In the Material Showcase of the MaterialLab, we present you a current range of future materials. Be inspired!
- FluidSolids is an innovative technology developed in Switzerland to produce biodegradable composite materials. As it uses residuals and waste materials, its environmental impact is minimal.
- Piñatex by Ananas Anam is a natural, nonwoven material made from pineapple leaf fiber which can be used as an alternative to leather and petroleum based textiles.
- Fruitleather Rotterdam developed a new, environmentally friendly process that converts leftover fruit into a durable leather-like material from which shoes, handbags, and other products will be made in the future.
- MOGU Home is a product line that includes elastic floor coverings, thermal insulation panels, sound-absorbing modules, decorative tiles, and wood-based materials. Only mycelia, the filamentous cells of a fungus, are used as binding material.
- MOGU Leather is an alternative to traditional leather made from mushroom mycelium. It can be produced in a relatively short time and in a way that conserves resources.
- Needle Probes by Irene Posch adapts tools for manual work to the needs of textile electronics and thus enables the creative expansion of the field.
- Blood Related by Studio Basse Stittgen investigates the possibilities of blood as a material. The objects are made of 100% blood without additives and develop a dynamic that straddles the symbolic meaning of blood and its properties as a material.
- The Meat Factory by Shahar Livne is a series of material experiments that creates a dissonance between natural and industrial production. The focus is on the production of bio leather from waste materials from the meat industry and the use of blood as a dye and plasticizer.
- Visual Invisibility deals with the aesthetics of molecular technology, in which biological structures are made to glow. Various textiles have been treated with additive nanoimprint technology, which makes it possible to add special functions to a surface, to produce the changing light- reflecting effects. (Sara Kickmayer (AT); Fashion & Technology, Kunstuniversität Linz. In Zusammenarbeit mit der PROFACTOR GmbH)
- For this Brewer’s Yeast Kombucha cellulose-producing bacteria were obtained from the fermentation process of a banana and used as a starting point. In the black tea-sugar solution, brewer’s yeast is used as a dietary supplement. Brewer’s Yeast Kombucha is slightly lighter than normal kombucha and is easy to dye. (Miriam Eichinger (AT); F&T, Kunstuniversiät Linz)
- Food Waste Bioplastic: The basis of bioplastics is waste from the food industry, such as discarded meat or vegetable products. Depending on the area of application, the plastics can be produced flexibly or more solidly. Alice Potts (UK)
- The project Metamaterial Devices has created physical objects consisting of many small cells that can move together like a machine in a coordinated manner and perform a mechanical function. This is completely defined by the microstructure of the material. Thus the material becomes a machine. (Alexandra Ion (AT), Patrick Baudisch (DE), This work was done at the Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam (DE))
- In the project second skin, the artist experiments with bio-based plastic to design clothes inspired by human skin. Bioplastic is produced from the renewable resources glycerine, water, agar, and gelatine. (Aaron Keller, FAT, Kunstuniversität Linz)
- Today’s garments are mass-produced in generic sizes and are not tailored to the individual’s body shape, needs, or comfort. Active Textile Tailoring is a system for knit garments that can be activated in the store or at home and can adapt itself to the person’s body. (Self-Assembly Lab, MIT + Ministry of Supply + Hills Inc, + Mechanosynthesis Group, MIT + Iowa State U.)
- Interested in making your own wearable? The Wearic Smart Textiles Kit is the world’s first do-it-yourself package with textile sensors. The kit contains sensors for pressure, wetness, heat, as well as pushbuttons and LED, which can be combined in any way.
- RE_Sampling investigates the process of cellulose production by bacteria as a way to make yarn directly in the laboratory and no longer agriculturally, which could reduce the consumption of agricultural land, water and pesticides in the future. (Miriam Eichinger (artist), research in the framework of „In the Lab: Processing Fashion Fashion & Technology“ at the University of Art and Design Linz)
- Do biodegradation processes offer us the opportunity to think about design and material in other dimensions in the future? More provisional and unstable than perfected and final? The project Design by Decay, Decay by Design approaches these questions by creating artifacts through the selection and combination of different biological decomposition processes. (Andrea Ling (artist), Ginkgo Bioworks + Faber Futures (curatorial team, scientific advisors))
The Material Showcase is co-funded by the European Commission’s DG CONNECT, in the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union under the S+T+ARTS programme’s Regional STARTS Centers.