connecting with senses, allowing the wearer to smell, feel, touch and hear their algae companion.
The project aims to stimulate an emotional response, to educate and empower about caring for other living beings and our underwater worlds. The planet is not human, nor does it belong to humans. We need to shift from thinking about competition and advantage to co-creation and collaboration. Innovation should be nurtured through inclusion and mutualism, conceiving ourselves as symbiotic beings.
Through material driven design we shifted our design practice by leading the design process to satisfy the algae's needs. The material development, sewing, sealing, handcrafting yarns and woven pieces, creating custom machines, exploring algae natural dyes palette, doing biodegradability tests, growing algae cultures, and testing the algae's metabolic evolution when in contact with our material over time, were the main tasks we worked on during the project’s evolution.