Living Textiles as Multispecies Therapeutic Interface¶
We exist in a moment where bodies are increasingly isolated from their microbial ecosystems. Same applied to the nutritional value of vegetables and soil. Urban environments condition us to perceive cleanliness as sterility, beauty as bleached surfaces, and health as the elimination of bacteria rather than coexisting with it. This cultural sterilization extends beyond hygiene into identity itself, where binary categorizations police bodies, behaviors, and modes of existence. Contemporary society operates through paradoxes: hyper-connectivity that breeds disconnection, visibility that demands conformity, and wellness industries that pathologize natural relationships.
This project follows emerging research on the gut-brain axis and microbiota’s influence on mental health. Intersecting with urgent questions about identity, belonging, and healing in post-binary futures. The weak signals converge on identifying harsh procedures that isolate life under artificial settings or expectations. It also decentralizes the concept of human as an individual, but a fractal. Reframing the abstract into physical and chemical actions.
How can living microbial films function as therapeutic interfaces, both physical and cognitive that challenge binary categorizations of human identity, health, and neurological behaviours?¶
This question positions Biotic Skin(s) at the intersection of biotechnology, anthropology, queer studies and art therapy, proposing that healing operates simultaneously at microscopic and social scales. It also challenges the separation between internal and external, human and non-human, artificial and organic, individual and collective by exploring the body as an ecosystem.
The concept of the Symborg rises as a body that is plural, an interexchange gate and ecosystem on the microbiotic level. By standing towards different cultural and spiritual perspectives on the meaning and semantic of human, organ and system, the Symborg already exists: we are ecosystems, plural, queer entanglements. The work is not to imagine this reality but to make it visible, actionable, and celebrated. It aims for the De-Personification of concepts, scales and humans themselves as the core of a Post-Binary design methodology.
Its methodology follows the research question by choosing the organ—Derme/Epiderme—and the system—NervousSystem—to host and (be)influence(d by) the design. Within three stages, each one holds the same question: How can both the organ and the system be manipulated by exposing it to a living prototype? The first stage of interaction is by absorption and smell; the second stage follows superficial contact and fluid retention as the third stage demands transplanting and entanglement. Symbiotic cultures of Bacteria and Yeast are easily developed with fermentation, which have shown results with pre/probiotic foods targeting the Gut and the Digestive System. Being the SCOBY from Kombucha brewing the first case study, the design process will follow the criteria required to the wellbeing of different types of bacteria. Following concepts of regenerative and life-centric design. Aside from extractive and abrasive methods of shaping and developing. The setting of a comfortable environment through temperature, light and containers/surfaces are key to the incubation of the demanding needs and requirements that each microorganism holds.
The key idea is to develop a catalogue of cultures—microbiotic ecosystems—that can be shared, propagated and incubated through a recipe. Later designated as a ritual of care an entity can be a guardian of. In order to be a Symborg, there is no core host, they both need to benefit from each other. They become one. The de-personification of the human body is interpreting its skin as a field, a field of grass we usually prune, shave or wax. And allocate the cultures as fit to the conditions of the skin and the conditions of the bioma.
There is a progressive awareness of the mind and its wiring systems. The dissidence of neurodivergence/typical, physical/emotional attraction or internal dialogues are shaped from the interexchange and legacy of microorganisms. This study is not a corrective alternative to dissidence, it is ownership of the cause and effects in behavior, communication and necessities. It challenges the notion that thriving requires isolation, disinfection and sterilization. Biomimicry is both the highest complement and the highest threat for an environment as it analyses human behavior with physico-chemical phenomena other than social-political rhetorics. The de-personalization of methods highlights the irony of borders, transgression, social norms, gender roles and power structures within the universal Ecosystem.
Outside an artistic range of actions, this research is heavily associated with alternative medicinal practices, often focused on sensory and reactive data. In order to reach its full potential, Biotic Skin needs to be evaluated under a wide range of bodies and environments to achieve a conclusion of its benefits. Simultaneously, this method is designed to be a tailored, bespoke approach to medicine discourse. Therefore my responsibility will not be the standardization of the methodology but its application and ability to adapt into singular concerns and results. Since this can open up a field of cognitive reactions that go beyond the prescription and effects of drugs, vaccines or balms.
Will transplanting and connecting different bacteria manifest unrecognized emotions? Will it develop hallucinogenic reactions? Will a guardian stop from liking and ingesting its favorite dish because the microbiome rejects it? Will that change the compatibility with its lover? The main question is how far can the changing on the micro be visible in the macro.